“Whooo! This was exhilarating. I might chase this feeling,” Alexia exclaimed.
“You already do, you battle maniac,” Michael scoffed at her breathlessly as he knelt on the floor, exhausted.
Alexia completely ignored him and flashed a grin at Lily. “I have to admit, I’m impressed, Sugar. Your power really saved us there.”
At one point during the fight, Subject Alpha unleashed an unusual attack, spinning around like a hurricane with all its tentacles outstretched.
None of them expected it, and if they had been hit, they would have suffered more than just broken bones.
Thankfully, Lily warned them in time, allowing them to avoid the attack.
The beast lost its footing for a moment after that attack, and the momentum of the battle shifted in their favor.
“Ah, thank you,” Lily said, panting slightly, her sweat-slicked face flushed. “But can you stop calling me that—”
“Nope,” Alexia giggled, cutting her off before she could finish.
Lily narrowed her eyes, ready to say something else, but Kang suddenly stood up.
Everyone’s attention snapped to him. He was looking at his phone, scrolling through something.
After a moment, he said in the flattest tone possible, “Er, you guys are going to want to see this.”
He turned his phone screen toward them, and after briefly reading through what he had to show, Michael’s breath hitched, and the color drained from his face.
Even Lily looked horrified.
The only exception was Alexia, who didn’t show any change in her expression.
…Because she couldn’t see.
She gave them all a deadpan look and muttered, “So, is anyone going to tell me what the bad news is? You know, since I can’t read and all.”
As if her voice shook Michael from his stupor, he swallowed hard and murmured, “It’s Samael. He has reported some data suggesting the Overlord was indeed working with the High Priest, who also had a laboratory like this beneath his church.”
Alexia’s expression hardened. “So… that means—”
“That means he too has a Spirit Beast army, just like the Overlord. And all of it is unleashed in the city now,” Michael finished. “Samael… was right.”
For a few moments, the chamber was filled with silence. Then, as if realizing something, Michael resolutely shook his head.
Now wasn’t the time to dwell on regrets.
Now was the time to act.
He stood up with a bit of a strained effort and looked at his team. “Let’s go, everyone. The fight isn’t over yet. We need to head out and assist the authorities in combating the rampaging Spirit Beasts. Kang, I want you to notify the Academy.”
Kang shook his head. “Samael has already done that.”
“Okay, that’s good,” Michael nodded, relief flashing in his eyes. “Instructor Selene should already be on her way with reinforcements. We have to hold out and save as many citizens as we can until then.”
Lily exhaled sharply, wiping the sweat from her brow. “I don’t think first missions are supposed to be this hard.”
Michael didn’t disagree.
Their objective had been to gather intelligence and report back to the Academy, but somehow they were caught in a conspiracy that they needed to uncover to reveal the truth.
Then they had to fight two absurdly intelligent and strong Minor Spirit Beasts, and now they were going to try to save people in a city being destroyed by an army of more Infant and Minor Beasts.
No, really! They had barely survived this battle, and now they needed to head into a warzone!
This was truly turning out to be one hell of a first mission.
Alexia stretched her arms over her head, rolling her shoulders as she picked herself up. “Well, standing around won’t do us any good. Let’s go.”
For once, her usual teasing tone was absent.
Michael shot her a glance and noticed there was no hesitation in her posture, no fear in her stance.
From the little time he had spent with Alexia, he could tell that while she might joke a lot, she was just as reliable as any of them when things got serious.
In fact, he could definitely trust his back to her in a life-or-death battle. Maybe his first impression of her had been a bit wrong.
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s move.”
Kang tucked his phone away and asked, “Do we have a plan of approach? Judging by all the empty holding tubes and cells in this laboratory, the Overlord’s Spirit Beast army must have been large. If the High Priest’s army is just as big, more than half the city might already be in ruins. Plus, we’re not in the best condition ourselves.”
Michael gave him a scrutinizing look.
Initially, Kang had suffered several gashes and bleeding wounds.
But when the battle’s momentum shifted in their favor, he took a step back and stopped fighting for a while.
By the time the battle ended, all his injuries had healed except for a dislocated shoulder, which was also slowly healing on its own and popping back into place.
Michael’s bruises and wounds were gradually healing as well since he had copied Kang’s Origin Card earlier.
However, their regeneration could only mend flesh wounds. It couldn’t cure exhaustion or restore stamina.
Also, it was draining their Essence.
And all of them were already running low on it — especially Kang and Michael, as their Essence was being used for passive healing.
Michael sighed. “We’ll assist with evacuation efforts first. We should avoid fighting for as long as possible and focus solely on helping the civilians. We can engage in fights only to buy time for people to evacuate, not to kill.”
Lily and Alexia nodded.
Kang shrugged like he was not so sure about this plan but didn’t have any better idea to suggest.
Without further discussion, Michael turned around and headed out of the bunker through the tunnel.
All the other exit routes were blocked by the Overlord, so they could only escape this place through the two tunnels from which Subjects Alpha and Omega had entered.
Everyone followed behind Michael.
The tunnel was large and spacious, with metal pipes running along its length.
After walking for about ten minutes, they finally reached the exit — a massive steel grate that had been torn apart, most likely by the beasts.
Michael climbed up and through the grate, exiting onto a street and feeling the cool night air on his face.
…Except the air wasn’t cool. It was hot.
Every building around him was burning — houses, shops, apartments. Some buildings had already collapsed into smoldering piles of rubble.
The street was littered with corpses, and the air was thick with the stench of blood and spilled innards.
All he could hear was the distant sound of loud sirens and emergency announcements cackling through the public speakers.
And all around him, people screamed as they ran from the monsters, some tripping and falling in panic, others pushing each other to get ahead.
It was chaos.
His teammates gathered behind him and shuddered upon seeing the state of Ishtara City.
Michael let out a stiff breath. Then he saw an old woman lying in the middle of the road. Her leg was trapped beneath a fallen steel pole.
An abomination was slowly creeping toward her.
She was screaming, crying, begging for help. But no one stopped. After all, everyone was too busy running for their own lives.
Michael gripped his sword tighter and moved without hesitation, sprinting toward her.
Alexia and Lily spotted someone else who needed their help and rushed off. Kang darted in another direction to assist a group of fleeing civilians.
It was a long night.
A night of terror.
They saved as many as people they could. But it wasn’t enough. It was never enough.
For every person they saved, two more kept dying in front of their eyes… no matter how hard they fought.
And no matter how much they tried, they couldn’t save everyone.
Thirty minutes passed in grueling agony. Everyone was reaching their limits.
Lily was fighting alongside veteran Awakened.
Alexia was fighting alone.
And Kang was mainly focusing on getting people to safety.
But it was Michael who had tried the most, fought the most, and unsurprisingly, suffered the most.
His sword had broken long ago.
Now, he was using his bare hands to kill every abomination he could and save as many civilians.
He had already dismissed his Origin Card since his Essence reserve was nearly empty.
Right now, he was facing two abominations alone to protect a small family trapped in their wrecked car.
One of the abominations lunged forward.
Michael dodged by jumping up high, but a tentacle lashed out and struck him in midair. He raised his guard just in time to block but the force still sent him crashing down.
He hit the pavement hard but rolled with the impact to dodge another tentacle.
Then he sprang to his feet… just in time to see an abomination lunging at him again, jaws wide, ready to swallow him whole.
His eyes widened in surprise, but he reacted instantly.
His hands shot out and grabbed the creature’s mouth before it could snap shut around him. It took a lot of effort to hold the monster back.
But he only had two hands. And the beast had too many limbs.
So, when a tentacle slammed into his ribs, he was unable to block it.
The force behind that brutal blow flung him to the side. He crashed onto the ground and rolled to a halt.
Groaning in pain, he then forced himself up.
But this time, when he tried to stand… he faltered.
Pain shot through his side, and he realized that his ribs were more damaged than he initially thought, causing him to lose his footing and fall back to his knees.
And in that moment, the abomination pounced.
Michael tensed. His instincts screamed at him to move, but his body wouldn’t listen. His legs wouldn’t obey.
Too slow!
He was too slow!
…And just when he thought he was going to die, a miracle happened.
The night sky brightened.
At first, it was subtle — like the stars had doubled in number. Then, those new stars began to move. They began to grow in size!
Suddenly, it got so bright that it felt like daytime.
It was only then Michael realized, those stars weren’t moving or growing!
No, they were drawing closer!
Those stars were falling!
Streaks of incandescent white light tore through the sky like meteors, growing larger with each passing second.
Then, all at once, the heavens descended!
Pillars of light crashed down upon the city, obliterating the Spirit Beasts in their wake.
The abomination that had been mere inches from Michael’s throat disintegrated in an instant, its monstrous form swallowed by the blinding radiance.
All around the city, even more beasts met the same fate and were reduced to nothing but ashes by the pillars of light.
And from those light pillars, figures emerged.
They were people clad in the Academy’s combat uniform, their expressions grim and resolute.
The second-year Cadets!
The reinforcements from the Academy had arrived.
The Cadets hit the battlefield like a storm, sweeping in to help civilians and engaging the remaining Spirit Beasts with ruthless efficiency.
The pillars of light slowly faded, retreating back into the void from which they came.
Darkness returned to the sky.
But now, the tide had shifted.
And with that, Michael and his Squad’s mission had ended.