*Ring* *Ring* *Ring* *Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

Moby looked to his left towards the now orange sky before packing his bags. The bell for the end of school rang at its usual time at 3:00 pm. He only had 2 more hours to prepare for the upcoming battle so he needed to move fast, yet not fast enough for him to look suspicious in the eyes of others.

For the past few hours of class, Moby had relayed everything to his teammates. And, just like he expected, despite knowing what they now knew and the fact that some of their foolproof planning and backup plans were ruined, they were still as determined as ever to see this through to the end and simply readjust a few things to fit the current situation. Abby had suffered long enough and they had no plans of stopping after coming so far, Alex being the most passionate one of them all, which was exactly what Moby had expected which put a mellow smile on his face as he knew that they were all fully aware they were now going in with a high chance of death…

The only people that seemed indifferent to everything were Nags and Jason, since they were both forced to come and had no real say in the matter or any connection to Abby, Ray being somewhere in between.

As Moby was leaving the classroom in haste, he noticed Abby coming in his direction as she whispered in his ear in such a low voice that only a demon would ever be able to pick up on it.

"5 pm, don't forget or else you die…" She spoke with a cold smile and a slight chuckle before walking straight past him.

"Of course… But you should prepare yourself for a punishment for such disobedience…" He replied, walking in his own direction, hearing a small snarl coming from behind him as he walked towards the exit of the school and back to his dorm.

On his way, he once again noticed how tame the school had become after all the new policy changes and security since nobody wanted to be accused of the murders, Moby ignoring the many stares coming his way and inwardly smiling at the few looks of admiration.

When he reached his dorm, he noticed that everyone had already been there, the room dead silent with a tense atmosphere, orange light shining through the window illuminating the rest of the otherwise dark room.

It seemed like they were all deep into their training, the struggle on Jason's face very apparent, all but Ray who had other plans in mind.

This time, there was no time slowing to help them train since the time crystal had expired, so they had less than 2 hours to get in the most amount of training and preparation before it was too late.

Unlike the others, Ray was sitting at a table with many extremely small machine parts in front of him, his arms once again turned into part robot arms, his eyes blue with many symbols running up and down them like a computer screen as he used that along with his telekinesis to meticulously put everything together.

He seemed to be much more proficient at his craft than before, his movements looking far more effortless, which was most likely as a result of his 1 week of mental training that certainly helped him control his demon energy.

Taking a deep breath, he hopped up to his bed at the top bunk and looked down at his teammates below with a soft smile filled with many emotions, taking in once more that there was a high possibility that one of them might not come back alive… The frustration and hatred welling up in his heart immense.

If he could bear everything on his own with no repercussion he would have done so in a heartbeat, but in his situation, that was far from possible. If he went in alone and won, they would have gotten furious, lose their trust in him and maybe even abandon him, not to mention that winning in a 3 on 1 in the first place was virtually impossible, even with his newly unlocked mind skill trump card.

He closed his eyes and once again took a deep breath to calm his still distressed mind and focused on his training, he did not have much time to lose.

Now more than anytime before, he wanted to enter into a mental trial, a feeling on the inside was telling him that he was now allowed to take another one. Without a trial and the extra skills awarded to him, he was not even able to use his ice ability at all, his control, power, and efficiency being far too weak and immature, it was almost laughable. And, he was almost certain that it would also be the case for his new void ability, which would make it practically useless in battle, dangerous even, considering the history behind it.

Yet, part of him knew that it was simply not worth it. Unlike the first time he absorbed an ability which took him only a few seconds, this time it took him many days and he had a feeling that it would be similar for the trials seeing how professor Leo said that some people meditated for days or even weeks on end.

If he missed his appointment, not only would he die by the contract, but all of his friends, including Abby, would suffer miserably as a result.

So, in the end, Moby decided to work on his usual skills, his eyes of sin and freezing time, regenerating his energy with nature's stimulation in between. He did that for the next hour and thirty minutes before opening his eyes, knowing full well that he was very unlikely to level any of those skills up considering the amount of time he had used to train them prior.

When he woke up, he noticed his teammates were still sleeping and that he still had a few minutes to go, giving him the time to leave the dorm and complete his daily quest, something that he had nearly forgotten about due to everything that was going on in his busy, distressed mind.

When he received the 3 stat points, he immediately invested them into his intelligence knowing how fast he drained his energy compared to all of his opponents, since unlike them, he only had a few months of practice with his powers while they had been training their abilities their entire lives, making his energy usage rather inefficient in comparison.

Mind was a stat that he promised himself to invest more into, but with an upcoming fight and the fact that a simple 3 stats in mind would not serve much if anything in helping him, not giving him any new skills, he decided to withhold that for now.

In a calm, confident manner, he ran back into his dorm room and opened his door, only to find out that all of his family members were all awake, having simple yet serious chatter as they awaited his return.

He looked at all of them from above with a confident yet solemn expression, them returning the look which made him understand that they were all ready, as he spoke 2 words to them all…

"Let's go…"

In the blink of an eye, they all stood up and left their previous spot, the sound of blowing wind filling the air and entering into Ray's ears who was still sat in the room, now all alone, the many machine parts that were once on his desk now completely gone without a trace.

Slowly and with a look of worry and disappointment on his face, he walked towards the door and slammed it shut.

Taking a deep breath, he turned around and strolled back towards his bed, jumping straight onto the bottom bunk, looking at the ceiling of the bunk above before pulling out a rather large screen display from his inventory that he had just learned how to use, waiting for it to boot up, the same look on his face as before.

He was fully aware of why he did not go with them, and he fully understood and accepted it as it was the only logical conclusion to make… it was simply the fact that he was far too weak to be able to do anything in his current state. If anything, he would just be a hindrance and be simply taken hostage.

With only a few hours practicing with his new skills, he was not able to make anything significant that would allow him to go like a mech suit of some sort.

Yet, despite everything and the fact that he was not putting his life on the line like the others, he refused to be useless. That was one thing that he promised himself he would no longer be…

He just hoped that what little he was able to provide them would prove to be useful to them in the end…

Underneath the dark sky and setting winter sun, ran 5 figures, fully enshrouded in shadows making them very difficult to see by the naked eye, trying their best to avoid large crowds of people as they quickly yet stealthily made their way towards the back of the school, in an area that was completely barren, no students in sight.

When they reached their destination, the cloak of shadow disappeared by a simple wave of a girls hand as they focused their gaze all on the dark alleyway ahead, the figure of 3 girls waiting patiently for their arrival, their faces that were covered by the shadow of the school building were illuminated by their night vision, revealing the smirks and looks of confidence that laid underneath.

'We're finally here…'