How can he possibly defeat all the dark creatures and Resistance members inside the tower by himself? Sir Kael seems a little too confident in his own abilities, Shaan thought as he let out a long sigh.

’I just hope he doesn’t—’

’CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!’

A thunderous explosion erupted from inside the watchtower. In the same instant, every window shattered at once. A mysterious purple light burst from within the tower and shot upward at incredible speed. It smashed through dark creatures and Resistance members alike, hurling them out of the windows as if they weighed nothing.

"T-this... It’s impossible."

His entire body trembled as he watched dark creatures and Resistance fighters fly out of the tower one after another. None of them managed to put up any resistance. The purple light continued its relentless ascent and quickly approached the upper floors. Incredible. Shaan had never witnessed such overwhelming power before

"Shaan, we have to move too." Sebastian clapped his hands, and then several other Daemnists were seen pushing large wooden boxes lined with an airtight layer. "Sir Kael will be at the top soon, and we have to prepare everything properly."

"A-all right." Shaan pulled on the rope, slowly tying a strong knot to wrap around the box.

Only a short time later, Sir Kael reached the top of the watchtower. Incredible. Sir Kael’s confidence hadn’t come from empty boasts after all. He had taken control of the watchtower with astonishing ease. He immediately ordered several other Daemonists to climb the tower and help spread the alchemical salt before the Resistance noticed anything.

"Hey, how’s it going down there?" Sir Kael asked from atop the watchtower. "Is everything ready?"

Sebastian tightened the rope around a crate for the second time and inspected the knot carefully. "Yeah! Everything’s secured perfectly!"

Hearing Sebastian’s shout, Sir Kael immediately pulled the lever connecting the pulley with all his might. Slowly, the box containing the alchemical salt began to rise upward until it finally reached the top of the tower safely. One box... Two boxes... all the way up to the ninth box—they had all reached the top safely. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Several Daemonists on top of the watchtower began opening the boxes containing the alchemical salt, letting the salt fly away with the gusts of wind surrounding the watchtower. Good—no significant obstacles yet, and everything was still proceeding according to the original plan.

"Just a little more... Just a little more and it’ll all be over." Shaan tied the rope around the last box in front of him. "Hopefully everything goes smoothly."

However, just as the last crate was being hoisted up toward the watchtower, a mysterious silhouette suddenly emerged from the swirling pink mist. At first glance, it resembled a bat, but it had larger, more powerful-looking wings. The silhouette flew by at high speed and, unfortunately, slammed into the surface of the crate hard enough to make the pulley shake violently.

"Hey, what was that?" Sir Kael paused and grabbed the railing at the top of the tower. "This pulley is shaking like crazy! Did something happen down there?" he shouted.

"Yeah!" Shaan shouted back. "Something attacked the cargo pulley, and it looks like a dark creature. We’ll try to handle it." He kept his eyes fixed on the fog. "We’ll deal with it! Just keep pulling the crate up, Sir Kael!"

"That damned thing will definitely come back. Don’t let it interfere with the pulley, or this entire operation will fall apart!"

"We understand," they both said in unison.

Not long after, the pulley began moving slowly upward again. Just as Sir Kael had predicted, the figure reappeared and tried to strike the surface of the box yet again. Sebastian, realizing this, hurriedly aimed his bowgun at the sky and fired his shot quickly.

’Whoosh! Whoosh!’

Several arrows from his bow gun whizzed past the figure, but unfortunately, all of his shots missed. The creature once again managed to slam into the surface of the box hard enough that some of the knots began to come undone.

"Argh, damn it!" Sebastian cursed in frustration. "This pink fog is making it impossible to get a clean shot."

"Sebastian, try to calm down." Shaan patted Sebastian on the shoulder, trying to soothe him. "Focus. You can do this."

Sebastian took a deep breath, reaiming his bowgun at the sky. "Alright, I’ll try one more time."

When the creature emerged from the fog for another attack, Sebastian remained calm this time. Instead of firing immediately, he carefully tracked its movements through the mist before finally firing an arrow from his bowgun.

"Take this, you damn creature!"

Sebastian pulled the trigger of his bowgun, and instantly the arrow shot out with great force, successfully hitting the figure. In the blink of an eye, the creature fell to the ground and died instantly.

"Finally. At least we can breathe a sigh of relief for—"

"Sebastian, l-look at that!"

A group of similar silhouettes slowly emerged from behind a cloud of fog, and this time there were more of them than before. Not only that, but several members of the Resistance appeared and prepared to launch an attack in their direction.

"Damn. I never expected the resistance members to discover our presence this quickly." Shaan swung his dual short swords, preparing to launch an attack. "Sebas, you take care of all those creatures of darkness. I’ll handle the rest."

"Got it," Sebastian said confidently. "Leave it to me."

Mana surged around Shaan’s dual shortswords and wrapped tightly around the blades. In an instant, he shot forward at high speed toward the Resistance members, trying to stop them. He blocked every attack they threw at him and immediately counterattacked with precise strikes.

However, the number of Resistance fighters overwhelmed him. Fighting alone pushed his body to its limit. Worse, one of the resistance members’ attacks suddenly appeared out of nowhere and managed to wound Shaan.

’Slash!’

"Argh, damn it!" Fresh blood streamed from his arm without stopping. "I can’t lose here. I have to take down every last one of these Resistance bastards!"

[Aspira Ignis activated]

[Aspira Ignis 78% used]

A violent surge of mana flooded Shaan’s body. Energy exploded through his veins. He immediately launched a counterattack. Shaan dashed forward at terrifying speed and slashed through every Resistance fighter trying to surround him.

’Slash! Slash!’

Shaan’s rapid-fire strikes finally managed to quickly incapacitate all the resistance members, securing their position—at least for the time being. Glancing behind him, Shaan saw that all the creatures of darkness lay helpless on the ground. Amazing—it seemed Sebastian had managed to take them all down with ease.

"Good. Now the salt should be safe from—"

’Crack!’

"W-what was that?"