The Dean of the Nemia Academy, Melissa Crimson, didn’t look pleased to see the parasite, as was her wont. In fact, she looked frustrated and angry, and the hostility emanating from her narrowed eyes couldn’t be more apparent.

“Do you have something to say to me?” Asked Arthur as he glanced at the gauntlets in interest.

Now that he had learnt that she was a so-called ‘player’ and had a System similar to his, Arthur was warier of her than Archmagus Sonia Ma. He couldn’t accurately gauge her strength, but the quantity of Mana within her body was absurdly large.

It was flowing in a steady manner, systematically travelling across her body and empowering it.

“You are no longer welcome here, parasite.”

“Clearly!” He confirmed while laughing.

“...”

“What? Do you want me to leave now? Because I’ve yet to receive my payment. All the spies are gone and Joshua Boulard is ‘safe’.”

“Why did you infiltrate the Vault?”

She abruptly switched the topic, causing Arthur to feign surprise.

“Infiltrate? Me? Gods, no! I would never do such a bad thing. Only evil people trespass on another’s nests. I assure you that I had nothing to do with what happened tonight.”

“You expect me to believe such bullshit? Feylord Lernon wouldn’t have acted on his own. The same goes for Teresa Moon. Neither of them got the balls to do such a thing.”

The parasite sneered and rebuked, “Yet they proved you wrong by doing exactly that. I confess, I didn’t think they had it in them. Apparently, they were after the Phoenix Feather? Quite an enticing thing, wouldn’t you agree?”

“...”

The woman looked absolutely livid as a formless and strong pressure emitted from her body. She didn’t attack Arthur, but only because she was holding herself back.

A brief bout of silence flowed between the two of them before the parasite, slightly curious, asked,

“If you don’t mind me asking, Miss Melissa, why are you not attacking? The murderous look on your face makes me certain you want to kill me, however, you’re not doing anything. Is it because of the Principal? Are you actually honorable people that would fulfil their end of the bargain despite the fact that I’m a parasite?”

“The likes of you should be erased from this world.”

After spouting those words, she spat on the ground and walked away.

‘What’s stopping her from attacking? Could it be the System itself?’

Unfortunately, Arthur never received a definitive and satisfactory answer for Melissa’s actions.

“Ah…ah..ah…”

A couple hundred meters West of where Arthur had confronted Sonia and Melissa thereafter, Parmenas walked on the sand while breathing heavily and groaning.

Holy Magic was the dominant type of Healing Magic, yet the Deacon wasn’t able to recover that easily or rapidly.

He had overexerted himself and emptied his Mana Reservoir. He could have attempted one last strong spell, but that would have depleted him, therefore making it impossible to escape the scene, much less avoid getting seen by Sonia or Melissa.

He knew they suspected him of foul play, but they didn’t have any concrete evidence. Moreover, he was publicly supporting them and it wouldn’t be good for the academy’s image if they openly attacked a former Deacon, respected by many students and teachers.

The man clung to what little physical strength he had left and desperately ran away.

He had relied on the Sun Alchemists to steal the Phoenix Feather, but the involvement of a parasite and a member of the Circle of Damnation wasn’t within his expectation.

If it were the Black Priest alone, Parmenas would have been confident in his win, but having a parasite on top of that made things different.

His body was hammered, flattened, and battered. Without the Holy Magic, he would have died from that single first hit of the baboon.

Ten minutes after his escape, Parmenas’ body finally crumbled and fell to the ground. Nevertheless, he tried to get up over and over again only to fail miserably.

The man kept applying Holy Magic on himself to heal, but the process was excruciatingly slow due to the lack of Mana.

At some point, Parmenas saw someone approach him, which made his body tense up and twitch.

“Agh… you…”

Feylord Lernon, heavily wounded too, was still capable of movement. His whole arm and a part of his shoulder was covered in flames due to the Phoenix Feather he had never let go.

He had been bound by the mist until a bit earlier. He felt relieved that the unknown kidnapper ‘saved’ him, but he wasn’t going to stick around and wait or even help him. He prioritized his own survival and now that the Phoenix Feather was in his hands, he had no reason to remain in the academy any longer. Moreover, it wasn’t like the Principal was going to forgive his actions and let him stay.

Feylord too, didn’t expect to stumble up the Deacon in the middle of nowhere. He gazed at the injured man for a bit then extended his hand.

His intent was clear, and Parmenas knew that, which made him invoke an unstable barrier that resisted the flowing vermillion flames for two seconds then shatter.

With a determined and cold look, Feylord burned Parmenas until there was only ashes left.

He wasn’t vengeful or anything like that, he just wanted to minimize the risk of being found out later on. Parmenas had seen him take the Phoenix Feather, and if he wanted to survive, he needed to eliminate the witnesses.

Of course, the Black Priest was one of them, but Feylord hoped his ‘helper’ would take care of that.

As he breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his arm, Feylord felt a chill down his spines.

Green mist fell down from above and momentarily swirled in place before revealing the kidnapper.

“You killed him? What a waste.”

Arthur was disheartened to lose a good host like the Deacon. He had arrived a tad too late, but at least he caught up to Feylord.

“I…I…”

The blond-haired youth couldn’t talk coherently. He was frozen in place, not daring to even lift a finger.

The man before him was totally unscathed even after fighting Parmenas and Joshua. Linking that with Parmenas’ wounded state, Feylord assumed this mysterious man was ridiculously strong, so much in fact that it would be suicide to attack him or try any kind of trickery.

He instinctively hid the hand holding the Phoenix Feather, which made the parasite chuckle.

“With how much trouble that feather caused, the last thing I want is taking it with me. You can have it.”

Arthur stretched his hand and motioned for Feylord to give him the book.

“H-here… it’s this one.”

“Good. Very good.”

After inspecting the book, Arthur threw it in his magical bag and prepared to leave.

“W-wait!”

Feylord cried out in desperation, the flames spreading to his chest. He didn’t seem to be in pain or in any discomfort, nevertheless, he didn’t understand why the Phoenix Feather was reacting like this.

“T-take me with you.”

“Where?”

“A-ah… Please.”

Arthur, confused by the youth’s plea, scratched his head and thoughtfully scrutinized Feylord.

“You should be glad I didn’t kill you.”

“P-please I can help! I can be usefu-”

Before he could finish, the slowly spreading flames got brighter and suddenly enveloped him whole.

In panic, the man ran toward the sea and jumped in, but the flames weren’t extinguished.

The sight of him running around while fully being covered in flames was both comical and horrifying.

Arthur watched the brilliant spectacle with fascination, curious to see what was happening.

“H-help! Please! I’ll do anything!”

Feylord felt his Mana depleting and his body weakening at a rapid pace. Rather than consuming it, the Phoenix Feather was consuming him.

“A dying man will say anything.”

Feylord knelt on the ground and begged as the flames were getting volatile and hotter.

“I cannot stay in the academy and I have nowhere to go. You’re someone strong and that’s what I’m looking for! Please! I’m begging you! I…I don’t want to die… please…!”

“Promises mean nothing to me, Feylord Lernon. Goodbye.”

Arthur let out a heavy sigh as he looked at the scared youth crying and yelling desperately.

Right after their successful heist, Jonathan and his two friends rushed to Ilexset. They had a proper and safer hideout, in which they could contact the HQ and request help if needed.

With the lamp illuminating the cozy room, the three grouped around the Alchemy Scripture, which looked like a book.

However, when they opened it, they soon learnt the truth.

“... it’s a fake.” Muttered Frey as he cursed under his breath and lied on the ground.

Stella flipped through the pages but there was nothing of importance in them.

Jonathan was shocked to the core, unable to believe that he had gone through all that trouble for nothing. What was worse, he was stupid enough not to check the veracity of the Alchemy Scripture on the spot.

He had been too busy with the guardians and the limited time he had inside the Vault, but that was merely an excuse. The higher-ups will just blame him and question his adequacy.

“Shit! This is bad!”

Stella, who flipped through all the pages, suddenly jumped to her feet and rushed toward the door, but it was too late.

Her petite body was blown to the back then rolled on the wooden floor Frey and Jonathan jumped to their feet, each holding a weapon.

Three masked and black-robed cultists dashed into the room, followed thereafter by the Witch of Izakan.

“My dear Johnny really did it!” Cheerfully said the curly-haired girl, her eyes landing on the Alchemy Scripture.

When she ascertained of the prize, she glanced at the fallen Stella and added,

“My thanks for your help. As promised, you’re free to go.”

Stella, her eyes teary and body shaking from fear, stood up and refused to look at her astonished friends. She had snitched to Jan to save her life, but now that she was being let go, the guilt was haunting her.

With her head lowered and feet moving fast, she rushed out of the room.

“Frey, I’ll hold them off. Jump out of the window and run.” Jonathan whispered with a barely audible voice, but the youth beside him firmly shook his head.

“Listen to me. We’re both dead if we fight. Please… just go.”

Frey gritted his teeth and reluctantly nodded.

The tense silence was short-lived as Jonathan threw a smoke bomb then held a silver longsword with both hands and slashed vertically, causing a bright blast to destroy the entire room.