She looked at me for a few seconds, saying nothing, before just nodding simply as the sounds of swords swinging, knights screaming grew louder ahead.

"You don't believe me?"

"What's your favorite food, Luci?"

"Uh?" What's with the sudden change of topic? "Fried noodles? Maybe cold coffee in drinks…" She nodded seriously. I was half expecting her to ask what noodles are, but she knew.

"I had no idea… You only ate the cheapest meals on any menu, even when those amazing human establishments offered a lot of amazing things." She said with a soft smile.

"So, you believe me, Alya?" I crushed her attempts at changing the topic.

"…I don't." She shook her head with a gentle smile. A beautiful smile filled with self-deprecation.

I was pretty sure if she were to angrily slap me twenty times, it wouldn't have hurt as much as her current reaction.

Being as observant as she was, she ruffled my head. "But, I know there was a reason you didn't use it. You were in a worse position than I was. If you could've, you would've used it."

"I am sure you won't do anything like that now… You changed. And, I am liking that change. Loving it." Before I could be happy, she added a huge "But" at the end.

She took a deep breath. "I am just a tiny bit sad you didn't tell me about it…"

Her eyes were still searching. There were some things that she really needed an explanation for.

I needed to lie. I bit my lip. That was the only solution I could think of.

My eyes became emotionless. "You're right, Alya. I haven't been completely honest with you." Her face turned bitter at my bluntness.

I increased my walking pace as she followed easily. "This was a gift from her, my mother. With this artifact, I can… summon powerful heroes from who knows where. I still have no idea about how it does it, or if it will even work." I explained with a shrug as her pupils dilated.

Many eyes from ahead were also trembling at the casual bombshells I dropped.

"So… this, this, is a divine-grade artifact…" I picked up a mutter from my enhanced senses.

"Hero… summoning?!" Alya's face lost some color.

She knows something?

"Yes, hero summoning." I wasn't sharing details about the 5x rewards or primordial trials because then things would just get too complicated. And I didn't really know much myself.

Her eyes only widened as I continued. "I couldn't have summoned him in the cell because of having no control." I leaned in the direction she was already believing in.

"Even now, I can only give him one command. Then, he's free..."

Her body shook visibly as she forced a nod.

She bought it?

"I am sorry for lying like this… I didn't have a choice. I wanted to share it when I could use it…" My first line actually came from my heart. She seemed like the last person I would wanna lie to.

"You have no reason to apologize, Luci… You tried to not give me false hope." She flashed a genuine smile, showing off her white, cute fangs.

Grabbing my hand, she blushed. "Thank you for telling me the truth…" Her soft fingers tightened around my hand, as if never wanting to let go.

"Don't thank me. You deserved to know it." I smiled back.

Man… I am a scumbag.

"If you two love birds are done, could you listen for a minute?" Louise's cold glare instantly brought me back to reality.

Watching us get closer, he continued, "The captains outside have chosen to enter this place and hunt us down." He said with crossed arms.

"Aren't they too hasty to decide that? What if we were to sneak out now?" I asked. With that illusion ability, we just needed to avoid higher-than-Saint-class-level fighters.

"Wonder of Lies suddenly deactivated…. Illusions are off…" Kobi said through a clenched jaw and squinted eyes, barely holding back tears. It clearly meant something happened to Grant.

"I am sorry…"

"No, no! He should be able to survive." Kobi raised both his hands in front of himself at my presumption. "He should be making his way towards us." He sounded confident, but there were hints of coping. If fourteen-plus captains got him, it would be a very hard task.

"That isn't the issue. We are not getting out. We are fighting as we planned." Louise interrupted. I nodded. Their attack was expected.

"So, what do you want us to do?"

"We are ambushing them." Louise's lips curled upward in a smirk. "We are inferior in numbers, but really good at ambushes." Remembering how Zhenny sneaked up on us, even with all our enhanced senses, I had to agree.

"Suge will stay with you. Even though we are planning to assassinate every church captain and above in this building, there could still be mishaps."

"I will guide Ren and the other slaves' rescue mission. Try to keep up, vampire." An absurdly big, I am talking eight-foot-in-height and pro-bodybuilder-level perfect muscles, dark-skinned man walked up to us expressionlessly.

His face was just as big, with a long black beard covering his chin, as he turned towards the way ahead.

He was wearing a loose pair of white trousers with his upper body fully revealed. But as his head turned, my eyes widened.

His big head had giant fangs covering the edges of his forehead, long enough to reach his chin. A white tiger with black patch marks its skin all across, cover his wide back.

And the same tiger's intact upper jaw was used like a cap on his bald head. The tiger's ferocious golden eyes were wide open with fear, and its white furry hair was still completely preserved. His black dog-like ears weren't hidden by his 'hat'.

"Don't mind his rude tone, Lucien! He served as the Chief's personal guard for more than a decade. He's very good at his job." Kobi nodded repeatedly.

I was too taken aback by his appearance to reply.

"We will leave then. Get it done, Suge and Kobi." Louise muttered before the next moment, all the Alphas' figures blurred, and all of them vanished into the air, like they were never here, leaving a cold gust of wind behind.

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