Pik launched its right fist at Reinon, despite how much power it held. It was actually only able to push Reinon less then a few feet whilst it was still in the net.
Reinon's density and heavy mass made it almost similar to a rock, Pik's strong and large attacks weren't able to effectively cause significant damage to Reinon's hard form. The exterminators' blunt weapons were capable of hurting Reinon because of its anti-armor properties. Pik on the other hand had no such property on its fists, nor were its attacks as concentrated as the squads' maces, hammers and other similar weapons.
It was rock, paper and scissors. Rock being Reinon, Pik the scissors and the Exterminators being paper.
Ghrous took a deep breath, Pik's sight is currently laser focused on Reinon. Ghrous then stared at Rinoura.
"Captain Rinoura, you mention that the sinner is able to talk, yes?" Ghrous asked.
Rinoura nodded, Ghrous then stared at Reinon. Pik's fists were hopelessly pummeling the sinner, it just laid there. Almost unbothered by the corpse-kin's hits, it probably could escape Pik or even beat it without the magical net holding it down.
Ghrous betting it all on Pik's hyperfocus, had spoken.
"Sinner, I have a proposition to make." Ghrous spoke, quickly glancing at Pik.
The fraudulent angel didn't acknowledge Ghrous and just kept its onslaught of punches against the sinner's form. Reinon's eyes quickly darted around, each eye moving independently of each other.
Then, they all locked in to Ghrous' form at the same time.
"We let you go, and you keep the Corpsekin busy." Ghrous offers.
"No... I want... To... Go... Up... " Reinon answered.
"... Deal." Ghrous answered immediately.
Ghrous then walked near the net and held one of the fibers, his magical energy flowed through the fibers and at once. The entire net's trapping ability was deactivated, in that instant. Reinon got up and used one of its arms to grab one of Pik's fists.
Pik tried to return its fist back to its side but Reinon planted its foot in the fist, poking a hole through the fist's flesh and forcing its entire body weight to weigh the hand down.
Pik's eyes closed slightly.
"Thee judgement has passed, thou are able to walk through hell. May rotting wisdom provide thee courage." Pik spoke.
Reinon stared down at Pik, its eyes were filled with neither fear or concern. Rather, with stoicism. Though Reinon was the rock to Pik's scissors, Pik knew. It could just start again, no matter how many times it would die. Thy faith proves me immortal to the fleshed one's cause, as long as Vouth lives, an angel would follow suit.
Reinon let go of Pik's arm, and the angel turned around. Its injured arm, slowly starting to heal floated right beside it. Its stationary wings made it appear like some living statue. It's fleshy hide skirt swayed as it slowly moved towards something.
Reinon then looked at Pik's path, and there it saw in the distance. They were lizards with bat-like wings, replacing what should've been their front arms.
Reinon knew, from all the books it had read. This was a Wyvern, there were about ten of them with people riding atop of them.
The biggest wyvern had reddish scales and a black underbody, and there was a person cloaked in black. Each wyvern then landed atop on one of the buildings.
"Alright, let's go. I haven't forgotten about our deal." Ghrous spoke, he held a neutral face as he looked towards the other squads.
Reinon then looked at both the wyvern riders which were using the same float-kits as the Poledam soldiers, and Ghrous. Then it figured that Ghrous couldn't see as far as it can, considering that Reinon's eyes were special.
Reinon dismissed it and walked towards Ghrous, the man's forehead seemed to be sweating yet his face showed no discernible emotion.
"Alright, everyone grab your shit. We got the books, but this guy's coming with us." Ghrous then pointed at the sinner.
Reinon's eyes darted between everyone's faces. The captains held a stern expression, whilst the members were about to protest.
"Y-You can't be serious?!"
"That thing...!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"We broke that things' bones and they're already healed! We can't let that thing inside of our-"
Ghrous glared at everyone.
"This 'thing' made that angel leave in exchange for going up, in fairness we already owe it after we broke all of its bones." Ghrous spoke.
"R...ei...non..." Reinon spoke its name.
"Right." Ghrous spoke.
The members slowly quieted down after being reprimanded by their own respective captains. This was suspicious, to Reinon.
Why is it that the captains are so accepting of this?
Reinon's eyes individually darted around, trying to find any clues. But... Reinon only had suspicions at best.
Everyone reluctantly packed up their things as the sinner stood at the center of the camp, its eyes observing everything. Clearly, both the sinner and the Expeditionary forces were just as wary of each other. That was until, out of nowhere.
At the entrance of the camp, there was a person wearing a hooded cloak. The only noticeable feature about him were his azure blue eyes, he stood still. The members and captains didn't even notice him, only Reinon did.
At least until he stretched out his hand to his side, holding a longsword with a blue hue to its metal. Slowly, as the members walked. They all slowly stopped, looking at the cloaked man in confusion.
Why was-
In that instant, thirteen members had lost their heads. The cloaked man had now moved somewhere else inside the camp, as the thirteen members slowly fell down. Their heads proceeding to fall and drop into the ground.
...
Huh?
...
"I knew it, the sinner!"
"This bastard, kill that thing now!"
In that instant everyone in the camp pointed their weapons at Reinon, even the captains.
A distraction, within that instant. Six members and two captains had lost their heads, the attack so fast that their heads only separated from their body the moment they hit the ground.
"How is it doing that?!" A member shouted in confusion and fear.
Ghrous then immediately made a magic circle appear under him, the size of the magic circle then enlarged. Filling half of the camp's area.
"Everyone! Get ready! Keep the sinner away while the magic circle is counting down!" Ghrous shouted.
Everyone immediately huddled inside the circle, their weapons pointed at every angle. Reinon was outside of the circle, and the weapons aimed at it were preventing it from advancing.
"Such a good distraction." A man with a deep voice whispered to the sinner.
Reinon roared, causing the members to slightly tremble from fear. The cloaked man was using Reinon.
Then, that moment. Another six members had been decapitated.
"Shit!" One of the captains shouted.
Ghrous then looked everywhere trying to find the source of all that is happening, what was hitting them?! How was Reinon able to do this?! The sinner was at deaths door a few moments ago, now it's massacring them?!
Ghrous' eyes widened as he saw a flash of a cloaked person behind Tyno, the two books in her bag had disappeared alongside that cloaked person.
It wasn't the sinner, another enemy was here...
"There's another enemy here! He took two of our books!" Ghrous shouted in panic.
Ghrous then saw a flicker of the cloaked man, his azure blue eyes glowed as his golden hair was momentarily revealed to him. Unfortunately, he was unable to relay this information.
The next moment, Ghrous' head was separated from his body. His head dropped unto the ground and his body soon followed. The members started shouting in panic and desperation, whilst the captains also started to panic.
The captains were sweating bullets but were still trying to find this cloaked man, the members were on the ground. Their eyes filled with fear and hopelessness, they'd given up.
"Only three minutes left!" Rinoura shouted, in an attempt to take over Ghrous' role.
The magic circle was about to activate in sixty seconds, Reinon's eyes followed around. Using the data received from the members and captains' death, it saw a pattern.
It only saw flickers, sure. But everytime the cloaked man was seen, was when it was about to attack. Not to mention, there was a cooldown between killings.
This person had two magical abilities, an invisibility ability and some sort of speed-boosting ability. The invisibility skill didn't have a cool down, it was the speed-boosting ability that did.
If Reinon had to guess, if the cloaked man was within a certain close distance with a person then his invisibility ability would deactivate as some sort of condition. The speed-boosting ability was more like a dash.
How so?
Everytime the cloaked man would kill people, they were always in a linear line. The members which were killed at the same time were killed when they stood in formation or they happened to meet the linear path where the cloaked man's speed-boosting ability was aimed at.
The only time that only one individual was killed, Ghrous, he wasn't in formation. With the way that the slash that decapitated Ghrous was made, no one else was within the linear path of the cloaked man's speed-boosting ability.
In other words, Reinon figured out the cloaked man's attack pattern. As another two members were killed, Reinon positioned itself behind one of the captains. And as the captain's eyes widened. Reinon quickly pushed him away.
There, the cloaked man was revealed. His sword grazed Reinon's hard scales, Reinon quickly grabbed the cloaked man's arm with its left arm but the cloaked man immediately pulled out a dagger made of red hued metal with his free hand from his hip and slashed at Reinon.
The dagger sizzled out heat as it efficiently cut into Reinon, the sinner growled but refused to let go of the cloaked man's arm. Until the cloaked man tapped his red-hued dagger into his blue-hued sword.
In that instant, the two switched lengths. The blue-hued sword had turned into a dagger of the same hue and the red-hued dagger turned into a longsword with the same hue. The cloaked man then swung the red-hued longsword at Reinon's left shoulder, and like butter, its entire left arm including the shoulder had been severed from its body.
Reinon roared loudly in pain, but used its right arm to grab the cloaked man and threw him to the far side of the camp. The surprising thing was that the cloaked man wasn't invisible anymore, the blue-hued sword was what probably allowed him to go invisible.
In that moment, the remaining captains pointed their weapons at the cloaked man. The man clicked his tongue.
"One and a half minutes left." The cloaked man spoke to himself.
The cloaked man then sheathed his blue-hued dagger to his hip, he then whistled with his left hand.
"Kaylon, wipe them out." The cloaked man said.
A wyvern then crashed into the ground, it was the one with reddish scales and a black underbody. The biggest one...
Reinon roared at the wyvern, which the wyvern replied with its own roar. The wyvern then flapped its wings and dove straight towards Reinon and what remained of the Expeditionary forces.
As the wyvern got closer and closer, with both itself and Reinon roaring. Another roar had entered the mix, it was loud and terrifying.
!!!
"WREAK!"
"WREAK!"
"WREAK!"
"WREAK!"
"WREAK!"
"WREAK HAVOK!"
"WREAK!"
"WREAK!"
"WREAK!"
"WREAK!"
"WREAK!"
!!!
In that moment, a giant corpsekin the same size as Pik tackled Kaylon, the wyvern. Kaylon roared and was going to bite the corpsekin until the corpsekin held the wyvern's mouth shut with its left hand. It then used its right hand and body to slam the wyvern into the ground.
The cloaked man's eyes widened, he immediately unsheathed his red-hued sword and attempted an attack on the corpsekin. The corpsekin immediately flew up while holding the struggling wyvern, there in the sky.
Havok started slashing the wyvern with its claws, the cloaked man then turned to his right.
"What are my men doing-?!" The cloaked man's shout was suddenly met with a radiant glow.
As the angel, Pik hovered in front of the cloaked man. Both of its hands holding the dead bodies of the cloaked man's comrades who were also wearing cloaks.
"Now, are thou worthy to walk through hell?" Pik spoke, its echoing voice rumbling the area.
The cloaked man then sheathed his red-hued sword and unsheathed his blue-hued dagger, he tapped his blue-hued dagger against the red-hued sword and the same switch happened.
The red-hued sword turned into a red-hued dagger whilst the blue-hued dagger turned into a blue-hued longsword, the cloaked man then used his speed-boosting ability.
His speed-boosting ability let him pass through solid objects, thus letting him go through Pik's large body. He then ran towards the buildings and whistled.
Quickly, the wyverns of the cloaked man's dead comrades flew towards him. He quickly jumped on one of them, whilst holding two of the books that he stole from Poledam's forces.
Pik stared at the cloaked man on the wyvern, as the wyverns flew away from them. Havok finally dropped Kaylon, leaving only its shredded and mutilated corpse to crash into the ground.
Slowly, both Pik and Havok faced each other.
"You are worthy to walk through hell." Pik spoke, not even considering to fight the gigantic speed demon that was Havok.
"LEAVE MY CITY, ANGEL GUY!" Havok roared at Pik.
Pik just stated at Havok, the angel then slowly turned around and started hovering away. Presumably to leave the city.
"Three!" Rinoura shouted as the magic circle started glowing.
"Wait a minute, the Guilty's still with us!" One of the members shouted.
"DO YOU REALLY HAVE TIME FOR THAT, RIGHT NOW?!" Rinoura shouted, in frustration and disbelief.
The members and captains flinched from Rinoura's strange uncomposed outburst.
"ALRIGHT, ONE!" Rinoura shouted in frustration.
The magic circle then activated, bringing everyone within the magic circle back to Poledam's teleporter. Including Reinon, the sinner.
Wake up.
Fun fact: Despite Jono saying that Redempteds can only be identified from their seven ringed etched, there are also more variations in terms of appearance for Redempteds, sometimes they can still have animalistic features from when they were a Guilty Reincarnated.
Jono just hasn't seen a Redempted with animalistic features yet.
