After passing through the gate to the Void, Meril opened his eyes to the sight of desolate lands as far as he could see. From one end to the other, there is nothing in sight but a hard, uneven ground. In addition to the sky being dark and gloomy, it was also covered in a thick red fog, impairing one's visions greatly. Seeing this scenery, he was reminded of the time when the Void was first created.
When the Void was first made, it had nothing. It was simply an empty space in an isolated dimension, separated away from the rest of the world. Then, the mass amount of negative energy from the world was directed to the Void, gathering there.
Once the amount of negative energy gathered had reached a certain level, it started to manifest lands, leading to the birth of demons. Their birth was inevitable. For as long as negative energies exist, the demons will continue to spawn endlessly. That's why the Void was separated from reality, isolated from the rest of the world. It was to prevent the demons from overrunning the world. It was a seal.
However, there are those that are capable of breaking away from the seal by making use of a crack in the dimension. Those capable of such a feat are demons of the 3rd class and above.
'That's right, demons like Hewin,' Meril thought as he turned to his team, directing them to rush to Ange's location.
Hewin, he used to be human. Past tense, 'used'. He is no longer one. He was one of the souls that Kael was supposed to collect. However, he adamantly refused to accept his death and ran away. As his reaper, Kael pursued him for years until he suddenly disappeared. By some unknown method, Hewin had entered the Void. There, he willingly allowed his soul to be tainted by the negative energies, turning him into a demon.
Having led his team through the thick fog, Meril and his team started to encounter more demons. As the demons were of the weaker class, they effortlessly dealt with them as they progressed.
Eventually, they were met with a hoard of demons, numbering close to a hundred, blocking their path. Excluding the ones who had yet to arrive, Meril's White Angel team currently only had eight members. Even so, none of them had any change in expression as they faced the demons. They had merely exchanged a few glances between each other before taking out their weapons, charging forth into the hoard fearlessly.
And thus, the one-sided massacre ensued. Chaos reigned as the White Angels let go of their restraint, fully engaging into their battle mode, they started to wreak havoc.
With a loud blast, the sounds of explosions resounded throughout the whole battlefield. Demon corpses are strewn about on the ground as dismembered limbs flew into the air in a wild mess. The scene could only be described as hellish as eight white figures flashes in the battlefield in a mad frenzy, killing anything that comes charging their way.
After a while, when the number of demons had diminished to more than a half whilst the White Angels barely have even a scratch on them, a thundering roar reverberates through the area, causing the ground to shake in its might.
From the far back of the remaining hoard, a colossal figure emerged from the dense fog. With melting magma slowly flowing down his body, the colossal had his wings spread wide as he gave another roar before charging towards Meril madly. In the process, due to his size, he had mercilessly flattened down several demons that didn't manage to get away in time.
Running straight to Meril, Hewin slashed down using both of his molten swords. In a swift movement, Meril managed to dodge in time, leaving the swords to only slash empty air. As the molten sword struck the ground, it created a large crater filled with the magma that fell off the sword.
Creating some distance, Meril shifted his weapon, turning it into a white fiery bow. He pulled on the bowstrings, aiming at Hewin as a thin arrow formed before firing. The arrow flew swiftly, striking Hewin in a flash. The moment it made contact with Hewin's molten body, the arrow accelerated rapidly, digging into his chest. However, it soon lost all of its power as it disintegrated in the air.
Seeing how his arrow disappeared without dealing the amount of damage he had expected, Meril widened his eye as he stared at Hewin, "You've gotten stronger now. I supposed we should reclassify you into a 2nd class."
Hewin, still in his colossal form, gave a low, eerie laugh as he launched at Meril, "Thanks to the right eye you left behind!"
Successfully evading once again, Meril flew a distance away before shooting at Hewin again. As he did so, he took a glance at his other teammates. They were all still busy dealing with the surrounding demons, leaving no chance to run over to provide backup.
When his gaze met with Kriu, who was a distance away fighting with a winged demon, he gave a slight nod. Kriu, who saw that, nodded back. They quickly finished off the winged demon before proceeding to head to the back of the hoard, attempting to go to the place where Ange was held captive.
However, before they could do so, their path was blocked by Hewin's gigantic wings. With hot magma dripping from it, Kriu had no choice but to back away from it.
"You think I'd let you get away that easily? When she's this close to being consumed by the Void?" Hewin snickered as he flapped his wings, causing the magma from it to fly all over the place.
Meril and Kriu flew in varying directions, trying hard to avoid being hit by the spraying magma.
"You took Ange because you wanted to resurrect Cerine? Why? I thought you hated her," Meril said as he narrowed his only eye at Hewin.
"I do hate her!" Hewin replied fiercely, striking down his blades at Meril and Kriu as he did so. "But, you see. A deal's still a deal. That cunning witch made it so that I HAD to bring her back. I got no choice."
Meril and Kriu dodged his molten swords, the expression on their faces was still unruffled as they kept their calm. They raised their bows, repeatedly shooting once again at Hewin in the same spot, at his chest.
Hewin turned his swords, using it to block the incoming fiery white arrows. Even then, some escaped through a few gaps, striking Hewin right in his chest.
"Tsk. You as well. Why go to such lengths? Back then you tried so hard to save that witch and look at what she did to you!" Hewin roared, bringing his swords down again to strike them. "And now, you wanna save this weak-ass angel? How are you sure things won't turn out the same way?"
Meril didn't reply to him immediately. He swiftly dodged the blow again, using the chance to fire at him. "Because Ange is different from Cerine. She's stronger now. Unlike Cerine, she won't let her soul fall to darkness so easily." Moving his hand to touch the eyepatch on his right eye, Meril continued, "And I've never regretted trying to save her."
"Hah! Are such words meant to make yourself feel better? Cerine Arckh is a ruthless woman. She will come back eventually. And when she does, that missy of an angel won't ever appear again." Hewin snorted as he flapped his wings again.
This time, he released his molten swords, turning it into a pool of magma. He raised his hands and all of the magma that had scattered earlier gathered together in front of him. It split into numerous streams of magma as it flew all over the place. It reached out towards Meril as well as the other White Angels, cornering them with the magma without concern for the demons that got caught up in it.
Hewin knew that burning them with the magma won't be enough to kill the White Angels, thus, his goal was to gather them up and confine them in an enclosure made of flowing magma. This way, he could buy more time to turn Ange.
Just as he thought so, he suddenly perceived something. The process of turning one into a demon would usually cause the negativity in the air to stir. However, at this moment, he felt that the disturbance was stopped.
Hewin looked at Meril, who was standing calmly in the middle of the magma enclosure he had created. Meril smiled gently as he said, "You really talked too much. Haven't Cerine tell you that before?"
"YOU!!!" Hewin growled at him in fury. However mad he was that he had been careless, nothing could change the fact that the Whites managed to secure Ange in time.
While he was busy talking to Meril, Kriu had taken the chance to send a message to the remaining members that had arrived later. Those members took a detour, completely evading Hewin's perception as they barged into the place Ange was held captive, securing her in time to stop the demonization process.
Knowing that his plan had ended in failure, Hewin tsked as the area at his chest cracked, crumbling down as a fifteen-year-old male came crawling out.
He glared furiously at Meril shouting, "I'll get you back for this, Meril! Just you wait! The damage has been dealt. That missy won't stay the same forever!"
After saying everything that he wanted, Hewin escaped as he turned into a mass of black mist, disappearing into the wind.