Between the two forces, Nick was the first person to recognize Zich.

“Mr. Zich?” Nick said joyfully when he realized that the third party that had abruptly appeared was Zich. Nick didn’t know whether Ellie had been saved or killed, but he was sure that the robed figures’ organization no longer had her now. Since there was no way those shady robed figures would tell him the truth easily, Nick thought the only way he would learn about his daughter’s whereabouts was by checking her status for himself. Zich had been preparing the rescue plan for his daughter, so now Nick could ask for his daughter’s whereabouts from the person who should know best.

Nick felt hopeful seeing that Zich appeared fine; perhaps, this meant that his daughter’s rescue had gone well. Furthermore, Nick hoped for one more thing.

‘He came to help us kill those robed figures!’ Nick thought Zich had trailed behind the robed figures after saving his daughter. Nick was well aware of Zich’s skills and thought there would be no better support than Zich right now. That was about the extent of Nick’s thoughts as soon as he saw Zich. No matter how highly he thought of Zich and trusted him now, Nick couldn’t take his eyes off his current fight for too long as the vice-captain of a mercenary group. Even the hopeful thoughts that entered his mind upon Zich’s entrance sparked and passed by quickly.

“W-What is that!”

“Isn’t that the Karuwiman Holy Knight?”

“Karuwiman Holy Knight? Then, is he on our side?”

“Didn’t you see him kill the bastard trying to run away?”

Like the mercenary said, Zich had killed an escaping mercenary. Even though it was unforgivable that the mercenary had turned his back away from his enemies and tried to run away, it didn’t make sense that an outsider would suddenly intervene and kill their companion. Additionally, what Zich said also hung on their minds.

‘Trash should try to get rid of as many of each other as possible.” Those words had been clearly ones of mockery, as if Zich was insulting everyone here. Perhaps, there was a misunderstanding—Nick thought after he heard the confused voices around him. After all, Zich was the Karuwiman Honorary Holy Knight who had worked hard to save his daughter.

“What are you doing, Sir Zich!” Although he was enraged about his companion’s death, Nick controlled his voice and expression as he spoke to Zich. “You just came out and killed our companion. Are you misunderstanding something, sir?”

As soon as the mercenaries heard the word ‘misunderstanding’, their eyes flashed expectantly. The robed figures were taken by surprise by the new, unexpected intruder. If Zich joined the mercenaries as their ally, they would not need to escape. Although they had lost one companion, one death meant little before an almost guaranteed victory. Zich smirked at all the hopeful gazes directed at him. He had made his entrance by slicing one of their companion’s heads and insulting them, but they still hoped that he could be on their side.

‘My goodness. It seems like I have done quite a good job on keeping my image.’ It was so good to the point that his own acting was beginning to frighten him. While the mercenaries were still deep in their hopeful delusions, the robed figures had completely different thoughts.

‘Zich Moore.’ The leader of the robed figures stared at Zich intently. Of course, the leader recognized Zich. In some ways, Zich could be considered the most important factor to their biggest plan. Furthermore, the robed figures knew that many of their plans had gone to ruins because of Zich. Although Zich appeared and sliced a mercenary’s head off, they knew there was no way Zich would be on their side.

‘If that guy intervenes, we have no chance at victory,’ the leader thought. He had no choice now but to use some of his subordinates’ lives as bait to capture Nick and escape right away. The leader was about to signal to his subordinates when—Crunch! He heard a chilling sound beside him, and everyone’s eyes turned to the origin of the noise.

Bam! One of the robed figures who had transformed into a monster was rolling on the ground after turning into lumps of meat; the body was almost sliced in half and its torso was ripped multiple times roughly. Instead of skills, it seemed like pure, brutal strength had caused the wounds.

“…Til?” Nick murmured after seeing the person kill the transformed robed figure.

As Til stood in the darkness while holding his giant sword, he looked so fearsome that even those who knew him well took a couple of steps back.

“Why is that guy…” Nick thought there was a low chance that Til would appear, but he wasn’t too surprised to see him either. After all, Til was a collaborator with the robed figures. Yet, contrary to his firm belief that Til was the robed figures’ collaborator and to his confusion, Til was attacking the robed figures now.

Whoosh! Til swung his sword again and the robed monsters nearby responded. With their heightened physical abilities, they swung their weapons at Til.

Crunch! Bang! Yet, these attacks all proved to be fruitless in front of Til’s overwhelming strength. Fists ripped apart against Til’s giant swords and swords futilely bounced off. Then, Til’s giant sword dived between the gaps that opened after these collisions. Crunch! There was another chilling sound and two robed monsters fell to the floor again.

“Capture Nick!” the leader yelled and even he ran toward Nick. The robed monsters nearby thrust their bodies at Til too. They were willing to risk their lives to block Til to let the rest rush toward him. Nick maintained his composure. He might have been in grave danger before, but the situation was different now. He didn’t know what happened and whether or not an internal conflict had erupted between the two groups which was why Til was attacking the robed figures now. Furthermore, Nick thought that Zich had joined them and believed that Zich’s previous attack had been a misunderstanding.

“Lock in defense format!” Nick yelled and the mercenaries hurriedly into position. Thankfully, it seemed they knew the situation had changed and didn’t try to run anymore.

Nick shouted to Zich, “Mr. Zich, I don’t know what you’re misunderstanding, but let’s first stop those guys! Those guys are the reason for Pialu’s current situation! Let’s first defeat those guys and talk…!”

Nick’s shouts did not last long.

Slice! Zich sliced the nearest mercenary who moved to fight the robed monsters while gauging Zich’s reaction.

“T-that bastard! He killed another one of us!”

“What the hell, Vice-Captain! Wasn’t there a misunderstanding?”

Nick was also confused. “M-mr. Zich! What are you doing!”

However, it seemed as if Zich had no intentions to reply to Nick’s question. His sword indifferently swung towards the mercenaries.

Slice! Another mercenary next to Zich lost his head. It was by this time that all the mercenaries, including Zich, realized that Zich was treating them like his enemies, regardless if there was a misunderstanding or not.

“Everyone, gather together for now!” Nick gave an order, but the mercenaries hesitated to follow his order. Their desire to escape exponentially increased after they determined Zich to be their enemy instead of their ally.

Nick couldn’t believe he called these bastards his subordinates. He thought that Til might have been right about kicking them out of the Wolf’s Canine for a bit. Then, he shouted, “Do you seriously think that you can escape in this situation! We need to first gather together and raise our defense! They’ll kill the ones who try to escape first!”

The last sentence finally moved the mercenaries. They wanted to escape, but as Nick said, if they escaped, they would be the ones to die first. Moreover, even if they wanted to follow a person, no one was stepping forward to take the hit. Since they were all the same kind of people, they all knew that no one would escape first in this situation. On the other hand, if they just stood still like this, they would all die without being able to resist, so they had no choice but to follow Nick’s words. His words hit the nail on the head for guys who had no sense of comradeship.

However, they had only stalled time for a little bit, and the situation was still extremely dire. The robed monsters were still rushing toward the mercenaries. Zich was killing the mercenaries, and Til was decimating the robed monsters.

‘And these guys are no help at all!’ The mercenaries were stupid in the first place, but they became even dumber due to the pressure and were merely following Nick’s orders out of habit. However, Nick wasn’t sure how long they’d follow his orders. ‘Most of all, those robed bastards are targeting me!’ The mercenaries in his group could turn him over and ask him to stop the fight. ‘I guess it can’t be helped.’ Nick had no choice but to make a decision since his life was most important.

Nick loudly shouted, “Don’t move!” There was little chance that his enemies would stop moving from his shout. Surprisingly, the robed monsters, Zich, and Til all stopped moving. The Pyramid of Vengeful Souls was in his hand. “If you guys move even a little bit, I’ll activate this!” Nick said with complete sincerity. His sincerity seemed to have reached his enemies as nobody moved.

‘They stopped for now!’ Nick let out a sigh in relief. The robed figures who gave the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls to him would definitely know what this was. Zich also said that he had seen the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls before, and Til also knew that Nick had it with him.

The leader of the robed figures asked, “What are you planning to do with that?” His sharp eyes stared at the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls. However, he didn’t stare for long and said while keeping his guard against Zich and Til, “Nick, pass that over to us. If you do that, I won’t chase after you this time.”

“Hmph, no, you won’t be able to chase after me.”

The leader’s chilling gaze scanned Nick, but instead of backing down, Nick raised his chin. There was no way that Nick would pass over his only lifeline to the robed figure. The leader wanted to immediately kill Nick and take the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls from him, but it was difficult for him to make a move in case Nick really carried out his words.

“Even if you activate that, there’s no way you’ll live. How long do you think it’ll take for the monsters to reach here?”

There was a significant distance between the monsters in the Denest Mountain Range and their current location. Even if Nick immediately called the monsters here, they wouldn’t be able to arrive on time. Yet, Nick answered, “Yeah, but it also can’t be helped that your group’s plan would be completely crushed.”

Even the leader couldn’t easily reply to that statement; if the plan went amiss, he would have to deal with all kinds of violence and frustration from Glen. Moreover, something seemed to have irked him immensely, as Glen’s annoyance was one level higher than usual. If Glen found out that the plan went amiss because of them, he didn’t know what kind of consequences they would have to face. However, he couldn’t just easily leave the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls to Nick. The leader tried to think of a plan as fast as possible—a way to skew the situation in their favor.

“Hey, Til.” The leader called out to Til who was attacking them. Til’s gaze shifted towards him. “Collaborate with us. If you do that, we’ll give you the opportunity to save your son and make you free!”

The leader thought that Til was still being blackmailed by Nick, so he attempted to get Til to join their side. Nick’s eyes widened at this scene. ‘What is this **ing nonsense?’