A few minutes earlier, there was a knock on the door that Raze was locked inside. She remained sitting on a chair staring out of the window with her mask covering her face like usual. When she did not respond to the knocking on the door, the door clicked and swung open to see Alestor peer into the room.

“Oh. You’re awake,” he commented, looking surprised and walking into the room. “Why didn’t you respond, Erza?”

“I’m not Erza, Alestor,” she replied coldly. “I’m Raze. Please don’t call me by that name anymore.”

He immediately understood that she was upset about the recent events and asked, “Are you still upset with your father locking you away in this room?”

She slowly turned and stared at him through her mask and replied, “No. I am sad that Lucky got into trouble because of my selfish request for him to teach me his way of magic.”

This surprised the older man, who widened his eyes slightly and asked, “Really? He was teaching you magic from his world?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t able to make much progress,” she replied sadly. “Apparently, there weren’t any Elemental Spirits in the surroundings to support me using magic, which was why our society relies on technology to give us the power to use magic through our M.E.D.s.”

“That makes sense,” said Alestor, sighing and walking over to lean on the window. “He even told me how the drastic reduction in the Elemental Force due to the lack of nature, like water, forests, and so on, made him weaker. If It weren’t for the Hero Weapon, he said he wouldn’t have been able to utilise all of his power without facing some kind of pressure.”

“Huh?” She asked, sounding surprised. “He told you that? When? I mean,since when were the two of you on such speaking terms?”

“On the occasion,” he replied vaguely with a small smile. Then he turned to her and asked, “He’s currently working on bringing out the truth about the alien that’s masquerading among us.”

“What?!” Raze exclaimed, seemingly shocked by his statement. “There’s an alien among us?!”

Alestor nodded and said, “Yes, and he made his way into the highest authority by placing a lot of the people under his mind control. Asura, and I realised this a while back because of his activities, but because we couldn’t act without triggering some kind of negative reaction, we were waiting for the right time to take action.”

“And he took action before any of you could and got Lucky into trouble!” She said, understanding that Asura was the name Lakshman went by before revealing his true name and his role as a king from his world.

“Precisely,” agreed the older man. “Due to that, and with the king taking away a lot of my authorities from me, my hands became tied. Luckily, I know he’s doing whatever he can from behind the shadows since he’s got a great sense of what is the right thing to do.”

“I’d say,” she agreed, sounding as though she was smiling behind the mask.

At that moment, they heard footsteps coming their way and saw Santa, which surprised Alestor before he widened his eyes in alarm when he saw Mike standing behind him.

“Greeting, Alestor,” the second prince greeted the old man coldly. “What brings you here?”

“I could ask the same thing of you, prince,” replied Alestor, eying him while narrowing his eyebrows.

Something about the way that Santa was behaving felt off. In fact, he could tell something was not right from just looking at his eyes as they appeared to be vacant and empty. It looked as though he was not himself and was behaving according to a behaviour set for him to act in.

“Oh no!” He thought, realising in shock a revelation judging from everything he had to work with. “Don’t tell me—?!”

At the same time, Santa turned to Mike and said, “That’s her; the sister I didn’t want, and the main cause for my mother’s death.”

“I see,” said Mike, moving to stand in front of Santa while gazing fixedly at the Raze, who was really Erza but masked in disguise.

Raze took a step back and came to stand next to Alestor, a look of fear forming on her face. Something about his body language, and the look in his eyes did not bore well with her. Just then, Alestor took a step forward and came to stand by blocking their sight on Raze with his body.

“Want do you want, alien?” Alestor asked shrewdly, his eyes narrowed and a serious expression on his face.

For a moment, Mike blinked in surprise before he chuckled and asked, “Oh? You weren’t under my mind control?”

“It’d take a lot more than that cheap trick to brainwash me,” replied the older man curtly. “Now, tell me what you are here for?”

“It’s that obvious?” The alien asked, smiling evilly at him and indicated at the girl. “I came for her.”

“I see,” replied Alestor, nodding in understanding. “In that case, it’s only appropriate that you turn around and leave empty handed.”

The alien chuckled and replied, “Really? Are you sure that’s a wise thing to say?”

The moment he asked that question, the atmosphere in the room changed and a heavy pressure fell on them. Santa quickly moved back while Alestor narrowed his eyes while taking on a fighting stance, prepared to fight the alien. Raze stood behind him and was worried for their safety as she realised the imminent danger the two of them were in.

“You’re going to fight me, human?” The alien asked with a laugh. “Just you without your lord and saviour?”

Alestor understood that the enemy was mocking the Solaris Hero, who was the strongest warrior in that world. Still, he kept his cool and showed no sign that he was affected in any manner that his enemy expected off him. Seeing this, the alien was surprised and smiled evilly at him.

“Oh? No reaction at all?” He asked with a big grin. “I see you’re quite the calm and composed, old man.”

“Being old grants you great knowledge and wisdom that youngsters these days just don’t understand,” replied Alestor in a firm voice. “Now, I suggest you give up and leave quietly.”

“And if I refuse?” The alien asked mockingly.

“Then, I will be left with no choice but to take your life.”

His words made the alien burst into a hilarious laughter before he said, “Left with no choice? Really? I’m astonished that a man with all your wisdom and knowledge can speak such childish words. Are you perhaps a child inside a grown man’s body, human?”

Alestor did not say anything, and the two took fighting stances while facing each other. A tense silence filled the room, with one of them looking stone faced and silent while the other smiled confidently in their chances of victory. Everyone else was a spectator, looking on nervously as the tension between the two people seemed to ignite the silent room.

“If you won’t make the first move, then I will!”

With the shout, the alien raised his hand and aimed it towards the older man. However, he did not expect that Alestor would move even quicker than him and press the buttons on his device before aiming it at the alien.

“Wind Blast!”

With the shout, a mighty wind suddenly bellowed form his side and smashed into the alien, sending him and Santa flying backwards. The second prince got smashed against the wall and slid to the ground, unconscious from the knock o

n his head while the alien was sent flying out of the room and smashed against the wall in the hall.The Royal Guards were shocked at first, but then they got their instructions from Alestor who shouted at them, “Arrest that man! He’s an alien ins disguise!”

They were obviously shocked by this sudden piece of information, but he was a minister, and they had to act on his orders. So, they raised their spears and aimed it at the figure that slowly rose from the cloud of smoke that got raised when he smashed against the wall.

“Really? So, you can predict the future?” The alien asked as the smoke slowly cleared and revealed his face, which was barely injured. He smirked the Alestor and asked, “Isn’t that right, minister? It explains how you were able to predict my move and act even before I did!”

Alestor did not reply and simply ordered the guards, “Arrest him!”

“Yes, sir!” They said, and moved in on Mike.

“Arrest me? You humans can do that?” The alien asked and laughed without any humour in it.

He suddenly looked seriously at them and waved both of his hands in a sideways gesture, causing both the Royal Guards to soar away to either side at high speed. They flew through the air and smashed into the wall on their respective sides, and slumped down on the ground having been knocked out cold.

“Now, give me that girl,” the alien said, turning to face the older man.

“In your dreams!” Alestor remarked, clicking several times on his M.E.D. and shouted with his hand pointed at the alien, “Water Prison!”

In an instant, water materialised out of thin air and formed around the alien like a cage to stop him for getting out. He looked a bit surprised by the move, but he turned back and smiled the older man.

“Thanks for the water,” he said, and waved his hand.

In an instant, the water cage lost its form and began to float around him as it fell under his control. Alestor was shocked, and just as he was about to press buttons on his M.E.D., the alien waved the water at him and caused it to become a speeding jet of water. It smashed against the older man and carried him all the way to the window while Raze was knocked aside and fell on the floor.

The water jet threw him out of the window, but Alestor luckily grabbed onto the window sill and clung on for dear life as the fall from that height could be fatal for him. This left only Raze in the room, and she slowly crouched to her feet and stared out the door to see Mike, whom she realised was the alien, was smiling at her.

“It’s just you and me now,” he commented with an eerie smile.

At that moment, he heard an unknown voice say inside his head, “You think so?”

He widened his eyes in shock and turned to his left as he sensed something coming from there. A moment later, a fiery blast appeared out of nowhere and smashed against him. The impact knocked him off his feet and sent him flying for a few meters before he recovered and landed on his feet.

As soon as he landed, he aimed his hand in the direction the attack came from and clicked his fingers, causing ice bullets to appear out of nowhere and fly in that direction. They flew through the air at high speed, but suddenly a powerful gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and smashed into the ice bullets, causing them to smash into each other and exploding harmlessly.

The alien covered his face as the smoke from the explosion spread everywhere, and then waved his hand to clear away the smoke while facing the front. That was when he saw them; two small monsters flapping their wings and were apparently glaring at him. It was easily understood a glaring by the expression on their faces.

“The monsters that human summoned!” The alien remarked, looking shocked.

“We will not let you lay a finger on the mistress!” Phylex said fiercely in his head using telepathy.

“Go away, or go to hell!” Draga stated warningly.

A threatening aura emanated from them and startled the alien into going stiff. Realising what had happened to him, he quickly snapped out of it by shaking his head and glaring fiercely at them.

“You may be monsters like me, but I’ve come too far to turn around now!”

With his shout, he aimed his forefinger at them and began to rapidly release fire blasts that soared through the air at high speed. Draga and Phylex soared through the air and evaded them before Phylex covered himself in a fiery aura and charged straight at their enemy.

The alien was shocked by this and quickly placed both of his hands in front of him to create a barrier, where the fiery burning bird form the monster had taken smashed into. The impact of the attack was so strong, he felt his feet getting dragged on the floor as he was pushed away by the immense force of the attack.

“Dammit!” He cursed with an annoyed look on his face.

He gritted his teeth and flexed his muscles while exerting his power before spreading his arms apart. As he did, a powerful gust of wind formed and smashed the fiery attack away and Phylex with it. While he flew away, Draga charged in by opening his mouth and shooting ice laser out of it at their enemy.

The alien had to leap into the air, duck around and dodge the attacks as skilfully as he could in the small space they had in that corridor. Draga chased after the enemy, who was retreating away from the attacks as he was trying to figure out what he must do to take out the monsters. As he landed, he saw Phylex recover from his earlier knock and fly back to join the fray.

“Damn!”

Cursing once more, the alien aimed his hand at them and unleashed a powerful force of wind that sent the two familiars flying away. Then he put his two fingers together and channelled his energy into an explosive magic on where the two monsters had flown away to before clicking his fingers. As soon as he did, an enormous explosion occurred and it knocked him back and smashing into the wall while sending the familiars flying away and knocking Raze against the window, knocking her out as well.

The explosion was so strong that it shook the ground and the nearby vicinity as it destroyed the side walls and caused the floor to crumble away down below while the corroder was filled with fiery flames of destruction, where the smoke slowly drifted through the window and out into the open air.

“Maybe that was too much,” the alien mumbled, getting up and seeing the destruction he had wrought.

He had no time to worry because the Royal Guards were alerted and they began charging up through the floors to engage him in battle. They knew something was wrong and instantly took action to apprehend him, but he was tough and began to fight each and every one of them back with his strong magic skills.