"ack... ahaack..." Yuya groaned after regaining his consciousness. He blinked a few times to make his vision clearer. "What... happened?" he asked himself while numbing the pain he was feeling all over his body.

[WARNING!]

DAMAGE RECEIVED

HP: 4210/7800

The moment he regained his vision the first thing he saw was the warning screen in front of him. He looked around with his eyes half open. "The building collapsed, what happened?" He slowly came back on his feet and saw himself in the middle of the building ruins. "Sena, where is she?" he worriedly asked himself and started turning his head in various directions.

When he turned his head to his right, he saw Sena laying on the ground soaked with blood. He quickly approached her to help her recover, tooking out some of his health potion from the inventory.

"Sena, are you okay?" He worriedly asked while forcing her to drink the health potion. "Hang in there."

Sena replied by angling her gaze upward. She couldn't speak since half of her uper throat was crushed by the unknown attack.

"Huh?!" Yuya turned his head the moment he felt something moved behind him.

"What the... still alive?" A mysterious man spoked to him with arrogance.

"This guy," Yuya widened his eyes. "He doesn't have a guild mark that means he's not a member of the joined forces. His player indicator is also no where to be found. Just who the hell is this guy?" he narrowed his eyes to analyze the man. "Who are you? and why did you suddenly attacked us." Yuya stand up and took his weapon.

"Ehhh, I'm John," the man replied with an annoyed grin. "Is my name enough?" John asked and looked down at Yuya. The man was speaking in a sloppy manner like a foreigner.

"Well said, your name deserves to be listed in hell." Yuya replied back with a furious grin. He suddenly jumped at him and chanted, "Fourth offensive form," he furiously swinged his mighty sword without showing any mercy. "Spreading Wings of inferno!" scorching orange flames spread all over the place in front of Yuya. Burning the defenseless foe he was fighting.

Yuya pulled back to get away from the burning enemy. He patiently watched the enemy burn as he went to check on Sena. This time Yuya pour the health potion inside his mouth and forcibly held Sena's head. He inhales deeply and leaned his head down to meet her soft lips and forcibly pushed the health potion down her throat.

[SENA]

LEVEL: (HIDDEN)

HP: 593/6400

"Sorry, this is the only way I know." Yuya thought before pouring another bottle of health potion into his mouth and repeated the same process again. Yuya panted heavily as he stares at Sena's player indicator. "Thank goodness she was unconscious, no one will know what I did." Yuya mumbled to herself.

"But I saw it." A voice that sends shivers down his spine spoked.

Yuya turned his head and to his surprise, John was still standing, unwounded and still breathing. "What the hell? h-he survived." he stared in surprise as he nervously holds his katana.

"You think that pitiful attack will kill me." John looked down at Yuya. "Your not even close," he raised his hand and a magic circle appeared above him. A large amount of energy started to be formed above the magic circle. "The heaven is with me," he grinned at Yuya. "Die sinner!" he dropped his hand along with the giant ball of energy.

After seeing the overwhelming amount of pure energy, Yuya wanted to retreated. But he's not fast enough to do it so instead, he ducked to protect Sena covering her with his body as he saw the ball of energy coming.

"I'm still confused about your twisted beliefs, John Ford."

Yuya heard a familiar voice speaking in front of him. He quickly looked up from the ground he was laying. He saw a figure of a man he couldn't recognize because his eyes are still adjusting from the light.

"It's been forever, Satsuki Ao!" John spoked in joy before laughing hardly like a villain.

Yuya was surprised and widened his eyes after hearing the name. "Ao? he's here," he finally regained his vision by blinking a few times. He looked up to confirm it and saw Ao standing and looking at him.

"You're looking strong for your age," John grinned. "Where's Gojou and that damn ice wizard?" he casually questioned.

"Ao know this guy?" Yuya slowly stood up and held Sena in his hand. "What's going on, Ao?" he has a confused expression painted in his face.

"Are you okay?" Ao asked him with a worried look. "Just stay back, let me handle this one." he smiled.

"Yes sir," Yuya politely replied with a nod. He then lifted Sena and held her in his hand to carry her away from the battle.

"Now then," Ao turned his head to face his enemy. "Shall we dance?" he grinned with his chin up. "To be honest, this is a one sided battle." he thought.

"Heh," John grinned back. "You look pitiful, Ao!" he pointed his opened palm at Ao and blasted an energy ball at him.

Ao just smirked and chanted, "Mana release: Decaying time!" he intentionally let his guard down and let the attack land with a massive blow.

"Ao!" Yuya worriedly widened his eyes. To his surprise, somehow he managed to survive the attack and still alive.

There's an overwhelming amount of green aura enveloping his whole body. "Pitiful, huh?" Ao mumbled with a disgusted face. "You'll die in my hands,"

"You're planning to give your all huh?" John narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Come at me." he taunted him, putting his guard up

"What a menacing aura." Yuya uttered as he watches the heated battle he can't interrupt.

Ao swiftly charge and leaped at him, clenching his fist and throw a straight punch. John barely avoided the attack by tilting his head and opened his hand for a counterattack.

"Blast!" John chanted. He blasted an energy shockwave that blew Ao away from him. The shockwave was too weak to cause fatal blow. "Tsk, what was that? Just now, I felt my mana weakened on the spot he barely came in contact with." John wondered, touching his neck area.

"Recovery Magic: Continuous restoration!" Ao chanted as safely landed on his feet and went straight ahead towards John in one push. He realeased a massive amount of mana greater than earlier to extend his attack range and punched him at incredible speed. "You think you can win?" This time he managed to continuously land light blows to John, disabling him from countering.

[WARNING!]

VITALITY DECREASING

143... 142... 140... 136

John can see the screen in front of him, yet he doesn't have any idea of what's going on. "How can Ao have this much power. I thought his power was to restore time." John can feel his body muscles weakening along with his mana.

Mana release decaying time, is a time acceleration magic causing anything the user's mana touches to continuously age in a short period of time. With this, John won't stand a chance, unless...

John show a smirk in mid-fight causing Ao to stop attacking, "You're really an annoying oldman." He pull backed a bit to regain his stance and clap both of his hands and chanted, "blessing zone," and grinned.

Ao after hearing the first part of the chant that gives shivers down his spine, he quickly get away from him knowing something might happen. Yuya on the other hand sensed the great change in the atmosphere.

"What's going on?" Yuya asked himself.

"Blessing zone: Son of light!" John finished his chant. A bright light enveloped his body as an energy blasted from the skies swallowed his body. Menacing aura that gives everyone in the battlefield goosebumps.

---

"What the hell was that?" Ryuga stared from outside the battlefield. "This bad," he quickly signalled everyone outside the barrier to charge in. "This time, we must–, what the heck is this?!" when he was about to step in inside the opened barrier, another barrier appeared in front of the perimeter. Everyone outside the barrier cannot enter or even interfere.

"Hello, everyone?" Even the communicator lost all of it's connection from inside. "What's going on?" Ryuga worriedly stared inside the transparent barrier.

---

"That's the direction where Ao-san is, is there another enemy?" Haru wondered as she headed to towards the main force to help then take down the skeleton boss. "Considering Gojou-san wasn't here, how should I handle this." he stared at the distance she was about to run in order to reach the main force. "Tsk, I need to hurry."

"Swooosh!"

"Hello there, missy. Wanna fight?"

"Huh?" Haru gasped. A mysterious man with an annoying smile on his face appeared in front of her out of nowhere. "How the–"

"Slash!"

Haru barely reacted and instinctively moved her feet away from the dangerous looking man. The man almost cut her neck if not because of her quick reaction.

"Heh, that's no good!" The man moved his finger and draws a magic circle in the air. "Slashing magic: Divide!" he raised his opened hand and hand chopped the ground. The ground in front of him started splitting.

Haru began to panick, she face her palms down and created a white magic circle. "Frost magic: Towering ice !" She chanted. She created a blocks of ice towering at the height of a 10 story building. Haru somehow managed to close the spitting ground.

"This brat was a bit annoying." the man looked up at theice blocking his way. "I wish Richard would allow me to kill her, but the order was to buy time though."

"Who the hell are you? Attacking me all of a sudden." Haru spoked, looking down from the ice. "Who ordered you?"

"That's none of your business," the man smirked. "My name is Erwin by the way." the man smiled, looking up with his eyes full of bloodlust.

"I see. Refusing to talk about your business huh?" Haru leaped from the ice tower directly at Erwin and pointed her index finger at her. "Frost magic: Cold wind!" A chilling wind blows from above causing the ground aroung Erwin to start freezing

"Don't get too full of yourself," Erwin opened his palm and chants, "Slashing magic: Extended edge!" rotated his body along with his hand doing 360° slashing motion, wiping the ice of around him. The slash extended, long enough to cause a shallow wound on Haru's right arm.

Haru quickly stepped back a little to check her slightly wounded right. "Tsk, his attack are like shockwaves, invisible to be seen." she wiped the dripping blood and returned to her stance. "How am I supposed to defeat this guy?"

---

"What the hell?!" Rai confusingly grumbled. "We've been walking around this tunneled labyrinth for forever and now there's an earthquake, what the hell is going on outside?!"

"Shut up, Rai." Gojou lightly smacked the him behind his head. "Something's coming." he quietly ducked in the corner after hearing some foot steps.

"What are those," Rai whispered as the creatures identity has been revealed in front of his naked eyes. Marching skeletons is passing by from where they we're hiding.

"The dungeon boss might be here," Hayato assumed.

"Are you saying that the dungeon is underground?" Rai spoked, accidentally raising his voice causing the skeleton army to turned their heads at their direction. "Crap, we've been found!" Rai screamed.

"Gaaaaaaah!" The skeleton army screamed and rushed towards them, heads up. Rai quickly hid behind Hayato and Gojou.

"Hayato!" Gojou exchanged glances with Hayato.

"Yes sir," Hayato inhales deeply until his lungs are about to burst. "Dragon magic: Fireball breath!" he silently chanted and exhaled all of the air he stored. The narrow tunnel gushed with flame, flooding all of the skeletons in the area leaving only the stronger ones.

[NOTICE]

YOU'VE SLAIN A SKELETON

Gojou charged forward at the stronger skeletons, clenching his fist. Gojou put all of his weight in one punch, creating a strong shockwave that turns the skeletons in pieces.

"Woah, you two... are strong!" Rai praised them with an amazed expression. "I'm glad that I'm with you guys."

"Don't celebrate yet," Gojou gives a serious expression. ",that earthquake earlier is a proof enough that something is going on above." he turned his back and started walking. "We need to hurry. If this place is an underground dungeon, then we need to kill the boss right away." Gojou spoked as they walked deeper in labyrinth tunnel.