When the three henchmen saw what James did, they laughed at the audacity of his actions.

However, their leader narrowed his eyes and panickedly said, "Retreat, retreat!"

The reaction of their leader baffled the men; nonetheless, they still followed it.

"Did I tell you that you can leave this place?", James made a grasping motion with his hand.

A black, translucent barrier appeared on the path leading out of the area and to the air above them!

On their leader's command, the men attacked the barrier, but it was as if it was tougher than a wall of several dozens of meter.

Not being able to do anything, the four of them could only face the kid, who was looking at them with his pure dark eyes.

James made gestures with his right hand and a black lance covered by dark smoke materialized. The lance's height was taller than him; but still, he could carry it with one hand like some sort of a wooden stick.

"I'll take my time mincing you four.", James made a taunting gesture to them. His voice wasn't the same voice as earlier, it was totally distorted to the point the earlier voice couldn't recognized anymore!

Meanwhile, inwardly, the three newcomers were somewhat starting to feel fear. They had saw a lot of things during their past missions, but it was never as scary as this one.

"We need to kill that kid to get out of here. It is either he dies or we die.", their leader said. The other three snapped out of their stupor; then they unsheated their weapons from under their robes while preparing other objects.

On the other hand, their leader was getting ready to cast spells again.

"Still resisting? You had fun taking their lives, now I will have my fun.", James grinned. The grin was kind of adorable, but the distorted voice along with those black-colored eyes made it seem like the smile came from the depths of darkness instead.

-whoosh-

The three men along with their leader started to attack. The ones wielding swords injected internal energy to their weapons, strengthening their attributes; meanwhile, their leader who was casting spells mostly about the element of fire provided cover fire to each of his men when they would retreat.

They may be different people; but their minds were as if it's only one, making their movements look like it had some sort of synergy.

However, James was carefree with his every moves. He wasn't even trying to dodge at all! He only walked around the area while blocking each of the enemies' attack from three to four directions.

'Looks like I worried too much. He doesn't seem that skilled in battles.', the leader thought.

Then a weak, cold wind blew. The four remaining black-robed men felt it; after that, the next thing they saw etched a chilling sensation on their backs.

One of the melee attackers was suddenly split in half from top to bottom. That wasn't the reason why the felt their backs turned cold, but it was because they didn't even see James attack even once!

In addition, when the halved body dropped to the ground, not a single drop of blood leaked out from the wound across the body.

It was a clean cut!

"H-how? You're using a lance!", the leader asked madly in panic.

"Anything can be your weapon of choice and use it for another weapon's function; though it is many times harder, it is still possible.", James responded. But it wasn't distorted anymore, it was a different voice compared to the one earlier!

"Like this.", the lance on James' hand disappeared. But he grabbed the back of the head of one of the black-robed men who didn't even notice the kid's movement, and bashed his whole body to the other incoming enemy.

Both of them as soon as they made contact with each other were also split in half just like their comrade earlier!

The kid discarded the half of the body that was left and frowned at the blood flowing out of the recent kills, "It's been a long time since I used this style of attack."

The lance from earlier reappeared and James pointed it at the remaining man, who was the leader, "Nevermind the other three, you're the one that I will skin alive."

Seeing that he was all alone, the man started to feel a tingling sensation that crawled over his body.

Witnessing how his comrades were murdered, the man took out a dagger and stabbed it towards his throat to commit suicide without any delay!

But would James let him do so? The answer was an obvious no.

Before the dagger could even touch his neck, the man froze on the spot, as if he was inside a block of ice.

James slowly approached the last man. Every step that the latter could hear, seemed like as if Death's whisper was getting louder and louder.

When the kid arrived in front of the man, he took the dagger away from his grasp and took a look at it for a moment.

"This is sharp enough.", the kid commented. After that, he looked at the frozen man; inwardly, the latter was already frightened to the point he wanted to beg for mercy.

'Please no, please no, please no, please...'

But of course, his cries couldn't be heard.

Minutes pa.s.sed and and a naked body dropped to the ground with a thud. Beside the body was its own skin. It was a very unsightly sight. The man couldn't be physically recognized anymore. Along with the b.l.o.o.d.y sight of the skinless figure, were the several stabs on his chest.

"So many souls, so many souls, so many souls...", James kept muttering.

"No! I won't let you!", James' voice went back to the distorted one as he resisted the temptation of consuming.

He knew what would happen if he let 'that' feed on the souls of everyone here. He'll totally lose control of his own body and commit ma.s.sacre throughout the whole city!

The lance and the barrier disappeared as he dropped to the ground and started rolling.

"Stop, stop, stop...!", James kept repeating the same words. His right hand tried to reach to the sky while making a casting gesture, but his left hand was preventing it from doing so.

In the end, the right hand still successfully managed to straightly reach out to the sky, and it casted a spell.

Afterwards, darkness covered the sky above the city.

The darkness wasn't noticeable by mortals nor even pract.i.tioners comparable of mages and lower, but for the ones who had the strength of adepts and above, it was a separate story.

***

There was old man sweeping the snowy ground at the Retollian Church on the Eastern Horizon City. He was accompanied by a younger man who was wearing the same robes as the senior, albeit with less symbols.

Of course, the old man was none other than the Holy Priest of the Eastern Horizon City.

-thud-

The old man dropped his broom, alarming the younger man.

"Sir!", the man immediately approached the senior.

"I'm alright! I'm alright!", the old man a.s.sured. He looked up at the dark sky and muttered, "I hope you're seeing this, Great Lord."

-boom-

A quiet explosion occured. The strength of the barrier around the edifice intensified, though it couldn't be noticed by the eyes of mortals, the old man could clearly see while the younger one could faintly sense it.

"Why do I feel strengthened so suddenly?", the man asked.

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The old man then said something under his breath.

"Sir, what did you say?", the younger one asked.

"Gather all the holy warriors. The Great Lord is strengthening us to purge that evil!", the old man pointed at the darkness on the sky.

The other one doesn't know what was the Holy Priest was pointing too; nevertheless, he knew it was something serious.

"Alright sir.", the younger man slightly bowed. Following which, he went to the other sections of the grounds of the church.

***

Edwin looked up the sky of Horizon Mountain from afar; from there, he faintly saw and sensed the darkness above the Eastern Horizon City.

"What just happened?" Edwin was startled by the sudden appearance of the darkness.

Due to this, he increased his travelling speed to arrive earlier at the city.

***

Allen was leisurely reading the alchemic book on the counter of the shop. With light coming from the lamps hanged from the ceiling, the lamps served as gentle nightlights.

As he was about to drink his tea, he paused and put it back down. He looked at Little Salad who was in its sprout form. The little plant was frantically waving his leaves as if it was warning about something.

"I know.", Allen answered. He then triggered a technique he knew from several years ago, and his sense covered the whole city.

Every children listening to the stories and lullabies from their parents, the ever busy market of the city, the sleeping prisoners in the city jail, the people making love in the inns, the unusual behavior of the Retollian Church, and a handful amount of people that were looking up the sky. All of which, was under his senses.

It was the Energy External Sense which Melissa, Lord Levine's trusted helper, taught to him.

"Stay here Little Salad, this is something serious.", Allen said.

Little Salad nodded in response.

After that, through the said technique, Allen telephatically messaged Anna who was also looking up to the sky.

'Meet me at this location..., immediately.'

At first, Anna was alarmed, but she composed herself when she found out whose voice was in her head.

Then he deactivated the Energy External Sense and nudged his forehead.

"What a costly technique.", Allen muttered. Even though he was more powerful compared to his former self, the technique still took a toll on his internal energy, specially when he messaged Anna.

He fed on a pill coming from a drawer and went upstairs to wear his white robe and get his satchel; then, he left the shop through the balcony.

***

After the spell was successfully sent to the sky. James felt that his resistance was weakening against that 'thing'.

"No, stop! No!", the kid kept resisting at his best, but he was slowly losing his body. Afterwards, he ran out of the area and back towards the alley.

***

"Why did I even lose to that bet? Hmph.", Ivan scolded himself as he carried a heavy basket of fruits with both of his hands.

"Hmm?", he stopped walking as he noticed something unusual. Following which, he pasted his ears to an alley near him.

"Isn't that James' voice?", Ivan asked himself.

"Why would James be even in an alley at this time? I'm probably hallucinating.", Ivan shook his head and continued walking.

However, he heard more noises coming from the alley, which he determined that it was really James' voice!

"He's really in the alley? Isn't he sick?!", Ivan questioned himself again; nevertheless, he entered the alley along with the heavy basket.

"James? James? Why are you in here? Aren't you sick?", Ivan called out as he kept walking in the dark path of the alley.

"Hey James? Are you playing a prank on me? You know very well I hate places that are too dark.", Ivan shouted.

Suddenly, the noises stopped, prompting him to stop too.

"Hey! This isn't funny James! Step out now!", Ivan warned.

Then he felt something cold touch the back of his neck, sending chills all over his body. Ivan then only sensed that his body was carried up and thrown over the nearby wall.

A figure jumped towards him and tightly held his neck with both of its hands.

"J-James?", Ivan recognized the figure, which was none other than James!

"W-what are you doing? I-I c-can't breathe!", Ivan tried to get off James' grasp, but it was too tight to do so.

He looked up his friend, and saw his menacing black eyes.

"James, James, James...", he repeatedly called out. As seconds pa.s.s, his voice became weaker and weaker, until he was only murmuring.

Ivan's countenance was so black because of asphyxia that one could mistaken him to be dead already!

The other kid then unexpectedly let go of Ivan a second before the latter was about to pa.s.s out.

"Ivan?", James' eyes widened as he said.

"No! What am I doing?!", the kid pulled his hair in distress ran away towards the exit.

Ivan heavily coughed and wheezed as he recovered his breath. He looked at James' back which was getting smaller and smaller as he went farther and farther.

"Wait!", Ivan got to his feet and sprinted after the other kid. Though the distance between them widened because the latter was faster than the former.

***

Allen arrived at the dead end location where the fight recently occurred. The first thing he noticed was the corpses of James' parents.

"I'm sorry I'm late, I had to take a detour, Sir Alchemist Morgan.", Anna ran in the area. As soon as she arrived, she gaped at the sight of corpses and blood all over the place.

"Aren't those... James' parents?", the young adept walked beside Allen and spotted the two Obreims.

"Then where's James?", she added. Anna then looked over at Allen who was looking up the sky.

"Have you sensed it?", Allen asked.

"Kind of, it feels so... cold and baneful.", Anna replied, implying to the darkness covering the sky.

"What if I say James did that?", Allen stated.

"W-what? How?!", shock was plastered over Anna's face as she heard what Allen said.

She didn't doubt what he said because the topic was so serious.

"Come on, I think James will try to escape from the city. We need to be fast because I sensed the church is coming for him too.", Allen added.

***

Soon enough, James arrived at the western walls of the city. He swiftly climbed up the walls and made it on the top.

There were no guards on this part of the walls. Taking this chance he ran to the other side and prepared to jump.

-whoosh-

A golden chain flew towards the kid and wrapped around his arm, stopping him from jumping at the last moment; after that, two more chains appeared and attached themselves to his other arm and one leg.

Near the stairs of the wall, three plate armored men were holding each of the chains, and they started to pull the kid to them.

James used his other unchained leg to gain friction on the wall to try to stop himself from being pulled; despite that, he was still being dragged towards the three men.

"I don't want to hurt anybody, but you forced me!", James distortedly said, then he began to enchant a spell. A moment later, the enchantment already finished before the three men could act, and they all flew towards the kid.

Right after that, black smoke came out of James' mouth and cut off all the chains attached to him. He ducked to avoid getting hit by the three incoming men which kept flying and flying until they fell out of the wall.

Once again, the kid positioned himself at the corner of the wall and jumped away, then he started to enchant out another spell.

Suddenly, a blinding light shot to James which made him shriek and stopped him from finis.h.i.+ng his enchantment. He lost his momentum mid air and started to fall back down to the snow-covered mountain.

The old holy priest arrived and frowned, "I'm a second too late."

He then said to the other people behind him, "Five of you get those three holy warriors on the ground back to the church to heal. The rest, follow me, that evil must be purged before the sun rises or everyone in the city will notice the patch of darkness on the sky!"

***

When the kid started to fall back down, he first hit the top part of a tree.

James tried to get hold of it but his momentum was too strong and he broke through it.

Then he crashed on the snow-covered ground, but his body kept rolling and rolling until he reached a small cliff; he tried to get hold on the corner of the cliff, but he slipped his grip and plummetted down.