A barrage of Tectonic Birds approached the monster, led by three ice-cold elemental disks.

This would have been, and still was, a perfectly precise attack. However, as the disks homed onto their target, Naomi felt a change of heart.

“Stop!” Said his inner voice. “Don’t fall victim to his control! This man is dangerous, he’s just testing to see if he can lead you like a pawn!”

Naomi’s heart wavered.

If the situation was any different, he would have chosen to attack the monster’s core, the intersecting point of all twelve tentacles. It was only logical, as the elemental disks would have frozen its main control point, possibly killing the beast in an instant.

But this was not just any fight. He faced not one, but two different opponents, who both fought on different plains of war.

The monster tried to break him on a physical plain.

Gabriel tried the same but in the world of intellects.

Or so that’s what he thought. The reality of the situation might have been different, but Naomi was too lost in grievance and exhaustion to see that with clear eyes.

At the last second, he changed his Tectonic Birds’ trajectory and sent them flying in different directions. The disks flew to attack the tentacles at their base with the intent to cut them off.

The smaller disks were too weak to sever any of the tentacles, but they were still able to deal some cuts to the monster. The elemental disks were much more successful, with two of them freezing a tentacle and hindering its speed while another happened to hit it in such a way that one of its arms was cut off.

The rotten-glair-like tentacle fell to the ground and scattered everywhere as bits and pieces of jellified sewer trash. The smell that dirty water emitted was unbearable, almost as if it was a cocktail brewed specifically to be as vile as possible.

Naomi’s attack might have brought a change to the tides, but it was too small in the eyes of Gabriel. He was in utter disbelief Naomi abandoned such a clear strike and instead went for a much lesser attack.

“What are you doing?!” He yelled as he stomped towards his companion.

Naomi gave him an annoyed glance, then smiled cheekily. He was happy to see Gabriel was pissed, as in his mind this was proof of his own liberty.

“I just followed the way of my heart, man!” Said Naomi, then shrugged.

Gabriel could not believe him. He had to hold himself back from getting physical or else he would have slapped him.

“We’re not here to vivify our emotions.” Said Gabriel while easing his fists. “Our mission is to take care of this monster before it causes any severe harm. We cannot, and I have to stress, ‘Can-Not’ afford to let this monster take any lives.”

“Really now?” Naomi laughed. “Oh, look at you! Yesterday you would have killed a man with a smile, yet suddenly you found the value of life!”

Gabriel’s frown grew even more serious.

“Shut your mouth before I cut your tongue! I don’t care about any of those waste-of-airs that might fall victim to this beast. We’re here on a mission and I want to ensure our employer won’t lay us down for any casualties…”

Gabriel stopped. His eyes widened as he noticed something behind Naomi.

“So, you’re one of those kinds of people, aren’t you?” Asked someone with a deep voice.

Behind the pair of heroes, on a bed of broken bricks lay a man with his legs crossed. He wore elegant shoes, a pair of black jeans, and a beige blanket that covered everything from below his groins up to his nose. He wore a pair of green goggles strapped around his head, covered by his long strains of black hair.

The man seemed nonchalant about the monster wreaking havoc, and could only yawn as clouds of flying wreckage swung by his face.

Gabriel was confused about the man’s sudden appearance. He had his Sigil boost his perception, but even then, he failed to sense as this man approached.

“Did he teleport here without us noticing?”

Still, this was not the time for questions. He was on a mission and he needed to secure the safety of as many people as he could.

“Excuse me, sir!” Gabriel approached the man. “Please, follow me! I’ll escort you into a safe location until my friend takes care of the––“

“No need to. My apprentice got this under control.”

“Your who?” Gabriel asked, but no answer was given.

Instead, the answer arrived herself.

The sun above shone with light brighter than before, followed by a valkyrie’s roar.

As Gabriel turned around, he could see a woman descend from the sky. She wore yellow armor that concealed her entire body. She had her long sword aim downwards, and as she descended from above, both her and her weapon grew angelic wings.

Her helmet already had two wings. It also had the miniature head of a unicorn carved out on top, which transformed into a large, spiraling horn as the woman descended from the skies.

She fell right onto the interconnecting points of the tentacles, and as she sunk her righteous sword into the jelly, her entire fall transformed into a downward force on the being.

The monster was pushed against the ground. It had almost popped like a balloon under the tremendous force, but before that could have happened, an angelic choir resonated through its core.

As the blade sunk into the monster, a beam of sunlight descended from the sky to erase that who have met the other end of the sacred weapon.

Everyone, both on this street and on the neighboring streets was blinded for a second, and when they could finally see again, only a cloud of vapor remained in the monster’s place.

Gabriel fell to his knees. His mouth hung open. He understood that right now, just before his eyes, someone had channeled the power of the sun into the blade of an attack.

“H-How…”

This was a game-changer.

While he was still stuck relearning his previous techniques, some people have evolved to power levels he previously thought to be impossible.

What was the level of this woman’s Sigil? Sixty? Seventy?

Was that a unique Sigil or the evolution of an ordinary one?

These and many more questions lingered in his mind as the warmth of the attack churned a sweat down his forehead.

However, more questions were soon to come.

He heard something hit the ground. As he looked to his right, he saw Naomi lying facedown on the ground.

He was unconscious.

“Naomi!” Gabriel yelled, then quickly crawled to him.

He held up Naomi’s head and placed it on his thighs. Blood leaked out of his mouth, tainting Gabriel’s clothes in red.

Then, someone different hit the ground.

It was one of the guards that arrived at the scene and remained unharmed. Despite not taking any damage from the monster, he was now on the ground. His arms and legs jerked around violently, and most eerily of all, he seemed to be unconscious during all of this.

Suddenly, Gabriel felt an incredible pain penetrate his head as if someone had stuck a knife into his brain.

“W-What’s happening?”

The mysterious man stood up from his bed of bricks. He fumbled around for something under his clothes and a syringe filled with red liquid fell down to his foot.

“Take that.” He said, kicking the item over to Gabriel. “If I were you, I’d quit talking and give yourself both a good dose. It’s going to help you keep going for a little longer. Best case scenario, an ambulance might arrive before the poisoning melts your heart.”

When the man said those last few words, Gabriel panicked. He had no idea what caused them to have such a severe reaction, much less how to prevent such a horrible death.

“What are you talking about?” He tried to ask, but failed to.

As he tried to speak, one of his veins burst open. Blood spurted out his nose like a fountain through a hose, and before he could have said anything, he fell unconscious beside Naomi.

Seeing this, the man shook his head. He sighed and approached the two with another syringe.

“Being a hero can be so tiring sometimes…”