The blazing sun shone through the leaves of the Delphi Forest as many footsteps sounded out from within, a group of nine Heroes walked in a single-filed line as they all followed a woman who was. Leading them at the front.

She was wearing a full black military-style suit, though she didn’t wear a helmet which let everyone see her short orange hair and light brown eyes, her right hand was gripping on the handle of her katana as she walked with action. “I’ve been to that cave with Ken here before, he suspected that it was a demon.”

Ken, a robed man holding a magic staff nodded in confirmation, glancing behind him with his deep blue eyes. “Yes, I’m sure you all know but demons are one of the most powerful race of Gate Creatures, you should be careful—“

“Yeah, yeah, the kids know, Nora.” A muscular man rolled his eyes, he had short spiky purple hair and black eyes, he had tattoos and piercings all over the place which weren’t even covered up by his punk-style clothing. He was carrying a large broadsword on his shoulder, its designs matched his aesthetic as well with a black made and a bandage-covered handle. “Besides, I’m Ragnar the Demon Slayer, I’ve killed over five hundred demons ever since the beginning of First Gate!”

Derek turned to look at his friends behind him, despite having an expert on the team, he still felt slightly nervous and wanted to know if he was the only one feeling that way, but then he realized that Lira, an assassin, looked very pale like she was about to pass out. “Are you okay, Lira?”

“H-Huh?” The black haired woman looked up, her grey eyes seemed dull as she met eyes with Derek. “I…I don’t know…I’ve been feeling a little off since I’ve taken that…medicine.”

“You too?” Brandon, the tank of the team, spoke up in a worried tone, his brown eyes filled with concern as he glanced down at himself, more specifically, he was looking at his thick knight-like armor. “…My Silver Wolfsbane had never felt this heavy.”

“Hm? But Rhys’ dad said it was supposed to increase our ranks right?” Alex, a redhead, spoke as he peeked his head into the conversation, alternating his brown eyes between the three of them. He was the last mage on the team who specialized in support spells, and was skilled enough to not need any sort of medium to cast his magic. “I feel a little dizzy too, but I can feel my mana pool increasing.”

“Might just be a little side effect then.” Derek concluded, since mages were several times more sensitive to mana than the other classes, Alex’s claims sounded believable.

“Get ready, we’re here.” Nora spoke as she put up her fisted hand, signaling everyone to stop. She slowly pulled out her katana, careful to not make a sound as she stepped closer to the cave in front of her.

Just as she’d taken her third step, Ken suddenly grabbed Nora by the shoulder, stopping her from moving. She turned around and frowned at the mage. “What are you doing?”

“It’s…I sense black magic.”

Immediately after Ken had finished speaking, a tornado of darkness rose from in front of the cave entrance, causing everyone to take out their weapons and stand on guard, eyes fixated on the now dissipating magic, which revealed three figures standing inside.

Derek’s eyes widened with recognition, how could he have forgotten? That same but slightly longer raven black hair, and most importantly, the same pair of eyes that kept haunting him in his dreams.

“It’s him! It’s Theodore! Kill him now!”

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.

.

Gabriel walked into the large room underneath the Griffins’ Science and Technology Inc. building, the door still hadn’t been installed yet and he could immediately see the large contraption inside, it was the same circular-shaped machine that’d opened up a blackhole-like portal.

“…Nine of them should be enough of a distraction, don’t you think?” Gabriel seemed to be talking to himself, although soon a voice would ring out inside his head.

[Yes, do you have everything ready?]

Gabriel laughed as he began fumbling with all the wires and other machineries on the ground behind the portal device, a soft glow of magic surrounded his body as objects in his hands would began to shift and change into new ones, two small components became one large device, and something of equal size became another object entirely; this was the power of alchemy. “You’re starting to sound impatient, of course everything’s ready, although do you think Varon would still be able to stop you?”

[A mere child deity could never stop a real god such as I.] The rough voice spoke with arrogance, tone slightly lashed with anger as if this god thought that Gabriel’s question wasn’t even supposed to be asked.

“I should probably rephrase.” He moved on to the actual portal itself, hands holding a bunch of complex components meant to fit on the base of the circular frame, and with the help of alchemy magic, it became very easy to fuse the parts into the machine. “Do you think the ‘god’ that’s with Varon can stop you?”

There was a moment of silence, showing the god’s hesitance.

[…By the time ‘she’ notices, I would’ve already accomplished my goal.]

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.

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“It’s him! It’s Theodore! Kill him now!” The moment Derek shouted, everyone casted their magic and skills, and a barrage of colors moved through the air as they aimed directly at the three young men who’d just arrived via the teleporter.

Theodore was the first to react, with a wave of his hand, a wall of darkness rose from the ground in front of him and covered him and his friends in a black dome, effectively blocking all of the attacks.

[Dark Veil.]

Dispersing the spell, Theodore narrowed his eyes at the attackers, instantly recognized all of their faces and their names began to resurface from his memory.

‘Derek the Berserker.’

‘Miles the Spellblade.’

‘Lira the Assassin.’

‘Brendon the Tank.’

‘Alex and Sara, Mages.’

Eugene immediately shifted into his wolf form, taking out his battleaxe from behind him while Merlin summoned the black bow and nocked an arrow, eyes fixated on the target.

‘Good thing I left my dad there, it would’ve been hard to fight this many people at once while having to constantly watch out for him.’ Theodore thought to himself as he swept his eyes through the enemy group, bringing up their information with ‘True Dragon Eyes’

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‘Hm?’ Theodore noticed that the seven people that were involved in his death all have this unknown condition. ‘…Why are their ranks like that?’

<>

Nora suddenly moved first, she lunged forward at an amazing speed that surprised even Theodore, her katana drew a beautiful arch in the air as it struck him directly at the neck.

But instead of his neck flying off like Nora had expected, her weapon bounced off of him with so much force that a loud ‘crack!’ was heard, although after looking down to check her sword’s condition, she would find out that it wasn’t the A-Grade blade that’d cracked.

But her own wrist.

Nora screamed in pain as she fell onto her knees, clutching her broken wrist. “AAHHHHH!!! Wha—How—? What??!!!”

“Nora!” Ken shouted her name through his gritted teeth, he glared at Theodore with a look of pure rage as he held out his hands and staff in front of him, drawing a large blood-red magic circle. “You son of a b*tch! Die!”

A bolt of sanguine lightning shot from the magic circle, although Theodore didn’t have to do anything at all since an arrow had flew in the way and blocked the spell for him, causing a minor explosion upon contact.

Merlin instantly nocked three arrows and fired all of them at once, one was headed straight for Ken’s chest while the other two went for his neck and head, although the mage simply conjured up another spell and blocked the lowest arrow with a red barrier.

However, the two other arrows suddenly made a turn, wrapping around behind Ken before hitting their intended marks. The mage was only able to let out a croak before falling onto the ground, motionless.

“Pfft. Show off.” Eugene rolled his eyes then charged at the group without letting Merlin reply to him, he went straight towards Brendon, the tankiest person according to Theodore’s ‘True Dragon Eye’. The werewolf swung his axe horizontally, striking Brendon in the chest and the sheer force created from that attack sent the tank flying into a tree while the aftershock prevented anyone from getting close, allowing Eugene to close in the distance between him and Brendon in almost an instant.

However, before Eugene could finish off the tank, someone snuck up behind him.

‘Hm? An assassin?’ The wolf didn’t fret and simply turned around to block Lira’s two daggers with the flat side of his battleaxe, though the woman didn’t lose momentum at all and she used the weapon as a surface for her to bounce off of, landing a few meters in front of him.

“That was a dumb play,” Eugene snorted, rushing towards the small assassin with his battleaxe behind him, ready to deliver a powerful blow. “Beastmen are the most sensitive to sneak attacks.”

“Well, sure, and tanks are also very good at soaking up damage.” As soon as Lira finished talking, Brendon came out of nowhere and blocked Eugene’s heavy attack with his gauntlet-covered arms, his head was dripping wet with blood although other than that he seemed relatively unharmed.

“…You annoying prick.” Eugene’s eyes suddenly flashed and began glowing softly, and when Brendon looked at it, he would suddenly feel his muscles weakened.

[Predator’s Gaze.]

“What—“ Before the tank could finish his words, he suddenly toppled backwards, but before he could hit the ground, he was grabbed by the ankle and was then spun around vertically, his face crashing into the dirt each time.

Eugene laughed maniacally, and just as Lira was about to come to help her friend, he let go of Brendon which caused the tank to crash into the frail woman, crushing her body underneath all of that weight and force as the sounds of multiple bones cracking sounded out.

Three out, five more to go.

It seemed that Nora still had some strength left in her, while Theodore was too busy locked in a stare down with the others who were still shaking with fear in their spots, she grabbed her katana with her left hand before trying attack Theodore again, but this time, she aimed at every monster’s weak points; the eye.

It proved to be a fatal mistake on her part.

As Theodore instinctively turned to face Nora, her sword impaled straight into his left eye, although it would soon stop in its place due to his immense defenses. He let out a cry of pain but then immediately glared at Nora, seemingly more annoyed than anything else. “You b*tch! You should have pretended you were dead!”

Theodored grabbed the katana’s blade with his bare hand and snapped them into shards, much to Nora’s horror when she realized that she’d made a grave mistake. He swiftly took out the small fragment inside his eye, letting the blood flowed down from the destroyed socket, though he paid it no mind and casted an ice magic.

The blue magic circle appeared from underneath Nora’s feet, she tried to turn and run but the spell followed her nonetheless, and soon she would begin to feel the temperature around her drop, until it reached a negative level that no normal human should be able to survive in.

However, a Hero could.

<>

Especially one with a high ranking like her, though for in this particular situation, it meant nothing but a slow, and painful death.

[Punishing Cold.]

Nora cried out in pain as she could only watch in horror while her flesh began to catch frostbite and freeze up at rapid speed, the intensity of the pain was indescribable and she would soon fall to the ground, back arched in agony as she desperately tried to break her own skin apart thinking that it would stop the pain.

Meanwhile, the rest of the enemy group seemed to have finally gathered themselves together as they suddenly began counterattacking.

"Get that archer first! He's weaker!" Sara screamed as she readied her magic, she was still shaking, terrified after seeing what was done to her friends and allies, although her survival instincts were telling her to fight back and so she chose to take her chances with someone else.

Alex also seemed to agree with her as well and he readied his own spells, trying to enhance his remaining friend's strength.

The ones that were left standing started to glow a soft yellow as Alex's spell had taken effect, Sara quickly used this opportunity to release multiple fireballs towards Merlin in an attempt to subdue him with a single shot.

Though the redhead simply readied his nocked his the same amount of arrows and instantly shot them all down, the weapon's high grade making a mediocre spell such as that seemed like mere toys. "Weak, huh. Says the person with a f*cking buff."

Meanwhile, Derek and Miles were slowly and carefully slipping out of the battle, they knew that if they'd continued to stay there they would surely suffer the same fate as the rest of them, so Derek had immediately ushered Miles over.

"Damn it!" The spellblade gritted his teeth, frowning with frustration. "I could've beaten all of them!"

"Are you dumb!?" Derek glared at Miles. "Do you think I wanna run away? I would rather swallow my pride than die a dog's death! If you want to go back and fight them then you do you!"

Before Miles could say anything back, something had suddenly landed in front of them, its heavy body had caused the ground to slightly shake with the landing's force.

"So there you guys are…!" Eugene bared his fangs, the blade of his battleaxe gleaming menacingly under the sunlight, he didn't waste anymore time babbling and immediately charged at the two of them.

Derek reacted by using his own Beast Transformation, white and black fur erupted from all around his body as he began to increase in size, his clothes tearing slightly because of it, and just as Eugene had closed in the distance, Derek had turned into a weretiger and he used his increased strength and speed to weave around the deadly axe before tackling the wolf onto the ground.

Miles sees this as an opportunity and immediately rushed in while summoning his longsword, an aura of crackling electricity engulfed his form as he raised his blade high in the air.

Although instead of waiting for Derek to get out of the way, Miles instantly brought the lightning engulfed sword onto the both of them.

However, Eugene was quicker and he managed to struggle out of Derek's grasp before he could be impaled along with him, causing Miles' attack to only hit the weretiger.

Derek gritted his teeth and glared at the swordsman, realizing that he was just hit right where his heart was. "You…You son of a b*tch!"

Miles ignored him and instead focused on Eugene, who was already back on his feet. "...What a useless cat."

"Miles! Help us!"

Sara's voice suddenly ran out from behind Miles, it was filled with pure distress which caused everyone to turn towards her.

Miles' eyes widened the moment he saw who was following both Sara and Alex, he seemed to be holding himself back so he wouldn't catch up to them immediately and the dark bow in his hand gave away the redhead's class.

Merlin's eyes landed on Eugene and he instantly shouted at him. "Hey mate! Don't let them run past you!"

"Huh? Alright?" Eugene sounded slightly confused, but otherwise he firmly held his ground, holding his ax out in front of him.

Miles looked back towards the werewolf for a moment before glaring at the two mages running towards him. "You useless f*ckers! Why would you draw him here!?"

"We…We can't hurt them at all!" Alex shouted back, his eyes quivering with terror. "He's a monster! He…He ate her!"

"Who? What the f*ck are you on about—"

Suddenly, Miles felt a shiver run down his spine, instantly realizing that someone had snuck up behind him, although since their presence was way different than Eugene's, he immediately deduced that it was someone else—something else.

Slowly turning around, Miles was met with two cold emerald eyes staring right down at him, he was defenseless, all of his wounds from earlier had magically healed, it was as if he hadn’t been injured in the first place, and he wasn’t wearing any sort of protective equipment as he stood nonchalantly with his hands were buried inside his pockets.

But yet Miles knew that this person could kill him in an instant.

"Theo…"

"Don't call me that," Theodore spoke in an emotionless tone, though his eyebrows slightly tilted down when Miles used his nickname. "Answer me, what did Gabriel give you?"

"Huh?" Miles was visibly confused, he took a few steps back but Theodore didn't make a move at all. "He didn't give us anything, he just told us to find you."

"...Did you seriously forget what he gave you before coming here?" Theodore frowned, it seemed that he'd confirmed that Miles wasn't lying, though because the screen True Dragon Eyes had shown him, he knew that something else was going on.

Though before Miles could provide him with an answer, Theodore instinctively stepped back, narrowly dodging a large beast that'd suddenly lunged towards him.

When it landed on the ground, it turned around and growled at him, baring its fangs while saliva dripped from its mouth, the stab wound on its chest was still bleeding heavily but it'd somehow stayed standing and active despite the injury.

Theodore narrowed his eyes at the beast, seeing that it had the same fur pattern as a tiger but its body structure hinted that it was supposed to be bipedal. "...Isn't Derek a Berserker?"

Miles blinked, suddenly realizing that his old classmate's class had changed. "I—I don't know…I really can't remember…"

It was by then that the two mages and Merlin had reached them, forcing everyone to stop in their place and turn to face the rogue Derek warily.

Sara was the only one that didn't stop running though, she tried using a barrier magic in an attempt to slip through Eugene, though the wolf simply smacked her across the abdomen with his claws and sent her flying back, and because of the mage's weak defenses, she was knocked out and would most likely not ever get up again.

<>

Theodore's gaze shifted from Sara to Miles again. "I'm serious here, what did Gabriel give you?"

"I—It's…" Miles tried racking his brain, although every time he tried to think about it, he would find that the memories were hazy, as if something had deliberately censored what he wanted to recall.

Theodore sighed as he once again had to dodge another attack coming from the crazed Derek, his eyes were wild and reflected no intelligence, as if he'd been turned into nothing but a beast acting on mere instincts.

Everyone began to back away from the tiger while still keeping an eye on him.

Before Theodore had used Shadow Warp, he used All Devourer on Nora and found out that he couldn't take any of her skills at all.

[Error! The following skills cannot be consumed due to the Status Condition '???' .]

He needed to know what sort of thing Gabriel had given these people, the fact that Derek had somehow turned from a Berserker to a Beastman in the middle of a fight was simply something that he couldn't just ignore.

Because what if Gabriel can go beyond his S rank?

Theodore was about to speak when suddenly the screams of an eagle rang out from somewhere. Merlin was the first to turn towards the noise as Eldora flew towards them, looking alarmed and afraid as she shouted.

"The undeads are coming!"