A tense atmosphere surrounded the Main Hall of the Twilight Chaos Guild.
The many guild members who were present in the lounge turned their heads around in surprise as the boy's shout grabbed their attention.
"What did he say? Steve boy is injured?"
"Ain't no way that's possible. That boy's pretty tough if you forget his yapping mouth."
"That's right....wait-! Isn't that Steve on Roven's back at the door?"
Everyone turned their heads and widened their eyes in shock when they saw the injured body of their infamous guildmate, who always bragged about himself in every conversation.
They stood up and moved towards the desk, their faces showing signs of fury and worry.
Miss Elsa stood up from her seat as a serious frown arose on her face.
Her eyes moved towards the door, where her little brother Roven was carrying inside his injured teammate Steve on his back.
Roven reached the desk as Felix and Eric helped him with Steve's unconscious body and faced towards his elder sister.
"S-Sis, can you please hurry and heal Steve? I swear I'll answer all your questions later without hiding anything...."
He bit his lips with a grieved and slightly guilty face.
Miss Elsa walked across from her desk without replying and waved her hand over Steve's body as she muttered something under her breath.
Her brows wrinkled after examining him, showing confusion as she stared at the boy with a more serious look now.
She casted another spell on him without wasting any time.
Slowly, Steve's body left his teammate's hold and magically floated above the ground.
After casting this basic spell, Miss Elsa manipulated Steve's body to move in the air and started walking towards the stairs along with it.
"You guys can rest for now, I'll come back for you after healing him.", she replied before quickly disappearing upstairs.
The three boys watched her go until they couldn't hold themselves back any longer and plopped onto the floor in exhaustion.
The other guild members who were surrounding them refrained from throwing questions at them seeing their states and gave them some time to rest.
But one of them, a tall and bulky man with short spiky black hair, seemed to have no patience at all as he tapped on Eric's shoulder and asked with a strange smile on his face.
"Where did you guys go for your mission, Eric?"
The boy turned around in confusion at the kind voice, his eyes widening when he saw the man, but his mouth moved on his own as he stuttered.
"Uhh that, we went to umm Wuller Town...."
The man nodded with a thoughtful face, then turned around and signalled at his teammates before smiling at Eric.
"Everything's going to be alright now, you should go and have some rest in your rooms.", he said with his kind-looking eyes as he started moving out of the guild building with his other teammates.
The two Rank 2 guards had their heads on the ground in fear as they kneeled in front of their Rank 4 superior.
"M-Master Cedric, we.. .we really don't know how that boy escaped."
"It wasn't our fault, so..so please have mercy on us. We promise that we'll find him back for you.", the guards begged as their bodies trembled.
The Rank 4 man named Cedric wearing a dark red robe, and with black hair and grey eyes, who had caught Felix and tried to enslave him, gazed around the slaves inside the prison while ignoring the two guards.
He walked over to the cell Felix was imprisoned in and checked inside for anything useful, but he was soon disappointed as he didn't find any clue.
Walking out from behind the still kneeling guards, he said.
"That boy had rare silver coloured hair and a pair of never seen crystal red eyes. Now, what does that mean?"
The two guards looked at each other and answered with a slight confusion.
"T-That he'll fetch a good price if we sold him as a slave?"
"No."
Cedric shook his head clamly and replied matter-of-factly.
"It means you both won't be necessary to find him given his unique appearance."
At the end of his words, the two guards widenend their eyes in realisation of his intentions.
"Swish!"
But they were a bit too late and thus couldn't resist the incoming slice of concensed aura as their bodies got chopped up into several pieces, with blood spraying out on the ground in a gruesome manner.
Cedric didn't mind the blood that had spilled on him as he started walking out of the prison, snapping his finger while on the way.
"Snap."
All the slaves who were present in the prison suddenly woke up and felt a suffocating pressure descent on them which made them breathless.
They struggled to breath while gasping and holding onto their necks, slowly making them feel dizzy.
Their weak bodies couldn't hold out anymore without any oxygen as their eyes rolled over one by one, until all of them lost the lights in their eyes and dropped on the floor with a thud.
That wasn't the end as all of their corpses suddenly exploded, drenching the room with blood and guts.
"Hmm...that smells nice."
Cedric smiled and casually walked out of the prison room as if he had just taken a little stroll in a park.
Moving out, he narrowed his eyes with a sharp glint.
"To escape our tightly secured base without leaving any evidence,....now this is getting interesting."
The sound of his footsteps fading into distance were all that was left in the prison room, which reeked of nothing but iron and filth there.