Time seemed to stand still.
Libran, Aria, and Vanessa were almost out of Zephyx and couldn't rejoin the battle.
At least the battle against the torso seemed to go well. It was damaged beyond recognition and could barely move anymore.
Its swipe that pushed Jornis away was its last desperate attack.
However, the torso didn't seem worried in any way.
Its core was in the middle of its amalgamation of cells.
It could easily recover.
Crack.
A subtle sound of something hard getting cracked came from one of the Prison's cells.
While no normal person would be able to notice this subtle sound, the senses of the Heroes were terrifyingly sharp.
To them, it was like a gunshot going off.
They looked at the cell and saw something shocking.
The green-haired man inside the cell had cracked some kind of big green pill with his teeth.
The next instant, they noticed that something was in front of the man that hadn't been there before.
A long sword!
Suddenly, the man's eyes shot open.
SHING!
With one swing, the bars of the cell were destroyed, and the man jumped out of his cell.
At that moment, the torso's calm vanished.
What?!
That was impossible!
It absorbed all Zephyx that any of its prisoners regenerated, leaving them weak and helpless.
So, how did its prisoner suddenly regain enough Zephyx to break out?!
Also, where did that weapon come from?!
The man stopped in the air in front of the Prison.
Then, he threw the sword to the side and put his hand into a sack hanging from his belt.
A Space Bag!
A moment later, a revolver was pulled out of the bag, which the man then pointed at the Prison.
"Appreciate the sword," the man spoke slowly, "but I'm more of a gun person."
BANG!
The revolver shot at the lower right part of the Prison, destroying it.
The man turned pale and almost fell from the sky after the shot.
His shot had been weak since he had barely recovered 5% of his Zephyx just now before unleashing it.
At that moment, two long legs lifted the amalgamation of cells.
However, the right leg was broken in several places and barely worked.
Nevertheless, the left leg did its best and tried to flee as quickly as possible from the battle.
The Heroes noticed that they were at an advantage now and flew after it.
Aria, Vanessa, Libran, and the green-haired man were out of Zephyx and weren't very quick, but Jornis still had some Zephyx to spare.
BANG!
Jornis reached the Prison and punched it towards Crimson City.
The Prison was remarkably fast, even though one of its legs had become unusable.
If the green-haired man hadn't crippled that leg, the Prison might have been able to flee.
Suddenly, the metal bars of the cells rubbed against each other in such a way that it mimicked a high-pitched human voice.
"I concede!" the voice shouted in urgency.
The Heroes looked at each other.
"We're handing it to Aegis," Aria ordered, specifically looking at the green-haired man.
The green-haired man was probably filled with hatred after being imprisoned for an unknown period of time.
"I won't kill it," the green-haired man spoke with surprising calm, cleaning his uniform.
"Thanks," Aria said.
She had anticipated that the man might not follow her orders.
After all, he also wore the uniform of a Governor.
It seemed like the Prison had already destroyed a city before, which actually wasn't surprising.
That thing had been very powerful.
Aria gestured to the others, and they took out several Zephyx Suppressors.
They put them around the Prison and its torso.
They had won!
A moment later, the signal for Aegis came from Crimson City.
Naturally, the Prison felt the signal, but it didn't even try to flee.
There was no way for it to flee.
Its fate was now up to Aegis.
It only hoped that Aegis would consider sparing its life in exchange for valuable info about Envy.
"How ironic," the green-haired man spoke coldly. "The Prison is being imprisoned."
Then, he turned to Aria and bowed in gratitude. "Thank you for freeing me."
At that moment, Vanessa and Libran remembered the weapon and the pill that had appeared inside the man's cell.
"How did you do that?" Vanessa asked Aria. "How did you manage to sneak something into the cell without any of us noticing?"
Since Vanessa was soon going to be part of the same organization as Aria, there was no more reason to be antagonistic to Aria.
"Wasn't me," Aria said.
Vanessa, Libran, and the green-haired man looked with shock at Aria, while Jornis looked at them in confusion since he had no idea what had happened.
"It was Nick," Aria said.
"The Liaison?" Vanessa asked in shock. "How?!"
"I don't know," Aria said. "Not even I know what he can do."
At that moment, the three Heroes from Kugelblitz realized how terrifying Nick actually was.
Nick was only an Early Expert, but he had managed to do something that none of them could.
How was that possible?!
What kind of abilities did someone need to have to sneak something like that onto the body of a Late Demon as an Early Expert?!
Naturally, Nick had been under the man's cell for quite a while.
He had snuck there while it had been shouting.
He had been quite disoriented by the shout, but his Barrier didn't activate, and Nick just dealt with the disorientation with pure determination.
Then, when Aria had unleashed her light, Nick had just peeked past the cell and threw in the stuff before fleeing.
Luckily, everyone had been preoccupied with watching each other. Otherwise, the Prison would have easily noticed the small suspicious cloud of dust traveling across the wasteland.
Yet, it wasn't that hard, all in all.
Infiltrating Anatomy had been much more difficult.
"What's this city called?" the green-haired man suddenly asked.
"Crimson City," Aria answered.
"I remember," the man spoke with furrowed brows. "You have a terrifying Specter in your city."
"Specter?" Vanessa asked.
The man nodded. "The Prison had a standoff with it about 15 years ago. It has the form of a young man with blue hair, and it can transform into mouths."
"Oh, you mean Julian," Aria said while the other Heroes lost their interest. "He's already dead. He has been killed by a Protector."
The man sighed in relief. "Good."
"How long have you been inside the Prison?" Aria asked.
"30 years," the man answered. "It destroyed my city."
"Walpurgis City?" Aria asked.
"You know of it?" the green-haired man asked.
"Not many cities get destroyed," Aria answered. "Walpurgis City is the only one that vanished in that timeframe. Nobody knows what kind of Specter destroyed it. You are probably the only person in the world that knows."
The man furrowed his brows. "It was two Specters. They united against the city. One was the Prison, and the other was a big decaying vulture."
Aria blinked a couple of times. "You mean the Plague Vulture?" she asked.
The man looked at Aria with skepticism. "You know of it?"
Aria nodded. "We have it suppressed," she said as she pointed at the huge black cube in the distant Crimson City. "Right there."
Once more, the green-haired man became shocked.
"That puts my mind at ease," the man spoke.
After a couple of seconds, he looked at Aria again. "Could I stay in Crimson City for a couple of days? I still need to come to terms with my regained freedom, and I don't have a home anymore."
"Of course," Aria spoke with a smile.
The man nodded and offered his hand. "William Drawhand, former Governor of Walpurgis City."
"Aria Light, Governor of Crimson City," Aria answered as she shook his hand.
The others also introduced themselves.
At that moment, three people suddenly appeared in the sky above Crimson City.
They scanned the city.
When they saw that the city was still okay, they looked at its surroundings and noticed the Heroes hovering in the air.
These three people were an emergency response team sent by Aegis.
"What happened here?" one of the Agents asked Aria.
Aria told them about the battle.
"Good job!" one of them said with a prideful nod. "Envy's servants belong to humanity's biggest enemies! This will be reported to Aegis and will be considered in any future correspondence with us."
When the three Heroes from Kugelblitz heard that, they smiled politely.
That was exactly why they had agreed to fight.
"What am I supposed to do?" William asked the Agents.
"According to documentation," one of the Agents spoke, "this city is ruled by a Liaison. They will deal with this matter."
"A Liaison?" William asked.
Yet, the Agents just glossed over the question and continued talking to Aria.
In the end, the Agents pulled a huge Containment Unit out of a Space Bag and dumped it in front of the city.
The Prison would remain here for the next couple of months until someone from the Envy unit had time to take it away.
Until then, nobody was allowed to come into contact with it.
Finally, the Agents left.
"What's a Liaison? Is it the same person that freed me?" William asked.
Aria just pointed at a person standing on the city walls.
"He is," she said.
William looked over and immediately knew why the others had been surprised.
An Expert?!