Nicole’s soothing skill was in full effect calming down Nathans’s emotions. As he tried his best to come up with a solution in this crisis. For all, he knew the swarm of bugs could occupy the town for days if not weeks if there was enough food for them here. He had enough time to just run away from here, but he would be leaving all these people to die. He hasn’t become so cruel yet there must be another solution here. Nathan didn’t have the time to consider all the possibilities as he began to act running back into the store.

“Grab all the food you can and throw in the backroom of the shop.” It was a small room the staff of the shop had used for rest and some paperwork. There was only one window there and two doors that he would need to barricade for them to bunker down there. As long as he blocked all the entrances with his magic, the bugs couldn’t get in and would hopefully pass them by in due time.

Seeing Nathan's frantic movements as he threw in the bags not caring if anything inside could break, Yuuki began to question him. while Elizabeth ran outside as she looked at the sky just as Nathan had done.

“Nathan, what the hell is going on?” He couldn’t understand why a man like Nathan with his strength would suddenly be acting like this.

"There's a huge swarm of Insects going straight for the city! We will hide in the back room of the store until they pass by us.” He couldn’t believe Nathan’s words. How could there be such a massive swarm of insects suddenly near the city has he gone crazy? Still, he went outside as he passed the pale-faced Elizabeth that had just returned.

She had heard what Nathan had said to Yuuki but facing such a swarm of unknown bugs was just too terrifying.

"How confident are you that's gonna work?"

"About 60% sure we're gonna make it through this way." She had seen how strong Nathan was before this and 60% was enough to earn her trust in his plan as putting her trust into him seemed safer than just trying to survive on her own.

“Nathan do you really think we can survive like this? Because we are putting our lives in your hands by barricading ourselves in that room.” Yuuki seeing such a massive swarm was extremely doubtful in the success of Nathan’s plan.

“If you have a better idea go for it. If not come inside the room I will be preparing my magic now.” Nathan felt a bit upset he could have just run away by himself but decided to stay with the group and try to save them while risking his life in the process.

Before casting his magic Nathan gave the room one more look. All the bags of supplies were thrown into a corner of the room. The man that was from this area originally looked lifeless as if he didn’t believe he could survive through this. The other woman's face showed an expression that wasn’t far from his as well. Yuuki and Elizabeth looked a bit more composed but not by much.

Nicole’s skill helped him keep his composure as he focused on gathering the mana from his body into a barrier of bones that began to cover the two doors and the window. The already dark room became pitch black as all the source of light it had was covered by the bone barrier. The small millimeter air holes that took immense focus to crate throughout the bone barrier didn’t do much for light.

In the pitch-black room, the sound of buzzing from the thousand if not millions of bugs that had already reached the city was absolutely terrifying, putting great pressure on everyone’s minds. Nathan didn’t have the leisure to calm down his teammates as he was forced to sit down and enter meditation as he began to try to draw in more mana from his surroundings to help him keep up the cost of having the bone barrier up.

It didn’t take long for the bugs to find their first prey inside the city as they tore him alive as his screams of pain rang throughout the city. It was like a chain reaction as bugs found more prey to feast on in the city even the 4-meter tall lizard creatures that prowled the city were helpless facing such numbers of bugs as their screeches of agony could be heard all over the city before being covered by the constant sound of buzzing.

Only a couple of minutes later the swarm had surrounded them as they banged on the walls and bone barrier terrifying the group. Somehow the bugs knew they were inside the room and were doing anything they could to get inside.

The sudden scream of a woman inside the room shocked them greatly.

“What happened!” Yuuki yelled out loudly in panic.

“Something bit me! It hurts!” She was crying completely frightened not knowing what she should do.

“There are bugs inside the room!” The alarmed shout of the man-caused panic as they didn’t know what to do in this pitch-black room versus the bugs they couldn’t even see! All of them had been regular people that had never faced any danger of such a scale but now they were forced to live in this apocalyptic world.

“Somebody help me!” More and more bugs had started to enter the room as they started to tear the people inside alive. Nathan began to use his senses to track down the source of the bugs. It was a small electric outlet behind a couch in the room. They were squirming through it as they entered the room. Acting fast Nathan began to trying to create a bone barrier there as well but the bugs were in the way. Their bodies got crushed between the bone barriers but as they got crushed they released their acidic body liquid melting the newly created bone barrier in the process.

Nathan felt helpless not knowing what he should do. He could still escape by himself but there must be a way to at least save Yuuki and Elizabeth who hadn’t been eaten alive by the bugs yet. While Elizabeth was doing a decent job defending herself with her magic Yuuki didn’t have that as he kept swinging his sword in the corner of the room trying his best to defend himself as he grew extremely desperate.

"I can't die here!" His body was constantly bitten by the small bugs while two other of his teammates had already fallen to the assault of bugs as they rolled on the ground screaming while the bugs were eating them alive. He couldn't accept dying here in such a way he was ready to give up everything just so he wouldn't die here and get the chance to see her once again and finally tell her how he feels. His desperation was answered soon enough just like the plea of so many other humans in this changing world. He momentarily paused as he read the sudden system message before accepting the Light God’s blessing.

The mana in his body began to change and increase rapidly as the light god's blessing gave him newfound power and ability to survive this. He released one of his newly acquired skills Light nova in the pitch-black room lighting it up as they saw the situation in it for the first time after the bugs had invaded. Two of their comrades were only bloody bones now while his own body was visibly bloody and riddled with holes. But holy nova and the mana in his body was healing his body rapidly as it began to cover the whole room frying the bugs alive as their bodies exploded into a rain of acid in the room. But it didn’t matter holy nova healed any wounds the acid created.

The holy nova soon reached Elizabeth as well as healing her injuries while frying the bugs near her. But just as it had reached Nathan and had started to heal his mild injuries his yell had surprised Yuuki greatly.

"Yuuki stop that at once!" His voice had turned noticeably deeper while carrying the tone of absolute command.

"What? We will die if I..." He couldn't even finish his sentence as Nathan had cut him off.

"Stop it now!" Nathan could only see the power of Yuuki's newly obtained skill grow in power with no sign of it stopping. With every second his skill was active it was doing great damage to Nicole. Through their connection, he could feel the agony she was feeling while covered in the light mana as her body was starting to become more transparent with every second she was engulfed in the light mana. He simply couldn't tolerate that skill being up for any longer and if Yuuki wasn't going to turn it off himself he was left with no other choice.

Each of Nathan's hands released a soul slash straight at Yuuki as they cut the wave of light mana he had released in their wake until they reached Yuuki as they passed through him before his skill suddenly vanished as he dropped to the ground dead. With one look you could see Nicole had become noticeably more transparent resembling the time she was impaled inside the bone coffin but only her beautiful skin now had been left with burn wounds all over it. With the death of Yuuki, all that reminds of their past party of 4 was Elizabeth as she stared in shock at Nathan's sudden actions.

“Why would you kill him!”

Nathan didn’t have the leisure to explain anything now as more bugs kept rushing in the room. He couldn’t save them all but he could at least try to save Elizabeth. Gathering his remaining mana while transferring his vitality to Nicole he summoned a large ball of water mana that struck the hole where the bugs were coming in. Pushing them back inside the wall as they got stuck biting each other to create a path in the room once again. These insects weren’t native to his planet, they were an alien species never seen in the world. They resembled a locus mixed with a dragonfly with their four wings and long back legs.

Now that he had bought a bit more time for them Nathan took two of the loot bags with him as he approached Elizabeth. Without Yuuki's skill lighting up the room it was once again pitch black but he was able to manage with the minimal light from the air holes together with his night vision. Elizabeth was completely exhausted sitting on the ground with a pale face. He will at least try to save her!

A small barrier of bones started to enclose them as Nathan sacrificed its size greatly for its thickness. Multiple holes in the smallest possible size Nathan could create were made in the barrier to let in the air with the help of wind magic as he once again entered meditation to recover his mana faster. The system had also recognized this as the end of a battle.

| Mana manipulation | Level 3 |

| Your control over mana has reached the threshold to be counted as a skill. You're able to support your spell casting with the natural mana of the environment. |

| Mana consumption up to -15% |

| Mana control +15% |

| Osteokinesis | Level 2 |

| By using mana you can control and create bones with high enough mastery you can change the properties of the bones. |

| Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |

| Using osteokinesis on already existing bones greatly reduces mana consumption. |

| Unsuitable base mana: Cost of Osteokinesis increased by 25% |

| Meditation | Level 2 |

| Through practice you have learned to achieve mental clarity and an emotionally calm state of mind. |

| While meditating natural mana and health regeneration is increased by 20%. |

| Level 4 Light Gods blessed has been slain. |

|+ 40 (-50%) Experience |

| Due to killing a holder of Light Gods' blessing a bounty has been set on your head. |

| Light God's bounty: Anyone blessed by Light God will gain 2x as much experience from you as well as a special reward from the Light God. |

| Level 0 Secerea armare has been slain. x356|

|+ 1 (-50%) Experience |

| Level 1 Secerea armare has been slain. x45 |

|+ 1 (-50%) Experience |

| Level up |

| Lesser mana regeneration | Level 2 |

| Passive: Increases bodies natural mana gathering ability by 40% |

| Lesser health regeneration | Level 2 |

| Passive: Increases bodies natural healing properties by 40% |

Now that both of them were inside the dome-shaped barrier he stopped supplying his mana to the bone barriers covering the window and the doors as the bugs began to enter the room in a frenzy only to see another barrier stopping them from getting to their fresh meat.

Nathan now solely focused on controlling the barrier that surrounded the three of them. It was quite hard to keep your focus up with the constant buzzing from the swarm. They didn't know how long had passed before Elizabeth decided to speak up.

"Nathan... why did you kill him?" She needed to know the answer to why had he acted in such a way. From their session of teaching each other magic, she had started to view him in a favorable light and not a person that would just kill somebody with no reason.

"His ability was hurting Nicole and he refused to stop its effect." Nathan's answer made some sense to her but she still didn't understand who was Nicole?

"Could you explain to me who Nicole is?" She wanted to understand the situation better before coming to any decisions.

"Hmm, Nicole is the emotional spirit of my dead twin. Through the system, she had agreed to become my familiar now as we support each other. You can see an emotion spirit as a ghost that holds only the emotions of their past.” This had given Elizabeth some insight into Nathan's perspective on things as she tried to look at it from his point of view.

“You probably can’t see her too well let me show you.” He took the fire crystal that radiates a weak light from his bag while instructing Nicole to materialize.

The white mist that always hangs around Nathan began to shift as it took more of human-like properties before taking the form of a young woman in her twenties with long raven hair covering her body. For Elizabeth, she was completely see-through.

“Can she talk?” It felt so odd for Elizabeth to see a naked girl suddenly materialize in the small barrier out of that white mist.

“Not yet, but one day she will.” She had never seen Nathan take such a look of care and warmness to his expression and way of speech as when he looked at her.

“If you don’t mind me asking how did all of this happen?”

Nathan might have just been feeling too guilty about his powerlessness when it came to saving their comrades but he started to open up a bit for Elizabeth.

“It was a couple of days before the apocalypse started, we were on our way to celebrate her first album release when a car that had malfunctioned struck the side of my car. Killing the driver of that car and Nicole almost instantly while I was just fine with just some bruises. After the system was introduced I understood she was still here with me in this form.” Feeling his emotional distress Nicole activated her soothing skill with more intestacy calming Nathan down.

“Sorry I shouldn’t have brought it up.” Seeing the pained expression of Nathans as he talked about it she could see how much he truly cared about her.”

“It’s fine, what did you do before all of this happened?”

“Uhm, I was in my second year of college for archaeology. I was in class before suddenly being summoned to that room with the guide before getting the reward of experiencing the tutorial.”