Eissen turns around in the air towards Raven and swings his right kick.

  *DAHK*

  *!*

  He kicks Raven’s axe swings with his leg at their handles.

  *BAM*

  “UAAARRGGHHH!!”

  He quickly uppercuts Raven under his chin, lifting him a bit into the air.

  *GRABS*

  He takes Raven’s two axes from his hands.

  *CTANG CTANG CTANG CTANG CTANG CTANG*

  And blocks Robert’s and Diva’s shots with the flat side of the giant axes.

  “(Ah. . .)”

  *!*

  Eissen appears behind Martina. She turns around to face him and swings her black disk at his torso.

  *GRABS*

  He catches Martina’s wrist with his left hand.

  “You’re not fast enough, Martina-chan!”

  “I could never be faster than you, Eissen-sama!”

  “That’s great, because dealing with your disk's ability is quite annoying!!”

  “I’ll take it as a compliment, Eissen-sama!”

  Eissen summons his baton and thrusts it at her belly.

  *ZRRRTTTT*

  “AAAAAAAAAARRRRGGHHHH!!!”

  *THUD*

  He zaps her on her belly, and she falls to her knees from the numbness.

  “TCH!!”

  Robert is ready to fire his UZIs once again.

  *SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH*

  *!!*

  But he notices that there is suddenly a thick cloud of smoke coming from underneath his legs that quickly encapsulates him.

  *BAAAMMM*

  “AAARRGGHH!!”

  Diva suddenly groans in pain.

  “DIVA-CHAN?!”

  “It’s okay, Robert-kun! I only hit her gently and kicked her rifle away!”

  Eissen suddenly appears behind Robert again.

  “Heh! How are you appearing behind all of us constantly? I thought you needed to fire your bullets or swap yourself with your gadgets to do that?!”

  *DAHK*

  *BAAAMMMM*

  “AARRGGHH!!”

  Eissen sweeps Robert’s legs and stumbles him, making him lose his balance. He pushes Robert’s head down towards the ground immediately after he stumbled.

  “Correct! I did swap myself with my gadgets!”

  “Urrggh. . .”

  Raven gets up and stands up. He re-summons his giant two axes.

  “My slow movement is no match for your speed, Leader!!”

  “Well, then, stay put, alright?”

  *!*

  Eissen has already appeared behind Raven.

  *DAHK DAHK*

  “URGH!!”

  He kicks Raven on the back of his legs, behind the knees, and forces him to fall to his knees on the ground. He moves swiftly to Raven’s front and prepares his right palm.

  *DAHK*

  “UURRGGHH!!”

  *THUMP*

  He palm strikes Raven under his chin and sends him flying a bit off the ground, and he falls to his back to the ground.

  “(This takes me back. . .)” said Eissen inside his head while he grins widely subconsciously.

  *BWWOOOONNNGGG*

  “RAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

  Raiya appears behind Eissen. She lunges forward at him from a distance by pointing her two gauntlets behind and shoots two heat beams from her gauntlets, and the momentum pushes her forward really fast towards Eissen.

  Eissen quickly turns his head around to the incoming Raiya.

  *!*

  She sees that Eissen is smiling so confidently.

  “EISSEN-SAMA IS BAAAAAACCCKKK!!!” shouts Raiya.

  Eissen jumps a bit into the air and spins himself multiple times, and swings his right leg towards her. Raiya swings both of her gauntlets at Eissen’s torso.

  *DAHK*

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  Eissen kicks Raiya on her right gauntlet and sends her flying a bit to his right. Raiya swiftly points her left gauntlet behind.

  *BWWOOONNGGG*

  She shoots another heat beam behind to cancel the momentum she was going from the kick, and she flies forward back at him instead. Eissen lands on the ground after the spinning kick, while Raiya is already swinging her right gauntlet towards his face.

  *BANG*

  *!!!*

  Eissen suddenly shoots a bullet above and immediately swaps himself with it. He appears directly above Raiya while avoiding her punch at the same time.

  *DAHK*

  “AAAAAKKKHH!!”

  *THUMP*

  He descends towards her while doing a spinning axe kick, landing the kick directly at the top of her head. Raiya crashes into the ground while groaning in pain. Eissen also lands on the ground directly next to her.

  *BANG*

  Diva is now crouching on the ground 10 meters away from him and shoots her unmissable shot at Eissen once again. Eissen smirks and simply crouches and picks Raiya up. He holds her in front of him to take the hit from Diva’s bullet instead.

  “RAIYA-CHAN!! WAKE UP!!” shouts Diva in worry.

  *!!*

  Raiya opens her eyes and sees that Diva’s unmissable bullet is already 60cm away from hitting her face.

  *BWOOONNNGGGG*

  She quickly raises both of her hands forward and shoots two heat beams from her gauntlets against the incoming bullet.

  *BOOOOMMMMM*

  The two heat beams hit Diva’s energy bullet, and they explode in contact.

  “LEADER!! HOW DID YOU KEEP WARPING AWAY LIKE THAT? WHAT KINDA GADGET DID YOU SWAP WITH? WE DIDN’T SEE ANY GADGETS ANYWHERE NEAR US!!”

  Raven suddenly shouts from afar, demanding an explanation while he’s on his knees trying to stand up.

  *!*

  Eissen suddenly appears behind Raven once again.

  “It’s the spybots, Raven! Remember?”

  “THOSE TINY ROBOTS FOR SURVEILANCE? WAHAHAHAHAHA!! YOU STILL GOT IT, DON’T YOU, LEADER?”

  Eissen vanishes from behind Raven and appears behind Martina now, who’s also on her knees, trying to stand up.

  “I keep swapping places with five tiny bots that I secretly planted into all of your backs!”

  “I see! When did you even do that, Eissen-sama?” asks Martina.

  “Right when you four were talking so close to me when you first showed up! I controlled all of the spybots to crawl from my shoes and on the ground to climb to each of your backs!”

  “No wonder! Those spybots were as small as ants, and given our bodysuits, we couldn’t even feel them crawling and climbing our bodies.”

  “And as for Diva-chan, I already planted the spybots earlier during our first encounter!”

  Eissen disappears from behind Martina and appears behind Diva this time.

  “So, you guys still wanna take my head?”

  *!*

  Diva was startled, and she immediately jumped 5 meters away from Eissen. Robert, Raven, Martina, and Raiya also gather near Diva.

  “Of course, leader!!” said Raven.

  “This for your sakes and our creed’s sakes!” said Diva.

  “Still, those bodysuits really are great, huh? No matter how hard I hit you, none of you lost your consciousness. Wish I still had mine!”

  “What happened to your bodysuit, Eissen-sama?” asks Raiya.

  “I burned it!”

  *!!!*

  “Anything that would remind me of my old life and old self, I got rid of it!”

  “Does that mean you want to get rid of us, too, Eissen-sama?” asks Robert.

  “In a sense, yeah! But instead of getting rid of any of you, I’d prefer it if you guys were to quit your current life and enjoy life outside of the Underworld!”

  “That’s impossible, Eissen-sama!” said Martina.

  “We simply didn’t want to, Eissen-sama!” said Diva.

  “. . .I see.”

  Eissen was disappointed by their answer. His face looked a little bit saddened.

  “(So, he really cares about these people.)” said Mari as she kept watching the entire time.

  “Say, is it possible that any of you has unlocked Second State? Or do you have a specific plan to counter my Faith power?”

  “No, leader! We didn’t!” answers Robert.

  “But we did find some type of alternative!” answers Raiya.

  *?*

  “What do you mean? An alternative to Second State?”

  “We can’t beat you even if we ganged up on you, Eissen-sama!” said Martina.

  “So we resort to these!”

  At the same time, all five of them pull out a syringe each from their small detachable pockets.

  *!!!*

  Eissen notices that each of the syringes they hold has the same brighter colored red blood inside.

  “We will bury you with this, Eissen-sama!” said Raiya.

  “And if we failed and die in the process, then we all accept our deaths!!” declares Diva.

  All five of them lift up their syringe to the side of their neck. They have all unlocked the locking mechanism on the upper end of the syringe.

  “EVERYONE!! HOLD IT!! THAT THING IS DANGEROUS!! PLEASE DO NOT INJECT YOUR BLOOD WITH IT NO MATTER WHAT!!!” shouts Eissen desperately.

  “We’ve seen the effects, and it’s not dangerous at all, Eissen-sama!” said Robert.

  “Don’t worry! We are not gonna stop until we kill you anyway!” said Martina.

  “ONLY DOWNSIDE IS WE WON’T BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU A PROPER BURIAL AFTERWARDS, LEADER!!” shouts Raven.

  “GUYS, READY?” shouts Diva.

  “YES!!”

  The four of them answered positively.

  “LET’S KILL EISSEN-SAMA FOR HIS OWN SAKE!!”

  “YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

  *!!!*

  “EVERYONE, STOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPP!!!!!” shouts Eissen.

  Eissen’s friends pull down a bit of the body suit, covering their necks, and they all stab their own necks with the syringe.

  Or at least that’s what they thought was gonna happen.

  “Alright, I am not fighting five Kaijuu at once in the middle of the park, near the neighborhood area!”

  Mari suddenly appears next to Eissen.

  “Mari-chan!”

  *!!!*

  Eissen’s friends realized that the syringe that they all held was gone from their hands.

  “W-What?”

  “HUH?”

  “W-WHERE DID IT GO?”

  Eissen’s friends were all confused at how they could even lose their syringes when they all held them so tightly and firmly in their hands.

  *!*

  Diva looks to the front and sees that Mari is holding all five of their syringes in her hands.

  “Guys, look!” said Diva as she pointed to Mari.

  *!!!*

  “WHEN DID SHE TAKE IT?” said Raiya.

  “I DIDN’T EVEN SEE HER COMING!!” said Raven.

  “SHE’S FASTER THAN EISSEN-SAMA’S WARPS?!” said Martina.

  “IMPOSSIBLE!!” said Robert.

  *PRANG PRANG PRANG PRANG*

  *GRAAAAAAAHHHHHHKKKKKKKK*

  *!!!!*

  Mari drops all of the syringes to the ground and smashes them all by stomping really hard on them. She cracks the ground in a 4-meter radius as well in the process.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

  “THE BLOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!!”

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, LITTLE GIRL?”

  “THOSE ARE EXPENSIVE YOU BRAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT!!!!”

  “DON’T PLAY AROUND WITH DEMONIC STUFF, YOU LOT!!” said Mari with a threatening facial expression.

  *!!!*

  All five of them suddenly felt a chilling bloodlust coming from Mari. They all fell silent for a few seconds, even though all of them are professional assassins. To them, Mari’s bloodlust is on another level, and they have never encountered something like this previously.

  *BWOOOOSSHHH*

  But then, Raven suddenly charges forward, breaking the silence.

  “GUYS, IF WE DRINK THE BLOOD DIRECTLY, IT IS STILL USEABLE!!”

  *!!!*

  Raven was about to land on the ground right in front of Mari’s foot. He plans to lick a little bit of the blood from the ground.

  *WHAM*

  “UAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!”

  But Mari kicks him right in his face.

  *BWOOOOSSHHH*

  And he was sent flying back to the rest of his friends.

  *!*

  The four of Eissen’s friends activate their Vein armors at the same time.

  *DAHK*

  And they all worked together and caught the flying Raven safely.

  *THUMP*

  They all drop Raven to the ground in front of them.

  “Urrrggghhh. . .”

  “You, okay, Raven?” said Martina.

  The four of them crouch near him to check on him.

  “That kick was so fast!” said Robert.

  “I have to be honest, I didn’t even see that girl move her leg until I saw Raven flying backward to us.” said Diva.

  “She’s on a whole different level compared to Eissen-sama!” said Raiya.

  “Uuurrgghh. . . What should we do, guys?”

  Raven lifts his head a little and asks everyone.

  “. . . .”

  None of them was able to answer him.

  “So, Ei-chan. What now?” said Mari as she turned to Eissen.

  “I. . . really wanted to bring them out of the Underworld.”

  “But they themselves said they don’t want to, so, what now?”

  “. . .”

  Eissen looked down, and he looked sad.

  “Just so you know, I can knock them out easily, but forcing them to come with us won’t do any of them good, you know?” said Mari to Eissen.

  “D-Did you just read my mind? Are you a psychic, or is this part of your Faith power?”

  “I just don’t want you to regret anything regarding your friends the way I did.” said Mari with a voice that gradually turns mellow near the end of the sentence.

  Eissen looks towards Mari, and he smiles slightly.

  “I understand, Mari-chan! Thank you!”

  *!*

  Eissen suddenly gave Mari a very warm and gentle hug. Mari slowly hugs Eissen back, her face turning slightly red.

  “Y-You’re welcome.”

  *!!*

  Both of them suddenly let go of their hug and turned around towards Eissen’s friends.

  *GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*

  They saw that Raven, Robert, Raiya, and Martina were all lying on the ground, trying to sit up about three meters behind Diva. Diva herself is currently being swallowed up inside a pitch-black sphere, and there is a black light that shoots out the top of the sphere. Slowly and surely, the pitch-black sphere begins to crack.