The Author's POV

"Help you kill the Pillar Master?" 

Jin asked, utterly dumbfounded by Priscilla's words.

Did she want him to die that much?

Although he wasn't fully aware of what a Pillar Master was, just by the name he already had some ideas. 

"Is it because I don't want to give you the cigarettes? Does it warrant such hate?" 

"That's not it." 

Priscilla rolled her eyes. 

"I didn't say you should kill the Pillar Master. You're far from strong enough from being able to kill them." 

This much was obvious. 

Jin was barely in the Duke realm, and she was also stronger than him.

Furthermore, the Pillar Master was someone who had already reached the peak of Prince rank. There was no way he'd even come close to doing any damage to them. 

"What I'm counting on is for you to buy some time." 

"Huh?" 

Jin looked even more dumbfounded. Before he could say anything else, Priscilla pointed at the battle in the distance. 

"I don't need you to do anything to the Pillar Master. What I need you to do at the moment is join the battle over there." 

Following Priscilla's finger, Jin looked at the battle that was happening on the island.

He caught sight of a few familiar figures, of which was a large orc he had gotten to known quite well in Immorra, and several other thousands of troops.

Brutus. 

He was barely holding on at the moment with several Prince ranked demons attacking him from all sides. 

At a glance, it was clear that the demons were at an advantage. With the aid of monsters and beasts, it was almost a massacre.

They were just barely holding on at the moment, and the only reason why they were still alive was because of Brutus. 

"Join the battle over there and make sure you stall for as long as possible. So long as you don't lose, it'll all be alright " 

Frowning, Jin mused for a while. 

"What do you get out of this? Last I recall, I don't remember you saying that you want to join Ren's side… You also explicitly said you weren't on our side." 

"Yet." 

Priscilla cut. 

Turning her head to look at Jin, she smiled slyly. 

"I'm not on your side yet…" 

"What is that supposed to mean?" 

"Mhm, who knows?" 

Priscilla mysteriously smiled, her gaze fixed on the fight that was happening in the distance.

'Just what is she thinking?'

Jin thought as she stared at her from the side. The more time he spent with her, the more Jin realized that the arrogant stalking demoness was not as simple as she looked. 

Tearing her gaze away from the fight, she looked back at him. 

"Let's say we're waiting for a little something. So long as he keeps his end of the deal, we might just come to your side." 

"Huh?" 

Her words left Jin confused, but after thinking for a while, a certain crossed him and he looked enlightened. 

Extending his hands, two daggers appeared and he pointed them at the battle in the distance. 

"I just have to keep the hanging for longer, right?" 

"Yup." 

Priscilla nodded. 

"…You just have to keep them alive for a little longer." 

She repeated in a slow manner, and Jin clenched on his dagger more tightly. 

"Got it." 

Without further ado, black threads sprouted from the ground and his figure started to melt alongside them. However, just as he was about to leave, a hand pressed against his shoulder. 

"Wait a minute." 

"Huh?" 

Confused, Jin turned his head, and when he did, his expression crumbled. 

"Give it."

***

[Pillar of Lust] 

"Come this way."

Angelica called to Hein and Ava as she led them outside of the forest. They followed closely behind her, curious about where she was taking them.

As they stepped out of the forest, they were met with a breathtaking sight that left them speechless. Their gazes paused on the landscape ahead of them, taking in the grandeur of the sight.

"Is that a mountain?"

Ava asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Hein could only nod in agreement, his eyes still locked on the towering peak in the distance.

"That… It's rather big."

Hein eventually said, his eyes losing slight focus. 

The first thing that struck them was the sheer size of the mountain.

It towered high into the sky and seemed almost impossibly steep. The slopes were covered in dense forests, misty clouds, and glistening ice and snow, depending on which part of the mountain they looked at.

The sun was just beginning to set behind the mountain, casting a warm golden glow over the landscape.

The colors of the mountain shifted and changed with the light, from deep greens and blues to warm oranges and yellows.

As they stood there, taking in the sight before them, a sense of peace and wonder washed over them. It was a sight that they never thought was possible, and if not for Angelica's voice, they would've spent more time admiring it.

"Don't look at the mountain for too long."

Angelica said, breaking the silence.

"If you look at it for too long, you might never know how you died." 

They tore their gazes away from the mountain, their eyes opening up in shock. Even so, the image of the majestic peak remained etched in their minds. 

Only once Angelica's voice sounded again did such thoughts disappear. 

"The mountain is a trap. Its main job is to hypnotize people into going there where they'll eventually get ambushed and killed." 

Hein and Ava's hearts grew cold the moment she said those words and they quickly snapped out of it.

They hurriedly lowered their heads and calmed their minds down. 

"Don't worry though." 

Angelica looked back at them with a smile. 

"…Since you've already signed a contract, you shouldn't be in too much trouble. You wouldn't have been able to snap out of it with just my voice had you not signed it. Plus, they won't attack you even if you were to go to the mountain." 

"Couldn't you have told us that earlier?" 

Ava complained immediately, glaring at Angelica. Secretly, she sighed in relief. 

"What's the fun in that."

Angelica teased, her lips curling upwards. Such a reaction evoked surprised looks from both Hein and Ava who looked at her weirdly. 

"How odd…" 

Hein muttered, pinching the bottom of his chin. 

"It's been a while since we've last seen you, but you seem a lot livelier than before." 

"Mhm." 

Ava agreed.

There was something different about Angelica compared to how she was in the past. While it wasn't that big of a difference, she was without a doubt livelier, and that surprised the two of them given that she was usually rather cold. 

Especially after Smallsnake's death. 

"Did something good happen while you were away from us?" 

"Hmm.." 

Angelica pondered, looking up at the sky. Her shoulders visibly relaxed at that moment, and her gaze shifted back to them. 

"I guess you can say that I realized just how much better you guys are compared to the people back in my clan." 

Her words were light, but there was a certain heaviness to them that made Ava and Hein both look at each other.

They could tell the situation was a lot more complicated than that, but they didn't probe any further and nodded their heads. 

"So, what do we do now?" 

Ava asked, shifting the topic of conversation away. 

"I don't know." 

Angelica truthfully answered. With a complicated look on her face, she turned her head and looked toward the large mountain in the distance. 

"I… I really don't know." 

She repeated once more. 

"Realistically speaking, there is a way to get out of the pillar. It's rather simple actually, and that's to defeat the Pillar Master…" 

She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. 

"…The problem is that none of us are strong enough to even come close to the Pillar Master. I don't even know if Ren is strong enough… maybe he is, but I'm not sure. I don't know how strong he is now, but I'm sure he's gotten a lot stronger than when I last saw him. Still, I don't know if that's enough." 

Angelica's expression turned grim at that moment. She knew the strength of the Pillar Master all too well. 

Of course, she knew… 

She was, after all, her own mother. 

"So long as the Pillar Master is alive, we are stuck here, and we can only hope for a miracle to happen." 

A miracle was truly the only thing that they could hope for.

She had witnessed first how just how the demons had completely overtaken the other races back in Idoania. It wasn't even a fight, it was just a massacre, and what was happening at the moment was no different. 

Perhaps, it was even worse now that everyone was within the Pillars. 

"I think tha―" 

Rustle―! Rustle―! 

Right at that moment, a faint rustling sounded in the distance and Angelica's mouth stopped moving. Immediately everyone became alert and they turned to gaze in the direction of where the sound was coming from. 

Weapons drawn, they waited for a couple of seconds before a figure soon came out. 

At that moment, Angelica's pupils constricted and her gaze frosted. 

Appearing from behind the bushes was a rather small figure with long black hair and a white mask. Most striking however were his deep green eyes that fixed themselves on Angelica, Hein, and Ava. 

Gazing at his eyes, the three of them felt a certain intensity from them that intimidated them, and for a moment, neither part party moved. 

Breaking the silence was Angelica whose mouth parted open as she muttered one word. 

"Strategist."