Solaris began to recall his time in the first layer of hell, yet as he did, his face began to twist and turn before he stopped and decided to just go with his gut when he got to HQ.
The car ride went on; as it did, Solaris began to worry more; his soul was in disarray, and the car felt slightly hotter. Selen looked over at him, his face displaying a strange expression.
Yet the truth behind it was something she couldn't understand or even comprehend, not at this moment at least.
Solaris began to imagine other things, and as he did, he shut his left eye and began to read his blurb again; it was something to distract him and little more than that.
As his eyes read through the words, his body slowly cooled down. The words were not comforting him, but they were distracting him; the cruel words describing his lost humanity were still more comforting than facing the terrible memories of the first layer of hell.
A quiet sigh escaped his lips as he read the description for 'Surpass '; it was a great ability, but the cost was much too great for him to consider using it to its fullest.
A mere few minutes later, the car came to a stop; Solaris opened his eye and looked outside the window.
Before him, he saw a small building, even smaller than the Crimson Cross, which he called home. As he observed the mundane building, his eyes shifted up to the sign that was slightly flickering; it read.
"Crimson Cross Mattress Store?"
Solaris read the name out loud in a slightly confused voice.
"You'll understand in a moment."
Ember said, stepping out of the car.
Solaris and Selen followed in tow. From her glances around the small parking lot, Solaris could tell that she'd never been here.
At least I'm not alone on this one.
Solaris slightly smiled as he shut the door; soon the three were approaching the door.
As they did, another man appeared next to Solaris.
Solaris's eyes widened, and his hand shot up; the man next to him jumped back, narrowly avoiding the sudden attack. The arm was peeking out of the black mantle, and Solaris's hand was glowing slightly and had a pure black coating over it.
"...sorry, you caught me by surprise..."
Solaris lowered his arm in embarrassment, his head turned to look at the man he almost killed.
Ember looked over at Solaris, his face almost showing a look of worry.
Yet the man didn't look offended at all. He simply scratched the back of his head with a carefree attitude. His slightly oversized light clothes danced in the wind as he spoke; his voice was melodious and calming, yet also a bit quick.
"no dont worry; that was my bad. I should've known who you were."
Now, looking at the man, Solaris raised an eyebrow and asked.
"Who are you, and how could you know me?"
"Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Luician Carmail. I'm a hunter like you, although I'm not as well..." Looking at Solaris's confused gaze, Luician scratched his head and changed the subject. "Anyways, sorry for scaring you, I'll be on my way."
Luician smiled brightly and began to move a bit faster, yet Solaris raised a hand and spoke.
"No, wait."
Luician turned with a confused look, his body moving slightly as he stood.
"You can walk with us; you seem to know your way around. '
Ember shot Solaris a slight look, then just shrugged.
"Yeah, to be fair, I usually don't come in person to HQ, so it could be good for a refresher."
Ember spoke in a nonchalant voice.
"Oh, wonderful. I was hoping I could talk with the two of you, and I'm glad to give you a tour."
As Luician spoke, his eyes finally noticed the third member of the trio; as he did, his face darkened. And he raised a shaky hand.
"Is... is she with you..."
"Yeah, this is Selen. Have you met?"
Solaris asked with genuine curiosity.
"Yeah..."
Luician scratched his cheek as he remembered the carnage at the hotel.
Hearing the two others speaking of her, Selen turned her head, and her pale blue eyes stared emotionlessly at him.
"Oh hi, did you happen to check out the basement?"
Solaris looked confused as Selen asked Luician, her voice emotionless; then he watched as the blonde man grimaced in terror and scratched his arm.
"Um... yeah."
For a moment, Solaris could've sworn that the girl had a slight grin, yet he convinced himself he was just seeing things.
After an awkward moment, Luician's face shifted back into a smile.
"Anyways, just follow me; I'll give y'all a great tour!"
Seeing the excited man before him, Solaris's face slowly formed an awkward smile as he subtly began to regret his decision.
This might've been a mistake.
After the trio turned into a quartet, they made their way across the threshold. As Solaris walked into the building, his eyes widened slowly as he looked around.
"It's huge."
The inside of the building -contrary to the outside- was massive; it had multiple levels and tons of people.
It was similar to a typical office building yet also had a few differences; one big one was the excess amount of weapons and the few corpses being dragged around on stretchers, most of them demons and some were hunters.
The office was so busy yet so organized; there were a mere two hundred active hunters, according to Ember, yet the massive building felt so lived in as if a thousand worked here.
"Welcome to the Crimson Cross HQ!"
Luician said with a bright smile, his arms outstretched.
"As you can see their is more than just hunters here. Unlike smaller branches, here we have some non-Extramicy or Micy users, and have normal men and women working here."
"Wow, our branch really sucks."
Solaris said, palming his head.