Ever since the Ambrosia Pact’s creation, Kai had been expecting trouble.

Be it from the academy or the students.

He wasn’t surprised to hear that Chester had started a manhunt for him.

"What?" Bryan asked, surprised when Kai’s eyes naturally shifted towards him at the news. "Why are you looking at me like that?" He paused, and then realized why that was. "Seriously? Are you blaming me for this?"

"Chester is probably doing this because I poached you," Kai shrugged.

"You poached me. Keyword, you," Bryan sneered. "If anything—it’s your fault for forcing me to be a member of your group."

"I suggest ditching this horned fool," Dorian said after raising his hand. "Five group members are needed to create a group; that’s the rule, but I reckoned there’s no rule saying that a group would be disbanded if one of the members falls from five."

"Fuck you!" Bryan slapped the back of Dorian’s head.

"Hey!" Dorian held the back of his head with both hands, glaring at Bryan. "I am your senior here!" He turned to Kai in protest. "We seriously need to handle the pecking order. This new guy is getting out of hand."

"Knock it off," Kai waved his hand. "Aren’t you the one who said we needed to le—"

His words died in his throat, barely reaching his tongue.

In a snap, he turned sharply to the side; senses flaring with the sudden, electric prickle of some distortion in the air. His index finger rose and pressed against the center of his lips, gesturing for the others to stay silent.

But those who listened to his gesture went far beyond Bree, Dorian, and Bryan.

Even the forest listened; holding its breath and charging the air with dreading anticipation.

And then, the distortion finally reached them.

A whisper as thin as spider silk, riding the wind. It seeped into their ears not from a direction, but from everywhere at once, as if the air itself suddenly had a tongue, and used it to speak of a calling.

"Lesser Angel..."

Kai reached for his ear, eyes darting around in search of whom this astral voice belonged to.

A reverberation that lingered and bounced; striking the bark of a nearby tree and rebounded, sliding sideways into the mud. It rippled across a puddle, distorting into a warble before going to the hollow of a dead log and circling back.

It threaded every inch of the area, overlapping and decaying in slow, ghostly rounds.

Kai blinked; the reverberation still crawling across his skin.

He could feel mana in it. Not much, but enough to tell him that this was an imprint.

And it must be coming from a Supernal in Ichor Legion.

Of the four of them, it was Bryan who realized what it was first. His eyes had narrowed, and the recognition that dawned on his face was a sharp click of a key turning in a lock. "Run," A soft whisper escaped his lips. "It’s the Supernal of Echo!!"

Scree—!

A banshee-scream echoed, stabbing into their eardrums like a searing hot blade.

All of them clamped their hands over their ears, frozen in place as the truth settled in the base of their skulls. The Ichor Legion had found them because of the Supernal of Echo. A mountain nymph blessed with an enchanting voice that could ride any surface.

Her call could easily reach far beyond what any vocal cords could normally reach.

Earlier, the whisper was an imprint like an echolocation of a bat.

It had bounced on their bodies and sung back to the Supernal of Echo.

Now, the Ichor Legion is coming.

Shadows moved in the distance. Not slowly creeping, but the sharp movements of people that were on a hunt. People who were moving with deadly purpose. Pair after pair of glowing eyes winked into existence through the trees, and every single one of them was locked onto Kai.

Kai’s teeth ground together hard enough to ache.

He was fighting the lock caused by the banshee-scream.

Like a tiger, Kai dropped low in one fluid motion—arm hooking around Bree’s waist, hauling her stomach-first onto his right shoulder before she could even tense. A gasp escaped her lips, but before the question came, Kai was already moving.

No time to think; he ran as fast as possible.

Dorian informed him that a hunt had begun, but he didn’t say that the hunters were already close.

Leg muscles coiling. Boots tearing through the mud.

He launched forward with explosive acceleration that came only when death drew too close.

Behind him, Dorian also followed and transformed mid-stride.

His body convulsed and swelled, pale skin straining over the sudden surge of muscle. His remaining normal leg gleamed with a polished bronze sheen, and his red hair ignited into a brighter, fiercer red like kindling catching flame.

Once he took the next step, the air shattered.

Dorian’s speed erupted with a thunderclap, launching him forward in a blur.

In his normal body, he limped.

In this one, he was moving faster than any normal Angel.

Not too far back, Bryan was also running, but he needed no transformation to keep up.

His Divine Beast bloodline already made him physically stronger, allowing him to keep up with the others fine. And when the trees closed in and got in the way, he didn’t weave around them like any sane person normally would.

Instead, he lowered his horned head and charged even faster.

The small trees splintered against his skull like dry tinder; their trunks snapped clean—and their branches exploded into showers of splinters. He carved a straight line through the dark swamp, while the others had to zig and zag.

Swoosh—!

Realizing that they were faster than anticipated, the Ichor Legion changed tactics.

All kinds of projectiles were hurled towards them.

Energy balls screamed through the air, sizzling with unstable light. Arrows whistled past with extreme speed, feathered shafts that bit into the tree bark with splintering thunks. But worse than those were the roots and branches; the forest itself turned traitor.

A student has nature manipulation power, capable of twisting the landscape into a weapon.

Roots burst from the mud like grasping hands, lunging for ankles, wrists, or even hair.

Branches bent against their natural angles with a sudden snap, whipping toward their faces with lethal intent. Kai tossed Bree up and ducked under a spear of wood that would’ve taken his eye before catching her again and continued. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Dorian swatted the root away with a backhand, burning it into crisps.

Bryan simply plowed through; the branches snapped against his shoulders and horns but did not have enough power to hold him back. The Ambrosia Pact couldn’t be stopped that easily; only their running moment was slowed slightly.

"Keep steady for a second!" Bree yelped as she lifted her head.

Her teeth pressed together hard against the jostling as she raised her arms.

"What?!" Kai shouted back; the rushing wind muted her voice. "Did you say something?!"

"I said keep it steady!"

"Okay!"

Kai slowed down a little and went straight while Bree’s mana manifested a translucent white membrane that latched onto the trees and spread like a spiderweb—stretching from branch to branch in a sticky, elastic web.

Seeing this, the first wave of students ran even faster.

Intending to rip through the membrane with their weapons pointed forward.

But they were underestimating the membrane too much.

With relative ease, the membrane absorbed their momentum, stretched, and held without the slightest hint of tearing. They themselves got into the struggle, but the material only stretched and stretched, yielding without breaking.

Some thrashed. Some clawed. Yet the membrane simply distended further.

It wrapped them tighter in a seamless cocoon of white.

For a good five seconds, the high-pursuit chase faltered.

Just then, a stronger student slammed into the membrane with relentless force. His shoulder struck the membrane, and it strained to the absolute limit before finally ripping. The tear was peeled wide, and the bound students stumbled free.

All of them were cursing at the damn membrane.

But the stall had worked; the gap between them and the Ambrosia Pact widened.

Kai glanced over his other shoulder and smiled, "Nice one, Bree!"

"I can do it four more times!" Bree replied loudly. "But we can’t keep this up!"

"As long as Chester hasn’t arrived, we’re fine."

"And he would be here soon enough."

Kai nodded his head—he knew that Chester would most certainly arrive soon. He’s the one who was most motivated in this pursuit, so he would be here without a doubt. And when he arrived, it would be over.

How do we escape them?

He looked around the swamp.

Of course, the obvious reason would be going straight into the inner area, but that will be far too risky for them. Encountering that same Star Beast from earlier would be the exact same as encountering Chester, or perhaps even worse.

It’s not worth it to go to the inner area.

Just then, Kai remembered something.

He sucked in a burning lungful of air and roared over the wind of their flight, "Follow me!"

Other than going to the inner area, they have one more place that they could use as a refuge. It was the neighbouring dangerous cultivated cloud—the Dead Range. The Ichor Legion and the Auric Cabal made an agreement about the two new cultivated clouds.

And the Ichor Legion picked the Fire Swamp, while the Auric Cabal picked the Dead Range.

If Kai and the others ran to the Dead Range, then the Ichor Legion would stop chasing.

At least unless they wanted to clash directly with the Auric Cabal, which was a group as strong as them, led by a High Angel no weaker than Chester, Barbara. But the path behind them was a death sentence.

Kai and the others would need to go the opposite direction to get to their Pegasi.

"Where are we going?!" Bree asked, realizing that Kai was running straight to the edge.

"Hey, where the fuck are we going?!" Dorian called from not too far behind. He saw the edge in the distance and felt cold feet; exactly the same as what Bree was feeling in the moment. "Care to tell me the plan?!"

"Can you call your Pegasus?!" Kai asked Bree, ignoring Dorian altogether.

"Yes, I can. But why?"

"Do you trust your Pegasus to save you?"

"I have a personal Pegasus, and I’m quite close to it, so yes... I somewhat trust it. But why are you planning to do?"

"Dorian! Bryan!" Kai shouted without looking back. "Grab Bree’s hands!"

Bree paused and sucked in a cold breath when she realized what Kai was going to do.

Even she felt her throat becoming dry at the thought.

"No... No way! I trust my Pegasus, but not that much! And there are four of us!"

"I’m going to jump, so hold on tight!"

"Dear Zeus! We’re going to die!"