Just as Nick was about to touch the foreign mass of Zephyx in his neck, a cerulean glint appeared in front of him.
For a short moment, Nick's mind didn't work, and just a bit later, an endless wave of relief washed over him.
This was probably the closest he had ever come to dying.
The cerulean glint was the cerulean sword puppet belonging to Ariel.
It burst out of the ground and cut the priest into pieces.
After cutting the priest apart, the cerulean sword puppet focused on the pillar that was being carried by several people.
The puppet swung one of its sword arms.
SHING!
A blue shockwave traveled forward and passed through all of the coral people carrying the pillar.
CRK! CRK! CRK!
The coral people all fell into pieces, and the pillar hit the ground.
Then, the puppet turned towards the three Specialists standing in the middle of the clearing.
"I surrender," the three Specialists said in unison.
The next moment, Nick regained control of his body, and all the water around him vanished.
BOOOOM!
Suddenly, a gigantic fiery explosion occurred far to the south, and Nick looked forward.
All the metallic clouds in the distance fell apart and started to vanish as they were falling to the ground.
Apparently, the fight was over.
WHOOOM!
Suddenly, five people appeared in the clearing, and all of them were looking at the three coral people and the pillar.
Naturally, they were Mundus, Zarren, Liera, and Kevara.
However, the last person wasn't Ariel.
When Nick saw the tall man with the spear, he finally understood how Ariel had survived that one attack.
It seemed like the governor couldn't stay completely on Kugelblitz's side.
Most likely, the governor had stayed in the background, and when he had noticed that Ariel was getting attacked, he got involved and saved her life.
Every Hero was essential to the city, and losing even one could have terrifying consequences.
The three Specialists in the middle of the clearing lifted their arms in surrender, but their expressions remained dead.
Mundus looked at the pillar and summoned his puppet.
The puppet began to dance on Mundus' hand, and strings upon strings wound around the pillar.
"Don't kill my minions," the three Specialists said.
The present people looked at the three Specialists.
Mundus waved his arm, and several strings appeared around the three Specialists.
In the end, the three Specialists and the pillar were completely encased in strings.
Silence.
It was over.
Anatomy had successfully captured the Demon!
"Congratulations," Kevara said with a polite smile. "It seems like Crimson City finally got its second Demon!"
Markus, the governor, looked with a neutral expression at Kevara and nodded. "Thank you. It wouldn't have been possible without your help."
"Only doing what I'm paid to do," Kevara said with a smile. Then, she looked at Mundus. "I'm expecting the Specters within the month."
Liera also looked at Mundus. "I'm coming for mine tomorrow."
"Of course," Mundus answered.
Kevara nodded before looking at Nick. "And look at that. Even the little guy survived."
"It's thanks to Ms. Cerillion," Nick spoke politely.
Kevara chuckled a bit before she looked towards the southern sky. "But to believe that Melinda was here all along."
"You knew her?" Zarren asked, referring to the powerful coral woman.
Kevara and Liera hadn't been strong enough to fight the coral woman on their own, and even with the addition of Mundus and Zarren, the fight had still been difficult.
Only when the governor joined did the tide turn.
This Extractor had been unreasonably powerful.
Kevara nodded. "That was Melinda Barnaby," she said. "She was my predecessor."
"I remember her," Crimson City's governor said. "If I remember correctly, people believed that she betrayed humanity."
"That was the consensus," Kevara said.
'Well, it's a stupid question, but I'm not going to get an answer otherwise since everyone keeps talking about this like they know everything already,' Nick thought.
"Was she very powerful?" Nick asked.
"Oh, yes. Very," Kevara said, looking at Nick. "She used to be one of Aegis' agents before she 'retired' and became a governor. She used to travel all around the world, fighting against the forces of the Fallen and Adversaries."
"Honestly, if she had access to her Barrier, we might not have won."
Kevara sighed. "If I knew that I had to fight her, I would have asked for way more."
"Anyway, today was quite a wild day, but Liera and I have to go back now," she said.
"Of course," Mundus said. "Thank you once again."
The people said their goodbyes and the two from Metal Works City left.
Now, only the people from Crimson City are left.
The governor looked at the cocoon that was the pillar.
"According to the amount of Zephyx, this should be a Late Demon. That's even stronger than the Crimson Fungus," he commented.
"We can suppress it," Mundus said.
The governor looked at Mundus, who had a neutral expression on his face.
Then, he looked at Zarren. "You and Ariel have also become Heroes?" he asked.
"Just recently," Zarren answered with an equally neutral expression.
Then, everything became silent.
Nick could feel the tension in the air.
On the surface, this seemed to just be small talk, but that wasn't true in reality.
The governor was obviously not happy that Anatomy kept two Heroes secret, and he was also not happy that three Initial Heroes were now responsible for containing a Late Demon.
Anatomy had shown once again that they were not trustworthy, and now, they also had access to the strongest Specter in the city.
Even more, this Specter's powers were extremely dangerous.
As long as Anatomy kept the pillar imprisoned, they could essentially order its army around.
With the three coral people in the clearing, Anatomy had essentially gained three more Specialists as well.
In just a single day, Anatomy's power had shot up tremendously.
Just one day ago, people believed that Anatomy only had a single Initial Hero and no Demon.
But now, they had three Initial Heroes and a Late Demon.
One had to remember that Kugelblitz only had four Heroes, and one of them was the governor.
If one didn't include the governor, Kugelblitz only had three Heroes.
Sure, Aria was an Early Hero, but it wasn't certain that Kugelblitz would win in a team fight.
After all, the three from Anatomy had always been working together as a team, and their powers perfectly complemented each other.
Anatomy could actually fight Kugelblitz now.