It happened too suddenly.

Even though they were all watching as Stefan ascended, and the blur suddenly appeared, no one in the group could make sense of what they saw.

The one with the swiftest sense only had an inkling.

A mere glimpse.

“It’s… a hooded man.” Kazen whispered, still as confounded as everyone else present.

Who was this stranger that just appeared? What did they want? And… why did they target Stefan?

“We don’t have an ally here that’s as powerful as that. I wonder who it is.” Elrich Lendertwale muttered, his face lifted to the sky.

Stefan and the hooded being—whoever they were—had long exited the planet’s stratosphere.

That meant the likes of Elrich, and even Kazen, could no longer detect them or what they were up to.

It gave birth to worry.

“You guys don’t need to be anxious.” A sudden voice echoed in the air.

Everyone’s eyes widened—especially Freya, who had been in a state of shock until now.

Ivan was shot dead right in front of her, and she was still trying to comprehend the situation when the blur appeared, and now this familiar voice.

Everyone turned in the direction of the one who spoke.

Much to their surprise, it was Jane Ursula who was walking towards them.

“The hooded one is an ally.” She said with a smile of relief.

“You know who the person is?”

“What do you know?”

Elrich and Kazen instantly raised their voices as they stared at her.

Jane nodded, but before she could elaborate Freya took the spotlight

“Jane, please save Ivan. S-Stefan killed him, and—!”

“I understand, Freya. Don’t worry, I’ll use my Soul Magic to preserve his soul.”

“That’s only if he didn’t destroy his Soul alongside his body.” Kazen murmured.

“KAZEN!” Almost everyone raised their voice as they glared at her, to which she instantly raised her hands in defeat and took a few steps back.

“My bad, my bad. I was merely stating a possibility.”

After witnessing how powerful and cruel Stefan was, she had to assume the worst. Sure, it seemed she was being inconsiderate, but someone had to prepare them for a likelihood that they wouldn’t get what they wanted.

However…

“My Soul Brand on him hasn’t vanished. His Soul is still intact.” Jane smiled. “There’s no need to fret.”

The first to make a sigh of relief was Kazen, and a soft smile formed on her face.

“Is that so? That’s good, then.”

Whether it was a blunder on Stefan’s part, or it was by some strange act of providence, there was still hope for Ivan’s survival.

Jane walked over to the smoldering remains of Ivan’s barely passable corpse, her expression remaining the same as ever.

“I’ll preserve the Soul and we’ll reconstruct a body for him later.”

Using her Magic, she was able to gather the dissipating Soul Particles and converge them into a small glowing orb.

The orb floated on her palm, and it’s luminescent glow reflected on her glasses.

“Soul Imprisonment.” Jane whispered.

Instantly, a transparent cube-like projection of energy surrounded the Soul, trapping its contents within.

“This way the Soul will be preserved for as long as possible. You don’t need to worry about your boyfriend, Freya.”

“B-boyfriend?! W-w-what are you s-saying?! He’s not my boyfriend!”

No one knew who Freya thought she was fooling, but the fact that her face was flushed with all sorts of shades of pink, and her fidgeting body wouldn’t stop… well, fidgeting… it made everything obvious.

Plus, out of everyone present, she was the only one who was crying so intensely after Ivan’s supposed demise.

Even if they weren’t dating, there was definitely something up with their relationship .

“Whatever you say, Freya.” Jane shrugged, though a knowing smile remained on her face.

The poor Elf girl sighed in exasperation, but she couldn’t particularly defend herself at this point.

“Uuuu…” Was all she could leak out as her voice trailed.

“Where have you been, though? You told us to buy as much time as possible, and that you would come up with something to defeat Stefan.”

Once more, the atmosphere took on a more serious tone as Kazen asked her question.

Elrich nodded and also opened his lips.

“I’m guessing the hooded guy is the solution to our dilemma. It’s a shame so many had to die before he arrived.”

Jane sighed and shrugged, a small smile etched on her face as she spoke.

“Yeah, it took a lot more time than I thought, despite being in the final phase of development.”

No one else knew about this, but Jane had been working on this project for over ten years now.

It was her most treasured research and experiment yet.

“And you’re confident it will be sufficient to handle Stefan? He’s incredibly powerful, you know?”

Upon hearing those words from Kazen, Jane merely leaked out a small chuckle.

“It doesn’t matter how powerful the enemy is. As long as they are using Magic, they’ll lose.”

Her green broadened even further.

“No one knows about Magic more than he does. And that’s why he will win.”

None of the people surrounding Jane understood what she meant, but she never intended on that, to begin with.

“I placed my Soul Brand on everyone who went out to fight, so we should still be able to resurrect them if we hurry.” Jane changed the topic as she stared at the landscape of corpses.

There had to be thousands upon thousands of people dead—and these were the best of the best that their world had to offer.

None of them had even stood a chance.

“This is going to take some time.” Jane sighed, flexing her glasses.

She raised her gaze to the sky, probably looking fondly at her creation while also smiling warmly.

Something within her heart fluttered the more she dwelled on the thought.

“At this rate… he’ll be done before us.”

*

*

*