A tall man with red hair lurked around the motel's parking lot, silently from afar he would wait for the moon light to cast on the room's curtain and see the interior of the room from the shadows.

It was a time consuming thing but that was okay, he had plenty of time and the more boring something is the safer. If these guys the boss told him about are the real deal then he’d be screwed if they went after him. However he was starting to doubt whether or not these were the real deal since they picked the grimmest motel in existence. It was absolutely filthy and known to be infested with bugs. Hell, a dead hooker was found in the parking lot just last week. This is for sure not the kind of place some good guys would hang out in, right? Yeah probably not, or at least that’s how Leroy rationalized his own inaction.

As if to taunt him the sound of a shoe crushing leaves came from behind his person, he turned around with a face full of fear to see Sebastian standing right above him with a smile.

“Whoops.” Sebastian giggled.

“Why are you out here!?” Leroy asked angrily, annoyed but relieved.

“I finished laying the [Lines] and happened to be around town.”

“Jeez, to think they’d trust you of all people to lay them.” Leroy grumbled, turning back to the hotel room the good guys were supposed to be staying in. He’d been checking their room for hours yet it seemed to be empty.

“They’re in there huh?” Sebastian asked with a curious grin and raised brow.

“Don't even think about it!” Leroy yelled out as Sebastian ran towards the hotel room.

Sebastian sprinted full speed towards the hotel room's cheap wooden door and with a diving drop kick he blew the door to pieces. “I’m here to kill you!” He shrieked gleefully.

“...”

The room was empty except for a number of roaches which scattered upon seeing him.

“Oh gross…” Sebastian groaned while flinching. Besides those roaches, there wasn’t another living thing inside this hotel room.

“Damnit!” Leroy yelled running into the hotel room with a worried face.

“They’re not even here dude…” Sebastian said with a frown.

“What’d ya mean?! they rented this hotel room!”

“That doesn't mean they stayed in it, they probably rented out a bunch just to throw us off their trail.”

“!” Leroy's jaw dropped, not only was he outsmarted but they also now would know someone was looking for them. “I’m going to kill you!” He screamed jumping at Sebastian who ran out of the room with a giggle.

# # #

“Alright, do you remember what you’re looking for?” Julius asked Kanashi.

“The Legend of Regiel explained by George G. Gesquiere and Beasts Of The World by Aristephen Darwin.” Kanashi answered confidently.

“Good, and if they have those?”

“Dragons Dream by R.S. Ratchet.”

“Perfect.” Julius said, patting Kanashi on the back. “You have my number if you need me.”

“Yep!” Kanashi called out walking towards the library. He quickly entered the library which was pretty dingy once you actually got inside of it. It smelled like mold and had the atmosphere of a nursing home which wasn't helped by all the old people who looked to be on death's door muttering under their breath while surrounding the check out booth.

“This place is a dump.” Kanashi grumbled, he wasn't being too fair in comparing it to the University Of Azhar's grand library in his head. But I mean even compared to his fathers home library it was grim. Well that just meant it’d be easier for him to poke around especially since everything was still paper logged.

To begin with, Kanashi started exploring the library's outer walls. Slowly but surely he made note of every door and where it led to. He would often stop and flip through a book for a few moments to keep his act up. After about an hour though he had already found his first book and was bored as all hell. The book he’d found was The Legend Of Regiel Explained By George G. Gesquiere. It was an old legend from the Verous union about the Legendary Swordsman Regiel who slayed the Demon King Asmodeus after a long and epic journey across the land. Apparently Reigel is also the founder of the [Wolf Fang] Sword Style which was named after his sword [Canis Majori] a curved saber. It was a pretty cool story but Kanashi had read it many times as a kid and as such he didn’t feel much joy in finding it.

“Next is Beasts Of The World By Aristephen Darwin Right?” Kanashi muttered under his breath, apparently he was actually loosely related to Aristephen Darwin through the Sarumalder family tree so that was pretty cool. Though once again he’d read said book a number of times as a kid and wasn't too excited about looking for it. “Huhhhh.” He sighed, rubbing the crease between his eyebrows.

Then he heard it. The worlds “The Ritual.” and “Tonight.” Such words seemed to be brought to his ears by the winds itself. Quietly, Kanashi creeped around the bookshelf he was standing by and looked through a small gap in the many novels where he could see two people talking.

The first one he could only see the back of and she had long spider web like black hair which spread out in odd directions and patterns. Sitting opposite to her was a man with short red hair and freckles. Kanashi couldn't see the women's face but The red haired man looked tired as if he’d been out all night without a single minute of sleep.

“I don't know if I can keep doing it Laura, I’m exhausted.” The red haired man groaned.

“The boss said it should be ready by tonight so it will all be over soon.”

“I don’t know if I can wait that much longer.”

“Come on Leroy you’re a man right? Tough it out for Queks sake!”

Quek? Kanashi wondered, he’d heard that name before somewhere but couldn't remember where. Maybe his fathers library? Yeah that sounded right but what did it mean again and why would she put it in the place of “God?” Well it seems they’re a part of this cult anyways so that made his life easier or so he thought.

"..."

“What'cha looking for?” A man's voice wshipered in Kanashis ear.

"!"

Kanashi screamed in surprise and leapt back. Right behind where he just stood was a man with fluffy blonde hair and green eyes.

“Beasts Of The World by Aristephen Darwin…” Kanashi answered, trying to loosen himself up.

“Oh I know just where that is so follow me!” The man said with a warm smile.

Dammit I shouldn't have made a scene like that! Kanashi thought, clenching his fist. Well at least it was just a librarian who found me…

The pair walked for some time through the library's endless book shelves. It seemed like they were doing circles at some points like passing the young kids reading section multiple times but maybe the librarian was just trying to kill some time off the clock?

“It’s in here.” The librarian said opening a door behind one of the checkout counters in the back of the library.

“Oh alright, I’ll wait here then.” Kanashi said.

“Oh come on don’t be a pussy.” The man said, which made Kanashi raise an eyebrow.

Wow, rude! I’ll have to report you to the manager! Kanashi thought while putting on a fake smile. “Sorry I don't like going into strange rooms with men I don't know.”

“As opposed to men you do know?”

Alright got me there… “Okay I give in, just be gentle with me.” Kanashi said with a sigh and followed the librarian into the back room which was overflowing with mountains of books. Is this a storage room? Kanashi wondered while scanning the many book titles.

“These are the books returned to the library. Normally we’re not this backed up but we’ve been pretty busy lately.” The man sighed, flicking on the light switch.

“Oh sorry to hear that.”

“It’s fine, things just get busy around this time of year you know?”

“Yeah…” Kanashi muttered in response and looked around the room more closely. It was a pretty normal return room if you ignored the large quantity of books.

The librarian looked through the massive piles of books and Kanashi continued to inspect the room

“?”

something peculiar in the corner of the room caught Kanashis eye. An oily black frog statue about a foot tall rested high on top of a book shelf with the word “Quek'' engraved at the base.

Is that Frog Quek? Kanashi wondered looking into it's black souless eyes.

“Well here you go.” The librarian called out to Kanashi breaking his fixation on the frog statue.

The librarian handed Kanashi a comically large leather bound book which he took with a grunt. It weighed at least a few dozen pounds for sure a third or fourth edition. The book was probably older than his grandparents were.

“Well good luck with everything then.” The librarian said with a smile waving for Kanashi to leave the room which Kanashi did very slowly trying to not drop the massive tome.

Kanashi checked out the two books he’d found so far and then spent another two hours snooping around. Right away he tried to return where the strange couple from before were talking about a ritual but they were long gone by them.

“Guess, I’ll have to go meet up with Julius now…”

# # #

“And that’s everything.” Kanashi said while taking a sip of his coffee.

“Hmm.” Julius hummed, putting his hand to his chin in thought.

“Did you see anything?”

“Not really, well nothing big. There were a few kids vandalizing stuff that I took care of but besides that no.”

We’re supposed to be looking out for this cult not dealing with local crime!

“But your report does scare me some.” Julius said with a frown.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Quek is a very old celestial who was worshiped as the God of Primordial darkness and Chaos.”

“AH!” Kanashi yelled out in surprise, That’s where I remembered it from. The forgotten war had a big spike in the worship of Quek!

“Seems like you know of him then?”

“Well sorta, you probably know a bit more about it than me but I get the gist of it now.”

“This ritual is probably an attempt to summon him but if that’s the case then we have nothing to worry about.”

“Huh?” Summon? Don't worry?

“What do you mean huh?” Julius asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Wait a minute. Are “Gods” real?” Kanashi asked with a nervous smile.

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Julius, as if used to Jin's bad teaching, didn't even sigh and just began to explain the concept of Celestials to Kanashi. Basically Celestials are entities made of matter from the [Abyss] which is the origin of life or something like that. Honestly Kanashi didn't understand much of what he was being told but the gist is that Celestials embody certain aspects of existence and were worshiped as Gods by people of the past. Nowadays though they aren't really too involved in mortal affairs because they’re not worshiped anymore so they’ve gotten a lot weaker. Quek is one of these Celestials and one of the oldest and strongest. He’s a “Primal” Celestial. One directly created by the universe.

“But he’s dead so it doesn't matter if they try to summon him he won't come through.”

“Oh, well then it should be easy to deal with them right?”

“As far as I can tell yes, of course Quek is only as dead as an immortal being could be so there's still a chance they could pull something out of the summoning but even you would be able to take care of whatever they manage to withdraw.”

“You sure know a lot of but Quek for him being an old god.”

“Of course I do, all of the Phoenicia clan know about him.”

Kanashi wanted to ask why that was the case but going off Julius' tone he assumed it wasnt something pleasant so he decided to change the topic. “So we’ll still raid it tonight even if this [Ritual] is going to occur?”

“It’d be best to do it sooner actually just to avoid any potential problems but I’d like to keep all the civilians out of the way so it’s a difficult choice to make…”

“I can handle that.” Kanashi said proudly.

“Then I’ll leave it to you.” Julius replied with a smile.

“Wow really? You’re just gonna trust me like that without even asking?”

“Yeah, I trust you.”

“I won't disappoint you then!” Kanashi declared with a thumbs up.

# # #

Kanashi held a megaphone in his hand and was standing atop a building in the center of the town. Below him some people had already gathered wondering what he was doing while others called the authorities. Said authorities were currently shouting up at him from below to get down so they could arrest him but Kanashi ignored those demands.

“GOOD MORNING LADIES AND GENTLEMAN!” He called out, the megaphone was loud, way too loud. The entire town probably heard it, which was perfect.

The crowd looked around at each other silent and confused. It slowly grew in number as people left their houses and place of business to hear what the megaphone wielding man had to say.

“Last night my little brother disappeared into the woods and I spent from dusk till dawn looking for him to no avail. I asked the police station for help but they said they were too busy to worry about some foreign idiot kid!” Kanashi called out with a tone of anger and sadness.

The police began to call out cries of protest from below.

My bad. Kanashi thought and tried not to look them in the eyes. Sure it was a messed up thing to do but in the end he was doing them a favor so they should get over it pretty quickly… hopefully.

“I’m willing to offer a ten thousand dollar reward to anyone who can find my little brother and bring him to me!” Kanashi pulled a thick wad of cash from his pocket which he shook up and down like someone would to tease a dog with a treat.

The crowd began to “ooh.” and “ahh.” at the flapping green bills.

“My little brother and I are the last of our family who died in the fall of Azhar while we were on vacation here with our grandparents. I beg that you reunite us!” Conjured bits of water fell from Kanashis eyes which he rubbed profusely.

The crowd quickly began to disperse, running into the woods except for the police who quickly scaled the building to arrest Kanashi.

“Sorry about that guys, it's official business!” Kanashi said drawing his Venator Society ID card to which they were surprised to see.

“Well we could have helped you out if you just asked…” One of the police officers said annoyed.

“Oh, yeah well I didn't think about that actually…” Kanashi admitted with a downcast gaze of shame.

“What are you doing here anyways?” Another officer asked.

"I actually don't know if I’m allowed to tell you that since I’m new but I need the library shut down and the area around it cleared.”

“We can do that.” The police agreed in unison to which Kanashi smiled.

# # #

I, Julius Phoenicia silently creep around the corner of the library's wooden shelves. I’ve already pulled the fire alarm to evacuate the building of all civilians beforehand so it should just be me and my targets. Kanashi is taking care of the civilians outside so I’m free to do as I need inside this place. I’m not sure what his plan is but I trust him to do whatever it is. Not trusting him would only cause more problems. Even if I still don't recognize him as a member of the Venator Society, trust is a good thing to have when working together.

I'm not good that good at observation or magic in general so I rely more on the conventional means of tracking. It’s a good thing I was taught this back at home or maybe not because that's the reason I’m bad at magic in general. But ignoring those thoughts I keep pushing forwards. I know they’re here and I know where they are only a few feet in front of me inside a back room. The one Kanashi told me about. There’s a group of people in there and they’re in a panic.

As I get within a dozen feet of the door I make my move. Leaping forwards with my board sword [Corvus] I cleave the entire wall in half. The people inside are wearing black hooded robes and they immediately cast all kinds of elemental magic at me.

I easily dodge and begin to take them down one by one, I don't kill them because of the contract I made with myself, I can’t kill anyone except for those involved with That man. I use Corvus to smash their joints enough that they won't be able to move even with healing magic. They’re not someone like Jinen who could heal a hole in his chest in seconds after all.

Within a few moments I’ve taken care of the entire group… How disappointing. I was hoping for something more but instead they’re nothing but bottom of the barrel mages. I pull the [Sealing Chains] from my coat and begin to restrain them all. Some still are trying to fight me but the back of Corvus to their temple makes them give up.

“How many more are you?” I asked sternly with my integration voice. Another thing I was taught by my family.

They all cower in fear, their faces revealed as I pulled down their hoods. I can see the man with red hair Kanashi had mentioned among them and the woman with black hair but the blonde librarian isn't here… he might try a sneak attack so I should be careful.

“This is all of us!” The red haired man yelled out with tears in his eyes, wow what a coward.

“Leroy!” One of the other members yells out in anger. She has black hair, probably the women Kanashi said this Leroy man was talking to.

“I’m sick of this! Quek has abandoned us so why should we suffer!?”

“The way of Chaos is to suffer! To suffer until you can’t care anymore and enjoy the madness!” The woman with black hair argues.

“I don't want to suffer anymore! It doesn't get easier!”

“Silence!” I command and they all shut their mouths, “What is this ritual?”

None of them answer, not good. “You.” I say pointing Corvus at the red haired man Leroy, “Tell me and I’ll let you free.”

“Don't listen to him!” The black haired woman argued.

“!”

Suddenly I sense someone of great power in the library, enough to make me worry somewhat. They could cause some real damage if I’m not careful.

The black haired woman smiles evilly, “You're finished now that the boss is here.” She says.

Their boss? Hmmm, it could be bad if he’s an apostle of Quek but I shouldn't worry too much. Osorei did more than enough damage to put him down for another few millennia but the [Path Of Chaos] has some strange powers that come with it so I should be wary. For now I’ll at least get these guys out off the board. I spin around in a single clean motion and knock them all unconscious with the hilt of Corvus. This is [Crescent Moon Style : Equilibrium.] I should teach this to Kanashi. Well his Katana doesn't have a solid hilt like Corvus does but it’d be good to know nonetheless.

“!”

I feel the ground from under me give in. “Dammit!” I grunt in surprise as I fall down into the darkness below.

# # #

After finishing with the police Kanashi began to make his way back to the library. The police had already begun to block off the surrounding area so he felt confident in returning. But as he turned the 3rd corner away from the Library he sensed something come at him quickly. He immediately covered his chest with his arms as a pair of feet from a drop kick slammed into him.

Kanashi flew through the glass window of the store behind him and into a few metal shelves which collapsed from the force of him being kicked.

“What the hell!?” Kanashi yelled out in confusment. He’d been cut open on the top of his head which poured blood down his face. His arms were sliced up pretty bad as well but nothing that couldn't be fixed with healing magic.

“Don't remember me?” The person who had just attacked Kanashi asked in the shattered Window frame. He had fluffy blonde hair and green eyes. It was the librarian from that morning.

“Oh, it’s you.” Kanashi replied with a frown and conjuring [Itachi].

“You sound disappointed, my feelings are hurt! Even after all I did to get you that book you could at least call me by my name which is Sebastian!”

I’m not in the mood to play games! Kanashi thought full of annoyance, he slammed his foot down on the ground using [Mudd] and a bunch of golems emerged.

“Wow I didn't think you’d be on this level.” Sebastian said in surprise.

Though to Kanashi creating golems was easy, for others it was a top tier skill only the best of the best could perform. Because of that this man Sebsatian was greatly over estimating the golems capabilities. Kanashi is still a novice after all so while his Golems are a feat of their own they all can only do the most simple of things.

The golems charged at Sebastian who tried to avoid them by dancing through the air like an acrobat but that left him a sitting duck for Kanashi.

[Kyoyu Style: Yuuka!] Kanashi swung Itachi through the air, a large blast of mana ripped from its blade and smashed into Sebastian's chest, making blood spray everywhere.

“UGH!” Sebastian coughed falling to the floor, Kanashi golems tried to charge in but Sebastion was able to destroy them with some quick blows while Kanashi jumped back charging his aura back up, he intended for that attack to put him out of commission but it seems like he was tougher than Kanashi had thought. Or well, Kanashi was weaker than he thought himself to be. Both of those seemed likely and were probably equally correct.

“Phew.” After a moment Sebastion raised himself from the ground. The fresh slash in his chest was healed leaving only a large scar.

“!” Healing magic!? Kanashi thought in surprise, that wound was nothing to laugh at yet he’d healed it in under a minute.

“Now then, let’s do this my way!” Sebastion said, quickly closing the distance between himself and Kanashi.

[Kyoyu Style: Zangeki!] Kanashi tried to swing Itachi at Sebastian but Sebastion was fast, he punched Kanashi straight in the diaphragm making him drop Itachi and fall over heaving.

Sebastian then swept Kanashis legs out from under him but Kanashi managed to perform a back handspring and kicked Itachi with his foot pushing it behind him.

Sebastian sprung forwards with another punch but Kanashi who was now prepared swung a right hook for Sebastian's side. Kanashis punch landed but Sebastin didn't falter, instead using his elbow he smacked Kanashi right in the temple. Kanashis vision blurred, he grit his teeth and grabbed Sebatisions shoulder and under arm. Kanashi twisted his feet, rotated his hips, and swung Sebastian over his shoulder and onto the ground with a crash.

Sebastion slammed onto the floor but as he fell he kicked his legs upwards which slammed into Kanashis nose and jaw. Kanashi stumbled back as Sebastian bounced up off the floor trying a roundhouse kick.

[HellStorm!] Kanashi met Sebsatians leg with a blast of fire which scorched his leg but wasn't enough to stop it. Sebsatians leg followed through and kicked Kanashi in the side of the arm with a loud crack.

Kanashi wheezed and fell over where he grabbed Itachi and swung it down into the ground using it as a conduit to activate [Bog]. The ground turned into a thick pool of mud which Sebastion sank into.

What came next was a gamble, Kanashi wasn't too good at Electrical magic but he thought now or never and so using Itachi as a conduit once again he charged a firm shock into the [Bog] zapping the hell out of Sebastian who screamed in pain before falling over.

“Got 'em!” Kanashi said with a pant. Just then something hit him in the head, something hard and round like a trash can lid. In fact that’s exactly what it was and it knocked him to the floor face first, he was conscious but couldn't move, his brain rattled.

“To think you’d go out like that.” A large man said entering the ruined store. He was large with jet black oily skin and straight green hair pulled back into a messy man bun. Kanashi immediately felt fear and awe over this man's appearance, he was a member of the Demon Race.

Did his tribe have a unique power to them? Kanashi wondered. Some Demons have strange abilities such as enhanced strength or regeneration while others can see in the dark. If this man had regeneration Kanashi was screwed. “Shit.” He groaned quickly putting all of the mana he could into a strong blast of wind pushing himself into the air and away from the demon. Kanashi slammed onto the floor a few meters away and rolled into a wall where he sluggishly stood up panting heavily. Everything was still all warped and he felt himself trembling, this was bad but he had Itachi in his hand and with that he had a chance.

# # #

The floor under Julius collapsed opening up a black abyss below. He dug his blade ]Corvus] into the side of the hole, slowing his descent down to the bottom. As he fell to the floor with a loud "clack" he looked up and saw a white robed figure looming down the hole staring down at him. Was that magic? No, it was probably already a trap set up beforehand hence why they were stationed inside here. It’s a good thing they didn't use that on Kanashi; he probably would have died from the fall. But that white robbed person must be the aforementioned boss.

The robed figure didn't say anything. He simply pointed down at Julius with a single finger and Julius felt something coming down on him, something large and powerful. He reactively swung his blade upwards where a large stone suddenly appeared which he was able to slice in half.

That stone didn’t appear until it made contact with [Corvus], it must be some kind of transmutation spell… it won't appear until making contact with the target person's aura! If I used [Gaius] instead of [Corvus] I’d probably be dead. If the fall hadn't killed Kanashi that spell definitely would have.

Julius looked around the hole seeing it had many different tunnels, one of which he quickly ran into right as a series of large rocks fell where he had just been.

He’s using normal conjured stones now. What a tricky thing to deal with. Anima emit their own aura unique to their creators soul so if someone like me or Kanashi used our Anima it wouldn't count that as contact and would instead conjure right onto our body crushing us instantly. Thankfully I reinforced Corvus with my own mana to increase its power so that counted as first contact but I can’t say the same for Gaius… If I imbued my own mana on top of its aura would it still count? And even if it did, would Kanashi be able to do the same?

Julius ran down the tunnels looking for any kind of exit and instead only found armies of golems which he quickly sliced through no issue using [Wolf Fang Style: Latrans]. The form was created to deal with multiple opponents at once by performing a spinning horizontal slash.

The golems weren't strong but there were plenty of them to the point it would be overwhelming to almost anyone else. But to Julius who’d fought entire armies of magic users on his own this was nothing. He continued like this for what seemed like hours slicing through a horde of never ending golems. There was probably some kind of magic circle or something which they were being summoned from like a mob spawner in a video game. But who would be feeding that thing? It would take a lot of mana so unless… Julius stopped in his tracks looking around, Are these tunnels following under the town? Maybe they’re using the people above as a battery?

It was possible, absorbing the passive mana given off from the town's population. Julius looked around and saw what seemed to be small white threads lining the ceiling which he quickly cut down and inspected closer. The threads were full of small runes which he could just barely make out the code of.

Just like I thought then… It was a pretty good scheme for the Cult and it also put Julius into a tough spot. The more golems he destroyed the more would spawn and the more that spawned the more mana would be sucked from those above ground. This would be an issue on its own but since most of the townspeople were evacuated by Kanashi (Hopefully) it would mean that the few people still in the town would be taking the brunt force of the mana absorption and be sucked dry.

But why would they do that? They clearly wanted to protect these tunnels which is why these threads are here but the tunnels exist to line the threads. So why? Why would you create something for the purpose of protecting it? There has to be another reason.

“!”

Unless this is a part of the ritual! They’re trying to use the entire town's mana to summon Quek because they know they can’t use their own mana pool alone… “Hehe.” Julius chuckled as more golems emerged from both ends of the corridor. “How do I solve this then?” He asked with a nervous smile.

# # #

Kanashi and the green haired man began to fight, Kanashi was still off balance but because of his magic he could stand a better chance, he blasted the man with spell after spell using blasts of hot water, blasts of Air, flamethrowers and stone bricks.

The man was injured by the onslaught of attacks but somehow he kept going forwards even with what should have been mortal wounds. Kanashi didn't want to kill the man, just hurt him enough that he’d be out of commission but at this point he wasn't sure how much more the man could take before dying. He didn't have regeneration but it seemed like he was extremely resistant to magical attacks.

As Kanashi was at his wits end the worst happened. The blonde haired man Sebastian rose from the ground with a groan.

It was over, Kanashi lost. There's no way he could fight both of them at once. Just as he was thinking this there was a crash followed by the sound of a sword slicing flesh and blood spraying. Both men collapsed to the floor with a thud and Julius appeared in front of Kanashi with [Gaius] in hand.

“Julius!” Kanashi yelled out in surprise and excitement.

“Looks like you got overwhelmed already…” Julius said with a disappointed tone.

Now to be fair these guys did get the jump on Kanashi but he wasn't going to argue so he simply apologized “My bad.”

“It’s fine.” Julius replied looking at the green haired man. Looks like this is a member of the Dreadnought Demon Tribe though. They’re famous for magical resistance.

Neither Sebastian nor the Dreadnought were dead nor would they die, Julius simply sliced their Achilles tendon and knocked them out with the flat part of Gaius. They’d survive… hopefully.

“I found out what the Ritual is.” Julius said, turning back to Kanashi.

“Oh?”

“Underneath the town there's a series of tunnels with conduits covered in runes, they’re planning to suck the mana from the townspeople to summon Quek.”

“Oh, shit! That sounds like a real nightmare situation!” Kanashi said in surprise. Would these conduits suck them dry until they passed out or would it milk their soul to its fullest extent and kill them that way? Judging by how Julius is acting, probably the latter. Kanashi thought as sweat dripped down his back.

“But I took care of it for the most part, I sliced the conduit in a few places so the ritual shouldn't be able to be completed to full fruition.” Julius said as he reached into his coat and pulled out some scrolls of paper, one of which he tossed to Kanashi.

“?”

“It’s a healing scroll made by Cao-Li. Use it to fix yourself up.”

“Got it!” Kanashi said, opening the scroll up. He had no idea how it worked but once he opened it he felt his mana begin to be used by the runes in the scroll and in return he was healed. “Awesome…” He said in surprise, then he looked around at the guys on the floor, both of which were for sure down with the count but just in case Kanashi and Julius bound them in [Sealing Chains] to prevent any magical shenanigans.

“Alright let’s get a move on!” Julius said, waving for Kanashi to follow him out of the store.