Isaac stood in a clearing as the moonlight shone onto his back.

In the virtual world created by the soul transportation machine, he had died much less than Aaron: only a dozen times. Moreover, the red magic kept away his emotions and his feelings.

From afar, the red-haired woman stared at him with a smile. “Hey, Isaac.”

“Catch this!” She conjured a red magic arrow-shaped projectile out of her palm.

It hit Isaac’s left leg. He struggled to stay up, but his gaze remained empty as his blank eyes burned in crimson light.

Any traces of electricity magic left his body as he had unintentionally sealed his mana flow. Only red magic could move within him. With each heartbeat, a surge circulated from his heart to his members and out of his eyes.

The young mage’s idle state was due to an internal struggle. He had lost control of himself, not because of fear but because of his state of mind. The red magic was like a drug. It nullified everything from his thoughts to his pain and embellished his dark desires.

But Isaac Tremblay had lost all three of those. He did not remember, or more precisely, he couldn’t remember what his purpose was. He no longer had the will to move.

Only a distant, clouded memory kept the young mage standing up. It was a small glimpse of his two friends echoing in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t recall their names or who they were. The boy with dark brown hair seemed distant, looking at the starry sky with his blue eyes, while the girl with red curly hair walked away. Isaac was losing them too. Or perhaps, he was the one they were losing.

But then, he saw the psychopath trainer before him and mistook her for someone else. “Gabriella?” Isaac’s hand reached toward the hallucination.

“Stop standing over there. It’s boring. I’m supposed to be training you, not torturing you!” The AI was getting impatient as she conjured another projectile.

Isaac still believed it was Gabriella as he looked at her with a confused smile. This time the projectile had cut off his hand, leaving only a bloody arm.

Isaac blinked and clearly saw the slim sadistic trainer in the moonlight. In a flash, he regained all his memories.

‘I can’t beat her,’ he sighed and shut his eyes. ‘That’s what I keep telling myself, but that’s not true. There was that one time.’

He remembered the first time he had used red magic. Rico had been chasing Alex, Aaron and him. When their aircraft was about to crash into a building, he had woken up in a powerful state; a single attack had carved a giant hole into the building’s structure.

He thought that if he could manifest such power again, he might have a chance at beating the robot.

Confident, Isaac reopened his eyes. ‘If this simulation is like the real world, I should have the same amount of magic power as my real body. The mana points that I derived from thousands of souls in Hellish City should be enough.’

It was the second time he would go all out. But this time, Isaac was in control. He strained his muscles and began overflowing with red magic. Veins popped on his forehead, and before long, a red aura had manifested around him.

Isaac leaped towards the AI and arrived face-to-face within a few seconds. The AI tried to run, dashing in all directions. But with each dash, Isaac became one step closer to her.

The red magic began clouding his thoughts again, yet Isaac remained sane by thinking about Aaron and Gabriella.

The AI’s status as a trainer was now over. Isaac had finally unleashed a portion of his potential. Before long, Isaac conjured a red spear without his watch and stabbed it into the NPC’s chest.

“Congratulations, you pass-”

Isaac mercilessly decapitated the soulless body. It was finally over.

A sudden thunderous roar came from the dark sky. “ALL PARTICIPANTS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THEIR TRAINING. YOU WILL BE TRANSPORTED OUT IMMEDIATELY.”

Exhausted, Isaac fell to the ground as Snoid’s voice resonated.

…

Isaac Tremblay woke up on a hard floor. He was back in the real world, in the glowing blue ring of the soul transportation machine. Next to him, Aaron, Jenna and Luo groaned as they stood up slowly.

‘I’ve regained all my mana points.’ Isaac looked around. Snoid, who stood outside the ring with his two guards, had transported them out of the virtual world.

Snoid asked eagerly, “So… how are your new abilities? I must admit I didn’t have the chance to monitor your training as another matter arose while you were there.”

Frowning, Luo walked out of the circle. “You took us in there against our will. Now give us answers! Were are these ‘apostles?’”

Snoid having promised to answer their questions, Luo asked the critical points.

“Patience! Don’t be so curious. It will bring your undoing.” The snake humanoid glanced at his robot, DP20-X, and his two guards. The three understood his signal and prepared themselves for combat.

Luo aggressively pushed Snoid onto the wall and threatened him. “Patience?! Why don’t you start talking if you don’t want to get beaten down!”

Jenna observed without a word. The guards were gripping their rifles tightly, and the robot became stiff.

Suddenly, a slight grin appeared on Snoid’s face.

When Luo was about to hit him, Jenna cooled him down. “Luo. As one of the Five Seats, we have no idea what he’s capable of.”

Sighing, the fire mage regained his composure. “Please answer my question. Where can I find these demons? How many are there?”

“There are a few throughout the five continents. They’ve appeared multiple times throughout history. In the Dark Faction, we worship them as demigods.”

“From what I can tell, your Obscure Guild is part of the Dark Faction. What can you tell us about the faction?”

“The Dark Faction appeared in the Dark Era, around 1400 years ago. The secret organization ensured that knowledge of magic only remained amongst the nobles. During those times, the public was just sheep in the faction’s eyes.”

Jenna took a step out of the ring. “This information is in every history book. What more do you know?”

Snoid smiled. “Ruled by the Dark Faction, our world was peaceful. There were not any conflicts between countries. The faction handled everything behind the scenes. That’s what today’s Dark Faction hopes to establish. A well-governed and peaceful world.”

He was sugarcoating the Dark Faction. The faction’s ideal may seem admirable, but the means it used were far too evil. Another name for the Dark Era which it ruled was the Cataclysms Period. Millions of people had died in order to preserve this ‘peace.’

Isaac stepped outside of the STM’s ring. “I hope you didn’t gather us four to assimilate us to the Dark Faction’s religion. How can we eradicate this evil cult?”

The soul he met in Hellish City, Carlyle, had asked him to defeat the Dark Faction. And that’s what he intended to do.

“I- I have a plan,” Snoid lifted his arms. “But please give me some time since I’m in quite a predicament. Besides being a snake humanoid, a cursed, the Dark Faction has placed another curse on me. If I reveal too much information, my head will explode!”