Prior to the infiltration of the church.

Orion and Amelia were discussing the potential endings that the mission could lead to.

There was obviously the failed attempt, and the one where Orion died, but these were out of the equation, and the reason was simple.

Nobody knew of Amelia yet. They knew of the 'Cursed Child', but not about the 'First Gear' ability.

This led to two final results: one where Orion was able to leave discretely without finding a window to assassinate an Apostle, with only information about their plans, or one leading to absolute chaos.

When Orion managed to accomplish all of his objectives, he would be at the center of this chaos. Amelia was there to extract him from the place, alive.

It was simple. Yet, easier said than done.

"Left Leg, First Gear Activated."

A monotone voice echoed in his mind, followed by a burning sensation in his leg, though fairly manageable at the moment.

'Alright, I have exactly five minutes, with no time to lose. We have to get far away from this place.'

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but I have places to be."

Orion paced himself, jogging towards the soldiers. He made each soldier tense up just from his unshakable state.

Suddenly, a booming voice caught everyone off guard from the window Orion jumped from. As he glanced behind him, he saw the Apostles looking at him from various windows.

"What are you waiting for?! Seize him immediately!"

Layla screamed at the top of her lungs, commanding the soldiers to act.

They looked at each other in slight confusion, but quickly made up their mind to stop the enemy standing in front of them.

"Why am I paying these fools for?"

Layla's repressed thought until today came out of her mouth.

Those armies were useless, since foot soldiers couldn't stay on the same pedestal as magic users.

Against corrupted, certainly, they could stand a chance with long-range weapons, but that was it.

'Well, let's give them a show they won't forget then.'

Orion approached the first row of soldiers rushing him. He readied himself with 'Calm Analysis' to counter any attacks thrown at him.

'Left, right, and a slide. This should be enough for the first row.'

Using the 'First Gear', he swiftly dodged the swords coming his way. He moved so fast, most never even realized he was already past them.

Layla blinked a few times, as well as most of the Apostles watching the scene.

"This man, no wonder he got through our ranks without being seen. He possesses skills unknown to us. It doesn't look like he is using magic, either. What could it be?"

Layla, nor any Apostles, heard about the 'Key' and the 'Shackles'. These two artifacts were successfully hidden through time.

Another person fixedly looked at Orion from a window, and it was Olivia. She was unable to miss a single movement he made, in awe.

"His movements are absurdly precise, do you think you could dodge like that, Lord Florian?"

Florian, standing next to her, looked bewildered by what he was seeing.

"I am absolutely certain I would have a hard time against him, but that is it. He is an assassin, the moment he reveals his presence, it either means the attempt was successful, or he failed."

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Olivia listened quietly to his observations.

"The fact that he came out of his secrecy to kill Kiel leads me to two theories. If nothing more, this man chose the worst of us to kill. He was definitely listening since the beginning, planning either to move or stay hidden."

"This person might be either a justice seeker, or a kind-hearted man. Maybe both, but something is sure, if we want to keep our head on our head, we might try to seek friendly contact out of him."

Olivia's eyes opened wide. For her, it was strange, her father always spoke ill of the demons and angels factions, so much that she couldn't understand why.

She didn't share that hatred, but she never imagined seeing the last survivor in her lifetime either.

As she was thinking that, two silhouettes walked closer to them.

"I'm sorry, we've heard what you said, and we had to say something."

Eric, walking alongside Kamala, approached Florian and Olivia.

"Are you sure it's not too dangerous to act friendly with someone we don't know anything about?"

Eric asked with genuineness in his voice. Florian took a second to think, watching Orion avoid another group of soldiers.

"It might be better. I apologize if it offends you three, but I took the opportunity to look at your city management reports. Well, for miss Olivia, there is no data yet, so I assume you are clean of any illicit activities as of now."

It looked like Kamala and Eric weren't offended by his actions, maybe because of his reputation as a smart and thoughtful man.

Florian continued after smiling at Olivia. He looked in turn at Eric and Kamala.

"You two are managing your citizens with care, there is nothing to say on that. What is truly important in my criteria was how everyone treated the other factions. And let me say, I was impressed to see other Apostles care for them."

"Look at this man. He attacked the only person in the room that showed clear hostility and was known for treating other factions like toys. He could have ended any of the thirteen present, but he killed the worst. Good riddance, by the way."

Florian shrugged. Eric reciprocated with a nod, Kamala closed her eyes, and disgust appeared on Olivia's face.

"I want to forget about that man as much as possible. His depraved gaze was vile."

She shuddered just recalling his voice. Kamala walked behind her, and wrapped her arms around Olivia's shoulders.

"Young girl, nothing will happen anymore."

"Thank you, miss Kamala. You remind me of my mother. She used to do that too."

Kamala smiled gently. Both men got reminded why they fought against once again.

They had a history together, and were relatively friendly to each other, even though they rarely spoke.

"You know sir Florian, I have a wife, and someone I consider a daughter. Dying like Kiel is not the end I want. Are you suggesting that he has a capacity to judge which one of us is a target for him?"

Florian nodded while looking outside the window.

"This is also a possibility, but maybe he is willing to kill all of Elliott's Apostles. Explaining things to him is our only option if we want to avoid an unnecessary death."

A severe expression formed on his face, as he frowned.

"I would prefer not to feel his breath on my neck."

This time, all four shuddered, the scene of a decapitating arrow flashed in their mind.

"I just became an Apostle, I don't want to die yet."

Olivia looked distraught, imagining herself dying by that handsome man's crossbow.

"This will sound cruel, but of the Apostles, you are the most vulnerable. If this man hadn't chosen Kiel, maybe he would have chosen you instead. This is only speculation because we don't know how he judged us."

At that moment, Kamala pointed toward the window, wile tightly hugging Olivia.

"He's breaking through, he's almost out."

They all stopped talking, and glued their gazes towards Orion, right as he escaped.

...

'This is tiring. I don't know how much time passed, but I'm feeling sluggish. The burning is getting more severe, which means I might be close to the limit.'

Orion breathed out a cloud of hot mist from his mouth. He did acrobatics for three minutes straight, but he was getting close to the forest.

'Alright, focus. Let's break free from this now, before the others start to attack too.'

Around him, the soldiers spread out slowly. The problem was, even this slow, his body wasn't fast enough to past them all.

'The next one is striking down, but the next one is going for the ankles. So, dodge to his left, and then jump.'

For someone not using 'Calm Analysis', Orion's movements were incredibly fast, way faster than a normal soldier, but not as fast as a magic user.

Most of the Apostles weren't impressed by his actions. They even questioned why someone like him killed one of them.

The moment the last row of soldier was breached, Orion immediately began to run toward the forest.

Everything was as expected...

Until Layla grew tired of this show, and snapped her fingers.

'What the-?!'

Orion couldn't believe it, neither could Amelia. A giant wall of water appeared to block his escape.

"Now, you won't be able to flee, vermin."

Slowly turning around, he saw the armies split in half as Layla approached with water flowing behind her back.

'This was out of my expectations. This doesn't look like anything I can breach through. At least Amelia is safe, this is all that matter.'

His leg throbbed from the burning pain. He clenched his fists, before creating Alcyone out in an attempt to fight back.

'Sorry, mom, dad. I guess it wasn't that simple in the end.'

Everything showed that the end was near for Orion. The soldiers closed in on him, while the Apostles prepared to capture him.

But something unpredictable for both sides happened.

"Lady Layla! D-Dragon!"

"What?! This is impossible! Why now! It never happened befo-"

She couldn't finish her sentence. A gigantic shadow was cast over Orion, the armies, and the church.

An azure dragon stared at its surrounding, flapped its large wings, before snorting.