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Introduction:

Noah and the others fight to save Valon.

Second Chance

The next day, everyone set out once more, hoping that Valon would finally appear. Their hopes were unknowingly met, but while Noah’s group had no idea of his presence, it did not go unnoticed by the Profane. Voraith stepped out of his cave and glanced in the direction of the rising sun through the eyeholes of his shroud, grimacing from the dawn light.

“I sense Valon. He’s here. Time to level the playing field.”

“With pleasure,” Miasmarda hissed as he removed his cloak. Though his limbs were long and gangly like the branches of a dead tree, his torso was enlarged with a hunchback, sporting two large creases reminiscent of gills. He took a deep breath, and the creases opened, with his black lungs extending out and inflating like a frog’s throat. “Dark Omen Sky,” he gasped while sucking in air.

He then exhaled, releasing a plume of dark vapor so dense and thick that no light could pass through it, like an expanding mass of tar. He continued to vent his evil breath, sending it flowing out of the cave and into the sky, where it spread like a film of oil, engorging and darkening the clouds. To onlookers, it simply appeared to be the brewing of a sudden summer storm, but that would soon change.

“Woo boy, that looks bad,” said Daniel, looking at the black mass choking the sky.

“Why do you think I want to stay close to the village? First rain drop hits my nose, and I’m parking myself in the tavern until it blows over.” Cyrilo replied beside him as they walked through the muddy street, doing her best to avoid dirtying her dress.

Since leaving Colbrand, she had tried to pack sensibly for travel and combat, but she still had a sense of fashion, while Daniel insisted on wearing his old jeans and leather jacket until the day he died. As she said, they were sticking close to the heart of the town, just in case Valon might stumble by. All around them, the villagers were going about their daily business while giving them curious looks. They stood out like sore thumbs, namely due to their height.

“Certainly, no one could blame us for taking shelter from the rain,” said Daniel. “And, of course, we might need a drink or two to warm ourselves up.”

“And unless Valon appears, I’m sure no one would begrudge me assuming my feline form and taking a nap by the fireplace while those clouds throw their little tantrum.”

“We may as well just spend the whole day at the bar. You never know; Valon could show up, looking to get hammered.”

“I like the way you think. All we need left is some good food.” She suddenly halted, looking concerned.

“What is it?” Daniel asked, noticing her pointed cat ears twitching through the openings in her witch’s hat.

“I think we’ve got company.”

No sooner did she speak than several screams echoed out, and a nearby home was blasted aside as if kicked like a sandcastle. In the wreckage stood a Profane ogre, more than twice Cyrilo and Daniel’s height and well-protected with a thick hide and powerful muscles. It also carried a large tower shield and a scimitar large enough to fell trees in a single chop. Just by looking at it, this monster was clearly stronger than the half-baked, mass-produced fiends they faced in the Colbrand invasion.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Daniel said as he grabbed his guitar. The ogre turned and spotted them with its melon-sized eye, then snarled with demonic bloodlust and charged. “Shit! Shit! SHIT!” Daniel shouted as he and Cyrilo split up, scrambling to get out of the monster’s path.

It brought down its sword upon the ground, kicking up soil and knocking them off their feet. Cyrilo was faster to get up, already wielding her grimoire and spraying the fiend with a jet of flame. The fire splashed off its flesh, leaving it smoking, but the ogre showed no signs of pain. It tried to strike her with a shield bash, but a sharp chord from Daniel threw it off balance and saved her. It turned to Daniel, standing on the porch of a nearby house, and threw its sword, striking the roof above him and bringing shredded wood and debris down upon him.

“Holy Radiance!” Cyrilo cast, shining a beam of divine light on the ogre and finally drawing a snarl of pain as its flesh burned. However, the ogre blocked the attack with its shield, with the runes around the edges revealing it was enchanted against elemental magic.

Numerous dwarves came charging out into the street, armed with various weapons and farming tools. There were even a few bronze knights among them. Small as they were, they had stout hearts and were ready to fight for their town. They swarmed around the invader, hesitant but determined, and attacked it with every spark of courage they had, yet their feeble armaments could barely break its skin. The ogre knocked them aside with its shield and took pleasure in stomping on the dwarves like grapes. While the ogre was distracted, Cyrilo rushed over to Daniel and dug him out of the wreckage, finding him bruised and bloody.

“Come on! On your feet!” She managed to get him standing and coherent and forced his guitar into his hands. “I need you to hold him still for me.”

“Y-yeah, ok,” Daniel stuttered.

He was unsteady on his feet, but he began playing a discordant series of notes on his guitar, disrupting the ogre’s thought processes and distracting it. While it tried to shake aside the mana worming its way into its brain, Cyrilo gathered her strength for her spell. She was a skilled magic user, able to utilize both intuitive shamanism and rune-crafted elemental magic. Still, in terms of mana capacity, she paled in comparison to mages like Elyot. She could normally only rely on minor spells or take a risk on something larger. This was one of those times when she had to take a risk.

“Ravenous Quagmire!” she cast.

The ground beneath the ogre began to churn and liquefy, causing it to sink. Realizing it was losing its footing, it forced Daniel’s influence from its mind and tried to escape to solid ground, so Cyrilo expanded the range of her spell, leaving the ogre with nothing in reach. Still, it thrashed and struggled, threatening to escape from its earthen tomb, all while continuing to sink. It soon fell forward, and once its arms were immersed in the dirt, it was doomed, and slowly, it was buried alive.

Once it was fully submerged, Cyrilo finally stopped to catch her breath, and Daniel hobbled over. “Please tell me that thing was just a stray that blindly wandered into town from a faraway land?”

“No, there are surely more,” she panted. On cue, two more buildings were busted open, and a pair of ogres emerged, similar in stature and weaponry. “Me and my big mouth.”

As they continued to fight, not far off, Valia was riding on Shannon’s back through the woods bordering the outer farmlands.

“Ok, here’s one: what has to be broken, before you can use it?”

“Uh… an egg,” Shannon replied.

“Correct! Your turn.”

Shannon paused, deep in thought. “What question can you never answer yes to?”

“Are you asleep yet?” Valia replied.

“Correct. My grandfather taught me that one.”

“Did he teach you this one? What can be held in your left hand, but not your right?”

Shannon continued trotting through the woods while trying to come up with an answer. “I don’t know. What?”

“Your right elbow.”

Shannon grimaced. “You win.”

“Wait, Shannon, stop.”

Shannon came to a halt, and Valia closed her eyes, focusing on her sense of hearing and picking up the sounds of battle.

“Someone is fighting in the village. We need to get back there, now.”

“Yes, My Lady!”

Shannon turned around and took off in a gallop back towards the village, but as she raced down the side of a wooded hill, Valia heard something that didn’t make sense. It hadn’t yet started to rain, but she could hear the rumbling of a flash flood, and it was coming from directly behind them. She looked back, seeing a wall of blackened water surging down the hill towards them.

“Shannon, to the side!”

Shannon obeyed, making a sharp turn and moving perpendicular to the flood, trying to get out of its way, but was shocked when the water suddenly changed direction and chased after them. She raced between the trees in a desperate attempt to escape, but the water was pursuing them with greater and greater speed. Then, with a sudden lurch, it overtook them, and Shannon’s hooves left the ground as she and Valia were snatched up by the raging torrent.

Both women tried to hold their breath, but they could barely tell up from down and were separated. Valia instinctively activated her steel body enchantment, but Shannon had no such ability, and they were both slammed into trees with bone-breaking force. The water released them, but they were not out of danger. Valia gasped for air while rubbing her eyes and spitting out every drop of water that got in her mouth. It tasted and felt utterly toxic, rank with Profane malice.

“Shannon!” she exclaimed, scrambling over to her companion, having reverted to her humanoid form and lying broken and unconscious. Valia tried to give her a healing potion, but was seized again by the water and knocked away from Shannon’s side. Valia rolled to her feet, her sword drawn, and found herself surrounded by a churning wall of black water. Within the depths, she could see the figure of the spellcaster, posed as if taunting her.

“Zodiac: Teez!”

Valia enshrouded her sword with a silver aura and leaped towards him, bringing down her blade with a mighty slice. Her sword sliced through the water, but that was all. The figure she saw simply vanished like a shadow, and all around her, faces appeared in the water, smiling and laughing at her failure.

“Zodiac: Udan!”

Having enhanced her speed, Valia turned into a blur, slashing and hacking at every face she saw, but no matter where she swung her blade, nothing changed. Her sword cut through the dark water, and the faces would simply vanish. The moment she paused, she was swallowed by a wave and thrown off her feet. She was slammed against the ground and numerous trees, and though her body was strong enough to endure each impact, she was struggling to hold her breath. Every second, she felt like she was being pulled in a new direction, yanked with such rapid speed and force that her stomach would turn, and while immersed in the dark water, she was completely blind. If this continued, she’d drown before long.

She had only one chance. Though silent casting lessened its efficacy, she activated her sensory boost, Avagath. Her field of awareness expanded, allowing her to detect all movement and objects around her with her mind’s eye. She could feel the current of the water, moving with demonic speed and also able to change direction in an instant. What she could not sense, however, was any kind of core or nucleus. Unlike the Profane slimes she fought before, this new foe had no weak points for her to target. Every drop seemed to possess the properties of the whole, part of a liquid hive mind. This meant her foe was a natural Profane, and not the host of a parasite.

With her awareness raised, she waited for her foe to slam her into another tree. At the last moment, she turned around and hit the trunk with her feet, giving her a foothold for only a second, but that was all she needed. ‘Zodiac: Bombit! Baom!’ she mentally cast.

Her sword glowed as it absorbed the kinetic energy of the water pushing against it, adding to her already enhanced strength. Combined with her super speed, she pushed off against the tree and launched herself through the water like a torpedo. She swung her sword wildly in all directions, not with the edge or back, but the side of the blade, using it like a fan, and with all of the strength she wielded, she managed to blast away the water around her long enough to break free of the Profane’s watery grip.

Without pausing, she rushed over to Shannon and scooped her up in her arms. There was no time for Valia to catch her breath or administer a potion to Shannon. She sprinted away at maximum speed with the dark flood chasing her. No matter how much she slashed and stabbed, she could not vanquish this enemy. Her only option was to escape and rejoin the others. Hopefully, someone else would have better luck against this type of enemy.

‘Noah, please be close by!’ she thought desperately.

However, Noah was having troubles of his own. In a farmer’s field, oceans of wheat had become a sea of black flames. Noah was crouched behind Foley, who had thrown up his shields against a jet of demonic fire, courtesy of an unnamed Profane assailant with molted flesh, as if he had just been pulled out of a grease fire. The flames sprayed and splashed like burning oil, being deflected by Foley’s defensive magic. He was standing firm against the onslaught, but everything else was being eaten away. These black flames burned whatever they touched, whether flammable or not. Even the dirt beneath their feet was burning like sawdust, and as the fire spread, they birthed clouds of smoke that burned Noah’s lungs and blocked his vision.

Risking burns, Noah leaned out from behind Foley and sprayed the wall of smoke with mana bullets, scoring a lucky hit and pausing the ghoul’s assault, if only for a moment. Noah switched to his bow and a poisoned arrow, aiming for where he thought his foe was. Before he could release, the fiery assault continued, and he was forced to duck back down behind Foley. He conjured a fully-charged tralt jewel from his ring and threw it in the ghoul’s direction.

Through the wall of smoke, he saw the flash of sunlight and heard the cry of pain, but moments later, another jet of black fire assaulted them from another direction. Noah once more ducked behind Foley, who deflected the blast with his magic. He tossed a second tralt jewel, but their enemy had wised up and avoided being burned. After the flash, there was no scream of pain, and the fire blast continued from a different location.

“Noah, we’re running out of options here. We ain’t got much ground left,” said Foley.

“I know, I’m trying to think.”

His choices were limited. Projectiles, both real and phantasmal, were proving ineffective, nor could he summon his basilisk or use any large-scale spells with Foley right next to him. Even if he knocked out the Profane, that wouldn’t mean the flames would be extinguished, and if he lost Foley, so too would he lose his protection. In this situation, clones and invisibility meant nothing when there was no room to evade.

“Noah!” he heard. Though he couldn’t see through the smoke, he recognized Valia’s voice.

“Valia!” he hollered back. “We’re over here!”

Moments later, Valia landed next to them, carrying Shannon, who was healed and awake. “We don’t have long. Our foe is pursuing us.”

“We’re having trouble on our end, too. The flames burn whatever they touch, so even your steel body can be harmed. I can’t get close.”

“I can. Care to switch?”

“Gladly.”

The jet of flame assaulting Foley paused as a black flood swept across the field, seeming to extinguish the fire beneath it, then halted when it reached their group.

“Narn, get out of here! You’re in the way!” the fire-wielding Profane shouted in annoyance.

“I can’t let my prey escape!” a voice echoed from the churning wall of water.

“Let’s go!” Noah shouted. With that brief opening, the group split up.

“Hey, what are you doing?! Stop that!” Foley barked as Valia wrapped her arm around him and picked him up like a child.

“Zodiac: Avagath!” she cast.

Using her senses to look beyond the smoke, she zeroed in on the ghoul’s location, and her combination of super strength and speed allowed her to leap high over the flames. The ghoul attempted to shoot her out of the air with a fire blast, but Foley, armed with his shields, put up a magic barrier as they fell, deflecting the demonic inferno. Valia landed at the ghoul’s feet and swung her sword, elegantly slicing off his head. With his death, the black flames withered away and vanished.

At the same time, Noah approached the sentient flood while riding on Shannon’s back. He conjured a tralt jewel and tossed it into the roaring torrent. The gem released its stored sunlight, and a shriek of pain echoed from the water, with its surface resembling a creature with its hair on end. Unlike the Profane slimes, which were able to survive thanks to all the bones of their victims swirling around in their bodies, this ghoul had no such protection, nothing to contain the flash, and a vast portion of the black swill was vaporized instantly.

“Circle around!” Noah ordered.

Shannon obeyed, circling the liquid demon and trying to corral it like a sheepdog herding its flock. The ghoul instinctively recoiled in fear, and where the bulk of its mass gathered, Noah tossed another tralt jewel. The flash burned away almost all of the water, leaving behind only a small amount in a humanoid shape. Weakened and anguished, the ghoul tried to crawl away, looking like Kaisen after being hit with Nell’s holy rain.

Noah conjured a handful of bottles and tossed them into the ghoul’s body, each one filled with various chemicals specially ***********ed for this foe. He had tried to use them against the Profane slimes, but their acidic insides simply dissolved the foreign substances. No such luck for the ghoul, as the chemicals and compounds spread through his body, violently reacting with each other and the water itself. They worked like a neurotoxin, destroying whatever biological system the ghoul used to control his fluid body and maintain its shape. With one last garbled cry of pain and fear, the ghoul popped like a water balloon, leaving nothing behind but an inanimate puddle.

With both enemies defeated, Noah and the others regrouped. “Well done,” said Valia.

“You too,” Noah replied.

“Will you let go of me now?” Foley asked, annoyed with being carried like a teddy bear.

“Oh, my apologies. Thank you for the defense,” said Valia as she set him down.

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t tell anybody how you picked me up,” he grumbled. “We dwarves are touchy on the subject.”

“We need to find the others. If we had this much trouble, there is no telling what they’re going through,” said Shannon.

“But that begs the question: are they here for us, or something else?” Noah asked. “I’m wondering if these ghouls were specifically dispatched to target us based on our strengths and weaknesses, or if we just drew a bad hand. They might have come here to eliminate a more powerful target.”

“Valon,” Valia gasped.

----------

“I see a lot of nasty rain in our future,” said Sophia, walking with Alexis along the edge of a forest and looking at the sky.

“That would be our luck, wouldn’t it?” replied Alexis.

“But nothing brings good luck like sudden bad luck. Picture this: it starts to pour, and we both run around, looking for a place to get out of the rain. We arrive at a tiny shack or abandoned cabin, and who do we find? Valon, with the same idea as we have, soaked to the bone like us. As we wait for the storm to pass, I heal Valon’s brain, and we get him back to normal. We all return, and Noah and Valia are left dumbstruck by our good fortune. We’ve saved the day!”

“The only thing I see us finding is springburn, but you just go ahead and keep dreaming.”

“If we do find him, we’ll have to celebrate.”

“I hope you’re not suggesting another drinking party at the Foley home. All those mugs of ale beat me up harder than the Profane invasion.”

“I’m thinking less drinking and more smoking. Maybe that’s all Valon needs, just a few good puffs of that special powder Noah puts in his gonlief.”

Alexis laughed. “I swear, you have become such a hedonist since the academy. You used to be the most uptight little priestess, worrying that Lumendori would be mad if you ate anything sweet.”

“Ooh, I seem to remember a certain blonde maiden, singing with rosy cheeks and swinging a foamy stein the other night,” Sophia teased, leaning her head on Alexis’s shoulder. “I can just imagine you from a few years ago, seeing you now and asking, ‘Who in the world is this silly creature?’ I’d wrap my arms around that younger you and whisper in her ear that I have so many fun and lewd things to teach her. Then she would blush in that way I just love.”

“When you put it like that, we really are hopeless, aren’t we?”

“Or maybe we’ve just grown up a little and found out the world isn’t always as serious as we think it is. We’ve become more mature by being less mature.”

“Well, when you put it that way, smoking that stuff again does sound fun. We haven’t done that since the academy.”

“We could have Noah braid your hair again.”

“And I bet Daniel’s music would sound even better with our heads in the clouds.”

“We’ll make a day of it. I think—”

Sophia was cut off by Alexis. “Is that who I think it is?”

They heard it before they saw it, a man beating his head against the side of a tree. He had a dark complexion and silver hair that stood out even from a distance. Muttering to himself, Valon stopped, wiped his finger across his bloodied forehead, and scribbled runes on a wooden plank before resuming the self-inflicted beating.

“I can’t believe it. Should we signal Noah?” Sophia asked.

“Not yet. He might run off, or worse. Let’s try to get him talking before he cracks his skull open.”

They carefully approached, with Valon giving no indication that he was aware of them.

“Excuse me, Valon Zodiac?” Alexis asked.

He ignored them, continuing to beat his head against the tree with his blood running down the bark, all while talking to himself. “Yes, yes, three sides of the triangle. It breaks the wheel, and water runs up. We need the fire to burn the meat so the bugs will go north. No! No! Not sunset! Moonset! Five times, it kisses the stump!” Alexis and Sophia looked at each other, unable to guess what delirium was swirling in Valon’s mind.

“Valon Zodiac? Can you hear me?” Alexis asked again.

He finally turned to them, and they flinched from his appearance. Half of the veins in his face were horribly swollen, and his right eye looked bloodshot and infected, with his left eye projecting the madness within him. He also had a prominent tuft of hair missing, looking like he had ripped it out of his scalp in the midst of a fit. His face was horribly bloodied and disfigured from the tree, his body was weakened and malnourished, and his fingers looked like he had been digging like an animal.

“The wolves are behind you, aren’t they? They were supposed to bring coals, but the sun took them!”

“Valon, it’s ok. We’re here to help you,” said Sophia, gently reaching out.

“You can’t help. My thoughts… I can’t catch them. They run off, they strike each other, and shatter into stardust. So many shards, I can’t put them together. They cut me. They cut me up.”

“I know they do, and it hurts, doesn’t it? That’s why you’re all bloody. I’m a healer, so let me heal your wound. We’ll figure out the next step after that.”

She gently touched his shoulder, causing him to flinch, but she didn’t back off and got him to face her. She cupped his cheeks and began channeling healing energy into his face and skull, mending the damage he had inflicted. Valon slowly dropped to his knees, and Sophia continued healing him.

“Valon, do you know where you are?”

“I’m… I’m on another world. There are three moons, and diamonds fall like rain.”

“No, Valon, you’re in Uther. But it’s ok, you’re safe. We’re going to help you, and if we can’t, we’ll find someone who will.”

“Who are you?” he asked groggily, having regained a modicum of coherence.

“I’m Sophia, and this is Alexis. We haven’t met before, but we are on your side. We’re here with your sister.” As she spoke, she wiped the blood of Valon’s face with a handkerchief.

“Sister?”

“Valia, remember?” Alexis asked.

“Valia? No, she shouldn’t be here. She’ll try to stop me.”

“No, she won’t. She’ll help you. Whatever it is you’re trying to do, she’ll help you do it. Just give her a chance,” said Sophia.

“But if she helps me, she’ll die,” Valon then said, giving Sophia and Alexis a shiver that crawled up their spines.

“We’re going to call her here and everything will be fine,” said Alexis. She turned to Sophia and nodded. “Just look at her, ok?”

Sophia covered his ears while Alexis drew her bow and an arrow. She charged the arrow with mana and launched it up into the sky, where it exploded with an echoing thunder. Valon flinched from the sound but kept his gaze on Sophia. Alexis launched two more arrows, signaling their location to Noah and Valia.

“There, she’s on her way,” said Alexis. “Now let’s just wait here for her to arrive. She’s missed you so much since you’ve been gone, and will be happy to see you.”

“I’ve been gone? Where have I been?”

“That’s what we want to know. What’s the last thing you remember?”

Valon muttered softly to himself and then began to cry. “I… I remember… pain… and stars. So many stars… burning holes in my brain. I still see them, every time I close my eyes, those endless stars glaring at me. They won’t let me sleep.”

“Valon, let me try something to help you sleep.” Sophia placed her fingertips on his temples and sent a powerful surge of healing energy into his brain, shutting it down like a blown fuse. It was the same trick she’d use on Bella during her fits, and it rendered Valon unconscious.

Both Alexis and Sophia breathed sighs of relief. “We’ve got him. Mission accomplished,” said Sophia.

“You were really good with him. You calmed him down perfectly.”

“We were probably just lucky he was in such a vulnerable state. If he were acting like Noah and Valia described on Kisara Island, he might have obliterated us. All we have to do is wait for them to arrive.”

“Let’s hurry up and put those shackles on him in case he wakes up. You have the drug, right?”

Noah had given everyone a pair of shackles to bind Valon’s magic, as well as a sedative to render him unconscious, or, in this case, keep him unconscious. It didn’t feel right to shackle a sleeping man, especially after seeing his mental state, but they couldn’t risk him going out of control. They were just about to secure the shackles when they were suddenly awash in an overwhelming sense of doom, like a cloud of poisonous mist filling the air around them, flooding their lungs and clinging to their skin. It was Profane mana, being vented in their direction as a threat. They turned around as Voraith strode towards them. The clouds above were so thick and dark that he could now stand in the open without fear of the sun.

“Funny that you mention him being in a vulnerable state, as if you’re any better off,” he said while scratching his head. “Thank you so much for finding the elf for me and putting him to sleep. You saved me a lot of work. I’ll kill you quickly for that.”

Both Alexis and Sophia could tell that he wasn’t like one of the mindless fiends that swarmed through Colbrand, nor did he rank among the corrupted tournament combatants who were still new to their unholy power when they attacked the arena. He was one of the elites, ancient and powerful. Thinking back to how formidable Bella and Scyler were, neither Alexis nor Sophia was feeling very confident.

“Sophia, you have to get Valon out of here,” Alexis whispered as she drew her bow. “I’ll try to keep him busy.”

“I can’t carry him. My blessings only work on others, not myself. Besides, you have no chance against him on your own.”

“Well, if help doesn’t arrive soon, we may have to kill Valon, even if we die along with him.”

“What are you talking about? He’s Valia’s brother and Noah’s best hope!”

“And the Profane want him. Under no circumstances can we let someone as powerful as Valon join their ranks. We may be at a crossroads now where we have to weigh our lives against the lives of countless others.”

“Then you’d better beat this guy so it doesn’t come to that. Blessing of Advanced Thought! Blessing of Agility! Blessing of Stamina! Blessing of Strength! Blessing of Resilience!”

Sophia boosted all of Alexis’s abilities, and Alexis loaded an arrow into her bow, charging it with mana. “Burst Shot!” she cast, causing it to glow with unbridled power, far greater than it would be without Sophia’s blessings.

She released the arrow, imparting enough magical force to turn a lesser Profane into a bloody smear splattered across the grass, but as it flew towards him, Voraith opened his mouth wide, with his split jaws parting like castle gates. In the bottom of his throat was a pit of darkness. More than just the entry to his esophagus, unreached by light, it was a miniature black hole, swallowing the light itself. He was like a clam exposing its black pearl. The arrow was pulled into the pit and swallowed, leaving Alexis and Sophia in a cold sweat.

“So much for a quick death,” said Voraith after closing his mouth. “Well, since the two of you insist on kicking up a fuss….”

He once more spread his jaws and seemed to take a deep inhale, but rather than sucking in air, he was drawing in energy from the surrounding environment. Plants and trees withered, and the air became blisteringly cold, with Alexis and Sophia trying not to express their pain as they felt the warmth and mana being ripped from their bodies. A pulse of darkness surged from Voraith’s feet, saturating the earth with malevolence and blackening it, with the rune of the Profane worn into the soil. Even when Voraith closed his jaws, the dark chill did not alleviate. They were standing on Cursed Earth, continuing to siphon away all ambient energy within Voraith’s territory.

“Sophia, you have to get Valon and yourself out of here, no matter what it takes!” Alexis said through chattering teeth as she launched another arrow at Voraith. There was no enchantment of any kind, but even if Alexis could gather the strength to cast a spell, any mana she applied to the arrow would be siphoned away before it even left her bow. Voraith snatched the arrow out of the air with his Profane speed.

“But Alexis, I—”

“Go!” Alexis shouted, continuing to shoot arrows as fast as she could. That said, Sophia’s blessings were fading with each passing second, and her cold-addled body was primarily driven by pure adrenaline at this moment, so her pace and aiming were hindered, and she could barely pull back the arrow to full draw. Voraith calmly approached, knocking aside each arrow as it flew towards him, not even needing to activate his magic.

Sophia didn’t want to abandon Alexis, but like Alexis had said, they couldn’t allow Valon to fall into the Profane’s hands. She grabbed Valon and tried to pick him up, hoping the stories of elves being very lightweight were true, but immediately collapsed. On Cursed Earth, it took all of her strength just to stand up without having to carry someone else. She looked back at Alexis, charging towards Voraith with her sword drawn. She swung and slashed at him with all of her might, but she may as well have been moving in slow motion, and it took little effort for him to dodge and evade her slashes.

Finally, he grabbed her by the throat and pulled her face close to his. “You know, it’s been so long since I was human that I barely remember the life I lived. I remember, however, that I had a wife, blonde and feisty like you, who always complained about me sucking the life out of her. Isn’t that a cruel thing to say? How am I supposed to respond to that?” Alexis could barely raise her sword, so with what little strength she could muster, she drew a dagger and plunged it into Voraith’s chest. Voraith flinched, but only in amusement. “That’s exactly right. That’s how I answered her. You know, you and I are birds of a feather. I think I’ll take my time to clip your wings.”

He punched Alexis in the stomach with enough force to make her spit blood, and she staggered back, just for his fist to connect with her cheek. Watching Alexis collapse in pain and fatigue and receive several kicks from Voraith, Sophia stifled a cry, but did not let it distract her. She needed a way to save Alexis and level the playing field a bit. She looked at Valon, still unconscious, and lying on the Cursed Earth wasn’t helping. But even if he were awake, she wasn’t sure what help he’d be in his current mental condition. She then looked at the ground beneath them, cold as ice and black as coal, sucking the energy from their bodies.

If they could get off Voraith’s Cursed Earth, they’d get their strength back, freeing them to escape or fight back, but it seemed to stretch several hundred feet in every direction. In the time it would take them to limp and crawl to the edge, Voraith could kill them dozens of times. Their only hope was for Sophia to undo the curse from the soil. If she could create just a small patch of sanctified dirt for Alexis to stand on, she could reapply her blessings and give Alexis a fighting chance.

Knocked to the ground once more, her face bruised and bloody, Alexis glanced at Sophia, and seeing the look in her eye, she understood the plan without needing to be told a single word. She spat out a mouthful of blood and drank a healing potion. Its effects were lessened on Cursed Earth, but it healed her broken bones and allowed her to get to her feet, raising her arms to defend herself. Each punch and kick from Voraith whittled away at her life, but all the time he spent beating her was time not spent focusing on Sophia, and Sophia wasn’t going to waste even one second.

As Alexis focused on enduring Voraith’s beating, Sophia drank a mana potion and kneeled with her hands clasped in prayer. Immediately, she could feel her recovered strength being siphoned away, so she clung on tightly to what she could retain and circulated it throughout her body. She utilized her knowledge of anatomy, gained from Noah, to direct the energy through every capillary and muscle fiber. Back at the academy, he told her about using breathing techniques to regulate one’s body heat and resist the cold. Though the overview and demonstration were brief, she altered her breathing to match what he had taught her, and visualized both her breath and mana cycling through her body as thoroughly and efficiently as possible.

Sophia didn’t dare move, lest her focus break, but she could feel the sapping chill of Voraith’s aura losing its effect on her. Her strength began to return, and she promptly channeled it into the soil beneath her. Undoing the malignant power that saturated the ground was no small feat, and she was just channeling raw mana, not casting an actual spell, so she wasn’t making much progress. That said, she didn’t need to create much room.

“Alexis! Now!” she finally shouted.

Alexis, feeling like Seraph in his fight with Noah, gritted through the pain of her wounds and hobbled away from Voraith towards Sophia.

“What? Now you’re going to try to run?” Voraith asked mockingly.

Alexis collapsed beside Sophia, racked with pain, but she took a deep, shuddering breath as though she had surfaced after nearly drowning. Sophia was doing everything she could to maintain the purified space, and now Alexis was freed from Voraith’s influence. She downed two potions, restoring her health and vitality, and got to her feet. Even if she couldn’t use spells, she wasn’t without options. She once more hefted her bow and conjured an arrow from her ring. She drew it back at full strength and channeled every drop of mana she had into it.

She launched the arrow, and though it lost much of its power while flying over the Cursed Earth, it still reached Voraith with a radiant glow, only to disappear when he opened his jaws and swallowed it with the black hole in his throat. Alexis should have been disheartened, but she simply drew another arrow and shot it, this time without any enchantment. Voraith caught it out of the air, and though he was unimpressed, he noticed her smile.

“What are you so happy about? Your spells are useless against me. You really think you’ve won because you have a little spit of holy dirt to stand on?”

“You’ve only swallowed two of my arrows: the ones I put a spell on. That’s the limit of your technique, isn’t it? You can only swallow spells or items imbued with mana. If it’s unenchanted, you have to either dodge it or block.”

“You can’t expect to defeat me with normal arrows.”

“That just depends on how many I use.”

Alexis loaded an arrow from her ring into her bow and released it, and though Voraith knocked it aside with ease, the one that came after caught him by surprise, same with the next one. Alexis was launching arrows as fast as physically possible, drawing them from her ring. Without having to reach back and pull them from a quiver, there was minimal excess movement and time between each launch and load, allowing her to spit arrows like they were bullets from a machine gun, and she had plenty of ammunition stored in her ring. She had spent hours practicing this technique, mastering her movements until her arm was a blur. It wasn’t a spell, as there was no mana involved, just pure skill.

Voraith did his best to dodge and deflect the countless arrows coming his way, but even his Profane reflexes met their match against the sheer number of projectiles. They lodged themselves in his flesh one after another, and though his endurance and pain tolerance rendered him immune to such injuries, the more times he was skewered, the harder it became to move. It wasn’t long until he was transformed into a sentient pin cushion, but Alexis ran out of arrows, and with them, luck.

Voraith staggered, and though his lungs were punctured numerous times, he still managed to speak after spitting out some blood. “You know, if I were still human, that would have been a big inconvenience to be.” He started ripping out the arrows, one by one. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to make you suffer for that, but it’s not like you inflicted any real harm to….” He then lurched forward and vomited onto the ground with his skin visibly crawling. “What did you bitches do to me?”

“Poisoned arrows, courtesy of Noah. He’s still trying to figure out which ones work best against ghouls like you, so he gave me a whole arsenal, each one with a different compound applied.”

Voraith continued ripping out the arrows, but his muscles were spasming as the multitude of poisons coursed through his veins. Deacon had suffered a similar reaction in his fight with Noah, and though Voraith ranked higher as a Profane, he had also received a larger dose.

“You think a little poison is enough to save you?!” he roared, trying to stay on his feet.

“No, but it bought us a little more time for someone else to,” Alexis shot back, as Seraph entered the battlefield, rocketing towards Voraith with superhuman speed and a radiant aura. The aura dimmed the moment he entered Voraith’s territory, but Seraph’s incoming hammer swing still connected with the ghoul’s shoulder, and the residual holy energy imbued in the steel was enough to sever the limb like a tree branch and knock Voraith through the air. Seraph stepped between Voraith and his friends, his guard raised, trying to catch his breath.

“Sorry, I’m late. I got here as quick as I could. You have Valon with you?”

“Yeah, he’s out, but we can’t leave the spot we’re standing,” said Alexis as Voraith got to his feet and continued pulling out arrows. “Did you see Noah or anyone else on the way?”

“They’re probably all fighting. There are Profane all over the place. I had to kill quite a few in the village before I got here.”

“Be careful. This one is stronger than he looks.”

“We’ll see,” Seraph replied. Though weakened by the Cursed Earth, he gathered enough holy energy together to form a mighty blast and aimed his hand at Voraith. “Seering Radiance!” The beam of energy erupted from his palm towards Voraith like a golden geyser, but the malicious ghoul opened his jaws, and the light was swallowed by the black hole in his throat. Though normally weak to holy energy as a Profane, consuming it in this manner caused no harm.

“Nice try, but that won’t work on me,” Voraith taunted. “But by all means, keep it up. It’ll help me devour your mana even faster.”

“I’ve got plenty to spare,” Seraph countered before charging in.

If energy attacks wouldn’t work, then he’d just keep hammering away at Voraith until he was reduced to a big black splatter. That said, Alexis’s warning was apt, and try as he might to strike him, Seraph couldn’t seem to land a hit. Even while ripping out arrows with his one remaining hand, Voraith was nimble and quick. His Profane abilities were weakened thanks to the poison in his system, but Seraph was suffering a similar detriment on the Cursed Earth. It was a competition of skill and experience, and it was clear that Voraith knew his own weakness and had trained to compensate.

Watching them, Alexis desperately wanted to help, but if she took one step onto the Cursed Earth, she’d be weakened again and make herself an easy target. She was out of arrows and couldn’t use any spells to back Seraph up. Sophia had reached the limit of the space she could purify, but the fact that she wasn’t moving or speaking meant that doing so risked her losing their little foothold. Alexis was pulled from her thoughts as Voraith managed to place his hand on Seraph’s arm, draining a hefty dose of vitality from his flesh and drawing a cry of pain. Having been rendered hypothermic simply by standing in Voraith’s presence, Alexis could well imagine what he could steal from his victims through physical contact. Seraph staggered back, his arm hanging limp and useless.

“You probably thought that since magic doesn’t work on me, my weakness must be close combat. Unfortunately, that’s my strength,” said Voraith. Just from the way he was standing and talking, it was clear the poison in his system had run its course. It seemed all of his ducking and dodging Seraph’s attacks had been to buy time for it to wear off so he’d get his powers back. “That girl is only alive because I didn’t use my Death Touch during her beating. Normally, it causes instant gangrene, if not flash freezing. An average man would have lost his arm, but you’re something special, aren’t you? The famous Prince Seraph. You remind me of me, back when I was a paladin.”

“That’s funny,” Seraph said with a wince. “You also remind me of me when I was younger: an obnoxious son of a bitch.”

Voraith growled in annoyance and reached out to deliver the finishing blow, but was shocked when Seraph relinquished his hammer and instead drew a dagger using his good hand, driving it through the ghoul’s palm. Seraph then kicked Voraith in the back of the knee to knock him down and used his weight to keep him pinned. The two of them each only had one working arm, but as long as Seraph kept Voraith’s hand pinned to the ground with the dagger, he couldn’t use his Death Touch. He channeled all of the holy energy he could spare into the dagger like it was a lightning rod, leaving Voraith writhing in pain.

“Alexis! Get Sophia and Valon out of here! I’ll be right behind you!”

Alexis wanted to argue, but knew they’d never get a better chance than this. “Sophia! Let’s go!”

She pulled Sophia from her meditative pose, causing the sanctified ground to once more become Cursed Earth. The noxious effects assaulted their bodies, but having received a chance to gather their strength and now knowing what to expect, it didn’t hit them as hard as before. They each took one of Valon’s arms over their shoulders and carried him away from Voraith with every bit of speed and strength they could muster. They didn’t know how far the Cursed Earth extended, whether it was a hundred feet or a full mile, but regardless, they had to escape.

As they ran, Alexis looked at Valon. How likely was it that they could actually get away with him? That they could keep him from the Profane’s clutches? This could be her last chance to deny them their prize. She drew a knife, unsure of whether she’d slit Valon’s throat or stab him in the chest, but knowing she had to eliminate him. Memories of Bella’s rampage were burning in her mind, and terror at the thought of what Valon could do if he was turned like she was.

“Alexis, don’t even think about it!” Sophia exclaimed, seeing the knife.

“Sophia, I have to,” said Alexis. But though fear drove her to consider that desperate act, fear also stopped her from completing it, and she put the knife away.

“You really think you’ve won like this? You think they can get away?” Voraith mocked, putting up a brave front through the pain of Seraph’s magic. “You’re not the only one with friends on your side.”

The sound of heavy footfalls reached Seraph’s ears as several hulking ogres approached, all armed with enchanted weapons. Having killed the ones in the village, he knew how strong they were, both the wielders and their shields. He then heard Sophia scream and looked back to see her and Alexis facing one such towering beast. It swung down its sword, forcing them to split up, with Sophia taking Valon and trying to pull him away, while Alexis went on the offense. Unfortunately, they were still on Voraith’s Cursed Earth, and though Alexis tried to fend it off with her sword, it blocked and parried her feeble attacks with a taunting smirk on its ugly face.

“As for you, you’ve just made yourself an easy meal!” Voraith laughed.

He raised his head and sank his teeth into Seraph’s bicep. He wasn’t going to try his luck attempting to turn Light’s Emissary, something Curcio had warned him against, but he didn’t need to. His lower fangs were already hard at work, draining the blood from Seraph’s arm. Seraph managed to wrench his arm free, but Voraith ripped out a chunk of flesh in the process. After swallowing his meal, he spread his jaws and activated the black hole in his throat. Though it did not have the same gravitational effects as an actual black hole, Seraph still felt himself being pulled towards it, at risk of falling in. Both his blood and mana were being pulled out of him through the wound in his arm and flowing into the darkness, as if they couldn’t wait to escape his body.

Seraph was forced to fully retreat, lest his entire life force be siphoned. Voraith got to his feet with his missing arm finally regrowing. The holy damage Seraph inflicted with his hammer strike had hindered his recovery, but after dining on blood and mana from someone as powerful as Seraph, Voraith’s limb was fully restored in a matter of moments, while Seraph was left struggling to stand, now with both arms hindered.

“That was quite the feast. I normally need to eat a person whole to feel like this, but a little snack from you has me bursting with energy. Perhaps I’ll keep you alive and use you as a ready source of food, taking what I need and then letting you recover. It’s a shame your brother was so weak in comparison.”

Seraph’s blood, which felt cold as seawater moments ago, now ran hot. “What did you say?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“I was there in Welindar on the night of his great failure. You should have seen how he sobbed and begged me to spare him. He even offered up his little healer whore as a bribe. Honestly, I did your family a favor by killing that disgrace. He died the way he lived: a sniveling, pathetic failure.”

“Take that back,” Seraph growled as the gold aura he had lost came alight once more, with his wounded arms rapidly healing.

“Or what? You’ll give me another feast?”

Seraph grabbed his hammer and raised it above his head. His light aura flared into a roaring inferno of holy energy, leaving him in silhouette. “Eat this, you bastard!”

He swung down his hammer and struck the ground, setting off an explosion of light that lit up the area. Voraith devoured the energy that would have hit him, so minus some blurred vision, he was unharmed, but looking around, he realized the ogres couldn’t say the same. Though they had hidden behind their shields, that wasn’t enough to completely protect them, and any exposed areas had been savagely burned. More than that, Seraph had completely sanctified the Cursed Earth.

“Go ahead, keep it up! All it does is make me stronger! I can—”

Voraith was cut off as Seraph shot towards him like a loosed arrow, ready to take his head. He narrowly avoided being hit, and just by being in Seraph’s presence, he felt himself being burned by the light radiating from him. He spread his jaws, trying to absorb that energy before it could be used against him and the ogres, but he realized with a chill that Seraph was releasing power faster than he could consume it. Seraph once again rocketed towards Voraith, aiming for a fatal strike, but this time, an ogre got in the way and blocked with its shield. Steel met steel, and though the ogre was forced down onto one knee and its shield was heavily dented from the force, the enchantments prevented Seraph’s holy magic from getting through.

“Fence him in! Don’t let him escape!” Voraith ordered.

The ogres surrounded Seraph, trying to contain him with their shields, but just looking at him burned their eyes. Seraph retaliated with swing after swing of his hammer, each strike against their shields sounding like the ringing of a gong. It took everything the ogres had to remain standing and not break formation. They wouldn’t be able to contain him for much longer. Were the shields unenchanted, their wielders would be sent flying with every impact.

Voraith looked over to Alexis and Sophia, now faring better against their own foe. Free of the Cursed Earth, Alexis could move at full speed and strength again, and with Sophia’s added blessings, she was beyond what the ogre could handle. Wielding her mana-wrapped sword, she was slashing and slicing from all angles, and if not for its Profane endurance and regeneration, the ogre would already be dead.

Voraith spread his jaws and began sucking up all of the ambient energy, then channeling it back into the ground. If he could curse the soil again, he’d get back the homefield advantage. However, as he had found before, Seraph was producing too much holy energy too quickly, filling the vacuum Voraith was trying to create, and the sanctified ground was resisting his curse. The situation had changed, but he wasn’t yet in danger. More and more Profane reinforcements were arriving, including ogres, ghouls, and winged fiends flying overhead, and not even Seraph with his newfound strength would be able to kill them all, at least not quick enough. After all, the goal here wasn’t victory; it was to seize Valon, lying helpless and guarded only by a healer while Alexis was busy with the ogre.

With his subordinates keeping Seraph occupied, Voraith ran towards Sophia and Valon. All he had to do was kill the girl, grab the elf, and signal a winged fiend to carry them away. However, he was forced to jump back, narrowly avoiding a slash from Valia as she came shooting out of the forest. She got in between Voraith and her brother, her silver eyes as sharp as her sword. No matter what, she would not let him pass.

Behind her, the ogre that Alexis was fighting turned its attention away from Alexis to Sophia. It could sense the holy energy that protected Alexis coming from her, meaning that she had to die. It swung its massive sword towards Sophia, and she jumped onto Valon to try to protect him from harm. Even with her blessings, Alexis wasn’t fast enough to stop the ogre, but help arrived all the same.

“Steel Rampart!” Foley yelled as he came to her side and raised his shields, forming a magic barrier around him and Sophia that protected them from the ogre’s swing. The ground beneath Foley buckled, but he did not, and the ogre staggered from the resisted force.

Before it could swing again, it was struck in the eye by an arrow. Even as a member of the Profane, this was not an injury that could be ignored, whether due to its pain or severity. What’s more, the arrow was too deep to pull out. Shannon appeared, galloping around the ogre with her bow in hand, striking at the ogre’s weak spots. Like Alexis, her arrows were poisoned, and her bow was enchanted by Noah himself in the battle of Welindar, giving it heightened penetration.

“Alexis!” she shouted, tossing her an extra quiver of arrows.

Alexis swapped her sword for her bow and loaded one of the arrows. “Burst Shot!” she cast, taking aim at the ogre’s temple. The arrow hit its mark, and the top of the ogre’s head was blown off, spraying brains in all directions.

Meanwhile, gunshots and explosions then echoed across the battlefield, courtesy of Noah’s arrival on the scene. The ogres surrounding Seraph were stunned by a momentary sense of imminent death, fitting for what Seraph gave them. After dealing with the annoyances, Seraph once more faced down Voraith.

“I’m not done with you yet.”

He went on the attack, with Voraith again trying to avoid his mighty swings while feeding on the energy pouring out of him. This time, however, Seraph was much faster, putting Voraith’s Profane abilities to the test. All the energy he wasn’t able to absorb was burning his skin. While Seraph kept Voraith busy, Noah and Valia reached Valon and Sophia.

“You have him? Is he ok?” Valia asked worriedly, examining her brother’s face with both relief and anxiety.

“He wasn’t in great shape when we found him, half-starved and absolutely out of his mind, talking gibberish and banging his head on a tree. I did what I could to heal him, but he was exposed to Cursed Earth,” said Sophia.

Valia wiped away a tear and placed her hands on Valon’s cheeks. “Hey,” she whispered. “I finally found you.” She then turned to Noah, seeing him jab Valon with a large needle in several locations. “What are you doing?!”

“Not taking any chances. I’m implanting gems that will let me track Valon in case he escapes. Hopefully, he won’t be able to find them all, even with the Avagath spell.” He then put the magic-binding cuffs on Valon’s wrists and his hat on the dark elf’s head, fully restraining him.

Cyrilo and Daniel then arrived, both of them severely out of breath.

“We’re here. We made it,” Cyrilo panted.

“Fuck, I’m out of shape,” Daniel groaned. For their first adventure, it was amazing that they were doing so well.

“We have Valon,” said Noah, looking over to the mob of Profane reinforcements approaching. “Now we protect him. Everyone, gather together! Seraph, you too!”

Though he was fighting to avenge his brother, Seraph promptly obeyed and backed away from Voraith to return to the group. Suffice it to say, it had been ingrained into his soul not to disobey Noah. Besides, the fiery mantle of holy energy radiating from him had dwindled. Voraith similarly joined with his Profane reinforcements, dwarfing Noah’s group both in number and stature. The two opposing forces faced each other from opposite ends of the battlefield.

“Valia, Seraph, and I will handle the forward offense. Alexis, Shannon, and Cyrilo, you three will deal with any enemies that try to move past us. Foley and Daniel, the two of you guard Sophia and Valon. Sophia, I’ll leave you with the support role. Everyone ready?” Noah asked, receiving silent nods from his friends.

“That split-jaw bastard killed my brother. I’ll deal with him,” said Seraph.

“Only if he enters the fray. If he hangs back, focus on eliminating his underlings and do not break formation. If he tries to escape, we’ll chase him down together, but do not go off on your own, understand? Protecting Valon is the priority.”

“I got it.”

“I have an idea,” said Daniel. “Sophia, try putting all of your blessing magic on me.”

“For what?” she asked.

“Just trust me.”

“Do it,” said Noah.

Sophia nodded and began channeling her magic into Daniel, who then began to play a song that Noah didn’t recognize. It was fast and energetic, and as it flowed into his ears, he felt his strength and magic swelling. Looking around, he noticed everyone was feeling the same effect. It was similar to the magic he used during the first Red Revelry to put down the riots, but instead of a mesmerizing, calming tune, this music made their hearts race and invigorated them. Daniel had combined his magic with Sophia’s and was using his guitar to project her blessings onto everyone, spreading them equally among the group, rather than focusing on a few individuals.

“I call it Mood Music. What do you think?” Daniel asked.

“Keep it up,” said Noah. “Cyrilo, you and Foley will protect Valon, Sophia, and Daniel.”

Across the field, Voraith swung his arm. “Slaughter them!” he yelled.

The small army of ghouls and fiends charged towards Noah’s group, and Noah, Valia, and Seraph met them head-on. The ogres swung their massive swords, rending earth but failing to strike the offenders, while their shields were crumpled by Seraph’s hammer swings. He ducked and dodged to avoid their clumsy movements, then shattered their legs and brought them down. Once on their backs, they were easy pickings. A solid blow to their chest would pulverize their torsos, inflicting damage that not even they could regenerate from, and when he went for the head, he made sure there wasn’t a shard of bone left behind.

He paused when he found himself beset upon by a Profane slime, even larger than those commanded by Scyler, but that moment of stillness was spent reminding him that he wasn’t as weak as he was before. The massive blob of bones and darkness rushed towards him, but he dredged up his power and channeled it into his hammer, making the steel head glow like a lightbulb. He swung his hammer and struck the slime, and in that instant, its entire body burst into a directed splatter, spraying unholy muck. In midair, every droplet, including the slime core, was vaporized by Seraph’s holy magic.

Nearby, Valia was barely using magic, but she was still moving with augmented speed and strength, allowing her to zoom around her thunderous foes, as uncatchable as the breeze. Her sword, wrapped in mana, severed their limbs with ease, dropping her dismembered victims onto the ground, roaring in pain. Their snarls were ended by a finishing blow, but there was no time to even clean their filthy blood off their sword. She was already facing her next opponent.

It was two ogres who had been fused together at the spine, producing a towering four-armed warrior with no blind spots. She zoomed around it, dodging the swings of the monster’s swords and shields as each missed attack sundered the earth. It was faster than the others and kept her at bay, having seen how its brethren had been felled like trees. Since she couldn’t get at its legs, she had no choice but to aim higher. When the beast brought down its scimitar, she dodged and then stepped onto the back of the blade, using her balance enhancement to run up the length and onto the monster’s arm, then reaching its shoulder.

It tried to knock her off, but she jumped high into the air and channeled all of her strength into her sword. The mana that wrapped around the blade extended, bearing a golden glow from Sophia’s blessing, and she brought down her sword between the two heads of the ogres. She split the unholy amalgamation with a long vertical slice, separating the two ogres, and then jumped back up and severed their heads with a horizontal slice.

Noah was busy infiltrating the Profane ranks, using invisibility to conceal his movements while his clone distracted them. They’d lunge for his illusory self, hitting nothing but air and dirt, and before they could understand what had happened, he’d cut them to ribbons. His sword, bearing the power of Lumestada, sliced through Profane flesh like a hot knife through butter, invoking greater screams than Valia’s slashes. The boost in his abilities wasn’t on the level of his anti-paladin cloak, but it still freed him up to move faster and cut harder.

He was put to the test when a massive fiend approached. It was a towering lizard-type beastman coated in armor scales so thick that Noah was surprised it could even move. He and his clone both charged towards it, and when the fiend went for the decoy, swinging its massive arms and slashing with its claws, Noah sliced it with his sword, only to be repelled.

From the sensation he received, it seemed that there was a great deal of metal in the monster’s scales, as if molten steel had been repeatedly poured onto its body and then healed to incorporate it into its defenses. Regardless of his enhanced strength, enchanted sword, and master swordsmanship, this was a foe he simply couldn’t cut, at least not with a physical edge.

He canceled his clone magic and sheathed his sword, then used his illusion magic to form his phantom blade, the same one he had used to defeat Uther’s royal guard. He attacked the fiend again, and when he slashed the back of its leg, his intangible sword passed right through its scales, inflicting no damage, but the fiend still shrieked in agony and nearly dropped down onto one knee.

Noah continued circling the fiend, attacking from all angles, and though no blood was shed, it still cried out. This sword could not cut flesh or pierce armor, but the pain it inflicted felt so real that not even the fiend could withstand it, as if the blade was reaching down and piercing the last little piece of its body that had not been corrupted. When the fiend finally collapsed, unable to move from the pain, Noah stabbed it in the eyes with a pair of exploding daggers and walked away, letting them burst and rip the monster’s skull open.

Behind the front line, Alexis and Shannon were fending off any Profane that managed to sneak past Noah, Valia, and Seraph. Alexis’s arrows, glowing with mana, would explode with thunderous force upon each impact, ripping through Profane flesh and bursting open skulls and ribcages. Shannon couldn’t use such magic, but her arrows were imbued with acid and explosives for similar effects, and thanks to the piercing augmentation on her bow, her arrows could deliver their payloads deep into the bodies of her foes.

The lumbering fiends couldn’t get close, but the winged fiends above were more troublesome. They’d swoop down, trying to snatch the defenders with their long talons or slice them with their beaks, and it was up to the two women to fend them off. Blood and viscera rained down upon the battlefield with each accurate shot, and bodies dropped out of the sky. However, they were so preoccupied with what was above that they didn’t notice what was happening below.

Behind the group, the ground opened up and a mole-type fiend emerged, covered in thick fur and possessing massive clawed hands that could rip through flesh just as easily as earth. It lunged for Valon, Sophia, and Daniel, but Foley got in its way. With his shields raised, he cast his magic and formed an impenetrable wall. The fiend hacked and slashed with all of its strength, but its claws broke before Foley did, and any attempts to knock him aside were fruitless, as though he was chained to the ground.

Cyrilo then came to his aid, spraying the fiend with a jet of fire. Imbued with Sophia and Daniel’s magic, her own magical power was greatly enhanced, and the fire blast burned white-hot. The fiend tried to endure the blast, but flesh was reduced to ash, and bones were blackened by the heat. It finally collapsed and succumbed to death, with more fiends emerging through the tunnel it had dug, but each one met the same fate.

The group was fending off the Profane, and Voraith, watching from the background, realized the situation was no longer in his favor. He was running out of subordinates, and he was sure that if he tried to fight Noah and his group by himself, he’d surely lose. Though he had hoped to take Valon alive and turn him, it seemed his only choice was to kill them all. He spread his jaws, exposing the black hole in his throat, but instead of drawing in power, he began to focus it, with an aura of darkness swirling around the orb. The ground beneath him trembled as he gathered up all of the power he had absorbed thus far, preparing to unleash it.

“Malicious Gift,” Voraith cast.

Noah, having beheaded another fiend, sensed something was amiss and looked over to Voraith, realizing what he was about to do. “Foley!” he yelled.

Foley didn’t know what was going on, but he could guess, and he ran over to Noah and threw up his defenses, just as Voraith attacked. A beam of Profane energy was released from his throat with mind-numbing force, shooting towards the group and striking Foley’s shields. Though he and his magic held firm, he was pushed back through the dirt, and it took the strength of both Noah and Seraph to brace him. Voraith’s dark power was splashing off his defenses and raining down like burning napalm, forcing even the other Profane to duck out of the way, lest they get caught in the crossfire. Everyone else was keeping their heads low and huddling together, praying that Foley could hold back the darkness.

Once again, Voraith was realizing that he was not in a favorable position. The stubborn dwarf was more resilient than he thought, and if he didn’t buckle soon, Voraith would run out of power. He couldn’t move while firing his beam, but he had another card to play. He lowered his aim, shooting at the earth beneath Noah’s group, and setting off an underground explosion below their feet.

In an instant, everyone was sent airborne, thrown into the air by a burst of dark mana with their ears ringing and heads spinning. The landing was even worse; everyone suffered sprains, fractures, and contusions. Noah had experienced this numerous times in the multiverse, and he wished he could say he was used to it, but he was still tossed like a ragdoll, and felt three of his ribs break on impact.

Regardless, he forced himself to his feet, despite barely being able to hear or see due to shellshock. Everyone around him was laid out, and he couldn’t tell who was dead or alive. There was no time to rest; their enemies were still upon them. He tried to drink a healing potion, only to realize he was holding the bottle upside-down.

Then, he sensed something that chilled his blood, an aura more powerful than any Profane. He looked over to Valon, seeing him begin to stir. His shackles were broken, and he wasn’t wearing Noah’s hat. A silver radiance surrounded him, and the air became heavy with power. Noah’s friends, awakened by this overbearing presence, opened their eyes and felt their stomachs sink as they watched Valon stand up.

“Too much noise,” he growled in annoyance.

Despite their condition, both Alexis and Sophia recognized his voice and understood its meaning. This was no longer the same man they had found before. One of the fiends, lacking adequate intelligence, charged towards Valon and brought down its sword upon its head, only for the blade to shatter against a barrier of silver light. He gave a flick of his finger, causing a brief flash of light, and the fiend burst into a mess of shredded flesh and bifurcated limbs.

“Pathetic trash.”

“Valon,” Valia gasped.

Valon aimed his hand at her without even turning in her direction. “You’re in my way again.” He hit her with a burst of silver magic, once more knocking her through the air.

“Valon, that’s enough!” Noah barked, finally getting his attention.

“You, I remember you. You’re the thief from before who stole my work and ruined my hideout.”

“I don’t want to fight, Valon. We can work together. We can help each other.”

“And what makes you think I need your help? Shut up and die.”

Valon hit Noah with a magic blast, an unquestionably fatal attempt on his life, but fortunately, it only hit his clone—the real Noah having wisely ducked to the side. Noah formed an illusion gun and opened fire on Valon, breaking his concentration and shattering his magic, much to his shock. He wanted to hit him with a larger caliber and more thoroughly stun Valon, but after being knocked through the air by the earlier blast, his body and magic were barely in his control, and some shots with a pistol were all he could muster.

“Just talk to me, Valon! We don’t have to be enemies!”

“We aren’t enemies. You’re just an annoyance!” Valon roared, fighting against the effect of Noah’s magic and reforming his own. He hit Noah with a concussive blast, knocking him through the air as he did Valia. Valon then turned to Sophia and Alexis. “If I remember correctly, the two of you healed my wounds and restored me to my current state. For that, I will spare your lives. The rest, however, are nothing more than burdens and will be eliminated.”

“Does that include me, Valon?” Cyrilo asked. “We were friends once; you, me, and Lewis. We’d pick each other’s brains in search of ultimate truth. Does all that mean nothing to you now?”

“It meant nothing then, I just didn’t realize it until my eyes were opened. I have found ultimate truth and felt it rip my soul apart. The truth is that it’s all meaningless. Nothing matters. We are less than dust, which is why I’ll feel nothing in killing you.”

He rose up into the air, floating on a magic platform, with silver mana pouring from his body and forming the same protective configuration as he used on Kisara Island. The rest of the fiends all charged towards him, snarling in fury and bloodlust, and he launched a barrage of magic blasts and blades at them, reducing them to ash and bloody chunks. However, the attack never reached Voraith; instead, it was devoured.

“We won’t be having any of that, I’m afraid,” said the ghoul. “I was ordered to either turn you or kill you, so which is it going to be?”

“The Profane? After our relic trade, I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with your pathetic lot.”

“You don’t get to say no to us. I was specifically chosen for this mission because I’m best suited to bring you down. You’ll either join us or die, just like every other creature on this planet.”

“You and your kind are nothing more than filthy vermin, unaware of how small you are. I’d be disgusted if you weren’t so insignificant. Taking over the planet; is that really the depth of your imagination? I have far greater ambitions, something you weak little demon cultists can’t hope to comprehend.”

Valon launched another barrage of silver magic, and Voraith spread his jaws to consume it. The powerful torrent was swallowed by the darkness like water swirling down a drain, but Valon was unperturbed by this and simply increased the output. Voraith, who initially was smug in his magical advantage, began to lose his confidence as he was being pushed back. The ground around him was disintegrating as more and more of Valon’s power rushed past him without being consumed. Like with Seraph, more mana was being released than he could absorb, and soon enough, he was completely overwhelmed.

The blasted halted, revealing Voraith lying in the bottom of a crater, his body ravaged by magic. Valon gave a twirl of his finger, and a silver aura enveloped Voraith as he was lifted off the ground with telekinesis. Valon brought the half-dead wretch over to him and scoffed in disdain. “I don’t ever want to see you or the rest of your sun-fearing kin again. If you survive, make sure to pass on that message. Go wallow in the darkness like the filthy cockroaches you are.”

He flicked the air, and Voraith was launched into the sky like a cannonball, disappearing somewhere over the horizon. He then looked down at Noah’s group briefly before turning away. “I’ve wasted too much time here. I have work to do.”

“Wait!” He looked back once again, this time seeing Noah back on his feet, bruised and bloody. “Just tell me, Valon, what are you trying to accomplish? You told Valia and Aithorn that you wanted to become the most powerful being in existence, but that’s only half of it, isn’t it? There is something you want to do with that power once you get it. Power is meaningless when it isn’t used. What’s the endgame?”

“You’re right. Becoming the most powerful being in the universe means more than simply having power. Like you said, power is meaningless when it isn’t used, so I will use it to perform the one single act in this universe that has any meaning: the creation of meaning itself. I’m going to create a rune.”

“A rune? What will that accomplish?” Cyrilo asked.

“Runes are not simply a language developed by some lost race like the Enochians; they are concepts of our reality. To create a rune is to rewrite the universe and instill the existence of something that the laws of nature could never allow to be. Every facet of our universe exists only because runes were created to breathe meaning into what was once nonexistence.

The titans and gods did not create the runes, but were born from them. Do you understand now? The power to create titans, the power to reshape the universe, that is what I’m after. To create meaning itself is the only meaningful act in existence. All of the relics and magical materials I have been collecting will be used to craft the pen that will etch my rune into the very core of reality.”

“Then let me help you! We can work together to give you the power you seek to create a rune, and you can use that power to break my curse! We can both get what we want! You don’t have to do this alone!”

“Yes, I do. This is my destiny, my calling, and when I succeed and create a new rune, it shall be born from my will and mine alone. It is the only eternal mark one can leave behind, and I will not share that mark with anyone else.” He aimed his hand at Noah, charging a magical blast.

“You’re on borrowed time, Valon!” Noah shouted, making him pause. “Sophia told me about the state you were in when she found you. You were bloody and deranged, a raving lunatic, and dangerously malnourished. You’re falling into psychosis more and more often, aren’t you? Losing track of huge swaths of time? Time spent without taking care of yourself, falling prey to starvation and disease. I saw it in your notes at Kisara Island—what happens when what little sanity you’ve managed to retain fails, and you lose all sense of self and coherence.

The health of the mind can adversely affect the health of the body, and while you can heal your brain with potions and magic as many times as you want, they can’t mend the wound on your soul, and it’s just going to keep festering, rotting you from the inside out. If not for your healing magic, you’d be long-dead by now, but all you can do is postpone the inevitable.

You know it to be true. The stress of what you’ve experienced is going to continue to eat away at you. At the rate you’re going, do you really think you can succeed in creating a rune before you end up a drooling husk? If you keep doing this alone, you will die in failure, and you’ll have thrown everything away for nothing.

You and I both know the truth of reality and the hollowness of our existence, which is why I’m the only one who can save you, Valon. I’m the only one who can heal your mind. I’m the other half of the puzzle, and you’ll never succeed without me. If you kill me, so too do you kill your dream.”

Valon closed his hand. “Stay away from me.” He then rose higher into the air with the magical array around him taking a more aerodynamic shape, just like when he fled Kisara Island, and just like that time, he shot off like a rocket, disappearing from sight and sound in mere moments. The battlefield fell silent. All of the Profane were dead, leaving just Noah’s group standing in the big bloody mess, broken and battered.

“My Lord, are you ok?” Shannon asked, noting the odd look on Noah’s face.

He turned around and took several steps away from the group, almost pacing back and forth while shaking his head from side to side. Finally, he stopped, leaned back his head, and screamed the loudest swear he could. He continued cursing in every language he knew from countless worlds, projecting his frustration as loud as his lungs would let him. His friends could only watch in stunned fear, having never witnessed Noah lose his temper in such a way.

They knew that Noah, this ancient being, could unleash terrifying wrath upon those who angered him, but his demeanor was always calm and collected, with his fury slicing like an icy razor. To see him finally give in to emotion and outrage like this was frightening, making them feel like, if he turned in their direction, they’d be incinerated by the roaring flames of his frustration.

It was also made painfully clear what this loss meant to him, as well as the intensity of his desperation. All this effort put into chasing Valon and his answers was ultimately aimed at breaking his curse of reincarnation. The pain in his screams was the pain he felt simply from existing, and his fear that he would be forced to continue living in the world after this one, and the one after that, and so on; a grueling eternity that would not let him rest.

They all feared death, but Noah feared life. He had explained his plight to them, tried to describe it adequately so they could understand, but they couldn’t grasp the anguish he had held back from them and kept hidden behind his stoic façade. Soon enough, his voice grew hoarse and he had to stop, his shoulders heaving as he gasped for air. He then paused as Sophia embraced him from behind, leaning against his back. If not for her wounded leg, Shannon would have reached him first.

“Would it really be so bad?” she whispered.

Sophia was referring to what he told her when he revealed his secret to her and Alexis, of the life they could live together. They could get married, have kids, and grow old together. At one time, Alexis would have let herself become gripped by jealousy and concern upon hearing her say those words, but she understood what they meant. It was a pledge that Noah wasn’t alone, and she’d always support him in whatever capacity he needed, rather than a romantic gesture or lustful offer.

Noah took a deep breath. “No,” he said, his voice raspy from the strain of his shouting. “I’m sure it would be a wonderful life. It’s everything that comes after that worries me.”

“Valon!” he then heard Valia exclaim as she limped back to the group, covered in wounds from her brother’s attack.

“He’s left us behind again,” said Noah, not looking at her.

Valia stumbled and nearly collapsed, as though she had just taken a punch to the stomach. “Oh, I see. Sophia, can you patch me up, please?”

“Yes, of course, ma’am.”

Sophia let go of Noah and rushed to her side to begin healing her. Everyone else was in a similar state thanks to Voraith’s last attack, so Sophia worked fast so she could get to everyone. Potions were good, but her healing magic couldn’t be beat. As soon as Valia was healed, she turned away.

“Thank you. I need some time alone.” She then walked into the woods without another word.

“My Lady!” Shannon called, but Noah stopped her.

Sophia then went to work healing everyone else, while Noah pulled out a compass and examined it. It was paired with the gems he had stuck in Valon, following his direction with pinpoint accuracy, and it could also measure the distance. Though this loss was painful, the fact that the compass worked was a huge relief. He had another compass paired with the gem he had given Bella, and pointed consistently into the depths of Handent, meaning she was either there, or she had followed his directions and hidden the gem within the Profane’s base.

“We should get back to Wahr Village,” said Cyrilo. “The Profane left a big mess in their wake, and a lot of people who need help.”

“She’s right. I took out the ones in the village, but they left their mark,” said Seraph.

“Then let’s go,” said Shannon. She then assumed her centaur form and motioned to Noah for him to get on her back. “My Lord?”

“Yeah, sure. I should contact Elisandra anyway and let her know what happened. Thanks, Shannon.”

His throat had been healed, but he still spoke in a low voice. He climbed onto her back, and they all began the walk back to the village. Sitting in his saddle, Noah took out the harkonen orb he used to transmit his image to the others. He put himself in a meditative state, leaning against Shannon, while his mind entered the diamond sphere and he opened his eyes in the Sylphtorian palace.

“Elisandra?” he called out, standing by her coach in phantasmal form.

She appeared to be out of the castle, off fulfilling her royal duties elsewhere in the city. Even while pregnant, she told him she still remained active with her work and refused to be cooped up. Frankly, he was glad she wasn’t around. He did want to see her, but he appreciated having a moment alone to gather his thoughts first. He sat on the couch, not feeling it beneath him, so much as feeling his illusory body conforming to its shape. He waited there, letting his frayed mind recover in peace and quiet until she arrived.

“Noah?” she said, entering with her guards.

“Hello. I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in.”

“Of course not,” she said with a relieved smile. “Leave us,” she then said to her guards, giving them privacy. She walked over and eased herself down onto the couch with heavy breaths. “What’s going on?”

“We found Valon, just like I said we would, but the Profane intervened, and he ended up escaping.”

“I’m sorry, Noah,” Elisandra murmured. She desperately wished she could touch him and comfort him, to simply rub his back and lean her head on his shoulder, but all she could offer were her words.

“Thank you. I had prepared myself for disappointment, but… this… this just burns my soul. We HAD him. The shackles were on, his magic and movements were bound, and I thought we finally caught a break, and then the goddamn Profane rain down on us and ruin everything. After so many lifetimes, I thought I was used to this, but each time Valon slips through my fingers or my answers go up in smoke, it’s like I go from 7000 years old to seven years old, and I just want to throw the world’s biggest teary-eyed tantrum. You should have heard me; I was screaming swears in every language I knew.”

“How’s Valia taking it?”

“I came here to lick my wounds, while she’s chosen to do so in seclusion. The Profane inflicted a lot of damage to the nearby village, and we’re going back to help where we can, but I just… I needed to see you. I needed my mind to be anywhere but there.”

“That’s exactly what I want, Noah.” She reached out, as if to cup his cheek, and he gazed into her beautiful emerald eyes. “I want this place to be your home, where you feel safe. I want to be the one you turn to when things go bad. You retreated here because I have your trust and your love, because this is where you find peace. You don’t have to hide your pain or frustration from me. Words can’t describe how badly I wish I could hold you right now, because you deserve to be held. I’ll lick your wounds for you.”

“Thank you, Elisandra. That means a lot to me.”

“Besides, I know you’ll find Valon and heal his mind. Third time’s the charm, so to speak.”

“Well, it wasn’t a total loss. I stuck him with several gems to let me track his location and movements, and they seem to be working. Before I projected here, I confirmed he was flying southeast and was out over the ocean. Perhaps he’s going to another continent, or someplace more isolated like Kisara Island.”

“There you go. You’ll find him, you and Valia. I have faith in you both.”

“Thank you. Oh, I’m getting the tap. We must have gotten back to the village. I have to go.” He reached out and put his hand on Elisandra’s swollen belly. “Wait for me, both of you.”

He then vanished from the room, and back at Wahr Village, he opened his eyes, still riding on Shannon’s back.

“My Lord?” she asked.

“I’m here.”

He looked around at the devastated village. Though destruction hadn’t been the main goal of the Profane this time around, they certainly hadn’t wasted the opportunity. Several homes and buildings were crushed, and numerous people were dead, either slain in battle or devoured. The survivors were busy tending to the wounded and sorting through the debris, with the cries of mourners echoing out. It was a tragic scene, but the dark clouds overhead, engorged with Profane energy, were dissipating, and the first of many beams of sunlight were piercing the black veil and shining down.

“I did what I could to kill the monsters rampaging in town, but I couldn’t do enough,” Seraph muttered bitterly. “If I had just gotten here sooner—”

“You did plenty. These people are alive thanks to you,” said Noah.

“Not to mention us,” added Cyrilo. “You’ve grown into a fine man; a man I now owe my life to.”

“Come on, let’s get to work and help where we can,” said Noah.

They split up, moving through the village and doing whatever they could to assist the survivors. Bodies were pulled out of the wreckage, with the injured brought to Sophia for healing, and the dead gathered for burial. There were also fires that needed to be put out, debris to collect and remove, and houses to rebuild. Numerous Profane corpses needed to be disposed of, but the sunlight helped turn flesh into ash. Though they didn’t say it, everyone was reminded of Colbrand. Though, in Noah’s case, it reminded him of a lot more than that. It was still early in the day, which was fortunate, considering the amount of work that needed to be done.

“Noah,” said Alexis, coming upon him as he was helping repair a fence for cattle.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked, putting down a borrowed hammer.

“Can we talk for a minute?”

“Always. What’s on your mind?”

“It’s something that Valon said. I figured it would be better to tell you first.”

“Because you’re not sure you should tell Valia at all, I’m guessing?”

Alexis nodded and stood beside him, leaning against the fence. “When we told him that Valia was coming and that she wanted to help him, he told us that if she did… she’d die.”

Noah crossed his arms and leaned against the fence with her. “Did he say why?”

“No, he was pretty out of it, talking about stars and other worlds. I’m hoping that it was just a crazed utterance, born from so many different thoughts and delusions smashing into each other, but there are times when hope just isn’t enough. What do you think he meant?”

“I don’t know. Like you said, we can’t be sure if it was spoken during a brief moment of lucidity, or just the ravings of a madman, and I’d rather not waste time and energy speculating just to end up being wrong. Without more context, I fear that telling Valia would do more harm than good, at least for now. At the very least, it means that even if we succeed in capturing Valon, we should be careful.”

“Ok. I trust your judgment,” she said softly. Her tone told Noah that there was more she wanted to say.

“What is it?”

“When Sophia and I were fighting that ghoul, I almost murdered Valon so the Profane couldn’t get him. You told us about the battle on Kisara Island, and we just saw how powerful he is. After what happened with Bella, I couldn’t risk him being turned and becoming something too powerful for us to stop. If Seraph hadn’t saved us, I probably would have done it, which scares me, because I knew what it would mean for you and Valia, and I hate myself for it. Even as Sophia and I were carrying him away, I was so tempted.

I’m sorry. I didn’t go through with it, but still, I need to tell you I’m sorry, because I feel like I’ve wronged all three of you for even considering it. And if the day ever comes that he is turned and my fears come to pass, I need to apologize now for not being fast or strong enough to kill him when I had the chance. I know that if you didn’t need Valon for your curse, and had to choose between killing him or letting him be taken by the Profane, you could have probably killed him without a second thought, despite knowing what it would do to Valia, because you can see the big picture.”

“No, Alexis, you don’t have to apologize, not for considering killing him and certainly not for failing to. For the sake of this world, you knew the sacrifice that needed to be made. I’m glad you didn’t do it, and I truly hope you never have to, but I’m also glad that you’re strong enough to see what must be done, especially considering how much you don’t want to do it. And you’re right about me. I need him alive because I’m selfish, but if I didn’t, and he was at risk of joining the Profane and my only option was to kill him, I’d do without a moment’s hesitation. That’s because I’m me, and I don’t ever want you to be like me.

I have met plenty of people who defended their actions as “making the hard choice,” and painting it as a strength that no one else has, but the thing about hard choices is that they’re supposed to be hard. No one is brave or strong for choosing the path of violence or sacrifice when it’s their first instinct, especially me. They have to struggle with it, suffer for it, agonize over it, and overcome all of their own desires and values to do what must be done, even if they hate themselves for it. Especially if they hate themselves for it. Otherwise, they’re just picking what’s easiest for them.

I’m proud of you for being smart enough to recognize the proper, strategic choice, despite the cost. I’m also proud of you for struggling with it. We both know there are times when you have to kill without thinking, times when you have to end lives without taking the chance to consider their worth and weight, but you should always retain the ability to choose mercy over cruelty. Don’t bury your heart or your conscience just to make killing easier. Don’t run away from the consequences of your actions and dismiss their weight. I feel nothing when I kill, but I want you to feel everything, so you don’t forget like I did.”

Alexis closed her eyes, nodding with a small smile. “Thank you, Noah.” She then stood up. “You know, it was a lot of fun fighting alongside you today. I missed it.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Eventually, night fell, and everyone returned to the Foley home, hungry and exhausted. There was still no sign of Valia, but she’d come back when she was ready. Dinner was solemn, the Foley men silenced by grief at what had been done to their town. Fortunately, none of their members had been caught up in the fighting, but they had all lost friends. Ginger tried to lift the mood as the dinner table was loaded with food.

“I can’t thank you lot enough. We’d be dead if it weren’t for all of you fighting off those awful monsters.”

“Yet I can’t help but wonder if we actually made things worse,” said Daniel. “I mean, they were here for Valon. If we weren’t here, maybe this whole big bloody battle wouldn’t have happened.”

“Not true,” Noah countered. “They would have grabbed Valon and then destroyed the village just for the fun of it, killing and devouring everyone. Because we were here, their attention was drawn away.”

“That fucking elf lured ‘em here,” one of Foley’s brothers muttered. “Bad enough when he was making a nuisance of himself around town, but then he had to go and bring these demons down upon us. Pointy-eared bastard.”

Ginger smacked him in the back of the head. “I won’t be havin’ any of that kind of talk. Spreadin’ blame doesn’t help anyone. If you want to be angry, be angry at the ones who hurt us, not the one they were tryin’ to hurt.”

“So, what now? You heard Valon; it doesn’t seem like he’s going to come around.” Alexis asked.

“I’ll give him some time to think it over, but I’m still not giving up. If I can just get him to hold still and remove his powers from the equation, I know I can bring him around. Besides, I know the direction he went in and I can figure out the distance, so his exact location shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

“It was strange to finally meet Valon after hearing so much about him,” said Shannon. “Hearing those things he said, about the insignificance of everything, he reminded me a lot of you, My Lord, but angrier.”

“Yeah, we both arrived at the truth of our place in the universe, but we took different paths. He learned it in an instant, while I figured it out over thousands of years. For now, however, I think we should move back to our original plan of traveling to Vandheim and making sure the dwarves are on the same page regarding the Profane. They’ve been awfully quiet lately. Contact and trade dwindled when Galvin rose to power, and they’ve pretty much cut off all contact as of late.”

“Then I’m coming with you,” said Foley.

“Not a chance. You and all of your brothers are stayin’ right where I can see you,” Ginger chided.

“Those bastards made a mess of my town, and I’m not going to let them get away with it. Besides, I think every dwarf should make a pilgrimage to the homeland.”

“The Foley clan is banished, if you’ve forgotten,” his father added.

“That was a long time ago. They can’t still be mad. Come on, we got twenty-foot monsters leveling villages, and you think they’ll care that much about my name?”

“You’re not goin’. Another word out of you, and I’ll tan your hide,” Ginger warned.

Regardless, Foley crossed his arms. “I’m going whether you like it or not. I can either leave with your blessing or sneak out. It’s up to you.”

With the Foley family erupting into a massive argument, Noah’s group ate quickly and got out of their way, moving back to the barn.

“You’ve barely said a word since this morning,” said Noah to Seraph.

“That ghoul with the split chin, he said he killed Lupin. I thought that when I got back my powers as Light’s Emissary, the Profane would be helpless against me, and that I would be able to slaughter them like Tarnas did at the arena, but I couldn’t even avenge my brother. I was burning with everything I had, but that bastard and his minions still had me on the ropes.”

“It was just a bad matchup. We all have our advantages and weaknesses. I would have fared far better against that ghoul than you, but you would have easily crushed the enemy who gave me so much trouble.”

“I know. Still, it doesn’t make it any less frustrating to know the ghoul I have to kill is the one I’m weakest against.”

“Well, the next time we see him, I’ll take the first crack. He got in the way of me capturing Valon, and I’m sure you can imagine how that makes me feel.”

Seraph halted midstride and shuddered as painful memories came flooding back.

“Hey,” Foley said, shaking Seraph from his thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“My friends told me about how hard you fought in the village, how you saved them from those deranged ogres. I suppose I should thank you for that.”

“I don’t deserve thanks, not for doing so little. I’m the prince of this country, and protecting the people is my duty, no matter what race they are. I’m ashamed of how long it’s taken me to truly realize that. I have many sins and failures to make up for, but my path to redemption is clear.”

“Well, you’ve done right by us, and I do appreciate that.”

They arrived at the barn, finding Valia sitting there in the dark.

“My Lady!” Shannon exclaimed, rushing over to hug her.

“I’m ok, Shannon,” Valia replied softly, rubbing her back.

“We missed you at dinner,” said Noah, holding a lantern and placing it in the middle of the floor.

“I didn’t have much of an appetite. Can we talk?”

“Sure.”

As everyone settled down for the night, Noah followed Valia out of the barn and into the woods behind the house. Noah used a sphere of magical light to illuminate their path, and once they were a suitable distance, Valia turned and leaned against Noah, hugging him tightly and burying her face in the side of his neck.

“I’m sorry, Val. I thought we had—”

“Don’t,” she said, cutting him off.

“What’s wrong?”

“I already know what you’re going to say, and you know what I’m going to say. I’ve spent all day thinking about… you know, and I’m just so tired. I said I wanted to talk, but that was a lie. What I really want is a distraction, so I don’t have to think anymore. Please, help me.”

Noah remembered seeing Valia in a similar state when they were Sylphtoria and knew what she needed.

“Of course.”

He extinguished the light, and in the darkness, their lips met. Valia’s movements were passionate and full of love, but Noah could also taste her sorrow and desperation. They stripped off each other’s clothes, and Noah cast his concealment magic to contain the imminent sounds of their lovemaking. He was about to lay her down atop his coat, but instead, she took the initiative and got on top of him.

“I’ll do all the work. You just need to stay hard.”

“Whatever you want.”

She settled on his cock, cooing as it found its home within her. Valia began bouncing on his lap, gasping and whimpering in pleasure with her breasts heaving as her speed increased. Noah’s hands moved in accordance with how she rode him.

When she bobbed straight up and down, he clutched her hands, their fingers interlaced, to give her support and balance. When she leaned back and started grinding and swirling his member around inside her, he gripped her hips while she gyrated like a belly dancer on his lap. When she leaned forward, he kneaded her toned ass and bucked his hips, disobeying her instructions to give her greater pleasure. He’d pull on her nipples with his lips to make her moan, then wrap his tongue around hers to silence her.

Valia climaxed first, with Noah soon following, making her hum in bliss as she felt him paint her inner walls white. She dismounted his deflating manhood and turned around, voraciously taking it into her mouth and cleaning him of his seed and her nectar. Once he was hard once more, she got back on his lap and they started all over. They continued like this long into the night, even longer than usual, with Valia continuously draining Noah of every drop of vitality.

Even when there was nothing left for him to give, she didn’t quit, continuing to ride him like her life depended on it, and when he lost his rigidity after each orgasm, she’d painstakingly restore him and resume. It reached the point where Noah had to drink a healing potion to regain his stamina and ease the building soreness in his manhood. Eventually, he thought she was finally going to give up and collapse in exhaustion, letting him finally rest, but then she spoke the two words that struck terror into his heart.

“Zodiac: Zhanga.”

It was the same spell she used to run all the way from Welindar to Colbrand, turning mana into physical stamina, and from there, she picked up speed and straddled him with unbridled ferocity. They continued for hours, with Noah daring not to complain or request anything of her, instead letting her fulfill her needs while downing potions when needed. He could sense her fear and loneliness, as well as her desperate desire to suppress those feelings for as long as possible to feel any semblance of happiness. Noah understood those feelings and why she felt them.

Although both had lived long lives and could potentially live for thousands of years more, they would inevitably be separated in less than a hundred. When that happened, and Noah moved on to his next life and Shannon would hopefully die of old age, Valia would be alone. True, she would have Elisandra, but it wouldn’t be the same, not when Noah was the keystone of their relationship.

If Valon wasn’t found and their bond mended, she would have no one to keep her company throughout the ages. While her relationship with Noah and her relationship with her brother had very different dynamics, their significance in her life was similar. She had never loved anyone as much as she loved Noah, and would never find anyone like him. She didn’t want to endure immortality as a half that would never be part of a whole, something he knew very well.

Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, Valia collapsed atop Noah, the two of them gasping for air. For how little he had moved throughout the night, he was utterly exhausted. Still, Valia snuggled up against him as tightly as she could. Even after so many hours of sex, she still wanted to get closer to him.

“How do you feel?” he panted.

“A bit better,” she murmured.

“I’m glad.” Several silent moments passed before he spoke again. “I don’t know what it’s like to be a twin.”

“What?” she asked.

“I mean, I kind of know. In one of my past lives, I was born with a twin brother, and a twin sister in another life. However, I never truly felt a genuine bond with either of them, because I wasn’t born with a clean slate. To go through life with someone at your side that you’re linked so strongly with, to face the unknown and grow and learn beside them, someone you shared a womb with, a childhood with, a soul with. To me, they were always just another sibling taking up room and resources, another child pestering me for attention, another source of noise and frustration.

Though I might pretend to be just an average person, just a normal dumb kid going through the motions of life like them, I never got in sync with them like you and Valon. That’s something I’ll never know. In a way, I envy you for that. As much as I wish for the end, it’s a shame I never got to experience that life and those feelings, and never will.” He then looked at Valia. “But we are going to get him back, so you can keep enjoying that life, so you can enjoy what I can’t. We’ll find him, we’ll knock some sense into him, and he’ll be your brother again. Third time’s the charm.”

“Oh, Noah,” whispered, wiping away a tear. “I love you.”

“I love you too. But if you try to ride me again, all that’ll come out is a puff of smoke.”

Valia laughed and curled up tighter against him. Dawn wasn’t far off, so they savored what little sleep they could get.

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