“{Vronti}!! {Vronti}!! FUCK! Open up!” Liesl banged her bare hands on the cells again and again. No matter how much she looked, she found no way to open it.

She sniffed loud and wiped off the sweat on her forehead before gathering her mana again.

-BOOM!

Just then, a deafening explosion sounded out. The sound that seemed to have come from far, far away sent a chill down Liesl’s spine.

“W-what can... make this much sound with all those sound blocking devices?” She had experienced it herself, using all those spells, and the sound would just disappear in the room alone.

“B-big sis...” Aida called out to Liesl from within the cells. “You should leave.”

“What?”

“She’s right, Liesl. Get out of here. You don’t have to die here with us.” As if receiving courage from Aida’s words, even Vollrath stood up and urged Liesl to leave.

“Shut the fuck up! I am not leaving you guys here! {Vron–”

The sounds of footsteps interrupted them. Liesl snapped towards the tunnel and pushed her hand outward. Standing there was a beautiful woman with snowy white hair cascading down her back. A tight frown covered her charming face, the expression not taking a drop away from her beauty.

Liesl took a step forward, her hands still stretched towards the intruder. “Stop right there.”

The white-haired intruder, Vera, scoffed and turned her head away from Liesl. “Prisoners...” she muttered as she saw the rest of the Sanguine Snakes trapped behind the bars of the cell. “Could you bastards be the money thieves?”

“M-money thieves?” Liesl tilted her head in confusion, but Vera continued to ignore her and went straight to the bars. She scrutinized them from all directions, knocking on them.

“Hah, this is rough.” She sighed and extended her palm out front. A magical circle expanded in the air across her palm and spun as her mana went into it. Sparks flew out before a ball of fire appeared from thin air. Then, the flames extended and stretched out in front of her palm into the shape of a short blade.

The blazing flame blade made on her hand clashed against the bars of the cell. The bars turned red but did not cave in. she grunted and increased the output of the flame, making it larger and hotter.

“Ahhagagaga!”

A loud cry rang out from all the steel bars on the cell and it suddenly melted off to the ground. The Sanguine Snakes could only watch on with their jaws hanging low as Vera retracted the blade of flames and dusted her palms. With a small smile, she turned to the ones locked inside.

“There. I don’t think he found y’all to be bad people, so you can come out.” The woman looked around the place with an arm on her waist. Her eyes finally fell on the long-headed corpse on the ground with blood oozing out of its smashed head.

“M-miss, thank you. Thank you, really.” Eilhard’s hands shook as he called out to her. Though he was thankful, his heart was facing a strange storm. The person who he had seen with a light of admiration had abandoned them so easily, and this stranger had instead helped them without wasting a breath.

“Has he already been here? That bastard you stole money from?”

“Are you talking about Iatra Fors?” Liesl asked.

“That man... He did come here, and then he abandoned us.”

Vera reeled back at Eilhard’s words. Her previous frown only grew deeper as she rubbed her nose bridge with her fingers. “Is that so... Should we get out of here first?”

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

Vera took the lead, and the Sanguine Snakes followed her through the tunnels. They quietly walked on with their heads down low. The Sanguine Snakes were still having a rough time after being trapped in a cell for the last week. Their mood only declined further when they realized they had been saved by a complete stranger who easily freed them while they were helplessly yapping away on the ground.

After walking in silence for a while, Vera gazed back at them a few times before speaking up hesitantly. “He isn’t exactly a bad guy.”

“Yes? Who is?”

“That man. He’s just... going through stuff. He may have helped you if you were strangers, but you knew him before, right?”

Eilhard clenched his fist again and clicked his tongue. “So what? That isn’t any excuse...”

Vollrath put a hand on Eilhard’s shoulder, shaking his head from side to side. Eilhard sighed and loosened his fist again.

“I know, I know,” Vera said, a hand on her forehead. “But people lose hope. He had just failed to save this one person who helped him, and even before that, his sist–Damn it, why am I even defending him here?” Vera mumbled in a low voice before letting go of the topic.

They continued in silence again, crossing out the tunnels and getting back to the original pavements of the underground channels. It seemed the sky had gone dark as the small bits of light that dimly lit the underground channels through the manholes all disappeared.

Vera was quite worried about the Otherworlder but decided to accompany these guys outside first. The map she had remembered was finally coming in handy as she led them towards the safest spot out of the channels. Her steps got a little lighter as they reached closer to the exit.

-CRASHH!

Suddenly, a bellowing crash sounded right next to them.

“On the ground!” Jumping into action, Aida the scout lept on the ground and shouted at everyone to do the same.

A cluster of debris and stone mixed with dozens of bullets shot out from the wall on their side at great speed.

“Found you! You traitorous wench!!!”

A gigantic mecha-like exoskeleton fired maniacally toward them as he screamed at Vera.

“This fucker! Run!” Vera pushed against the ground and propelled her body forward. She had been fighting like crazy the whole day. Taking him on was not an option.

The Sanguine Snakes all looked at the exoskeleton with widened eyes when Vera’s shout snapped them out of it again. Without wasting a breath, the veteran party sprinted away from the hole in the wall and followed behind Vera.

“Where do you think you’re going!?” The exoskeleton’s wheels whirred as it glided over the uneven floor and followed behind them. Its hands turned into nozzles again as it shot out bullets at the running Vera and Sanguine Snakes.

“Fuck, fuck! We’re almost there!”

“Not on my watch!”

The exoskeleton’s mouth spread open at ninety degrees. A small missile sticking out of where a throat should have been. With a whistling sound, the missile launched out of the mouth and shot toward the group. It swerved through the sky and landed right in front of Vera.

A small explosion broke out, blocking their path. The exoskeleton didn’t miss this chance as it sped towards them. Stopping right behind them, the exoskeleton rotated its nozzle hands again.

“KAHAHAH! There’s no way to run anymore, you rotten bitch!”

Vera turned towards it with the deepest frown on her face yet. She raised her hands, ready to take it on again. Going into a magical overdrive was a big risk, but she had no choice left at this point.

The exoskeleton continued to laugh-cry as it inched ominously inched closer each second.

“[Light Magic: Ray of the End]”

A terrifying beam shot at the exoskeleton’s leg at light speed, burning away the hinge of its legs along with the wheel all at once.

Everyone turned to look behind the mechanical creature in surprise.

Long wheat hair fluttered in the air. Deep brown eyes that seemed to see through everything were turned up in a derisive look. Standing there with a long mahogany coat on his back and a hammer in his hand was the Otherworlder.

“Hello there,” he said. Flipping the hammer in his hand, the Otherworlder pointed it at the exoskeleton’s burnt leg and wheel. “Do you have a moment to talk about your robot thing’s extended warranty?”