‎Rasmus walked out of the bathroom as he rolled his shirt and wore his wristwatch. He leaned next to the window and noticed the dark clouds had grown darker and thicker. He hadn't seen the sun for three days because of the dark clouds. He knew it was Satan's work to inflict fear, and it worked really well because people were anxious and some of them had been praying to God, asking for forgiveness and repenting for their sins.

‎The walk in the hallway felt eerie because it was dark and quiet. Everyone was preparing themselves for the final battle in their own ways. On the other hand, Rasmus' mind was stuck with what Videl said last night about the Ice Dragon. He was still trying to grasp what Videl had said about those creatures back on Earth, the creatures that appeared at the end of time.

‎"God loves to show his authority through fear and destruction. It's always the same, He created those creatures, hid them in the core of the world he created, and then released them at the end of those worlds. This world isn't an exception."

‎"This Ice Dragon that you mentioned, and what you heard from that past. It matched with what God had done before, many times. A creature that wasn't born from this world, a creature that descended to the world of the living, and then it was hidden, not dead, and it would appear at the end of the world."

‎"You're possessing that creature within you. It's both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that the creature is powerful, so powerful that it can't be defeated. The bad thing is that the creature is inside you, and you can't win against it."

‎"Either you fulfill your role by destroying this world, or God has His little secret, little game just for you to play. Either way, both might have something to do with God's involvement."

‎Those words from Videl were stuck in Rasmus' mind, and after all those conversations with Videl, it made him feel a bit disturbed. While his mind was wandering elsewhere, he didn't realize he had arrived, standing in front of the wooden door.

‎Rasmus took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment to push aside all the heavy thoughts in his head. He slowly opened the door and everyone became quiet in almost an instant. This feeling was similar to the one time everyone gathered before everyone took their separate ways to achieve their goals.

‎Carrion and Erlina managed to monopolize the Mana stone mines in South Neva with Anastasha's help. They also managed to monopolize the Mana stone market in both South and Central Neva. Those two had powerful figures in their palms, and they could become a new pillar in the business world.

‎Daryus, Serena, and Videl chose to stay in the Holy Nation, gaining both Astrea and Aurelia's trust. Daryus learned a lot in medicine and learned a lot about the reality he was living in. Serena got her freedom, or perhaps Lilith who got her freedom as Rasmus had promised, and she enjoyed every second of it. Videl had been silently using his minions to infiltrate the demon armies, gathering information without anyone knowing.

‎There were new faces in the group, Rullein and Yur that immediately blended in really well. There was another figure that some of them hadn't met yet, and it was Aider.

‎‎"Who's that man beside you?" Erlina asked, pointing at the man in squire attire with her folded fan. "I don't remember meeting him, and I assume the others haven't met this man either," she tilted her head, staring at Aider's eyes, feeling a bit uneasy by his presence.

‎"You can introduce yourself," Rasmus moved to the side, making Aided the center of attention while Rasmus went to pour himself a glass of whiskey.

‎Aider looked at each one of them in the eyes with the eerie gaze of his. He slowly pulled the face he wore, shocking everyone even Serena and Videl. Aider wore another face beneath it, a face he always wore, his jester's face.

‎Aider began to spin around before he raised his hand, pulling out his jester hat out of thin air. He kept spinning until his squire attire turned into jester attire in just the blink of an eye. Once he was done with his performance, he put his jester hat on before he bowed his head down in front of everyone. When he grinned widely, none of them found him disturbing, not even a flinch.

‎The way they stared at Aider was similar to how Rasmus stared at him for the first time. They all had the same scalpel-like sharpness of gaze that tried to dissect the identity beneath the mask of skin that Aider wore. He planned to see what kind of people that followed Rasmus, and yet he felt like he was in the position as what he wanted them to be.

‎"Greetings, my name is Aider Sullivan. I'm a..." Aider paused, his pupils looked up for a moment, thinking. "A slave? I'm a jack of all trades but master of none," he giggled eerily.

‎Carrion, Erlina, Daryus, Serena, and Videl raised their brows, slowly moving their gazes toward Rasmus. Rasmus was unbothered by their gazes, still taking a sip of his whiskey while facing the wall.

‎"A bit of warning, don't take his words too seriously or you would dance on his palm without you knowing," Rasmus said as he walked to the window, slowly opening it widely. "As for you," he glanced at Aider as four figures entered the room through

‎The window. "You're standing in front of a tough crowd. One wrong word, if they want you dead, I don't need their permission to do so," he warned, and then his focus shifted toward the four figures kneeling in front of him.

‎Javi looked at those four figures wearing all-black attire, masks that covered the lower half of their faces. He was interested in Aider because of his unique body movements, but his interest shifted toward those four figures. He could tell they weren't second-rate assassins, but they weren't as skillful as him.

‎"These four are the ones I appointed as the heads of the Black Hands. One report to another, creating a chain command from the organization or unit that my father left for me," Rasmus said as he stared down at those four.

‎Ayla was the first to introduce herself, then Joshua, Erdinand, and then finally Herman. The four of them were the ones Rasmus could rely on when it came to gathering information since they used to lead the Black Hands in four different missions, infiltration, gathering information, assassination, and observation. Ayla was specialized in infiltration, Joshua was specialized in observation, Erdinand specialized in gathering information, and Herman was specialized in assassination. However, all Black Hands were capable of doing those four things, but these four people were the ones that were better than the rest.

"Javi, you're now going to become the leader of the Black Hands. Can you do it?" Rasmus asked with his brows raised. "I want you to teach them your abilities, make them better, become the best of the best," he added.

"Yes, Count," Javi nodded with understanding.

"All of you, if you need the Black Hands' services, you can request it to Javi," Rasmus looked at everyone in the room.

Everyone nodded with understanding, knowing they might need their services in the future.

"So? What's our plan now? We are stuck here in this city and soon the demons are going to attack us. What do you want us to do?" Serena asked, crossing her legs and resting her head on her fist.

"We will fight them. Aris, Rullein, Serena, Videl, and I are going to be at the frontline. The rest of you, you can stay here and do whatever you want. Or you can watch if you dare," Rasmus answered as he poured whiskey into his glass.

"Well, Videl and I had another plan in mind," Serena glanced at Videl with a smirk on her face. "We want to take the corpse of the Zevrathi. After all, the demons want it as well, and the cult also wants that, so we will take it for ourselves before they could do it," she explained.

Rasmus looked at the two of them for a moment before he gave a nod.

"Speaking of the cult," Rasmus looked at Erdinand. "Have they finally arrived?" He asked.

"Yes, My Lord. Luke and Harot have arrived the city, and we came here to inform you about them," Erdinand answered as he lowered his head.

"Perfect," Rasmus muttered as he looked outside the window. "I want to meet them now, so can you lead me to them?" He asked.

Erdinand nodded and then Rasmus followed the four of them out of the palace. Serena and the others were curious why Ramsus wanted to meet them, so they decided to follow them as well.

Erdinand led them to the east side of the city on the outer layer of the city. The house Erdinand pointed at was an ordinary house, and they had observed the people that stayed in the east side were all refugees, and they believed some of them were cultists.

Without having to wait, Rasmus barged into the house and it startled a few people that were inside the house. They were shocked when they saw Rasmus, and they hurriedly informed Luke about him and his people. Look came out of the room and he looked a bit anxious when Rasmus was there, especially with all the people behind him. Harot became extremely pale when he saw Videl, and his hands trembled in fear when Videl stared right into his eyes, knowing his origin.

"Good evening," Rasmus smiled coldly at them.