In the nearby road of Central Prison.
The air on this side of the portal was thick with the scent of ozone and distant fire.
Johan stepped out onto the jagged remains of a road, just a few miles from the smoking ruins of the Central Prison. The portal behind him hummed with dying frequency.
An officer stood by the rift's edge, his uniform torn and face smudged with soot.
"Am I alone?" Johan asked, glancing around the desolate landscape. He'd expected a full recovery unit, or at least a tactical squad.
"Wait, wait, sir," the officer stammered, his hands shaking. "We'll provide more members. They're on their way."
"Members?" Johan's brow furrowed. "Why not officers? Where's the main force?"
"Sir..." The officer's eyes darted toward the horizon. "Most of our headquarters are under attack by the Diaftis Order. Every able-bodied master is already engaged. We're stretched impossibly thin."
"But—"
Before Johan could finish, the officer stepped back through the rift.
The portal snapped shut like a closing book.
"What?" Johan stared at the empty space where his only link to command had been. He was standing in the middle of a destroyed road with a promise of reinforcements and no clear direction.
Suddenly, a deafening explosion rocked the earth.
Johan turned toward the source. High above the distant treeline, a jagged bolt of lightning—unnatural and pulsing with sickly yellow energy—ripped through the clouds and struck the ground.
It wasn't a weather event.
It was a high-level mana discharge.
Someone's fighting. Someone powerful.
The sound of frantic footsteps reached him. Two figures emerged from the smoke, sprinting down the road with desperate speed.
It was the scout and officer who'd been sent to the prison first—the ones who'd fled when Gareth unleashed his power.
"Johan, run!" the scout screamed as he drew closer, his face twisted with terror. "They're too strong! You can't fight them alone!"
They didn't slow down to explain. They just kept running.
Johan didn't try to stop them.
He didn't even turn his head.
I have to go.
Without waiting for reinforcements, Johan ran toward the battle.
In the ruins of the central prison.
Bryn Wilson was leaning against a broken wall, his body battered and bleeding.
He'd tried. God knows he'd tried. But he was just one man against an elite of the Diaftis Order.
Gareth stood before him, electricity crackling around his hands. Many metal spikes brutally injured him.
"Bliksem!"
Lightning coalesced in Gareth's palm, forming a jagged blade of pure electrical energy. The thunder-knife hummed with deadly voltage.
He walked toward Bryn with calm, measured steps.
This is it, Bryn thought distantly. At least I tried. At least I—
Gareth raised the lightning blade.
Bryn took a huge breath, preparing for the end.
Gareth hurled the thunderbolt.
The whole area flashed with blinding light. The broken wall behind Bryn erupted into flames.
Suddenly, a black sphere appeared between them—a void-dark dimensional barrier that swallowed the lightning attack completely.
Gareth froze, his eyes widening.
A voice came from within the sphere:
"Oi, oi."
Bryn's eyes snapped open. A grin spread across his bloodied face.
"What a surprise, Dr. Dream."
Johan stepped out of the Tilespar Dimension, his expression calm despite the chaos around him.
"Yeah," he said simply.
"So this is your dream dimension," Bryn said, relief flooding through him.
"Stay here. Don't move." Johan's tone left no room for argument.
The black sphere remained, protecting Bryn from further attack.
Outside the dimension, Gareth stared at the shadow-dark sphere with calculating eyes.
Johan emerged fully, facing Gareth across the scorched battlefield.
"Johan Bennet," Gareth said, his voice measured and dangerous.
"Just add 'Doctor,'" Johan replied. "And why did you attack the Central Prison?"
"Why would I tell you?"
Gareth's hands began to crackle with electricity, preparing another attack.
Before the lightning could form fully, Johan snapped his fingers.
His Tilespar Dimension expanded, pulling both of them into the infinite spatial realm.
Gareth's eyes widened in shock. How did he deploy another dimension so rapidly? That shouldn't be possible!
They both moved simultaneously.
"Dark Form!" Johan channelled his mana.
"Dark Form!" Gareth cast the same spell, shock flickering across his face.
He can use Dark Form, too?
Their mana weapons materialised—Johan's black glass revolver and Gareth's crystalline lightning pistol.
They fired at the same instant.
BANG! BANG!
Johan teleported, his form blurring out of existence.
Gareth threw up an electrical shield. Johan's bullet struck it with tremendous force, cracks spreading across its surface.
What? He can use Dark Form. That means close combat with my fists is suicide. I need my sword. Gareth's mind raced. But what if he has a sword too?
"I don't," Johan said calmly, reading his body language.
Gareth's eyes narrowed. He dismissed his pistol and manifested his true weapon.
A sword of pure lightning materialised in his hand—not just a blade, but a contained thunderstorm shaped into a cutting edge.
What followed was an intense, breathtaking battle.
Gareth charged forward, his lightning sword leaving trails of electrical fire in the air. He swung in a devastating arc.
Johan teleported.
The blade passed through empty air where Johan had been standing.
Johan reappeared to the left and fired three shots.
Gareth's sword moved impossibly fast, deflecting each bullet with precise strikes. Sparks flew as glass projectiles met an electrical blade.
Johan teleported again—this time appearing upside-down directly above Gareth.
He fired downward.
Gareth spun, his sword creating a shield of crackling lightning above him. The bullets ricocheted harmlessly.
Johan disappeared and reappeared behind him.
BANG!
Gareth pivoted with inhuman speed, his blade singing through the air.
This deadly dance continued—Johan teleporting constantly, firing from impossible angles. Gareth moves with lightning-enhanced reflexes, his sword meeting every attack.
Neither could gain the advantage.
Finally, Gareth had enough.
"EXPLOSIE!"
He drove his lightning sword into the ground.
BOOM!
A massive electrical explosion erupted from the point of impact, expanding outward in a sphere of pure voltage. Lightning arced in every direction, turning the Tilespar Dimension into a storm of deadly energy.
Johan barely managed to teleport away, but the edge of the blast caught him.
ZZZT!
Electricity coursed through his body. He gasped, feeling his muscles seize.
But he'd had just enough time to prepare.
A mana sphere—dense, volatile, crackling with dark energy—was already formed in his hand.
He hurled it at Gareth through the dissipating electricity.
The sphere struck Gareth directly in the chest and exploded.
The force threw Gareth backwards, his body slamming into the dimensional boundary. Smoke engulfed him completely.
Johan stood panting, his body still twitching from the electrical attack.
Is he...?
The smoke began to clear.
Gareth's body lay motionless on the ground, his lightning sword extinguished.
Dead. He's actually—
Suddenly, a tentacle shot out from the smoke.
Johan shot multiple bullets at it.
Johan's eyes widened in shock. The tentacle blew.
Gareth's body was changing. His skin split open, revealing something monstrous beneath. Tentacles erupted from his back. His eyes multiplied, spreading across his face in a horrific pattern. His mouth widened, filling with rows of shark-like teeth.
The symbol of the Dark Lord burned onto his forehead.
He was transforming into a vessel—a corrupted monster that had abandoned humanity completely.
Suddenly, a figure materialised from the shadows behind Gareth.
Diana—a core member of the Diaftis Order.
She grabbed Gareth's transforming body, her face filled with desperate concern.
"Gareth, please stop!" Her voice cracked with emotion. "Come with us! Don't let it consume you!"
Gareth roared—a sound that was barely human anymore.
But Diana didn't let go. She snapped her fingers with her free hand.
They both transformed into living shadows and vanished, taking the tentacle with them.
Johan dropped to the ground, gasping for air.
He lay there for a moment, his hand going to his bruised throat.
"Whose?" he wheezed.
Slowly, Johan stood up and dissolved the protective dimension he'd created for Bryn.
Bryn stumbled out, looking at Johan with concern. "Are you okay?"
"You can see me, right?" Johan's voice was hoarse. "That means I'm okay."
A familiar voice called out: "Reinforcements have arrived!"
It was the officer who'd originally brought Johan there who finally returned with support.
"Reinforcements late!" Johan said flatly.
The officer looked shocked at the devastation around them. "But how did you—"
A voice came from behind Johan: "How do I know you're really Johan?"
Johan turned.
Dany Armstrong stood there—a paranoid Order member known for his trust issues and deadly skill with bladed weapons.
"Hey, Dan—"
Suddenly, Dany lunged, a metal dagger materialising in his hands.
He moved with a deadly intent, targeting Johan. Everyone froze in shock.
SNAP!
Time stopped.
Dr. Arthur Smith and Freya emerged from a portal, stepping into the frozen moment.
"Dan almost killed him," Bryn said, staring at the motionless blade inches from Johan's neck.
"Johan almost killed Dan," Arthur countered, pointing.
Johan's hand was raised, a volatile mana sphere ready to explode—positioned perfectly to obliterate Dany the instant he got closer.
Arthur released his temporal lock.
Time resumed.
Dany's blade came down in a heavy slash—
—and met empty air.
Johan had teleported behind him.
"Dan, it's our Johan!" Freya grabbed Johan's cheeks and stretched them. "See? It's really him!"
Dany lowered his dagger, embarrassment and relief warring on his face. "Sorry. Can't be too careful."
Order members were spread across the prison ruins, checking bodies and trying to heal the heavily injured.
The female interrogator was barely alive, her body a mass of burns and wounds from Gareth's torture.
Everyone was stunned that four people had caused this much destruction.
"Unbelievable," one member muttered. "Four people did all of this."
An officer approached Johan. "Sir, we've gathered what intelligence we could."
"Report," Johan said.
"Four attackers came here initially. After destroying the prison, three left for other targets while one—Gareth—stayed to finish off the survivors." The officer's face was grim. "Forty-eight Order headquarters have been destroyed across the country. Three prisons were also hit. They killed prisoners, officers, and everyone. But they took the strongest, most powerful prisoners with them."
Johan's jaw tightened. "Do we have any information on where they came from or their abilities?"
"None. We don't have interrogation experts with us—just general mana knowledge."
The officers exchanged uncomfortable glances.
"What?" Johan's eyes narrowed. "What are you hiding?"
"Sir..." The officer hesitated. "They also attacked the headquarters in Barniglos City."
"So what?"
Then realisation hit Johan like a physical blow.
Barniglos, our headquarters. Richard. Kaeli. His heart stopped.
"Freya!" He grabbed her arm, his usual calm completely shattered. "Make a portal! To Barniglos headquarters! Now!"