I watch as Mewtwo turns the last hunter into salsa. His body parts rain all around him and the sylveon. Both ends up covered in blood and viscera. Both cry their victories together.

  As the last hunter falls, I cut the music, an act almost automatic. The sudden stop has all of us lurching. Our heightened senses return to normal, a momentary vertigo takes me.

  Mewtwo blinks multiple times, trying to regain his own balance. Even the sylveon looks between the two of us in incomprehension. System windows clutter our sight, but I push them to the side. Now is not the time.

  The sylveon is the first to regain her bearing, and she hisses in my direction. Her short fur begins to stand up, and her ribbons lash around threateningly.

  Mewtwo finally regain his bearing and interposes himself between us. Wait, we do not want to hurt you. We did not even want to find you! He pleads. We were simply passing by.

  The sylveon eyes Mewtwo suspiciously, before extending a ribbon to Mewtwo. My friend swallows at the gesture, and presents one of his arms. The ribbon wraps itself around his wrist, and stays there for a couple seconds. The sylveon nods, and the ribbon is removed. She then takes a few steps my way, and extend a ribbon once more. I present both arms after removing my gantlets from them, allowing her the choice of either my flesh-like one or my mechanical one. She hesitates, and extend a second ribbon wrapping one on each wrists.

  A tickling sensation traverses both my arms, and the sylveon looks at me in confusion. The sensation repeats, and she lets go, satisfied. As she turns around to go, still avoiding putting too much weight on one of her leg, I call out to her. "Wait," I take out a small pile of berries, mostly orans, but also some lum and leppa berries. "For your troubles, sorry for the mess." I apologize.

  She eye my gift with suspicion once more, before nodding. She gathers the berries with her ribbons, and then gracefully dash away.

  We watch her go, and silence descend upon the forest once more.

  What was that? Mewtwo sends me, his thoughs are tainted with worry.

  "What was what?" I ask, looking anywhere at the ground.

  You know what I mean. What happened here? We both know this was not normal. I do not know about you, but the moment that music started, my hesitation to actually kill these humans all but vanished. I do not resent my actions, but it felt like that became the only choice. He sends me, and I start to shiver.

  The last few minutes of fighting replay before me. What I did, what I though, what I let myself do. The moment the music started, it felt like I just took a backseat to my own body, yet was still in control at the same time. The music moved me, and I moved through the music. I could feel what the two hunters movements would be before they did them. I could have stopped them any times, yet I let myself follow what was the easiest option. How do you make sure a human will no longer be a problem? Easiest solution is to kill them. They are so fragile after all... Aster cries out within me, how could I think that?

  How could I think that? Why did I let myself do that? Was it the music?

  "I... I think one of the windows might have the answer." I stutter.

  We take a look, and I shiver again as I read the four windows before us. The first one has the answer, the second simply confirms the first. The next two I decide to look at later, and Mewtwo does the same.

  So that was what it was? But why now? We went through multiple battles already, some even worse than that one. Why did it unlock now?

  The power of music... That's what it was... Wait how does that even work? I was far from you, but got the same effects.

  I take a look through the tutorial section, curious, and my eyes widen as I realize how absurdly complicated this system is. I can customize the effects, but it means playing with harmonics and frequencies, some of which neither of us can hear, just to obtain different effects on myself and my enemies.

  As I read further, I open my music player window, and access the battletheme customizer option within. And I find how Mewtwo was affected.

  "Mewtwo... you... you got something in your head..." I show him the window for customization. On it, both a simplified version of myself and Mewtwo is visible. My head is filled with a simplified brain, but Mewtwo's brain is less apparent. What is apparent however is a small chip-like shape between his two lobes. From what I can see i appears to be what allows him to obtain the same affect as I do from the battletheme system. It filters what harmonics affect him, allowing only for the positive ones to be 'heard' in some way.

  This... this could also explain why I have access to the system. His eyes become unfocused for a moment, and he shudders, growling in discomfort. Yep, found it. I would not have been able to had I not known what I was looking for. Seems like I am closer to you than we both thought then.

  I give him and awkward laugh. This chip raises more questions. Why does he need it? Why use a purely physical system when the Trio has so much power? Is it to appear weaker to Eziakophael? Or those 'they' Knowledge mentioned.

  I file this as another question for the Trio whenever we take our next trial.

  The sudden smell of dust gather our attention, and we look at the corpses. Gray smoke is emanating from them, and we watch in horror and fascination as the bodies slowly turn to dust. In seconds they are gone, and only empty armor and clothes, discarded weapons, and scraps of fabric remain. Even the blood covering Mewtwo has turned to the same gray fumes.

  With reluctance, I approach one of the discarded armor, wishing to identify it.

  My eyes widen in surprise. The armor belonged to a Praetor. The many runes inscribed within are supposed to allow for its wearer to become faster as long as mana is fed to it. I remember when the swordsman became faster suddenly. Speaking of the swordsman, I take out the sword I stole from him during the fight, as well as pick up the one he used after. One appears to have been crafted by a blacksmith, as a name appears in the description. The sword has seen use, a lot of it if the wear and tear visible on it is any indication. It shows as a only having a third of its durability remaining.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The second sword appears to be of better make, but sports similar wear and tear. The description reveals it to have been obtained from a crimson knight. I feel silly to have not tried to loot the knights of the raid, or any monsters from the raids. Hell, I did not look into the spider remains once we finally defeated the wave. How many items and gears have we passed? How much material that may have been useful have we let go unused? Or maybe not? Was that how those two got their armor? Did they loot the remains of the skyship? No way to ask anymore.

  I move to the axeman's gears, and find similar equipment. This time it is the axe that was claimed from a Praetor. The weapon is imbued with glyph that makes its strikes apply a withering curse, similar to what those black skeletons on the ship inflicted on me. Nasty stuff.

  His armor is handmade, once more confirming the hunters have some sort of crafting capabilities.

  This becomes even more certain when I move to the remains of the third hunter. His gears are made of pokemons remains. Each ones have the name of a specie attached to it, and I shudder at the gruesome sight. Mewtwo soon returns with the torn up equipment remains of the fourth hunter, and I examine them as well.

  Speaking purely in statistics, the equipment would give me better protection against some energy types, as well as some elements. The delphox pants have fire resistance along with cold resistance. It makes me almost want to keep them for the effects, but I can already tell Mewtwo will not let me.

  Mewtwo gathers the other hunter torn clothes, armor, and weapon, and begins digging a hole. I nod at that, they may have been our enemies, but they deserve graves. Mewtwo looks at me with a surprised expression, before dismissing my assumption.

  These graves are for the ones who died for these gears. Not the hunters. Dig the graves yourself if you want. The more I look at their clothes, the more I feel vindicated in my actions. He declares, venom thick in his thoughs.

  I look at him in shock. Never have I felt him so hostile.

  We knew, Astra. The villagers warned us, Princess warned us, even Aster warned us from the grave. We knew, but I had not realized how awful it would be to witness the horrors of the hunter firsthand. This could be me Astra. Maybe some of these were made from pokemons from the magical forest. Who knows how many they killed before they found enough material? He growl in unison with his thoughs. I can see his shoulders tense with anger.

  "Mewtwo, they were still humans. Who's to say they have a choice? We may have been warned about their horrendous practice, but this might be their only way." I try.

  Only way? What about trying to work with pokemons. He retort. No, these monsters made their choice, you did not see fight the two I fought. They did not look at me like a sentient being. They looked at me like I look at an animal. They chose to ignore the fact pokemons can be as sentient as humans.

  "And does that justifies our actions? What use is there in killing them? They'll return and do it all over again. How are you so sure the choice was theirs anyway?" I thrust the two windows we had ignored to this point at him.

  Mewtwo frowns at the two achievements. He had seen them as well. This changes little. If they come for us, I will make sure they can no longer threaten us. He warns.

  I wince at his unshakable stance. "We could always cripple them, or try to have them leave us alone." I propose.

  Which will either get them killed shortly after, or have them come back with stronger weapons of numbers. I saw their mind Astra. The moment they realized they were outmatched, they were hoping for your two opponents to kill you faster so they may get help. The one you saw us kill was trying to get you by surprise to expedite your defeat. They may have few choices, but they still made a choice, now they face the consequences. Mewtwo finishes. He returns to his self-assigned task of digging graves for the long dead pokemons making up the hunters equipment.

  I can see the whole experience has shaken him. It has shaken me too. The worst part is that, somehow, I have only Aster's fragments giving partial humanity to my thoughs. I can feel the dichotomy in my thinking. Killing should be bad, yet here it was inevitable. It was not. I could have incapacitated them. But Mewtwo is right, doing so would have simply delayed their deaths. It would still have been better than doing it yourself!

  Why am I having such a conflict about strangers that tried to kill me? Why should I not? All lives are precious! Each deaths is a victory for Eziakophael, whether they be humans of pokemons. Yet...

  I take a sharp breath. I feel so conflicted. Both parts are partially right, yet they clash together.

  I suddenly feel pain radiating from withing me. How? Wait, I remember that pain. I had not felt it since the first day within the Ezian planes. My head feels like it is about to split up. More and more arguments fly from both Aster and that deeper part of myself. What is this.

  As I fall on my knees, my vision double for a second. Why is this so painful? Why am I suffering for this argument? I am not arguing! Clarity suddenly fills my mind. I am not arguing. Two voices are, but they are not me.

  My vision returns to normal, and the arguments continue. Yet I no longer feel concerned with them. They are two foreign beings within my mind arguing without me, and I can just ignore them.

  I let their voices fade. I know I will have to confront my actions at some point, but this point is not now. Right now, I go next to Mewtwo, and help him dig the graves. I decide to make two more, for the two non-pokemon garbed hunters. They may have been strangers, but they still lived.

  When I start moving the armors around, silver coins shower from within them, surprising me. I take one up for inspection, and my eyes widen at what my system tells me.

  Soul coins. This is the first time I have seen the currency of the abductees. I inspect them, trying to see if they will ever be needed and come out blank. The coins are ovals of semi-transparent silver. The diamond shaped eye of Eziakophael is minted upon each sides. Blue ghostly afterimages seems to appear whenever I move one too fast. I cannot make them, and have no use for them. But they may still prove useful later. I store them, in the hope we will one day use them.

  I then help Mewtwo close the graves, and return our sight to the distant Icen Sky Peak. Time to resume our journey.

  A day after Mewtwo and Astra have gone, something emerges from the grave containing gears from the huntress named Rosie. A small bird seemingly made out of glass.

  The magical creature soon takes flight, and traverses the land at impossible speeds. It flies above Raging Lake, goes over forests and small mountains. Until it reaches the second highest mountain range of the Ezian plane. It flies over it for some time, before it descends upon a large pass, littered with fresh corpses of pokemons.

  It lands upon the black hand of Jack Senah, second in command of the hunters. The moment it lands, it transforms into a glass scroll, and the muscular man swears as he reads its contents.

  "Brother!" He roars, leaving the pass and moving up the mountain in giant leaps.

  He arrives at another pass, just in time for the ball of flowing sand covering it to disperse. A massive garchomp falls on the floor, and lance lodged firmly into its cranium. Still holding the lance, and dusting himself is the pale and frail looking Lord Hunter, Hans Senah.

  "Barely ah work out." He sigh.

  "Brother!" Jack says to get his brother's attention.

  "Ah, done with tha lower pass?" Hans asks him. He removes the spear from the dark blue shark-dragon skull. "I have just finished here."

  "I have been done for the last hour brother, they were not worth our time." Jack boast, "But this is no longer important. Look!"

  He gives his brother the glass scroll, and Hans lets his eyes wander along the text. His eyes open in surprise and joy, and a harsh laugh escapes him.

  "Oh how full of surprises they are. In ah mere two months, they have been able to catch up to ah ten year team of survivor. Oh Dark One, they are growing so fast." He muses.

  "Rosie's team was one of Sheila's protege. She had high hopes for them."

  "Ya, and they disappointed. I though ya told them to 'Tail' tha two, not attack them."

  "I may have given them some leeway. Come now, imagine the power of gears made from a legend!"

  "Nat important! Send another team fast. We need to keep them in our sight. If they side with the league, it could be a huge problem." Hans voice is sharp, and Jack simply nods. "Now go! And make sure to be clear with yar orders."

  Jack does not wait for further instructions, and dashes away.

  Hans looks down at the semi-legendary he has just slain. "There are bigga preys now, Ah hope they will give me a challenge..."

  Small whimpers and cries have him look to the side at absurd speed. A couple of juvenile bagons and gibbles are exiting from a nearby cave.

  Hans eye them, before sighing. "Nat even good enough for materials." He groans, before rushing them.

  The now defenseless young dragons get hacked to pieces in moments, and Hans simply look on with a detached expression as the blood slowly pools around his naked feet.

  "Grow my little Astra, grow with yar legend, make it so our fight becomes worth it." He pray to the sky, and bells answer him.

  "Ah? Maybe an actual challenge. Come now Dark One, show me something new!" A manic smile spread upon the Lord Hunter's face, and he awaits the oncoming challenge with breathless anticipation.