"They’re completely out of steam, aren’t they?"

"That fool, getting caught in their last ditch attempt."

"Doesn’t that mean more power for the rest of us? One less idiot to share with."

There was even aggression in their voices as they said this, as if they wanted to push each other into the flame.

It seemed like the relationship between the Apostles wasn’t good if they were arguing like this.

Only it didn’t seem like there was anything that the heroes could take advantage of.

Even though they were arguing like this, it didn’t seem like they were letting their guards down at all.

With the way that they positioned themselves, it seemed like they had already received some kind of order from the one behind them. The Black Tide must have prepared a lot for this trap, so it wasn’t as if it would allow the Apostles to ruin it.

Since the Apostles relied on the power of the Black Tide, they had no choice but to follow these orders.

"I’ll cover you all, try to get away while you can." Percival said with a sigh in the end.

Though he knew that it was unlikely that any of them would be able to get away today, he still chose to sacrifice himself.

But Ikki stepped forward and said, "Let me do it, this is my fault." Then with a smile, he said, "Besides, the world needs you more than me."

Percival shook his head as he said, "No, you have longer to live than me and you have the potential to become even stronger than me. If either of us has to sacrifice ourselves, it should be me."

The other two heroes with relics also cut in.

"Why are you fighting?"

"It’s clearly the two of us that should sacrifice ourselves for you guys. We clearly just aren’t on the same level as you."

It was completely different from how the Apostles argued.

The heroes were trying to save each other while the Apostles were trying to get each other killed.

It really was a strange contrast between their groups.

But at the same time, it seemed like the Apostles were getting angry hearing what the heroes were saying.

"Do you really think that you’ll be able to escape?"

"No, we’re certain that we won’t be able to escape. It’s just that we refuse to be the same as you since we have one thing that you’ll never break."

When Percival taunted them like this, the Apostles seemed to get even angrier.

If looks could kill, they certainly would have cut down several of the heroes with just their gazes alone. It was clear that what Percival said and what the heroes were doing had struck a nerve with the Apostles.

Seeing this, the heroes all thought, "They really are young, they fall for provocation so easily."

Even if there was this flaw, it wasn’t as if the heroes would be able to do anything since they were just completely out of battery.

Once the Apostles reached a certain point of anger, it was as if they had overflowed and went back in the opposite direction. But for the heroes that saw this, they knew what this phenomenon was.

"It was suppressed again."

The Black Tide’s power that was behind the Apostles suppressed these emotions once they reached a certain point.

They had seen it with the kid and now they were seeing it with these Apostles.

It seemed like the Black Tide really maintained strict control over the Apostles that it shared its power with. Only from the perspective of the Apostles, it didn’t seem like they were aware of this.

They just accepted this as part of accepting the power of the Black Tide.

Once they calmed down, they didn’t waste any more words with the heroes and started to act.

They knew that they shouldn’t give the heroes any chances to catch their breaths, so they spread out in all directions. It was clear that they were planning on hitting them with attacks from all sides.

Percival was the one that reacted first as he raised his sword and gathered his power.

Only before he could release the endless slashes around them as a shield, there was a glow that appeared on all of the relics.

"Spread out and place the relics in the ground."

All of the heroes immediately recognized this voice, it was a voice that many of them hadn’t heard in a long time. But for those that owned relics, it was a voice that they were familiar with since sometimes it came through their relics.

Once they heard this voice, there was no hesitation at all from them as they all spread out and stabbed their relics into the ground.

Though in Ikki’s case, it looked strange since his relic was a part of gauntlets.

So what he did was stab both of his hands into the ground.

Once the relics were stabbed into the ground, the light that had surrounded them spread towards the ground and soon flowed through it. This light started to spread in all directions from the relic.

After the light from the relics reached each other, they seemed to meld with each other before spreading out even further. There was no resistance at all from the lights that the relics released when they came together.

It was all because they came from the same source, so there wasn’t anything to resist.

In the end, they were all the same.

But once that light spread out around the heroes, it suddenly stopped and came out of the ground.

There was this barrier that was formed around the heroes the moment that this light came out of the ground.

However, it wasn’t just a barrier that was formed.

Inside of the barrier, it felt like there was something that had purified that space. It was as if there was this holy sensation that filled them that was also healing them. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"It’s the embrace of god." Percival said in a voice full of worship.