Landen was quivering. The mage before him was an esteemed wizard in the kingdom.

Jaden and company didn’t know what to say. They were doing their best so that the mage wouldn’t look their way. They would surely recognize them! Even their disguised appearance of wearing the armors of Landen’s men wouldn’t be enough.

And suddenly…

BOOM!

A fierce Brimstone energy exploded out on Dyne’s chest.

“AHHH! Save me! The monster is eating me!” Dyne shouted.

The guards were stunned at the development, and even the mage was horrified. There was something sinister about the Brimstone that caused him to fear.

“This-this boy! He’s from Legaia! That’s it! He’s not from this continent! The Archbishop is requesting backup because of this! This boy appeared, and there were strange skeleton creatures with wings! And- and- and metal men!” Landen shouted randomly and recalled what Dyne had used to fool them.

“What?!” Yudders was shocked at what he heard.

“Metal men?! Could it be?” He turned to one of the knights nearby.

“Mechs! They found a teleportation pad leading to a place called Legaia?!” The knight called.

“Move!” The knights immediately ordered Landen out of the way.

Yudders, however, observed Dyne and glanced at the strange body.

“Save me! Get this monster off me!” Dyne shouted as he began to try to rip off the rocky chest of his.

His clothes were already burnt from exploding the Brimstone. His chest was seen by all.

“Yudders! Helping the Archbishop takes priority!” The knight shouted.

Yudders cursed and moved at the back.

“Send them to Bishop Chrone! And tell him to keep that strange monster alive if possible!” Yudders cursed and moved towards the chamber.

The Knights nodded.

Landen was carrying Dyne again.

“Hurry. Move as fast as you can.” Dyne whispered

Landen did so, and his group moved quickly.

As the group vanished, Yudders was having difficulty channeling the energy.

“It’s not working!” Yudders exclaimed.

“What?! How could that be?”

“I don’t know!”

“Hurry up! The situation looks grim! Those warriors were wounded, and even Landen is hurt!”

“I’m trying my best!” Yudders exclaimed.

He kept pouring energy into the pedestal, but it wasn’t working.

When Dyne traveled, he had left behind a hint of darkness to block the traveling passageway. This ensured that no one would be able to move towards that location. But as a wielder of Brimstone, Dyne could easily clear the passage.

Yudders kept pouring all he could and was forcibly exhausting the amount of Mind powers he had. As he continued to send out his mana, the pedestal finally worked.

“AHHHHH!” But Yudders screamed in pain as the pedestal was drawing in more mana than what Yudders had.

Because Dyne blocked the passageway, the pedestal was rerouting the group to the next nearest location. But this required more mana than was necessary.

A flash of white appeared, and the group vanished.

Dyne and the group were led by the team towards the exit of the mine. Various soldiers were guarding the place. Dyne and the group were given emergency assistance and even sent a message to bring Bishop Chrone to meet them halfway.

In the scuffle of bringing the group in, Amorien and Ishreth had already woke up. But Chad and Jaden whispered to them to pretend that they were weak and frail.

The group was quickly led into a large caravan with a strange horse-like creature seated in the front.

The soldier immediately moved in, and Jaden and Chad immediately began to open the various herbs and healing items. They glanced towards the soldiers and asked for privacy as they would soon apply for the medicines on their wounded allies.

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The soldier nodded and moved towards the front of the caravan to lead the way. The speed was fast, and the group was left to their privacy.

“Where are we?” Amorien asked immediately when she found the chance.

“What happened? Last thing I remembered...” Ishreth began to blush.

“We’ve crossed the portal! We’re headed for Bishop Chrone.” Jaden immediately answered.

“Chrone, huh? To think that the Serpentari has secretly allied with that bishop...”

“It’s possible that most in the Church of Light are our enemy. If the Archbishop has fallen to this depravity, it’s possible for all of them too!”

“Landen, good job in helping us out.” Dyne smiled. He then suddenly harnessed two energies. His right hand wielded dark energy, and his right wielded Brimstone. Secretly, Dyne had crumpled up several poisonous herbs.

“Don’t resist!” Dyne ordered as he touched Landen with his two arms.

Suddenly, the force of Dark and Brimstone began to work. Dark energy coursed all over his body and began to absorb bits of the lingering death energy. Brimstone started to purge it and was turning it to light.

Dyne’s cultivation followed the experience gathering method of Strafe and applied the purging methods that he used with the Gimards and his various torturous means. But with his exceptional, uncanny mastery over the elements, Dyne could see the multiple impurities in Landen’s body.

Jaden and his team were all nurtured by King Ciroel, and thus, they have the best items at their disposal. But this assigned commander who guarded the post was of common birth and reached his level through his means and had resolved various improper cultivation methods that would only benefit the short term.

As such, Dyne’s unprecedented double power allowed him to purge the body of Landen easily.

The expression of the pained Landen turned from fear to surprise and finally joy.

He was breaking through!

BOOM!

Martial Formation Level 2.

Dyne retracted his arm and smiled.

“Serve me well, and you will reach higher heights!” Dyne laughed.

As a soldier, criminal interrogator, spy torturer, and part-time dance instructor, he knew that the best way to get others to cooperate with his plans was to use various means of motivating and demotivating techniques. The stick and carrot were a simple principle. But Dyne knew that it was even more effective if fear was present for the stick, and respect and admiration were there for the carrot.

Landen glanced at Dyne in awe.

“Your body was full of traumatic and limiting substances. It seems you were forcing your cultivation up?”

“Yes! That’s exactly the case! I was trying to level up swiftly!”

“Well, it’s a good thing you did it recently. Otherwise, it would have been more difficult for me to cleanse your body and increase the life energy.” Dyne smiled. The truth was, aside from the Brimstone and Darkness, Dyne had also used a certain poison to attack the body and force it to expel the poison. The control poison was wielded perfectly in darkness, and since it was easily burnt and destroyed by Brimstone, the poison was immediately destroyed before it could do more harm to the body.

Jaden and his team marveled at Dyne’s miracles. Amorien and Ishreth had even more stranger gazes.

Dyne then began to discuss the plan.

The travel took hours, and soon, they could see another caravan rushing on the way.

The two caravans stopped as they met. They were in the middle of the deep forest.

A tall bearded man emerged out of the caravan. He wore a green robe with several white lines extending vertically.

“Bishop Chrone!”

“I have received the message from the Distant Talisman! Where is the young boy with the demonic infestation?” The bishop urgently asked as it called to the driver.

The driver led them to the back. Several other priests were present and followed the bishop.

As he entered, he saw Dyne’s sweaty and shivering form. The rocky object at his heart was constantly glowing, and Dyne was convulsing and shaking.

“What is this? What happened over there?” The bishop’s eyes grew mad.

The soldiers and group began to observe closely as they were amazed by the strange scene before them.

“This young boy is from another continent! He hails from a place called Legaia, and large creatures of Iron ruled! I do not know what happened. A squadron from the Archbishop was sent back. They were wounded, and strange monsters shortly attacked us! They were demonic creatures and were looking for something called an Afarit!” Landen explained.

“WHAT?!” The bishop shouted in shock. There was something strange with his shout. It had a very coarse and almost shivering voice.

Even the priest was stunned at the voice of the bishop.

“What did these creatures look like?! Where did they come from? What of the mission? Did Lazarus succeed?”

“Confirmed! Attack them now!” Dyne suddenly shouted.

Suddenly, Dyne delivered a swift slash as Grim appeared out of nowhere and stabbed the bishop in the chest.

“Dragon King Strike!”

BOOM!

The explosion sent the bishop flying back. Jaden and his team, along with Landen, began to attack the soldiers and knock them out.

The other priests were unable to move as the Paralysis Mist's power took effect and numbed them.

With the group paralyzed, Dyne’s team was immediately able to subdue the men.

“Lord Dyne! Why did you kill the bishop!” Landen was shocked.

“You couldn’t sense it. But that bishop reeked of Dark energy. The fact that it cold Lazarus directly by name and held no regard for his title proved that this isn’t a minion of Lazarus! It must have that! The same object that changed the good man Alen-Tax of Star Ocean 2!” Dyne glanced at the body of the bishop.

Suddenly, terrifying darkness and a powerful force could be felt.

The man that was once a Bishop stood up, and his form had grown grotesque.

“Hey, Pokedex. What monster is that?” Dyne asked Strafe.

“...Screw you!”

“Come on, cheap man! The best you can do is tell me what that is.”

“An Ogre. But it’s close to succeeding its Deviling.”

“I knew it would be an ogre. But Deviling sounds like this isn't going to be my Alen-Tax experience in Star Ocean 2. As expected... It seems that I have more fun games to play.” Dyne chuckled.

“What is that?!” Jaden asked as he felt the darkness continue to grow.

“I can’t sense his strength!” Ishreth warned.

“Oh... It looks like we’re in for a tough fight.” Dyne smiled excitedly.