His back kissed the ever so freezing wall, pain piercing his spine with his legs screaming in anguish.

  Without giving him a second to recover, a blitz of strikes hurtled towards his already bleeding face.

  He gritted his teeth in frustration, yet his expression lacked even the glint of desperation despite his ability purely working on the unexpected, was figured out.

  The brown wooden material of the oval table flashed beside him, the lightbulbs that shined their rays onto each object grew longer, and the smell of a distant presence simulated his mind.

  His body twisted, the lower legs rotated backwards towards the individual that was striking the space he previously was.

  The clear blow landed on their spine, his feet pressed harder before he lifted his leg off.

  Dragging his feet across the floor, his hands rose up to a defensive stance as he observed every movement of the danger in front.

  ‘Hope they handle the other one.’ Silently thinking about the second attacker, they snapped their head towards him as he redirected his focus onto the present.

  The person in front was a man in his 20s, wearing clothing that had a sense of carelessness, yet despite the clothing being such, every movement of his disturbed the atmosphere of the room.

  Even his eye movement felt unusual…

  ‘...wait.’

  He suddenly turned to his back as realization creeped in.

  The eyes fixated on him were entirely false. The movement of the pupils, their gaze appearing as two images at random intervenes, and the sound of banging across the wall now echoing silently, shot realization into his skin.

  He flashed the world by before he could fully turn around, returning to the space he occupied a few seconds ago in order to escape his assumptions.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Despite this, at the exact moment he returned, the hard bone of the femur bashed into his mouth, slamming him across the table as his eyes redded at the impact.

  Agony filled his mouth, fractures among his skull made itself apparent with sharp pains.

  His fingers shook as he struggled to touch his jaw. Blood gushed out from his mouth before soaking his hand, his jaw hanging.

  He stared with his shaken eyes, his body slowly succumbing to the pain.

  With his conscience fading into oblivion, he checked the exit at the corner of his eyes, only to have his hopes crushed by the lady that stood in front. With nowhere left to run and nothing left to do, he gritted his teeth before a sharp pain immediately reminded him.

  Seemingly no way out, there was only one thing he could rely on…

  He bolted his hand into his pocket with a hurried expression, pulling out a hand clock as he extended his hands to the sky.

  “MI TOML!” He shouted at the top of lung, his eyes bloodshot as his hands tightly gripped the clock.

  With a tick the handclock shattered into colorless mist, evaporating into his body as it swirled throughout the room, covering every space in a radius.

  ***

  ‘Problematic.’ Erdanius tensed his body as the sight of the artifact being used shivered his entire body. It wasn't only him, but everyone in the room felt the colorless mist spreading throughout their body and into their body.

  Reaching for his katana, he exchanged meaningful gazes to them as he took a step back.

  The others followed his movement, moving away from the culprit.

  Guards high as the mountains, and with hearts pounding until no ends, they cautiously watched his every step, moving back ever so slightly in response.

  ‘Hm?’ Eridanus stared at the ceiling briefly, his face filled with confusion.

  ‘Ah.’

  A burning flame of hell melted through the ceiling as it dropped from above, collapsing onto the table, immediately catching on fire at the first impact.

  A shriek of agonizing pain echoed inside the flame, reaching the ears of the people on the ground as they rolled on the ground.

  The pure heat of the flame felt like the wrath of hell, the anger of every unfairness in the world and most importantly Eridanus could tell this wasn't the flame’s full potential. He had seen multiple deities associated objects, but this one was by far the most aggressive he had seen. Yet he knew it could do more.

  He took his eyes away from the flame, redirecting his gaze to the person that fell right beside the burning man.

  ‘What is she doing here?’ Her face was easily recognizable, after all who had such features in all of the cities. However, Eridanus didn't ponder about such things, what he did ponder about is the sole reason she's in.

  In the past few weeks or so, he had encountered her numerous times. On missions and sometimes off missions, the chance of coincidence was low at this rate and he still didn't know her intentions.

  Good or bad, all of them had one goal now…

  That is to survive the judgement flame.