Vanessa hovered above the edge of the city, watching as something was approaching at a terrifying speed. In an impressive show of control, the figure stopped in midair a few meters in front of Vanessa.

  That gave Vanessa a good look at the individual. Judging by their physique, the person was a man. They had a lean and muscular figure, clearly trained for speed.

  As per their choice of clothing. The suit is a sleek, skin-tight ensemble designed for maximum agility and flexibility. It features a bold color scheme with a dominant red upper half, which transitions into a deep blue on the lower body and sides. The mask completely covers the wearer's head, with large, expressive black eye lenses outlined in white that provide a striking contrast against the red background. The gloves and boots are stylized for grip and movement, matching the overall red-and-blue theme. The entire design emphasizes speed, mobility, and acrobatic finesse, giving it a dynamic and modern look suited for urban traversal and quick combat scenarios.

  “Who are you?” Vanessa questioned.

  “You can just call me Titanis,” he replied as he shot towards her.

  Vanessa intercepts Titanis above the city skyline, forming a barrier of dense arctic wind to slow his approach. He tears through it, laughing. His fists meet her forearm, blocked by a flash-frozen shield of ice, but the impact sends shockwaves below—windows crack, car alarms scream.

  Realizing the fight must be drawn away, Vanessa channels her wind magic to whip up a cyclonic current, hurling herself and Titanis miles toward the Verdant Pine Forest beyond the city.

  Vanessa weaves through clouds, using compressed jets of air for rapid dodges and ice shards as precision projectiles. Titanis barrels through her traps, shrugging off ice strikes like dust. But Vanessa isn’t aiming to win through damage—she’s redirecting, baiting, containing.

  She calls down a sleet storm, blinding him momentarily. With a burst of glacial wind, she encases a nearby storm cloud into a floating ice platform, bouncing off it mid-air like a steppingstone to strike from above.

  Titanis dives toward the city again, testing her resolve. Vanessa screams out an incantation—her arms glowing with ancient glyphs as she summons her trump card: A sky-wide dome of sub-zero air, sealing the upper atmosphere into a dome of wind and frost over the forest.

  "No one dies today. Not them. Not you." Her voice carries on the wind.

  As they clash within the dome, their blows light up the sky. Vanessa begins freezing the moisture in Titanis’ lungs, forcing him to retreat to breathe, giving her precious seconds to channel a whirlwind barrier around the dome’s edge, sealing any exit back toward the city.

  Using wind propulsion, she drives him further downward—not to harm, but to ground him. Her final move: a spike of hyper-condensed ice, not to impale, but to anchor his foot mid-air, halting his momentum mid-dash. He crashes into a tree, dazed—but alive.

  Titanis groans, rising slowly, but Vanessa hovers above, ready. He smirks, impressed—and leaves, vanishing into the stratosphere. Vanessa drops to her knees in the air, frost clinging to her hair, but the city behind her is safe.

  Civilians, watching from afar, cheer.

  “He left?” Lucas raised an eyebrow as Samira told him about the report regarding the universe-jumper. “I find that hard to believe.”

  “From Vanessa Eldragon’s statement, the man wasn’t a mage, but they were strong enough to tank attacks and was incredibly fast. She went all out to subdue him, but even then, he left without any serious injuries.”

  “Was he from the same universe as me?” Maverick-Rose asked.

  Samira shook her head. “From the reports, the man came from a different universe and the connection was never severed, so we’re expecting more.”

  Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. The counterattack mission just finished, now, they were in for another war.

  “I’m too tired for this...” Lucas groaned as he walked away, leaving Rose with Samira.

  Rose turned to Samira. “Nice to meet you. I worked with the version of you back in my universe,” Rose held up a hand for a handshake.

  Samira noticed the wording. “Worked? Am I dead?” she asked as she shook her hand.

  Rose cringed. “Yeah...”

  “At least tell me the top 10 in the continental rankings were useful in your world,” Samira said.

  Rose just grimaced.

  For the first time in a while, Lucas went to his company and noticed a lot of significant changes. The most obvious one was the two new office buildings. Lucas recalled only one being build, so he was surprised to find another one beside it.

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  There was also a smaller wall separating the office buildings from the workshop buildings. And on the side of the office buildings was a bunch of people lounging outside as food trucks were scattered everywhere.

  “...” Lucas just stood there for a while before coming back to his senses. “Did I miss something?”

  “Long time no see,” Jared called out to him as he approached him with a lunchbox in his hands.

  “Yeah... what the hell happened?” Lucas gestured to the building he didn’t know was built.

  “Your assistant had it built under your vice chairman’s orders,” Jared answered. “Had a lot of other stuff built too.”

  “Others?” Lucas raised an eyebrow.

  After a quick tour around his own company, Lucas saw every new addition to it. First, the most obvious one was the walls that surrounded the workshop buildings, preventing the regular office workers from going near them. Second was the other office building since the first one didn’t have enough space for all the people Althea hired.

  Next was a greenhouse that had rare plants that needed to be isolated away from the mana vein and was managed by Winston, the plant mage they hired. Lastly, a new workshop with a hazard waste removal system for Kier. That was the only one he approved of before leaving.

  Personally, Lucas wasn’t mad since everything that was built benefits the company, but he wanted to ask why he wasn’t informed. But when he arrived at his personal workshop, he saw a sight that he wasn’t expecting.

  All three of the demons he brough back from hell were kneeling on the floor as a pale-skinned woman wearing a blood-red suit sat in his chair in front of them. She had long blonde hair and blood-red eyes.

  “Ah... has the contractor finally arrived?” the woman spoke once she noticed Lucas come out of the elevator.

  Lucas didn’t know who she was, but Lucas was certain she was a demon and a pretty powerful one if the trio of demons were kneeling to her.

  “May I know who you are?” Lucas asked as she noticed that Althea was standing nervously at the corner.

  The demon stood up with a smirk. “My name is Katarina Morningstar,” she introduced herself as she began walking towards Lucas. “Forming a blood pact with three demons. That’s quite the feat for a human.”

  “Thanks?” Lucas replied in confusion as Katarina began walking around him, appraising him.

  “Do you know how many siblings I have?” she asked as she began dragging her hands around Lucas’s upper body. “Too many,” Katarina answered her own question before Lucas could even speak. “Now, I never want to go back there,” She held Lucas by his chin, making him look up to her since she was taller than him.

  “What does that have to do with me?” Lucas managed to ask.

  “If you can make a blood pact with three demons at the same time, you can make one with me,” she stated.

  “I’m guessing I don’t have a say in this,” Lucas mentioned, making Katarina laugh.

  “How observant of you,” Katarina said as dark red energy gathered at her fingertips, then she dug them into Lucas’s chest.

  “AGH!” Lucas screamed as he felt her fingers stab his chest.

  “Lucas!” Ruth and the others tried to help him as they took on their demonic forms, but they were slammed onto the ground by the same energy that entered Lucas and held them down.

  A crackle of lightning was heard as Katarina quickly turned to catch lightning infused claws from striking her. “Well, aren’t you an interesting specimen,” Katarina commented before tossing Ragnar across the workshop. “Hmm?” Katarina raised an eyebrow when her feet were suddenly incased in ice.

  “Let go of him!” Macey yelled as she sent a wave of ice that Katarina simply swatted away like it was nothing.

  “There’s too many bugs,” Katarina sent a hand that was made of energy towards Macey, but before it reached her, it stopped. “Oh?” Katarina turned back to Lucas when she felt that her actions were being restricted. “Such tremendous willpower.”

  She pulled her arm away from Lucas, watching as the wounds healed and the symbol of an eye was left. At the same time, Lucas’s eyes began to glow. One glowed purple, while the other was blood red.

  Katarina smirked. “You succeeded. Impressive,” Katarina began walking away. “I look forward to what you do with your new power,” she said before flying out of a window.

  Lucas fell to his knees once Katarina was gone. Macey quickly ran to his side. “Who was that?”

  “A princess of hell,” Ruth answered. “Katarina Morningstar is the seventh daughter of Lucifer Morningstar, the king of hell.”

  “What the hell is a demon royalty doing here?” Macey questioned as she helped Lucas up on his feet.

  “The kin of Lucifer are constantly at each other’s throats, so they’ll do anything to get away from hell,” Ruth explained. “Since Lucas could handle forming a blood pact with three demons, he was a good candidate for a blood pact with her.”

  “What happened to me?” Lucas asked as he held up a hand in front of him, watching as his aura turned blood-red.

  “You formed a demonic energy circle,” Ragnar spoke, but it was revealed to be Perci when he detached himself from the golem. “I don’t know if you’re the luckiest or unluckiest human I ever met,” Perci commented as he floated towards the group.

  Veronica and Marge excused themselves, saying they needed to get back to work. They left the workshop with their heads down and pride hurt after the encounter with the demon princess. Althea shortly followed, also shaken by the encounter.

  Lucas just sat on a chair with his brows furrowed. “So... I’m a demonic energy cultivator now...”

  “Consider it a blessing,” Perci ironically said. “You gained two full demonic energy circles that increase your physical abilities by simply forming a contract with a demon royalty. It Also gives one demonic ability that gets stronger as you increase your circles.”

  Lucas raised an eyebrow at Perci. “Why do you seem happy?”

  “Because you just lost your biggest weakness,” Perci mentioned, and Lucas just stared at him. “Your pathetic physical abilities. Aura could do a lot, but you have the physical limits of a human. Now, you need to control your new-found power.”

  “Let him rest!” Macey snapped at Perci.

  “I didn’t say now,” Perci responded. “You’re going to be one hell of a monster kid,” Perci said before flying through the same window Katarina flew out of.

  Lucas just scratched his head, not knowing what to do at this point. There was so much going on that he didn’t know where to start. Any minute, a new threat could appear, and he’ll be too distracted by everything else to do something.

  “RAHH!”

  Lucas punched the floor, denting the reinforced floor of the workshop and startling Macey.

  He needed to get even stronger.