The shriek of the snail filled the skies. It sounded like a kraken rising up from the seas, its billow sending shivers down the spines of all who heard it.
At that moment, the beasts completely abandoned their battle with the government agents and rushed for Sylas.
The shock of the agents grew. Was this really necessary? Between Sylas and them, hadn't they caused the snail far more harm?
Sylas had already expected this to happen, but he chose this route nonetheless.
The black bear suddenly swiped out at him, its claw raking across the air and forming three lines of flame scythes. The attack appeared before him in the blink of an eye, but it was then that Sylas activated .
From high in the air, he suddenly plummeted down.
He crashed into the lava, sending a wave of it in all directions. It seemed that he would be swallowed up by it all, but that was when the fist he sent out early split it in two. From the beginning, it wasn't aimed at the black bear.
Sylas burst forward, losing some of his forward momentum backward due to the unstable lava. But he cast on himself again.
Every use of on his whole body cost twice as much and put a great deal of g-force on his inner organs. But right now, he couldn't afford the luxury of considering these matters.
He appeared before the black bear as the other beasts closed in, but his mind was so focused he didn't seem to notice anything else.
He erupted with three fist attacks, his kunai swarming the beast.
It felt like he had collided with a concrete wall, and the bear only took a single step back. Even his kunai reflected off its tough fur, sending sparks flying.
The black bear roared, standing on its hind legs and stomping down. Its paws became like twin meteors slamming toward Sylas' head.
It was right then that Sylas activated .
He had to do it now when the bear had already committed to an attack. He wasn't sure if it would have a Skill to dispel it or not, but if it didn't, with Madness activated, it would be suppressed for several seconds.
The beast lost control of its meteor Skill as its body went limp.
Sylas' gaze glowed fiercely as he suddenly poured a great amount of Aether into his fire crystal upgraded kunai.
The head of the black bear exploded.
He had poured an entire five Aether Units, boosting the Effectiveness of his 153 Strength by 75%. With the boost of the fire attribute, he gained another 5% on top of that.
The instant the black bear fell, the enraged call of the snail only grew more feverish. But there was nothing that it could do but lash, dozens more lances forming in the air as its beasts were stripped from its control.
Sylas immediately turned and rushed away. There were still several beasts swarming him, but the moment the connection broke they were stunned into a state of confusion, unsure of what was happening.
He took precisely this opportunity to burst free of the encirclement, closing in the distance toward the government agents.
When the beasts recovered, their instincts took over. Sensing the dense Aether around the portal, they rushed ahead. It almost looked for a moment that Sylas was controlling them all.
They were far more interested in the portal than they were in Sylas himself, even as the lances fell from the distance and the snail unleashed its absolute carnage.
Beasts didn't have any ingrained hatred against humans; at least they didn't have any more hostility than they might toward their fellow beasts. So, to them, running alongside Sylas or another creature was absolutely no different.
They only had extra incentive to run as they feared the strength of the snail as well.
However, in the eyes of the agents, it looked as though Sylas had managed to strip the snail of its control and now he was in control of all of these beasts.
Their pupils trembled, and their fear only became fiercer when Sylas suddenly released the reins on Madness.
The entire region became soaked in a mental attack and the gazes of the beasts all turned red.
When they met Sylas' slit gaze, their assumptions only set in further.
This man was a demon.
"Retreat!" Elise barked out an order. "We need numbers!"
She rushed backward, pulling out a walkie-talkie.
Sylas' gaze flickered. This was exactly what he had expected would happen.
He accelerated, pushing his Speed as far as he could.
When he burst through the portal, finally smelling Earth's air once more, he felt the need to roar to the skies. Unfortunately, he didn't have the luxury of relaxing.
The entire region was filled with black, military-armored humans, each of whom were wielding guns and weapons of their own. Even with a quick glance, the weakest of them was Level 3, and the strongest were at least Level 6 or 7. Though the latter was by far the minority, Sylas still felt his heart constrict.
Still, he had expected this as well.
If the government didn't secure this perimeter, they would be subjecting the entire city to a massacre. The heat in the region had already increased by several orders of magnitude. This was bad enough for public psyche without there also being a beast tide to deal with.
Feeling so many trained eyes land on him, it was still enough to make a child out of a man. But the surge of beasts that came afterward made it far easier on him in an instant.
What he didn't like was what he saw in the distance.
As expected, the government agents had certainly called for help, and it showed.
The trio rushed forward in a coordinated group, and even from afar, Sylas could already feel a great deal of pressure.