A chill ran through Raiden’s body with each step down the street. Silence enveloped them, broken only by hesitant footsteps echoing in the air, while he held Ash’s hand as she walked beside him, with the invisible Levi and Noelle flanking them.
Following Ash’s directions, however, brought them to a familiar road leading to the slums of the sixth town square.
"I know this place," Levi whispered from the shadows, and everyone turned toward his voice.
"We’re heading to the FIRMO hideout," he added.
Raiden and the others all paused as Raiden turned to Ash. When he looked at her, his heart dropped in terror and confusion.
For the first time since Ash manifested into human form, her dark aura began radiating from her. Raiden instantly felt a sudden heat, letting go of her hand immediately.
"What is going on?" Noelle asked while backing away from Ash.
For some reason, Raiden couldn’t help but feel terrified. He clutched his chest as cold sweat drenched his body. He began to wonder what was happening as well, but he had no answer.
However, they watched as Ash’s hair grew even whiter and began floating freely, looking fluffy and spreading in every direction.
Dark lines appeared on her hands, running in circles around her arms straight to her neck like a snake, and a dragon-like sigil appeared on her forehead. She looked almost exactly like Raiden in his transformed form.
"They are here," Ash said with a dead, cold tone. Before they knew it, she was gone. No sound, nothing to trace. She had simply vanished.
Raiden felt like his heart was being torn apart, not from Ash’s sudden actions but from an internal battle. He was scared, more than he had ever been, as he couldn’t even catch a breath.
"What is happening?" he muttered. He turned to his left and began running, and Noelle followed instantly.
Raiden knew those feelings weren’t his, and if he was feeling that way, they were definitely Ash’s. Knowing she was terrified but still decided to fight showed him just how much of a threat their opponents were. He needed to help her.
He continued to run, though the faster he went, the more his fear increased. This caused his movements to grow sluggish as he stumbled from one wall to the other.
Before they could reach the sixth town square, both Noelle and Raiden began to tremble. Each step became very difficult to maintain, forcing Levi, who was ahead of them, to turn visible as he dropped to the floor unconscious.
This wasn’t fear from Ash but from Raiden himself—an overwhelming presence, twice as powerful as that of the leviathan. It filled every inch of the area as Raiden began to wonder how the cityscape was still standing.
"Are those the ones Ash is trying to face?" Noelle asked as she forced her body up. Without waiting for a response, she called out to her domain. "Rule domain."
However, the moment the golden aura within her ceased and formed a sphere around her, Raiden, Levi, and a few buildings, her eyes widened in fear as the domain shattered instantly, its shards dropping to the ground like broken glass.
Noelle was instantly drenched in terror, but Raiden had no intention of staying still. Ash was undoubtedly fighting against those threats, and she could die at this rate.
He clenched his fist and his body immediately began its transformation, his dark hair going blinding white, dark marks appearing on his body, and his once blue aura turning dark. The moment he transformed, he began to feel an excess amount of energy.
He glanced at his hands and saw as the marks began to glow within the darkness, and the more they glowed, the lighter his body felt under the overwhelming pressure.
He knew he didn’t have enough time to dwell on such a sensation. Concentrating mana into his legs, Raiden immediately accelerated to the town square, covering a distance of about eight meters in less than two seconds.
But the moment he arrived, his eyes widened in terror. Ash lay on the ground, bleeding from her forehead while holding a sword which appeared to be conjured from shadows.
Before her stood three men standing in the middle of a teleportation portal, laughing as a man of Raiden’s age approached with an enormous dark aura compressed into his body, flowing from him like smoking darkness and a blue dragon wing -like sigil across his brow. The man casually walked to join the others.
Raiden stood there, slightly confused, contemplating what to do next. He knew perfectly well that if that man possessed such presence, then he stood no chance.
But a sharp glance at Ash, who was still trying to get to her feet, made him a bit anxious about his thoughts.
"I’d suggest you attend to her wounds," the man with the overwhelming presence said as he finally joined the others, and his presence gently faded away as the aura condensed back into his body.
He wore an elegant black suit. His white hair framed brown eyes that were slightly squinted, and his once dark aura had gently turned blue.
"We have no interest in you, bookkeeper," he added, and Raiden’s heart immediately skipped a beat.
He possessed not only a cunning presence and a transformation similar to his own, but his eyes held a familiar fierceness and brutality. They reminded him of someone with a similar, cruel but gentle spirit—his twin brother, Jobe.
Raiden gulped down his fear, standing lost in his own daze with his transformation slowly deactivating as he watched them teleport away.
"Why did you let them leave?" Noelle yelled from behind as she ran past Raiden toward Ash.
But Raiden remained lost in thought. For the first time in a dozen years, he had seen someone with that same intensity he’d once admired in his brother, and it had happened in another world.
Though he couldn’t believe that was truly him, he couldn’t shake the message those eyes had conveyed—the same one his brother’s eyes had always spoken. The more he dwelled on it, the more rage consumed him.
"These bastards!" he muttered and clenched his fist, veins appearing on his forehead as his face twitched.
"Jobe’s eyes aren’t something to be mocked." His voice cracked with fury and sadness.
"I will kill him," he snarled, clenching his teeth. "I will kill him and rip those eyes out with my bare hands!"
Levi joined them. He, Noelle, and Ash all watched Raiden, whose body was burning with rage.
Jobe was his treasure, his god, and he even hated his own face for resembling Jobe’s. Seeing a complete stranger with his brother’s perfect eyes, he meant every word he’d said. No one could be Jobe. No one.
Now he had a more valid reason to have the threat killed.