The coordinates sent, Ingine closed off the window and glanced around himself. His eyes were evidently drawn to the smoke that surrounded the structures, still rising as if a battle had taken place here only a little while ago. Indeed, he stretched his hand toward it, half expecting to feel the warmth raze his palm a little and then -

A warbled sound punched through the space where he had just been. He looked over his shoulder non-puzzled and straightened himself out. The Gamemaster's avatar looked surprisingly normal. GMs had the tendency to alter some part of their avatar to look a bit out of the avatar's usual normal parameters. It's not something that was looked well upon by the higher ups, but most of them couldn't help try it at least once.

"Let's just hope it stays "cheery". This smoke is suspicious." He glanced once more toward the smoke he indicated, his eyes searching for its source, but the fog seemed to spread from all directions, something that did not make sense in the least. Smoke should rise up. Not left and right.

"We're looking for "Evidence" " Ingine began, starting ahead of Codez without ceremony whatsoever. He didn't even know his name. Why bother. He just wanted to get this over with and search for Velten. " Any traces of whomever did this. Even the smallest patch of code could hold a clue in it." He turned from the cathedral, toward the first shadows of the city's spires. Once inside the city, the blades of light from before did not fully reach the ground as they were cut apart by the towering rooftop spears. "And no. There's no we if anything happens. You just leave it to me and get some place safe." He said, seemingly absently.

The farther inside the city they walked, the thicker the smoke became.

He let Codez' voice fall easily through his thoughts, trying to put the unnecessary ones aside. Concentrate, a foreign voice reminded as he reached up, brushed through his hair, and sighed. "The range of the damage is too extensive. It would taken much longer than what it took for this mess to rear up if it had truly been just an A.I. malfunctioning." The buildings began to spread apart as they walked into the heart of the city. His hands would come across the walls, sometimes a piece of fallen stone, or a broken statue. Characters glowed briefly where he touched. Searching. Searching for some sort of pattern that was off in the coding. "Unless it was set to proliferate all over, but if that had been the case we would have been able to contain it more efficiently as soon as the infection entered the system, but we were eluded in such a way..."

The words rolled off, becoming quieter as Ingine lost himself in thought, despite himself. Even though the chief had already explain much of his hypothesis to him, he didn't actually get it all that well. He turned toward Codez, suddenly mulling over his theory. "...Wait. What's your basis for that idea?"

By the sound of it, Codez was evidently trying t provoke the figure that just appeared. The entity didn't respond back to him immediately. He seemed oddly quiet and suddely -

"Wew! What a tongue! I like this kid. Says whatever comes to his mind." He doubled over, laughed, and then dissipated from view for a few seconds before standing back up on the veranda. It seems he had tripped and fallen, though he acted like nothing happened.

"I am not hiding. I am clearly in plain view. You are just too far away that your display settings are set to blur my image." The figure explained, nodding to himself in a sagely manner. "But I'll humor you and 'come out of hiding'."

The figure jumped after announcing this, landed on the ground floor, and striked a "hero" pose, still some distance away from Codez, but now near enough that all his features were clearly visible. And those were no more than a plain, white shirt, khakis, and a lab coat. The man smiled lightheartedly at Codez.

"There, better now, right?

Meanwhile, Ingine was only half-listening to the conversation going up above. He was too far below that the sounds of their voices barely reached him. Only Codez' voice was near enough that he could make out his words. He realized by what he was saying that someone else had appeared.

"Don't move!" He yelled back at Codez and quickly started typing along his keyboard and pinpointing the other gamemaster's map coordinates. He had wanted to stay and investigate this place a little more, but it seems there were more pressing matters up above.

After several minutes Ingine was able to warp his character to a spot beside Codez just as the other person started talking again.

" And what problem might that be? Maybe I can help out? I'm investigating a problem here myself!" He laughed and scratched his head. He didn't seem to get what Codez was talking about.

Things were even more confusing for Ingine. His eyes went wide when he saw who it was.

"Xiang...? What are you doing here? Why - "

" Hey there, Kenta! How's your father these days? I heard about the system crash, so here I am. But you two really shouldn't be here. It's not safe. What is that Rukishi thinking, really."

Ingine looked at a loss of what to say. A swell of emotions seemed to have frozen him for a moment before he turned his face slightly toward Codez and patted his shoulder in a calming gesture.

"Umm...This is Dr. Kamin Xiang. He works with my - err - with Dr. Rukishi. Or used to, anyways. We've met at the office before." It felt awkward to be introducing Xiang to Codez however, as he hadn't seen Xiang in years, let alone in the game, of all places. And the last he saw of him was when that accident had happened...

Ingine flinched away from Codez' glare, looking apologetic and flustered all of a sudden. His earlier bravado had all but abandoned him in the face of the older gamemaster's dark expression. There was also Xiang's reappearance, which had all his other emotions in a bit of turbulence.

Xiang called Ingine again by his name however, and Ingine automatically answered him like he was used to it. They exchanged what seemed to be more pointless pleasantries between each other when Codez exploded.

"C-calm down. He...We..." Although he believed Codez was overreacting, he wasn't in the wrong with what he said. Ingine had gotten caught up in his own memories and left his partner behind and had even forgotten they where on a mission here. But how to explain his relationship to Xiang without revealing his connections to CC Corp? Right now all Codez saw him as was another gamemaster, but who knows how he'd treat him if he knew the rest of Ingine's background. He hadn't even perceived any of Codez' suspicions.

The young Tyrantblade looked at a loss on how to explain when Xiang interjected for him with a sigh.

" No need to blow up like that. The kid's done nothing wrong. I did appear unannounced, after all. "

Xiang shrugged his shoulders in a carefree manner. The way he stood and spoke also belonged to that of a lax person. It was a stark contrast to the other two gamemasters, who were wound up with the recent happenings.

"Let me explain -"

Ingine's eyes went wide. He reached out toward Xiang.

"Wait! What are you - pzzztshhh" ...!? His words were cut off by static noise. Ingine stared at himself in confusion. How did his character get damaged? Or was it his software? No...He always kept it in top condition. His system didn't detect any sudden abnormality either, so...how - Looking up, he saw Xiang chuckling at a bit at him. You...1?

"Shh, Kenta. I said I would explain ~ " Xian smiled warmly at the two of them. Ingine half-glared, half-questioned Xiang with his eyes, unable to speak. "Aww geez, don't glare at me like that. That guy's look is already scary enough!"

A small, blue screen popped beside Xiang. He placed his hand on it without looking and said "Cut him off."

The screen beeped as if in response and disappeared. Seconds later, Ingine dropped to the ground.

---

"What! My screen...!" Kenta leaped from his seat, staring in shock at his computer screen. Not only had it been disconnected, it suddenly turned black and a cartoon of Xiang's face appeared in it. Lighten up kenta! The words kept repeating and scrolling across the screen while Xiang's cartooned face smiled and winked at him.

The man had always been a strange character to him, but wasn't this going a bit overboard with his jokes? It was a joke, wasn't it?

Kenta was furiously typing on his keyboard, but nothing helped unlock it. He ended up slapping his hands against the desk in frustration. "Cut it out Xiang!"

---

Even though Kenta had been disconnected fro the game, Ingine's avatar remained in the field with them. It had not been logged out and instead, lied dead-eyed and motionless upon the ground.

"So were shall I start? Kenta already mentioned I worked with his father. He seems kinda sensitive about that though, doesn't he? Or wait - don't tell me it's a secret? Hah! Is Hero trying to make him work undercover or something? " Xiang laughed at the idea, thinking of the little Kenta whom was too shy to interact with much of anyone apart from his sister. But then again, it's been some years. He had clearly grown out of his shell somewhat.

It's just too bad they wouldn't be able to catch up on things yet.

" Oh! And then there's that "problem" I need to fix. You see - there are two pawns who are snooping around places where they shouldn't be, instead of actively contributing to the places where they should be!" His eyes fell upon Codez, but not a trace of evil intent could be read in them.

There was only Codez' gut feeling...What did it tell him?

Suddenly, things were progressing very quickly. Codez brandished his scythe and faced Xiang. He was pissed, but the white-cloaked personage across from him seemed unaffected by the gamemaster's threats. The most preoccupied face he was able to put up was a slight frown it seemed.

"Oh boy..." He clicked his tongue as Codez charged him.

A black sword fell and pierced into the ground between Xiang and Codez. The sword burst with a crimson aura and took hold of Codez' aggro, forcing the target of his attack to automatically switch to it instead o f Xiang.

[Codez has been inflicted with bleed!]

As Codez' skill finished its entire casting animation, [Dark Stigma] quickly took effect and began pulsing throughout his arm. A dull, rhythmic ache now thrived in the arm of Codez player outside the game (slight pain) wherever the dark shade of the curse covered Codez' character model. And to make things worse, the stigma spread a bit more down his arm and over his chest, tracing the beginnings of a strange set of symbols coated in bright obsidian, all branching out from the crystal embedded in the shoulder.

There was an actual scream from the sword as it was struct by [Blood Craze]; it was a ghastly, blood-curling sound. It even received the [Dark Fate] debuff, but it was unclear whether this sword that suddenly appeared had hit points to deduct. Codez would soon be too distracted to care about this however.

"Holy fuck - that took forever! Pick up the pace already!"

A voice echoed from above before the source of it floated toward them in a relaxed pose. It was Sid.

"Heeey remember me? We didn't get to finish our fun last time ~" A sadistic smile cut a sharp path across Sid's mouth. His eyes shone a merry crimson.

"Sorry sorry. I really wanted to catch up with Kenta." Xiang smiled apologetically and scratched the back of his head, seeming unconcerned with Codez. Or anything else really. Sid, on the other hand, gave him a disgusted look.

"Be an idiot on your own time. I've been waiting for fucking fifteen minutes already!"

"Yes yes...Go on." Xiang waved Sid away, but Sid wasn't paying him any attention already. He was smiling down at his new prey, taking hold of the black sword.

"Don't wuss out now." He laughed and charged at Codez through the air, wings spread out, intending to drive the sword right through Codez' midsection.