He sat.

  And stared at nothing.

  The concrete he sat on felt cool to the touch.

  His legs dangled off the edge of the building.

  There was barely any pain despite his injuries.

  The sirens of fire engines wailed in the distance.

  His hands trembled slightly, yet his breathing was steady.

  He watched as the clouds drifted overhead.

  Pale.

  Fluffy.

  Plain.

  The stillness of the moment held.

  The comms crackled now and then from the static.

  He turned it off without looking, his gaze fixed on the night sky.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  —––—

  The Global Dive Authority(GDA).

  An international corporation formed in the immediate aftermath of the First Void Invasion, following the disappearance of the global superpowers: America, United Kingdom, China, Russia.

  It was tasked with the management of the Void and those who entered it.

  The GDA was divided into three internal wings.

  The Diver Wing oversaw the training, ranking, and deployment of Divers. It assessed threats within the Void and assigned missions accordingly.

  The Research Wing catalogued recovered data. Heartlight efficiency. Voidspawn classification. Environmental effects. Equipment viability.

  The Domestic Wing handled threats originating from humanity itself.

  It did not survive.

  On October 11, 2060, the Domestic Wing collapsed.

  The Hunters emerged in its place.

  —–––—

  Year 2082 (Present day)

  Devil sat on a chair in a dark room.

  The Cube was torn open by Renny just a few moments ago, before he escaped into the Void.

  Well, he let Renny escape.

  He'd no intention of letting Renny join the Hunters.

  Devil flexed his fingers.

  He wasn't as physically dominant as he was in his prime.

  But he made up for it in other ways.

  He snapped his fingers.

  A red spark.

  A flame was birthed in his palm.

  He watched it flicker brightly, quickly fizzling out.

  He'd rebuilt the Domestic Wing from scratch over the years.

  Now called the Hunters, they were far more ruthless and dangerous than their predecessors.

  Their members were few and exceptional.

  Hand picked and trained specially by him.

  The no kill rule no longer applied.

  It was no longer a public organisation.

  Devil remembered how he tracked down the spies that infiltrated the Domestic Wing and tortured them brutally.

  He himself has gone off the radar, disappearing from the world completely.

  Since then, the World Mafia has grown into a global organisation.

  The Hunters have been the only ones capable of keeping them in check, bit by bit.

  Red sparks danced in Devil's hand.

  Bent.

  A unique ability that manifested when people invested their Heartlight into an intangible concept over a long period of time.

  It can be used infinitely and takes up no Heartlight to use, but a constant supply of Heartlight must be invested in it, else it will completely disappear.

  A rare ability.

  The basis of Devil's strength from then to now.

  Devil wondered what Aterrex's Bent ability was.

  Aterrex.

  World Mafia.

  A robotic voice echoed, "Sir, we found it."

  Devil tapped his finger on the chair.

  "Accompany Warden and Dusk."