John took his crew over to the Ark Ruins, but he didn't find Esther anywhere.

And so he decided to back to the Shopping Complex and wait for Fujiwara Rei to arrive.

As he was worries about those assassins, shinobis of the Fujiwara clan, he remained by Saito's side to protect him from any danger.

...

John, Peri, Forge and Saito were walking at the Shopping Complex when suddenly the world seemed to stop right before John's eyes.

"What the..." John was shocked and immediately reached for the rifle on his back and entered in defensive.

Without him even having the chance to take in the changes that occurred out of nowhere, the world around him fastly started to turn dark like an all consuming void.

In less than a few seconds John was surrounded by complete darkness.

[What's happening?] John worriedly thought as he tried to move his body, but he soon realized it was impossible, [Is this afterlife? Have I died?]

"Not yet."

As he was questioning what was happening, John heard a voice coming directly from his head seemingly answering his question.

"Would you look at this?"

The voice spoke again before John could recover from the shock.

"Let me take a look at your hand." The voice echoed, "Come on, don't be shy...oh, I forgot you can't move..."

Suddenly, John's arm started move like it was possessed by something.

Despite John trying hardest to resist the unknown feeling of something controlling his body, his right hand still extended towards the empty darkness ahead of him.

There was a few seconds of silence before the voice echoed inside his mind once again, "I have never seen this mark before...this isn't one of ours, not at all." The voice curiously commented as the person behind it scanned John's body.

John tried to move or speak, but he was completely frozen in place, unable to move a single muscle.

"Young man, what are you?" The voice asked when it finished scanning John's body, "You appear to be a simple human, but at the same time...not? I'm confused. Very confused. This shouldn't exist here...are you an outsider? Or perhaps the son of one?"

As it seemed to give up in pondering deeply, the voice chuckled and stopped asking questions.

"You might be curious about who I am, but it's not time for you to know it yet." The voice said as it approached John.

From the complete darkness in front of him, John saw a person appearing out of nowhere wearing a single purple cloak that covered its entire body.

John could only see the red gleam coming from those two red eyes behind the hood that hid its face.

"When the time comes, I'll come find you. Until then, continue with your task, John Connor. The road ahead of you is still long and ardous. When you have collected the 6 artifacts is when we'll meet again at the Ark Ruins."

With those mysterious words, the person disappeared right in front of John's eyes.

Along with the disappearance of person, John returned to where he was right at the shopping complex.

"John?" John blinked his eyes and he realized he was finally able to move. He looked at his side, the source of the voice that called him, and saw Peri worriedly staring at him, "What happened? You suddenly stopped walking and just stared I'm nothingness..."

"We're worried about you." Forge also spoke at the moment. She was simply occupied in taking care of Saito and entertaining him and almost didn't speak with the others.

"I'm fine, just...I don't know..." John put his hand over his head and shook it. He was feeling slightly light-headed and a faint pain in his hand, "I think I'm still tired, I don't know." John decided to not comment what just happened to not make Forge and Peri worried about his well-being.

"You should rest at the hotel. Me and Forge can take care of Saito's matter." Peri suggested.

"No, I want to meet with the clan's young master. More specifically, I want to meet with the person that ordered those shinobis to retreat, I think I heard them calling the person Aoi. It might be an acquaintance from the University."

John was about to say something else when he received a message in his PIPS.

It was that Hylotl that stopped the assassins. The message simply said that the young master has arrived and was waiting for them in a restaurant not very far from where they were.

"Let's move, he arrived."

John said that and appeared to have returned to normal, but inside his head, he was brewing with questions over what that man talked about, [What did he mean when he spoke about outsider? Who's he? What does he want from me?]

And so the group set off towards the meeting place while John's mind was shrouded in doubts and questions about his existence.

...

At a dark corner in the Ark Ruins, a figure clad in purple robe could be seen silently staring at a giant bluish stone monument that had 6 distinct holes.

His red eyes gleamed with a mysterious light as he contemplate about John.

"This is weird..." The man said with his ethereal voice. He was clearly confused about John's origin, "Cultivator said to us that the one destined to destroy the Ruin was his descendent, but...John doesn't have anything to do with him..."

He extended his arm and from beneath the long robe, a grayish hand appeared and softly touched the monument.

"Maybe it's not him..." The man thought out loud, "I'm confused, very confused..."

His finger touched one of the holes, "He already have one artifact...well, i can just not think about it and wait for when he collect all six artifacts. It will be in that moment I'll see if he have any relation with the Cultivator."

As far as he know, he couldn't find the descendent that the Cultivator spoke even when he used all his power.

He couldn't find not because it was hidden or it not existed, but because there was way too many descendents of the Cultivator in this dimension, but all of them belonged to the same race...

That's why he was surprised to find that it was a Human that was collecting the artifacts, but after scanning inch by inch of John's body, he came up with the conclusion he was not a descendent.

But he found something interesting in John's body.

It was clear that he wasn't completely Human, not at least a pure blood Human of this part of the universe.

A mystery as to how John had a blood from outsiders was something that intrigued the man.

The man stood by the stone for a few more moments before sighing and disappearing from the spot at a split second.