Advent of Cataclysm.

"Infernus," Kai whispered, waving his hand to the side, expecting at least a small fart of flames from his charred palms like before.

"Fuck!" Shin snapped as soon as he heard the word, coming to a sudden halt and spinning in his seat and then drawing a hidden blade from his person and pointing it at Kai.

Similarly, Rai who was following Shin as he usually would pulled up with his hand-cannon aimed at Kai, and then Tami's eagle began slowly flying circles around them while she had her sword of energy drawn, baring her teeth and ready to pounce at a moment's notice. 

"What do you think you're doing?" Shin slowly drew closer, pressing the blade against Kai's chest. "Are you stupid?" 

"I was curious," Kai answered stoically, not even sparing the man a glance as he stared at his hand, nothing had happened, Infernus was a dud this time, even though it had made fire appear out of thin air and cover a radius as large as a house. "What did I do wrong?" He wondered aloud. 

"Maybe it's a better idea to simply drop him now and deal with whatever comes later by ourselves," Rai suggested, watching Shin lower his blade with a sigh of relief, showing no hostility. 

"No, again, Madarin and the Shadow seem to believe he has some purpose, we need to keep him alive, at least until we know what that purpose is." Shin argued Kai's fate with his friend and turned in his seat again. "Don't utter that word near me again, if it had worked you'd have probably ended up killing the three of us." He warned Kai. 

"The three of us?" Kai asked, surprised. "I only meant to make a small flame..." 

"It doesn't work like that, so don't risk it." 

"Is it magic?" Kai asked, staring at his hands. "It feels like magic..." 

"Magic doesn't exist, does the world seem like a fairytale to you?" Shin huffed in annoyance. 

"Your friend is riding a giant eagle..." Ava commented. 

"All within the scope of the Cloud's science, it's just a big bird, nothing magical about it." 

"I can walk on walls... that feels like magic to me." Kai commented again.

"You can?" Shin seemed surprised at this confession. "Has Tenzo been sharing its power with you?" 

"Aside from inf... that flame, he has never done anything before, everything I've done has been on my own," Kai answered. "I'm strong enough to throw a whole car, I can run up to sixty miles an hour, and I can react much faster, the other day I was able to dodge a bullet." He listed what he was capable of. 

"Is that all?" Shin asked, unimpressed by what he had just heard. "I thought you were gonna say you have horns and a tail too." 

"I'm not a demon." 

"You aren't a demon, you're a devil." Shin corrected him. "Well, maybe not that either, but whatever you are it sure as hell ain't human." 

"He is human." Ava rebutted immediately. "Just as much as you and I are." 

"I am not human either," Shin scoffed. "I am a Vessel of another era." 

"What does that even mean?" Kai scrunched his nose, somehow he could tell that the current world had nothing to do with this man that was calling himself a vessel. 

"Before the Red One and the end of the modern world, there was the Great Dragon and the Wolf, Shinra and Madarin, I am Madarin's vessel, believe it or not, I have saved the world once before," Shin smirked when he heard a slight gasp behind him. "You're welcome-"

"Some good saving everyone did, the world was still fucked up." Kai scoffed. 

"It will always be fucked up," Shin replied with his shoulders stiff in annoyance again, rolling his eyes and keeping his attention on the invisible path before him. "People are fucked up in the worst ways." 

"Then maybe people need to go extinct, maybe what we need to do is hit the reset button and start anew." Kai mumbled. "As things stand, I don't see a society worth saving, they can all die." 

"This brat is the Vessel you chose?" Madarin asked Tenzo. "He is rotten in the mind, why not choose one of the other two?" 

"His personality ensures his survival, that fact may not stand true for the others, besides; we are the same in that ideology, humans, earth, it could do well if the current population was entirely purged," Tenzo answered without hesitation, and the Wolf thereafter remained silent, choosing not to argue with the Shadow.

"If you want to live past today, you should refrain from saying things like that," Shin remained focused on his path while he spoke slowly. "Your survival hinges on my willingness to stick my neck out and protect you, literally everyone else wants you dead, understand?" He asked, but recieved no reply. 

"Kai, do you understand the position you're in?" Shin asked again, slowing down to a halt above the rippling oceans. 

"He heard you," Ava answered in Kai's stead. 

"I was speaking to your boyfriend, not you." Shin turned to stare at them, but what he found was Kai slightly smiling, an uncanny smile that left goosebumps down his arms. 

"Do you want me to conform to your society and obey your rules under the threat that failing to do so will lead to my death?" Kai asked, staring at the man. "You have no idea the kind of person I am." 

"I know exactly the kind of person you are, kid, it's like looking into a mirror, jeez," Shin shook his head and held a finger to the back of his ear. "Yui, we're set for retrieval." 

"Why are you speaking to him so casually?" Ava whispered in Kai's ear. "I thought you hated his guts after what happened that day-"

"He can hear you." Kai answered firstly. "And casual conversation between enemies is common, I don't need to like someone to speak to them." 

"Enemies, hm?" Shin looked around again just as they were all beset by a bright light that seemed to be coming from every direction in the moonlit sky. "What a bitter word coming from the mouth of the person I just saved and plan on taking in against what is clearly my better judgement."

"Tch," Kai glared. "You will never be an ally of mine." 

"We'll see about that," Shin smiled as everything around them turned to white. 

"Whoa..." Andrew whispered, standing next to Rai and looking around. "Are we in-" 

"The cloud?" Rai asked, nodding in confirmation while he did so. "That's right," He gestured to the large white room they had all been teleported to. "This is a waiting area."

"Obviously, I doubt we'd be left to just roam the streets as we please, they might never let us out." Kai with his usual scepticism spoke up, holding Ava's hand and looking at Shin warily. "I only agreed to come here because we didn't have much of a choice."

"Much?" Tami chuckled, dismounting her eagle with Fritz and shaking her head. "Kid, you had no choice at all, you'd be dead if we hadn't rushed over, that is a fact." 

"Well nobody asked you," Kai clicked his tongue. "Would you mind keeping this one away from me, I'm not fond of people's pets." 

"The nerve of this little, I could break your little arms and-"

"Tami, stand down," Shin stood between her and Kai. 

"I say it now and I will say it as many times as it takes to get it through to babe, this boy is trouble, we should get rid of him while we still can." 

"I will not allow it." Maderin and Tenzo spoke at the same time causing both Kai and Shin to glance at each other. 

"Not happening, unless you want to deal with our hosts," Shin shook his head, and gestured that she leave the room. "I will handle their affairs, whatever Kai Mora becomes is my burden to bare alone." 

"You're not responsible for me, don't get confused about what we are," Kai glared, clearly uncomfortable but also aware that he had no choice anymore, this was the Cloud, the nation over the waters of the Pacific, even if he managed to escape this room he still needed to find a way back to the surface as more than a corpse. 

"No actually," Tami stared at Kai once more. "You are his responsibility, Shin stuck his neck out for you, he put his rank, his citizenship and his life on the line to make this happen, so I am warning you, Kai Mora." Tami pushed past shin and stood before him while Ava stood between her and Kai. 

"If you make Shin suffer because of your selfishness, not even the Guardian and that damned Shadow will be able to save you from me. 

"As if-" 

"Oh no, Tami is many times stronger than you are, she can take your head without you even realising it." Rai intervened, taking the fuming woman by her shoulders and guiding her away from Ava who had defiantly stood before her. 

"Anyways," Shin gestured to one wall of the large white room, just as a door opened up in it. "Your lives in the Cloud begin beyond that door, we don't prioritize civilians so you'll be earning your stay here by working under my hand; I got the three..." He paused again and stared at Fritz weirdly. "I'll get the four of you some proper immunity so do as you're told." He instructed them. 

"Welcome to the Cloud Nation."