Hello everyone! Phoenix here. I'm a new fanfiction writer so I'm looking forward to cooperating with you guys! I decided to start writing fanfics because 1. I have wild fantasies, 2. I love Elsword a lot (even though the salt is so real in game) and 3. I was influenced by my friend (redsticker007, narcissist who always calls himself fabulous :p don't hit me please) to get up on my lazy ass and express my ideas that have been locked up for so long XD. I'm sure there's a ton of grammar mistakes for my story below and I apologize for that. Please feel free to rate and review as well as give me advises on how to write my story better cause I'm still a newbie in this stuff .. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Elsword and the characters in that game. I only own plot of my own story and my original characters (which I've created by referring to other games XD)

Classes:

Elsword-Lord Knight

Aisha-Elemental Master

Rena-Grand Archer

Raven-Reckless Fist

Chung-Tactical Trooper

Eve-Code Nemesis

Add-Mastermind

Elesis-Grand Master

Ara-Asura

Lu-Noblesse

Ciel-Dreadlord

Phantom-?

Maxwell-no class yet

Chapter 1

20 FEBRUARY 2157, LOCATION: RESTRICTED AREA CODE L108, FORMALLY KNOWN AS HASHIMA ISLAND, JAPAN.

Tap tap tap.

In the midst of darkness, soft sounds of footsteps echoed loudly throughout the dark corridor of the abandoned research laboratory. The source of it traces back to a silhouette who's walking down deeper into the core of laboratory, only the shape of his cloak and red lenses glow from his mask can be seen in the darkness.

"Maxwell, how close are we to the sources of energy spike that we scanned just now?" A deep voice whispered softly from the figure.

Responding to the voice, a mini hologram of a male human appeared on the right shoulder of the figure. The avatar appearance resembles a Japanese high school delinquent-loose uniforms along with a headset resting on its shoulder. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) then swipe its right hand across the air, projecting a few more screens of data in front of the silhouette.

" According to my calculations, we should be able to arrive at the first source in the testing lab R101 in 1 minute, while the other source was gathered in lab R158, which I estimated us to arrive there by 3 minutes of walk from here."

Nodding to acknowledge what his AI just informed of him, Maxwell shut off the projections and sat down on the figure's shoulder as he continue to proceed moving along the dark corridors, until he sensed something coming from the front.

"My radar's just picked up movements in front of us approximately 200 meters ahead-"

"I already know. I sensed it already without using the radars."

Hearing that, Maxwell grumbled a little in annoyance.

"What's the point of having a radar to scan when you have your freakin' extraordinary sense then? Tch."

"Radar's built in for more precautions and scan targeted objects to get detailed information. I can't just rely on my senses alone, its too dangerous."

"Pssh, right. Too dangerous. I doubt anyone can even sneak pass you, who was dubbed as the most strongest ESP, Phantom-sama"

Sensing something coming closer to them as seconds passed by, Phantom pulled out two cuboid devices from his back, each in one hand. He then pressed a button for both devices, and they each transformed into about 50 centimetres long guns. On his left hand, a plasma shotgun -angular and metallic,with some parts held together by energy fields which shows blue highlights along its body. On his right, an energy assault rifle—similar to the plasma shotgun, it possess angular design and metallic casing, and it also appears to be held together, at least partly, by energy fields. The only difference it has compared to the shotgun is that it has a more detailed scope and red coloured energy highlights that runs through the gun chamber in the middle.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to be cocky in any situation, no matter who you are, Maxwell? I recommend you to shut your trap right now and focus on what's coming before I input virus into your coding and torture you."

The AI pouted.

"Yeesh, I was just trying to lighten the mood here….you're no fun master. Alright alright, I'll be serious. Targets ETA at our position in 30 seconds."

Upon hearing that, Phantom lowered his stance and brought up his weapons to aim in front of him. He unlocked the safety buttons and prepare to fire at any hostiles that might be coming.

Tap tap tap. Growl. Tap tap tap. Growl. Squeal.

As the movements in front of him became louder, he can hear running footsteps and growls from hostile beings that encountered before. But what confused him is….an animal's squeal too? Sounds like a dog or puppy, he thought.

"Scanning targets….15 in total. Excluding that one target in front of the group behind. For some reason I am unable to identify that particular target, but it seems to be chased by 14 Infecteds and 1 Haunter. ETA 15 seconds." Maxwell reported.

Infecteds. During the year 2146, a virus infection-or more like mutated plant spores spread all across the world, infecting living beings and turning them similar to zombies just like in the movies. While most of the infection problem was solved 1 year back then, there was still a few places that haven't been cleared off of the infection problems, and these places are restricted by the United Nations Esper Council.

On the other hand, Haunter. A term used to describe supernatural beings that came from another world. On the very same year where infection started globally, these beings—dark purple coloured with irregular body shapes and able to levitate in air—came out randomly from portals throughout the earth. Having high intelligence as well, these beings came out of nowhere to feed on living souls in many methods—possession until the host dies, straight forward physical attacks, mind control against weak victims or psychic assaults, so on and so forth. They've caused pandemonium globally, but their problems was mostly solved too 1 year ago. Though there would occasionally still be a few lingering ones wandering around in restricted areas.

Then there's this target that Maxwell couldn't identify. Can't be identified? That's strange. Maxwell is a super AI that I created myself and surpassed all other AIs in this world. Not a single one can rival him in any features or aspects at all. So why?

Phantom mentally shook his head and decided to ignore this problem first. I'll just have to face it head-on and see what is that unidentified target.

Tap tap tap. GROWL. GROWL. Tap tap tap. GROWL. Squeal.

5…4…3…2…1. They're here!

As the shadows in front of Phantom came close, he managed to identify what he's facing. A fox being chased around by Infecteds and Haunter. But the odd thing about the fox is that it has nine tails.

What the heck is that?

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Uwah! Eun! Is there nothing we can do other than run?!

Ara screamed in her head as she—no, they are getting chased around by unknown beings.

Unfortunately Child, after we are stuck in this nine-tails puppy form we are lacking of strength and power to fight back against these strange creatures.

What are those things anyways?! Most of them looks like humanoid kinda thing but they look gross! Just look at those fleshy-thingy around their bodies! And that purple horrifying ghost?! Uwahh, run fast Eun!

Easy for you to say child. This puppy form lacks so much strength that its hard for me to run properly! And plus I'm the one running while you're in our body screaming frantically and doing nothing else! Besides, whose fault do you think it is that put us in this position in the first place?!

Ehehehe…..I'm sorry…..ehehe….

~Some time ago~

LOCATION: VELDER'S HALLUCINATION

"Ha…ha…."

After a long, hard-fought battle against Joaquin, the El-Gang finally managed to achieve victory and break out of the hallucination spell that Joaquin has casted on them. In the battlefield, most El-gang members were either sitting down on the ground resting or using their weapons to support their weight from collapsing due to exhaustion.

"Good job….guys…..we won…."

The leader of El-gang-Elsword Sieghart, the red-headed knight laid down on the ground while raising his right hand up in the air, giving his team members a thumbs up and complimenting them for completing their mission in getting rid of Joaquin and his mischievous plan.

"Who would've thought…..that Joaquin will have such an elaborate plan…..to stop us from disrupting the demon's invasion plan….hah…"

Sitting on the Destroyer, Chung Seiker took in large deep breaths to help him recover the oxygen he lost from moving around so much in his heavy equipments.

"Well…the most important thing is that …we won…right? Wait a minute…what's that?"

Ara Haan, the female martial artist who was using her spear as a support to stand, noticed something in the middle of the battlefield. A dark El shard fragment was glowing above a sigil on the ground, seemingly to react with it and creating a small dark sphere in the air.

"Careful Ara, you will never know what will happen if you get too close with it."

Another red-headed knight-this time a female one-Elesis Sieghart, sister of Elsword and also the leader of Velder Red Knights, warned Ara as she was getting close to the dark sphere for closer inspection.

"Yeah, I will be careful not to get too close-"

Child! Watch your step!

"Eh?"

Before Ara could react to what Eun said, her left foot step tripped over a rock and she lost balanced, making her stumble forward.

"W-w-w-wah!"

"ARA!"

As she fell forward, her outstretched hand touched the dark sphere, making it burst into dark rays, alarming the entire El-gang to shout for her name. But before she could even register what has happened, her vision was clouded over by darkness.

~Current time~

Sigh, if only you weren't such an airhead child.

I'm sorry….

Ara mentally cried.

Forget it child, for the time being we need to focus on escaping thi-Damn! There's another one in front of us?!

What?!

Looking ahead, Ara saw a hooded figure holding two long guns aiming at their direction.

This is bad! We're trapped-

Before Ara could say anything else, she was cut off by a loud BANG! That came from one of the guns.

E-eh? We're alright?

It seems so, child. Look behind us.

As Eun turn her head around, Ara saw one of those humanoid-mutant-thing fell limp on the ground.

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Shooting down one of the Infected, Phantom rushed past the tiny fox and pulled his shotgun trigger at three of the incoming Infecteds, to which his shotgun responded with sending out a burst of scattered energy bullets at the hostiles and blasting them to pieces instantly.

Seeing another three Infecteds die, the Haunter at the back of the Infecteds sent out a psychic wave to the remaining group of Infecteds, controlling them to focus their target on the most dangerous one first-Phantom. At once, the last ten of these beings who was once humans rushed at the masked silhouette under the command of the Haunter.

Before they could reach Phantom, however, he pulled out a small, octagon orange cuboid—a Pulse Grenade—and pressed a button on it, throwing it into the middle front of the coming Infecteds. Upon contact with one of the torso of Infecteds, the grenade burst into a large sphere vacuum, pulling five of the Infecteds at the front into the vacuum, and then the vacuum explodes into orange particles of energy, incinerating the creatures in the process.

Phantom then quickly switch back to two of his gun and aim at the coming enemies-shotgun to the left and assault rifle to the right-and pulled the triggers simultaneously. Responding to their master's action, the shotgun again sent out a burst of scattered energy ammunitions that blew the some the creatures to pieces, while the energy assault rifle sprays out a rain of mini-lasers that hit each target its master aims with perfect precision, bringing death to the coming hostiles in no time.

In just ten seconds, all Infecteds are brought down to rest for eternity. Knowing that the situation is unfavourable for it, the Haunter shot out a ball of dark energy at Phantom, attempting to distract the masked fighter so that it has time to run. However, Phantom simply sidestepped and allow the ball of energy to explode behind him, before he dashed forward with inhuman speed and reached the front of Haunter in less than one second. Not giving it time to react, Phantom used the butt of his assault rifle to smash the Haunter down to the ground, creating a large dent and cracks on the ground. He then mercilessly brought his shotgun to aim at the Haunter at point-blank range and went for the kill, blasting it to pieces until it couldn't even be recognised as what it is anymore.

With his one of his job done, Phantom pressed a button for each of his weapons, returning them to cuboid devices and kept them away before walking towards the fox.

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W-woah, he is strong!

Indeed. He handled everything professionally. Looks like he is a veteran on the battlefield.

Ara and Eun was amazed by the skills the figure performed. After all, he did clean up a group of enemies by himself within fifteen seconds. However, as they saw him coming towards them, Eun tensed up and stood on a guarding stance.

Eun? What's wrong?

Though he might have saved us, it doesn't mean that he will definitely bring any harm to us. Its best to stay on guard and see what he might do.

E-eh? Really? He seems like a good guy….and he somehow feels a bit…familiar?

What nonsense are you blabbering about child? Never judge a book by its cover. Beside, this person wears a mask and made him look even more suspicious. Here he comes!

As the figure came close enough, he knelt down and inspected the nine-tails fox-which is currently in a puppy form-carefully. Ara used this opportunity and took a good look at their saviour's face, well, mask. A blank white mask with two red eye sockets. Suddenly the figure spoke up.

"Do you understand human language?"

This came as a bit of surprise to Ara and Eun. Normal person doesn't ask any creature or pet-however weird they are- this type of question anywhere in Elrios. So why did he ask so?

"Well, I was about to say you've gone crazy, Master. People doesn't usually ask this question to an animal, you know."

"Don't act dumb as to why I asked this question, Maxwell. While Infecteds usually went after any living beings as their prey, Haunter only goes after those that they are interested in, meaning those have higher soul energy like humans. They typically ignore small animals because they are useless in their perspective. Plus, not only this fox have nine tails, which isn't the case for normal foxes, it has quite a high reading of soul energy in your scan isn't it? All this leads me to think: if supernatural things could happen, then does that mean some myths of old stories-such as the Celestial Nine-tailed Fox-are real? So let me ask you again, do you know human language, foxy? If you understand what I'm asking right now, just nod your head."

The stranger's conversation with that holographic human and his deductions completely made Ara flabbergasted. He managed to figure out that Ara and Eun-though in an innocence puppy form—understands human language. Even though this person isn't sure if they understand humans or not completely, he did manage to guess their identity as the Celestial Spirit. Though, Ara was a human and Eun is the Celestial Spirit, and its just that Ara and Eun's soul merged together, occasionally making some people mistaking them as one and identifying Ara as the Nine-Tailed Fox instead.

Seems like we have no choice but to admit it, Eun.

Sighing mentally, Eun nodded her head in reponse to the masked person's question.

"If that's so, can you speak human language?"

"….Yes."

"Whoa, it speaks?"

"Shut the hell up, Maxwell. You just keep quiet for the time being. If you don't mind, can you answer some question for me, foxy?"

While Maxwell looks surprised, the masked person doesn't even have any signs of being shocked at all. How intriguing.

"Firstly, I have a name and its Eun. Secondly, I won't answer your question unless you introduce yourself."

Isn't that a bit harsh…Eun?

I'm just being alert, that's all. We can't just simply play by his rule while he doesn't even release any information to us. Besides, I'm the one doing talking because not only you're no good around strangers, but you can't even talk in this form as well. So I can speak whatever I have on mind for now while you just keep quiet, child.

Uuuuu….I'm sad that you talk to me like that.

Ara mentally cried again.

"…..you can call me Phantom. Good enough?"

"Fair enough, human. Now what do you want from me?"

"Where did you come from and what is your purpose here?"

Without even wasting a second, Phantom asked direct questions while staring at Eun through the red eye lenses of his mask.

"I was in Velder previously, and thanks to a certain someone who triggered something, I was transported to this place. I'm trying to find my way back to Velder as I ran into those beings and….you."

Phantom pondered a second before he talked again.

"First things first, theirs is no such a place called Velder here."

"Pardon…?"

Eh?

Both Eun and Ara got confused for a second.

"I'm pretty sure the place I came from is called Velder."

Eun replied, staring directly at the Phantom. Phantom inspect a little longer at Eun and spoke up.

"You don't look and sound like you're lying. No matter, the place we're at currently is Restricted Area Code L108, or formally known as Hashima Island. Ever heard of this name before?"

"..No."

"Then my let me ask you one more question, when you said you're trying to find your way back to this place called Velder, do you mean you're trying to go to the room on the right, down the corridor where there is a source of energy?"

"…That is correct. I sensed a familiar energy and I intended to check it out to find a way back."

"Very well. Then you might have to follow me as my objective was to check out what is in that room as well."

Without saying another word, Phantom just stood up and turned around, expecting Eun to follow him as he continued his way to Lab Room R158. This action, however, irritates Eun a little.

This human….acting all bossy just because he saved us and know our objectives….and now he's trying to order us around?

Now now, Eun, calm down. I'm sure he's only trying to help us too.

Ara attempted to calm down Eun but to no avail as Eun is still irritated as she stormed behind Phantom.

"Human, early you said this is a restricted area, so why are you here? Isn't it wrong for you to be here?"

"Actually, I have the rights to be here. All I can tell you is that I'm trying to find something. That's all."

"Find wh-"

"We're here."

Phantom abruptly cut off Eun as they arrived at the destination, which fuels Eun's irritation more.

I swear this imbecile gets on my nerve.

Ahaha…calm down Eun…

Ara could only mentally sweatdrop.

As they enter the lab room, one particular object in the middle of the room caught their attention. In Phantom's perspective, there was a familiar crystal of some sort-he swore he has seen it somewhere before-levitating in the middle of the room, surrounded by a dark sphere and has sigils engraved on the floor below.

Aha! We've found it Eun! Now we can go home!

Indeed child.

"Scanning target, energy level showed similar result to a Spawner, or in other words, portals that Haunter used to travel through different dimensions. However, Master, there's a twist to this thing." Maxwell reported as soon as he finished scanning the object in front of them.

"A twist?" Phantom questioned.

"Yes, if you would look at this-" Maxwell swiped across the air with both of his hand and summoned out holographic screens in front of Phantom.

"This object, though has similar energy level to a Spawner, contains a much more intense and purer substance that a Spawner does not have. Besides, it also contains slipstream space or in short, slipspace properties."

"Slipspace…? This is weird. If this is not a Spawner…what is it?"

"Its called a Dark El Shard human. In this case, this is a pure Dark El Shard and is different from impure ones. We do not know how or why it creates a portal that transports us here, but I'm pretty sure if we touch that and activate it again, it should be able to get us home." Eun explained to Phantom even though he still irritates her a little.

"We…? Us…?" Phantom was confused a little as to why Eun said that.

Eun at first wasn't going to explain the condition of merging of her soul and Ara's. But now that she accidentally let her tongue slip out hints about it, she tried to avoid the question.

"Uh, ignore it. Its none of your concern."

"I will because I just heard you said something else just now. Did I really just hear you saying that thing over there is an El Shard?"

"Yes I did…but why?"

Now Phantom is surprised.

"No way…it couldn't be..!"

Upon seeing Phantom's shocked expression, Maxwell asked, "Is something wrong master?"

Ignoring the question, Phantom ordered Maxwell to scan for residue information left in any of the devices in the lab. Maxwell only shrugged and complied, and results were produced very soon.

"Found one folder. Here Master."

Reading the information on the holographic screen projected in the air, Phantom's facial expression behind his mask turned into that of utter shock.

"No…they found a way back to that place…?! More importantly they are not eliminated completey?!"

"While I'm sure that you're shocked because this information connects back to that certain case….I would like to ask that should we stop that fox?"

Turning his head and looking at the direction Maxwell pointed, Eun was already standing very close to the dark sphere, reaching out her paws to touch the dark sphere. Before Phantom could react, the sphere released rays of darkness that covered the entire room. After a while, the darkness dissipates, but no one was in that room any longer. However, on one of the screens that Maxwell hacked through for information just now, there was a particular paragraph that was presented on the screen.

'On 30 of December 2156, we managed to find an escape route by referring to the expedition case to the unknown solar system on the year 2146. That expedition only happened because of the Slipstream Space gateway that suddenly appeared near Earth, but disappeared 4 weeks after the expedition team ended came back to Earth due to an accident. We did research into this gateway in attempt to find an escape route from the United Nations Esper Council (UNEC), and our hard work finally produced the results we wanted. We managed to secretly open back the gateway that the expedition team used years ago, and now we're headed over to that place to build up our organization again. That planet-according to the UNEC, is code-named Elrios.'

That's the end of first chappie! For some reason when I used my phone to check fanfic website doesn't allow me to use the star above the number for line break, so i had to use x instead. Also, my phone couldn't register some lines that i highlighted as italic. Is that just my phone or what? Lemme know if some of you can't see some lines in Italics. Thanks!