‘I should head out to meet with Merissa before he wakes up.’ Alex thought to himself as he picked up his sword and began to leave. But just as he took a single step towards the door a purple-coloured magic circle appeared beneath his feet.

‘Quick move away!’ Miracle warned but Alex wasn’t fast enough as the next moment he found himself bound by chains emerging from the magic circle.

“Tch… what is this?!” Alex tried to break free but it proved futile.

“That was quite a spectacle there, young boy.” A skinny man wearing black leather pants and jacket with a normal shirt underneath said as he floated down in front of Alex. The man had pale white skin, almost too pale to be called human and had black spiky hair with streaks of purple running by the side.

“W-Who are you?” Alex asked as he still struggled to get free of the chains.

“I am the partner of that kid you just knocked down a few seconds ago. He underestimated you and paid the price. Well, I would’ve done that too to be honest.” The man said as he walked closer.

“That’s quite a nice artifact you have there.” He commented looking at the sword in Alex’s hand.

“Is that source of your power? It must have a lot of mana for you to be continuously surrounding the blade with.”

“I’ll take—

Before the man could finish speaking a green coloured mana beam was shot at him. He reacted quickly by a conjuring a transparent screen of mana to block it.

“Surprises are my thing… who might you be?” He asked with a devilish grin displaying his sharp teeth.

Near one of the stairs to the stood a figure of a girl. Alex couldn’t see them clearly until the person stepped in the moonlight coming from a window. It was a girl with black shinning hair tied in a braid coming down to almost her waist.

She wore black trousers, a thin black vest underneath which was a blue hoodie. Her face covered by a cloth mask only showing her blue eyes.

“Azmiel Chain, one of the outer members of Black Cloud, surrender now and leave the boy alone.”

‘Now who the hell is she? How are these random people just popping up out of nowhere?!’ Alex thought wondering what was going on.

‘Look closely at that uniform. The symbol of the bird is the same as that on Merissa’s armor. She belongs to that organization.’ Miracle explained.

“Huh… what’s a Council dog doing here?” Azmiel asked as he carefully observed her up and down.

Azmiel, ‘As per the client, the information regarding the stone’s whereabouts weren’t supposed to be known to anyone. Did… the guy who got captured spilled it out… Doesn’t matter, I’ll snatch the stone away and kill these morons.’

‘Since I was able to access your powers, I was able to sense mana too but she… she’s not excluding any mana from her body. How is that possible? Is she like me?’ Alex asked.

‘No, it’s because of those clothes she has on. It’s made with a specific type of material found on Emerald. It blocks the mana from being sensed inside one’s body. It was designed to help their members in battle and to make them untraceable so that they can fight effectively. Of course, if she conjures mana herself in anyway then that would be detected by anyone. That’s how the chain insect was able to block her attack.’ Miracle explained.

“You picked the wrong tree to bark at Council dog!” Azmiel said with a snicker as he stretched his right hand from which several chains protruded aimed at the Council girl. The girl jumped up high in the air but the chains changed their trajectory following her.

“And now I got you!” Azmiel shouted as he stretched his other hand forward launching another set of chains at her.

‘Shit! She can’t doge in midair!’ Alex thought as he observed the chains making their way to her rapidly. But to his surprise she remained calm and removed a small cylindrical object the size of a finger and pressed on both its end. The next moment smoke gushed out from both the end as a single bladed spear popped out of it. She quickly grabbed her spear and shoved it into the ceiling above.

Just before the chains reached her, she used the butt of the spear as footing and jumped down towards the floor. The chains ended up wrapping around the spear. Not a second later after she landed on the floor, she made her hands into a triangle shape.

“Tier Two: Prison Missile!”

The girl shouted as a mana formed missile was released from the triangle in between her hands.

Azmiel tried to retract his chains but found it difficult as were stuck on the spear. He immediately cancelled his spell causing the chains to disappear. He followed it with sidestepping causing the missile to hit the broken door and immediately forming a small cage around it.

“Trying to capture me won’t work, you stupid dog!” Azmiel roared slightly frustrated at the previous attack. He immediately slapped the ground with both his hands causing chains with heavy pointed blades at their end to emerge from the ground travelling towards her in a wave.

The Council girl again jumped up in the air to avoid them but immediately realized that it was a wrong move.

“Heh… immature.”

Azmiel commented as the next moment several cracks began forming all over the hall. Followingly similar types of chains emerged from the cracks aimed at her from all over blocking her exit. The girl immediately released a wave of mana from her body making a protective shield. But a second later it broke down by the combined pressure of the dozens of chains.

For a moment her eyes widened in surprise before several chains pierced through her body. Alex looked on at the horrified scene even forgetting that he was still he bounded by the chains. Her body lay hanging in midair tied by the chains that had pierced her.

“Hehe… Bwahaha…” Azmiel turned towards Alex laughing like a maniac.

“I thought she’d put up more of a fight but it was just a small fry. And now it’s your turn youngg—

Before Azmiel could finished speaking a mana covered kick slammed into his face as his body bolted back like a rocket. As he flew back from the impact his eyes fell on the place where the girl’s body was supposed to be hanging but instead was her spear!

‘When did… she even… made a clone …of herself…’ Azmiel thought to himself as he found it difficult to stay conscious.