The sorceror smirked while he outstretched his long, calloused hand to drain the elf of his vitality. Yin's shadow was behind Nulekai just as the sinister sorceror's magic emitted an ominous light, Yin used Nulekai's dark magic against him by using a hand sign to perform his most powerful attack—Form 4; Horiani.

The attack focused on using the opponent's movements to generate his own yamitzu force. For instance, the mana Nulekai absorbed from Ryo's esha, while the elf languished in fighting for air. The Yamitzu trainer used Nulekai's technique to convert it into his own Yamitzu force to weaken Nulekai instead.

“No, this can't be happening!” Nulekai's robust complexion began to fade as he felt a force consume him by the minute.

When he turned around, he saw a short, elderly man with a long gray beard step forward, sporting a hanfu and a straw hat. Yin's glare was seen as a squint given to the creases contorting around his eyes.

Irate, Nulekai raised his hand to shoot a dark blast but Yin used his Yamitzu force to redirect it back at him thricefold. While this incident occured, the Deity of Trust had followed the coppery scent which she recognized as fresh blood. Ryan followed her after Felin was persistent to find the source of dark magic circling in the air. The Deity of Liberty also accompanied them to ensure they weren't susceptiple for unwanted encounters with the skirmishers—or the remainder of those magic users so to speak.

“Magic doesn't have a scent.” Breloq stated as he followed them around in case he needed to create an exit.

“What do you know? You don't even have a nose.” Felin barbed as she resumed sniffing.

“I'm not the only deity that doesn't have one.” Breloq added, referring to ParaVi and Pathalias to name a few.

Ryan also felt a shift where the dark magic spread, he couldn't describe what it was other that it increased and wavered. As they approached to the source, Ryan could clearly see wispy tendrils waving around when Felin found where the blood came from, and who it belonged to.

The Elonian teenager saw the Spellblade on the ground while Ryo was bleeding out, face down.

“He's still alive.” Felin spoke, barely above a whisper as she poked the elf's neck, and felt a faint pulse.

Nulekai refused to let an elderly man—who could hardly reach his neck to attack him—overpower him with the magic he sought to take.

“I need to regain my control before I become completely powerless, but how!?” Nulekai thought desperately before he sensed a sliver of power come from behind him.

As he ceased to unleash waves of dark magic, he casted his eyes upon Ryan as he watched the Elonian teenager cast a rune to levitate Ryo's Spellblade first, then at Ryo. The power that emanated through Ryan caught Nulekai's attention. Breloq noticed the way the lanky, hooded man with Hexice's stature looked at Ryan.

“He'll have to do for now.” Nulekai thought darkly as he raised his hand to invoke an incorporeal one.

But before Ryan had the chance to cast the levitation spell on Ryo, Felin shrieked when she saw a shadowy hand appear from the ground to grab Ryan's ankle.

“What the—” Ryan's heart nearly beat out of his ribcage from the scare as he tried to move his right leg with no success.

Felin tried to bite the hand that grabbed Ryan, but it phazed through, biting Ryan by accident before another hand popped out to grab his other ankle.

Ryan felt energy getting drained as if he was getting sucked out by imaginary straws prickling his skin.

Breloq erected two doors; the first one that appeared on the floor was to bring Ryo to the infirmary, the second one was on the wall next to Nulekai to get rid of him.

Yin had two options: take down the sorceror or rescue Ryo. Breloq tilted to the side where the second door appeared as an apparent signal to act now. Nulekai gave a crooked smirk as he felt that he regained control of the situation again and released a wave of dark magic to ensnare the ones surrounding him. The corpses that have been seen were back to life, even Barbed Wire and his wife arose from the dead.

Grim saw the defunct Shadow Soldiers move forward and thought, “What is Barbed Wire doing here?”

Nulekai Crane laughed triumphantly before the aged Yamitzu trainer struck him from behind, as his knuckles applied pressure on blocking the chi that channeled from the spine and lumbar, the necromancer howled in pain from getting his spine dislocated with such brute force that the deceased drop to the ground once more.

Grim had just witnessed the defunct Shadow Soldiers fall to the ground—not knowing that they actually died at the time—he thought, “What just happened?”

Breloq opened the door for Yin to kick Nulekai out the door. As the door closed shut, it faded out of existence before Yin rushed in to help Ryan and Breloq lift the 6ft tall Nylvalenorian elf, which was very difficult to pull off. Ryan casted a levitation rune to lift Ryo off the floor.

The sorceror fell into a deserted dimension, not only with a major back pain, but with the unbearable heat and scorching sand sticking to his pallid, acrid skin. His cry fell on deaf ears as he forced himself to stand from the dune.

Not only was he trapped in a distant world. He was powerless with no means of extracting magic for self preservation. To think, Nulekai Crane, a powerful sorceror—a feared necromancer by elven civilization—reduced to a feeble human.

Despite his tall stature, he wasn't athletic nor physically muscular. As a matter of fact, he had always been a lanky man. The only thing that compensated for his frail physique, other than his knowledge in sorcery, was his mystic capability in absorbing the energy around him to use it as his greatest weapon.

At one point, he envied the elven race for their youth, vigor and vitality to such an extent that he killed one of them without realizing that he had a power they couldn't possess. The power to revive and to restore the life that was taken—an abominable power that is considered a sacrilegous act among elves—Necromancy.

Necromancy itself is an abomination; to revive the deceased is to corrupt the natural order of creation.

A natural mortal who has been born into a fallen world with a corruptible body; while the mortal is designated to grow, age for the remainder of their life before the time comes to pass away, to perish like every mortal that came before and after them.

If this mortal got resurrected to relive in a husk of what used to be their own corpse. The revived mortal would suffer a fate worse than death. The corrupted body already perished, but the spirit of that person would be forced to endure unmeasurable pain devouring them from the inside out, akin to endless torment since the spiritual body became corrupted as well—bound by the one who resurrected them—until the necromancer responsible for summoning the defunct dies.

That is how necromancers like Nulekai Crane became feared by many elves, including Ryo. Which was why the Nylvalenorian elf fought for his life even when he barely had the strength to breathe.

After the elf had been transported to a hospital bed, the blood stained tunic was cut open and removed in order to extract the bullet that was lodged near the pericardic artery. A delicate procedure that required surgery, not only to extract the bullet as a whole, but to repair the tissue and the affected artery. The nurses admininstrated the anesthesia to the body through the IV.

Ryo came to very shortly, before his half-lidded eyes closed shut as if he were fighting to stay awake. There wasn't anything that Ryan nor Yin could do to help Ryo, except to pray for him.

The surgeon that was about to attend Ryo had just finished working a double shift and was already worn out from performing four surgeries. The first one was to remove a kidney stone from a chubby, short man in his mid 40s. The second surgery was performed on a nine year old girl who needed a bone marrow transplant. The third one was to remove a cancerous cyst from an elderly woman in her late 60s. The fourth surgery was a tonsillectomy that was performed on a teenager. If he accepted to operate Ryo, he would risk himself from getting burnt out and potentially kill the patient.

The odds of the elf surviving throughout he surgery weren't favorable either. The hemorrhage accumulating in the affected area was hindering the blood from distributing the appropiate amount of oxygen through the veins around the thoracic region.

The tools needed to otperate the patient have been taken, either they were removed fron the operating room in order to disinfect them first or his sleep deprived mind had a memory lapse and became unsure whether he'd left them back at his office or have been placed elsewhere.

“Where's my scalpel?” He asked himself as he headed to the reception, with bloodshot eyes he squinted at the blurry receptionist.

Ryan and Yin sat on the chairs of the waiting room, the elderly Yamitzu trainer saw the young Elonian's mind was elsewhere. Ryan couldn't wrap his head around what happened back at the stadium. It was around two hours ago that he and Haeji were just practicing spells and runes as a game, a simple word play to challenge each other to kill time before the Redemption Round opened up.

Then the can of worms opened when random strangers with their own set of magic came in to disrupted the game and mess the place. He couldn't explain how it happened, it just did. Despite that Breloq and Tantetra casted out the skirmishers, there were more people scattering like fire ants instinctively ready to sting whomever got in their way.

There was something unsettling about the way Ryo was found, if someone as strong-looking and intimidating like Ryo got shot. What could the guy who wanted to kill him would resort to using necromancy if he wasn't dead yet.

As he tried to think, Yin touched Ryan's shoulder to snap him from his thoughts.

“Arigato. If it wasn't for your help I wouldn't been able to aid Ryo on my own.” Yin admitted as he patted Ryan on the back.

“I didn't do much, it's thanks to Breloq and Felin who helped me.”

“At least you had the courage to step in to rescue Ryo. You're not like those youngsters that record conflict for popularity.” Yin stated as the worn out surgeon was in plain sight, "Not many would go so far to save someone else."

The surgeon trudged as he neared the reception desk, weary eyes were apparent on his face as he blinked and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Thanks for stopping whoever that guy was,” Ryan referred to Nulekai as he recalled the situation he was in, “there is no telling what he could've done—” but before Ryan could finish, the surgeon collapsed on the floor as a receptionist with rectangle rimmed glasses alerted the paramedics.

Yin and Ryan peered who were putting on a stretcher, from what they saw, the person wore scrubs and a nametag.

“What just happened?” Ryan thought to himself while Felin heard one of the receptionists from the hospital inform one of the doctors.

"Here's the usual. What did I miss?" That doctor in particular returned from a coffee break and brought a small black coffee and a sandwitch to her coworker.

"Samson shut down." The receptionist who alerted the paramedics replied while typing on the keyboard.

"Again? Where are the others!?" The doctor inquired about the other surgeons.

"Russo and Walter got contaminated, Ada returned to her hometown to attend her ailing mother, Sharon and Gordon punched out nearly a half hour ago and Awilda went awol." Replied a round faced receptioninst matter-of-fact as she sent a notification before passing to manila folders to the doctor.

One was about the patient Samson was about to operate labelled as Ryo, the other folder contained Samson's medical record.

“Contact Sharon and Gordon, I'll go check on Samson.” The doctor ordered while Felin went up to Ryan.

The deity of Liberty created a door to enter into the operating room, despite that it wasn't his business to interfere, the circumstances in which Ryo had been found back at the stadium weren't right. Hexice warned him to not let Ryan come into contact with the necromancer.

Hexice saw the possibility that this Nulekai could harm Ryan and if the only person capable of hindering him wound up dead or incapacitated, then there would be another Prometheus to worry about. Even if the problem has been dealt with, it's better to remove the root of the problem before it germinates and becomes harder to pluck out.

Ryo's body laid still while Breloq's needle like fingers shove into Ryo's bullet wound to extract it. Then the metallic fingers curl carefully to gently pull the foreign object from the chest cavity. Engrossed with the extraction, he hadn't noticed anyone enter the operating room until he successfully removed the bullet.

The surgeon who had supposedly gone awol, came in with the operating tools necessary for the surgical procedure and placed them on the Mayo stand.

Awilda turned to operate on the patient when she saw the blood escape from where the bullet was located, she picked the Langenbeck retractor to keep back tissue. A Debakey to grasp a tissue, then she picked a McIndoe to dissect the tissue spilling the blood, and used a Rampley to hold the sponge and clean out the blood. As she stopped the hemorrhage to resume repairing the damaged vessel, an invisible door closed by the time Breloq escaped.

Astrid was nearing to the second chapter of her book before the taxi driver turned left, nearing the law firm.

“Here is the law firm of Capital City.” The taxi driver spoke.

“Astrid, we made it.” Ash called before Astrid closed the book, then pocketed it.

As the team members got out of the cab one by one, Alexander closed the door of the vehicle. The taxi driver drove off as the smoke escaped from its muffler dispersed before the trail of smoke gradually faded by the time the Rave Hunters enter the law firm.

The law firm was a three story building, the entrance the entrance of the ground floor had marble-styled floors, the vestibule had one sette, the hall had neatly sculpted pillars, the eggshell colored walls had flecks gold and rose gold fragments to give off an elegant ambience along with the furnished mahogany and oak desks. The chandelier above the lobby had diamoned shaped crystals refracted in its sheen.

The guards wore matching unifroms which blended with the scenery, even Ash hadn't noticed that one of the guards were present until one of them moved from their spot.

“What are you looking at?” TR glared at the guard while the camouflaged guard was unphazed by his menacing glare. The guard considered it as commonplace as looking at a mirror.

“Would you stop that?!” Ash scolded TR for his persistance in glaring at the guard as if it was a staring contest.

“Fine, whatever.” TR complied but as he was on his way to regroup, he signalled the guard with an indirect I'm-watching-you glare.

Octavia briefly glanced at the clean ground floor as her blurry reflection glanced back, then looked forward at the receptionist. Then walked up to her.

“Excuse me, have you seen him by any chance?” Octavia asked the receptionist of the lawfirm, showing a photo of Logan on her smartphone.

The receptionist gave her and the photo a once over and said, “Next.”

“Excuse me?” Alexander asked, confusion laced in his voice.

“If you want to plead your case, you'll have to wait like everyone else.” Another receptionist explained, showing them the line of people waiting for their turn. A partially bald, mustached man finished filling out a form to file charges against a conartist for fraud. He was then sent to the second floor to get an attorney to plead his case.

“This is ridiculous!” Tr spat, “I'm not gonna waste hours waiting for these snobs to tell us where Logan is.”

“Calm down.” Alexander suggested.

“I'm not going to calm down!” Tr retorted.

“Alex has a point, we need to keep a level head if we're going to find him. The only lead we have is that he followed a woman named Dirlu. We ask where she is and we'll find Logan.” Octavia stated.

“She's right, the only thing we know about Dirlu is that she's the Duchess of D'or.” Ash concurred.

“I don't care if she's the duchess of D'or or this world!” Tr tiraded, most of the receptionists recoiled at the mention of her title. “We're searching every nook and cranny until we get to her and demand to tell us where Logan is!”

One of the receptionist alerted the guards before they appraoched with their batons. As the men in uniform were ready to take the Rave Hunters out of the premises, Tr took out his weapon, a pair of fortified spiked knuckles.

Another receptionist beckoned the operator to get Dirlu's number, but Dirlu and Logan were already reaching the lobby while the guards closed in on the team members.

“That was really fast compared to the amount of business it takes to file a lawsuit.” Logan stated.

“As I said before, I have a lot of connections.” Dirlu replied as she looked at Logan with interest. One of the guards fell to the ground at a good distance to where they were, the injured guard dropped the baton as it landed next to Logan's feet.

“What's the meaning of this?!” Dirlu bellowed. The guards had nearly detained all of Logan's team, except for Octavia.

“Logan!” They called in unison, much to Logan's bewilderment.

“You know them?” Dirlu questioned.

“Why yes. They're my team.” Logan admitted, then gave a sheepish laugh.

“Yeah, right!” Tr scoffed.

Dirlu signalled the guards to released them with her closed fan. Logan walked up to his team and introduced them to Dirlu.

“Guys, I'd like you to meet Dirlu D'or.” The team gave the Duchess of D'or a once over, the noble gave a radiant smile then curtsied. Logan put a hand on Alexander's shoulder and whispered, “Isn't she pretty?”

“She seems fine," Alexander whispered, "but dude, you do remember that Astrid is my girlfriend, right?”