After he heard Asteria's announcement, the first thing that Alex did was to check all his available powers.

"…" As he observed his Esper and Abyss Abilities, Alex let out both a frown and smile at the same time, as what he saw were both bad and good news.

The bad news was that his Esper Ability was weakened by 10 times in this world.

For Alex, whose favorite attacks rely on his Esper Ability, a ten-time reduction in power was somewhat bad for him!

But on the other hand, the good news that Alex had was his discovery that his Abyss Abilities were actually enhanced by 5 times here in this world!

That just means that any Abyss Abilities that Alex uses right now will be 5 times stronger than before!

"So this world leans more to the mystical rather than the scientific side…" Alex muttered to himself as he straightened his body. "Well, at least this world still allows Esper Abilities to exist, even in a weakened form..."

Alex's musings were then cut off as he looked back at the old man, who was now sprawled on the floor on all fours.

His face was starting to tear up, as if he just screwed up big time now.

"I'm sorry Kiera… your grandpa failed to protect you…" The old man mumbled to himself as he started to sniffle. Just in front of him, Kiera was still being affected by whatever what was happening to her. "I'm really useless, aren't I?"

"Shut it, old man. Your granddaughter won't be captured here." Alex said as he pulled the old man up into a standing position.

Ales stared at the old man's red eyes, taking note of the old man's labored breathing as he said,

"You two have been hospitable to me and my partners… If we leave you here, that will just be wrong! So don't worry, I got this. I will save you and your granddaughter from these poachers."

"Really?"

"Really. I promise to save you two. So, just sit tight here while I finish the job." Alex said as he took a deep breath, slowly activating his Esper and Abyss Abilities.

"…."

Actually, even if Alex did not receive a Bonus Mission from Asteria, he will still try to save Kiera.

After all, Kiera was someone connected to the Red Moon already. With Alex's instincts, he knew that the Main Mission will be related to the Red Moon, so why should he let someone like Kiera be taken by someone else?

Besides, Alex also wanted to see the power of their possible enemies, and the Symbolists arriving now will be Alex's test subjects.

All in all, Asteria's announcement of the Bonus Mission was just a big bonus for Alex.

"Alina, stay here and protect Kiera from anyone trying to harm her. Queen Mother, come here with me and initiate the first attack." Alex said as he felt the airship slowing down above them. "On my signal, summon the largest trees that you can, and use them to impale the airship above. Got it?"

"Got it." Queen Mother replied as her hands touched the floor.

"…" After this conversation, Alex closed his eyes as he used his FED Manipulation to sense the number of inhabitants inside the ship.

He detected 30 people inside the ship, and from what he can also sense, all these people seemed to have some kind of power flowing inside their body.

Alex was able to detect this power as he felt that there was something inside these 30 people that was resisting his FED Manipulation.

Even when Alex's Abyss powers were enhanced by 5 times in this world, these people were still able to somehow resist Alex's emotional probings.

"So these Symbolists has some kind of power that can strengthen their mental states huh. Seems like I have to focus on material attacks then." Alex muttered to himself as he started to square up his body.

From the way that the Symbolists above had moved, it seems like they were not aware that people like Alex, Alina and Queen Mother were inside the hut.

Their attention seemed to be only focused on capturing Kiera, which was proven by the way that the airship did not bother to hide its presence at all.

"Hehehehe, it's your loss then." Alex muttered devilishly to himself as he looked at Queen Mother.

It was time for their attack to start, and Alex was perfectly fine of making Queen Mother start their offensive.

*********

Even if Alex did not ask Queen Mother about the status of her power here in this world, Alex was fairly confident that Queen Mother can perfectly help him out here.

From what Alex can remember, the power-up that Queen Mother bought from the Superhuman World was an increase in her lifespan and vitality.

Queen Mother did not bother to obtain a new ability at her stay on the Superhuman World.

Instead, she opted to increase her lifespan and vitality, as these two traits were tied with her plant and pseudo-life creation abilities.

The more lifespan and vitality that she has right now, the stronger her natural abilities will be.

Alex was satisfied with this choice, since Queen Mother's natural abilities was already more than enough to help Alex out.

And right now, Alex was about to benefit from her once more.

With his eyes still concentrated on Queen Mother, Alex slowly pointed his fingers to the ground as he said,

"Now!"

"Pliyak!" After he shouted this word, 36 thick trees sprouted out of the ground all around Queen Mother, with each tree shooting out towards the airship above them.

"Boom!" With the roof of the hut shredded by the trees, Alex was able to see the moment that the trees were about to impact against the bottom part of the airship.

"Hong~" Before the trees could pierce the ship, Alex activated his FED Manipulation towards the residents of the ship.

With their mental resistance, Alex's FED Manipulation was weakened, but that weakened version was enough to stun them for a few seconds.

The timing of Alex's attack was perfect, as it was at that moment that the 36 trees hit the bottom of the ship.

"Buong!" But at the moment that the trees touched the ship, a golden glow suddenly covered the ship, with countless golden symbols appearing on the ship's exterior.

The trees, whose momentum was obviously high, were somehow stopped by the appearance of these symbols.

"Hmm... so these could be the power of the Symbolists… Now I get why they are called like that." Alex muttered to himself as he smiled wryly. "Well, they have some strong symbols there… However, don't think that that paltry symbols of yours are enough to stop Queen Mother's assault!"

As Alex said these words, he looked back at Queen Mother, who was just looking at what had happened calmly.

Queen Mother seemed to be not bothered with the symbols stopping her trees. Instead of looking worried, she suddenly clenched her hand as the trees started to spin quickly.

"Skree…" The trees, which were now turned by Queen Mother into drills, started to assault the protective shield of the ship.

"SKree…" The glow of the golden symbols around the ship started to increase in response to Queen Mother's new attack, but even that was insufficient.

4 seconds later, and the ship's protective shield was torn apart by the spinning trees.

It was at this point that the effects of Alex's FED Manipulation had ended, but at that time, it was already too late for the Symbolists.

"Boom!" The whole ship exploded into pieces as Queen Mother's Tree Drills pierced through the ship like it was just paper.

The poor Symbolists inside the ship seemed to be taken by surprise by this, as most of them started to plummet towards the ground.

As these Symbolists started falling towards the ground, Alex narrowed his eyes as he observed them.

"…These Symbolists actually looked kinda ancient…" Alex muttered to himself as he observed the appearance of the Symbolists.

With the exception of two monstrous-looking humanoids, the rest of the Symbolists were wearing something similar to the ancient toga of the Greeks and Romans.

Their clothing, which looked extremely clean and pure, made Alex feel as if these Symbolists were obsessed with order and cleanliness.

But aside from their dress, Alex also saw one more familiar thing that each Symbolist had.

At their hands, they seemed to be holding some kind of writing tool, which even at this time of this night, were letting out some kind of glow.

As Alex saw these writing implements, he already knew that this was most probably a weapon that Symbolists use.

This suspicion of his went true as he saw some of the Symbolists starting to use the tool to write some kind of symbols in the air.

That was all that Alex needed to see before he decided to make his move.

Even if Alex was confident of his abilities, there is no way that he will just allow his opponents to use their power easily.

Why would you fight your enemy at full power when you can just defeat them while they're weak? It's easier that way!

"You think I will just let you fight me easily? Heh, you must be dreaming if you think of that." Alex muttered to himself as he summoned Wrath, one of his Abyss Sprites.

Wrath, who already realized Alex's intentions, narrowed his beady eyes as he shouted,

<<<Major Destruction Aura>>>

Wrath's target with this spell was Queen Mother's Tree Drills, which all started to let out an eerie dark glow as Wrath's Major Destruction Aura started to cover them.

Queen Mother, not wanting to waste an opportunity like this, immediately used her trees to attack the airborne Symbolists.

With their bodies off-balanced and their attacks not yet starting, most of the Symbolists were unable to do anything as Queen Mother's attack landed on them.

With the combination of Queen Mother's deadly tree drills and Alex's Major Destruction Aura, most of the Symbolists were quickly knocked unconscious.

Once they were out, some of Queen Mother's tress wrapped around them like cocoon, keeping them imprisoned inside special sacs which Queen Mother personally made for anyone that they needed to capture.

"…" While most of the Symbolists were defeated by that combo attack, Alex noticed that there were still 3 Symbolists that were uncaptured right now.

 

That trio was composed of a lone Symbolist, and the two monstrous-looking humanoids that Alex saw earlier.

The monstrous humanoids were using their bodies to tank Queen Mother's attacks, and their bodies were actually able to somehow withstand the onslaught of the tree drills.

As for the lone Symbolist, who was hiding in between the monstrous humanoids, Alex could see him throwing papers which were filled to the brim with golden inscriptions.

These papers were special, as they always burst into flames at the instant that they hit Queen Mother's tree drills.

The fires started by these papers were no joke, as some of Queen Mother's trees were being consumed by these flames.

What he saw from these three survivors was a surprise to Alex, since he himself knew how tough Queen Mother's trees were.

For these trio to withstand and even damage Queen Mother's trees was an indication that they were extremely strong.

"Bringing these three down will be a little harder, but I think I can manage to do it, as long as I time this well." Alex muttered to himself as he summoned Sloth.

From what Alex can see, the lone Symbolist had an extremely weak body and the ones protecting him for physical damage were the two monstrous humanoids with him.

In that case, the first thing that Alex must do first was to take them all out in an instant.

"Here I go then." Alex muttered to himself as Sloth activated his power.

{{{Lullaby}}}

The target of this spell was the lone Symbolist, who immediately started to sag as the spell hit him head-on.

But with the target's mental prowess, Alex estimated that the effect of his lullaby will only last for around a few seconds.

But a few seconds was all that Alex needed.

As the lone Symbolist wobbled in the sky, Alex pointed his finger to the lone Symbolist as he activated his Gravity Manipulation.

Even if his Esper Ability was weakened in this World, it was still strong enough to cause injuries, especially if the target was someone unable to defend himself.

Alex willed thousands of gravity waves to hit the lone Symbolist head-on, as he made sure that the waves will hit the target on the torso

Since Alex's gravity attack was basically invisible to the eye, the two monstrous humanoids that were occupied with Queen Mother's trees were unable to see or even prevent Alex's attack.

"Crunch." Alex heard the satisfying sound of broken bones as the lone Symbolist was blasted backwards by his attack.

"…"

Just one look at the lone Symbolist's eyes after that attack was enough to confirm that he was already unconscious.

With him unconscious and away from his protectors, the lone Symbolist was unable to do anything as Queen Mother's special sac captured him whole.

"As for you two, it's your time to go down now." Alex muttered as he manifested countless tentacles at his back.

He then jumped towards the two humanoids, who looked at Alex with blank looks on their faces.

"Hmph, so you two are Symbolists too…What could have you done to look like this?" Alex exclaimed as he felt that these two humanoids actually had the same feeling exuded by the other Symbolists. "Well whatever, you have to be captured by me for now.""

Alex then unleashed his tentacles on the two targets in front of him.

With Alex's tentacles coming from a General Class Monster, it was already a given that they were extremely tough.

Couple that toughness with the 5 times enhancement here in this world, and Alex's tentacles had reached a higher power level!

"Smack, smack, smack!" The monstrous humanoids were unable to do anything against Alex's tentacles as they were just smacked around, with their skin breaking apart from Alex's tentacle smacks.

Alex continued smacking the two until they were barely moving.

It was only when he was sure that the two were unconscious that Alex allowed Queen Mother to store the two on her special sacs.

"Well, that was fast." That was all that Alex could say to himself as he landed back to the ground.

He then looked at the old man, whose face looked like he swallowed something suffocating.

"Old man, what's the matter?" Alex asked with genuine worry. "Are you ok?"

"Ok my ass!" The old man shouted as he pointed a trembling finger at Alex. "You decimated a squad of Symbolists, captured a pair of Body Symbolists, and you even took one of their political leaders as a hostage! And even when you did that, you are still asking me if I am ok? What the f**k?"

"Ok…"