James took a step back as he looked at the teen, put off by the bloodlust that was coming from him. "What are you?"

"Filth." The corrupted teen replied, his twisted smile never leaving his face. "Nothing but a filthy animal."

James lost his worry and sneered at the teen for the response he gave. He had to get justice so fear had to leave him. "If you say you are an animal, then die like one." He spun his grimoire to his Hellfire Bolt spell and began to fire the spell.

With surprising ease, Wilhelm blocked each bolt with his sword, the blackened blade not buckling more than just an inch from the impact of the bolts. Once all five were blocked, the teen rushed at James with far quicker speed than he had before. Jumping over a swipe of James' whip, Wilhelm slammed into the ground in front of the Diamond mage as he swung his sword, slicing a large gash right across the man's lower ribcage.

James didn't get to react to the attack before Wilhelm spun on his feet to slam his foot into the man's new wound, and send him back several feet from the force behind the attack. James stayed upright and quickly made a burst of his magic to hopefully stop the demonic teen from attacking him again so soon.

The attempt was in vain, as Wilhelm leapt through the flames to strike the Diamond mage in his jaw with enough force to make the man know his jaw had just broken. James cursed and tried to make his whips attack the teen but before he could attack, Wilhelm swept out the man's legs from underneath him. Before James could even hit the ground, Wilhelm grabbed the man by the neck and followed the momentum to slam the man into the ground. The Diamond mage became dazed and was losing focus, so he couldn't attempt to defend himself when Wilhelm attacked again. The teen slammed his foot into the man to kick him again, sending the man rolling across the ground as he gasped in pain from his broken ribs.

James struggled to get up, but was prevented from getting up as Wilhelm, who had jumped from where he kicked the man, slammed into his back and sent him back down. Before the man could try anything, once again the corrupted teen attacked, grabbing him by his forearms and twisting them behind the man while still standing on his back. The man screamed as his arm's muscles were torn apart and rendered useless.

The situation became worse for the man when he heard it, he heard laughing. The twisted teen had began to laugh like this was fun to him.

As Wilhelm laughed, his twisted, sadistic smile never left his face. "For years I was always the one who was kicked around!" As he spoke, with an eerie and dark change to his voice, he let go of James' broken arms and stepped off of the man. "Finally I get to do the kicking!" As he spoke, he kicked the man below him in the same spot he had broken his ribs just a moment earlier.

The man cried out in pain as he felt his bones completely break off and puncture his organs. As he cried out, the teen continued to laugh like an excited maniac. James panicked as he tried to figure out how to handle how drastically this situation had turned. That savage kid suddenly gained mana and in a moment rendered James to the point of needing medical attention immediately or else he was on the verge of death. In desperation he made his magic burst again, actually catching the teen by surprise and sending him back a single foot. James rolled to his side and slammed his foot against Wilhelm's ankle, planning to knock the kid over and kick his teeth in.

However, Wilhelm didn't fall, instead he slammed his foot on top of James' ankle, crushing it against the ground and breaking the bone. The Diamond mage winced at the attack, and could only watch in horror as in a split second, the sadistic tee grabbed his sword and without hesitation thrust it into James' side. The blade ripped all the way through the man's body and breaking into the pavement below him.

James' yelled in pain at the attack, and again screamed as Wilhelm twisted the blade inside him. His mind couldn't take the pain and was close to shutting down. The Diamond mage however wouldn't -couldn't- allow himself to die at this moment. He had to avenge his brother and kill this filthy, deranged, savage and evil animal.

Wilhelm got closer to the man and struck him in the face hard enough to crack the Diamond mage's skull. "Die like filth!" He shouted as he began to punch the man in the face. Repeatedly he struck the man as hard as he could, over and over again. As he continued this beating, the corrupted teen began to laugh. He continued laughing and attacking the man for a minute until there was no order to the man's head, now a pile of destroyed flesh. Even after he quit attacking, the teen continued to laugh.

Never before had Wilhelm felt so empowered, so far from the weakling he had always been but never wanted to accept. This mana in him was amazing! With this mana he can make everyone shut up and stop looking down on him. With this mana he could-

A crashing sound was heard nearby and that snapped Wilhelm from his thoughts, the teen locking his eyes onto the source of the sound. The corrupted Wilhelm stood up and grabbed his sword, pulling it out of the man as he moved towards the source to silence it. His rage burning intensely and feeding the negative mana.

A moment earlier.

Sol made her golem slam a fist into the Minotaur's gut, striking near its liver. The girl saw a show of mana block the attack in part, and knew that it had to be that shield Wilhelm mentioned the darn thing had. If it worked how she assumed, then the thing was a monster of a tank, and that explained how it was so effectively breaking everything in the town with no real opposition. Well except for Wilhelm and now her.

Her punch still managed to push the beast, it not absorbing the magic of her golem quick enough to remove the power of the arm's momentum. Sol gained a grin as she made her golem punch again, again at the liver. She knew that Wilhelm had weakened the shield in other spots, and knew it had to be where the beast was actively injured, however she wanted to keep the Minotaur focused on a fist fight to make it easier to move the beast away from town.

The Minotaur however didn't want to play Sol's game and managed to catch the arm of her golem, twisted the arm and snapping it off. The limb had lost too much mana to maintain itself through the action. Sol cursed and made her golem stomp on the foot of the beast that had a bloody hole in it. The Minotaur gave a very painful reaction to that, and angrily smashed both fists into the knee of Sol's golem, the rock creature having its leg break off at the lower thigh and making the rock being and its owner fall over.

Before Sol could hit the ground, she made her spell reactivate and make a new golem, which she landed on the head of as it rose from the ground. Turning to face the beast she made her grimoire swap pages, and made two walls of rock burst from the ground near her, raising up and grab the beast's arm as they rose up, sticking the beast in place as her golem stood up and slammed a fist into the beast's face. The beast growled in frustration and struggled to break free, but before it could free itself Sol had her golem tackle the beast pushing it backwards as she tried to force it away from the town.

Sol held up her hand and shit a bullet of her mana straight at where the beast had a nasty wound over its eye. She had hoped to kill the beast but figured the shield was in the way, and was proven right when the shield blocked the entirety of her mana bullet.

"Stop blocking everything!" She shouted at the Minotaur as she made her golem through the beast backwards, hoping to make the beast fall over to not be able to counter her yet. The Blue Rose was going to say something else, when suddenly she held a sound like thunder behind her as a wave of mana rushed past her.

The mana made every little part of her go on edge. It felt cold and at the same time burning like fire. Most importantly it felt dark. It wasn't natural and made the girl freeze up for a second as she knew it came from behind her in the town square. For a split second she became worried that something bad had happened to Wilhelm, but was thrown away from focusing on that as the Minotaur slammed a fist into the chest of her golem and broke the Earthly creation spell. The beast did not freeze up at the sudden malicious mana so it had an opening against Sol that the beast used well.

Sol fell to the ground with a this, and her focus returned to the Minotaur as she forced a rock wall up that blocked the beast from attacking her.

"Sol what is the situation in Crete?!" Charlotte spoke through the Blue Rose's communication tool.

Sol cursed as she wasn't really open to chatting while focusing on the Minotaur. However she had to reply to her big sis. "Sis! A big ass beast with an annoying shield was attacking the place. I am trying to get it out of town right now."

"Continue your efforts. We'll be there as soon as possible."

Sol created a new golem and made it prepare for the Minotaur to get through her wall. She was about to put away her communication device before she raised it back up, taking a second to speak. "Something else is here... I don't know what it is but... Whatever it is, it's near the dipshit. Bail him out first, I got this."

As she said the last bit of her message, the Minotaur broke through the wall. The beast roared with rage as it looked at the girl and ignored the golem to pursue her instead. Sol wasn't expecting it to target her over golem, and had her rock creature move to stop the thing, but the Minotaur bat it away with a swing of its arm. The beast tried to attack her but Sol made a rock wall burst up again. To the Blue Rose's shock, the beast broke through this one far quicker than the other, so she made her golem fall apart to quickly make it reform underneath her, making a rocky fist first that slammed into the Minotaur's jaw. The beast was jarred only slightly by the attack, but just enough that she was able to completely form the golem.

Sol made her Rock companion go to strike the beast again and start pushing it back, but before that could happen the Minotaur attacked first. The beast actually dodged an attack, going underneath the arm of Sol's golem and ramming itself, horns first, into the torso of the golem. The force behind the headbutt slammed the rock giant into the side of a building, and Sol lost her balance causing her to fall off of it, and fell to the pavement below. Thankfully for Sol, the beast was focused more on her golem at that small moment.

The Blue Rose made a light groan as she sat up where she had fallen to the ground. "Dammit, stop being a twit!" She realized where she was and looked over to the rest of the town square to see if Wilhelm was okay fighting that Diamond jackass and whatever caused the sinister mana. When she looked over, she immediately saw a blur go past her, right at the Minotaur.

That blur was Wilhelm, the teen going after the largest mass of mana in the square. He tried to stab his sword into the beast's calf, but the mana shield showered him in sparks instead. Sol watched as Wilhelm swung again and again, the Minotaur beginning to turn focus to him now.

"Wilhelm?" Sol got confused at the guy's sudden aggression, and felt her heart stop when he turned to look at her after hearing her speak. At first Sol hadn't noticed anything different, but once he turned it was painfully obvious. His eyes that were blue like the ocean were suddenly yellow, glowing and it was like he was looking at her like he was staring at her soul. His skin was pale and most importantly that smile that was creepy as hell that he had, it made Sol's skin crawl. He had only looked at her for a second, before the Minotaur roared and swung its fist into Wilhelm, who had been distracted by hearing Sol speak.

The Blue Rose looked in shock as he was launched across the town square. That thing was breaking buildings apart with ease, so wilhelm was definitely injured from being smacked across the town like a ragdoll. She pushed herself up and wanted to shout for Wilhelm, but that look he gave her when she said his name just a moment ago made her unable to speak.

It didn't matter, as she saw Wilhelm pick himself up from the ground barely a second after he hit it. Instead of anything natural that he should be doing at that moment, the guy began to laugh. His laughter made Sol go on edge, alarm bells and red flags going off in her head.

"Even this powerful!" Wilhelm spat out blood while laughing, but showed no actual reaction physically to the damage past that. "Even like this I am still just some filth being pushed around!" The corrupted teen looked over at the beast and his deranged smile disappeared, being replaced by a look of pure rage.

Sol swore the temperature dropped by a few degrees, and her instincts told her to shut up and not do anything to be noticed at that moment.

Without another word Wilhelm was off, grabbing his sword and immediately leaping at the Minotaur as he slammed the blade into the beast's chest. His attack didn't cut through yet, the shield instead showering the teen with sparks from how much mana the Minotaur had gained. The sword wielding teen dropped to the ground and swung his blade right at where he had actually sliced the beast's leg earlier. His sheer strength helped him actually cut through the shield just enough to scrape against the beast's leg, enraging the beast. The Minotaur moved much faster than before, empowered by the mana it had absorbed, and begin to try to punch Wilhelm.

It didn't take long to hit the teen, as his own empowered state made him more violent and far more reckless. The teen was thrown by a smack of the beast right into a building, the hit making him loss grip on his sword and the weapon flying away. The bricks cracked behind Wilhelm from the impact and the teen fell to the ground. Once again, he was getting up seconds after hitting the ground. Even if just a second slower than earlier he was still getting up shockingly fast from injuries that should be forcing him out of commission.

Sol cursed as she watched, realizing she was being a disgrace to her squad and captain by freezing up. She had a damn job to do and can't let whatever the hell was happening to Wilhelm get in her head. She made her grimoire reopen, having unconsciously closed it earlier, and looked at the Minotaur. She had to get it out of the town, even if everyone was evacuated she still needed to keep more damage from happening as best she could.

Before the Blue Rose could even begin to perform a spell, Wilhelm had already rushed past her and attacked the beast again. This time Wilhelm hadn't picked up his sword, so he was attacking the beast with his bare, blackened hands. Wilhelm sent a fist right at the beast's wounded foot, his hand surprisingly going right through the shield and striking the injury. The sound of bones snapping was heard, followed by the Minotaur reeling in pain. Wilhelm slammed his fist down again, shattering more bone, before the beast tried to attack Wilhelm again. It tried to drop both fists onto Wilhelm, but its arms were blocked by a platform of rock being made.

Wilhelm snapped to glare at Sol, who had used her magic to defend him. "Stay out of this!"

Sol's reaction was to blink and look at him in confusion. Was he really trying to order her, which was a whole separate issue, to not get involved with the giant monster that was slapping him around? For so many reasons she obviously rejected that. "Like hell I am!"

Wilhelm meant to respond, angrily, but the Minotaur stopped that from happening as it broke through Sol's defense and made the rock collapse onto him. The teen was caught completely off guard since he was focused on yelling at Sol.

"Wilhelm!" Sol yelled as she cursed herself for accidentally causing the teen to get crushed.

Wilhelm's situation made him yell in frustration, and what James had said earlier made its way to the front of his mind.

"No more having your ass saved by everyone around you!"

Once again he was just having someone try to bail him out. She and everyone thought his own strength wasn't enough, and that he was some pathetic weakling that needed help. That bastard was right, Wilhelm was just filth.

This line of thinking made Wilhelm only gain more rage, and the increase in his negative emotions made him unintentionally pull more negative mana into himself. As a result, his eyes begin to glow intensely, and the blackened parts of him began to spread across his skin. His hands down to the elbow blackened, and the darkness around his eyes began to web across his face. His rageful expression intensified and he gained the strength to push the rubble off of himself.

The Minotaur saw Wilhelm free himself and tried to smash the kid under its fists again, and Wilhelm jumped past its arms to actively punch the beast in the jaw. The negative mana coursing through Wilhelm amplifying his physical strength enough that the left hook he threw gave off a sound like thunder, and the beast staggered backwards and fell over a light pole.

Wilhelm didn't even hit the ground again before he was attacking again, close enough to spin while midair and slam his foot into the Minotaur's side, striking just above the hip. Once again, Wilhelm's attack went right through the mana shield, crashing into flesh. As Wilhelm landed next to the beast, who crashed into the light pole at that moment, he made a shout of rage and slammed a fist into the beast's side once again. For a third time, his attack struck with a booming sound, this time following by a cracking sound.

What had cracked was Wilhelm's own knuckles, broken under the exertion of power he had used. He dropped the fist and angrily slammed his other, right, fist into the same spot his left fist had struck.

The Minotaur tanked the last hit, and gripped the light post he had crashed into, ripping it out of the ground as he stood up and tried to strike Wilhelm with it. The teen jumped over the makeshift weapon, dodging it as he began to move quickly at the monster's legs. Without hesitation he slammed both of his fists right back into the wounded foot of the Minotaur at full force.

The sound of bones breaking echoed across the square, followed by pained yelling from both the monster and corrupted teen. Wilhelm's attack completely broke apart the bones in the foot of the Minotaur, but he shattered several of the bones in his own fingers as well as one of his wrists in the process. He clutched his arms to his chest and made a sound like growling in frustration, as the Minotaur collapsed to a knee from not being able to stand on its destroyed foot. The Minotaur readjusted its grip on the light pole and swung it at Wilhelm.

The injured teen didn't have enough time to jump or duck, so he put out his arms quickly to try to catch the attack as to stop it. The pole connected with his hands and he only slowed it down at a barely noticeable rate, before a wave of pain from his hands coursed through the teen and made him drop his defense. With that, the pole connected completely with Wilhelm, breaking a rib and throwing the teen away with force.

Wilhelm, by pure chance, landed on his sword, back first. The blade was at an angle where it took off a few layers of skin along his right shoulder blade and back, before Wilhelm continued skidding across the ground and stopping just inches away from his blade. For the first time, Wilhelm didn't actually get up immediately, lying there limply.

Sol cursed her uselessness, hating that that menacing mana Wilhelm had gained kept making her freeze up. She was insanely unprofessional and had to fix herself immediately, before he died because of his own recklessness.

Before Sol could even use a spell though, a person landed next to her.

"What the hell happened here Sol?!" Puli landed next to her fellow squad member. She only allowed herself to leave Gina when she thankfully saw Selena and gave the injured girl over to the healer. Once that was done she had to used her wing magic to get to the town as fast as possible.

"A lot. That thing is actually tough as all hell." Sol pointed at the Minotaur, which had stopped looking at Wilhelm to look at them.

"Where's Wilhelm?" Puli hadn't seen him on her drop into the square.

In a moment of perfect timing, a yell behind them both made them turn to see Wilhelm struggling to get up.

"I AM NOT DONE YET!" Wilhelm pushed himself up, using his arms despite their state. A state that the two Blue Roses saw didn't even matter as his broken fingers forced themselves back to their positions. Before his fingers even properly fixed themselves he put his hand on the hilt of his sword and picked it up. With a hell of rage Wilhelm once again rushed at the Minotaur, raising his sword as he went.

"What in the name of the spirits?!" Puli's eyes went as wide as possible as she saw Wilhelm's current state. She looked at Sol for an explanation, who was just looking at Wilhelm in shock at him being up once again.

The sword wielding teen jumped up several meters in the air as he charged the Minotaur, leaping towards the beast as he swung his sword through the air. The Minotaur raised its arms up to block/swat the kid away, but Wilhelm grabbed onto the arm mid air and pushed himself over it at the beast's head. Keeping with his momentum, Wilhelm swung at full strength and intended to slash the beast's head off. The Minotaur quickly lowered its stance to avoid a slice to its neck, but Wilhelm's sword still went cleanly through the beast's right horn. The sword now completely blackened from the mana it was pulling from Wilhelm, created a show of sparks as it clashed with the mana shield, and even more as it ripped through from Wilhelm's incredible strength. He sliced off all but half a foot of the bone, and the rest fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

The Minotaur responded with a yell of shocked pain. Wilhelm landed on the monster's right shoulder and attempted to swing his sword at its head. The Minotaur tried to raise its left arm to get the teen off of itself, and Wilhelm changed his focus to that limb. Waiting for it to get closer, Wilhelm jumped at the hand with his sword raised for a downwards slice, and followed the motion. Clashing with the mana shield once again, his sword caused sparks and ripped through the shield once again, and cut through half of the fingers on that hand before the mana shield did its job and stopped his momentum. Half of the length of the beast's index and middle fingers were ripped away from its hand in a spray of blood, half of which landed on Wilhelm.

The beast yelled in agony as it felt the fingers violently removed from its being, and turned to the teen who landed on the ground in front of it. The beast had never felt as much of a desire to rip something apart as this human in front of it, and its pained screaming morphed into a roar of rage as it ignored the pain to focus on attacking. The beast dropped to a bull rush and charged the teen.

Wilhelm dodged the initial rush of the beast, spinning to the side as he swung his sword, scraping against the beast's shield before breaking through it and ripping open the flesh beneath. Ready to attack again, Wilhelm turned to face the beast who also turned to face him. The beast made to charge again but got bombarded with dozens of feathers that pierced its back and side.

Puli did not understand what on earth was happening to Wilhelm, and how he gained this evil feeling mana, but she understood that there was a beast in front of her that was trying to kill innocent people. She had to ignore that feeling of fear that the energy Wilhelm had was giving her and do her job as the Vice-Captain of the Blue Roses.

"Sol!" She shouted at her squad mate. "This is no time for freezing up!"

Sol shook herself from that state. "Right!" She didn't hesitate to make a golem. "Let's beat this thing's ass!"

Wilhelm heard that and his rage got worse, immediately assuming that it was them believing he couldn't do this himself. "Stay out of this!" As he shouted, his rage caused the negative mana in him to rise again, increasing the pressure in the area.

Puli almost did drop her spell completely, put off by Wilhelm's sudden mana. However she wasn't going to just let this kid recklessly put himself in danger. "I have a job to do as a magic knight." She prepared to use a spell, but had her shoulder grabbed by Sol.

"I shouldn't have to say use your spells wisely, but that thing does have a stupid defense where it can take the mana from everything to make a shield for itself." Sol informed her teammate.

"How..." Puli was about to ask how Wilhelm was damaging the beast then, but connected the dots. "Got it."

Wilhelm halfway felt the desire to lash out at the Blue Roses, but something told him that was a bad idea. Instead he focused hard on his bigger desire, to rip that beast apart. The other monster felt a similar desire, and made to rush as best it could on a broken foot at Wilhelm.

The teen rushed at the beast and pulled back his sword, jumping up as he thrust the sword, stabbing into the mana shield and breaking through. The shield at this point far weaker from most of it being torn apart by Wilhelm's constant attacks. The blade pierced flesh and went through the abdomen of the beast, and almost knocking it completely off balance. The beast kept its composure as best it could, and grabbed Wilhelm with its right hand, yanking the kid away from his sword that was still lodged in itself.

Wilhelm luckily still had both his hands free, and raised them to smack down on the Minotaur's thumb. He attacked the same way again, planning to do it till he was freed.

A giant fist of rock, covered in feathers, slammed into the Minotaur's jaw. Sol and Puli combined their magic to make a rock golem armored with feathers, which were sharp and proved so by lining multiple cuts and slices into the face of the Minotaur. The beast was staggered again but stayed on its feet, and turned to give a violent look to the Blue Roses.

"Drop him!" Sol shouted as her golem sucker punched the beast.

As if in a sarcastic and spiteful way of responding, the Minotaur released Wilhelm, by throwing and slamming the teen into the same fist that had just struck his jaw. Wilhelm crashed into the golem and immediately had his back ripped open by the sharpened feathers. He began to fall away to the ground, but was caught by feathers that Puli sent out to prevent him from gaining another injury. He had fallen face first into the floating bed of feathers, and didn't move as his blood began to coat them red.

"Wilhelm!" Sol's voiced cracked, something she didn't even notice as she saw his state of health getting drastically worse.

"Focus!" Puli commented as she created more feathers and made them rush at the Minotaur. "His condition is not fatal yet and we have to work to make sure none of us get to that point. Wing Magic: Angelic Entombment!" She made her spell activate and over a hundred feathers materialized around her that flew to surround the Minotaur. The beast didn't move as it eyed the spell, planning on how to defend itself.

The feathers all simultaneously shot forward to impale it, and the Minotaur quickly realized that it couldn't utilize its shield to the fullest, because Wilhelm's sword was still sticking out of the beast's abdomen. It had only realized this fact as the feathers began to impale it, and grabbed the sword as the attack had already gotten halfway through its process. Instead of removing the sword completely, the beast felt the possibility to drain the sword, and attempted to overpower the ability of the sword with its own, and begin to pull the mana that the sword had been absorbing all night.

With a blinding shower of light, the mana shield flashed to life and blocked the rest of the spell, and the beast began to change. Through the absorption of the negative mana of the sword that it had taken from Wilhelm, the beast's skin began to darken just like Wilhelm's, and its eye began to glow an intense yellow. The beast roared in an reinvigorated rage fueled by the negative mana and dropped the sword, pulling the blade from its body and no longer having a use for the weapon that was drained of mana.

Both Blue Roses gained wide eyes as they saw the beast power up, realizing this situation just got drastically worse.

"That thing just took whatever mana Wilhelm has from his sword!" Sol stated the obvious. "It's going to care a whole lot less about whatever we hit it with now!"

"We have to buy time until the squad gets here!" Puli created as many feathers as she could at once. "Try to restrain it at the least!" As she said that, she made her feathers fly at the torso of the beast, attempting to bind the beast's arms to its side.

"Got it!" Sol made earth rise from the ground to hold the beast's legs in place.

The Minotaur got bound in place with ease, the feathers scraping against the shield of the beast's arms and the ground rising up over its legs to the knees. They had it immobilized, but only for a few seconds. The beast roared and exerted its new level of strength, ripping through the feathered bindings on its arms simply by flexing the muscles and moving them outward. Quickly smashing its fists against the rock around its legs, the beast was freed as the two tried attacking again.

Before either side could do something new to the other, Wilhelm to the shock of the Blue Roses, had leapt up and sucker punched the beast in the jaw. His rage building up again made his strength more powerful than before, but now the Minotaur was above even that. The beast barely reacted and with its new speed, head-butted Wilhelm and sent the teen to the ground.

Wilhelm crashed into the ground hard, breaking the pavement below him as he landed on his back. He coughed up blood as he hit the ground, and had no chance to get up before the beast attacked him again.

With what was almost a grin, the Minotaur slammed its foot onto Wilhelm at full force. It did not hit him completely, moving too fast to even aim properly, but hit his entire right arm. The teen yelled in pain as everything in his arm was crushed, his muscles ripped to shreds and his bones shattering to pieces. The beast had gained a full sadistic grin as Wilhelm cried out in pain, and raised its foot covered in the teen's blood, and prepared to lower it again, this time to crush his head.

With miraculous timing, several spells crashed into the Minotaur's upper body and face, forcing the beast to take a few steps back away from the injured teen. As the beast, Sol and Puli looked at the source of the magic, the latter two were relieved to see their squad had gotten there.

Charlotte said nothing as she got off her broom and quickly observed the area. Crete had gone through intense destruction in half the town, this beast was obviously the cause of that. Sol and Puli were here, doing the beast that they could to handle it. None of the mages who acted as guards of the town were here and standing, so she had to assume that either they had already fallen to the beast or had left with the evacuated. She only gave Wilhelm a second of a glance, and knew the kid was barely alive at that moment. Choosing to not waste time questioning the mana she sensed in him, she made her order.

"Borja! Get the boy out of here and to a medic. Everyone else focus on holding down that beast!" Charlotte ordered as she raised the hilt to her sword and the briars that made up the weapon and whipped the beast from where she stood, and saw her weapon clash with a mana defense. Instantly she realized just why this beast was an issue, and knew it wouldn't be easy to stop the monster.

The Minotaur roared as it saw the newcomers. And made to begin wiping them out. Jumping at the newcomers, it was immediately blocked by a powerful gust of wind that threw it to the side just enough to not land on or in the middle of them. The Blue Rose who had used the wind magic was the girl Borja.

"It has a stupid shield!" Sol announced.

"Hitting it would only make the shield stronger!" Puli added.

The Minotaur roared and attempted to kick a Blue Rose, Liv, who jumped off the ground with a mana reinforced boost, and slammed a burst of fire magic at the beast's ruined eye. The shield blocked the Minotaur from being attacked directly, and the beast tried to strike the girl. Before it could make contact however, Liv pushed herself backwards with another burst of flame magic. As the girl backed away, two more Blue Roses threw their own magic spells at the beast.

Charlotte narrowed her eyes, looking at the beast. It had so many wounds, all bleeding and fresh, so that meant that they had a way to break through the shield. "What tool is breaking through?"

"Wilhelm's sword!" Puli replied, trying to even see where the sword was at the moment.

That didn't actually surprise Charlotte, that the sword was useful here. It could absorb mana, so of course it definitely worked and she didn't have to question whether or not it could. However she didn't know if any of her squad were able to physically lift the sword. Past that it came to actually wielding it properly. "Where is it?"

"That thing dropped it somewhere!" Sol pointed at the Minotaur.

"It's here!" Borja shouted. "It's by Wilhelm!"

Without a second to waste, Charlotte made her briars grab the sword and bring it to her. She knew very easily she couldn't hold the sword with her hand, so she made reinforced briars hold the weapon for her. "Hold the beast still as best you can."

At that order, all of the squad members made their grimoires open to spells that can work to holding the beast in place. Puli and Sol did what they had done earlier. Liv made a set of flaming chains that she shot at the beast's neck to restrain that area, and the rest of the squad made to add to holding the beast in place by its arms or legs.

Charlotte wasn't stupid in her line of thinking by any means, she knew that the beast would absorb the mana from their spells, however she believed she could cut the beast down quicker than it could free itself from the bindings. As the captain moved in to attack, she was surprised as the beast actively tore apart all of its restraints in one move. The beast moved to attack her, seeing Charlotte as the biggest threat since she held the sword that could harm it. Charlotte effortlessly dodged multiple swings of the beast's arms as she got in close and swung the sword, seeing it clash with the shield but not break through. Quickly making space she moved away to plan more.

"Be conservative with your spells. It will take longer than I initially thought to break through that shield." Charlotte spoke to her squad.

She rushed the beast again, knowing she had to keep at a close distance. She couldn't actively stay too far away from the sword either, she had to keep as small amount of briars as she could to hold the sword properly but not overuse mana. Charlotte kept making quick, shallow cuts at the shield as she avoided being attacked, moving fluidly between defense and offense.

"Attack where it's wounded." Puli offered. "Those spots have a weaker shield."

Taking that advice to heart, Charlotte instantly stabbed the sword at the beast's foot, stabbing cleanly through into the foot that was the worst wound the beast had. The Minotaur yelled in pain and managed to yank its foot away from Charlotte, actively taking the sword away from the magic knight with it.

Charlotte tried to make briars grab the sword, but the beast managed to fling the sword away from the fight and charge the woman in a split second. She dropped her attempt to grab the sword and raised her arm, making a wall of briars rise up and ensnare the beast. She attempted to make the briars impale the beast all over, only stabbing through the parts where earlier Wilhelm had damaged the shield. The Minotaur roared in pain and used its strength to begin ripping the vines apart.

"This thing won't just quit." Sol sighed as she tried to think of a way to help her captain.

Charlotte mentally cursed as she realized all she really did was essential scrapes to enrage this beast. Despite the one eye being sliced apart, even that part of the shield was relatively stronger than her briars. Making plans to counter this beast were not easy and she needed to figure out how to kill it. She needed to get that sword back from wherever it flew off to, and stick it in that monster's head.

Everyone stopped moving as the pressure of mana in the area elevated intensely, and looked over to the source.

Wilhelm, who had once again stood up despite his wounds, was standing in a pile of his own blood, holding his sword and breathing heavily.

Since being slammed against the ground once again, and his arm smashed, the teen had been out of it, his focus all over the place. It came back to him just before he got up, and he faced the beast with his mind running a mile a second.

He saw the situation he was in, his body damn near about to crash into its limits and he would just collapse. The Blue Roses there who had taken the situation into their own hands. The beast who had overpowered him yet again.

It all made him feel weak. He was pathetic. Gaining mana somehow and still losing miserably only made it clear that the issue was only just Wilhelm. That he was just a pathetic, useless piece of filth.

That fact ruined Wilhelm, almost bringing him to tears if not for one reason. He only felt rage, rage at everything.

He felt rage at his original life. How he was abandoned before he could even know what his parents looked like. How no matter where he was, everyone back then treated him like the absolute worse piece of trash for no reason, seemingly past him existing. How every day was a struggle to just find a single piece of food, or a drop of water, or to survive till the next day where it was the exact same damn thing again and again and again.

He felt rage for this new life. From the beginning he was already an outcast because he had no mana. People treating him differently once again, being thrown around and left with no idea of his identity past a delusional goal of self importance that wouldn't solve anything because he could never get close to it.

He felt rage at mana itself, for only making him realize how far of a gap he was below everyone. Even now a mindless beast was far above him because of mana.

Wilhelm felt hatred. Pure hatred for himself for being weak, and hatred for mana that made him know that he'll always be weak.

His negative emotions made the negative mana in him intensify even further, creating further pressure that made some of the Blue Roses almost stumble over. Everyone saw as his malicious yellow eyes changed, the irises becoming a dark, bloody red, and his pupils became vertical slits. The red markings on Wilhelm began to glow brighter, as did the rest of him. The corrupted teen gained a red aura around his body, as well as his sword, as the mana inside of him was morphed by his hatred and malice.

"I..." Wilhelm opened his mouth to speak, blood dripping from cuts made by his teeth that became sharp. He raised his sword with the one hand he could use, lifting it above his head. "...will overcome..." Electricity began to fill the air as Wilhelm moved to swing his sword down. His form began to fall apart, the blackened skin turning pale and his wounds began to bleed like they should've from the beginning. Wilhelm felt his heart beating too fast, but ignored it as he continued his motion. "... my weakness!" He shouted in defiance of his cursed existence and brought the sword down.

As the sword was brought down, guided by an instinct to fight, a slash of energy was released, flying right at the Minotaur. This energy was a new kind of magic, a destructive, dark kind of magic created from Wilhelm's hatred. It began destroying all of the mana it touched, even the negative mana that was keeping Wilhelm standing. It cut through everything in front of it, slicing through the spells made by everyone and striking the monster.

Everyone had turned to look at the slash of magic, and shock filled the area as they saw it break completely through the Minotaur's shield, and sliced completely through the beast. From the space between its left shoulder and neck, to the bottom of the right side of its ribcage, the Minotaur had been cut completely through. The beast from Diamond didn't yell, roar or male a sound past the pair of thuds from the two pieces of its body crashing to the ground.

Almost all of the Blue Roses had their jaws drop. The monster that had terrorized the town and was even strong enough to give a captain of all people a difficult time, killed with such an unexpected attack.

Wilhelm did not even see his own victorious attack, falling over as he threw the slash of magic. The negative mana in him being completely destroyed by the magic he had created left him open to the consequences of his numerous injuries. His heart couldn't take the stress anymore, and stopped. Wilhelm's vision and consciousness faded away before he hit the ground.

On a building right next to the square sat a man who had been there for a while, observing everything in silence. He looked at the boy who had collapsed right after slaying the beast from his own home kingdom, and made a humming sound.

"Interesting..." He pulled out his grimoire, and looked at the blood red glow coming from it, and recalled what that kid down there had just done. "... Someone else who has obtained this power has shown up... I guess I am not the only one who has obtained the power of a god."

He stood up, watching the kid be surrounded by the mages of Clover who were checking his status. "If we are both truly weak and connected to these stones, it is fate for us to cross. Until then, get stronger and let us both prove our existence."

End of Part I: New World

A/N: That's the end of chapter twelve and the first arc of the story. Ngl this arc changed a lot from what I planned when I started chapter nine, but I am insanely happy with what I have now. If anyone wants to know, we are now halfway through Part One of the story, which is what I consider the pre-canon section of the story.

Before anyone asks, Nero is okay. I just didn't know when to properly mention her this chapter but she is definitely getting help too, maybe not as much focus as Wilhelm but the necessary amount.

Wilhelm killing James was actually changed a few times. One of the original drafts had James being killed almost instantly, in like three paragraphs. I wanted to show Wilhelm's "semi-demon form" as absolutely ruthless, but decided to go with what we have now; a sadistic insane dude.

His mindset was kinda hard to get this chapter, so I focused on his negativity to make things worse, because that works with negative mana.

That last scene in the chapter actually has the big bad of Part One, who was also in the last scene of chapter five. Now that Section One of Part One is over, the focus will drift more towards that whole situation.

That last scene of Wilhelm's is the only other thing I'll talk about. What Wilhelm did was create a new magic yes, I did say that in the story, it destroyed the negative mana and hopefully someone realized exactly what happened because we saw it in the anime and manga. First person to actually say what happened without dancing around the thing like me gets a prize or something.

As I say at the bottom of every chapter, I have a discord server with the link in my Bio.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know how it was and have a good day!