"A method to protect ourselves?"

"Yes... The custodians may have said that we must not fight against the monsters here, but they didn't say that we can't stop them from running after us."

"What do you mean?" Calvin's cryptic words confused the newbies.

"Give me a minute." Calvin turned around and ripped a few pages of paper out of his small notebook. His eyes flashed with determination as he bit a chunk of the soft flesh on his cheeks inside his mouth.

Blood pooled inside his mouth and searing pain rushed directly into Calvin's mind. However, he remained steadfast. Frowning, he spat a mouthful of blood on his left palm and used that blood to draw some sigils on the paper that he ripped off from his small notebook.

"Oh, our Beloved Goddess Grace..."

"The Magister of Light and the commander of compassion..."

"I invoke your name with my essence, bestow blessings upon your lowly servant..."

"Tremunt!"

Calvin softly whispered and the blood that covered the papers vanished as if it didn't even exist in the first place.

What Calvin did was a basic Blessing Bestowal Spiritualist Magic.

The Seven Gods and Goddesses governed the world of Las Felipinas. Often, they were silent, but since Gods needed the power of faith from their followers to continue their existence...

They became quite lenient and with the use of Spiritualistic Magic, one could demand blessings from the Gods that one believed in, and to an extent, they would be able to use the strength of that God.

However, to exercise the blessing of the divine, their will, and strength. One must also be willing to sacrifice something of equal or greater value. In short, the Gods weren't really that kind.

In fact, if not for their need for prayers, then they would've longed abandoned the world in search of other interesting things in the cosmos.

Calvin infused the blessing of Goddess Grace into the papers but he had to sacrifice valuable blood from the insides of his cheeks in exchange.

Yang and Yin enter through the head, and the most location of the most valuable blood essence was in the tip of the tongue and the insides of one's cheeks. Taking blood essence from the tip of one's tongue was dangerous since a single mistake could cost one's life. However, it was a different story if the blood came from the inside of one's cheeks.

Unfortunately, since Calvin still wasn't a Predator and hadn't formally acquired powers from the world of Las Felipinas...

He could only take blood from the inside of his cheeks, three times at most.

This was Calvin's trump card, but for the sake of the lives of the newbies.

He didn't hesitate to give them a part of his trump card.

Calvin wiped the blood off his lips before turning around to face the newbies.

He gave each of them a piece of paper and solemnly said, "I know that all of you are skeptical. But when the time comes that you need that valuable help. Crush this piece of paper, throw it at the enemy, and shout the word, 'Release'. I don't have that much time to explain everything. Just trust me on this."

"A-All right..."

The newbies, although confused never managed to ask any questions for Calvin had already turned around and rushed towards where Hugo was last discovered.

Nicholas, Ray, and Roy touched the paper in their hands. The paper felt damp, but it wasn't wet with anything. Just holding it in their hands made them feel a strange sense of security. Taking a glance at each other, the three decided that they would trust Calvin's nonsense.

"Let's leave Hugo to Calvin... for now, we'll go and find Philip!" Rose stood up and made the decision for the team. Even though she was a woman, she had proven herself to be quite capable. Furthermore, she was the oldest of them all, so it wasn't really that strange for her to take command of everyone.

Roy stared at the direction where Calvin had disappeared. A strange look briefly appeared in his face, but when he blinked, that look disappeared as fast as it appeared.

The newbies, with Rose standing in the front lines, continued their march towards the direction where Philip went.

Without the newbies to care for, Calvin didn't even bother to hide his presence. He ran and in just a few seconds, he reached the decontamination chamber that they used to enter the Hospital Block of Mount Spirit Sword Asylum. He swept his gaze across the area.

The Hospital Block wasn't really that huge when compared to the Administration Block. It had several corridors, with several sickrooms whose doors were left ajar. Cold draft seemed to be coming from beyond those doors, but Calvin merely frowned.

'If not for the fact that I know that I'm in Mount Spirit Sword Asylum, then I would've already thought for sure that I am in some kind of a scenario in a haunted house!'

Calvin's eyes scoured the area until it eventually landed on the corridor where the emergency exit was located. What's more, he could see that out of all the corridors in the hospital, only that corridor had running electricity. If common sense was followed, then anyone in such a scary place like this would easily be attracted to light.

In other words, Hugo was most likely to be in that corridor.

Calvin took a step forward.

As soon as his feet landed, two kinds of footsteps rang out.

One belonged to him.

While one belonged to someone else!

Calvin's pupils constricted, "Who's there?!"

He abruptly turned around but he found nothing.

A cold draft out of nowhere blasted his face making him squint his eyes.

"Whoever is playing a prank on me, show yourself! Else, if I find you, then I won't be so lenient!" Calvin bravely cried out.

But no one answered him.

"Hmmph..."

He coldly snorted and took another step forward.

The same slick footsteps rang out behind him, but this time he was even faster. Not even a quarter of a second passed since the sound rang out but Calvin had already whipped his head around, trying to look at the person following him from behind.

However, he still found nothing.

"What the fuck?" Calvin softly cursed.

Irritated, he increased his pace towards the corridor with running electricity.

When he stepped into the corridor, the slick footsteps had stopped.

Calvin paused for a moment and even turned around to see what happened and why it suddenly stopped.

But he eventually decided that finding Hugo should be his priority.

He swept his gaze across the corridor and found that there were lights coming from the men's bathroom.

Calvin stepped forward and discovered some words written on the pale white walls of the hospital.

[There is no escape from this madness...]

[If you can't beat em, join em...]

[Can I invite you to dance?]

The uneven handwriting and the strange message that the writer wanted to express made Calvin scrunch his eyebrows.

He was currently on the corridor that had running electricity in the entire Hospital Block, standing in the middle of this corridor. The lights coming from the sickrooms around him seemed to be unable to soothe his trembling heart.

Even though the cold drafts had stopped, the doors that were left ajar moved back and forth, creaking noisily as if they were being affected by an invisible force. Showers of dust fell from the old and dilapidated ceiling, and one could faintly hear the occasional sounds of paper brushing against the floor in the middle of this silence.

Standing alone in such a place in the middle of the night, it was a lie to say that Calvin wasn't disturbed at all.

Clenching his fists, he walked towards the direction of the men's bathroom.

Entering the bathroom with a turn, he found a trembling Hugo on the ground, hugging his knees as he let out weak whimpers and cries.

"Hugo!" Calvin cried out upon discovering Hugo.

A frown appeared on his face when he noticed that Hugo seemed to have been scarred by something.

Shaking Hugo's shoulders, the latter finally snapped out of his trance.

"You..."

"Calvin?"

"Why are you here?"

Calvin replied, "I'm here to rescue you!"

"Rescue me? What happened? Wait, why am I here?" Hugo was so confused that he looked as if he was about to cry.

"Calm down, calm down... You need to stand up. The others are worried about you! I came here to look for you and now that I found you. We need to go back and help them." Calvin urged.

"No, I can't go back!"

"I can't go back!"

"There's something scary out there that's out to kill me!"

"They... I had no choice! It was a life and death situation and I had to kill or I will be killed!"

"Yet, why can't they understand? Why can't they understand my feelings!" Tears streamed down Hugo's cheeks. The battle-hardened Hugo who seemed to not know how to show any emotions apart from glaring at others and revealing a slight smile seemed to have transformed into someone else.

He was bawling his eyes out and even fiercely kicking his legs as if he was a toddler.

Calvin thoroughly inspected Hugo.

His eyes caught onto something strange and he took a piece of paper out of his pocket.

"All right, I understand..."

"You don't have to explain."

"I can see it..."

"I can see that you have a Demon in your shadow!"

Calvin hurled the paper in his hand towards Hugo's shadow and cried out, "Release!"