The Phoru Cult

Meanwhile in her own world, Saros was sitting in her bed peacefully, when suddenly, she saw a mysterious man, who is presumed to be a leader of an another cult formed by former cult members of Crescentia and as she tried to confront him, they were surrounded by Phorus, who kicked her out of her own house after she threatened him and them to get out of her house with her staff, which led to her teleporting to the demon world in disappointment.

In the demon world, Elsword and Aisha happened to find a disappointed Saros, and told her what's wrong, in which she tells them that the man forcibly kicked her out of the house and had brainwashed numerous Phorus to be at his side, which left the former of the two feeling angry and wanting to deal with the man himself, but the latter told him not to do it on his own, and after that, he came back to the scene, beaten up by the man himself, and said to Aisha "How dare he..."

The victim's best friend, Rosana, a talented sword dancer, walked in to help her friend out, and back to the former's world, a male Phoru tells the mysterious man that the heroes have came in to get revenge at them, and suddenly, the door broke, and turns out, it was none other than Elsword, Aisha, Saros and her best friend, who all actually came in to get revenge on the man who kicked her out.

Saros told the man "This is my place, sir. Please get out or else I'm going to kick you out." The man taunted her, and grabbed a camera from his hands, taking photos of the heroes without their consent, in which Elsword broke the camera with his sword and told him "No photos allowed, dude!" Aisha responded with "She's just asking you politely to get out of her place, sir."

Saros' best friend introduced herself as Rosana, and yelled at the man while aiming her sword at him "Who do you think you are, huh? Mister, you're trying to forcibly evict my friend out of her house and claiming that house is yours when it's actually hers?" Rena appeared out of nowhere and told Elsword and Aisha "Wait a second... Who is that guy that I've never heard of before?" The former of the two replied "That guy is the one who forcibly kicked Saros out of her own house and now we're trying to help her regain that house!"

Crescentia, Rufina and Laban barged from the window, to everyone's surprise. Just as the mysterious man was about to trap his enemies inside a room where they cannot get out until they kiss for 20 seconds, the former of the three kicked his head and told him "Hey! What are you doing?! Leave them alone!" before teleporting the man and his Phoru henchmen in the place of the heroes while putting them in his place.

Saros taunted him, telling him goodbye while waving her hands at him, and thanked Crescentia for helping her regain her house, until Laban suddenly recognizes multiple hailstones targeted not only towards him, but the others around him, in which Elsword told Aisha and Rena to not give up and team up against that man, only for them to get unknowingly trapped inside the room in question, with the mysterious man revealing himself to be none other than Frostine's older brother Froid, telling them "Hope you have a nice day in that room."

Upon waking up in the room only to find out that Rena was gone, the remaining characters in the scene, Elsword and Aisha got stunned and panicked at the same time, and they wanted to find a way to get out of the room as soon as possible. The latter of the two told him to look at the other wall, and the two looked at the other wall, with a sign that reads "You can't leave this room until you kiss for 20 seconds" in Korean, which led to them blushing and staring at each other in awkward silence, pretending that nothing happened, when suddenly... he told her "Well... In order to get out of this room safely, let's kiss each other for 20 seconds." 

This led to her being confused and immediately said to him "Wait! Are you sure about this?! You want to kiss me?! No way, you dummy!", which ultimately led to them having an argument over the kiss, and in the end, she changes her mind about it and eventually kissed him, but it exceeded 20 seconds, and it lasted for 3 minutes until they stopped kissing. To their surprise, the door opened, which allowed them to leave this room and go to an another room, where they saw something shocking.

Turns out, Saros and her best friend Rosana, as well as Rena were being held hostage by Froid himself, with Laban and Seneca trying to fight against him, but the latter almost forced her to kiss him, only to get screwed over by her boyfriend, who threatened him, saying to him "If you dare to get involved with my girl, I'll crush that skull of yours."

Crescentia appeared out of nowhere and said to Froid "Hey, you bastard! How dare to try to force someone who already has a boyfriend to kiss you when you already have a wife and son on your own!" He responded "I thought she doesn't have any boyfriend, but that Laban... How dare he..." Suddenly, Elsword and Aisha came to the scene, ready with their weapons and for combat, in which the former told him "Hey Emperor Arcanum! Where's Rena?"

Froid replied to him, "She's in a cage." This led to the latter and Aisha getting outraged to the point they attacked him, but in the end, they were surrounded by the Phoru he summoned, and were forced to ask for help, until a wild Derurung came out of nowhere, and attacked them by turning itself into a snowball, also hitting the man in question as well.

Laban and Seneca saw the scene, in which the latter told the former "Who's that pet?" He replied "That's a Derurung!" Frostine walked in the scene, in which the Derurung in question runs to her and told the two "That's right. This is my Derurung. His name is Chilly." This led to not only the two of them, but Elsword and Aisha admiring him to the point he was considered a celebrity not only in Saros' own world, but everywhere, humiliating her older brother Froid himself, which led to him issuing an ultimatum to her, which was either to save her friends if she euthanized her pet or keep them hostage if she wanted to keep it.

However, Frostine wanted to keep her Derurung and save her friends at the same time, so she resorted into punching him in the head, only for Froid to reassure everyone that he wasn't the leader of the cult, but rather a mysterious being that hides its entire body under a hood and cloak that manipulated him into doing their dirty work on their own behalf, only known by the nickname they gave to themselves: Shadow (그림자).

Suddenly, Shadow appeared out of nowhere, and secretly freed the three hostages before disappearing, with Crescentia thanking them for saving the allies on her behalf. Rena ran to hug Elsword and Aisha, and were peacefully reunited, and in turn thanked them for saving her. However, they weren't as friendly as they thought, as the former cult leader herself told them that this individual, otherwise known as Shadow, was one of her henchmen, but upon finding out that she disbanded her cult, they would create a cult of their own, by recruiting multiple Phorus and brainwashing them into believing their lies, which was the reason why she came to stop them before its too late.

Everyone were shocked to learn this truth, and shifted their focus towards the mystery guy, now named Shadow, so they all got out of the hidden basement and threw multiple rocks before covering it with concrete, and started to search for its whereabouts. Turns out, the individual had a similar background to Elsword and Saros', but unlike the two's fathers who left them behind, their parents had abandoned them for a long time, back when Shadow themselves was using he/him pronouns and used to go by the name of Minuit, who was a Rubenian.

Not long after Minuit was abandoned by his biological parents, he was taken to the care of the Solace clan, and just like his friends Solace himself and the El Lady herself, he was bullied by the other members of the clan themselves, especially by the former's stepbrother Sigmund, which led to him having a grudge against him and making a plan to take revenge on him, but the latter was already killed by his stepbrother in the end for harassing and sabotaging the Lady's powers herself.

However, this led to Minuit leaving the Solace clan because of how they treated him and his friends horribly, and on the way to Elrianode, he found a hood and a cloak, in which by the time he wore it on his body, he started calling himself Shadow and used they/them pronouns to refer to himself, and therefore was taken as a member of Crescentia's cult, where they became a henchman of the cult leader herself.

Back to the present-day, Shadow appeared out of nowhere, and they commanded for Elsword, Aisha, Rena and Crescentia to be surrounded by their Phoru henchmen, in which they told them to make the trio unconscious by luring them to drink sparkling water with sedatives in it and take them away, and the henchmen obeyed them by doing so, to the horror of Frostine, her pet Chilly, and her older brother Froid, who all ran to save them as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Elsword woke up in the cult's secret hideout, with both his wrists and ankles tied up next to a tree stump with a rope, and said "Wait... Where am I?" before noticing a wild Hoya, in its adult form, walking next to him and he took advantage of this opportunity to save himself, by telling it to cut the ropes that have been restraining his wrist, in which it obeyed him and helped him out by cutting the rope that was also restraining his ankles as well.

He said to the Hoya in question "Thank you!" It said "You're welcome, my master." This led to him getting confused, and they asked him "What is my name?" This led to him getting confused on what to name it, before eventually naming it Kano. And thus, his adventures with his pet Kano began, while he continues to find and save Aisha and Rena from the cult. On his way to save them, he found his sword on the other side, and next to the sword was a knife and a couple of shuriken left behind by Shadow shortly after the El Explosion.

By then, Elsword had already gotten his sword back and secretly took Shadow's knife and shuriken with him, in order to save his allies. Suddenly, he and his pet were surrounded by the Phoru members that were watching him the whole time, but that didn't stop the two friends from giving up on their goal, as the former of the two glitter bombed some of them, and took Kano with him.

While on his way to save them, he saw Aisha hanging, with her right ankle tied to a tree branch with a rope, and knowing what to do to save her, he used Shadow's shuriken to cut the rope, freeing her, in which she said to him "Thank you, Elsword!" before noticing Kano, and said back to him "Wait, who is that pet?" He later responded with "Aisha, that's Kano. They saved my life a few minutes ago."

Suddenly, there was an another pet that considered Aisha as its master, and it was none other than Rivera, and both of them were shocked at the same time. Ultimately, she decided to adopt it as well, and so, the four heroes went on to save Rena as well.

By the time they arrived, Elsword and Aisha saw Rena getting carried away by Shadow, and they immediately started to run after them, while yelling "Bring it on, Shadow!". Suddenly, the cult leader summoned their Phoru members to attack them, but they were later killed by the shuriken, which allowed the heroes to continue chasing Shadow.

As they were being followed by them, Shadow ended up throwing Rena to the ground, and in turn for letting her go, Elsword and Aisha taught them a lesson by beating them up with their weapons and using their fire ability on them, and while they were in the middle of the act, Crescentia appeared out of nowhere and told them to stop handling things recklessly on their own, which led to an intensified argument between the three of them, and by the end of their argument, she ended up spanking both of them and tells them that she's around the same age as their friend and will handle the situation with Shadow on her own.

Saros appeared out of nowhere, and thanked Shadow for saving her and her best friend, only for Elsword to convince her that they're a traitor, and he told her to come with him and Aisha to see Rena. As the three of them were standing in front of her unconscious body, and crying until she woke up from her unconsciousness, which led to the trio being reunited and hugging each other, for the second time.

After the trio were done hugging each other, Saros was gone, and Rosana rushed over to tell Aisha about her disappearance, and not long after she told her about her disappearance, she was also kidnapped by Shadow's cult members. This led to Aisha discussing plans with Elsword and Rena about saving the two friends from their cult, now nicknamed the Phoru Cult, and uncovering the mysterious man's real identity, in which Crescentia asked if she could join them in their quest to save both Saros and Rosana from the cult, and they agreed to let her help them in the quest.