There were three people. The first one was Feng Liu. He carried a serious expression, just like the one that he showed when he first saw me. He was about a head taller than me, dressed with expensive clothes; though, as someone that hadn’t been raised in this world, I could hardly tell the difference between expensive and cheap clothes. In his case, it was just a shirt with a v-neck that showed part of his toned muscles. On top of that, he had a leather black jacket that fit his body nearly perfectly; his pants were nearly as black as the jacket, and fit him just as well as every other piece of clothing; and his shoes were black and shiny.

Next to him were a couple of women that I had only seen when they tried to capture Eletha in that other city.

First one was a woman wearing clothes that weren’t too different from any other person that one might see in this world, with a simple black jacket, a gray shirt underneath and blue jeans with comfortable shoes. She appeared to be shorter than me, with black hair that was cut short to be about neck high. She didn’t have particularly outstanding facial features, but her expression was just as serious as Feng Liu’s.

The second woman was almost as tall as Feng Liu, with a thin frame that made one wonder if she was strong enough to be a fighter—if not for the strong magic aura that she was constantly emitting. She had jet-black hair that was just as long as mine, with soft facial features that could make me think she was a walking doll; her skin was pale, which I could see on her revealed shoulders as on top she was just wearing a black top, and her bottom with tight blue jeans.

Most surprising of all were the black tattoos that covered part of her arms and shoulders. They weren’t normal tattoos either. I could feel a faint magical power coming from them, though I couldn’t be sure if it was just her own power or if she did something else to them.

The group, of course, didn’t take long to notice where we were due to being the only people using this building, and with a calm pace, they made their way to stand right outside the barrier, which I quickly brought down.

“Hello, Althea,” Feng Liu said, giving a slight bow of his head in my direction, before turning to the women that were with him. “I’ve come as you’ve requested and I’ve brought with me my companions, Kang Hana,”—he gestured with his hand to the woman with the tattoos, who in turn slightly bowed her head while keeping her eyes on me—“and Qin Yue.”

Qin Yue bowed her head slightly more while looking to the ground. It was a rather strange way of greeting, but I didn’t pay it any mind since it was also rather quick, as the woman returned her serious look back to me. “It is a pleasure to meet you. Hopefully, together, we can bring down the woman that killed Shen Xi.”

“Straight to business, as always,” Kang Hana followed up with a slight shake of her head. “By the way, I’m rank S-, and Qin Yue is A+. What about you?”

I was slightly taken aback by that question. I hadn’t paid attention to that thing for a long time already. I never really saw much of a use to that ranking system, since for me the most important part was to simply train oneself and go as far as your body, mind, and soul could take you.

I shook my head in response. “I don’t know. I’ve not checked that for a while.”

Kang Hana looked at me with widened eyes. “Really? How do you keep yourself from looking at it? I think it’s the most important measurement to know what you can or can’t do.”

“Not that it really matters,” Qin Yue muttered, looking to the side.

“Huh? Why do you say that? You seemed to care about that until not too long ago,” Kang Hana said, crossing her arms under her chest.

Qin Yue shook her head in response, tightening her lips for a moment, before turning to look back at Kang Hana. “That woman that we fought, Eletha Dawnligh, she didn’t have any rank. There were hardly any records of her anywhere. So when it came to knowing how to deal with her, we didn’t know what to do.”

With a disregarding wave of her hand, Kang Hana replied, “And we won’t make that mistake again. If we act like every enemy we find is of a higher rank than we are, then we should be able to take anything down.”

“I don’t think that’s a good way to look at things. We must fight as if there is no ranking. Just our powers and our—”

“That’s enough,” Feng Liu interrupted with a hand raised, “This is not the right place to be having this sort of discussion, especially right after showing our greetings.”

“Right,” Qin Yue said with a nod, while Kang Hana simply shrugged.

“So, what is it that you wanted to discuss with us?” Feng Liu asked, and the couple of women turned their attention to me.

I turned to look back at Super-Demon, who had been quietly looking this way, while Reeta seemed to be lost in thought with her gaze turned to her fists. “I do not want to kill that woman, Eletha.”

“Huh?” both Qin Yue and Kang Hana exclaimed, while Feng Liu remained quiet.

“Why the hell not?!” Kang Hana loudly asked, her raspy voice nearly cracking, “I remember seeing you pretty banged up when we got to Wang Kai Tower. If we hadn’t been there—if Shen Xi hadn’t sacrificed himself while you ran away—it would be you and your friends who would’ve been dead! No, that woman has to die.”

“I agree,” Qin Yue immediately followed up with a soft, yet firm, tone.

I turned back to look at both women heavily frowning at me. Feng Liu on the other hand remained somewhat calm; even if his slight frown confessed the questioning feeling that he was sharing with the other women. “Would you care to explain why that is?”

“Do you know who she actually is?” I asked back.

“We heard she was some terrorist bitch or something like that,” Kang Hana said, “Someone who really doesn’t deserve the time of the day. We kill her, get rid of all the assholes around her, and then move on with our lives.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I couldn’t help raising an eyebrow after hearing her talk. It somewhat reminded me of James, though with a glance it was obvious that they weren’t related and didn’t know each other, so I paid it no mind as I quietly turned my attention to the others.

Feng Liu looked down, placing a hand on his chin, seemingly lost in thought for a moment. “I still remember what you said about this girl… But I just personally don’t really believe it.”

“Ah, that she’s supposed to be some sort of Holy Heroine or something like that?” Qin Yue followed up with her eyes on Feng Liu.

He nodded. “That seems to be the case, and while there’s always been rumors and people claiming that such a thing was real, they have always been considered to be nothing more than that—like a thing from fairy tales.”

“And you actually believe that?” Kang Hana followed up, looking at me with one eyebrow raised. “Are you, like, the same kind of person as that chick?”

“I don’t believe it. I know it,” I said, returning a serious look to her. “And in a way, yes, I am someone like her. I was also used by the Holy Gods to do their bidding, and it was because of my actions that our world got destroyed and we ended up here.”

“But there could be many other reasons why things ended up like this. Maybe a quantum anomaly in some part of the universe, or some special kind of energy that we haven’t yet been able to determine the origin,” Kang Hana refuted with a shrug. “Hell, you could just be hearing voices in a form of undiagnosed mental illness that makes you think there are Gods and stuff like that.”

I felt like bringing Salrak up on the phone and having her speak with an actual God, but I quickly removed that notion since she was probably going to disregard it as nothing more than a friend of mine acting like He was a God. There really wasn’t a way to get through to someone like this, so I sighed, shook my head, and tried to move on from the thing we’re talking about.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, turning to look back at Super-Demon. “I simply don’t want to kill her because I’m afraid of the unknown things that could happen if we do that. You may not believe me, but it was after doing something like that that our world was destroyed.”

“You keep looking at that person over there,” Feng Liu said, “I believe we’ve been too rude in not allowing you to introduce yourselves.”

“Ah, right!” Super-Demon snapped out of the apparent daze he had while looking this way. He made his way over to the edge of the arena to look down on the people, before puffing his chest out with his fists on his hips. “Super-Demon at your service! I’m a superhero by night, and a superhero by day! My job is to bring justice to the citizens and ensure peace in the streets of the city!”

There was a moment of silence after he proclaimed that, and I could see the light in Super-Demon’s eye waving slightly after a few seconds. But it didn’t take long before a mocking scoff came from behind me.

“Are you serious?” Kang Hana said with an incredulous expression, before she turned it to Feng Liu. “Captain, I think we’re being victims of a prank with these people.”

Qin Yue agreed with a slow nod of her own. “Despite my reluctance to do so, I must agree with Hana again.”

“As you’ve heard my teammates… Althea… again… would you care to… explain?” Feng Liu said with a shaky frown my way.

I once more sighed and shook my head. “This is not a prank or a joke and”—I turned my head to look at Super-Demon—“I also think that he’s annoying, but I might need him for the mission. He knows Soul Magic.”

“Soul Magic!?” Kang Hana immediately exclaimed, causing me to turn to look at her with curiosity to her reaction.

“Do you know something about it?”

“Yes! Of course! It’s an extremely rare form of magic, just as rare as Decay Magic—in fact, the only confirmed beings known to properly use those forms of magic are the Dragons!” Kang Hana said, animatedly moving her arms around like a passionate teacher would, before turning a suspicious glare at Super-Demon. “I did feel some really weird magic being used while we were coming here… But I can’t believe that it came from that guy. I thought that it was yours.”

I shook my head and looked back at Super-Demon, whose pose had gotten firmer and his eyes shone brighter. “Sadly, I hardly have any insight into Soul Magic, while he seems to be able to use it without a problem.”

“That’s right! That is my superhero power!” Super-Demon followed up, raising his chin higher.

“So, what do you wish to do with it? Is he simply a part of the team for the coming mission?” Feng Liu asked, his eyes set on the posing Super-Demon.

“I wish to use his Soul Magic to break the connection with the Holy Gods that Eletha has,” I said, a serious look that was difficult to maintain as I looked at Super-Demon as well.

There was a sigh from Kang Hana. “Again with that nonsense…” She turned to look at the still distracted Reeta. “What about her? Don’t tell me that she does Decay Magic.”

I turned to Reeta, who was sitting with a frown and her gaze directed at her clenched fists. I walked over to her, crouched to be closer and tried calling her attention. “Reeta, are you okay?”

“Hm?” She replied, half-turning her head my way while keeping her eyes on her hands. “What is it?”

“You’ve been looking down for a while now, and we have visitors here,” I said, worried that perhaps that attack from Super-Demon might’ve caused some damage to her. “Is everything fine?”

Once I said that, she finally turned to look at the people that were looking this way, before turning to look me in the eyes, and finally back to her hands, which she opened and closed a couple of times. “It’s just that—that attack from that stupid skeleton… It made me realize a few things while I was passed out… mainly that I think I’ve been too heated lately, and I hadn’t paid attention to what I was feeling inside.”

It was surprising to see such a change of attitude from her after being knocked out like that, and I wanted to press her about it, but right now wasn’t the time, so I stood back up and offered her my hand. “We can talk about it in a bit. We currently have visitors and they’re wondering about you.”

“Right,” she replied, taking my hand and pulling herself back up.

“Should I introduce you, or do you want to do it?” I asked with a near whisper.

“I’ll do it,” she said as she walked closer to the other group. “Name’s Reeta Da’ashal. Wolf Beastkin, as you can see. Former coach in this academy, but I’m currently doing other things.”

“It shall be a pleasure to work with you,” Feng Liu said, making a half-fist with his right hand, holding it with his left hand in front of his chest, and then doing a slight bow of his torso.

Qin Yue deeply frowned and harshly shoved him, causing Feng Liu to stumble slightly while returning a questioning look of his own. However, before they could say anything about it, Reeta looked at me.

“What do you mean working with you, I’ve not agreed to anything,” she said with a glare.

“Ah, is that the case? Well that’s good. We wouldn’t want to have any trouble with us,” Qin Yue quickly followed up, though her glare was directed at Feng Liu.

“Trouble?” Reeta asked back, seemingly unaware of the strange way that Feng Liu and Qin Yue were acting. “Hmph! I think that spending so much time outside of the academy has given you the idea that I’m somehow not strong!” She turned a determined smirk my way. “I’ll join you on whatever you want to do.” She then looked at Super-Demon. “And I won’t be taken down by you again.”

“Okay. If there’s nobody else that is going to join us, then I think we should talk about what you’re planning,” Kang Hana said, ignoring every strange look that was being thrown all over as she made her way closer to me.

“There’s still a couple of people that will be joining us. They’re my usual team,” I said, my gaze over to the door.

“Is it a Decay Mage this time?” Kang Hana said, sharing a look of expectation as she looked in the same direction that I was.

“No, but they’re indeed special,” I replied with a slight smile that turned even wider when the door to the building was opened and both Nicole and James walked in.