Entering the gaming zone and glancing toward the gambling area, the group quickly notices the darkness, broken only by flashes of elemental attacks streaking blindly through the air. The city cats immediately dart off to assist Greed and the forest cats, leaving only Catutu to stay behind and aid the group.

  “David? What about the third level?” asks a soul taking refuge nearby.

  “We killed them all,” David replies coldly.

  “Wow! Thank Hell you’re here! You need to help us! We can’t keep up with Hermes!” the soul says.

  The group scans the sky but can’t make out Hermes’ location – there’s no movement, nothing to indicate where he might be. Suddenly, several souls on the ground appear with fresh injuries, though none of them seem severe.

  After exchanging messages with the nerds, David informs the group that Hermes is likely the weakest of the bunch, meaning that the key to defeating him is simply stopping him in his tracks.

  “How do we slow down an enemy we can’t even see?” Wyn wonders aloud.

  David places a hand on Wyn’s shoulder. “First, let’s see how we fare out there. Wyn, you stay back and support us from here. I want you to recover that back of yours before we’re up against someone stronger.”

  With earth, ice, and snow users fortifying themselves in their respective elements and surrounding the rest as the first layer of defense, the group, minus Wyn, steps into the gambling zone. The moment they do, a voice taunts them from all directions.

  “Fresh ones!” the voice echoes, its source impossible to pinpoint, as Hermes moves so quickly that his voice seems to surround them.

  Instantly, the group tightens their formation, creating barricades of elemental walls around them and an ice sheet above. A sharp “clang” echoes as something strikes the ice, followed by a burst of thunder. To Hermes' surprise, the barricades hold firm.

  “Chill, Herpes!” Mira calls out.

  “What did you just call me?” Hermes yells, halting his movements in confusion.

  “There he is!” a nearby soul shouts, spotting him hovering above David’s group.

  Hermes’ sharp features are framed by curly golden-brown hair, with eyes gleaming with mischief. Wings, faintly shimmering with a pale gold hue, flutter lightly from his golden sandals. His armor is sleek: a silver breastplate molded perfectly to his form, offering minimal protection yet maximum flexibility. Dark bronze gauntlets protect his arms, etched with symbols of speed. His iconic winged sandals glow softly, leaving a trail of wind in his wake.

  As soon as Hermes sees the barrage of attacks coming his way, he instantly vanishes. The Hell souls continue to struggle, unable to track his movements. However, David's sharp eyes catch something else – souls recoiling from snakebite-like wounds appearing around their bodies.

  “What is that thing in his hands?” James asks.

  “That’s the Caduceus,” Ruben answers. “It grants him the ability to put someone to sleep, wake them, and even revive the dead! It’s also used to guide souls to the Underworld.”

  “Flashy guy,” Yu remarks.

  “Wait, the Underworld?” Heysoos asks, confused. “So, he can come here anytime he wants?”

  “How would I know? It’s just some lore I heard while I was alive.”

  With other souls grouping up and following David’s strategy to fortify themselves, Hermes’s frustration builds.

  "Are you that scared of me? How about I give you a few chances to hit me?" he taunts, masking his annoyance with mockery.

  Hermes then targets a barricade, briefly revealing himself after a strike. A group, foolish enough to take the bait, moves to strike – only to be met with a fierce thunderstrike, followed by a lightning-quick dash that sends them reeling. In the blink of an eye, one soul falls lifeless to the ground, snakebite wounds marking her head. Hermes repeats the pattern, swiftly taking down the unprotected souls.

  “He was toying with us this whole time! Now he’s getting serious!” one soul yells from across a nearby barricade.

  “He’s been stalling for the Heaven army and Artemis! We need to take him out, fast!” another voice joins in urgently.

  As no groups fall for his tricks anymore, Hermes begins striking at random defenses, wearing them down with relentless speed. Just then, Wyn’s team receives a text from their leader.

  “Huh? ‘Grab his attention. Get him to come to you. I entrust this important task to you, Mira’,” Mira reads aloud. “Entrust…what’s with the big word…what does it mean?”

  “What’s that fool thinking now?” Charlotte mutters.

  David’s eyes light up with realization. “He’s cooking up something – I think I know where he’s headed with this! We need to get ready!”

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  Mira grins, her eyes blazing with intent. Wasting no time, she switches into what she refers to as her “bitch mode.”

  “Hey, dickless Herpes! You’re so weak, you can’t even destroy our pillars. You don’t deserve to be among your hiccup friends. I bet, without your speed, you can’t even defeat any of us in here, you one-trick pony!” she screams.

  “Yeah! Your weapon’s dumb! Seriously, snakes on a stick?” Ruben adds.

  “Woah, Ruben. What’s gotten into you?” Violet remarks.

  Taking the bait, though without a sharp comeback, Hermes begins chipping away at David’s group’s barricades. But the moment a section weakens, the group quickly refortifies it. This prompts Hermes to focus his attacks on the same spot – one that has been intentionally left weak to lure his attention. Hermes dashes and strikes at the ice sheet, repeating the process.

  “What is that doofus waiting for?” Charlotte grumbles.

  “Guy definitely has a plan. Give him a chance until he texts us again, eh,” James defends his leader.

  Wyn, a mere silhouette standing inside the gaming zone, keeps his eyes closed. He’s been carefully timing the "clang" against the ice sheet, waiting for the right moment. As soon as he’s confident enough, a fully-charged ascending cyclone erupts around David’s group. Its width is just enough to avoid destroying their defenses, but not enough for Hermes to slip through. This leaves two possible locations where Hermes could be – caught in the cyclone or hovering in the eye of it, just above David’s group.

  At David’s command, Charlotte and Vivian desummon the ice sheet, allowing Ruben and Violet to summon a strong fiery breeze upward while Lisa blindly fires lasers into the sky. Hermes swiftly dodges the lasers, ascending higher until he reaches the level's ceiling. As powerful as Ruben and Violet’s combined gusts are, they can't reach that height. However, what the group hears next is the sound of Hermes' screeching.

  “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

  “That madman!” Yu exclaims.

  Wyn, having flown up in anticipation, dashes straight through his own cyclone the moment Hermes pauses to watch the fiery gusts. Wrapping his arms around Hermes’ waist, he spins him into a dizzying whirl as the snakes on the Caduceus lash out, repeatedly biting him. Prepared, Wyn has fortified his head and neck with rock, but the snakes begin slithering off the Caduceus, their tails still anchored to the staff, creeping toward Wyn’s unprotected areas. A few sink their fangs into his back and shoulders before Wyn shifts direction, diving downward and slamming Hermes hard into the ground.

  Unwilling to risk injuring his arms, Wyn refrains from summoning his weapons mid-flight. Just before impact, he releases his grip, allowing himself to plummet headfirst, using Hermes as a cushion to break his fall. The landing shatters the protective rock around Wyn's head. But before Wyn can ready his weapon for a critical blow to Hermes’ face, the speedster vanishes in the blink of an eye.

  “Huh? When did he escape? Did he teleport?” Wyn mutters, bewildered.

  Before he can react, Charlotte yanks him back inside the barricades with a gust of wind.

  “Why’d you pull me from the back? It still hurts!” Wyn complains, but Charlotte remains silent.

  The group struggles to piece together a new plan. Their best opportunity to take Hermes down hadn’t been enough. But before they can strategize, a formidable force of Heaven souls surges toward them, led by Hermes himself.

  “Oh, so you’re so weak you had to call for backup!” Mira taunts from within their defenses.

  “You can switch back to your normal mode now, sis,” Lisa says, giving Mira a playful poke in the waist.

  “What do we do?” Yu asks.

  “We’ve got to disable his shoes,” David suggests, glancing over at Wyn.

  “You’re thinking what I’m thinking?” Wyn says.

  “It’s risky, but it might be our best shot.”

  At David’s command, all wind, water, and ice users begin to hover, gathering above as they create a fierce, freezing wind barrier that blows outward. Meanwhile, those on the ground fend off the advancing Heaven souls, who seem noticeably stronger than the ones from the third level but still manageable for the group, protecting the hovering team as they set the trap. At this point, Mira has no qualms about taking out a few Heaven souls herself – what happened to Crowd’s team serves as a grim reminder that this is war.

  “I almost defeated you, Herpes. Come for me!” Wyn shouts, slashing open a Heaven soul before dashing into the open.

  Seeing the strength of David’s and Wyn’s teams – and, of course, irritated by the taunt – Hermes focuses solely on Wyn, ignoring everything else. Wyn reinforces most of his body, but intentionally leaves his legs exposed. With each painful snakebite, he staggers closer to the hovering team, who begin to descend slowly to meet him.

  “Now!” Wyn shouts.

  Water jets burst around him, forcing Hermes up into the freezing radius of the barrier, slowing his movement. Without missing a beat, Mira, positioned behind Wyn, steps forth and swings her whip around Hermes' legs. This time, the explosion doesn’t go off. With the wind barrier halted, the wind users focus all their efforts on pinning Hermes to the ground.

  Instantly, the group piles onto the grounded Hermes, working to sever his limbs, especially his legs. Nearby Hell souls quickly form a protective barrier around them, fending off any approaching threats. At that moment, Catutu enlarges herself, meowing at Lisa and Vivian.After getting a clear shot, they unleash a powerful laser beam. Legs tied and trapped within the elemental pillars, Hermes meets his end as the group moves out of the way.

  “Eighty thousand? He sure was weak compared to two hundred thousand of Ares,” Mira says.

  “Feels strange for us to be stronger than one of these beings in terms of essence count,” Lisa chimes in.

  "Thank you, David and team! We can now help Greed and our leaders! Will let the demons clean up the remaining Heaven souls," a soul says.

  As part of the level’s defense mechanism, any props inside any zone can explode, plunging the area into darkness where only the demons and Greed can see. However, Greed was shortsighted, forgetting that Hell’s elites are also unable to see in the dark, and that elemental attacks provide enough light to illuminate the battlefield anyway.

  “When we arrived, the Heaven army was already small!” another soul adds.

  At the moment, Greed is facing off against Artemis, whose agility proves difficult for Greed to match. Despite his attempts to paralyze her with electrical shocks or freeze her solid, he struggles to land a clean hit. Meanwhile, the Heaven army leaders are engaged in battle with the Imperial Order leaders. Their strengths appear to be evenly matched, but the Hell army holds an advantage in terms of numbers.

  After exchanging more messages with the nerds, David leads the group back to the gaming zone, where a group of nerds awaits them.

  "Really? We have to keep going?" Yu groans.

  “How’s your back and how are your wounds, Oppa?” Mira asks.

  “The snakebites are nothing compared to the back pain, which is getting better now, by the way. The cat licks are doing wonders!” Wyn replies, with Catutu licking his wounds.

  Tagging along, Catutu jumps onto Yu's head as the group ascends to level one, exhausted.