The room was silent. The question echoed in everyone''s heads, but nobody seemed to know or want to answer.


    The woman in the front watched all of them with both curiosity and annoyance. Her long, brown dress resembling tree bark, and as she took one step closer, it moved unnaturally, like it was part of her.


    "Where is Seraphine? I won''t ask again."


    The threat was obvious to everyone. The soldiers tensed a bit, and some raised their weapons, which caused all the nine newcomers to summon weapons too.


    The tall, older white-haired man coalesced into a long sword by cooling down the surrounding air.


    The blue-haired woman summoned a trident, which had lightning zapping over it. The man next to her held a spear, which seemed to be made of water.


    Two of them had weapons already drawn. The pale woman changed positions and leaned on her wicked scythe, while the cyborg next to her whirled his blue energy sword.


    The tall man with his hellish armor summoned a halberd out of crimson flames, while the woman next to him fashioned a rapier out of shadows.


    The white-haired girl had disappeared somewhere, but nobody noticed her absence.


    The greenish woman in the front held her hand to the side, and the right sleeve of her brown dress elongated. It grew into a long sword, made of wood.


    She pointed it towards the metal ground, and it easily passed through it, proving that it wasn''t, in fact, made of regular wood.


    Lee, the head of security, stepped forward and tried to calm the situation.


    "Our Lady is not available, but her close friend would like to have a few words with you and explain the situation on Earth."


    He was the only one without a weapon, which gave him a bit of an edge in the conversation, but the newcomers weren''t that interested in talking.


    "Where is she?" demanded the shadowy woman from the back.


    Her face held pure annoyance and anger, causing the shadows around the room to turn darker and deeper.


    "I don''t know. My rank is too low, and it''s sensitive information. But I''m sure you could ask our Lady''s second in command, and he would tell you..." Before Lee could''ve said anything else, another person cut in.


    The white-haired man took one step forward too, his face consumed in rage.


    "Where is Harold?" said the man through gritted teeth.


    "I don''t know who that is." said Lee in confusion, but the white-haired man seemed to have had enough.


    He was about to storm out of the room, but a few soldiers stood in his way, stopping him.


    "Do you wish to die?" asked the man with a deep, angry growl.


    Lee held up his hands while looking at his soldiers with annoyance.


    "We do not wish to fight, but we also can''t let you leave yet. Please, just talk to Bran and he will explain everything."


    Lee sounded desperate. Things weren''t going as they were supposed to and it was only getting worse.


    "You won''t let us? I''d like to see you try!" said the pale woman, while changing into a more aggressive position.


    As he was talking without notice everyone inside the room teleported a few hundred meters above the facility. They stood in the middle of the hippogryph nests.


    The soldiers, scientist and Brian looked around with wonder, while the nine newcomers cringed from the sudden assault of light.


    They spent two years in semi-darkness, causing their eyes to hurt from the sun. They also shivered as the sun''s warmth hit their skin, and each breathed in the warm air coming from the sea.


    All around them, confused and scared screeching and chirping echoed. But they all turned silent when two enormous shadows moved across the sky.


    The largest of the hippogryphs landed with grace. His whitish-gold feathers looked divine as always, their ends still on fire.


    Next to him was a smaller, but still huge, hippogryph female. She looked regal too, her feathers brown, like tree bark, with green eyes that scanned the newcomers.


    Her eyes stopped on the brown-haired woman, and they both teared up a bit. They ran towards each other, and the woman hugged Alyrine, the Hippogryph Queen''s head.


    Next to them, Kastral screeched with joy and walked to the white-haired girl. She giggled and petted the snout of the enormous beast.


    Mary and Collins looked at one another in confusion. The soldiers felt similar emotions; they did not know what to expect or do.


    Lee was the calmest of everybody. He just stood there, waiting for what would happen next.


    They stood there for a few endless minutes in pure silence. Even the screeching of the hippogryphs turned quiet as they waited for what would happen next.


    While everyone was on edge, the newcomers seemed to be bored, and after a while, they had enough of waiting. The tall, white-haired man stepped forward and placed a hand on their leader''s shoulder.


    Alyrine growled in annoyance, but the man didn''t care.


    "Bea, what do we do next?"


    The woman named Bea looked away from the enormous beast with a brittle grin. She was both happy and sad, like she received a mix of good and bad news.


    "We will talk to that Bran guy, of course! Alyrine said that he knew the most about the world''s and Sera''s situation!"


    Hearing this, the soldiers and scientists looked at each other in amazement. It was one thing to communicate with a hippogryph through body-language, but to talk to one...


    They only knew one person who could do such a thing, and that was their Lady!


    "And where do we have to go to meet this guy?" asked the tall, hellish knight in a deep, scratchy voice.


    Bea just smiled, while climbing atop Alyrine''s back... "Nowhere, he will come to us. Now is you''ll excuse me, I have 2 years of flying to catch up on!"


    And with that, the Queen of Hippogryphs kick away from the ground and flew into the air. Her speed increased until it reached the speed of sound.


    Down on the ground, even the newcomers were surprised by this action, and they looked at one another with uncertainty.


    Mary was still staring towards the sky when she felt a small pull on her lab coat. Looking down, she saw the white-haired girl stare up with excitement.


    "Excuse me lady, do you have snacks? I lived on monster meat for the past two years and would like to have some!"


    "Oh, I support that idea!" said the pale-skinned woman with a large, wicked grin.


    In the end, they all went back into the research facility, where they went straight for the recreational rooms.