As Zed moved to open Section IV, Kirstie's mind screamed with Lord Harley's command.
"Stop him!"
Kirstie's eyes squinted, and the flames on her body erupted. Like a burning star, she shot past Rebecca and instantly appeared next to Zed to crush him.
"No!" Rebecca followed behind to stop her.
~THUMP~
Suddenly, Kirstie's hand of flames stopped, and her heart started thumping loudly. A sense of fear and crisis swelled up within her, and she moved her eyes to the door of Section IV.
It was opening, slowly, in fact, very slowly, but it was opening!
She has failed!!
Fumes of violet hue escaped from the opening and grazed past the Alphas like the scythe of the Grim Reaper.
Rebecca froze in her place. Despite living for so long and gaining such power, terror overtook her.
Her instincts were screaming like crazy, telling her to move.
But she couldn't.
The fumes emanating from behind the door have glued her to the spot.
Kirstie's state was even worse. Sweat began to trickle down her forehead despite her being a body of fire.
Even Lord Harley, who was in the State of Avalon, stopped breathing as the same ominous fumes gripped him through the Source Crystal.
"Just what sort of power is behind the door?!"
Lord Harley was terrified for the first time in his life. Not even the shrine of Soverigness Hestia has created such an effect on him.
In the ruined lab, Sophia collapsed to her knees, her face as white as a sheet of paper.
Katherine couldn't help her daughter any longer. She was trembling in fear but managed to glance at Zed who was barely standing in front of the Section IV.
"He has a trump card even more powerful than Kiba!?"
Katherine was shocked out of her wits.
The clock continued to tick, slowly, every second moving like an hour.
Over ten minutes passed, and the time coincided with the stopping of fumes and the door opening by the half.
This should have brought relief, but instead, it brought more terror.
Rebecca and others glanced inside and looked at the source of this unfathomable terror.
A casket emitting violet fluctuations of energy!
The casket was embedded with mystic runes, something that absorbed most of the energy.
Only a negligible portion escaped and traveled through the vast, dark space which formed Section IV.
"The runes seem familiar!"
Lord Harley's eyes narrowed, but before he could pinpoint the familiarity, strands of violet energy hit Kirstie and others.
"AAHHHH!"
Like a bundle of straw, they were sent rolling into the distance. The stronger the person, the more violet energy hit them.
It rampaged into their bodies, breaking their bones and shattering their veins.
RUMBLEEEE~
The dimension was already on the brink of collapse, and the pressure from Section IV obliterated it.
BOOOOM
The dimension violently exploded, causing a turbulent spatial storm to arise.
Since Zed's new house was its entrance point, the storm erupted from there, swallowing the house thoroughly.
Crash!
Zed smashed into a tree far away.
As he began to slip down, he noticed the floating debris of his house, and it made him smile bitterly.
"Another house gone… and just like last time, the House of Hestia is at fault, in one or way another."
With paining racking through his body, he landed on the ground and glanced in the distance.
Kirstie, Rebecca, Katherine, and Sophia have smashed there, creating vast craters.
"Well, at least the sacrifice of my house wasn't for naught."
He needed a big distraction and Section IV played its role. Sadly, it came with big risks. The energy bursting out of it was entering Earth through the collapsed dimension.
"I need to close it before it opens up completely… otherwise the entire city would collapse."
He mustered up every ounce of his strength and waved his right hand. The storage ring on his index finger flashed and a series of silver beads emerged high in the air.
They were Teleportation Beads – an invention of Claudia.
On his command, they began to float in a circular formation and brightened up, turning into a teleportation portal.
The other side of the portal couldn't be seen, but Zed knew where it lead to.
He pressed his feet on the ground and jumped up.
"Where do you think you are going?"
Like a ghost, Kirstie appeared behind him, flames wildly dancing in her eyes.
"!!" Zed was startled.
He thought the damage from Section IV would overpower her for a few seconds.
But then again, she was an Alpha, and her powers were rising every second. She couldn't be overpowered easily.
Kirstie raised her hand to catch him.
Zed gritted his teeth and burned every droplet of his blood. Scarlet flames exploded out of his pores, turning him into a supernova, causing his aura to rise up by frightening heights.
Kirstie snorted in disdain.
"A useless feet."
The heat and flames radiating out of Zed rushed into her hand, becoming a part of her body.
She moved her hand forward, but Zed pushed himself into the portal in the short time he gained. The portal simultaneously began to close.
"You could have lived a little longer, but it seems like you want to die now."
Kirstie was going to catch him, but she changed her decision. She opened her palm, and a globe of fire shot into the closing portal, carrying the power of a peak Level VII Alpha.
Much less Zed, even hundreds of him couldn't survive it.
In the distance, Rebecca's face fell. Since she was the strongest, the strands of violet energy targeted her the most. This was why she needed a few seconds to recover from the damage.
But in those few seconds, the thing she feared the most has happened.
"Hehe, mother, don't be sad…."
Kirstie broke into a grin, but a moment later, her face constricted. With a look of disbelief, she turned to the portal that had almost closed, save for a point-size channel.
"What's going on!?"
The point-size channel began to open up, slowly expanding to the same size as before.
"I was having such a good time with the mayor's wife.…."
A new voice emanated from the portal, surprising everyone.
"But you guys have to be a spoilsport and act as a cockblocker."
"This voice…?!"
Rebecca didn't dare believe her ears.
Surely, the portal opened by her son wouldn't be leading to the place of the man she was thinking.
But if it was…then there was hope for her son!
Or was there?!
After all, the voice clearly confirmed what that man was doing!!
Swish~!
The globe of fire shot by Kirstie emerged from the portal but with a far greater speed.
"While I love hotness, I don't like such ridiculously hot stuff. So please, accept it back."
The voice explained as the globe of fire slammed into Kirstie.
"!!" Kirstie's expression dramatically changed.
Before she could suppress it, the globe burst open with a terrifying force.
BOOOM
A fiery mushroom cloud filled the ground and sky, burning everything to ashes.
Kirstie shot out of it and looked at the portal with raw hatred.
~step~
A golden-haired man slowly stepped out of the portal.
He was so handsome that words couldn't do justice to him, but the first thing the women noticed was not his face but his ripped abs and chiseled chest.
He was shirtless!
In fact, as he emerged from the portal, he was closing the zip of his pants!!
"My ears can deceive me, so can my eyes, but what can't deceive me is the actions!"
Sophia exclaimed as she looked at the golden-haired man.
"There's no doubt! It is really The Villain!"