Espers were gathered in front of Bureau for backup. Led by Francis, a total of 1.043 A-Rank Espers from 17 Districts across the country were ready for combat. With civilians now evacuated, the zone around the bureau had now been deserted.
Francis observed the white castle in the sky, unblinking. Standing on the roof, he asked the man beside him.
"Harold, is there any fluctuation from the castle's frequency?"
"No, sir. So far not yet- W-Wait! We detect a change! The white castle's frequency is absorbed by one single entity!"
Francis scoffed as he heard that, that explained the scene he was watching right now. Ordinary people like Harold might not see it, but from the lens of an S-Rank esper like him, even the tiniest dot in the sky could be seen.
"What's that falling from the castle?"
"Aren't those people?"
"That's the S-Ranks! Look! It's Cedric's ice skills!"
'So they failed.'
Espers below had started murmuring, that's a sign that Francis had to take control before they went into panic.
BOOM!
He jumped off the roof and with a slam on the ground, he landed on his feet.
"Attention everyone! Prepare for battle!"
Soon after he commanded, the sound of blades being drawn rang. They knew the moment to fight had come.
SSSSKKK!!
Cedric's ice safely guided the other S-Rank espers back to the ground. The five of them didn't look great, bruises and injuries were left on their body. Fortunately, all limbs were still attached, but that made Francis wonder how strong the opponent they fought was.
'Hm? There are only five of them?'
His question was answered immediately when the sixth member of the subjugation team descended slowly from the sky.
Using hardened blood as his foothold, he created a stair, holding the hand of a person clad in white. Like a prince escorting his princess.
"Ethan...? Who is that beside him?"
"That's Ethan right? Why is he with that person?"
Once again, murmurs from espers behind were clear to Francis' ear. But all that was silenced by Ilyas' shout.
"The boss is controlling Ethan! We need to wake him up!"
A smile crept up the boss' face. When their feet touched the ground, they wrapped their arm around Ethan's shoulder and whispered in his ear.
"Reset the world for me, Ethan."
Ethan's eyes flickered in new resolution, like a puppet receiving a new command. The boss snapped their fingers once again and the surrounding buildings were quickly filled with half-torn head humanoid monster. From the ground and buildings, monsters spawned endlessly.
The sight of that many monsters terrified the A-Rank espers.
BLAST!
A golden light blasted through the horde of monsters as Francis issued his command.
"Espers! Attack the monsters!"
With his shout, the espers finally collected themselves. They spread out and used their skills to annihilate their enemy.
But with every monster killed, the more the boss had an advantage.
"Haa... A world painted in red... It's beautiful don't you think?"
The boss addressed the five people in front of them. The subjugation team, unable to launch any attack toward the boss, glared with murderous eyes. Even now, the blood from the monsters around them became fertilizer for Ethan's growth in power.
Francis came up to the team, also realizing this endless cycle of power-fueling. The longer this battle lasted, the more blood Ethan could collect.
"What caused the mind control?"
Francis decided to dig out more information from the team. Judging from the desperate look on their faces, they also didn't know how to break it.
Cedric shook his head, "We don't know either. Ethan had a conversation with the boss in a language we don't know and was suddenly under mind control."
"Foreign language?"
Marcello answered, "I am proficient in 13 languages but I don't even know what language he spoke."
"Watch out!"
A vertical slash formed from blood was launched, and Cedric built an ice wall to shield them.
CRACK!
"Shit!"
But the attack sliced through the wall like butter.
Marcello drew his sword. When he activated his skill, the surroundings turned black and white.
3 seconds, that's all the time he had to cut the attack into bits.
SLASH!
'It's hard to cut.'
His attack went through but because of the density of the blood, a single slash was all he could manage.
Marcello was never a master swordsman to begin with, he was a businessman at heart and would stay like that in the future. With his 3-second time-stop skill, he thought it was enough for him to defend himself.
But faced with an overwhelming power from a fellow esper for the first time, a sense of competitiveness sprouted inside his heart.
Now there's something else he wanted to conquer other than the economic world.
'Gaining power is actually interesting.'
He never realized the pinnacle of power was as exciting as this and that made him wanted to compete more for the title of 'the strongest'. After all, he's a businessman, and in the world of business, the word 'competition' was never far from his dictionary.
The world started gaining color, that meant his ability was up.
"Cedric! Patricia!"
Now slashed into two, the upper half of the attack changed its trajectory upward, destroying nearby buildings by cutting them in half, while the bottom half was lunging toward the team.
CRACK!
Another ice wall cracked.
"Tsk! Patricia! Help me!"
"Our elements aren't compatible with each other remember?!"
"You two, stand back."
Right after they heard someone's voice, a shield of light formed in front of them.
BOOM!
"Kugh!"
An earth-shattering explosion made their ears ring. From beyond the dust, the silhouette of Francis was standing tall, just like his light shield.
The subjugation team was about to cheer in relief after finally finding someone who could overpower Ethan.
"Hmph, not bad."
But that hope was immediately crushed.
CRACK!
The light shield crumbled slowly, even after being cut in half, the tremendous destructive power was still there.
"Hahaha! It's so nice to see you guys struggle to live. My creations! Suffer more! Suffer more in my place! Ahahaha!"
"Tsk, that boss' laugh is annoying."
Xain spat in rage, expressing the frustration of his team members.
"That won't last long. You see the white lily in Ethan's chest? That's the place we have to aim."
"White lily?"
Just as Francis said, a white lily was blooming on Ethan's inner vest, it was covered by his suit jacket, but Francis immediately spotted it.
"We have to finish this quick, the red veins on Ethan's body are growing larger."
Francis glanced at this generation's S-Rank espers, they have more chances of growth but they still hadn't reached their prime. The same applied to Ethan. He had already proved his capability for growth in power through this battle, but right now, this show of power came with a cost.
"Red veins...? No... That's a symptom of-" Ilyas, being a guide, was the first to notice. And Francis could only validate his guess.
"Yes, a symptom of rampage."