Mahon watched the light extinguish in Belanor’s eyes as the cultist died in front of him. He wasn’t sure what had happened after the twelfth Step, only that he had felt compelled not to stop it there. The world had frozen for a single instant, during which he had been free to move. He had instinctively walked behind Belanor and stabbed the man before he could react.

Is that a thirteen Step? Freezing time for a split second?

He knew he had been able to do it because of his deep immersion in the Flow. Yordar had once said the Flow was akin to time magic, and now he could understand why.

That’s a mystery for another time.

Mahon glanced towards Zac and Maïa. The two protagonists had split now that they had realized Belanor had died. Maïa was nervously looking in quick succession between him and the exit. Was she trying to know if she could outrun him and escape?

“Surrender, Maïa.” He said.

“What good would it do?” She sneered. “You’ll kill me no matter what.”

“Maybe not.”

“I know your kind.” She resumed her fighting stance, but Mahon could see she didn’t believe in her odds for surviving.

“You really can force someone to tell the truth?”

She glared back at him and raised her weapons towards the duo. “Enough talking. Let’s end this.”

“If you can make the backer talk, we’ll let you live.” Mahon tried again.

“The backer?” She looked at him in disbelief before laughing out loud. “You’re so naïve, it makes me want to puke. You think you can expose the nobles with this? Hahahaha. You’ll not live another day, trust me.”

“So you knew?”

“The others probably need help, Mahon.” Zac intervened. “We should hurry.”

“Let’s capture her, then.” He answered.

“I’d rather kill myself than be between noble’s hands.” She said and looked him straight in the eyes.

He rushed to her, but even with the Flow, he wasn’t fast enough. She cut her own throat with her daggers and collapsed in a pool of blood.

“She really just…” Zac started.

“We’ll question this later, Zac. We still need to make sure the cult is down. And that the mine doesn’t collapse.”

Zac acquiesced and focused back. The mission wasn’t yet complete. With Zac back at his side, Mahon rushed to the gallery where Jorik and all the students had gone. Soon, they started to hear the noises of a battle and reached another wide chamber. The room was slightly smaller than the previous one, but where the latter had plenty of materials and tools scattered around, this chamber was almost entirely made of a wood and steel structure holding its vaulted ceiling.

A few bodies laid on the ground, and Mahon noticed the last people they were supposed to deal with. The backer, the bodyguard, and Oncith. Jorik was fighting against the bodyguard, and his duo had a severe injury on her arm. She was sitting on the ground with a pale face, trying to hold the wound while Jorik fended off the bodyguard.

A few other students were fighting a small group of inner cultists, while Oncith and the backer were seemingly installing explosive devices on the wood and steel structure.

“Mahon!” Jorik yelled while being pushed back by the dead-looking bodyguard. “Stop them!”

Mahon turned his head towards the direction Jorik was pointing at and realized Oncith and the backer weren’t installing the explosives. They had finished already. They could blow up the whole mine whenever they wanted. He gestured a hand signal to Zac, and together they rushed to stop them. The bodyguard roared and tried to intercept them, but Jorik managed to force her to stay to deal with him.

“Stop right there!” Oncith yelled to Mahon and Zac. “It’s between you and me now.” He pointed to the backer. “Let him leave, or I’m blowing the whole mine with all of us. Once he is gone, we’ll fight.”

An eerie silence accompanied his words as the different fights stopped to see what happened. Oncith unsheathed his sword and approached a torch he held with his other hand to the triggering part of their mechanism. The threat was obvious, and yet there wasn’t much they could do against it.

“Throw the torch on the ground, and he can go.” Mahon answered, while exchanging a quick look with Jorik.

“Hahaha. You think I’m a fool? Let him pass, and then I’ll drop the torch.” Oncith retorted.

The two men eyed each other. No one wanted to trust the other for this. From the crazy look in his eyes, the head of the cult would probably blow all of them and collapse the mine as soon as the backer was gone.

Taking advantage of the status quo, the backer joined his bodyguard, and they started to move away. Jorik pointed his sword at them, but he couldn’t really attack them out of fear Oncith would blow the mine if he did.

“Let them go!” Oncith yelled.

“Drop the fire first!” Jorik yelled back while keeping an eye on the backer.

“You better fucki…” Oncith didn’t finish his sentence as Mahon and Zac rushed at him. In a flash, Mahon was two meters away from him, and he aimed his spear at the torch. He lunged forward as far as he could, and the long spear range was just enough to knock the torch out of the cultist’s hands.

It dropped to the floor, still alight. For a second, all eyes followed the torch that rolled to the ground towards the explosives and stopped just half a meter away. It stabilized itself there in an eerie silence. And then everyone moved at the same time.

The bodyguard rushed at Jorik’s duo, forcing the First Black to go defend his comrade. The backer immediately took the opportunity to leave. His bodyguard exchanged two hits with Jorik before pushing him away. She took two steps back to widen the distance between them and threw a small dagger at Jorik’s duo, again forcing him to protect her.

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While he did, the bodyguard rushed to her master, and they fled away. The noble glanced at them before looking at Mahon’s situation. Without thinking twice, he rushed to Mahon.

In the meantime, the situation with the other cultists had quickly escalated. Mahon had managed to knock the torch off the head’s hands, and it had rolled a good five meters away from him, but it was still burning and dangerously close to explosives. If the head reached it first, then they would all die.

The inner cultists fighting with the students were also closer to the torch than their direct opponents.

“Grab the torch!” Oncith yelled, and the cultists immediately dropped their fights to rush to the torch.

From the look in their eyes, Oncith, or whichever cultist managed to grab the torch first, would gladly give his life to start the explosion and bury them all.

Mahon jumped towards Oncith to pin him down while Zac ran towards the torch. The head was a decent fighter, but he wasn’t that good in comparison with Belanor or the bodyguard. Without a care for his own life, however, the head of the cult ran sword first to the torch.

Zac immediately moved to block his way, but the cultist didn’t change his trajectory. His sword was aimed right at Zac’s heart. The time seemed to freeze as Mahon analyzed the situation.

If Zac moves away, the cultist will grab the torch and throw it towards the explosives. We all die.

If Zac stays and blocks the cultist’s way, he’d have to parry. Oncith’s will not stop, and with his momentum, both he and Zac will fall to the ground. Oncith will grab the torch and throw it towards the explosives. All dead again.

Zac needs to kill him right now. But if he does, then he isn’t protecting himself.

“Mahon!” Zac shouted while raising his own sword to the cultist.

From his motion, Mahon knew what option his friend had picked.

Of course, you’d do that.

Oncith continued to run straight while yelling. His sword was still pointed towards the noble’s heart, hoping to force Zac to dodge out of the way. But Zac refused to budge.

Zac’s sword cut through the cultist’s neck at the same time Oncith’s weapon pierced Zac’s heart. Or would have pierced, if not for the spear suddenly appearing between the cultist’s sword and Zac’s skin. The sword’s tip buried itself in the wooden spear shaft by half a centimeter, and Zac was propelled backward from the impact.

On the other hand, Oncith collapsed on the spot, Zac’s sword embedded in his body. It had cut almost all the way through Oncith’s neck, and the head was dangerously close to falling off.

Mahon immediately ran to get back his spear. The Flow had helped him perform the perfect throw, and he barely saved Zac’s life.

The battle continued, however, and two cultists were ready to jump on the torch. Fortunately, Jorik arrived just in time to kill the two with a single swipe. Mahon grabbed his lance and snuffed out the torch by stepping on it.

He threw a worried look at his friend, but Zac was already getting up with a smile, brushing off the dust on his clothes. Mahon shook his head with a sigh and expanded his senses to try to feel the backer and his bodyguard with his Flow. Alas, the battle had been too long, and they had successfully escaped out of his range.

With another sigh, he then joined Jorik to kill the last remaining cultists.

----------------------------------------

“So what now?”

“I don’t know.” Jorik answered as they walked the way back to Ratho.

They had left a few students at the mine just in case, but they knew they had stopped the cult once and for all. This cult, at least. They were transporting their injured to the city, and even though Zac and others had provided first aid, some still needed better medical assistance. They had deaths too.

“Now that I have more time to think about it, there is something weird about all this.” Mahon spoke. “I thought the plan was to have someone take the spotlight instead of Ravatoris? In that case, there should have been another family ready to save the day, right? And yet the backer was actively helping the plan to succeed. He wanted to collapse that mine. Why would a noble family want the no-dream mine gone?”

“I don’t know.” Jorik answered while shaking his head.

“What if he’s not from a noble family?”

“That explosives were too sophisticated not to come from powerhouses.” Zac intervened. “It’s noble stuff.”.

“They could have stolen it…” Mahon said, but he wasn’t convinced himself. He tried to find another explanation. “You said there were other powers in Ratho. Maybe it was them. They aren’t against Ravatoris at all and just wanted you to believe it while they destroyed the no-dream pill?”

“An evil master plan to make us think it’s just a noble scheme when it’s not?” Jorik asked.

Mahon shrugged. “Why not? If it was to lure you, it was a success. You never thought they would attack the mine. And you’re right, if they wanted to attack Ravatoris, they wouldn’t have targeted the mine at all. Or at least another noble family would have stopped them before they did, to steal the spotlight. But that didn’t happen.”

Jorik sighed. “Right. It’s a possibility. There is also the option that the cult bite back the hand of its creator. Or that they corrupted the backer. We’ll never know until we get to that backer and make him talk.”

“But they escaped…” Mahon sighed.

“It doesn’t mean we can’t find them. You provided information about his bodyguard. That’s a lead we can use. I’ll talk with Ravatoris.”

Mahon and Zac nodded, and the group entered a comfortable silence. A few minutes later, Jorik spoke again.

“You should probably stay low for a few weeks. I’ll not be able to hide your implication in the arrest of the cult. The two of you killed Belanor, Maïa and Oncith…” He almost sounded jealous. “And there were also witnesses to attest you were the ones guessing about the mine. Ravatoris will be mad at you.”

The duo exchanged a look.

“Actually, about this...” Mahon started. “We’ll probably leave school in the next few days.”

Jorik eyed them with a surprised face. “Really? Why?”

“Do you even care?” Mahon answered.

The First Black turned his head back to the path forward. “No. Maybe. I didn’t think you’d be that afraid of Ravatoris. Even with my warnings.”

“There are other reasons as well.” Zac said. “Like losing faith in the leading people of Ratho and wanting to find another way to build a nicer future.”

Jorik sneered. “I can’t blame you for that. What will you do?”

“We want to make a music band.”

Jorik watched him with an utter look of disbelief. “You’re kidding?”

“No, we’re not.” Mahon answered.

“A waste of your skills, if you ask me.”

“We didn’t ask.” Mahon said with a taunting smile. “Our collaboration was interesting, and even though you’re different, you still live in the noble world. You scheme like all the others.”

“Everybody schemes and plots.” Jorik shrugged. “You’re still too naïve and inexperienced about Ratho, if you think otherwise. Maybe you’re right to reconsider joining the army. Still, I got used to having someone with some useful skills around.” He sighed. “If you ever change your mind, we might actually be able to do great things.”

“Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. You indeed have the potential to make something interesting out of this. But it’s not my way.”

“Whatever… So this is goodbye?”

Mahon and Zac exchanged a look. “There is still the backer lurking around. It’s a threat. We’ll wait for Ravatoris’ orders on how to handle him, probably come to the frontline and see what it’s really like. Then leave.”