Although the pain from the earlier impact with the wall still lingered and his vision suddenly became blurred, Zavi forced himself to stand and approach the man.

  He raised his hand, staggering forward, his trembling index finger pointing toward the man.

  "Y-You...?"

  Hearing that, the man turned his head.

  "Don't come any closer...!" the man said in panic as he moved away from Zavi.

  "Are you Mister Albert?" His face tightened as he asked with trembling lips.

  'How could he be here? Could it be...' he thought.

  For some reason, after being thrown back and his back crashing hard against the wall, his vision suddenly became blurred again.

  Zavi did not know what was actually happening to him, but one thing was clear in his mind.

  'Is this the work of the robed people around here who are watching me? Does this mean I'm one of those unlucky transmigrators?'

  Meanwhile, the man hesitated, unsure whether he should be honest or not. He pulled another talisman from the pocket of his coat and immediately threw it behind him.

  Whoosh... Shatter...

  The talisman, which had a complicated pattern, shattered like ash from burning paper. Its fine dust floated through the air and stuck to Zavi's coat, making the mist that disturbed his vision seem as if it were somewhere else before slowly disappearing.

  After throwing the talisman, the man, who was none other than the real Albert, took a deep breath and said in a hoarse voice,

  "Can you see clearly now? I thought you were affected by the spiritual power of wandering spirits, or maybe..."

  Before he could finish his important words, Albert's two companions appeared from behind, emerging from the narrow alley in the same condition as him, although their bodies were also covered in dust.

  "Damned dust," said the woman with black hair tied back, brown eyes, and wearing a black lace dress. She quickly caught her breath, then continued, "Did you manage to escape from that person?" she asked between breaths.

  Albert glanced quickly before answering in a low voice, "No... He suddenly disappeared. Did the two of you find that person?" he asked back.

  'It would be dangerous if they managed to escape from here,' he thought while letting out a breath.

  The man standing behind the woman replied in surprise,

  "They disappeared too. They must be doing something in this city, far from the authority of the Kingdom of Norn."

  "But I thought—"

  "Wait a moment!" Albert cut in while holding his chin. "Domination, you mean? Are they planning to rebel in Sanerva and recreate that incident?"

  The black-haired woman and the black-haired man nodded at the same time, their faces filled with disbelief.

  Albert turned his body and looked at Zavi, who was sitting with his head resting against the wall.

  "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" Zavi asked in surprise.

  'What exactly are they talking about? Domination, and that incident?' he wondered.

  Albert cleared his throat twice, gave a faint smile, then said with a tired expression, "No. Maybe it's just your imagination."

  "Who is that bookworm?" the woman asked bluntly.

  'Huh? Bookworm? It's true I'm not handsome, but don't call me that, you bitch,' Zavi thought inwardly with an expression of disbelief.

  'Hey, hey. What are you talking about?' Albert panicked, looking left and right in confusion, afraid that Zavi, who was an acquaintance of his from Forn, would be angry at him for having such a rude friend.

  The black-haired man with bright blue eyes that contrasted with the moonlight nudged the woman beside him. He cleared his throat and said, "Apologize to him. Now!"

  Hearing and seeing the man, Luke, frown, the black-haired woman whose hair was tied with a silver accent, Feyne, immediately became nervous, forgetting how to breathe for a moment.

  'Ah, why is he looking at me like that! Damn it,' she complained inwardly.

  She took a deep breath, stepped forward until she was one meter from where Zavi sat, then slightly lowered her head and said in a low and sincere voice, "I apologize if my words hurt your feelings."

  'Isn't that strange?' Zavi thought, still trapped in the mindset of his former life on Earth.

  He still felt insecure about his appearance, even though Zavi's body was actually quite handsome. Yet somehow he still felt awkward and out of place.

  Zavi tried to stand and said, "No need to think about it."

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The three of them only stood there in silence, their mouths tightly closed, not knowing what else to say.

  Albert, who stood in front of Zavi, smiled faintly while looking at him, then stepped closer and patted his shoulder.

  "I know that. You must have been through a lot," Albert said gently.

  Then he quickly added in a whisper, "Yes, Forn told me that you used to always be mocked about your problematic height."

  "Huh?" Zavi smiled, trying to deny it, but it was actually true. "Damn. That woman still had time to tell you about that, huh?"

  'But how is she now?'

  A few seconds later, from the direction of the fountain, on the left side of the one-way road where they were standing, Karl appeared, running hurriedly with a panicked expression toward the four of them as he was chased by a strange creature behind him.

  The creature looked like a cat, but it was unclear whether it was really a cat. It had a long tail with teeth that moved every second all the way to the tip of its tail.

  "Damn... So you really are here, Zavi," Karl said while running breathlessly.

  They looked at each other without reacting at all.

  "Why are you just standing there? Do you want to die by that horrifying creature?" His tone suddenly rose. He glanced behind before continuing, "Ah... Damn it. Doesn't that creature get tired of chasing me endlessly?"

  Zavi frowned.

  'Without the glasses, where is his real body now?' He turned his head, staring carefully at the strange creature while standing.

  'What kind of strange and horrifying monster is that?' His eyes widened as he examined its form more carefully from head to tail.

  The four of them did not run. Instead, they stared with curiosity at the small creature that had frightened Karl.

  Karl ran past them for several meters, and his body slowly began to disappear, swallowed by the faint light in the distance, and by the time the strange creature was about to pass them, it suddenly stopped.

  Its purple eyes burned like flames inside a furnace, filled with fear after staring at Zavi who stood before it, but in truth it was afraid after seeing a winged creature floating above his shoulder.

  Uww...

  The strange creature immediately turned around and tried to run away with all its strength, but only a few steps from where it had stopped earlier, its body faded as if something was pulling it away.

  A being capable of creating Chalog, animals mutated by excessive exposure to spiritual energy, such as cats, rats, cockroaches, and other animals, evolving into horrifying forms with destructive power.

  "What was that just now? It disappeared?" they exclaimed almost at the same time with shocked eyes.

  After the strange creature disappeared, four more people emerged from the narrow alley where Albert had appeared earlier, where fragments of wooden crates were scattered after flying in every direction by themselves.

  Hearing footsteps near them, the four reflexively turned toward the alley and exchanged glances, unsure whether they were just ordinary people.

  It felt impossible that anyone would dare wander outside at night because of fear, making them wonder whether this was actually the group they had been searching for all this time.

  "Who are you?" Albert asked while hiding a sleep talisman behind his coat that fluttered with every gust of the night wind.

  Zavi, Albert, and his two companions stared cautiously at the people in front of them as they fully revealed their faces.

  Two men and two women, all wearing thin white shirts with black suits hanging over their shoulders and long black trousers.

  They looked back at the same time, letting the question hang in the air without a definite answer.

  The street atmosphere became silent after their appearance, the night wind blowing strongly as if signaling that the situation around them had changed.

  The mysterious people exchanged glances, and the one standing on the right gave a signal with his finger accompanied by a glance.

  Snap...

  The sound of a finger snap was heard, and the four of them immediately moved together, leaving the narrow alley and running along the edge of the sidewalk, thinking of escaping from them.

  Then...

  "Sleep within a dream without a clear end," Albert said while holding the talisman a few inches from his face before throwing it forward.

  Whoosh...

  The talisman shot through the air like a bullet before sticking precisely to the white shirt of one of the women running behind her companions.

  "What is this...?" the woman whispered in panic, her eyes seeing the world around her spinning as her body froze instantly.

  It felt as if her body was being absorbed by something she could not explain. A few seconds after that sensation appeared, her consciousness began to fade, drifting into a dream without a clear end.

  Her body collapsed, both hands stretching forward as she fell face-first onto the stone road. Her forehead was slightly scratched, and now she was trapped in a dream without time, unless the talisman's influence was removed from her body.

  Her three companions stopped at the same time, turned around, and widened their eyes when they realized their friend had been struck by the supernatural power thrown by the people they had encountered earlier.

  "Damn..." the two men cursed angrily.

  Not wanting the mysterious group to escape and each wanting to interrogate them further, Albert ordered his two companions to move immediately and secure the woman.

  "Feyne and Luke, I'll rely on you," Albert grinned at the two of them.

  Feyne snorted in annoyance and said in a tired tone,

  "Alright, the honorable Mister Hammond."

  They immediately moved forward to capture the woman affected by the endless dream talisman, without thinking of capturing them all.

  Meanwhile, when Albert turned to the right, he was surprised to see that Zavi had already moved first. He shook his head and said to himself with a faint smile, "Huh? I can't stop him either."

  'I also don't know what he's actually doing here,' he whispered inwardly.

  Albert decided to follow his three companions who were already ahead. For a moment he thought that he might have captured the wrong people, but instinctively he knew that these four people were the ones he had been searching for for the past two days.

  'I don't know whether they truly intend to destroy everything in Moran. That would be terrible,' Albert thought as he prepared to pull his silver revolver from the pocket of his coat.

  On the other side, a woman with short black hair reaching her ears stared at her friend's body lying cold on the stone road, not knowing what to do as she looked at the three people approaching her from there. Her blue eyes glimmered, filled with the fear of losing someone.

  "What are we going to do?" she asked anxiously, turning to her two companions who seemed unsure what they should do.

  The black-haired man, with deep brown eyes as if he had gone through many things, let out a short sigh. "It will be bad if we are all captured," he said thoughtfully.

  'Are they from the city's security side or working under the order and the church?' he thought while looking at his two companions.

  A man standing in the middle exhaled calmly, knowing that Zavi, Albert, and the others would soon catch up.

  "Stay here!" The man immediately approached Mitsu who was sleeping not far from him.

  "Idiot! Are you seriously going to fight them alone, Moreira?" said the messy-haired man with a voice full of disbelief at such reckless action.

  After reaching her, Moreira lifted Mitsu's body.

  "What is this?" he said in surprise, feeling a cold sensation spreading through the tips of his fingers, then crawling upward and spreading throughout his body.

  'The effect of the talisman?'

  Quickly, Moreira searched for where the talisman was attached and swiftly removed it before he too was dragged deeper into the endless dream.

  Then Moreira decided to move forward, carrying Mitsu, even though it added to the burden while he ran, but he was determined to bring her to his two companions so they could escape and return to Hava as quickly as possible.

  He had a plan that might be almost impossible to carry out alone. That was to hold back the four people behind him so his three companions could return to Hava safely. If everything went as he imagined, Moreira would immediately use a level five spell, teleportation.

  "Take her and run as fast as possible," Moreira said while handing Mitsu to the messy-haired man. "I might only be able to hold them for a few minutes, and I'm not sure whether one of them is a Receivers." He slowed his speech in the final seconds.

  Then he quickly added, "One more thing. Be careful not to encounter the black-haired man with brown eyes."

  They nodded, turned around, and followed Moreira's instructions to run toward what he believed was a safe place, a forest area with towering trees, thick darkness devouring everything.

  Moreira glanced at his companions from a distance, thinking that perhaps he would never meet them again.

  "I'm sorry if I don't come back," he whispered, his expression turning serious.

  Zavi, Albert, Feyne, and Luke finally arrived.

  Without realizing it, they had already been manipulated by a mysterious figure who had been watching them since their first encounter until now.

  Albert and Zavi thought the same thing. Losing the other three could change the situation and ruin the plan they had imagined.

  "Be careful. He must be hiding something," Albert said with a furrowed brow while preparing to pull his revolver.

  After exchanging glances, Zavi first checked the surrounding area, making sure there was no one nearby who could be hit by a bullet or disturbed by the sound of gunfire, although the possibility was small.

  After confirming that, he took a deep breath, and something strange suddenly crossed his mind.

  'Where is Karl now?' Zavi thought with a faint smile, realizing that the road ahead led to a dark area filled with tall trees.

  A few seconds later, the situation suddenly changed completely.

  Without realizing it, Zavi had actually come here to monitor the movements of the disguised members of the Finiscya sect.

  And his encounter with the strange creature earlier, as well as those four people, were all part of a plan they had arranged, though it was unclear why they were doing it.

  "Good, good. Do the five of you want to play with us?" said a robed man with a heavy voice, his face hidden beneath the hood as he stood on top of a building.

  Then from below, Zavi, Albert, Feyne, Luke, and Moreira became confused after hearing that voice.

  They raised their heads and were shocked to see around ten people dressed the same way, all staring at them sharply from above.

  "Who are they? Are they your friends?" Moreira asked in confusion.

  'That is completely impossible.' The corner of Zavi's mouth lifted as he answered inwardly.

  He slowly pulled the brown pistol from the pocket of his coat, intending to kill the robed group before they killed him.

  But just as he took out his pistol, from behind him, one of the robed figures who had been observing Zavi's suspicious movements suddenly jumped down, landing right behind him, then kicked him hard directly in the groin.

  "Ah. Damn." Zavi muttered in disbelief, clutching the pain while turning his head before finally collapsing face-first onto the stone road.