The elevator slid down toward the basement. John Philo could feel a shiver ran down Alicia’s spine. The girl tried her best to stay calm. She still had an ace up her sleeve—or inside her backpack. All she had to is just wait for the right moment. However, the traumas due to her being the victim of pranks and even several attempted murders made it difficult for her to suppress her dread.

Alicia was helpless as her right arm was grabbed from behind, and John’s big hand almost strangled her poor neck. One careless move, the man could turn her into a lump of plastic in a blink of an eye.

The Art Teacher opened a conversation while waiting to arrive at the exhibition hall. “If I heard correctly, you have a way of removing the Protos influence from my body. This Protos effect you’re referring to is the power I possess, isn’t it?”

“In t-theory, y-yes,” her answer was straightforward. “The influence of Protos left unchecked if it doesn’t corrupt the body, will corrupt the mind and soul.”

“Interesting. Would you mind sharing with me a little?”

“I think the power inside the grenade earlier can remove the Protos influence from you.”

“Both of us and they will die, eventually. Why should I care to remove this Protos magic from my body?”

The shaking of Alicia’s body became more pronounced as she struggled from his grip. John then pulled her held right hand from behind to tame her.

“Mi-Mister Philo! You dinnae have to do this! The Protos particle is playing with your mind. Y-yer better than this!”

“Oh, fear not, my dear. You’re maybe the last person to die. So in exchange for such gift, seal your mouth. I don’t need any more cliché advice from a snotty teenager like you!”

The elevator stopped. They had arrived at their destination. After the elevator opened, John led Alicia down a long hallway to a metal vault door where the perpetrators were.

This floor was not only a shelter from any riotous dangers, but also a place to store archives regarding magic and various kinds of forbidden magical confiscations.

On the left and right sides of the door, two wizards were guarding the bunker against possible foreign menaces. But both became reluctant when they saw a teenage girl being held captive by John Philo.

John Philo warned them, saying, “Gentlemen! If you please, drop your magic wands, then open the vault and go away to the wall on your side.”

The wizards did what the Plastic-Man asked. When the door mouth was opened, a dozen people stared outside. The three murderers and their remaining main family, the law enforcement officers who handled the case, were all there. Seeing the serial carver, they screamed for the wizards to save them immediately. How the Divine had cursed them, John Philo hardened those magi into polyethylene figures, then threw the new member, Alicia Crimsonmane, into the party.

Alica was as stunned as the petrified mages, whose bodies experienced shock and organ failure when being touched by Philo’s enchanted hands. She immediately crawled back along with the others as John joined in and sealed off the bunker.

They were nervous to see Alicia joining them. One of the doers, Calum Little, murmured to the girl, “You… Alicia? How can you be here? Did your father also—”

“W-what? Nae danger, silly! She whispered back. “I’ve j-just made him a wee bit carnaptious, I guess.”

“Alrighty, alrighty!” said John Philo with spirit. “Everyone is here. By the way, I brought you a new friend, Alicia. Sure, you all know her. She’s here because of her… foolish—I mean noble—act of volunteering herself in the sacrifice.” John guffawed after that.

“Sacrifice? What do you mean, sacrifice?” replied a guilty law officer.

That man in his midlife started a brief storytelling session. “I had an inspiration. I wanted to take my revenge on you, but I had nothing against you. That..., until a Deer Head from another world offered me magical powers, in return I must offer myself and all of you an offering sacrifice with it. All of this… is an apology to the spirit of my daughter, Esmer, who wanders, trapped in Hades’ lap! Your lives will be the ransom for her Eternal Peace.”

“You’re mad! Twisted!” retorted them, who were mixed with fear, joined in berating John for his insane idea. Meanwhile, Alicia was still processing the meaning of every word from Philo’s mouth. A hint, perhaps, that damned drug trafficking might have something to do with the Deer Head he mentioned. It was also possible that the same Deer Head plunged the late Caleb Dune into the same hole.

“Brethren, settle down. Consider this your redemption,” he added again. “You have two choices: I make you all swoon, arrange you in such a way and then turn us all into sculptures as a magnificent offering that will amaze Hades. Or, become the ungrateful rebels and I’ll turn you into effigies right away! Experience the torment in the mortal realm and in Tartarus. You cannot fight me."

The occupants were frightened and worried. The three murderers rebelled by cursing while shedding tears. They did not know this man’s weakness, they did not know how to defeat him. Perhaps it was time for them to yield and suffer the consequences of their vile actions.

John looked at Alicia. “You’re the smartest person who might know how to beat me. I’ll put you down first.”

His footsteps threatened Alicia, who was still sitting on the floor. The red-haired just gave her art teacher a sharp glare. “Not just might. I do!” The girl summoned Orb with her hand, then fired a plasma of pure Arcane. The hit threw John Philo to the vault door and then he fell onto the firm cement floor!

John Philo’s polyethylene-coated eyes scowled at Alicia and her shining Orb. His chest constricted; the skin around his chest and neck acted strange again.

“No! Not enough!” said Alicia. She improved her focus again. An enraged John Philo bolted to the frozen girl, thinking it was a perfect opening. But instead, an abrupt, more powerful blast thrust The Art Master once more, and he fell straight headfirst!

His skin almost returned to its original state. John inflicted himself to alter his skin to be as hard as the cement floor. But the scrimmage between Khaos and Arcane still perched on his body, making the Cement-Lad shriek in torment. He kept mobilising the remaining Protos energy to counter the influence of the outstanding Arcane. His eyes came out mauve, followed by his nerves, just like Caleb Dune back then. The dark energy prevailed this time, and he achieved to turn his skin into complete concrete. His luminous eyeballs stayed.

Time for Alicia to put the results of her short training into practice! She took her defensive stance while John Philo rushed in charge. The moderately heavy concrete hindered his agility, benefiting Alicia’s position in terms of speed. Even though Alicia was an amateur, she still could dodge every blow from John Philo. An Arcane shield sometimes was summoned to repel the Cement-Lad's concrete fists. However, John had his own fighting perks; Orb’s swing attacks could be easily dispelled by his mighty mitts—although repelling an Arcane sphere always came with a heavy toll.

The rest of the prisoners instead became spectators of the fight. They were still finding an understanding of how the two underestimated nerds presented an action movie class performance in front of their eyes. John Philo, with his uncontrollable rage, launched a barrage of cemented hits at Alicia. Alicia was just a little girl; of course, such feral assaults made her overwhelmed and her focus distracted. Philo turned the tide, making the girl cornered at the wall.

“You are an absolute scunner, Alicia! I should have killed you back there!”

Just as John Philo wanted to do his finishing touch at the Crimsonmane girl, a judge threw away a clay mug to his head to divert the Cement-Lad.

“Real jessie you are! Fucking bampot, only dare to clipe a wee lass, don’t ye?” cried a judge.

At first, John just ignored it. Then James Bain—one of the culprits—joined in, “Aye, yer just as awfy as us coorsing yer dear wench!”

Very poor choice of words—or a proper one, considering at the situation. The man stopped. The man turned his rocky head to those degenerates.

Alicia took advantage of this momentum to slip away from John Philo. John was aware, immediately throwing a jab at Alicia’s face, who was agile enough to form a force field to envelop her being! John’s fist was immediately scalded by Arcane, and it was Alicia’s turn to crash her back against the bunker wall! Even the dissipation of Orb’s shield was not enough to prevent Alicia from hitting the wall until it cracked. The strength of her art teacher was uncanny that it almost put her in a blackout. If only Alicia was a fraction of a second late, not only would her head turn into solid concrete, but also fell her concrete skull to pieces when it hit the wall!

“What… did you say… about my daughter?” asked John Philo as he approached the perpetrators with his body full of holes and cracks.

Alicia’s vision turned fuzzy. Her alignment with Orb detached in an instant. Orb let out a deafening sound that brought her soul back to the mortal realm straightaway. She saw John, who was about to crush their bones with his almost formless hand grasp. The girl grabbed her ball friend again and built a giant force field that protected them from the Cement-Lad’s clenched fists! John’s body turned volatile once more due to continuous Arcane exposure. He turned to Alicia who was gasping for trying to keep the aegis spell alive, and immediately charged toward her!

Alicia destroyed the bluish bulwark behind her art teacher and formed an Arcane safeguard for her own. The collision happened! It was so hard that Alicia almost lost the power of her shield.

Luckily, John Philo began to weaken after the collision. His steps faltered. The strength to direct black energy from his being was no more. Alicia slowly got up, and fired a handful of all-powerful Arcane energies that John could no longer elude until he finally knelt before the Orb Mage!

“Is it done?” asked one of the culprit’s parents gathered there.

“Almost.”

Alicia took a breath. John started to speak with a bitter tone. “Why can’t you just let me avenge my daughter? Do you really have the heart to let her get lost in the afterlife?”

“I might know nothing about your daughter,” replied Alicia. “But Esmer would be disappointed if you took someone’s life.”

“BUT, ESMER…!”

“If anything… if anything, you are the only reason she’s a restless, wandering soul. Sir Philo, please… let her go. These people will get the punishment they deserve, I’ll make sure of that...”

The last step. Alicia closed her eyes. Orb radiated the entire room, launching a swarm of fine plasma streams over John Philo’s body. He couldn’t groan anymore even though the Arcane herd burnt his body and soul infected with Khaos. While he was being purified, his soul felt like it was coming out of the mortal realm, penetrating the horizon into the untouched domain.... []