"Almost there!" Hans shouted as he continued to ram his light power, mixing his other power consecutively to press Omen further towards no escape.
As seconds goes by, many more Ruiners started to gather in one place, making Omen unable to take a second of a breather. The devil continued to be pressured but he was in no way showing the face of loss.
His lips curling upwards was still there.
"What a smug devil," One man answered beside him, glancing at Hans, "How many cases of devil appearance has it now, Hans?"
"21, Oliver," Hans answered without any emotion on his face, "Let's not include the other kingdom in this. It would already be hundreds if we did."
He paused, looking with a frown at the Devil of Detrimental, "This one right here is far stronger than those devils combined. As if… every devil that had come to this world is getting more and more powerful,"
Hans looked around, taking a quick break to watch the battlefield with his friend Oliver, leaving everything to the other people to subdue the devil, or make matters good, kill it.
He was the leader of this operation.
Hans, commander of the seventh unit of The Justice, a Progression 5 Ruiner. People mainly call him Priest Of Light since his most powerful Piece was related to light. He knew he was the perfect counter for the devil, who was slowly losing.
He then said, "That devil seemed to be attracted to some guy. Hmm, his face is familiar. Ah right, he's that trash. Noelle Portnner,"
Hans briefly recalled everything, explaining everything to his friend for half a minute which Oliver quickly understood.
"So, you just attacked without rescuing him first?"
"There's no way to rescue him. If I stopped pressuring the devil, it might try to escape. If I moved on to rescue the guy, we would get entrapped by that devil," Hans paused, "Noelle seemed to understand it and he helped me instead. He had no choice,"
"But still…"
Screech—!
Before Oliver could continue and was about to raise some matter, both of them heard a piercing scream.
Their whole vision became enveloped with a shadow that enveloped the whole prison.
…
'Pitch black… I couldn't see anything,' Noelle mused inwardly before talking to Isaac, "Do you have a Piecework on your bag? One that could light up the place?"
It's been a minute since the dome has been enshrouded by darkness. He didn't even know where Isaac was as the shadow was thick to look at, one might even trip if weren't careful.
Hearing the word 'piecework', Isaac slightly frowned before shaking his head. He asked in retrospect, "Maybe you have?"
"Can't do. My father would probably notice something would be amiss,"
"Trash,"
"…"
Noelle can't help but sigh before suddenly, he heard a groan from below. He glance at Isaac to see if he was hearing the same thing and confirmed his suspicion that they have!
Hiss—!
It was at that moment that the sound of something flying was heard, making everyone, even Noelle and Isaac, shift their attention to it. There's more to it as a speck of light was mixed as if the sun was slowly moving upward.
It garnered the attention of everyone.
Pop—!
The speck of light exploded, revealing lights that shattered, slowly moving down from the ground. It continued to explode to itself until half of the dome somehow gained temporary seconds of vision, even if it wasn't clear.
'It looks like a firework. Flares in much more sense,' Noelle mused inwardly and he can't help but look below with a slightly frightened and helpless expression, 'And those people, whom I believe was dead, seemed to have woken up. Zombies, huh,'
He felt pain in his left hand and saw that the power of the Piece was disappearing, only leaving him an intense pain that even the potion Isaac gave can't defect.
"You used the Piece to enhance your strength? Are you nuts?" Isaac asked with a stingy tone.
Noelle, instead of answering, moved to another topic, "We should go to where Yower and others are escaping. Who knows how many dead people have turned,"
"Their souls are corrupted," Isaac clarified.
'Sigh, you don't need to tell me,' Noelle thought inwardly, shaking his head in response before the two of them used the cells as steppingstone while Isaac leads the way.
…
"That shout invoked the souls of the dead, making them seem alive but at the same time, not?" Hans said with a slightly surprised tone, turning his head at Oliver, "We have to blow this place up. Can you do it?"
He immediately came to the decision. As the one who leads this operation which involves worrying about the safety of his people, the success of the operation, and the extermination of the evil force, he had to quickly think of the optimal solution.
"I can,"
Oliver, who was only Progression 4 Ruiner and was at the beginning stage of the progression, the vice-commander of the seventh unit of The Justice organization, answered that didn't sound confident.
"Do it," Hans said, quickly changing the way he said it, afraid that his friend would do it right away when they are still here, "After we confirm everyone's position, blow this place up. Until we confirm it, all right? No need for sudden outbursts. Yes, we don't want to repeat the same mistake,"
Oliver's face turned grim, "Am I going to pay for the reimbursement?"
Hans chuckled, "Honestly, they would love to see this place blow to pieces."
Oliver and Hans faced turned at the middle of the dome where the devil was summoned and the two understand what their gazes meant without uttering a single word.
That's the place that needed to be destroyed. The aura they felt in that place was worse than the outside.
They knew the devil originated at that place and by no means they could enter it.
…
Growl—!
"Just how far are we to the exits?" Noelle asked, seemingly much more tired than he had been a few minutes ago.
He knew he was near where Omen was summoned due to his warped portals coming right at him and it was far from the doors right outside this place.
Time interval disks of lights were provided by Hans which help them get on their way to the roofs and ceilings as they run through, avoiding all those zombies below, or corrupted souls in Isaac's vocabulary.
"We're almost there. We've been running for half an hour now so we should be near it,"
'Not sure, eh?' Noelle thought inwardly as his lips twitch which Isaac saw while glancing which made him frown.
In just a minute, Isaac stand on the one roof, looking at the exit of the door where Ruiners from the justice was stationed while gathering everyone they could gather.
"Let's go,"
Without further ado, they joined with those people and let the professionals handle the rest of the matters. Walking down through the buildings, they eventually followed the other people.
They followed the people in charge while they whispered to themselves, mainly what should they do on the inside. Noelle was afraid that the bomb wouldn't work but Isaac made him reassured, telling him something that he didn't know.
'Explosion Expert Oliver? I didn't recognize him. Vice-captain of the seventh unit of The Justice, huh. An unfamiliar individual. I only knew First up to Fourth. Well, only their leaders,' Noelle mused inwardly as he looked at Isaac, "You can have the call. We can't just let it explode while they were still inside,"
Since he was familiar with the person, Noelle leaves him for the decision-making. After all, Isaac had lived in this world, knowing knowledge pertaining to this world while he only had detailed information, at the same time, brief ones.
"Let's find them while we're at it,"
Isaac agreed. They trusted what The Justice was doing and it was better to leave it to the people who knew what they were really doing. And knowing that, it's better to focus on finding their own people.
…
"Hans! I'm done!" Oliver shouted as he was done prepping himself on his explosives, conjuring some bombs in thin air while asking help for the other members of this operation to place them near or at the center where the devil had originated.
Of course, he said carefully that they should be at least far from putting the bombs. They could even throw it if they knew their perception is telling them that going for more is dangerous, for that, there shouldn't be any risks.
"Signal everyone to begin leaving!" Hans answered as he began conjuring his powers, shooting them upwards as a sign to leave this place.
Everything was done in just a few minutes and now, he and Oliver were escaping this place. With the help of his light powers, they found their respective ways that lead outside of this place.
It all went well.
It was supposed to make Hans happy but Oliver noticed his weird reactions, asking the question that keep bugging his mind after they left it while fending off some corrupted people that blocks their way outside.
"What's with your face?"
Hans glanced at him and said with a doubtful tone, "I have this nagging feeling after we heard the screech of that devil.
"Everything felt relatively easy,"
"Weren't we supposed to be happy about it?"
"You weren't there when I was fighting the devil with Noelle," Hans answered with a weak smile on his lips, "What we did wasn't easy at all,"
…
'Strange, something is very strange…'
That thought came through my mind as we both waited for our entries on the flight of stairs that would lead us outside of this ruin.
Isaac, who was darting his gaze from everywhere, didn't notice it due to his goal of finding Lori and everyone from the crowd. On the other hand, since I knew they were safe, I didn't place my worries there.
'What is it?'
I asked myself once more.
Recalling everything that had happened while we escaped that place, I didn't find anything weird. On the surface, at least. My perception had increased and at some point, my senses had heightened much better than normal people after eating the Piece.
Which is why I asked myself.
'What's so weird about this?'
For some time, the way up was very quiet. Thanks to it, I was so absorbed in my thinking that I began landing speculation.
'Quiet…'
The very word wasn't suitable for the given situation.
That was something that only happened before the devil of detrimental came. No, maybe before the kidnapping happened. It was pure agony when The Saviours and the devil were involved yet, concentrating on the matter regarding Omen, after it screamed, it became quiet?
I'm not buying it.
Tap!
It was at that moment that someone tapped my shoulders that scared me to death. My mind prepared itself for what was to come but I was only meant with a question.
"Young man, are we almost out yet?"
I looked towards the stairs and saw something familiar from just a few days ago, I nodded and glanced at the man, reassuring him, "Yes, sir. We're about to go home,"
Just as I was about to take another step, the man from behind me suddenly grabbed my arm, tightly grasping it which made me frown, only to look at the man in horror, who was currently wearing a wicked smile.
The thing is, this was the man whom I previously killed! The very first one. The hole in his chest was enough proof.
"Why are you going out?" The man paused, "Aren't this your home?"
At that instant, I was pulled back down.