Not many Ascetic Blasphmeres raided the outpost, but thanks to the curtain of the night and the unpreparedness of the Witches, the number of casualties reached the extreme within minutes.
Although Silya Hext had managed to form a small group, she was still trapped amidst the flames and the rampaging insects that barred their escape. Then again, as a commander and soldier, her duty was to protect this place to her last breath and not abandon it to the enemies.
The leader of the assailants was a man wearing the same silver robe as his comrades but his mask was metallic black. With his arms crossed and his face hidden, he stood at the back and watched as the 4-star Witch formed a sturdy barrier while bombarding any who got close to her soldiers.
Unfortunately, the Ascetic Blasphemers were crazy as they recklessly and suicidally charged at Hext, trying to tire her out.
“Hm?”
The black-masked man turned his head and looked at the white van zigzagging through the rubble and leaving a sea of crimson fire in its wake, scorching the insects and any enemies that dared get close.
The vehicle got out of the wrecked outpost with ease but after distancing itself, it stopped amidst the darkness.
The leader of the cultists saw the bald man with fiery hands as well as the strange red-haired teenager, however, he paid them no heed as his target was someone else.
“I guess this is enough…”
Once he was satisfied with all the death and devastation, he sighed and pointed his open hand at Silya Hext.
At that second, a subtle electric current flashed in front of him, followed by a mind-numbing electrocution that zapped the masked man’s entire body.
Zeke’s silhouette appeared at the man’s rear, holding a voltage-imbued spear that ripped through the silver robe.
“Ugh…”
Alas, before Zeke’s attack could pierce the man’s back, the latter transformed into a mass of tiny and innumerable flies.
Three of his subordinates leapt at Zeke and unhesitantly activated the bombs stuck to their bodies.
A deafening explosion resounded in the outpost as Hext and what few soldiers were left at her side were pushed back.
When the dust cleared, the 4-star tall witch was surprised to see her young captive stand atop a pool of gore and blood. He was relatively unscathed as lightning danced around him.
Regrettably, Silya didn’t have the time to question him about anything as the black-masked man spread his ability to cover the entirety of the outpost.
While Jonathan Stellar Link was able to turn his body into an intangible black mist, the black-masked cultists became a cluster of flies that swirled in the air before descending upon the outpost.
Neither Zeke, with his arsenal of skills, nor Silya Hext and her soldiers, could defend themselves. Within seconds, everything was over.
Once silence dominated the graveyard-like outpost, the black-masked man coughed while fixing his ripped silver robe.
Out of the twenty subordinates he had brought, only three remained, but he didn’t seem to care about that.
“Take him too.”
He pointed at Zeke’s unconscious body while he walked to Silya Hext and bound her body using disgustingly long eels that emerged from his hand.
…
“What do we do?”
“...”
Jack was planning to chase after the attackers once they were done with the Witches, but instead of running away, they went through a rectangular portal which disappeared thereafter.
“I can follow them.” Suggested Arbert with an unusually serious expression.
He waited patiently for his adoptive father’s consent.
“Can you bring me with you?”
“...”
Hearing the youth’s silence, Sulong clenched his fists and spoke again,
“Alright. Be careful and try to wait for us. There are other outposts close by. Again, don’t do anything stupid!”
The red-haired spawn of the Blood God nodded once before jumping off the back of the van. He bit his hand and then dripped the blood on the ground, which formed into a rising curtain that enveloped its caster then darted off into the air, soon vanishing from view.
“What now?” Muttered Jack as he held into the steering wheel, his face pale and his body shaking. The sight of the Witches getting brutally killed was fresh in his mind, leaving him traumatized and in a state of absolute dread.
“Zeke stayed there because he wanted to be taken, though I’m not sure why.”
“Huh! He what?! Aw man, do we have to get caught too?”
“...”
Sulong sighed and motioned to switch seats with his shaken friend. With him behind the wheel, he drove the van West, which was where the closest outpost should be.
…
“My liege, we brought her.”
The black-masked man, along with his remaining subordinates, stood in line in front of a voluptuous woman wearing a metallic red mask that covered only her eyes and nose.
She was inhaling smoke from a wooden pipe while sitting on a fancy chair in the middle of the grotto, which was their temporary base of operations.
She first glanced at Hext then at Zeke, surprised to see the latter.
“He displayed… strange abilities, my li-”
Before the black masked-man could finish, Zeke’s body turned blurry and, by the next second, the man, along with his subordinates, were beheaded by a long black scythe oozing a dense black fog.
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Zeke used his newly-acquired skill ‘Reaper’s Sweep’, then followed with ‘Life Motus’. He got hold of the Witch’s body and distanced himself from the woman.
Alas, his attempt, albeit successful, caused dozens of silver-robed cultists to appear from every corner, blocking every escape route.
“My, what an energetic boy.”
“You have a red mask, which means you’re at the top of the hierarchy.” Remarked Zeke while grinning.
Truth be told, he could have eliminated the black-masked man back in the outpost, but doing that would have been detrimental. He seemed to be high-ranked enough to personally meet with the red-masked ones, which Zeke knew were like the cream of the crop of the Ascetic Blasphemers.
“And you seem to be knowledgeable too.” She seductively licked her lips, seemingly unaffected by his display of strength or the headless bodies at her feet.
“There’s no need to beat around the bush. Red Mask Fanti Fan, you know him, yes?”
Upon hearing that name, the woman’s expression changed and her smile disappeared. Her assessment of Zeke drastically changed as there weren’t any outside people that knew her colleagues' personal names.
“I was going to play with you but now… now you die.”
A beam of violet light shot from her index and pierced Zeke’s head, but he didn’t die, much to her surprise.
‘Body Damage’ was activated, switching the fatal damage to his shoulder, which started bleeding.
An illusory syringe pierced Zeke’s body, empowering him as a burst of voltage came forth, illuminating the grotto and raining hell on the cultists.
Zeke didn’t have a choice so he let go of the commander and used ‘Over-Drive’; He kicked the ground and transformed into a lightning bolt that struck the masked woman.
His attack was successful as her body staggered to the back, but that was all. He didn’t inflict any substantial damage, he only made sure to anger her more.
“Insolence!”
More beams of light flew at him, but using ‘Life Motus’ and the Aether stored in ‘Voltage Rune’, Zeke evaded the projectiles and continuously shot ‘Voltage Zap’ and ‘Voltage Arrow’.
Unfortunately, he was only superior in terms of speed. The woman was protected by a strong barrier and he could directly attack her only with ‘Over-drive’, which lasted for a pitifully short time.
“Ugh!”
Eventually, two beams went through his thighs and made Zeke kneel down, gasping for breath. He was tired and running out of Aether, as opposed to the relatively unscathed and still energetic woman.
“Is this all you’ve got?”
She approached him and kicked his face, her boot then pressing against his face as she leaned closer and scrutinized him.
He tried to shoot voltage at her face but he felt a mountainous invisible pressure render his body completely immobilized.
“You can’t be a random kid. Special Intelligence Team of the republic, perhaps? No no…”
She clicked her tongue and removed her boots, seemingly absorbed into her own thoughts and trying to figure out Zeke’s true identity.
“I also know about the Golden Mask.” Added Zeke as he flashed a hideous grin at her shocked half-hidden face.
With a venomous glare, she was about to finish the bound youth only for a crushing wave of water to descend from above.
Although she dodged in time, her power was destabilized, thus allowing Zeke to recover.
“Are you alright?”
His injured body was supposed by Silya Hext, who, apart from getting knocked unconscious by the masked man’s flies, was more or less in a healthy physical state.
“You should go.” Quietly said Zeke as he motioned at the exit visible from their location.
Most of the weak cultists were disposed of, but the remaining were too fearful of their wrathful superior to interfere.
“You’ll go first, I can create an openi-”
Seeing him shake his head, Hext frowned and was about to berate him only to be pushed to the side as beams of light came flying at them.
Zeke grabbed the lightning coming out of his hand and swung it diagonally, using it like a whip.
Of course, such a poor attempt didn’t work on the opponent, but it did catch her attention. Meanwhile, 4-star Witch Commander Silya Hext made use of her diverse ability, which was the reason she was abducted instead of killed, or so speculated Zeke.
Hext’s ability wasn’t overly-unique, but it allowed her to simultaneously use four elements: Water- Earth - Wind - Fire.
She was able to cast destructive spells and display impressive control over those elements. The Ascetic Blasphemers must have caught wind of her and wanted to steal this ability using their nefarious experiments.
Large hand made of mud sprung from the ground, trying to squeeze the masked woman’s body, a pillar of water shot from behind Hext and at the target, and several fireballs were in position for bombardment.
Just when she was about to get hit, the red masked-woman, code names ‘Signora’, snapped her fingers, thus letting out a brilliant light that engulfed everything in its way.
Hext was sent flying to the back, her spells canceling, and Zeke was blown several meters before he rolled to the ground.
“You think I will be taken down by mere ants?”
A beam of light thicker than all the rest pierced Hext’s chest, causing a fountain of blood to burst. Although she tried to ment the fatal wound, her body soon stopped moving, seemingly lifeless.
Zeke, on the other hand, vanished from Signora’s sight.
“This teleportation ability of yours could prove useful.”
She softly smiled and raised her hand, blocking his incoming leg with ease. Even the voltage wasn’t able to affect her.
However, Zeke quickly retracted his leg and used ‘Reaper’s Sweep’ for the second time.
When she saw the domineering scythe oozing with sinister energy, there was a momentary flash of panic in Signora’s eyes.
The scythe slashed down diagonally, cleanly cutting the silver robe of the woman and inflicting a clear bloody wound.
In pain, Signora let out an ear-piercing screech while Zeke opted for retreat. Although he had managed to inflict a wound, he couldn’t let Hext after she had tried to help him.
He used ‘Life Motus’ and appeared next to her. He hastily poured the last Elixir on his possession on her grievous wound then lifted her body then ran straight into the pool of water at the end of the grotto.
He could see beams of light coming at him but he paid them no heed and carried the witch’s body as he swam as fast as he could.
…
“Waah! W-why did you stop like that?!”
Jack, who had calmed down a bit and was trying to take a short nap to ease his mind, was startled awake when the van came to an abrupt. He first looked at his bald friend then to the front, surprised to see a bespectacled and black-haired woman with two glistening blades in her hands blocking their way.
Even though it was the first time he had seen her, the aura she let out made Sulong certain that she was the person Zeke had been talking about, the Stealth agent he had felt in his office a couple of times.
“You… get off.”
With a dangerously cold glare, she raised one of her short blades and pointed at Sulong, signaling for him to disembark from the van, which he did while raising his hands in surrender.
“E-emm… miss..”
“I don’t see Zeke. Where is he?”
Her voice was filled with anger and snappiness, which only made Sulong tenser.
He saw no need to hide the truth, especially after what happened to the outpost.
“We…we were caught by the Witch Association. W-while we were in one of their outposts, it was attacked by the Ascetic Blasphemers…”
Seeing her face turn colder, Sulong scratched his head and hesitantly continued, “Z-Zeke and the Witch Commander were taken by them.”
“...”
Katrina’s face was the definition of gloominess as she lowered her weapon.
“I… I think Zeke purposely let himself get captured. He could have escaped with us but he didn’t want to.”
“And how does that make the situation any better? You will be taking me to that outpost immediately.”
“But we need to call for he-”
“Immediately!”
“Yes..”
Just like that, Sulong drove Katrina back to the wrecked outpost. Before the agent could investigate anything, however, a swift figure appeared next to her and knocked her to the ground.
The monstrous force behind the assailant rendered the agent incapacitated and unable to lift a finger.
“Move and she will die.” Warned Jennifer as she glared at Sulong, whose fists were enveloped by crimson flames.
He canceled his ability and didn’t resist as Jennifer bound Katrina and then dragged the helpless Jack, forcing them to sit near the van while she scanned the area for more people.