Andre, Deacon of Izrath

"We're almost there."

Flicking a corpse off his spear, Felix said, "I thought there weren't supposed to be any more guards. We lost time because of them."

Thousand Streams looked at the surrounding corpses and rubbed the back of his head, cold sweat dripping down his back. Not many would consider the members of the Main Team of a First Tier Guild as nothing more than a waste of time.

"Really, we'll be there in a minute."

Felix rolled his eyes, but still followed Thousand Streams.

And, this time, Thousand Streams' claims seemed to finally ring true as they reached Isaiah.

Glancing at the frozen Thousand Streams, Felix asked, "Is this a joke?"

The reason for that, was because they had reached Isaiah's corpse. This meant that this whole operation had been for nothing.

However, apart from his initial stun, Thousand Streams did not look as bothered by the premature death of Blue Light's Guild Leader.

"Well, things might still work out, although the impact won't be as good."

Felix frowned and questioned, "You aren't considering waiting for him to come back here are you? Because we will die before he does."

Felix had managed to survive until now as Blue Light's players were spread over an entire map, but if they simply waited here, then a big group would sooner or later besiege them, and that Felix wasn't confident of tackling down.

Even a group of 100 Blue Light elite members would be a hurdle to get through, one Felix wasn't so confident in, and there certainly would be more of them.

As Felix and Thousand Streams were speaking though, they heard an explosion coming from the nearby cavern. They had both ignored it until now because it was only one of the many caverns within the area, but there was clearly something strange within.

Without any hesitation, Felix walked into the cave, Thousand Streams warning behind, "Wait up! That could be dangerous, you know!"

Scoffing in amusement at the warning, Felix quickly ran through the darkness, and quickly arrived in front of a large black gate. It had a giant hole in the middle of it, one that Felix found oddly familiar.

But as he looked inside the room, he realized why.

[Deacon Andre, Level 40, Chieftain]

[Drakon, Level 29, Guardian]

The two, who looked like they were in the middle of a conversation, turned to look at the intruder, one in surprise and the other with rage.

"Odin? So it was you killing those Blue Light guys?"

Felix scoffed, "So you are the one who stole my kill?"

Drakon smiled slightly and replied, "Sorry, didn't mean to. He was in the way."

Felix nodded, there wasn't much he could do about it anyway.

"What are you doing here?"

Drakon pointed at the nearby Andre and revealed, "Turns out our Quest had a follow up, and it is dealing with this guy."

Felix sent a glance at Andre's, whose face was distorted from his anger.

"Useless pests who can't even keep the blasphemous away! Our Father, our Lord, may he who bore the darkness of this world unleash his wrath!"

Felix felt a shift in the air coming from Andre, and manifested a First Circle: Shield in front of himself, just in time to interrupt the incoming claw made of shadows.

The claw attacked two more times before disappearing, but it broke the shield with it. Looking at his side though, Felix realized that one of them hadn't managed to defend as well as they did.

Drakon looked fine, although a trickle of blood dripped down his right arm. As for Thousand Streams… his entire upper body was missing.

"So one of you has reached the Integration Realm. Don't think that will save you."

Tilting his head towards Drakon, seemingly unbothered by Andre, Felix queried, "Any idea what that Integration Realm is? It's not the first time I've been told that, but I have no idea what it is." As he said that, he parried an arrow made of darkness with his spear.

Drakon, who was simply using the side of his large sword to shield himself, replied, "You don't know about it?"

"I wouldn't ask you if I did."

Grunting softly, Drakon said, "I have other things to worry about right now. I'll tell you once we've dealt with this guy."

Felix shrugged and moved towards Andre. The deacon, seeing how Felix was ignoring his attacks, brought his hands together as he murmured, "Oh Lord Father, may your blessings cover the sky and your hatred plow the earth! Deathbind Curse!"

Felix felt something… new.

When a Spell is normally used, the magician would use the Mana within their body to fuel it, and some of the world's Mana would merge into it. As for Felix's Runic Magic, he used a minimum of his own Mana to manipulate the world's Mana.

But this time, there was something different. The Spell was more similar to normal ones as Felix could feel a part of the Mana used was Andre's. However, for the other part, while an inexperienced mage wouldn't make the difference, Felix could feel it wasn't the world's Mana.

Instead, it felt more like it came from a second source.

The feeling became especially vivid as the Spell collided with the layer of Mana he had created beneath his skin. Usually, it would completely block Spells, but here a small part of the Spell actually managed to pass by his defense.

What came next felt terrible. Felix felt like his insides started rotting, as if his entire being was quickly entering a state of Necrosis.

"Impossible! How can you be moving! Only an expert in the Infusion Realm could resist this Curse. No, although shadowed by the other ant's imminent demise, I can still smell the scent of decay coming from you, so the Curse wasn't fully resisted… A half-step Infusion Realm then?"

Snorting in annoyance, Felix surrounded the foreign Mana in his body with his own, and compressed it before throwing it out of his body. Then, he said, "I don't know what the hell you are talking about, but that fucking hurt."

Turning to look at Drakon, who was standing still, and whose face was turning black, Felix narrowed his eyes and smiled as he asked, "You gonna let me do this alone?"

Drakon, who was frozen, did not move. However, Felix could see it in his eyes that he was not making much of an effort. If he wanted to, he could probably break out of the spell.

Shaking his head, Felix turned back to Andre as he leapt towards the middle aged man. As Felix quickly approached though, Andre tapped his staff against the ground, manifesting a black pool around himself.

Not knowing what it did, Felix decided against landing in it as a Rune appeared beneath him, allowing him to take a step in the air while he launched his spear at Andre's face.

Despite the close distance, Andre managed to dodge the incoming spear, but as a result did not even see what followed next coming. Felix, who now had his hands free, grabbed the sides of Andre's head with both hands, and kneed him in the face.

Felix clearly felt the man's nose break under his knee, but he didn't stop as another Rune appeared behind him, which he used as support to twist around Andre, still holding his head as he landed behind his kneecaps.

Andre was forced to his knees from the sudden force behind his knees, while Felix didn't have to touch the ground. His fingers, grabbing the side of Andre's head, moved forward, going for the eyes.

Andre cried in pain as he felt like his eyes were about to be clawed off their orbits, and in distress he fired a wave of dark Mana.

It didn't harm Felix, who had felt the attack coming even more easily as he was in physical contact with Andre, and thus shielded his skin even more thoroughly, but it did force him away as he used another Rune to not land in the pool.

Landing next to his spear, Felix grabbed it from the ground as Andre held his bleeding nose, looking at Felix with emotion. Fear.

Clenching his teeth, Andre roared like a beast, "I can't die here! Even if I have to unleash it now, as long as I offer you to Lord Father…"

As he spoke, the black pool beneath him churned as it extended towards the middle of the cave, where a dark basin laid. As Andre's shadow came in contact with it, it started boiling, and Felix felt something ominous come out of it.

'First Circle: Fireball'

A Runic Circle appeared next to Felix, firing a fireball at Andre, but the shadows beneath him rose to protect him as the fireball was easily stopped.

No, it wasn't simply stopped, Felix realized, as a ball made of darkness was thrown his way. Knowing better than trying to tank it, Felix dodged, moving towards Drakon as he did.

The ball of darkness, after missing Felix, collided with one of the rocky walls, and an explosion of darkness came from the impact. The sturdy rock was partly destroyed as an explosion bigger than what Felix had launched was created.

Frowning at the sudden change, Felix ignored the chanting Andre, and tapped Drakon on the shoulder as he asked, "Can't you break his barrier with your Skill?"

Drakon, who was supposed to be on his last leg and unable to move, had the dark hue quickly disappear from his skin as he moved freely, and said, "Whatever he is doing, he will probably finish it before I can destroy the barrier."

Scratching the back of his head, Felix groaned, "If you had moved with me, he wouldn't have had the time to set up this barrier."

Shaking his head, Drakon replied, "Breaking out of that curse wasn't easy. I doubt I would have had the time to assist you."

Felix nodded towards the ritual as he questioned, "What about your Quest? Was it to kill the old man or to stop whatever he is doing? And where are the little twerps?"

Drakon smiled slightly as he replied, "It took us several weeks to do the first of the Quest for not much of a reward, and this second part could have been even longer, so they left. As for my Quest, it is to stop the followers of Izrath from opening a Gate to Izrath's Realm."

Felix was about to ask what this entailed, but before he could do so, something changed. As the ritual went, Andre's hair turned white, and the transformation seemed over as his entire being seemed to have lost several decades.

Felix could tell this wasn't anything good, but he couldn't really do anything about it, as his attacks were reflected. Maybe a physical attack wouldn't get blocked, but he would be sacrificing his safety. One trap and he might die, so he opted for keeping his distance.

Quickly, as Andre's hair turned completely white, something rose from the basin. A gate.

It was of a metallic black, in between two large pillars with strange creatures coiling around it. More importantly, Felix could feel an evil presence coming from it.

Then, the gate was opened from the inside, as a hand passed through the opening. Due to the angle, Felix couldn't see what was inside, but the hand was as black as the Ocuminis were, and its nails looked more like claws.

A ghastly shriek came from the other side of the gate, making Felix feel dizzy as the entity fully passed to this side of the gate.

It was humanoid in appearance, with two arms and two legs, standing on these last two, and its skin was strange. The closer to the extremities, the darker the skin. In the center of its chest though, was a small white circle.

It adorned two gray horns on its head, a forked tongue slithered between its sharp teeth and its two meters tall body was ripped with muscles.

[Lesser Demon Yusax, Level 50, Lord]