> Happy new year, everyone! I hope that this year is at least better than last year, thanks for all the support given to me till now as well! <3

Heavy rain poured down from the skies above the earth, drenching the sorrowed planet with seeds of hope. People who survived the first few attacks of the monsters went into hiding for the next hours and left stronger. The once seven billion humans inhabiting the beautiful planet were now only one billion.

But these one billion were people who evolved from their weak shells, striving for a better and prosperous future. It was at the same time that the otherworldly humans came to Planet Earth through the portals that one after another enormous monsters slowly popped their heads out of the boundless forest.

Monsters whose height reached even the hundreds of meters were in the depths of the forest, and their eyes stared at the small, distant continent before slowly closing their eyes. Their attitude was straightforward, they didn't care about such a weak continent, and the inhabitants here wouldn't even be able to serve as food stock.

For such a thing, only the low-level servants of their own servants would be sent to deal with the inhabitants.

At the same time, within Lightwood Townhouse.

Haize slowly extended his bleeding hand towards a floating scroll in front of him, as a blue-colored screen appeared.

Group Skill 'Fiery Beacon' has been found. Select the targets to learn it, a maximum of five people can learn this scroll skill.

'That's kind of interesting... I'll select three from my faction.' Haize pondered for a few seconds before taking the scroll, and the dead commander-level Horned Lizard on his storage and returning to his 'base'. Though the people in this area could now leave, they actually couldn't.

Nobody could enter or leave the safe zone without his permission, of course... This only applied to allies. An enemy under Tier 3 could enter and leave as it pleased, as long as it can defeat Haize.

The trio of best friends had also already returned, and beside them were the newly awakened survivors. Some of them obtained elemental powers, while some obtained other kinds of powers. However, nobody had the thought of going against Haize, he had left too much of a shock on them.

A few hours passed before Haize decided to check on the survivors. He ignored his injuries as they would take a few more hours to completely heal, but most of them were already cured. As he was conscious, Haize needed to heal himself manually instead of his ability to heal him unconsciously.

Healing himself manually took way longer than unconsciously, perhaps because of his inexperience in healing.

''Brother, you're injured? You should go to heal, man.'' Lyse said the obvious as both Edward and John rolled their eyes, ''Sh*t no, Sherlock...''

Ignoring them, Haize stood up in front of the survivors as blood dripped down from all claw-like injuries on his body. They could clearly see through the gaps in his clothing that his body held many scars, some of them were made by guns while others were made by knives. This made his imposing aura increase in their eyes.

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However, a very beautiful girl slowly stood out from the small crowd of survivors, looking at Haize defiantly. Anyone who looked at her would give a desire to protect her, but she wasn't here to play. Looking at the black-haired man in front of her, a murderous aura flooded out of her body.

She obviously wanted to take advantage of the fact that Haize was injured, to kill him. That very beautiful girl had crescent moon-shaped compressed water floating around her, ''You'll pay for underestimating us, now that we also have powers... It's time to pay for killing our friend!''

Some survivors started whispering with each other, wondering if they should support that very beautiful girl. She was their class president before the apocalypse started, and her authority was second only to Edward. The fact that she came from a prestigious family also helped, and even the daring boys didn't give birth to the idea of taking her down.

It was as if that girl was a saintess that couldn't be harmed, they could see a bright aura radiating from her.

The girl's hair flowed upwards, and her skills seemed to be blessed by the heavy rain that drenched the small continent as a whole. Haize, who was preparing to take them all into his faction, slowly looked over to the girl. Then, he stared at the rest of the survivors, ''I'll give you two choices; Support her and die, or don't support her and live.''

Staring at Haize, the very beautiful girl felt a slight bit of anger towards the black-haired man. Her anger added to her cuteness, making some of the male survivors' eyes waver but in the end, they held back and didn't come forward. The girl's eyes became a bit gloomy, knowing that no one dared to support her.

''I once heard that with great power come great responsibility. My current responsibility is to shoulder those weaker than me and get rid of vile people like you, it'll be worse if you resist!'' The girl said as the crescent moon-shaped compressed water danced around her. It was as if she was the one blessed by the moon.

A bright splendor burst out of her body as if to make all living beings bow down before her. However, that splendor disappeared without traces as within the heavy rain, a golden flame burst out along with a black breeze.

Within the heavy rain, what seemed to be both a righteous God and a vile Demon seemed to mix together. Haize moved his head in a circle-like manner before his sharp golden-colored eyes slowly passed over the girl.

No water droplets even reached his body, blocked by a thin layer of Flame Guard. As soon as they touched it, they simply disappeared.

The very beautiful girl was horrified, the strongest reason she dared to go against Haize was that her ability was very special. Her ability was named 'Moon Saintess', she could summon rain to bless her and control a powerful type of water named Water of the Moon. But as soon as Haize released his power, her ability simply disappeared.

Between awakeners, there was a legend that celestial bodies could give their blessings to special people. That very beautiful girl was one such person.

The Moon has given up the blessing it gave to you.

Under normal occasions, no celestial body can simply retake their blessing. Over history, such a thing had never occurred. But on this day, a celestial body decisively takes back the previous blessing on a person, despite any backslash that can possibly happen.

Behind Haize, the illusory shadow of a golden-colored sun covered by a black and white aura slowly appeared. Except for the very beautiful girl herself, nobody could see it. Not even Haize himself could see it, he just released his abilities.

Just as the very beautiful girl wanted to scream as she was completely horrified, a cold sword glow flashed through the heavy rain. At the same time that a head flew away, the heavy rain stopped pouring down as the sky was crystal clear once again. A natural phenomenon welcoming the birth of the Moon Sainttess was stopped, just like that.

Edward and John seemed indifferent to the girl's death, while Lyse found it a bit difficult to accept that his always gentle brother took a life without care. He didn't care about the girl's death, as despite her appearance being outstanding, she is just an empty vase.

As for Haize, he breathed slowly, unaffected by someone's death. Looking over the small crowd of survivors, they obediently lined up as he commanded them, ''Join my Covering Sun Faction and I'll treat you good. Those with Wood or Plant abilities step forward.''

Three people stepped out, before looking at him respectfully. Haize nodded lightly before saying, ''The first one, you'll be responsible for creating houses made out of wood, nothing too fancy, but nothing too shabby as well. For the second and third one, you'll be responsible for planting and growing food to feed everyone.''

It is possible to make vegetables and even trees to grow faster through Mana, and it would take just around a dozen hours to make a three-meter sized tree grow completely and give birth to fruits. Haize guessed that wood and plant-related food would obviously make it grow insanely faster, so he doesn't think there's a need to assign others.

Two were more than enough. After the three of them nodded and started working based on the orders, Haize took out his phone before sending out an order that made the mind of all those who occasionally checked the Covering Sun's forum shake, ''All members of my Faction, hear and obey my order, come to our base. The members can see the location here.''

On an underground garage, members of the Covering Sun Faction were training to get stronger. These were all the loyal people who didn't betray Haize after he 'lost' his status as the underworld's Emperor. Ziam, who was meditating, slowly opened his eyes as happiness overflowed within them.

As the members saw the message on their phones, a smile also appeared on their serious faces. Ziam's lips also curled up, ''The Emperor has summoned us, and we answer to the summon.''

''Yes!''