*WARNING, this chapter has very graphic and gruesome deaths. You have been warned*

*Yawn*. Maybe I shouldn’t stay out that late. Last night, the four of us ate and partied all night. From karaoke to the movies. I get up and stretch before walking Into the bathroom. I take a brisk shower before slipping on some clothes and heading out to the room of operations. “You are late,” Leila says, hitting me on the head. I quickly got with my team. The entire room is filled with teams. The headmaster is at the front of the room on a sorta high rise. He says in a deep, burly voice, “LISTEN UP! We have found an entire infernal plantation. We have no idea what they are producing there, but they are going under the radar by selling mattresses. I had someone scout it out, and they said many people went in but never came back. You all will be assailed to this raid. There are 30 people here, not including team leads. I expect each one of you to make it back alive” The lecture went on for a bit more, and apparently, we have no idea the strength or rankings of them. Not even the numbers. Our goal is to wipe them out and find out where the civilians are. Saving the hostages is our main priority. We all start making our way out, before I leave I notice Laila and the headmaster arguing. I try listening, but can only get a few words here and there, such as: Why the hell am I not going? And You know why. My squad waits outside for Laila. She walks out and places her hand on my shoulder. She speaks with an oddly soft tone. “Amon listen to me. I have somewhere important to go. My rank is too high to waste time on this raid. If things go wrong, run. Save your team, Amon.” She steps away for a second and vanishes into darkness within a blink of an eye. The others look at me and I let out a smile at them. “Don’t worry guys. If it was too dangerous, Leila would stop us from going.” I say cheering them up. “Amon I’m kinda nervous about this.” Cassiel says in a worried tone. “Ah, quite whining, and let's get going before we get left.” Sera says stomping to the rest of the group. The thirty of us make our way to the plantation. Upon getting closer, we can all sense an overwhelming aura of sin. “Holy shit. This isn't the aura of a C or even B rank.” Cassiel says sweating. “It’s ok, we have seven A rankers and two S rankers here with us.” I say to calm him down. “GO! GO! GO!” one of the team leads shouts. We all rush to the plantation, casting spells to damage its integrity it. “By all that lives and all that is blessed by divinity, Please lend me your energy and summon the dark blade” I chant while running to the door. The dark blade forms in my hand and I swiftly kick the door down. There are over thirty people in there who all come charging. Countless members charge at them with me. I cut left and right, decapitating two. I slice down, cutting one's arm off before slitting his throat. I pant looking up and seeing the blood bath unfolding. Everyone is dying left and right. Both sides are losing more members than we anticipated. I panic and look around, “SERA, CASSIEL.” I yell, cutting someone in half I run around looking for them in this bloodbath, but they are nowhere to be found. I run through the war and find a staircase. A powerful aura pours out of it. This isn’t the aura of an S rank no this is SS no could it be SSS? I can barely breathe as I slowly walk down the staircase. I make it to the bottom and peek through the doorway to see a woman with a dagger cutting someone's stomach open and disemboweling them. The guy starts screaming, “IT HURTS, PLEASE HELP ME, PLEASE.”. I can barely hold back from throwing up. I charge at her, letting the dark blade lead my strikes. She quickly turns and smiles before kicking me in the stomach, launching me into the wall. She flashes away in an instant, and the dark blade jumps up, dragging my arm up. It blocks her dagger. She disappears again. I can’t see her. I am completely outmatched here. A fellow celestial user rushes down to help me before being decapitated by her. I start panicking. “Amon, you down here?” I hear Cassiel say. No, no, no, I can’t let him come here. “CASSIEL GET SERA AND RUN. WE CAN'T WIN THI-” I get cut off by a sharp pain in my stomach. I look down to see a dagger, in my stomach. I hear Cassiel running back up. I let out a small smile before she pulled the dagger out of me. She turns to walk to the door. I slash the dark blade at her, pouring energy into it to extend the blade. It cuts the back of her heel before she jumps out of the way. She lands in front of me and kicks my jaw, landing me on my back. She starts talking in a voice that is filled with bitter madness. “You are very naughty, aren’t you.” “DIVINE HEAL, DARK ARMOUR.” I heal my wound and surround myself in hardened shadows. I rush at her, letting out a five-slash combo, but she easily avoids them all. She flashes away, and I hear countless dings against my armor. She is cutting at the armor so fast I can’t see her. This isn’t looking good. What do I do? I focus my energy on shadow manipulation and surround myself, making myself invisible. I quickly make my way to the door. As I reach the door, a dagger flies past my head and hits the wall in front of me. I keep running up the stairs. I make it up and everyone is dead. Both parties have fallen, and I see a few celestials healing. I continue running out, leaving them behind. I’m scared. I don’t want to die. Cassiel and Sera weren’t in the bodies anywhere. Meaning they must’ve made it out. This raid has been going on for maybe thirty minutes now. I turn to see that lady killing the other celestials trying to heal. Fuck, what do I do? I look down to see my whole body shaking. I quickly cut my left hand open and removed the invisibility I had. I charge back at her. I block every fatal blow she launches, only taking the nonfatal blows. Another ten minutes of this pass before she stops, and I can see her shaking. I fall to my knees, unable to breathe. What's going on, why did she stop? “Shit, why are you here.” she says in a panicked voice. I hear footsteps coming from behind me. “You did well. Now rest, Amon.” a familiar voice says. I see Laila walk past me and without being able to blink the other lady's arm falls off. “AHHH, YOU BITCH.” she screams. “You hurt my student now I shall purge the sin you are.” “I call upon all that lives and all that is blessed to lend me your power.” as she chants, she starts floating, raising her arms. “I call upon the divinity to lend the power to smite that, that is evil. May this scum rot.” Laila holds out her hand. I turn to the other lady who's shaking, and she suddenly combusts and like that the raid is over Laila within seconds gets all survivors out of the building before snapping and the whole building disappears. Noting, but mud remains as if it never even existed. What is this power I’m seeing? Is this the power of an SS? I use all my energy to stand and smile back at Laila. She looks and me and lets out a laugh. “Good job, Amon. Cassiel and Sera made it back to the school and informed us that we were severely outmatched, and I was allowed to come.” she says. I let out a sigh of relief and said, “That's a relief before falling back and passing out.” I woke up three days later in the nurse's office. She looks over at me and lets out a sigh. “You put me to work, kid. Now get out of here before I undo my healing.” I look down, feeling my body completely healed. “Thank you so much.” I say as I run out of the room and into the room of operations, where they are mid-speech. “We may have lost many men, but we have prevailed and wiped out an S-rank sinner.” as he talks, my body freezes up. Wait, that power and she was only S rank. She was holding back the entire time she fought me as well. If she wanted, she could have killed me instantly. The meeting ends, and all twelve survivors walk out. “Amon.” Laila says to me outside. “Yes?” “I will train you to be stronger. Everyone there could have died if not for your warning to Cassiel. Go to your room and rest, I will come get you when the time is right.” She says walking off. I make my way to my dorm room and lie down. I am weak. I know that. Six days pass and my squad is called into the headmaster's office. He looks at us and says “Sera and Cassiel as of this moment I promote you two to D rank. Amon you are now promoted to C rank for your Valorant fight against the S rank sinner, and Laila you had this coming for a while, but you have been approved by the higher-ups to be promoted to the highest rank of SSS. That is all.”

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