Few minutes prior to the phenomena.
Shin was considering whether they should take the ground route to return home or wait for the flights to be available.
"Shin, can't we just fly on our own?" Alice suggested with a serious expression. But how could Shin know behind that serious expression of Alice was just her meticulous planning so that she can enjoy being hugged but him for the whole trip back.
'Kyaa, hugged by Shin soaring through the sky. So exciting.' But he put cold water on her excitement with his next words.
"It's too tiresome and we will need to take a lot of breaks." Shin didn't want to tire himself out for no reason. "Maybe in the future, I can pull it off."
Alice was a little saddened to hear that, but hearing that it may be possible in the future, her eyes lit up in anticipation.
"It's not like it's an emergency. So it's better I don't waste energy." Maybe he jinxed it. But at this moment, his newly acquired ability [Enhanced Senses] activated. His danger perception went off, signaling him of the upcoming danger.
'What is this feeling? Like something very bad is going to happen.' He had no idea what kind of danger it was, but he knew it was dangerous.
'There is no such event in Leonard's memories. Then what might be the cause of this danger alert?' Shin started thinking of all the events and compared them with Leonard's memories.
It was around this time that the Green Serpents gang and other criminal organizations starts running in the city. That means the Hyunjas and the previous criminal gangs were already finished by this time.
'What other dangerous figures were in Polaris city at this time?' Shin kept thinking for a while but no figures came to his mind. 'What about dangerous artifacts?'
'Now that I remember, there's one dangerous artifact as a reward for clearing the 9th floor of the Polaris City Labyrinth for the first time. Normally, Leonard didn't have much knowledge about the rewards of the Labyrinth and dungeons.'
'But this reward created a lot of commotion. A war almost broke out between the humans and demon worshippers. The artifact of the demons, The Chaos Necklace.'
'But there's a difference in the timeline. There are still a few months before the Labyrinth is cleared. So why is everything moving so fast? Is this the butterfly effect I caused?' Coming to this conclusion, Shin tried his best to remember the details of the Necklace and why they sealed it as a forbidden item.
Now why was this Necklace forbidden? Also, why did the association tried its best to keep it away from the demon worshippers? In Leonard's memory, this necklace was never used.
'There might also be another reason for this.' Thinking of this, he calmed down a little, but was still anxious.
"Shin, what is that?"
Shin turned to look through the glass window where Alice was pointing. His entire body shivered, watching the red energy covering the sky.
He knew all too well what energy it was. Because just now he had a backlash because of the said energy.
"That's demonic energy." Both of them had solemn expressions on their faces.
Shin remembered his conversation with the adult Alice in her sanctuary just now.
("Like that guy Ren Hector. He had a contract with a demonic being. But he took external access to that energy and demonified. Also died at your hands." freeweb(n)ovel.co(m)
"Wait you mean? Did he meet a demon? Demons are already on earth?"
"No, he didn't meet a demon. He managed to sign a contract because of his ability. Which let him connect to a demonic being."
"Does that mean his contractor may attack me?"
"I'm not sure.")
"Don't tell me we are already going to face demons." Shin thought nervously.
***
On the other side, the green-haired boy with a star tattoo on his cheek was letting out maniacal laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHEHEHE."
"SOON, JUST A LITTLE LONGER AND EVERYTHING WILL BURN IN HELL. MY LORD WILL COME AND THESE DISGUSTING PEOPLE WILL RECEIVE SALVATION."
The Chaos Necklace was floating in front of him, swirling with red demonic energy. The aura of death has already been absorbed by the artifact.
As soon as the green-haired boy noticed, the artifact was ready for activation. He shouted, "My lord, I await your arrival! I present a thousand human sacrifices on this occasion of your arrival."
Yes, this was the reason this artifact was a forbidden item. Demon summoning, and with the cost of sacrifices of the living and also another terrifying effect, which the populace of the city will find out soon as they try to escape the city.
On the outskirts of the city. People were hesitating to pass through the energy veil, waiting for someone else to be the first one.
There was a group of four teenagers. Three of them were also anxious and one was timidly following them.
"What should we do?"
"No one is trying to leave first."
"But what can we do?"
The three of them discussed. The timid one was still following them without any words.
Then one of the trio thought of something with a smirk on his face and said. "Ben, didn't you say you always wanted to do something heroic?"
"Eh, b-but t-that w-was when we were kids." The timid Ben said nervously.
The other two also caught onto his plan as they grabbed Ben's shoulders and said. "But you still have that aspiration, right? You want to be an idol figure for children and do something heroic."
"To be honest, I'm seeing you in a new light, Ben. For the sake of everyone, you want to be the first one to pass through the barrier." Both of them shouted emotionally, as if they were cheering but still suggesting their friend to change his decision.
The people nearby were surprised by the heroism of the kid.
"Young people are so brave these days." But none of them bother stopping him.
"N-no, I-I," Ben wanted to deny them, but before he could, the three of them already pushed him while faking sad expressions on their faces.
Ben saw that the red energy was coming closer and closer to his eyes and soon he touched the energy veil.
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