Soon, the self-introductions were over. Of the two Theocracy of Light Regiments, there were two Healer Angelicas, two Pharaoh Angelicas (sand manipulation), another Oculus Angelica, a Nightstalker Angelica, a Lightbearer Angelica, a Stormbringer Angelica, a Waterwielder Angelica, and an Earthshaker Angelica.

With the final three of this set plus Tian Long, all four elemental Angelicas were gathered — Flamebreather, control over fire, Stormbringer, control over lightning, Waterwielder, control over water, and Earthshaker, command over the earth itself.

It is said that when these four powers of nature joined forces, the results would be incredible. Finn couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if he stole all of them — would his body explode from the opposite and clashing elemental mana? Probably not, considering all Angelicas had extremely different mana unique to their own regardless of whether their natures contrast with one another or not, but he still wanted to test it out.

Still, he couldn’t just walk up to one of them, tap them on their shoulder, and make them faint. He needed a good opportunity, unless he wanted to reveal his powers to everyone here which would — quite frankly — be pretty stupid.

These Theocracy of Light guys could betray him at any minute if they found out about his mysterious powers — they already weren’t exactly too happy with Finn’s cruel thought process and cold personality, but add this point on and they are bound to become hateful.

And needless to say… Finn wasn’t arrogant enough to think he can take on all of them at the same time yet, even with the others by his side.

As such, stealing their Angelicas will have to come until later, whenever an opportunity presented itself.

Acaya, designated leader of Shuyara’s team and wielder of the Pharaoh Angelica, turned to the stairs. “Now that the self-introductions are complete… I believe we should follow the others. They should not have gotten far ahead, considering how short we took.”

The rest agreed and all began heading up the marble stairway, then through the door that had been forcefully opened by their troublesome allies moments earlier. Strangely, however, it didn’t lead to a closed corridor or another room like they thought. Instead, what lay beyond the door… was outside.

There was a straight pathway leading to another door about 100 meters directly across from where they were, with a roof in parallel above it that was supported by numerous skinny pillars. However, the group was too focused on their surroundings to bother with that at the moment.

On either side of the pathway was a once-beautiful garden, painted greyscale by the Paracausal Realm. Numerous square-shaped flower beds constructed from stone lay elevated from the ground in perfect symmetry with one another, but the plants that had once been inside them were long withered and gone. Ornamental hedges that once formed statues of religious figures and symbols lay broken and abandoned.

A thick layer of fog lay over the garden, giving it a bone-chilling creepy atmosphere that made the group’s spines tingle. Beyond it were the faint black silhouettes of the garden’s walls, just barely visible.

“This is… quite ominous,” Ashika — the woman leading Shiphur’s team — pointed out, narrowing her golden eyes that held the Oculus Angelica. “But… this is weird. There is so much dust accumulated on the floor, yet there are no footprints of the people from the House of Crimson Moons.”

“Yeah…” Iris murmured. “I’m trying to use the Eye of Omnipotence, but I can’t see anything that may lead to this happening. The tracks we left are still there…”

“Maybe they ventured out into this garden?” Tian Long suggested, looking out at the foggy, empty courtyard.

“There should still have been tracks left near the beginning of the pathway, though…” Iris shot that idea down.

“Let’s just continue onwards to the door,” Toth, a Nightstalker Angelica user from Acaya’s team said. “Maybe we can find out what happened then.”

The rest of them nodded in agreement and began walking again. Strangely, however, the closer they got to that door, they felt tension rising. For reasons unexplained, they began feeling nervous, as if they knew danger was imminent but they didn’t know what. The hairs on their skin rose, and cold wind blew against their faces to send shivers up their spines.

As soon as they passed the halfway point mark, however, things got worse.

“GRRR…”

“RAGH…”

“SKREE… HEEHEE…”

The group stopped in their tracks, forming a circle formation and scanning their surroundings carefully.

“You guys… hear that?” Qi Ling asked, narrowing her deep crimson eyes and activating her Angelica. A bird of ice appeared above her, the look in its eyes matching its wielder’s.

“Yeah…” Acaya muttered, conjuring sand from seemingly out of mid-air and surrounding his group with it for protection. “No doubt… those are the sounds of a Ghost.”

“A Ghost?” Ashika smiled smugly. “No… there’s clearly far more than just one.”

As if on cue, several black silhouettes began rising up in the distance, masked by the fog. Some with tentacles, others hovering in the air, and some just plainly walking. Big, small, weapon, no weapon — there were all sorts. Clearly, they weren’t just Phantoms.

“Oi, oi, oi… there’s too many, isn’t there?” Abdol, user of the Earthshaker Angelica, clenched his fists as more and more figures began rising.

“Tch…” Ashika gritted her teeth, her smile from earlier nowhere to be seen.

On both sides, the silhouettes began crawling closer, slowly coming into view. Hundreds of Ghosts emerged — this wasn’t just a simple pincer attack. This… was an entire army of them.

“… Well, this is just great,” Obo, the other Pharaoh Angelica user, muttered in heavy sarcasm.

“We can’t fight this!” Tian Long called out. “Run for the door!”

The group all ran for the door that was closest to them, opposite to the one they came from. The Ghosts crawled after them, thirsty and hungry for blood and flesh. Some of them had ghastly white bodies and noseless Glasgow smiles while others in the back had no faces at all and hovered in the air, wearing worn-down prisoner-like hoodies and holding scepters in their skeleton-like hands. They were Phantoms and Wraiths, respectively.

Suddenly, however, the Wraiths vanished all at once, turning invisible. Acaya’s noticed this, then hurriedly grabbed the pendant hanging around his neck and looked at it. The jewel embedded within had eight sides, and the one to their right and left were shining.

His eyes widened.

“Everyone, DUCK!”