"A victim of drowning?...sense!"
"We.....her.....before you..."
"....of light.... suspicious?"
"....not fair...."
"Heart rate...should be....."
"Tacet Mark....Resonator."
The woman slowly came back to consciousness as the jumbled mess of words resounded in her ears.
As she opened her eyes, she was forced to close them again due to sensory overload, but this action of hers caught the attention of the people who were looking after her.
"Oh! You are awake!"
The nameless woman's mind tried to comprehend her situation when another voice rang out.
"Oh! That's good! I can finally stop being relegated to rear support."
Slowly opening her eyes again, the woman saw two beautiful women looking at her with clear happiness and relief on their faces.
'What happened? Where am I?'
The nameless woman slowly sat up, making the woman in blue support her with concern, which the woman with red hair also shared.
"Are you alright? Do you feel any discomfort?"
The nameless woman looked at the woman in blue and shook her head before speaking again.
Her voice came out rough, as if it had not been used in a while, and it hurt her a little to speak, but she kept going anyway.
"I am fine. You are?"
The woman with red hair grinned.
"I am Chixia, and she is Yangyang. And grumpy over there is Robbie."
The woman looked to the side to see a young man of their age group. However, he did not appear as approachable as the two women, with the way he was sitting on a boulder and staring listlessly into the sky with dull eyes.
The woman looked around the area, feeling unfamiliar with the location.
"Where am I?"
Yangyang smiled at the question.
"We are in the Gorges of Spirits. It's on the outskirts of Jinzhou."
"...Jinzhou?"
Yangyang's smile strained as concern once again appeared in her eyes.
"Yes, Jinzhou. The border town of Huanglong?"
The woman tilted her head in confusion as she tried to make sense of the locations Yangyang was speaking about.
Something about the names felt familiar, but she could not remember where she had heard them.
Chixia looked at her with a dubious look before looking at Robbie, who was still staring at the sky with a melancholic look.
"By any chance, are you someone from another world as well? 'Cause you are just as ignorant as that guy."
At Chixia's words, Robbie finally showed some emotion and turned to look at the nameless woman with something akin to curiosity and hope in his eyes.
However, the woman shook her head.
"I don't think so.I...I am not sure where I come from, but it doesn't feel like I am from another world...or maybe I don't know what to look for in my mind to say anything about it?"
"So confused? Are you having difficulty remembering things? Can you tell me your name?"
The nameless woman tried to answer as instincts took over, with an attempt to answer such an easy question.
Yet, her mind drew a blank, unable to tell her what her name was.
Slowly, panic started to creep into her heart, but for some reason, she did not let that panic control her mind.
"....."
Seeing her remain silent, Yangyang grew a bit concerned.
"Can you remember your birthday? Any nicknames? Where are you from? Or any name that comes to your mind? Anything at all?"
Once again, the woman shook her head.
"You don't remember your name, where you came from, or what you were doing here. Your clothing does not look local, and you even had a Terminal that is of a strange design, which is also not local. Are you some kind of a roving traveller perhaps?"
The nameless woman shrugged as she continued focusing on suppressing her panic for the moment.
"Hm. Then, how about going with Rover as a name for now?"
The nameless woman muttered the word for a few seconds before nodding.
"I like it. I am Rover."
Chixia raised an eyebrow at that name.
"Rover, is it? Well, I guess that settles it."
She turned towards Yangyang.
"We should get going and regroup with Baizhi. Maybe she can help with this?"
Yangyang nodded thoughtfully at that. But a different voice interrupted her thought process.
"Yangyang, you said she was injured when you found her, right?"
Robbie's sudden words made Rover jump a little before looking at the young man.
His blue eyes bore into her with a strange expression while Yangyang nodded her head to answer his question.
"Yes. Chixia and I came to investigate the original streak of light along with our friend. While investigating it, we lost track of the light, but while returning from that expedition, I found her unconscious in the river behind the Gourge with blood flowing everywhere."
Yangyang tilted her head in confusion.
"That being said, those injuries healed rather quickly with not even a scar to show for it. By the time we pulled her out of the river, she was already healed completely. But, given her memory loss, maybe we missed something, and there is still an internal injury in her head?"
Robbie got down from his position on the boulder and approached Rover, who stared at him with caution.
"Then, I would like to try something. Maybe her mind is suppressing her memories to cope with some kind of physical or mental trauma. I can use my telepathic abilities to try and unblock those memories."
Yangyang gave him a worried look at those words.
"Wouldn't that be reckless? Will it harm her?"
"No. I will just try to brush against her consciousness with mine and see if I can find any fracture points or suppressions. From there, I will know if I should proceed or not."
Turning towards Rover, Robbie gave her a neutral look, but the woman could still see the pity and worry hidden beneath that gaze.
"What do you think? Do you want me to try?"
Rover thought over the suggestion for a few seconds before nodding.
She needed to know who she was and what she was doing here. And if Robbie could help her with that, she would take it.
Taking her nod as acceptance, Robbie raised his hand to her head and closed his eyes.
Instantly, Rover felt it.
A presence. A foreign energy brushing her mind, as if asking for access into her very being.
Somehow, instinctively, Rover knew what to do and opened her mind to him, allowing the energy to move in and search her consciousness, her very being, for her memories.
But during this process, she also senses something else.
The energy that originated from Robbie felt warm. Like a bonfire in a cold, dark night. She could feel the genuine worry and pity he felt for her. His energy felt safe. Comforting, in a way. As if it were his very nature to be someone protective towards those he saw as innocents or companions.
However, that was not the only presence she felt.
Deeper still, under that current of warmth, she felt something else mixed in. Something that originated from Robbie but was clearly not him.
A brighter presence beneath Robbie's power, but unlike the warmth that Robbie's power held, this presence was cold. Like the starlight in the sky. Comforting and bright in its own way, but far beyond her reach or understanding.
For comparison, if Robbie's power were the Sun, giving out warmth and life while feeling like it would walk alongside you to the ends of the world, this other presence was like the Moon, or the stars at night. Another source of light and life, but one that was far more regal and out of reach for mortal life.
Then, just as quickly as she felt it, the energies left, making her open her eyes to stare at Robbie with confusion.
Robbie, on the other hand, now gave her an openly pitying look.
"Rover. I am sorry to say that my hypothesis was wrong."
"Then...?
Robbie shook his head at Yangyang's worried tone.
"Her mind has been completely wiped. Deliberately at that. The neural network is still there in her brain, but it is as if someone deliberately and thoroughly wiped out how these stored memories would be triggered."
"In simple terms, technically, you still have a chance to recover your memories, but practically? The chances are so small that they might as well be zero."
Chixia gave Robbie a surprised look.
"You seem to be very knowledgeable about this type of thing? Were you a doctor or something?"
Robbie shook his head.
"No, I was no doctor. But it is expected of a competent FBC field agent to know advanced biological knowledge about the human body, even more so for a Colonel like me who led my own unit. It is very much relevant to our work and helped me and my unit overcome many an obstacle during our time out on the field."
"Wow! Sounds like you guys were really professional. Can you tell me more about what you guys did exactly?"
Robbie smiled a bit at the eager look on Chixia and the barely restrained curiosity that he could spot on Yangyang and Rover's faces.
"I guess there is no harm, given where I am. But not right now, I can still feel strange resonance fields and Paranatural energies in the area. We should get to a safe place before we can discuss anything."
Chixia smiled awkwardly while scratching her head.
"Yeah. Baizhi did say she detected some strange frequencies in the area-"
She stopped speaking as Yangyang's eyes flashed for a second with Aero energy swirling around her hand.
"The wind has brought us a warning. The Etheric Sea is converging."
Robbie stared with intrigue as he felt a strange resonance field energy from her, but decided against asking about it for now.
Yangyang turned to the others with a serious look.
"A new Tacet Field is taking shape. We need to go."
Rover held a confused look at the new term that was spoken, just like Robbie did, but the two did not speak and simply followed Yangyang and Chixia as they all ran towards the path that led out of the Gorge.
As they ran, they came upon a steep ledge that would be impossible for normal people to climb. However, Yangyang and Chixia did not slow down a bit.
Instead, Rover and Robbie watched with surprise as the two Resonators concentrated their power on their feet and literally ran up the ledge, jumping over the obstacle.
Chixia turned back and grinned at them.
"Come on! You two! You can do it too! Especially Rover!"
Robbie frowned at those words.
"What makes you so sure about that?"
"Huh!? Isn't it obvious? Rover is a Resonator too! I mean, look at the back of her palm. She has a Tacet Mark."
Rover looked down at the mark on the back of her right palm with wonder.
Yangyang smiled at the awed look on Rover's face.
"That mark is the reason why we accepted your words about being from this world. Unlike Robbie, who has no Tacet Mark as far as we can tell but still wields power, you are clearly a Resonator, so you can't be from a different world like him."
"Now, come on. You should have felt how we ran up the ledge, right? Try to imitate it."
Rover nodded at Yangyang's words and took off running.
The moment she arrived at the ledge, she pushed her energy within the soles of her feet and ran up, just like the other two Resonators.
It was wobbly for the first two steps, but instincts long forgotten took hold, and she managed the rest of the way very easily.
Robbie gave the three a dubious look and tried to mimic their actions by using his Paranatural energies in a similar way.
Only to faceplant back on the ground the moment he tried it.
"Bwahahaha!"
"Chixia! Stop that!"
Yangyan admonished Chixia for laughing at Robbie, but her own smile showed how amused she felt.
Rover crowched down at the top of the ledge and stared at Robbie with her own smirk.
"I guess we found one way to break your composure, eh?"
Robbie grumbled at the teasing and picked himself up before floating to the top of the ledge with his telekinesis.
"I am not getting goaded into doing something like that again. And, for the record, you lied to me! Chixia!"
"Hey! How was I supposed to know you can't replicate what we do?"
Normally, Robbie would have accepted her reasoning because it was logical. But the way she was grinning and mischief danced in her eyes, he knew that she did this on purpose.
So, being the mature adult he was, he did what anyone in his position would do.
He bonked her on the head with his knuckles, making her crouch down dramatically while covering her head.
"Waah! Violence against a poor maiden? You brute! Yangyang! Save me!"
Yangyang smiled gently at the dramatic Chixia, who was clinging to her waist.
"Alright, enough fooling around. Let's get out of here and meet up with Baizhi."
The group soon ran off on the dirt road, but their path was soon blocked by three Taced Discords.
"What the-? So quickly? Doesn't this look a bit too much for a newly converging Tacet Field?"
Robbie ignored Chixia's whining and stared at the three strange humanoid creatures with heads shaped like flowers.
"They don't look that strong, though?"
Yangyang nodded.
"There are common-class TDs known as Zig Zag. Not really powerful individually, but can still pose a threat in large numbers for inexperienced Resonators and could be fatal for civilians."
"Swarm tactics then? Makes sense."
Robbie raised his hand, intending to crush the annoyances like he did with the Dreadmanes, but Chixia stopped him.
As he looked at her with confusion, the Junior Patroler nodded towards the side.
Rover silently stepped forward and pulled out the sword on her hip, showing why Chixia had stopped Robbie.
The group watched silently as Rover moved with elegance and deadly precision.
Each stroke of her sword so precise and unwavering that the Tacet Discords did not even have the time to react.
One of the Zig-Zag raised both its hands, creating a ball of golden light, the power of 'Spectro' as it is called in this world, and hurled it towards Rover.
However, the amnesiac woman easily twisted her body to avoid the attack and retaliated.
Spectro energy gathered in her blade as she used her Forte, creating a phantom blade of Spectro energy that spun like a buzzsaw, cutting through the TD with ease.
Chixia clapped her hands happily as Yangyang gave an approving nod.
"So you still remember how to fight despite having forgotten everything else? I wish I could see how powerful you were if you had your memories!"
Robbie shook his head at Chixia's comment.
"It's good that you still remember how to fight, but don't strain your body too much. At least not until you get a proper medical check done on your mind and body."
Rover gave the man a slightly disgruntled look as she crossed her arms.
"I am not some frail person."
Robbie smiled at her words.
"I am not calling you frail. I am just saying that we don't know what happened to you for you to wind up unconscious in this place and with injuries, according to Yangyang. So it would not be wise to put pressure on your body."
"Says the guy who refused to go back to Jinzhou with us because he was afraid of a medical test."
At Yangyang's teasing words, Robbie gave her a betrayed look, which made Rover giggle.
However, the banter came to a sudden end when Rover collapsed on the ground the moment she glanced at the giant dragon statue at the center of the Gorge.
Before she could collapse completely, Robbie used his Telekinesis to catch her mid-fall as the three ran to her.
"Rover! What's wrong!?"
"Crap! Was Robbie right about her straining herself!?"
"Chixia! Get her-"
"It's fine. I'm okay."
Rover groggily got up, nodding gratefully at Robbie's quick action of catching her with his power and then placing her on the ground.
Yangyang worriedly hovered over Rover.
"What happened?"
"I....I think I remembered something. I saw that dragon in a strange vision and blacked out for a second."
She pointed at the statue at the center of the Gorge, causing the two women to look at her with shocked looks.
"You saw our Sentinel? In your memories?"
Yangyang's whispered question made Robbie and Rover look at her with confusion and ask at the same time.
""Sentinel/What's a Sentinel?""
Yangyang nodded her head and started to explain.
"This statue is built in their honor. The Sentinel of Jinzhou. In the vast country we call Huanglong, there is one Capital and six cities that fall under its domain. And each one of these cities has a Sentinel of their own."
She motioned towards the statue.
"This is Jue. Our Sentinel, the guardian of Jinzhou."
"As for what a Sentinel exactly is, that is something nobody knows. All we know is that Jue and the other Sentinels have protected and guided Civilizations across the world for as long as anyone can remember. Shielding us from the disasters of the Retroactive Rains, the Etheric Sea convergences, Tacet Discord invasions, and enemies who seek to subvert our way of life."
Yangyan did not even attempt to hide the awe in her voice as she spoke.
"If it were not for them, who knows what would have happened to humanity by now?"
Rover stared at the statue with surprise and appreciation, trying to understand why such a figure had appeared in her brief vision.
However, Robbie had a completely different reaction.
To him, the Sentinels sounded far too much like The Board from his home. Those enigmatic beings that reside in the Astral Plane and order the Director around like their personal slave. Guiding the Federal Bureau of Control from their lofty positions into doing their bidding for unknown purposes.
Granted, these Sentinels seem far more benevolent and seem to be more tangible than the Board, but still, Robbie could never bring himself to trust enigmatic beings that refuse to elaborate on their purposes and actions.
The Board, the Former, the Hiss, and the Shadow have made sure of that much at least.
But once again, their conversation was interrupted as dark frequencies gathered and gave birth to two humanoid TDs.
Chixia gave an exasperated look at the sudden manifestation before muttering out loud.
"Havoc Warriors this time? Just what is happening? The Etheric Sea has not even formed completely yet, but TDs are already forming at record speed like this?"
Suddenly, before the group could react, the TDs ran straight for them at tremendous speeds, swinging their axes down at them.
Robbie saw the attack coming as he had never let his guard down, just like Rover, so he spread his arms wide, forming a Telekinetic barrier around the entire group, blocking the incoming attack.
Rover, on sheer instinct, pushed all of her power into her palm as ancient combat memory came to her mind.
With practiced ease, she closed her fist as the Spectro energy converged between the enemies.
Then, as if it were a bomb, the power of light erupted, consuming the TDs and wreaking havoc inside their bodies. The power of the Spectro element continuously damaging their insides.
Taking advantage of their weakened state, Robbie finished them off by using his power to pull them limb from limb, ending the threat.
Unfortunately, this was only the beginning.
The moment they took care of the common-class TDs, the dark frequencies converged once again, giving birth to a behemoth that towered over them.
"An Elite-Class Chasm Guardian!? Come on!!"
"Chixia! Stop complaining for a bit and help out, will ya!?"
Robbie's roar made the Junior Petroler pout, but she complied nonetheless.
The moment the beast fully materialized, Robbie used his might to lock down its moments completely, his power that had once contested with monstrous entities of the Hiss proving insurmountable for the Elite-Class TD.
Seeing the enemy unable to move an inch, the three women took the chance and unleashed their full power at once.
Chixia fired flaming bullets at such speeds that it would be nearly impossible for regular soldiers or even low-level Resonators to comprehend. Yangyang, on the other hand, conjured up a tornado of Aero energy that pushed cutting winds into the TD's body, making it shriek in pain.
Rover too unleashed her Resonance Liberation, causing another Spectro energy detonation.
Under the combined assault, the TD did not even last a few seconds before it was obliterated by the combined Resonance Liberations of the three powerful Resonators.
"Damn! That was some quick work."
Chixia grinned at Robbie's words.
"Right? Now you know the true power of Ma Xiaofang-I mean! Chixia!!"
"...."
"A-Anyways! Let's go!"
Robbie shared a look with Rover as the two gave the Junior Patroler a mischievous grin.
"Sure thing, oh great Ma Xiaofang!"
"Of course, Ma Xiaofang!"
"Ugh! Stop it, you two!!"
The two outsiders laughed at the patroler's expense as Yangyang watched the interaction with a smile and led the group out of the Gorge.
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Fusion Dreadmane (Common-Class): Click for image
Havoc Dreadmane (Elite-Class): Click for image
Zig-Zag (Common-Class): Click for image
Havoc Warrior (Common-Class): Click for image
Chasm Guardian (Elite-Class): Click for image
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