A red glow mixed with intricate golden patterns began to emit from Noah's breastplate. The light grew in intensity, triggering a response from the surrounding hell-hounds. The most dramatic reaction came from the giant, nightmarish grade three soulless opposite him. He watched the creature's sinewy exposed muscles move in preparation to charge. Its features contorted into a snarl as its legs began to carry it forward.

The enormous soulless swatted its arm against a support wall that got in its way as it charged at Noah. The wall happened to belong to the building where Josh and Grace hid, taking care of the unconscious Lyn. The occupants let out a cry of surprise as the wall began to slowly topple, drawing the milling horde of the monster's attention along with the giant grade three soulless, causing it to pause for a moment.

Noah couldn't wait any longer. He released the pent up energy contained within his armour. Flames surged outward from him into the horde of monsters as he activated the [Inferno] ability. The hell-hounds closest to him were consumed by the raging torrent of fire, reducing them to ash. Only the grade three soulless was able to resist as it unsteadily pushed itself forward through the buffeting waves of fire, leaving its elongated fangs exposed in a horrifying grin as its flesh charred black. He maintained the ability until his [Battle Instinct] alerted him to danger.

A flash of red light streaked through the flames in front of the giant soulless to crash into Noah. Six ethereal arms burst out from his back to cross in front of his chest, blocking the new threat. The impact from the mysterious red light knocked him onto his back and sent him skidding across the gravel. A strange tingling immediately followed it as Noah felt his wind-attuned body resonate with something in the area. A moment later, the air compacted in the sky above before slamming down into the horde of hell-hounds, billowing outward as it extinguished the flames from Noah's ability. The air became eerily still as another streak of red light appeared beside Noah while pushing himself upright into a sitting position. He rolled to the side as the streak came to a stop.

"Damn, the light is gone. We just missed it!" the streak spoke.

The voice was vaguely familiar. The light revealed itself to be the glowing silhouette of a person looking down at him. Noah acted instinctively to clasp the figure's ankle using a spirit arm. It looked at the transparent hand gripping its equally ethereal foot.

"Huh, How did you…Ah!"

The voice was interrupted by Noah hauling its feet out from under it with a cry of surprise. Noah used the momentum of the figure's fall to pull himself on top. He slammed a solid fist down on where the glowing silhouette's head should be, passing through it without resistance. The figure let out a laugh until it was cut short by a spirit hand gripping its throat, making contact.

"Hold on a second. Noah, is that you? It's me, Avery. You look more than ten years younger, back to your heroic self," Avery wheezed out past the grip on his throat as he attempted to flatter Noah while clutching his wrist.

"Ambushing me is not how you should greet an old friend, Avery. Is there a reason that you're wasting stamina to maintain your ability while talking to me?" Noah asked as he released his hold on Avery's neck.

"Now that you mention it, there is. Look around us, how are you still able to move?" Avery replied while dramatically rubbing his neck.

Noah stood up while pulling Avery to his feet. He still had his [Ethereal Form] active. Noah shifted his attention after Avery's question. The first place he looked was toward the grade three soulless. The monster had survived. It was charred black but still moving as it struggled against invisible restraints. Then, even more conspicuously, the bricks and tiles of the collapsing building hovered immobile in the air. Everywhere Noah looked, hell-hounds lucky enough to be outside of the blast radius of the [Inferno] ability earlier were currently frozen in place.

"Is this Roger's [Air Manipulation] ability?" Noah rhetorically asked as he moved his arms without feeling any resistance.

"Yes, now you'd better prepare yourself. Chaos is about to ensue," Avery replied while pointing toward the sky.

A metallic cloud was accumulating in the fiery sky above. It was formed from assorted metal items, knives, and common nails, all shimmering with green-lifeforce.

"The boss is alive! Although, it looks like he robbed a hardware store," Noah excitedly said.

"Among other places. Yes, the boss is, and our newly appointed Captain Roger is his long-lost father. My job was to find the ability-user that stirred up the horde and drive them away from the beam of light. But that's gone now. So it looks like the pair of them have decided to lock down the area without any regard to my safety," Avery complained.

"They can't harm you anyway," Noah stated dryly.

"Well, it's the principle. You may want to find shelter. It's about to start raining very shortly," Avery curtly replied.

Noah ignored the metallic cloud above to attack the immobile grade three soulless while it was helpless. He used his [Archaic Armament] ability to create an ornamental stone spear, which he grasped with four hands, including his real ones. Noah charged across the distance between them with the spear poised to impale the agitated monster. He ignored the floating debris as it brushed against his legs while he ran.

His [Battle Instinct] alerted him to danger, instinctively forming a shield wall held above his head by his remaining ethereal arms. There was the grating of metal on stone as knives and nails rained down on Noah amid a shower of sparks from the contact. He retained his single-minded focus as he thrust the spear through the roaring mouth of the charred monster.

It began to tremble as black shadows escaped through the wound as the spear flared with indigo light. The soulless's lifeforce was visible only while Noah activated his battle instinct ability. He maintained his grip on the spear pierced through the monster until he felt a flow of energy enter his body from his Omega role as he watched the final wisps of black smoke fade away in the rain of sharp metal objects.