Jackal was going through a forest. The man had his hands in the pockets in his coat. Even if he had some fur growing on him, as well as a set of thick clothes, the cold was mercilessly piercing. The weather wasn't looking good, but he couldn't go back.
 
The traveler looked at the sky. It was completely grey, covered with dark clouds. He could recognize that they were normal, unaltered. The forecast that he heard today was true. And because of that, he started to move quicker.
 
As he started to look around the forest once again, he made sure to correct his hood, so his eyes would be obscured. However, he still wanted to be certain that his vision would be unobstructed by the fabric.
 
Jackal noticed that a mutated animal was going through the forest and was not that far from him. He heard that some animals evolved to be sentient like him. Others tried to force more animals to such a state, but instead, they created abominations.
 
The creature roared as to scare off the visitor, but the man could clearly hear that the entity was in pain. The traveler in a coat pulled out his revolver, pointing at the four-legged monster. As soon as it saw the gesture, it started to run away.
 
Jackal sighed when he scared the thing away, then quickly hid his weapon. He realized that he should keep going, but at an even quicker pace. These woods were dangerous, but the more problems on the road, the bigger the payment.
 
Fast enough, he saw a shack that was built into a gigantic tree. The tree itself looked old and quite sickly, but the man knew it was just a harmless mutation. He got to the door and knocked at it four times.
 
"Password?" the female voice asked from behind the door.
 
"Eh…," the man sighed. "The last battle repeats in the cycle."
 
Jackal heard the door unlocking. He opened the door and noticed that a woman, who was also a jackal, was sitting behind the table. Near her, there were more jackals, dressed in modern plate armors. The traveler recognized the warriors, but didn't comment on that.
 
"Welcome, Mallet," the woman said loudly. "Glad to see you're still around."

"It's not easy to put me down," Mallet replied in an indifferent tone. "I thought you knew that already, Miss Gransk."
 
"Details… The road was pleasant?"
 
"If you consider meeting a group of peelers and going through the field of increased gravity then sure, it was pleasant."
 
"You don't have to be this sarcastic."
 
"Better to be sarcastic than despair and drown in sorrow." The man shrugged. "Especially if the world is going to end relatively soon."
 
"And what makes you say that?" the lady asked.
 
"I think we've discussed that the last time we've met. You said that the items I find may help with stopping the threat, but I don't see any progress towards doing that."
 
"Because I need the full collection. And there's only one item I need to fulfill my goal. I assume that you have it?"
 
Mallet reached to the insides of his coat. After a longer moment, he grabbed the item and put it on the table. It had the shape of an orb which was seemingly made out of silver, but there were hundreds of silk threads coming out of it.
 
"You actually did it…," the woman was shocked.
 
"It wasn't as hard as you've believed," the traveler chuckled. "You just have to know where to look."
 
"And here's your reward…," the lady put the platinum spearhead on the table, which caused both of them to switch items.
 
"Pleasure doing business with you."
 
"Well, you've helped me preserve this world for at least a bit. I won't forget that."
 
"If that's all then I should get going."
 
"My guests would like to talk to you." The woman stood up from the chair.
 
"Of course…," Mallet sighed.
 
"I think you'll have an interesting conversation."
 
Miss Gransk left the shack by the side entrance. As she wasn't present inside that building, the knights got closer to the traveler. Their weapons were sheathed, but they had their hands on them, in case of a fight.
 
"What do you want from me?" Mallet asked harshly.
 
"We know who you are, Ranat," the shortest knight with a female voice stated.
 
"You didn't answer my question."
 
"I've heard you survived, but… I couldn't believe this."
 
"I didn't plan on surviving," the man said with a sad tone. "But I got used to being an outcast."
 
"You could always return to our order," the woman responded with a warmer tone. "You knew that anyone surviving the fall is worthy of being a guardian once more."
 
"Remember the words during our last meeting, Arayas?"
 
"That you want to protect our Plateau."
 
"And I still do. The Guard was supposed to defend Plateau, but we wouldn't defeat this plague alone. That's why I didn't return, got in contact with that noble woman who had a plan to stop it and collected the artifacts for her."
 
"But now, I'll have to apprehend you", Arayas said with a serious tone.
 
"Spare me this bullshit, Ara," Ranat replied harshly. "You know that I'll get executed."
 
"I'll try to get you a lighter punishment. Since we haven't heard you killing one of ours, the elders should look at you more favorably."
 
"Can you guarantee this to me? No, you can't. Even if we had a history together, I have to stay out of Plateau. I'm sorry."
 
"You know that you won't leave on your own legs?"
 
"We had to maintain order, but the guards were only caring about the Plateau. The plague would eventually get there too. It's not maintaining order. It's allowing chaos to erupt because of ignorance. I can't go with you. Farewell, Arayas."
 
One of the knights wanted to grab Ranat, but he grabbed the armored man's arm instead and threw him on the wall without any effort. The rest grabbed their weapons, seeing what their former colleague had done.
 
Second knight wanted to make a slash, but the traveler deflected the blow with his reinforced forearm. He then disarmed the attacker and he used a newly grabbed sword to stun the nearby Plateau guards.
 
The jackal threw the weapon on the ground and sprinted out of the shack. He had to get as far as possible. He did a lot of things to help this world and didn't want to be put down because of his former codex. He had a new one, better in his opinion. And he wanted to keep on helping others.