United States of America, New York City, 15 December 2022.
As of 23:05, a bored expression could be seen on the face of the young man seated on his throne. The fleet had remained stationary, he had made the command but he had yet to make a move himself.
"Father!" The girl called out to him
Bowed down ahead of him was a young beauty.
Her long black hair was tied into twin tails by two red ribbons. Her eyes were golden and she had two long black horns, the top half of which was red. The highest rank. Her clothes were unusual, almost like she was cosplaying.
Beside her rested a large golden gemmed war axe which was nearly twice her body size. The war axe radiated a strong aura.
"I've already made the decision. We will not pull back from taking over this planet." He spoke up so that the others on the ship could hear.
"But the infection! It's spreading amongst us! And these people...! Why must we destroy-"
In that instant, she felt a burst of pressure mount collapse onto her shoulder, causing her to lower her head even further. It had lowered far down to the point where her nose was just barely poking the wooden floor.
"If not for the fact that we share the same blood, your head would have been rolling around as of now. Don't you ever forget."
He stood up from his throne before making his way towards her. Cold sweat could be seen on the horned ones who were watching.
"My methods are wrong? These are the methods our race, our bloodline has followed for generations. If we hadn't done this, what do you think would have happened to us? I am doing this for our survival. Our elders did this for our survival, such is the cycle of life."
He proceeded to grab her face and raise her chin, allowing him to get a good look at the anger and humiliation in her eyes.
"To go against our ways is to show disrespect to the elders who have kept us alive all this time. You would dare do such a thing?"
"I...I..."
Her eyes grew watery as the words struggled to come out. Seeing this, the young man knew he had done enough. He let go of her before walking back to his throne. "We won't have this discussion again."
He proceeded to sit down and the pressure was released from the girl.
Without saying any other words, she wiped off her tears before suddenly leaping off the fleet.
One of the horned ones who saw this was about to head after her, only to be stopped by the man on the throne who raised his arm.
"Leave her be. She's at that age."
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'But it looks like we're not the only ones…' He thought to himself.
Gray glanced to the right, only to find a group of horned ones, standing at the edge of the labyrinth talking amongst themselves.
They seemed to have no fear towards the zombies as they had created a wall to block off the hordes path and were cutting down any which dared to pass.
Upon seeing them, Gray quickly pause stepped beside the two, before grabbing them and crouching down beside them.
"Gra-"
Gray interrupted violet who had been confused by his sudden action, as he placed his finger over her lips.
He gestured for them to be silent whilst they waited. Understanding what was going on, the two nodded.
Gray closed his eyes, after evolving his hearing had gotten considerably better. He focused.
'Ignore the sound of the explosions going off all around the city... Focus on what they're saying.'
He tried and tried to hear it, but had no success. The sound from all around was muffling over what they were saying. Gray took a different approach and peeked through the edge to get a closer look at them.
There were around eight of them. Their ranks shown on their horn were between green and yellow. Mid-ranks with the only high rank being the single orange horned one.
After getting a closer look, Gray noticed that he had been giving orders to other horned ones which were climbing out of the Labyrinth.
"Camp..."
At that instant, he heard it. There was no mistaking it. One of them said something about a base.
'Judging by how they're all coming out of there, don't tell me they set up a camp there... Meaning, if we want to head inside, not only will we have to go through floor monsters but also the horned ones and their camp...'
Things had just become a lot more troublesome. Just as he realised this, another figure seemed to catch his eye. It drew closer and closer towards the labyrinth from the sky. Gray quickly looked up, only to widen his eyes.
'Thats...'
From the sky, a young lady could be seen falling. Her unusual clothes and pitch-black hair swayed uncontrollably from the air resistance, her horns showed a strong dye of red and her Axe could be seen being wielded by her on her right arm.
'She's… The Girl from my vision!'
*CRASH!*
She crashed into the road, right ahead of him on the very edge of the labyrinth where the other horned ones were. The ground cracked into pieces, as a shock wave was sent throughout the city.
At that moment, Gray's eyes widened. It was now, now that they all had their attentions turned to her, now was the best moment to sneak in. Gray grabbed, Aurora and Violet, having each arm wrapped around their belly before leaping off the buildings edge as he could.
He did his absolute best to make sure he wasn't noticed.
Aurora and Violet also held their breaths so that they wouldn't make any noise. Together, the three of them fell into the abyssal hole.
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The girl's figure could be seen slowly rising from the ground with the large battles resting on her shoulders. A confident air surrounded her as she looked down at the labyrinth.
The horned ones could tell her mood was far from being the brightest, after all she repeatedly stomped on the ground, breaking it even further after her landing.
"If they won't listen to me… Then I'll just force them too…" She muttered before leaping down. "I'll get stronger… Strong enough so that he won't order me around…"