The full moon was high in the sky. Illuminating the soon-to-be battlefield in front of Gwangmyeong City Hall.

“...” Olivia, Kim Hajin, Kim Suho, Shin Jonghak, Chae Nayun, and Yi Yeonghan were standing in front of the City Hall. A tense atmosphere covered the place, as the other side had thousands of members in their ranks. “There are less than nine thousand fighters here.” Shin Jonghak casually commented, but the amount of anger felt in his tone was enough to give chills to some of the fighters on Asura’s side.

“It must be because of the crystals coming together.” Hajin answered as he took out his gun, turning it into a Sniper Rifle. His main mission was clear. “When that happens, the Recorded World becomes unstable. I hoped for it to be unstable enough for only some hundreds to show up, but there’s not enough luck, I guess.” He shrugged. ‘Cristopher was right, this isn’t anywhere close to what I wrote in the novel.’

“Doesn’t matter.” Jonghak scoffed. “I’ll kill them all anyways.”

“Ahem.” Interrupting them, a tall, bandit-like man that stood on the roof of a broken-down bus used as a barricade called them. “This place is off-limits to kids.” He simply said as he rested a steel pipe on his shoulder.

“He’s Yoo Dongsuk.” Hajin said as he frowned at the man, before turning to scan the rest with his Gift. “He’s one of Asura’s subordinates.”

“Yoo Dongsuk?” Shin Jonghak snorted as he pointed his spear toward the newly recognized subordinate. “Lackeys can screw off. Where’s Asura?”

“Haha…” Dongsuk chuckled. “A kid shouldn’t talk to adults like that.” He shook his head.

“...I won’t ask a second time.” Jonghak’s magic power started to rise as he narrowed his eyes.

“Asura-nim isn’t here.”

“Don’t you dare lie to us!” Jonghak shouted as his magic power flared up, covering him in a blackish color.

“W-What? What’s up with the color of your magic power?”

“Enough chitchat.” Olivia interrupted as she threw her knives in the air, only for them to start floating around her. “Bring Asura here so we can finish this already!” She said as her magic power flared. Chae Nayun followed behind as her magic power covered her sword, making it longer than normal. Hajin was fully focused while trying to find the curse magician amongst the thousands of combatants, while Yi Yeonghan and Suho clenched their fists, ready to fight at any time.

“Wow~ Scary~” Yoo Dongsuk chuckled, leaping down from the bus as he readied his steel pipe, the thousands of fighters behind also getting ready to fight. “But kids, I’m not lying. Asura-nim really isn’t here.”

“Then where is-” Jonghak questioned him, but stopped midway, as a thought reached his mind. “You bastards…” He frowned.

“Haha.” Dongsuk and some of the members behind him laughed. “What were you thinking, leaving the crystals behind with your injured friend? Even if one of you acted as a guardian, you wouldn’t be able to stop Asura-nim.” He smirked.

“...” The cadets kept silent at his provocation, which caused him to raise an eyebrow.

“Mm?” But just as he was about to ask them why were they so silent, one of the cadets broke into a fit of laughs.

“HAHAHAHA!” Olivia couldn’t help but bent forward as she grabbed her stomach, a slight ache slowly creeping up her abdomen because she was laughing so hard.

“...What’s wrong with her?” Dongsuk frowned.

“Ha…” Hajin could only shake his head as he chuckled. “She’s just laughing at how stupid Asura was.”

“Huh?” The comment left everyone on the enemy team perplexed. “What do you mean?” Another subordinate of Asura asked as he clenched his hands on a magic-power-covered bat.

“Did he go alone?” Hajin asked.

“...” No one answered his question, silence becoming a pretty obvious answer in itself.

“HE EVEN WENT ALONE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA” Olivia’s laughter seemed to become louder than before.

“...” This made the others flinch slightly. What could be given her so much confidence that she would be laughing like that at their friends' dangerous circumstances?

“Well…” Hajin chuckled. “Asura is utterly fucked then. I mean… No matter how many of you went there, you all would be still fucked.” Hajin shrugged. ‘I feel like I’m getting Cristopher’s habit to say bad words every time…’

“Ha…” After finally calming down, Olivia swept a tear from her eyes, as she rose again, the knives she previously lost control over, raising once again. “He won’t have the balls to call himself ‘Asura’ again after that bastard finishes him off.”

“...” That last comment left the City Hall group confused, as well as slightly afraid.

***

“...” Back at the hideout, Cristopher was sitting beside Yoo Yeonha while treating her with Natural Energy, her breathing slow enough so he can time the treatment to her own breathing without her being awake. Even then, he stopped after a little while. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Just as he stood up, steps could be heard coming to the third floor, where Yoo Yeonha was currently resting. Cristopher turned to look at the stairs, from where a lone figure came walking. He was alone, covered in a black robe from where two red eyes could be seen.

“You came, huh…” Cristopher smirked. “Seems like your ego was big enough.”

“...” Asura stopped at the end of the stairs, looking at Cristopher and Yoo Yeonha. “Your arrogance will be the end of you, and that girl over there. Such an unassuming death she’ll have. Just another piece of trash at the side of the road we call life.”

“Poets, aren’t we.” Cristopher chuckled, receiving a snort from Asura. “The thing is that… you’re kind of describing your own future here, man.”

“It seems that reality is difficult to accept for you, human.” Asura shook his head. “Such a pity.” As he let out a deep breath, a long portal-like pathway formed behind him, bringing forth thousands of monsters. His power, his Gift, Hail of Demonic Beasts, was now active, summoning monsters in batches of hundreds. As the monsters poured out, the third floor’s walls and ceiling started breaking up, the surroundings morphed and what was once a three-story building, was now a single barren land with traces of the old building around.

“Interesting tricks you have on your hands.” Cristopher whistled at the events happening in front of him.

“Is that how you cope with fear, human? It must be sad. Losing your mind against such a power.” Asura smirked as he looked around at the horde of monsters under his command. “This. This is why I stopped being human. To get power beyond your comprehension.”

“...” Cristopher tilted his head for a moment before chuckling. “Ah, I get it. That measly power got into your head. It seems like now you’ve embraced your third-rate villain self and started monologuing. What’s next? Telling me your oh-so-great master plan?”

“...” With a raised eyebrow, Asura looked at the youth in front of him before sighing and shaking his head. “It seems you need to learn your lesson.” Snapping his fingers, Asura commanded the monsters to start attacking. The vanguard, composed of demonic beasts, orcs, giants, and other monsters moved forward, while the rear guard stood there on standby, ready to unleash masses of magic attacks at any given moment.

Cristopher looked at this and chuckled. Taking out one of the crystals he was protecting. But just as he rose his arm, someone grabbed his sleeve.

“What is it?” He asked, not looking back at Yoo Yeonha.

“...Run…” She said in her tired and raspy voice. “L-Leave me… here…”

Turning to look at her foggy eyes, Cristopher chuckled. “You hurt me, Yeonha. Is that how much you trust in me? Hm?” He asked with mock hurt in his voice.

“P-Please…” She tightened her grip on his sleeve. “T-There’s too… too… many…”

He sighed as he softly removed her hand from his sleeve. “Listen here, Yeonha, sick people should shut up, close their eyes, and sleep. So don’t worry too much, and get to sleep.” He said as he once again turned around, to see the almost-reaching horde of monsters, ignoring the pleading eyes from the sick girl behind him. 

“Ah… emotions. Such baggage.” Asura shook his head with a condescending smile. “I’ve left those back with my humanity.”

“Mm? You should probably have left your pathetic being behind instead of emotions. But hey, I guess beggars can’t be choosers.” Cristopher chuckled. “Now, after you showed me your trick, I’m compelled to show you mine.” As he said that, the crystal in his hands shone in a purple light, the same as the rest of the place around them.

“...” Looking at this, Asura raised an eyebrow. Only to have his eyes widen the next moment, as from everywhere lightning started to appear, seemingly from the ground, causing a lot of his monsters to be electrocuted and scorched. As if that were all, chains of lightning started traversing through his horde of monsters, killing the weakest ones in a moment. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? WHAT’S THIS!?”

“Well… you see…” He smirked as the forefront monsters, a horde of giants and orcs clashed against a barrier, getting burns from the impact areas. “You’re not the only one that can mold the place around with the help of these crystals. Though, instead of changing the scenery, I prefer to do a more… offensive… change in the place. Have you heard of the term, ‘Runes’?” He smirked.

“YOU!” Asura looked with wide eyes at how the numbers of his army of monsters started to drop.

“Yeah, yeah. Typically third-rate villain attitude.” Cristopher rolled his eyes as he saved the crystal once again. Leaving Yeonha under the protection of a rune-crafted barrier, he moved forward. “That must be why you were such a failure that, even for someone with such a useful power, you couldn’t grow from your trash-like position in whatever shithole organization you belonged to.”

“KILL HIM!” Asura shouted as he started to summon more monsters to replace the dead ones. Although he was soon reaching his limits.

Cristopher chuckled as he extended his hand to the front, confusing Asura. Although, only for a moment, as he soon crouched down, just in time to evade a flying spear that pierced through dozens, or even hundreds of monsters, on its way to Cristopher’s hand. “Well…” He said as he swung the spear, decapitating an orc while also pushing off some of the blood from the blade of the glaive-like spear. “I kind of want to exercise a bit. You know? I’ve been training for a while now, and apart from a certain brute, I haven’t been getting a good fight, I guess that's the problem with getting stronger.”

“...” Asura’s eyes widened as he looked at the mountains of monster corpses that were slowly piling up. “Grr…” He growled as he glared at Cristopher. “KILL HIM! NOW!” He shouted, and Cristopher could swear that the expression of some monsters was screaming something along the lines of ‘WE’RE TRYING, OK!?’, making him chuckle as a water barrier surrounded him, stopping a poison attack from an arachnid monster that was at the rear.

Spinning his spear, the water surrounding him became a long serpent-like water construction that shot towards the spider like a dancing dragon, collecting some of the lightning that was shooting from monster to monster and becoming a water-lightning dragon that drilled through monsters like a hot knife through butter.

Meanwhile, Cristopher danced through the horde of monsters with the spear, cutting, piercing, and hitting everything that stood in his way. Blood splashed everywhere as heads, arms, legs, tails and other varieties of monster parts flew up or fell down, giving an already horrific scenery, a more gory tint.

“...” Yeonha, in her daze, could barely spectate what was happening in front of her. ‘It’s so beautiful…’ She thought to herself, as it felt like a light show was happening in front of her. A dancing dragon following the movements of a dancer that seemed to flow through the battlefield, unimpeded, unbothered. Her foggy vision seemed to turn the raining blood into red paint that decorated a beautiful artwork.

“WHY!? AFTER EVERYTHING I’VE DONE! WHY IS IT THAT A MERE CADET CAN SURPASS ME!?” In despair, Asura was trying to summon more and more monsters, but he had reached the limit long ago, and his magic power was almost depleted, he couldn’t even resort to sending magic-powered attacks of his own, and while his physique was strong like any other Djinn, after what he has seen, he was sure that there was no way for him to compete in close combat.

“...” Cristopher ignored his screams filled with despair and continued killing the mobs of monsters. Lightning, fire, and water danced around, as he swung his spear, and the runes he engraved around dwindled the enemies around. Bullets of fire tore through the monster’s weaknesses, while lightning flowed from monster to monster, shocking and scorching them at the same time that an eastern dragon made of water and lightning bit and pierced anything in its path.

Soon, everything that remained was mountains of monster corpses littered around the place. Blood, muddled water, and fire decorated the scene, and in the middle of it all, a kneeling Asura, fully turned into his Djinn form, filled with despair and wrath as he glared at the man in front of him.

“YOU RUINED IT! YOU RUINED MY CHANCE!” He screamed at him.

“I think you’re mistaken.” Cristopher shook his head as he rested the spear on his shoulder. “You fucked your own chance yourself. Trying the easiest way out has its benefits, but it also has its risks. In your case, that risk was me. You were fated to fail the moment we were pulled into this mess.”

“YOU FUCKER!” Asura shot up and with his blackened claws tried to pierce Cristopher’s chest. Sadly for him, he looked as slow as a snail to the cadet, who grabbed his arm and broke it. “Argh!” with a broken arm, Asura could only crawl back, trying to get away from Cristopher who now rested his free hand in his coat’s pocket. A new emotion filled Asura’s heart as he looked at Cristopher's eyes, which seemed to mock him as if he were nothing more than a bug that could be squashed on a whim. Fear took over him.

“!” But just as he fantasized about getting away from there, he had to stop, as, behind him, the other cadets stood, that were supposedly fighting at the City Hall, accompanied by his own subordinates, who now looked at him, with realization dawning in their eyes.

“...” Silence fell on the place.

“No…” Asura’s eyes widened even more. “No, no, no, no… This can’t be-Ugh!?” As he realized that there was no way out, and his only, although imaginary, hope broke apart, he started to crawl away, like a worm. For the first time in a while, he felt worthless, useless, and more important, powerless. But just as he tried to deny his current situation, a sudden pain invaded his chest, as his partner, the ghost he made a deal with, broke from his heart, essentially ending his life as he turned into dust.

Everyone but Kim Suho and Cristopher looked at the scene with wide eyes, while Cristopher had a bored look in his eyes, and Kim Suho reached out with his sword, touching the recently appeared ghost and sucking it into the divine-grade weapon, and essentially strengthening Misteltein as it grew stronger with every spirit it absorbs. No longer would the ghost of the past cause a similar situation for anyone else, being eternally imprisoned inside the god-slaying branch.

“...” Cristopher looked at everyone for a moment, before turning back towards Yoo Yeonha. “I’m assuming that you guys took care of the other side.” He simply said as he treaded through the mountains of corpses, reaching Yoo Yeonha, who was fully protected by the barrier, making it impossible for even blood to get to her, or the bed she was resting on.

“Yeah…” Suho said with an awkward nod, while the rest were just shocked at the number of monsters that were littering the place. Or at least their corpses were.

“That’s good.” Blue fire covered Cristopher as the blood that bathe him fully evaporated, leaving him as clean as when Asura came to the place. He then proceeded to check Yoo Yeonha with the same blue fire, making sure there was nothing else affecting her. “Mm?”

“...” As he did so, Yoo Yeonha opened her eyes, and after focusing for a moment, she turned to stare at him. Her eyes were a little bit clearer than before, as she kept her eyes locked on his.

“I told you.” He smirked. “Sick people should just shut up and rest. And look at that, I was right.” He chuckled, causing her to blink a couple of times before turning her head away. “Now, if you could be a dear, and help me help yourself.” With one last chuckle, he started to treat her again, under the dumbfounded eyes of Asura’s ex-subordinates and the other cadets.

“...He’s a monster…” Someone from the group muttered, but everyone was too occupied looking at the gory scene to identify who was it that spoke.

“I guess we need to look for another place.” Olivia said as she looked at the destroyed place they used to call hideout. “Good call about storing anything important.” She patted Hajin’s shoulder, while Kim Suho and Chae Nayun nodded. It was a blessing they decided to hear Hajin’s recommendation.