Two figures moved through the school, dashing over cars and scaling walls and buildings with incredible finesse and skill. As they blurred past a flickering streetlight, the white light caught both their faces for a short second. Both had Eastern origins based on their physical features, which was also exceptionally aesthetically pleasant though each differed in their own manner. One of them was a blonde, with snow white hair that fell around his face in a refreshingly bed-hair style. His face was quite handsome in a roguish manner that complemented the mischief and deviancy that lit his coal dark eyes. His lips were slightly drawn back in a perpetually sly smirk that seemed perfectly at home on his face. The other individual was more of a mixture of two different spectrums of attractiveness. His physiology was a perfect balance of an aristocratic cold aloofness with a delicate playboy appearance. His features were soft but well defined despite the flat thin-lipped expression h

Of all the people Michael had ever expected to stop him from committing an act as murder, he never expected it to be Lee Shen. The single most bloodthirsty person Michael had ever met was currently preventing him from ending an assassin that had been sent to kill him. The sheer absurdity of the scenario was what actually stunned Micheal long enough for Lee to dash up to him, grab his collar and push him up against the wall of a nearby building. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" The white haired Asian growled as he held up his own leader by the scruff of the latter's shirt. The gray in Michael's eyes finally faded slowly and the crushing pressure in the area vanished as his energy was retracted back to himself. The expression of utter apathy on Michael's face soon disappeared and was replaced by a flat stare that shifted from the hand holding him up to the person the hand was connected to. "Have you finally lost it?" He asked slowly. "Don't give me that shit!"

"Variants are human beings who possess specific supernatural powers that have no origins in Arcane Magic," Diana explained. "Powers such as yours that cannot be recreated through regular magic without a series of extremely complex spells fall under that category." "Is that so?" Ryusuke asked with a thought expression. He pulled out his sword and unsheathed it slowly in clear view of everyone in the room. The last thing he wanted at the moment was for any of these monsters to take his actions as a threat. "Our clans gifted us with these weapons when we came of age. Iden-teki sōbi; that is what they are called where we come from." "Hereditary Gear," Lee translated for the rest of the room and nodded in understanding. "Guess that makes sense." "But that doesn't really clear up the picture as to what exactly their abilities are," Olivia pointed out the obvious flaw in that line of thought. "Variant abilities cannot be passed down from generation to generation like they said the

"Thank you for your trust," Diana said and stared directly into the younger girl's eyes. The process was so quick that Rin barely even felt a thing as the consciousness of Diana Stone breezed through her lowered awareness and into the deep maze that was the mind of Rin Sakai. Mind reading was a very delicate technique that was done only by mages who had mastered the art of Ether Weaving. As the energy that was an omnipresent component of all matter, ether was of course present in the sensitive composition of the mind. If a mage wished to traverse through the mind of an individual, he or she would have to be quite skilled in ether manipulation through the use of one's own maybe energy, a technique called Ether Weaving. But Diana did not bother with any of those. Those conditions after all only applied to regular mages and the like. For someone like her who possessed the Eyes of God, it was child's play to infiltrate the mental depths of the female assassin's mind. Rather than h

It was very obvious that this person was the source of the sudden heat that had filled the room. A slight sweat broke out across Chuck's forehead, one that was not caused by the heat but rather by a subconscious apprehensiveness of the level of power that was just pouring off this individual. He knew who she was of course, though he had never seen her face before but he could not honestly say he wanted to. There were several rumours among the lower ranks of The Order about the mysterious Variant who always wore a veil and barely ever left the castle. Some people said it was because of her insane beauty that she hid herself from public view, a few others theorised that it might have something to do with her Variant ability. The latter was also rumored to be among the most powerful in the entire Order and at the moment Chuck was very much inclined to believe that. After all... This woman was a member of the Upper Four Heralds. "That is enough." Her voice was clear and crisp, and