As if they had been waiting for a signal, cultists suddenly touched down everywhere among the frightened people of Forest. Hundreds of shrill screams and shocked yelps rang out across the square as the many robed invaders began to dish out control abilities left and right.

Robes of light like Michael's Bind ability tied themselves around legs and arms, invisible chains like Mikla's ability arresting all movement, bubbles of swirling light trapping whole swathes of people at a time, and blocks of ice, crystal, stone and many other materials encasing countless and bringing them to the ground. From one moment to the next, Forest was chaos.

Hundreds of smaller fractures appeared above the throng, only a few meter up. Within a couple of seconds, people were being thrown bodily up and through the by the cultists. Some of their control abilities were even powerful enough to allow them to simply lift the Earthlings up and into the fractures against their wills.

At once, many of the inhabitants of Forest turned from quiet apprehension to all out retaliation. Where before, in the face of an enemy so much more powerful than them, it had seemed wisest to wait and see if the situation could still be salvaged, this rather aggressive hint had made it clear that fighting back with all their might now was all they could to keep their lives.

Abilities raged everywhere, and many cultists did get hurt or even killed outright, but even now the Earthlings were loath to unleash their most devastating crowd killers lest they kill more friends than foes. Especially those with weapons specializations such as sword users, however, managed to make a decent effort to cut down the robed bastards without much collateral damage.

Olivia was also forced to be extremely careful with her fire abilities. Bursting into flames that burned hot enough to rapidly immolate even B-rankers wasn't an ideal situation surrounded by people with little or no experience in combat.

"Attempt not to escape," the armored cultists spoke, his voice amplified even louder than before to the point where it was easily audible despite the cacophony of the fighting. "You see, there is none. It would simply lead to your deaths. Subject to us quietly and I will make sure this transition is easy on you."

"Let go of me!" someone close to both Eik and the armored man howled. "Let go of me! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

A decidedly evil snicker reverberated across the square as the villain laughed. "We are not going to kill you. We have a use for you yet, I promise."

Terrified and enraged, Eik triggered Backflow and let as much Profound Toxin as he could supply flood his system. Immediately, unbelievable agony exploded throughout his body, a feeling as if molten magma was coursing through his veins. He roared as power surged to the limit and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.

Chains of light that had held him fast thus far now broke on his skin as he flexed his muscles against them. Almost twenty Living Manifestations shot out of him and each went for a different cultist.

Eik slammed a fist covered in crystallized toxin into the face of the cultist who had been overwhelming him just seconds before. The toxic gauntlet returned to its fluid form upon impact and flushed down the cultist's throat. Halfway down his esophagus, Eik recrystallized it and caused it to lodge itself painfully.

The cultist clawed frantically at the bulge in his throat, his hood falling back to reveal six eyes, a forehead covered in segmented, fleshy armor plates, and a face that was quickly turning from pale white to deep purple.

A simple tap on the man's shoulder as Eik passed him sent the solid mass on a one-way path to Accelerated detonation.

Eik burst into blue mist, the particles reaching further out than they ever had before, enveloping everything within a thirty meter radius. The moment the first particle of poison invaded an Earthling system, he castigated the alien substance with a severe mental lashing. It must have done something because the submission was absolutely instant.

Through pure will, he ordered all Earth-based systems to be off limits for invasion. If even a single mote of blue crossed the boundary of an Earthling's skin, there would be… some kind of hell to pay. How the hell did one go about punishing a bizarre, incorporeal life form?

By Eik's side, Mikla coughed lightly and he hurriedly added him as a Profound Toxin no-go zone.

As the mist connected him to all systems already invaded by Living Manifestations, he used the link to activate Accelerant on the lot of them at once. Only a couple were weak enough to actually expire from that, but the mist continued to infect even as the toxic detonation rocked through them.

Another squad of Living Manifestations rushed out. The mist caused even more confusion and chaos as it blinded even those people from Forest who weren't infected, but some of the cultists still managed to bat away the Profound Toxic beasts as they came for them.

With the wakizashi he slashed through a cultist from neck to groin and literally cleaved her in two, the two divided parts hitting the grass with a fleshy thud where it was immediately stomped on by other fighters in the heat of battle. Another lost a leg and a half to his blade. This one went down screaming and Eik finished him by piercing his heart.

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Whirling about like a spirit of death he cut down another cultist, spinning out of the slash already eyeing his next target.

The cultist was levitating six struggling Earthlings at once, right arm outstretched in a gesture of control. Even with the hood of the robe pulled up, four horns visibly protruded from his forehead.

As Eik came in for an attack, his downward slash was parried by a small, metal bracer that had been hidden beneath the long sleeve of the robes. The cultist hadn't even deigned to look at him and before Eik could go in for another attempt, an invisible pulse of force slammed into his chest like a battering ram, thrusting him backwards.

He skidded across the ground on his back, rolling uncontrollably as he barreled through enemies and allies alike like a bowling ball through pins. Having been thrown back more than twenty meters, the telekinetic cultist was lost among the crowd.

For a moment there he had forgotten that this was a force that had already defeated the strongest Forest had to offer. A glance up at the podium revealed the armor still simply watching the fray, his fingers interlocked behind his back with a demeanor of overwhelming boredom. The cultists dressed in robes covered in ornamental patterns also remained standing behind him, unmoving even as ability flying by narrowly missed their heads.

Those must have been the strongest here. And they hadn't even stepped in yet. Eik looked around, his stomach sinking. The cultists never seemed to stop coming. Every time one died or became injured another would arrive. And the people of Forest were still being abducted.

"N-No…" he whispered under his breath. Backflow still flared through his body like liquid flame but anger muted the pain somewhat. With a groan he got back on his feet.

Briefly, he considered going back to look for the telekinetic but more than anything, the abduction of his people needed to be stopped. Killing just one more cultist wasn't going to achieve that. Something that could buy at least a little bit of time until reinforcements hopefully arrived was necessary.

Allowing himself a pause for a single deep breath to steady his anxious, racing heart, he began marching toward the raised podium. After about a dozen paces, he leapt into the air.

With a single step on the corner of the platform, he shot forth like an arrow, wakizashi raised in preparation for an attack he knew would fail. Even permeated by the Backflowing Profound Toxin as he was, he was not at the level of Travis Lockwood. And Travis had already been murdered.

"Hmm?" the armored cultist rumbled, his eyes finding Eik. Reacting with lightning speed, he caught the slim, curved blade between his fingers, arresting all momentum in an instant. "Another brave one, eh? There are always a few."

Hanging on by the handle of the wakizashi, Eik let Profound Toxin flow rapidly down the blade. With curiosity, the caped cultist watched the poison travel up his arm where it flowed in between the incredibly narrow segments in the armor and laid itself against his skin.

Without an open wound to enter through, Profound Toxin wasn't able to infiltrate the system and was left with no option but to attack the skin itself. The armored man jerked slightly in surprise as he felt the area of contact begin to sting, albeit only a little.

"You…" he muttered. "Interesting."

Before he could say anything more, mist streamed out of Eik and congregated tightly around the enemy's head. Finally, he felt the infiltration succeed. That was the first step.

Taking his own example, Eik ordered the gathered mist to crystallize inside the throat of the intimidating cultist, only this time, rather than a solid cube to lodge itself, he went for the shape of a needle.

He only barely managed to extend it to the point where it poked out through the outermost layer of the epidermis. Here he triggered accelerant and while the the payload was almost embarrassingly small, it still did its intended job and widened the puncture wound to a size that offered more than enough to allow the toxin access.

Eik smirked even as the fanatic seized him by the collar of his shirt, anger mixing with curiosity in the armor's demeanor. The toxin that had continued to wash over the high-ranker's body the entire time now flushed into the wound still covered by metal plates.

The row of cultists in patterned robes made to intervene but a raised hand from the armor made them stand down, proving that he was indeed the top dog here.

"Impressive…" the man admitted, his voice ringing hollowly inside the all-encompassing helmet. "Very impressive indeed. Is this your last stand then? But it is no use." At that the wound sealed itself up somehow, blocking off all ingress. A decent amount of toxin had managed to get inside but nowhere near what was needed to actually finish off the bastard then and there. Eik had recalled the Crucible test and the decimation of the A-ranked beast and hoped the cultist's disregard of his inferior rank could have bought him the time to repeat the feat.

It did not.

"It's painful," the armor concluded. "You should not be able to do this to me, yet here you are. What are you, hmm? I shall enjoy finding out."

With the wakizashi still in the enemy's grip, Eik had nothing but his fists left. A desperate punch, covered in a blue gauntlet, sought the helmet, but even Eik could tell that it did nothing.

"Save it," the voice hissed and ran his finger across Eik's arm where the bright blue glow pulsed. "This… enhancement is failing. I can tell. You're at death's door. But you will be of little use to me dead."

Eik felt his body rapidly lose strength as the effects of Backflow faded and the blue luminescence sunk, replaced by an angry and red, exposed layer of skin underneath. His arms and legs hung limply, only the hand grasping his collar keeping him from slumping to the ground.

Only now did he realize how enormous the armored cultist was. The guy had to be at least two and a half meters tall, his slim build making him appear even taller. Eik was helpless.

A glance at the crowd showed that some of the cultists had stopped their work to watch. They looked reverent as they stared. What was so great about the armor guy?

"Would you like to live?"

Eik couldn't answer. But even if he had been able to, he wouldn't have.

"No matter," the cultist said and reached into a bag of holding held out by one of the patterned robes. He pulled out a glass and crushed it in his hands, the contents falling into his palm. It was not a mind skulk, but it looked just as disgusting with pink, stubby legs flailing in the air as the high-ranker grasped it between two fingers.

"Now. Open up."

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