As they entered Tello's so-called main base of operations, Joey and Rollin saw animals with body parts of other animals. Some didn't even resemble animals anymore, just piles of flesh and organs.

Joey was the first to say anything as he looked at Rollin in confusion. "What is wrong with you people and these underground bases? Am I missing something?"

Rollin was more disturbed, shouting, "Don't compare me to this psycho! Who the hell does this type of thing to innocent animals?" he snarled.

"Oh, get off your high horse. How do you think we, of the wizardly kind, push the limits of what magic can be? Anyway, I experiment on people, too. Look, come let me show you," Tello said as he walked past cages of animals, staring pleadingly at Joey and Rollin.

He led them to a giant operating table soaked with blood. "I don't know, Tello. This is pretty dark, even for me," Rollin said, sounding unsure.

At the end of the basement were a pair of four jail cells. A giant black dog was guarding the fourth cell. The second it saw Rollin, it launched at him. 'Arrow, stop! They are a company. Be nice!'"

The dog stopped charging but was still viciously barking, specifically at Rollin. "Sorry, fellas. Arrow is usually a very calm and relaxed dog. He's just been jumpy lately. The other day, I was out with him collecting some magical ingredients. Out of nowhere, some asshole broke his arm and poisoned the poor thing. I almost lost my good boy."

After hearing that, something clicked in Rollins' mind. "Wait, you're telling me that werewolf-looking creature is that same mutt right there?" Tello suddenly grasped something as well and shouted, "You! It was you, you're the asshole who poisoned my poor dog's arm!"

They both looked at each other, not knowing whether to push more or leave it as it was.

Tello broke the silence first. "Anyways, he's not a werewolf since he only transforms in the peak hours of the day and transforms into half a man, not a wolf. So, the proper term would be 'were-man,' the first one of his kind, proudly, may I add. Anyways, what I want to show you is this." Tello said as he walked to the fourth prison cell after putting Arrow back in his own small metal cage.

As soon as the person in the fourth cell saw Rollin and Joey, they almost fainted from shock.

"I don't get it. This is just a regular random person. What's so special about them?" Joey said, sounding confused. Instead of answering the question, Tello approached a lever and said, "You two might want to step back!"

Joey and Rollin quickly moved away as the poor man in the jail cell immediately started screaming and pleading, "Please, not again!"

A strong chemical odor filled the room as the liquid flooded the poor man until he was completely soaked. Then, with a twisted smile, Tello lit a match as he softly said, "Oh, I hope it's a she again..." His words caused chills to run down Joey and Rollin's backs. Meanwhile, the soaked man was now weeping, refusing to accept his fate.

Tello threw the small flame onto the ground of the cell. Immediately, it caught fire, engulfing the weeping man who was whimpering in the corner. The man began shrieking in agony as he rolled on the ground, burning alive.

"This is seriously fucked up, Tello," Joey said, facing away from the gruesome scene.

"He's just burning, I don't get it. Am I missing something?" Rollin said as the man burned alive in front of him fell to his knees and collapsed, apparently dead.

"Just wait! God, I forgot how impatient and sensitive 2nd-rate humans are," Tello said as he opened the jail door and then began emptying his bladder on the charred black corpse.

"Alright, that's it. I'm out," Joey said, walking away. He was halfway out of the basement when Rollin suddenly shouted, "Holy shit! Joey, get back here. You have to see this."

Joey, refusing to look back, shouted, "I don't think I need to see a burned corpse being desecrated by a degenerate magician. It's bad enough I saw the poor man burn to death."

Rollin angrily shouted, "Just get back here, dammit! Trust me, you want to see this." Finally, Joey reluctantly walked back, and what he saw was nothing short of a miracle.

Not only was the person not dead or disfigured with burn marks, but he had transformed into a completely different person. A tall, dark-skinned man with a well-developed physique stood before them. The transformed man crawled on his knees as slimy ashes fell from him.

"My grandfather might have mastered the ether itself, but I, Mortello Archeas the third, have created an entirely new branch on the tree of Sorcery! Hahahaha!" Tello dramatically laughed while Rollin whispered, "Wow, even his height changed..."

The tall, dark man stood up naked, surprising the three of them. The first thing he noticed was that what he had gained in height, he had lost in the lower department.

"Don't judge me! Just a few days ago, I was more than twice the man I am right now!" the captive man blurted out.

"Just a few days ago, you say. Wow, Tello, you work fast. Where did you even find this guy?" Rollin curiously asked.

"Forget any heist we did. You know this is the most illegal thing you've ever done, right?" Joey added, looking at Tello curiously.

Tello knew these questions would eventually be thrown at him. He looked down, remembering the events that led up to this.

"See, the thing is, he was already kidnapped. The day my poor Arrow got assaulted and poisoned by a no-good assassin, I found my sweet Henry all tied up in the ground. God or She-God had answered my prayers like a present tied with a bow on Yamasha's day. So, as you can see, as long as no one mentions this outside of here, with my transformation magic, he might as well have disappeared into the Ether!" Tello said, trying to contain his excitement.

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However, as soon as Tello finished explaining, Joey and Rollin connected the dots and shouted simultaneously, "That's not Henry, that's Martin!"

Martin instantly cursed his big mouth.

Just as Rollin was about to enter the cell and unleash his bottled-up anger towards Martin, alarms began going off all over the mansion.

"What the hell, Tello? Turn them off. I didn't even touch the handle," Rollin said, pausing his fury.

"It wasn't because of you, you little egotistical maniac. The only reason you two made it up here is because Scorched Mountain still recognizes your heart signatures. It's probably some idiots trying to break in. I'll be back. I have to take care of this," Tello responded.

Before Tello could walk upstairs, a boom echoed out, and the ceiling, the first floor from above, exploded before collapsing onto the basement.

Stone and wooden debris fell, destroying everything on the lower level except the four metal jail cells, a smaller metal cage, and a giant glowing sphere.

Martin was shaking from fear in his steel cell. He had once again escaped death, with only a tiny cut on his left wrist from flying debris.

Inside the giant glowing sphere, the trio observed four figures whose outlines were barely visible through the smoke. None of them spoke.

Tello removed a blue ring, and the glowing sphere disappeared into it. Joey swiftly shot four arrows in the blink of an eye. Snapping wood was heard, followed by a shadow leaping at them from the dissipating smoke. It was a tall, bearded man whose arms seemed to know nothing else but chopping wood.

The man flew towards Rollin with an axe almost the size of Rollin's small body. However, Rollin effortlessly evaded the attack, leaving the burly man to impale the basement ground.

The man didn't seem to mind much that his weapon had been easily avoided and was now lodged into the ground. He left his axe behind and quickly charged at Rollin.

Although Rollin was small, everyone in the Assassins Association knew him for his uncharacteristically inhuman strength. To the bearded man's surprise, Rollin charged at him as well. They quickly clashed, turning the fight into a contest of strength. Amazingly, Rollin was overpowering the behemoth.

Meanwhile, Tello was fighting with a tall woman who concealed half of her upper face behind a beautiful black and gold veil. "Do you know who you people are fucking with!?" Tello shouted as he began drawing sigils on the ground.

"Not so quick, you outdated illusionist!" the woman retorted. She reached into the layers of clothing she wore, and sickly crows started flying out, some of them wounded with festering maggots.

They swiftly nosedived toward Tello, forcing him to halt the final parts of his spell formation—he only needed a few more sigils.

"Ugh, sick! They smell like death," Tello remarked, evading and moving back as the maggot-infested crows suddenly fell to the ground, lifeless. The maggots seemed to consume the concrete ground along with the dead crows.

Without a second to lose, Tello ran to grab the piece of stone he was using to draw his spell formation. As he grabbed it, the ground began to tremble. He quickly resumed drawing the sigils on the ground, and although the ground stopped trembling, a pounding sound could be heard.

The ground split open, revealing three undead giant crows that flew towards Tello, who was close to finishing his spell formation.

"Why isn't he running away? What is wrong with him?" the mysterious woman thought as she approached the focused Tello.

"BAM!"

The three crows slammed peak-first into Tello, but to everyone's surprise, nothing happened to him. The creatures went right through him before disappearing.

"Who are you calling an illusionist? It seems the rumors are true. Moroglossa has no true knowledge of the hidden arts. You people adopted ancient technology and called it magic, ha! Here, let me show you real," Tello exclaimed, but his words were abruptly cut off by a small dagger that suddenly impaled the back of his head, shutting him up for good.

The woman emerged from one of the wings of the giant crow. "I never said I was a mage, you ignorant fool." She attempted to pull the dagger out of Tello's head, but it wouldn't budge. Suddenly, Tello started losing all color in his skin. His body slowly melted into stone, assimilating with the concrete floor, leaving the dagger embedded in the stone he had become.

A short distance away, the real Tello had finally completed a different spell formation on a wall, pointing to where his clone had turned to stone. It was a giant circle with crossed triangles and mysterious symbols and sigils.

A cut on his thumb provided the blood that carried his will to activate the formation. Suddenly, a powerful light illuminated the woman's world. The last thought that crossed her mind was, "How?" A loud ringing filled her ears as the light consumed her vision, and a warm sensation enveloped her body.

What everyone else witnessed was a colossal beam of light completely exterminating the woman, obliterating even her bones. Only a tiny, crude resin remained as a remnant.

By now, everyone was fully engaged in combat, including Martin, whose new body seemed to be ideally suited for battle. However, they all turned to witness the devastating power unleashed by a real mage, obliterating a young woman with merciless force.

A slender man, defending against Joey's arrows, shouted in anguish, "Maaaarrryyy Noooo!!!" as the girl was erased from existence by the blinding beam of light.

"Oh, relax. He probably did you a favor," Joey remarked, intentionally provoking the man who had shouted.

"Damn it! Barlow, there was only supposed to be a mage and his mutant dog here!" the slender man exclaimed, directing his frustration toward the husky man grappling with Rollin.

"It's fine. Just stick to the plan," Barlow calmly replied.

Shortly after uttering those words, the slender man, agile enough to dodge Joey's arrows, abruptly changed direction and sprinted towards Rollin. Rollin was locked in a fierce struggle with Barlow.

Simultaneously, the other woman, who had been mercilessly assaulting Martin, also redirected her attention towards Rollin.

Each intruder possessed a unique weapon: the slim man brandished two daggers that emitted a deep green glow, while the woman wielded a sword adorned with royal blue decorations.

A mischievous smile crept across his face as Rollin comprehended the imminent danger. He gathered phlegm-filled saliva in his mouth, readying himself for an unconventional attack.

Barlow was caught off guard, never anticipating that Rollin could still inflict harm even with their hands locked together. In a split second, Rollin expelled a forceful blast of saliva, hitting Barlow directly in the right eye. The intense impact caused Barlow to instinctively recoil, releasing his grip on Rollin.

Seizing the opportunity, Rollin swiftly slashed at the towering man four times before swiftly evading the oncoming attackers, narrowly avoiding their imminent assault.