Last part, Kodan and his soldiers defeated Commander Erucid in a gruesome fashion- however they only destroyed his limbs instead of ending the man's life. They celebrated afterwards even though Kodan was conflicted on the matter, which Restroid seemed opposed to with his cynical and dangerous thoughts about his plans for the group.

A few hours earlier...

Head Commander Prósopsi's P.O.V.

I glance around the navy blue Hopian Army hospital hallway I'm sitting in right now to make sure no one's around, then rub my hands over my face and take a deep breath.

Course the reason why I'm sitting in here is because I got a call about what happened to Erucid. By the time I rushed over here he was already in the ICU for surgery- which is the room I brought a metal chair over to sit outside of.

"You're stomping your feet again by the way. Don't your doctors have crazy tech to fix up injuries like that anyways?" Aphrodite says to me with a yawn as she's sitting on my robe covered lap,

"Thanks. And four severed limbs is always dangerous even with good tech..." I mumble as I force my foot to stop, but groan as I look past Aphrodite to see that my unconscious stomping has already cracked the floor.

"Shit- he in there?" I can hear someone ask as they try to catch their breath, oh-

"Hi Ontarus. And yeah, Erucid's been in there for like an hour now. Guess you're worried about him too if you're up so late huh?" I ask, kinda sounded unprofessional and nervous there but so be it, I'll just have to smarten up now. Plus Ontarus seems nervous too anyways as he wipes some sweat off of his forehead. Or maybe that's just some water actually...

Anyways after that he starts to walk closer to me. He must've rushed here, since instead of his normal fancy clothes he's just wearing a white tanktop that shows off a bit of his toned lower chest, as well as his tight blue army pants, and his bald head is showing too without his hat. Aphrodite seems interested in his more revealing looks though as she stands right in front of him and starts to rub her chin.

"Damn, wanted to say goodbye in case this is it for the guy. Being real with you I was never a fan of him trying to help the homeless- or the bad homeless people, I guess, but shit I'll be damned if he wasn't a good friend other than that. The guy even hooked me up with some chicks before, got me a few drinks, covered my ass a bunch too when I slept on my shift- I mean saved me in uh, combat an-"

"It's fine, we'll deal with that issue later." I interrupt Ontarus with a small smile as he looks away from me with a few awkward laughs, and leans against the wall that's next to my seat. Oh- didn't even notice, he's got his wavy blue and white sword wrapped around his waist too- that probably was water on his face then not sweat.

...

I break the silence, "Anyways we shouldn't talk about him in the past tense but, yeah. Erucid really is a good guy. Even the criminals here probably like him- which makes me wonder what kind of bastard did this to him. We should find out soon once we get the video feed from his uniform's recorder." I swear for once to hopefully get Ontarus to like me more, which makes Aphrodite gasp then start laughing as she walks back over to me.

I do think me and Ontarus are on alright terms now, but still we could be better I think.

Either way the swordsman himself replies, "Yeah man. I don't know. I'm thinking those Red Fist fucks did this. They've abducted a bunch of our soldiers for years now... God knows what happened to em'."

"Yeah- there's a high chance it was them. They've done worse so far like killing all of those new soldiers on 3/23, murdering civilians, burning up Holton's hospital and- well I think we both get the point. I assigned Erucid the job of taking them down years back, so maybe this was their way of revenge. Only thing is, back then four years ago, Erucid took a bunch of them out easily. So what changed..." I say back to Ontarus- at this point I'm mainly talking to myself though.

I start to sniff the air though as I can smell something weird, I glance around until I can see Ontarus lighting a smoke or something next to me. Can't tell what it is exactly but it's definitely not good.

"Really? In a hospital? Put it out. Or go outside at least, I could go with you to get some fresh air." I say in a stern tone which makes Ontarus' eyes open wide in surprise.

"Right- sorry sir, that was dumb of me. Just stressed and tired and all- yeah I'll go ou-"

"Head Commander, sir?" I can hear another voice call out to me from across the hall, and looking towards them I can see a tall black haired man speedwalking towards me wearing a blue uniform, the decals are that of one of our tech guys though.

"What is it?" I ask as the man gets more and more nervous the closer he gets to me, until he finally stands right next to me and Ontarus and gulps.

"The person who attacked Erucid, they attacked- sorry. Ahem, we analyzed Erucid's body camera footage, and found that the one who attacked him was a person in full body green metal armor. They also seemed to have support from armed soldiers- not ours of course. As this seems to be similar to how Commander Jaxonite was killed, even though his body camera footage was destroyed- we believe that the same culprit's both killed Jaxonite four years ago, and attacked Erucid today." The man says which makes me a little impatient, but that quickly turns into shock.

"Fuck me. Taking out two commanders? There's no way..." Ontarus asks as he looks at me for an answer, but the other man replies first-

"There is, unfortunately- though I can fully understand your reluctance to believe me sir. Regardless of that fact, the green armored man's battle style seems to be letting himself get hit, without receiving much damage. Then he counter attacks." The man explains which starts to worry me even more.

"How did the fight with Erucid go? Normally he can shatter body armor with his staff so..." I ask uneasily as I try to keep calm, but suddenly I feel my legs being grabbed- Aphrodite's stopping my legs from stomping.

"...It was one sided to say the least. Commander Erucid hit the armored man once, and his staff snapped in two. From there on, he was bombarded- and the armored man... finished him off, which I'm sure you've heard if you're in this hospita-"

"Go. Thank you, now go." Is all I can say as I stare down at the floor.

After a few seconds I can hear feet scuttling across the hallway, until Ontarus asks, "...Should I go too...? Or-"

"This is bad. Really bad. Erucid's staff has broken through solid steel armor before. For it to snap from one hit... the only thing I can think of is if the person was wearing Hesalo armor. But that would weigh literal tons. Unless the person has a Blessing that can manipulate weight? Even then, how in the world did someone crack through Hesalo to make the armor in the first place... damn it. This is why I've wanted a territory wide Blessing tracker system for years, so we can make sure THIS never happens." I say to myself, and to Ontarus in the small case he wants to add anything useful here.

"Hey, uh didn't that info we got from the Dalkan territory a little while back mention something about people who can manipulate the world? Or it's contents or whatever? What if the guy did the same thing with Hesalo? Or, I could be wrong here I guess." Ontarus adds pretty politely for once.

"You don't seem too nervous about all this. You do realize this means that the Red Fists probably have the ability to kill you too right? Since we both agreed that they're probably responsible for this at least." I say as I look up at his brown eyes, he really doesn't seem too nervous at all. What's up with him? Or maybe I'm just overreacting? Can't see how I could be...

"Well- I was shitting myself just a minute ago, until I realized something. My sword Bahari here could easily deal with someone in armor, no matter how tough it is. All I'd have to do is sneak in through the holes in it. With that in mind... if we get a new lead on these bastards, would I be able to be assigned to wipe em' out?" Ontarus says, it's almost like he's holding back a smile... the heck?

"Normally from my cartoons at least that'd be the sign that he's a traitor or something. But he IS right though, he does have a great counter to anyone wearing armor. But still..." I think to myself, then respond,

"Right. But don't forget, Jaxonite was finished off by a fire squad- and the armored man was assisted by a fire squad to take out Erucid too. Though I guess you can counter a lot of guns too... fine. I'll put you on this case then, if you don't mind. But- we're gonna be amping the security up a lot by the way, so you won't be going anywhere alone I doubt. Also, I'll only let you take on the group if you ambush them. It's too risky otherwise." I say with a long sigh, feeling a little relived that Ontarus should be relatively safe- but at the same time, we're gonna have to expend even more resources now to buff our security.

Which we can't really afford... less and less people are enlisting in the Hopian Army nowadays due to more people becoming registered citizens, and in the past four years the death or "abduction" rates have gone up quite a lot for soldiers.

So yeah. This sucks.

"I understand, sir. By the way, reason why I'm smiling is because a few girls I knew got taken by those Red Shits. So I'm just glad that I may get the chance to avenge, or hell maybe even save 'em if they're still alive. ...Oh!" Ontarus calls out as I can hear a door open, and a second later a surgeon wearing a navy blue mask comes out of Erucid's ICU room.

"Commander Erucid's in stable condition. He's resting now though, so you two should go home for now maybe." The woman says which makes both me and Ontarus sigh in relief.

"Phew. Well alright. Imma go hit the sack, Head Commander. See you later." Ontarus says with a yawn and a wave, as he starts to walk towards the exit of the hospital hallway we're in.

"I'll come with you. Obviously I won't be staying at your place though, it's just to make sure no one targets you." I clarify which makes Ontarus chuckle as he keeps on walking.

"Thanks, sir." Is all he says back to me.

An hour later...

🌙🌙🌙

"Mmm... stop moving so much." Aphrodite groans as she rubs her face onto my bare shoulder as she's riding on me piggy back style. That was her compromise for me staying out later tonight to patrol the continent a bit, since I couldn't fall asleep at all worrying about what that armored person could be doing to people here.

Obviously I'll have to give her some "special service" to make up for this later, but I don't mind- she's been a lot less annoying today than she normally is.

As for me though, I'm standing on the edge of a huge apartment building that I asked Aphrodite to throw me up to. Wish I could just have no worries like all the registered citizens here... just living in one big nice simulation...

Ah- looks like a fight's going on way down below me on the dark streets. Or more so is about to happen between two guys. Luckily with Aphrodite's powers my sight is super enhanced- but I still need her direct help to aim my attacks.

So to stop the street fight below, my only option is to generate some lightning on both of my palms- then slam them together-

*KA-BOOM!*

An earpiercing boom sounds from my palms as lightning explodes from all around me, and looking down at the street way below me- I can see the two idiots staring up into the air in shock. Then they start to run away in different directions. Guess they saw my lightning there- and heard it too of course.

"Thanks for letting me sleep, jerk. Also- was just thinking. That armored guy you were talking about reminds me of Thor's hammer." Aphrodite complains as she kicks the back of my leg which makes me stumble over and almost fall off this flat gray roof- yeesh! Then she just hops off of my back like nothing happened... guess she has to be somewhat of a jerk all the time. Though I guess it was mean of me to wake a bunch of citizens here up too. Whoops. Either way though I say,

"Sorry, had to stop a fight. But who's what now?" I ask as I take a breath to calm down.

"Thor was a god that the humans of my universe's Earth came up with. Forget what it was- ahhhh... I'm tired... if my muscles got some tension taken out of them I'm sure I'd- oh! You really are getting better at this, slave." Aphrodite says happily as I roll my eyes, and plop myself down next to her smallish height to start massaging her shoulders.

"As I was saying- Thor's hammer was pretty much impossible for anyone else to lift other than himself. So when he hit someone with it, it hurt a LOT. That's all. Reminds me of the armored guy, because if he's wearing Hesalo- it would pretty much be impossible to move, or to hurt him too." Aphrodite says- was kinda hoping her explaination would help me more than that, if anything I'm just more scared now.

"So you're comparing this criminal to a God? That's encouraging." I can't help but chuckle there, on the inside I feel like crap though.

"Yeah that was kinda the point, don't wake me up next time idiot." Aphrodite says with a pout as she looks back at me as I'm massaging her back. I stop massaging her real quick though.

A/N: The Red Fists take out Commander Erucid, which leaves the Hopian Army quite distressed...

Sorry if this chapter turned out kinda uneventful, got carried away with how long I made this one scene.

Hope you all consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed, and see you next time!