"Time freeze!" Immediately, the world freezes, and right before my eyes is a crazy lady with black wings and claws stuck in motion.

It doesn’t take long for me to grab Vacinay and Ghomas' hands (one second) and dash out at full speed (now two seconds).

“I will kill you!” She finishes the swing of her claws.

The other cool thing about time freeze is the disorienting effect on bystanders. Of course, the fact I can move or interact with those stuck in time is a tiny bit cooler.

She stares at her claws and is baffled. “What the… teleportation?”

Her question doesn’t last long. Instead, she gives chase. I don’t like how fast she is! But suddenly she stops mid-air with a struggling expression.

She bares her teeth and pushes against something as if there is an invisible wall.

Did I do something cool? Nah, no way. I eye Hessien, who is holding his back like an old man.

Did she break his back, making it impossible for him to flee? That doesn’t add up with how calm-ish he is chatting with her.

It has to be something else… Maybe she cast an affliction skill on him to keep him in place? If that’s the case, why wouldn’t she have done the same to us?

The black-winged woman screeches, “Damn this binding!”

After struggling, she calls Hessien. “Help me kill them! Get up! Move move move move!”

Huhhhhh?

“What the hell is she on?” Vacinay asks. “Kill us? Why the hell would he help with that?”

Beats me.

The woman replies with a glare, “To kill you rodents! I can’t wait for when I get my hands on your filthy skulls and guts; I am going to break it apart, squeeze it, tear it…”

Ghomas sighs. “Who is going to call the priest or holy skill user to exorcise this succubus wannabe?”

I shrug. “I thought she was trying to be an edgy demon. But she does seem like a lame. Definitely trying to be a succubus.”

I chuckle. “How are you going to try to be a succubus with no sex appeal? Come on, you gotta try harder than that.”

Vacinay grins. “She is definitely someone who wakes up and walks to the mirror to tell herself, ‘you are beautiful. You are pretty.’ Too bad it can’t convince reality.”

That really ticks her off. A senile smile spawns on her face. “Okay… then. So he doesn’t want to help me. Coooooool.”

What is she planning? Also, I am still confused by her statement. Is he somehow restricting her movement?

She takes in a deep breath; causing her 180-degree angle chest to rise—dramatically at that.

I have a bad feeling about this!

A bright white light shines from her mouth, growing brighter by the second!

Ghomas thinks quickly. He generates a clone and throws it in front of us. What about me? I am already running away at full speed, holding the other two while doing so, of course.

The large beam shoots towards us, emitting a blinding light—it immediately tears through the clone.

“Hell with that!” Vacinay transforms into a cat.

Oh. The beam is large, but its not that that big. Meaning, she is now too little to be hit. But I am not that lucky.

The beam hits— It doesn’t?

It suddenly vanishes, and I hear a sudden yelp. I rub my eyes and try to look for the woman.

She is holding her leg in pain…?

“You stabbed yourself! You twisted bastard!” She hurls insults at Hessien who has a knife in his leg.

Eh…?

I don’t even know what to think really. I am so damn confused.

With a disgusting amalgamation of sounds, and rapid generation of flesh, Vacinay returns back to normal. She quickly dons her clothes.

As she puts on her jeans pants, she says, “I got a wild theory.”

I look at her, expectantly.

She buttons her shirt, taking her precious time while knowing me and Ghomas are waiting for her shitty theory.

After she finish dress, she says. “She made a contract with him. Hessien was desperate and in heat, so he fell for it. But…” She thinks hard. “Since he is a reality defender, there was some protection against the exploitative contract. Or… they now share souls? If souls are a thing? I don’t know! But something along those lines.”

I want to mock her, but it isn’t too unbelievable, except for Hessien falling for a stupid contract. That dude is too specific in the type of women he likes for him to be that easily seduced.

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Or not. She isn’t a human. So to him, it is probably going to be a new experience? Shit, I don’t know.

If only there was a way to find out… Tch tch. How could we…

“Oi, Hessien, what’s that lady's deal with you?” Ghomas asks.

Damn it. I wanted to have a dramatic moment. Sigh.

Hessien yells while in pain, “She tried to take over my body! And got completely shit on by her dumb binding—contract!”

Oh.

Vacinay smiles, happy that her theory was mostly correct.

She says, “When in doubt, believe in me.”

I think I would have passed on that. Either way, dealing with that demon/spirit is way more important.

I tell Ghomas, “Alert a guard and ask for their priest or whoever can exorcise her.”

“Got it.”

With a confident smile, I tell her, “Count your last minutes because soon you will be dead.”

She gives up on holding her leg in pain and instead just straight up says, “I see. You all must be very low in intelligence… Ah yes. It makes a lot of sense why I was placed here.”

“You are the dumb one!” I shout. “And what do you mean by it makes sense you were placed there? To get trapped with Hessien? Since your body possession trick clearly backfired!”

“Yeah, that’s true.” She says with her arms folded. “But, I don’t know… Maybe it was just coincidental that all 6 seals of me were placed in the cleaning room, in this living quarters, where you fools occupy.”

… Shit.

“These sons of bitches wanted to use you to take control of our bodies, but their plan backfired, didn’t it?”

She shrugs. “Probably.”

The door slams open, and the guards along with the president rush in. The president especially is extremely anxious.

He sees us and the demon. His eyes fleetingly between us.

“W-wow! An evil manifestation! You all found it here? Thank goodness we have you all—“

I cut through the poor acting. ”You set us up, didn’t you?”

He licks his lips as he anxiously looks around. “Pft. Of course not. I wouldn’t do something so lowly to the great defenders! We… just thought placing that thing here would be a great measure so that if it does break, you all would be able to easily suppress it!

Yuen, who is next to him, is literally whispering to him while acting like he is talking to himself.

We all stare at both Yuen and the president; I just realize I never learned this bitch-made sucker's name.

The president realizes he can’t bullshit out of the situation and grumbles. “Okay okay! We took drastic measures! You can’t really blame us. When I was told that one of you was defeated by the sewage creature, we had to come up with measures to utilize you all the best. When you all left the site was the best time to make a drastic action. It isn't to kill, but to control so that you all could be… more competent.”

The failed seductress, demon miss shouts, “Fools! You are more foolish than these mortals. Sure, the plan of me taking their bodies would have worked, but how would you have accounted for me going on a rampage?”

I assume they have a skill or something designed to control her, but whatever it is can’t work on us for whatever reason. So control her, she controls us, and they now technically control us.

Damn betraying bastards. This is how they repay us after I saved them from genocide?

“I am competent enough. If I recall right, I outsmarted a skill creation that even your damn guards were afraid of. How the hell were guards of yours afraid of something that’s level 18? That sounds like incredible incompetence to me.”

Yuen is eyeing me heavily too. “Hah. As if. They are just guards in training. True royal guards are level 30 and above. You are looking at a level 32 right here and now!”

Still so pathetically low…

That could only mean one thing; leveling up is incredibly difficult. Ughhhhhhhh! Which means that's going to apply to us too.

I don’t want to take that ‘L,’ so I ask, “Your skill card; the originator one, it’s spider generation, isn’t it?”

“Something like that, why? And by the way, asking that is very rude; but I would let it slide cause you are cu—

“That’s a minor, dude.” A guard says quickly.

I'm not... I just forgot I was 18 when I said my age. but no one would believe me if I said that.

Yuen doesn’t finish his words. Instead, he turns to the guard. It is one of the men who was with him when we were summoned to the summoning room.

Yuen asks, “Man, what the hell do you think I was going to say?”

“Cute?”

“Curious. I was going to say curious!”

The other guard looks away, ashamed. “My bad.”

Yuen sighs. “Anyway… My skills are pretty good. I know you are surely envious—“

I interject. “I have time manipulation.”

The haughty spirit of me doesn’t stop at that. I summon the secondary cards despite the fact they are currently blank white cards of energy.

I continue, “And I can obtain a lot more. So, why would I be envious or impressed by you? Hell, y’all plan backfired, and now this demon or ‘evil manifestation’ is bound to Hessien. So truly… Who are the superior ones?” I take a step forward.

At times like this, I wish I was taller than 5”6.5. Since I am quite literally looking up at Yuen. It isn’t as threatening or badass in my mind,

However… Me flexing our advantages does have an effect on him. Since his confident demeanor breaks away.

Vacinay nods. “Yep. Don’t let us catch you all trying some shit like that—this is the first warning.” She raises a finger like a strict teacher.

The president bares his teeth.

Hessien, who uses the kitchen counter to push himself up suddenly calls to the demon. “Oi.”

She looks at him, not turning much to his direction. “What is it?”

"Let’s make an agreement. My friends are off the kill list; however… every other person could be on your kill-list if I am okay with it.”

The guards, president, and Yuen's eyes shoot wide.

The president shouts, “What are you insinuating?!”

Hessien waits for the demon to think. She is just looking at the president and then smiles. “I like it. A shitty deal, I think. But it’s good enough.”

A sudden white chain appears before them and shines. It must have been related to the deal they just made. A contract rule. Even Hessien mumbles after realizing it.

The president once again raises his voice, “I asked a question!”

Hessien turns towards the president. “I am securing the safety of my friends and little cousin.”

Could have just left out the little part…

The president's expression changes a lot of times before he looks at the floor in shame. “Fine… We will not attempt to set you all up or do anything backhanded again.”

I don’t know if I just trust words…

I ask, “How do we know you will keep your word?”

He manifests his card. From it, a skill tree suddenly appears in the air. Instead of icons representing the skills; there are very dim white cards. Oh. Hm. I wonder…

I manifest my legendary originator card and try the same thing. From it, two very dim yellow cards branch from it. There is still a root connecting it to the originator card. But it is interesting to know I could do that. I see no real practical value for it. But I assume when you obtain a lot of skills, it would be useful.

The president then points at one of his skills. “I can make a soul contract.”

The cards vanish before a scroll made out of blue energy appears before us. “Let’s sign.”

After all of us excluding the demon sign the contract, which we do by simply pressing our hands on the scroll, the president and his group dismiss themselves. Damn. Another victory! We are on a roll!

The demon, who is stitching Hessien's leg wound via shape-shifting her fingers as threads, asks him, “So, since I couldn’t sign the contract due to being bound to you, when can we go kill them?”

Hessien replies, “Never?”

Her somewhat happy expression freezes. “Wha…?”

Hessien grins. “I said if I'm okay with it for a reason. I will never be okay with you killing others, well, unless it's for self-defense. In other words…”

He pokes her forehead. “I tricked ya.”