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Bwoooohh!!

The giant black fire stretched toward Aran and Lyrica, forcing them to run left and right to avoid it. Uruk's Dark Burst continued to go past the plateau without hitting anyone. But...

'That attack could have killed us both on the spot... Tch!' Lyrica irritatingly gritted her teeth before facing Uruk. "So what if you're a Wahika? Are we supposed to pity you because you're born to bring bad luck?"

Uruk chortled in response to the girl. "I don't need you or anyone's pity. I may have hated myself for being born a Wahika back then, but now things have changed. Right now, I love myself."

The Hari of Kruule suddenly spread his arms wide like a cross. Lyrica and Aran reacted by taking a battle stance whilst Kael is trying to pick himself up, thinking they might need his help.

"I want to embrace who I am." Uruk turned the palm of his hands in the air while looking at Lyrica with an evil smirk on his face. "Me who's a Bringer of Bad Luck!"

Thanks to the moonlight, what happened next overwhelmed Lyrica, Aran, and Kael with wonder and concern.

"What the?!" Lyrica said while looking up in the sky, her eyes trembling endlessly.

"What the hell are those?!" Aran followed suit.

Moments before the present occurred, Nina was taking care of Karen while Irelda, Onstad, and some Malayas are watching over the captured knights they gathered inside the cave they found not far outside the walls of the capital of Kruule.

"There's still room further inside."

"Take them in."

Gathering the knights they successfully captured was going so smoothly when suddenly, a flow of dark energy started leaking out of every soldier of Kruule.

"W-What's happening?!"

The three Payapas and the Malayas were startled by the sudden occurrence, not knowing it was just the start.

"Uruk! I will kill you!"

"You will pay, Uruk!!"

The captured knights stood up and shouted Uruk's name angrily as they tackled each of the Malayas in front of them.

"W-What's going on?!" Irelda asked Onstad as she pinned one of the captured knights against the wall with her forearm. "They're suddenly calling us all Uruk!"

"I don't know!" Onstad regretfully answered while also pinning down another captured knight with himself on the ground. The soldier of Kruule persistently did everything just for Onstad to release him. "All I know is that they all gone crazy!"

"Uruk!" Another Kruule knight approached Onstad from behind.

"Onstad, watch out!"

Just when the soldier of Kruule was about to swing his tied arms on the back of Onstad's head, Nina went and kicked the man to the side.

"Nina, thank you!" Said Onstad towards the female Payapa.

"Uruk!" Another knight shouted to Nina, making her furrow her eyebrows. "I'm not Uruk!"

Though she said that, it's clear her words aren't reaching the knight who's blinded with hatred just like the rest. At that moment, a fire arrow flew over Nina's shoulder and struck the enemy soldier's right eye.

"That arrow...!"

Nina turned around to see Karen barely keeping herself standing, her left eye shaded in red.

"I don't know what the hell's going on, but...!"

Seeing the surprised look in Karen's widened eyes, Nina once again heard the knight call her Uruk from behind. She averted her gaze from her sister, only to see a disturbing sight of the knight perfectly standing still while there's a fire arrow stuck in his right eye.

"That guy..."

"I'll kill you, Uruk!!"

The knight ran straight at Nina again. This urged Karen to finally make the fire arrow explode, strong enough so that she doesn't create collateral damage but still kill the knight.

"K-Karen, you..."

Onstad, Irelda, and Nina looked at Karen in concern.

"I had to do it," Karen defended herself. "We have to do something or it's us who will be killed! I'm sure Kalasag and the others outside think the same."

Karen was right. In truth, Kalasag and the others who are confronting the enemy soldiers that have yet to be captured are in a tougher situation. Not only are they stubbornly persistent that they wouldn't pass out no matter what Kalasag and the Malayas do to them, but their reckless attacks with their weapons are also making it hard for the forces of Reilaea to find an opening and capture them.

"Things are starting to get out of hand, it seems." Kalasag pummelled his shield toward a Kruule knight.

The same situation is happening in the town of Takkot.

"Are you all right, Mahal na Reyna?" One of the Makabayans standing in front of Amaya asked.

"Yeah," She replied whilst peeking between the Makabayans at the Mayor of Takkot who's being suppressed by a couple of other Makabayans to the ground. "So it's an Anino, after all. The one from thirteen years ago."

On top of him screaming Uruk's name in fury while struggling to break free from the Makabayans, the dark energy flowing out of the Mayor brought concern to Amaya.

Amaya followed the flowing energy trying to squeeze out of the tight corners of the glass window. She then opened the other glass window next to it and began hearing screams all around Takkot, the same flowing energy is seen emerging from the town before heading south.

"Aran, Kael, Lyrica..." Silently watching the spectacle, Amaya prayed to Mousai for Aran, Kael, and Lyrica's safety.

Inside Riko's residence, Carla is sitting alone in the living room, feeling worried and afraid whilst trying to endure hearing the screams of Mila, Esmeralda, Riko's siblings, and her family down in the basement.

She made sure to put everything heavy against the door so that they wouldn't be able to open it. However, seeing the flowing dark energy exiting the house from the basement made Carla feel even more restless and afraid.

'Please, hang in there, my family, everyone.' She pleaded in her thoughts. 'I'm sure Lyrica will find a way to fix it!'

Inside the prison chamber just under the royal castle, the three heroes, Reyna Elena, and Prinsesa Alena found themselves against the wall as Rea, Agatha, and her men turned aggressive towards them.

"What's wrong with them?!" Said the girl in a school uniform whilst hiding behind the two high school boys. "What's that shadowy thing leaving their bodies?!"

Unlike the three heroes, Elena and Alena possessed magic. However, the handcuffs that kept them restraint are specially made to suck out every ounce of mana of the wearer without putting harm to them. So the only option they have is to hope that the handcuffs restraining the assassins and Rea keep them in place while also hoping for help to come soon.

"Someone! Someone, please help us!" The girl wearing similar clothes as Lyrica shouted in desperation.

***

Going back to the same moment Aran and Lyrica looked up into the moonlit sky, where the two of them, as well as Kael, were stunned at the sight of what seems to be a growing mass of dark energy, Uruk uttered:

"This is me!"

Funnels emerged from the mass of dark energy like tendrils. They began extending toward Uruk. His body absorbed the energy like a vacuum.

"W-We have to stop whatever the hell he's doing!" Aran suggested as he tried to sprint at the Hari of Kruule. But Lyrica replied to Aran in decline. "You...?"

"You can't stop it. Approaching him now might just get you killed."

"Tch... So it's already too late, huh." Aran slowly pulled back.

"Help us..."

"Huh?"

Right before Uruk finished absorbing what little remained of the mass of dark energy in the sky, Lyrica picked up a faint voice asking for help.

'Someone's...'

While still keeping her guard up, Lyrica's eyes wandered in confusion. She wasn't sure if she was hearing things right because she was also picking up the faint screams of people all around the capital and from the royal castle.

"Help us!"

Fortunately, the same voice called for help one more time.

'There is someone! Where–!'

Dooohm!

"Ugh...!"

However, just when she determined the person calling for help was real, a sudden strong pressure made her freeze, her eyes went wide.

"W-What the hell is this pressure?!" Aran, down to his knees, asked.

"It's too heavy..." Kael commented from the sideline after having felt the same thing. "...It feels as though I'm being crushed by something..."

"Well, brats! Do you feel it? This power of hatred I got from everyone!" Uruk sniggered at the three. "By the way, I'm sure you can hear it already."

They do. They could hear the screams of people calling Uruk's name from inside the royal castle as well as in the whole capital. Those screams full of hatred resonated all around them.

"What have you done, you damn monster?!" Aran aimed the tip of his golden sword at Uruk.

"That's funny, Aran because I wouldn't have become a monster if not for the people like you three who look down on me for being the only one who didn't get a single magic ability!" Uruk responded in a boisterous manner. He then exhaled, allowing himself to calm down. "In any case, you're hearing those screams because my Spark's countdown has begun."

"Spark?!"

When Kael heard Uruk say that word, it immediately reminded him of the moment he found his father who's about to kill himself due to the Anino's influence.

"My Spark is a very versatile curse, you see." Said the Anino boisterously. "As long as I have my Spark inside an individual, I can absorb their hatred, draw the hatred they had in the past for me to feast on, manipulate their heart and mind so they can produce more hatred for me, and I can even possess them using it! But what I like about it the most..."

Uruk's gaze turned cold toward the three, a villainous smirk became visible on his face.

"...Is when I use it to drive them insane and kill them."