Three heads popped out of a bush one after the other, spying on the ash-plunged village. Glenn looked at Javier and Josh on either side of him and gulped.

'I hope we'll be enough. I'm not sure the Goddess will be able to help me again if I fight something like the Heart of Darkness once again'.

Josh leaned in and pointed at a statue extending beyond the roofs of the village.

"That's where everyone is. They should all be inside right now, for the night ceremony. God, I hope everyone is fine..." He trailed off, before slapping his cheeks and focusing himself back in. Javier nodded slowly, his hold on his bow strengthening.

"Glenn, you do realize that Sahro and Gentle Knight will probably be our opponents, right?" Josh asked with his eyes stuck on the village. Glenn breathed in deeply, the blade of his axe gleaming in the light of the twin moons.

"I know. Shit, I know too well..." As much as he supposedly disliked the black heir, he couldn't help admitting that he enjoyed his company and that this man was probably his only friend in this hellish world. He could be annoyingly stupid, or right, or both, but the fact remained that there was a brotherhood between them that he couldn't deny. The idea of having to hurt him...

"We'll think about it once we face the problem, alright?" He blurted out, choosing not to think about this now. Josh gulped and nodded hurriedly.

They began approaching the village when Javier suddenly stopped them with a movement of his hand. Josh and Glenn obliged and checked the place the Pale Kin was pointing. Hidden masterfully under thick plants and grass, a heavy bear trap was laid, waiting for prey. Had one of them stepped forward, they would have lost half a leg even before the fight began.

"The mercenaries," Josh whispered, carefully stepping around the trap. Glenn nodded in acknowledgment and stepped over it, before carefully continuing his way, much more slowly and with much more attention spent on checking for any hidden devices. They kept going until they were at the edge of the forest, and only a bit of ashy plains and fields were separating them from the village. They had avoided an abnormal amount of traps, and Javier had saved them more than once, stopping always in time to show invisible wires or hidden spikes.

"Nothing gets in, nothing gets out," Glenn remarked, muttering through gritted teeth. Palancar had become a place hidden from view, surrounded by traps, and trapped in a time-manipulation spell.

Whatever the thing that took over the village was planning, it couldn't be something good. They had to hurry.

Josh suddenly stopped and pointed at a house, closest to them.

"That's the house we need to collapse. I don't know which spot we need to attack for it to break, but I'm sure that won't be a problem, right?" He said while looking at Glenn. The latter was already making Mana spin madly in his hand, the explosive version of his Blackhole in preparation.

"Ready to go?" The young man asked, smiling wickedly. Javier nodded while Josh squeezed his bow harder.

With one last breath, Glenn shot his spell, and a familiar ball of blue Mana that flew traveled slowly through the air. Time seemed to slow as the projectile moved, when the young man suddenly heard an explosion in the distance, coming from the center of the village. The sound was quickly muffled down by the Implosion he threw, flashing a great white light as the shockwave pushed everyone a step back. The house collapsed in a cacophony of noises, going up in flames suddenly.

Its fall caused the neighboring house to collapse in the same way, and the whole village was swept up in the dominoes' fall. The earth trembled as Palancar was destroyed to the ground, splintering open and projecting ashes all around.

Glenn whistled, before jumping out of his bush and running toward the center of the village, Javier and Josh closely following behind. A movement caught the young man's eyes, and he turned his head to see a disheveled Monsieur Maron, his face covered in black soot, tears streaming down his face.

"My moneyyyyy!!!" He screamed at the sky. Glenn turned his head back and ignored the despaired merchant. He ran through the streets, heading down to the church. After a few minutes, they approached the circle of houses surrounding the church. That's also when they met the villagers. They were all dressed in blood-covered white clothes, their faces twisted madly as they used whatever they could to try and stop the collapses of houses, the autonomous magic circles Valer had installed raining down water on the fires.

The team ignored the insane villagers and rushed to the church. They finally arrived there, but something was wrong. One of the walls of the Church was down, and the sounds of fighting could be heard alongside mad screams.

"What the hell?" Glenn blurted out, his axe out and ready to be swung. Suddenly, a body flew at them, the trace of a shoe imprinted on his face. It was one of the mercenaries but he had something wrong with his appearance, the young man simply couldn't put his finger on it. Suddenly, he realized that his face was stitched somehow, like some hastily crafted handiwork. In horror, he dropped the man to the ground, letting him see what he couldn't have seen previously. One of his legs was longer than the other, while a hand had ten fingers similarly stitched to it. It was like a strange mashup of body parts assembled awkwardly.

The corpse's eyes suddenly flashed open, and he roared as he jumped at Glenn who jumped back in surprise while kicking him away. The mercenary salivated like a beast, his eyeballs rolling in their sockets. Glenn smacked him on the head with the flat of the axe, effectively knocking him out.

"God, even my little sister could have made that thing better!" The young man spat out with disgust, before turning his attention back from where the corpse came from. Another body came out, with tan skin and Aura shining around his fists. Glenn frowned and readied himself, Mana moving through his hands and charging Half-Moon with Mana. A dark-red flame burned brightly around the blade of the axe, ready to slay his enemies.

Sahro rolled down for a few meters before pushing himself from the ground, the blood covering him making the Black Heir look even madder. His expression was madly twisted as he roared powerfully, the Aura covering him growing ever stronger. The white mark on his forehead shone strongly like the flame of a lighthouse.

Glenn took a step back, readying his left hand to shoot a Nitrogen Wave to slow what was previously his friend down. He was about to cast the spell when Sahro's shout interrupted him.

"Damned ruh sayiya, I'll burn you and your servant down!" The Black Heir jumped back toward the destroyed wall of the church without sparring them a glance, leaving Glenn and his team dumbfounded.

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"I suppose he isn't mind-controlled anymore, then?" Josh said hesitantly before Javier ran past him and followed Sahro through the rift. Glenn smiled and jumped into the church, Josh close behind him.

What welcomed them was a spectacle worthy of being called hell.

The ground, the walls, the ceiling...every nook and corner of the church was covered in blood and guts, bits of bones and brains mixed in a disgusting, pulsing flesh. In the center of the church, a red, gigantic jewel was impossibly twisting itself. Glenn couldn't help but stare as the jewel suddenly opened like a flower, before spitting out a man covered in saliva, with three arms, four legs, and a giant shark maw with rows and rows of human teeth.

The Sharkman stumbled on its steps, before coughing a black liquid that corroded the ground under him. After a few seconds, the creature violently raised his neck to the sky, roaring beastly.

"Shit!" Josh cursed, before shooting an arrow at the creature, who took the shot without flinching, running on all of its weirdly arranged limbs, splattering bloody saliva on the already soiled ground. Javier suddenly came out of the shadows right from behind the creature, his bow pulled out at its limits. The arrow shot like a gunshot, covered in a gloomy Aura, piercing through the head of the creature like butter.

Glenn was barely able to prepare a spell the creature crashed to the ground, dead.

Or so it seemed, as the corpse suddenly trembled, and its limbs broke and twisted before pushing itself from the ground and running toward the nearest victim, Javier, who was recuperating after his powerful shot. The Amalgam jumped with all its limbs stretched out, before getting blasted away from both sides, caught in a vice between a bloodied, Aura-covered Sahro's fist, and an Nitrogen-infused Drilling Bullet from Glenn. The body twisted and ripped apart, before finally ending up as a shredded piece of meat.

The young man only had the time to draw a breath that what remained of the creature's flesh squirmed violently, before exploding in a bloody carnage. Reflexively, he summoned a Magic Shield, protecting him from all the projectiles. Josh wasn't as fast and, sadly, wasn't behind said shield, ending up covered in gore despite his best efforts.

A second of silence passed, the Pale Kin at a loss of words, as a piece of flesh slipped off his shoulder.

"Fuck..."

'The Mother? More like the fucking Butcher!' Diamanes exclaimed in Glenn's mind, making him scowl in disgust and horror. His axe flamed up once more as he infused it with Mana, ready to take on the monster-creating jewel. As he was about to jump out, a figure suddenly got out of the rubbles of the destroyed wall, his armor rusty and his sword broken. His helmet's visor was bent inwardly, and half of his face was missing. Josh turned to look at the newcomer, only to step back in terror.

"G...Gentle Knight!?!" His voice shook, and he fell from backing up too quickly. The Knight raised his broken sword, his mouth twisted in a bloody mess that certainly couldn't be associated with a smile.

"A...A...All hail the Mother of All," He mumbled, stumbling forward as he barely managed to stand on his feet. The rubble rolled down under his steps as he tried to approach Glenn and his team when Sahro suddenly jumped out of nowhere and punched him right in the face, smacking him back down under the rocks.

"I SAID GO TO SLEEP, DAMN IT!!" He screamed with all his lungs, startling Glenn slightly. He had never seen the Black Heir behave like this and couldn't help but wonder if he appreciated the change. The structure of the church shook slightly, making the young man look at the ceiling worriedly, but it seemed like the roof wouldn't fall on their heads just yet.

A squirming and spitting sound suddenly caught his attention, just in time for him to see that the red jewel had spat out yet another Amalgam.

'Ohhh, the Mother of All! I get why that entity is named this way! I mean, isn't it just birthing horrors after horrors?' Diamanes suddenly said with a happy voice, contrasting with his previous comment. Glenn shook his head, before infusing Mana into his legs and running the red jewel's direction. The creature it previously gave birth to raised from the ground, revealing its grotesque appearance to the world, a bubbly mass of flesh somehow human-shaped with arms getting out of its torso at random, holding bloody spinal columns as weapons.

The creature shrieked with pain as it charged toward Glenn, slashing with a strange mastery of its weapons, pushing the young man back as he was forced to defend himself with all his strength. He expected to get some reinforcements, but a glance to the back made him notice that Gentle Knight's condition had degenerated and he was attacking all around him with scarlet Aura, forcing Josh, Javier, and Sahro to completely stop him. The Black Heir also seemed to run of fumes, but they didn't have much of a choice but to dig in their reserves right now.

'I don't know what kind of hormones that guy received but damned that made him buff,' Diamanes commented at the sight of the Knight's muscles pushing through every interstice of his armor in a disgusting fleshy fashion.

'No time to spare on them, though,' Glenn thought before summoning a Magic Shield to block a slash from the side. The Amalgam used the spinal column as a saw as it ripped through the shield under its creator's horrified eyes. The young man ducked just in time for the blade to sweep over him and used the occasion to shoot out an Implosion right in the belly, (if that could be called that) of the beast, blowing a fleshy hole right in it.

The creature stumbled back while groaning in an otherworldly voice, giving Glenn a strange sense of deja vu, the amalgam weirdly similar to the creature he fought in the Auberge. Sadly, he had no pretty priestess to help him this time, and no time to find one.

"Hey, Goddess, I could certainly use that cool golden flame you bestowed me last time," He yelled without much hope but only shook his head as if nothing happened. No way the Goddess was going to help him twice for free after all.

'Actually, I would feel no shame at all receiving a little more help—oh darn—' The beast suddenly planted two of the weapons it held in the ground, before releasing two giant slices of Aura in Glenn's direction. The man rolled aside, ignoring all pride and dignity, and held his left hand out as a compressed wave of Nitrogen came out of it. At the same time, he summoned the Silence's curse on his body, eliminating any sound he was going to make.

The creature crossed all of its sword/spinal columns to block the literal ray of cold, creating a bloody mist of sparkly snow as it mixed with the ash falling from who-knows-where. The Amalgam readied itself to attack again, only to see that its opponent was mysteriously gone. It searched around using all its senses, hundred of vertically slit eyes opening all over its body, surveying every space around it.

Sadly for the Amalgam, none of his eyes were checking for above him, so he didn't catch the flaming axe empowered with giant blades of Mana falling on it. Glenn roared silently as the Silence curse eliminated all sounds, and hacked down with all his strength, splitting a good half of the creature down.

'And there we go, the third monster split down in two. No originality, really,' Diamanes commented mockingly, making Glenn scowl with an incredulous look.

"I have an axe, for God's sake! What do you want me to do, make sashimis!?" He yelled out, well, at least he tried to yell since the curse muffled all sound he produced.

The creature's flesh squirmed, before covering the axe entirely, swallowing it inside itself, pushing the handle in like a delicious treat. Glenn could only cry in silence as he witnessed his favorite weapon of all time disappear in the head, uh, belly, no—whatever that was of the creature. Ragefully, he punched down to try and rip the axe out, his left hand covered in deathly Nitrogen as it pierced down. The flesh squirmed like burned by some holy fire, trying to avoid the cold as much as it could.

Glenn's face lit up as he saw the handle in the hole he created, and he reached with his hand while intensifying the strength of the cold, freezing the creature from the inside. He pulled with all his strength, taking the axe out while creating a fountain of bloody snowflakes.

'Phew, I almost got worried for a second,' Glenn thought, before jumping above the Amalgam who seemed to suffer from a brain freeze. Instead of attacking the creature, he rushed his way to the altar the red jewel was sitting on. The battle had lasted for several minutes, and Glenn was quite worried to see what the jewel was going to birth with too much time.

Behind him, a huge chunk of flesh fell from the Amalgam, shaping like a female body with a freezing hole piercing its chest. The corpse sank in the ground, disappearing who-knows-where.