'Raven, no matter what happens, you can only use the Crown as your last resource. Remember, the Crown of Desire is not you; you cannot control it.'

Those were the thought running through Raven's head right now while he took the elevator down toward the basement of Athenaeum. His dry skin from before is now turned back to normal, and his breathing has become calm once more. But sweat was still running down his forehead, which he quickly wiped away.

Looking at his right arm, Raven clicks his tongue in displeasure.

'It's not like I like using it.' Raven thought, still thinking about the statement in his head before, a comment he clearly remembered coming from his master.

He still remembers as clearly as the day when he spent most of his time training, trying his best to control his power. Night and day he spent trying to survive, not from a monster or the training, but to survive from the Crown itself. The power he had been given involuntarily, the power that is trying to kill and consume him even now.

After a couple more minutes, the elevator finally reaches the basement, and the door opens up, revealing the massive yet empty basement floor. There is no light in the basement; the only light source comes from the elevator light.

"Tch! Why the hell is it so dark?" Raven says while walking into the basement, adjusting slowly to the darkness. The sound of his footstep reverberated throughout the entire dark basement.

However, at that very moment, Raven immediately stops to a halt. His right arm starts to glow green, causing Raven to clutch his right arm tightly, and his eyes look at his shaking right arm in shock.

"This...!? It is just like before!" Raven says while his left arm clutches his right arm tightly, 'But it's even more powerful than before!'

Raven remembers this sensation very. It is the sensation from before when he first arrived at Tartarus, but that time, it was milder than this. This time, the green aura was much more intense than before, not to mention the pain from it was even more intense.

Not to mention, Raven can feel the emotion in his right arm.

'The Crown is feeling afraid?' Raven thought before; out of nowhere, he suddenly felt his entire body become much heavier, as if a weight was pulling him down, and it took him everything to stand alone.

'What the hell is this pressure? I never feel this kind of pressure since my master!' Raven thought, still trying his best to stand his ground without falling. However, the pressure is only there for a few seconds before disappearing entirely.

Coming out from the darkness, the sound of something moving can be heard throughout the basement, the sound of the steel boots hitting the floor and the sound of footsteps slowly coming close to Raven.

When the pressure disappeared, the sound of footsteps came closer and closer; Raven looked forward to seeing a figure stepping out from the dark; the figure's footstep was the only sound that could be heard in the basement, and Raven glared intensively at the figure in front of him.

"So you have arrived, demon." The figure says, with his being that of a male, before stepping out of the dark, revealing his appearance.

A figure that is possibly 2 meters tall, clad in full black armour from head to toe. He wears heavy black armour on his head, shoulders, abdomen, upper legs, and feet. He also wears a black bodysuit. The armour on his shoulders shape like a face of a fox and has two red eyes on each shoulder, and each foot armour has two eyes on it.

But what truly stands out the most is the mask. The mask that he wears is entirely black and featureless. With its dull face, it would intimidate anyone who sees it. Three horns decorated his helmet, with two horns on both sides and one in the centre, pointing outward slightly.

Stolen story; please report.

"Who the hell are you?" Raven growls, glaring at the figure in front of him. Still clutching tightly onto his right arm, Raven knows full well that whoever is in front of him is much more powerful and dangerous than Kai himself.

This causes Raven to feel something he hasn't felt for a long time.

Fear

"Fear is the right emotion you should be feeling right now." It was the sound of the creature saying this. Still, in the hallway of the Athenaeum, the creature seemingly knows what is happening to Raven in the basement.

"The fear of absolute power, the fear of death. The primal fear that every living being had grain into their soul. It is only natural for you to feel it, but will you overcome it or not? That only depends on you." The creature says before disappearing from the hallway in a blink of an eye.

Back in the basement, Raven glares intensely at the armoured figure in front of him, with the pain from his right arm now calmed down and finally stopped glowing.

"I am the one who will destroy you." The figure says, "I am the beginning. I am the void that consumes the darkness. I am the unbreakable cold steel. My very being is the sword that will conquer all evil from this world! I am Zero!"

Appearing in Zero's hands is a black one edge great sword with its blade colour blood red, and the side that should be unsharpened of the sword is the barrel of a gun. The sword gives off an aura that makes Raven feel on edge, as if something is wrong. It was the feeling of seeing something that you should not be seeing.

"...and this is the end of you!"

~Hallway of Athenaeum~

Back in the destroyed hallway of the Athenaeum, Vora can be seen running along the hallway before her eyes spot a figure lying unconscious in a pool of blood. This figure is, of course, Kai himself.

"KAI!!" Vora shouted and made her way immediately next to Kai.

Kneeling next to him, Vora picked Kai's body up and immediately checked his pulse before letting out a relieved breath after learning that he was still alive.

"What did you do, Kai...?" Vora mutters.

"Oh my, it seems quite a fight had gone down here." A voice rang out from behind Vora, who she immediately recognised.

"Lieutenant Eous, where have you been all this time?" Not even bothering to turn around, Vora asks Samael without taking her gaze off Kai while wiping the blood off his face, "You should arrive here before the General, and yet you just arrived here."

"Oh well, I was in the city trying to make my way here, but the heat from the Grand-General Arch Magia kept me outside. After all, I have no wish of being cooked alive by being near the General." Samael shrugs, "But from the look of it. The Grand-General can't defeat Raven even with his Arch Magia."

Cleaning off all of the blood from Kai's face, Vora responds to Samael's statement, "No, the General did not lose."

"Ho? What made you say that?" Samael asks, a smile still visible on his face.

"There is no visible injury on his body, meaning the fight was in favour of the General. The only reason that I see why all of this happened is because of his use of Arch Magia." Vora explains, "I don't know why he would use his install to fight someone like Raven, but its side effect is massive."

"Ah, the side effect of Arch Magia Install? That explains the General appearance and the intense heat we all felt before. It seems that he still has not fully mastered his Arch Magia." Samael says. "Well, I guess that can't be helped. Now, lieutenant Vora, why don't you take the General back to the base while I deal with the criminal himself."

"But..." Vora hesitates for a second, but Samael quickly cuts her off.

"Don't act like that now. The only reason that you are here is that you are here to retrieve back the General. I am the only one with the order to deal with Raven. So why don't you know what you should do and go back with the General." Samael says, making his way next to the kneeling Vora and General while also looking down on them.

"I... understand," Vora says. Without questioning it further, Vora picks up Kai before saluting Samael and quickly making her way toward the exit of the building while carrying Kai with her.

Samael stands there and watches the retreating figure of Vora and Kai, and when both of them are now out of sight, his smile quickly disappears.

"Stupid bitch. No matter what cycle, you can't decide on your own." Samael says before looking down at the ground, seemingly at something far underneath the ground, with his smile returning to his feature, "It seems Ravy is fighting that bastard right now. I wonder, will you finally win this time?"