The wind blew in a high velocity, as if the nature itself didn’t want to be engulfed by the dark mist of the abyss. I also prefered it best if they removed the Abyss influence by themselves, without me having to take any actions. But it would be begging too much. I knew that they wouldn’t stop once they gone this far.

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the incoming battle.

However, a complete opposite to our tense stances, the Apostle looked at us with an effortless smile.

"I know you will understand me, Tizmilly," said Jahreon, extending his hand toward her. "We are the same. They betrayed us. The society betrayed us, labelling me, and you, over something we didn’t do!"

Tizmilly didn’t say anything. However, her eyebrows knitted together lightly as he continued.

"Don’t you think this world... those people need to be punished? By something bare, cruel, fair, and universal. From a race superior than us. Our former rulers—the Demons!"

While kept watching these cultist’s movements, I glanced at Tizmilly profile. The frown deepened.

’Don’t tell me...’

I would never forget it. The real reason why Tizmilly fell into evil.

It was nothing but originated from her base personality. If simplified, Tizmilly was like a sponge. She absorbed everything from everyone she lived with, believed in, or even loved.

In the game, it was because she met a twisted junior in the Game. Watching Jahreon invited Tizmilly made me afraid that she would be influenced by him. After all, they indeed shared a similar lore. An evil born from betrayed kindness/justice.

I wanted to interrupt his monologue, but Tizmilly was faster.

"Save your nonsense for yourself, please," Tizmilly retorted, showing a disgusted face. "We might have similiar falling moment, if what you said is true. But don’t think that our mind are also the same."

Jahreon paused, his face shifting from surprise to something dark.

"Fine," he muttered, pulling a cold smirk. "Then I guess you shall not survive this day."

He opened his hands wide, summoning a massive magic circle above our heads. It started sucking Dark Mana the moment it appeared.

Ominous feeling raising inside us when we looked at it.

"He was trying to summon a Demon from the Abyss!" I yelled, informing Tizmilly about the situation, before launching myself toward the nearest cultist.

With Levitation on me, I rocketed straight toward the robed man, my spear aimed at his throat. In my calculation, I was already moved fast enough to end him perfectly just with this thrust.

But then he grabbed my spear with his bare hand. His palm was sliced and bled as the result, but he managed to stop my attack, a grin was formed on his face when he looked up at me with his overly wide eyes.

"For the Lord!" He shouted as he swung his sword at me from above.

’He’s fast!’

I quickly twirled my body and kicked the man’s chest. The kick made his grasp loose, freeing my spear, which I used as the chance to avoid the swing. However, I couldn’t react fast enough and was get a shallow cut on my left upper arm.

I clicked my tongue when the pain hit.

"Man, that hurt..." I cursed while checking the cut. Fortunately, it was far from fatal. It would only made my arm stings for days, which already bad enough.

"Mr. Roost!" Tizmilly called out while she was facing three cultists, swinging Waveblade and throwing Rose Bombs around to restraint and avoid their movements and attacks.

I flashed a thumb-up to tell her that I was okay. Only pissed off a little, not much.

Joining the previous cultist, another one confronted me. Judging from the distribution of their manpower, they were clearly thought that Tizmilly was more dangerous than me. A great judgement, since she was the top student of the Academy.

But they underestimated me too much.

One of the cultist spinned his morning star before he swing it horizontally. His attack, just like his comrade, was fast and heavy.

However, I countered it, and returned the attack to him by stepped forward and grabbing the chain, swinging it back to its user’s face.

He evaded it, of course, but he seemed angry because of that. His comrade ran toward me at that moment, his sword ready to cleave me apart. I recoiled from his range of attack, and shot the cultist with morning star square on the head with my Gemgun.

The shoot managed to shattered his nose, but not enough to kill him, as it seems.

"Tough type, huh? But I doubt you will be as resilient as him!" I muttered as I pointed the barrel at him again.

The cultist with sword came again then, but I side-stepped his swing and hammered him on his back with my spear and its 1.5 meter freshly made boulder, smashing him to the ground. I then aimed the gun at him, and pressed the trigger, shooting his head three times. Thuunng! Thuunng! Thuung! The suppressed high-pitched sound echoed through the garden. Once I stopped, the cultist had already breathed his last.

Watching his comrade die seemed to anger the Morning star cultist. "Die, you sinner!" He roared, raising his weapon and started to swinging around brutally, yet aimlessly.

I backed off, creating a distance between us, my gun already aimed at his head. I noticed now, that they were actually enhanced humans. They were like Tratbone, that half-demon, but cheaper and weaker.

They were known as Demonic Human. People who was feeding of Demon’s dark mana so long that their body had begun to change. One of the most dangerous force of the Abyssal New Gate.

However, I failed to ends him there. Because a dark magic orb flown from Jahreon toward me, forcing me to evade it.

"You... Who are you?" Jahreon yelled while continued perfecting his summoning spell.

"Curious? Haha, well, guess the answer!" I yelled back.

And he kept throwing more. Two more, five more, and ten more. I was forced to run around the place as the result. Whenever his dark mana orbs landed on the ground, it exploded, unleashing deadly miasma that instantly made the flowers lost their colors and wilted. If landed on living beings, its effect was like a curse. From minor physical disimprovement, to life span decrease, anything.

The Morning star cultist continued to chase me, his weapon destroying everything, barely different from a buldozer in my eyes.

I focused on fleeing for now.

My eyes scanned the surrounding. Then I finally could see her again.

Tizmilly currently was on an intense battle against three cultists. From now, she still looked uninjured. But I knew that she wouldn’t be able to defeat them even with Waveblade.

She hadn’t mastered Waveblade yet, so she mostly used it as a regular sword other than occasionally using it to throw a water blade toward her opponents.

Because of the cultists were swift after they were enhanced physically, it also would be hard for her to trap them with her big moves.

’I have to help her first!’

The decision came within seconds.

"Alright, let’s stop playing around, guys."

I turned around, facing the Morning star cultist. Levitation on myself, I jumped up. Go higher and higher, until I was hundreds of meters from the ground.

Then I channelled my mana into Boulder Thrust, transmutating a big stone of 4 meters in size. I nonactivated Levitation on the spear after that, letting it fell on its own toward the cultist.

"Boulder Fall!"

The artificial meteor made an ominous sound when it pierced through the air and crashed on the ground. The ground shook for a moment, which stunned everyone for a beat.

Was the cultist die? What was that? While they were thinking of that kind of thought, I and Tizmilly acted swiftly.

I quickly approached the three cultists who were surrounding Tizmilly. Once I entered the maximum range of my pistol-caliber Gemgun, I empited my magazine on them. Some of the shoots hit, while some missed entirely.

But that was enough for Tizmilly.

"Ice Rose: Entwhine!" She chanted out of habit, growing vines of ice rose from the ground to restrain the cultists.

Then, with a quick, graceful movement, she separated their heads from their bodies. Her movement carried the natural elegance of the Villainess, which made her movement looked like a dance rather than a deadly swing that ended three lives at once.

I landed beside Tizmilly. I tapped her shoulder, giving her a thumbs-up to praise her. "​...As expected, you’re as beautiful as ever, Tizmilly... even when you’re taking down enemies."

​Tizmilly pursed her lips, a faint flush creeping up her neck. "I—I didn’t have a choice, okay? They were evil, so..." Then, her expression softened into a playful smirk. "But thanks for the compliment. I am beautiful, after all. Feel free to remind me whenever you like."

​Theo chuckled at her newfound cheekiness, but the laughter died quickly. They pivoted, weapons raised, toward the center of the garden.

​As the dust from the Boulder Fall settled, Jahreon was revealed. He was crouching at the edge of the crater, staring at the mangled remains of the Morning Star cultist with an unreadable expression.

​Then, with a flick of his wrist, he dissipated the massive summoning circle above him.

​Jahreon rose slowly, brushing the dust from his trousers with terrifying composure. The dark mana that was supposed to fuel the summoning began to swirl around him instead, absorbed into his very pores. When he looked up, his eyes had shifted from a scholarly black to a predatory, blood-red.

​"Tizmilly Fallburn... and you," he said, his voice dropping to a bone-chilling sub-bass. "I’ve underestimated you both. A mistake I won’t repeat."

​Theo’s heart hammered against his ribs. He recognized that look. It wasn’t a summoning anymore—it was a Possession.

​"Tizmilly, look away! Don’t look at his eyes!" Theo roared, but the air around them began to ripple and crack like shattered glass.