In the depths of the Sunken Necropolis a small spatial tear appeared in the dungeon, then it slowly grew in size until it was large enough for an adult to walk through.

A man stepped out, he was nude from top to bottom. His silver eyes glistened in the dim light of the carven, a small smile played at his lips and he inhaled deeply with a satisfied expression.

"I have returned." He said.

Behind him another figure stepped out , unlike him this figure’s body was made purely of darkness but it had a feminine build. The place where the eyes were supposed to be were two glowing orbs that burned like the sun.

"I smell death in this place." The entity spoke slowly.

The man simply stared into the distance and chose not to answer, his eyes then scanned the necropolis and already the dungeon had repaired itself to its former state. No sogns of battle were present, but to beings like them the smell of death was so strong it even overpowered the scent of mana.

"Where is this human who is capable of wielding the rot?" The entity asked turning its head slightly toward him.

The man shrugged, "Out there, slowly ripening ready to be harvested." he spoke with a dark smile.

"But first I must announce my return,"

As soon as those words left his mouth ash began to fall inside the necropolis, the dungeon began to shake and the purple portal was rapidly shifting to crimson. If it turned completely red it would seal permanently. It had already begun to crystallize at the edges.

From the falling ashes rose the ash fiends, the demons the Ghost Of Valor had once used to crush the combined forces of the sanctuary’s biggest guilds.

Countless fiends rose from the ashes surrounding the two entities, the spatial tear had long closed and in his eyes something moved that would have made any onlookers skin tremble.

"The Wanderer at the end has returned to turn this world to ash. And return everything to its original state." The man spoke in soft voice.

The entity beside him scoffed and stretched its hands.

"You know the torment that awaits you should you fail to bring this world to its knees?"

The Wanderer turned to her and smiled a dark unsettling smile.

"When have I ever failed? Sit back and watch as I finish off what I had started." He responded, then he reached out an open palm over the ashes.

"Rise Elena Rostova, rise from the ashes."

The moment he finished speaking a small wind picked up where his open hand had reached out. Unlike how the ash fiends rose from ashes, this time the ashes rose and beneath them a silhouette could be seen.

And when the wind settled the ashes fell to the ground revealing a young woman who was probably in her early twenties, with bright blonde hair tied in a strict braid. She wore the pristine white and gold robes of an A Rank Elemental Mage. But her eyes were pitch black, and if one looked closely they could see the amount of demented frenzy hidden in their depths.

"Go, announce my arrival. Destroy everything you see." The wanderer instructed the demented young woman.

Without a reply she turned towards the now fully crystallised red gate and began walking towards it with the countless ash fiends trailing behind her.

"Do you think it’s wise to let them know you are coming?" The entity asked, its twin orbs of burning light locked onto Elena’s departing figure.

"The objective is to spread fear and reopen old wounds, soon this sanctuary will be filled with pain and despair... and then I shall lay waste to all their suffering."

The entity turned to loook at him briefly before dossolving into shadows, "I will be watching you."

"Then watch me well." With that the Wanderer also dissolved into shadows.

With the Wanderer’s return the city was bound to fall into chaos.Pretty soon the whole city will be turned onto a war zone, and the number of casualties will be ridiculously high.

...

The Johannesburg Gate Hub was a massive circular structure built directly over a localized spatial fracture. It was the primary deployment center for all official guild operations in the city. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The interior looked like a high tech military airport. Heavily armed guards patrolled the perimeter while logistics teams loaded crates of monster cores onto armored transport trucks. In the center of the facility dozens of glowing portals shimmered in the air ranging in color from dull green to bright crimson.

After the destruction that had taken place three months ago the place had already been built back up and it looked no different than it was three months ago. By the primary clearance desk, the officer behind the reinforced glass looked bored. He was the same man that Glen and his companions had met back after they had received their independent licences.

Currently the man had seen fewer faces these past months, mainly because most hunters had already relocated to the nearest sanctuaries after the battle with the Ghost Of Valor.

The media had tried to cover it up so that the general population can remain in the dark but the hunters knew that the Association’s cover story was false and they even had suspicions about the real incident that had happened.

So now he had way more free time than before.

Just then the temperature suddenly plummeted and as if on cue the alarms broke out.

His eyes instinctively turned to Gate Four.

The portal was no longer a swirling vortex of dark purple energy. It had solidified into a jagged crystalline structure glowing with a terrifying blood red light. The spatial fracture was completely sealed.

"Red Gate" the clearance officer screamed from behind his reinforced glass booth slamming his fist onto the emergency lockdown button. "Gate Four has mutated! We have a rank S spatial anomaly! Evacuate the civilian personnel!" The officer screamed the same words exactly as he had done three months ago.

Soon after heavily armed Association guards rushed into the room forming a defensive perimeter around the glowing red portal. They raised their mana rifles their bodies trembling with fear.They remembered what happened the last time there was a Red Gate incident. The whole city had suffered and from the same gate trouble came knocking.

For a minute or so nothing happened, some guards slowly breathed out their nervousness slowly receding. But in the next moment that hope was shattered, the crystallised gate opened and a young woman with bright blonde hair tied in a strict braid stepped out. She wore the pristine white and gold robes of an A Rank Elemental Mage.

Many of the guards recognized her.

"Miss Elena?" A frightened guard asked.

The young woman turned to his direction then gave him a breathtaking smile, "Try again."

With that the ash fiends began pouring out of the red gate behind her.