We soon caught up with Mel, as the space isn’t large enough for her to fly. She was slowly, now, she was slowly,

nervously walking down the stairs in behind me. Gwen was at the front, with Eiden behind her, followed by me and

finally Mel.

Alferdo was still some way behind, but we cautiously walked down.

It was dark, yet not dark enough.

This half-darkness situation is actually making it creepier.

And the thing holding my arm isn’t making it better.

That’s Mel, by the way.

“The bottom! Huh? I hear people!” She said and dashed forwards.

“Stop!” I hissed, but she got too far.

“I’ll go with her.” Eiden said and dashed forwards.

I could only shake my head by this time. It was far too late to stop any of them.

“Gwen! Stop!” Eiden hissed as loudly as he could without attracting the attention of the people in the chamber.

And then there was nothing but a little chatter.

“…making our information trade fail. Or, rather my information extortion.”

“That voice is scary…” Mel whimpered as she slowly followed me.

“Stay here.” I told her as I slowly stepped forwards. Gwen and Eiden were both there, and they looked at me with fear in their face.

And then I froze.

There was a huge mass of darkness. And in the middle it, was Dusk, who was glaring to the left.

“Come on, you’re about to die.”

I barely restrained myself. The Dusk that always seemed so All-powerful and calm. That Dusk that would ignore goblins and bandits while reading. That Dusk that defeated a lizardman that was as strong as the minotaur alone, is about to die?

The thing that stopped me from rushing forwards with my cannon was Eiden, who was desperately holding me back.

As Mel got closer, her eyes widened as well.

As I cleared my rage, I heard the conversation again, “What are you plans after destroying Saint Haven and the Magical Institute?” Dusk asked as he stood in the dark magic.

And the scary voice spoke again, “Hm. Truthfully I never thought about that. Focus on one task before doing the next, you know. I think I just want to build an underground lab in the danger zone to slowly research, you know? Now, how did you make those magic circles?”

Then she saw Dusk sigh, and sat down. And then he started talking about magic circles.

Although he was talking about magic, Mel, who was still standing beside me, couldn’t understand a single thing.

After a few minutes, I heard Alferdo walking over, and I gestured him to stop. Silently walking to him, I took the sniper rifle off him, and walked back to beside Mel.

After another hour and a half, Dusk finally finished guiding him in his first card, and the person was scribbling on a piece of paper. Probably drawing the magic circle.

My mind calmed down as I held my sniper ready. The person couldn’t see us from here, but if he really used the haste magic circle, he might stop at where we could see him.

“You could try it on yourself or on me, it doesn’t matter anyways.” Dusk said, his voice indicating that he had already given up.

“[Haste]!”

And then the person ran around really fast for 15 seconds, before falling down, disorientated like how I was when I was slowed.

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But, now he is in range. I aimed my sniper rifle at him.

But I realized I couldn’t shoot.

If I shot, the dark mana might do something to Dusk.

“That’s a very good spell. I got it, so it was that easy? No worries, you will die here and now, but your name will forever be remembered! I’ll make sure you get the credits~”

And then the dark balls engulfed Dusk.

My vision went red.

I fired a shot, which pierced through what seemed to be like a mana barrier. The victim seemed to be shocked, as he made a translucent blue wall in front of him.

It was a careless mistake on my part.

I flipped the safety switch on the sniper.

And then fired.

A huge beam of mana was fired out, piercing through the wall as if its nothing and destroying the victim.

But, it was too late.

I dropped the weapon, and cried.

But after some time, my feelings told me to look up, and I did.

“Huh…Where…”

“Good morning.”

I stared blankly at the person in front of me who was holding a tray of food.

“Devil?”

She smiled at the nickname, “It is me indeed.”

“Dusk…” I said, and I started to cry happily. The last thing I remembered was him standing in front of me.

After some time, as I calmed down, the devil spoke.

“Have this, and you better get ready.”

She passed me the food and left the room. I just noticed that Alferdo was walking around packing things, and Ducky was

waiting on the table.

“Zzst.”

“Where is he?”

“Buzz. Beep.”

“Don’t report to the guild hall? And he’s that far away so fast?

“He prepared a card.” The devil said, returning to the room, and placed the card on the side table. Then she placed a file

beside me. “Read this too.”

I picked up the file, from the date, it was quite old, but maintained well. I opened it, and read through the contents.

It was the about the Quadrennial Culling event 8 years ago.

The first piece of paper was an official note from the adventurer's guild.

A person, known as Drax, disobeyed orders, and was killed in the event.

Following that, it was Drax’s own notes.

It spoke about Dusk.

He was 13 years old at that time.

He was chosen to be one of the newbies.

Drax went to the mission site the same day.

He cleared the whole dungeon, leaving only the initial wave for the newbies.

In the end, 1 person survived.

Drax fled after the event, but assassins caught up, and killed him.

I instantly got out of my bed, switching into my clothes, and then got into my armor.

“There is also something you might need.” The devil suddenly said, and gave me an old modeled tracker.

“He didn’t know, but someone had put a tracker on him some time ago. A friend managed to get the frequency to track him down, but there are probably people chasing him already. Please. Save him.”

There was no need to ask.

It was time to repay his kindness.