Thanatos System

Days have passed after the S Ranked and above Slayers met in the Grand Castle.

The Six Blades back at home were as raggedy as ever, practicing their individual shortcomings and improving their teamwork little by little.

Zachary took out his grimoire with no delay whatsoever.

He flicked through the pages and settled on a spell to use.

"Fire Belch!" Zachary exclaimed as he opened his mouth.

A concentrated flamethrower came out of it. The fiery breath of his was the one thing he was trying to practice for days now.

He knew that he had to show something to his superiors when they came back.

Zachary finally accepted that being a Slayer requires you to make use of whatever advantage you have in order to attain victory, and that includes using your elemental affinity, which for him was the fiery red flames.

Just as the fire was about to make contact with Yin and Suna, they rolled out of the way and dodged in opposite directions, left and right.

"Not even close. You're going to have to aim better."

Yin grinned.

"I'll burn you till nothing's left, you pest."

Zach exchanged his grin with a smug smile.

They kept on training and sparring until the sun went down.

Blows for blows were exchanged among the Six Blades. Sweat, blood, and bruises accumulated through the entire week.

The three Six Blades rookies were huffing and puffing from exhaustion.

Yin's wounds were exuding smoke.

They were healing rapidly.

Suna looked on in amusement.

Her eyes glinted with curiosity and amazement.

Though they she has seen this for quite some time now, it still made her eyes wide.

Zach stared at the healing wound in disgust.

His eyes squinted. "Can't you at least cover it or something?" he said.

Without letting Yin respond, Zachary got up.

"I'm going to prepare the food now."

He said.

Yin did not bother responding, knowing how they're going to be eating a dinner cooked by Zach, no matter how much Zachary got on his nerves, he knew that the guy was an amazing cook.

"Oh, yeah, it was your turn to cook tonight, Zach, what are you making?"

"It has been my 'turn' for three days now."

Zach said with a deadpan expression.

He then turned to Yin's direction.

Staring his soul down with the intensity of a primal feral wolf.

"Why do you think that is, Yin?"

Yin opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Zach grinned. "I thought so."

"Can you just go and cook already, Zach?"

Suna told him.

To which the latter did, he went inside the house to prepare dinner.

"Why can't you two just get along?"

Suna sighed.

"He hates my guts, and I hate his much more, so much more, in fact."

Yin responded while clenching his fist.

"But you know, I can see why Gavin and the Commander were interested in him."

"Woah, really? That's the first time I've heard you say something good about Zach. Are you sure you're okay? Hit your head or something?"

Suna asked him.

Yin laughed. "Nah, that's not it. Zachary annoys me but his potential is legit. I mean I may not know much about being a Slayer and all, but the guy's gifted. He may be laid back, but whenever we're pit against each other in practice spars, his eyes light up with sheer determination. Zach might not say it, but he'll always have our backs in combat, I just know it. He hates losing as much as I do, which makes us both really sore losers!"

Yin smiled as he said that.

Zachary was still not in the kitchen, he noticed he left his handkerchief outside where they were seated earlier.

Just as he was about to go outside, he heard what Suna and Yin were talking about.

He clicked his tongue and grinned.

"Tch. That much is obvious, Yin, you dumbass."

Zach did not bother going outside, he just resumed cooking.

"I mean, he's stubborn, but he's a good person deep down."

Suna said.

"Yeah, probably." Yin replied. "Hey Suna, what time is it?"

"It's almost 7 PM, why?"

"Crap, I have to do my daily quest!"

Yin exclaimed.

"You know, Yin, you have been saying that a lot, 'daily quest' and stuff, is that some sort of personal training regime or something?"

Suna was curious.

"Y-Yeah, some calisthenics and endurance training that I have to do every single day, the Commander taught it to me, before they left."

Yin made up an excuse right on the spot.

"Really?! That's so cool! You should teach me how to do it sometime."

Suna replied.

"Sure, d-definitely."

Yin stammered on his words.

He ran to the woods in order to do his daily training quest.

A couple of hours passed by.

Something was definitely off.

Yin only took an hour at most to do his daily 'quest' regime as he called it.

Suna knew something was not quite right.

"Hey, Zach, come with me for a second, I think we should go check on Yin, maybe he got carried away and forgot about dinner altogether."

She said.

Zach scoffed.

"That guy? Forgetting about dinner? Impossible. But I do agree that something feels definitely off about him being late, as much of a klutz he may be, he's never late for dinner, not even once."

Zachary closed the book he was reading and took his grimoire with him in his pocket.

"What are you bringing that for?"

Suna asked him.

"Yin got attacked by an Angel a few months ago, right? We should always be cautious, inside Niflheim, even humans can become monsters, if need be, trust me on that."

He replied.

Suna nodded.

With the moon's luminescent gaze being withered away by the clouds hiding its light, the forest was pitch black.

They went to the forest to look for Yin and tell him that dinner was ready to be served.

Zachary went with her.

"Maybe he just got caught up in his training?"

Suna thought.

"As I have said earlier, ever since I got here, Yin has never been late for breakfast, lunch, and most especially, not for dinner. What the heck is taking that guy so long?"

Zach was obviously infuriated and annoyed at how Yin kept the food waiting.

"Let's just find him as soon as possible, the food is going to get cold at this point…"

Suna had a sad expression on her face.

She was clearly much more worried about the food right now, ruling out the possibility of another monster getting inside Niflheim and somehow making its way here was out of the question for her.

Their stomachs grumbled all at the same time.

"Yin!? Where are you? Dinner's ready, man! Don't keep the food waiting!"

Suna shouted.

It was pitch black, luckily, Zach was adept enough to light his thumb as though it were a match stick.

This gave them the ability to navigate around the forest.

Suna and Zachary walked for about twenty minutes.

Zach picked up a piece of wood and set it ablaze with his flames, he handed it out to Suna.

"Here. We should split up for now, let's cover more ground. This forest is huge, and we still don't know what part of this humongous forest that guy is in."

Suna took the torch and began walking towards Zachary's opposite direction.

Zach did the same.

After quite some time, Zach knocked something over with his feet.

There he was.

It was Yin. Propped up on the ground, unconscious and seemingly lifeless.

His lips cracked and he was as pale as a ghost.

"Suna!"

Zach shouted.

Suna responded back.

She followed Zachary's voice until finally they met up.

Suna saw Yin's knocked out body on the ground and immediately ran towards him.

"What happened, Yin?!"

Suna shook his head.

"Check his pulse. I'll stand my ground and cover you two, we can't rule out the possibility of an attacker."

Zachary readied his grimoire, flicking through pages in preparation to retaliate for whatever he thought seemed to have attacked Yin.

"He's still breathing!"

Suna shouted.

"Good. Walk back slowly, I'll cover the rear. We should regroup at the hideout. Fighting in this forest will not be to our advantage, I am unable to use my spells to illuminate for vision while I cast it against whoever or whatever got Yin on the ground and knocked him unconscious."

Yin attempted to speak.

"Save your strength, it's alright, we're here now, Yin."

Suna assured him that everything was going to be fine.

Zach and Suna both felt and sensed it.

Small footsteps.

Was it a child? A goblin? Cold droplets of sweat began dripping down from their temple.

Slowly making its way towards them, unveiling itself from the darkness of the shadows cast by the forest.

"Suna! Lay Yin on the ground and back me up, I have a bad feeling about this."

Zach said, still preparing his grimoire for whatever might come out from the forest.