He was tired. He had to run from one place to another, avoiding the army, guards and onlookers who might want to turn him in. He felt annoyed about it, very annoyed. But his priority now was to find what the deity has left - the seal. However, his legs refused to obey him. In the end he leaned against a tree and settled on the ground. He was breathing hard, wiping waterfalls of sweat from his forehead.

  ‘Well, my boy, you're better than I thought! You're wanted by the whole country!’ A voice laughed out of nowhere.

  “Shut up” Mateo growled. “Tell me, why don't you show your ugly mug?”

  ‘Because currently I don't have the power to materialize my form. You know, it takes a lot of mana to fulfill wishes.’

  “I thought you, the gods, had enough of it to last for a while.”

  ‘This is punishment for the things I used to do.’ He laughed.

  “Punishment? Ah, I see. After all, gods must be pretty sadistic if they let so much wrong shit happen in this world.”

   ‘They allow? Oh, Matevigo, you're so naive.’

  “What?” he answered, not hiding his anger.

  ‘It’s in human nature to look for guilt. Most often you choose superhuman beings, or gods, or whatever you want to call it, as the guilty ones. But do you know what "free will" is? It's actually people who themselves are guilty. Look, Matevigo, you smashed your friend, and his brother without thinking earlier, you hurt them. You believe that a god was involved here? Ah, yes, you think he could have forbidden you from doing that, but it would’ve been a violation of your free will! Do you now understand who's to blame for what's happening to you? Your brother, who broke the taboo. It was his will, and through that will he hurt you. Simple, right?’

  “Stop your fucking yapping!” he screamed out. “Ian didn't do anything wrong! Ian wanted to... help them... Yeah... Now I know what’s going on. What's going on with you.”

  ‘Oh? You know?’ he cackled. ‘What do you know?’

  “I know who's to blame. Ah, I knew from the beginning... it’s Peter and Edward. They got Ian too into it all, promising miracles. It was probably Peter who persuaded him to break the taboo... And you know what? If it's true, I'll destroy the pain... by destroying them. I will destroy them all.”

  The deity laughed disgustingly.

  ‘Amazing, I haven’t expected that.’ He kept laughing. Suddenly he noticed that Mateo was focusing his magic. ‘Oh, the tracking spell?’

  “Thanks to the aura you created, I feel that the seal is close.” He smiled.

  ‘Clever. But how are you going to catch Edward if you're being pursued? I guess he's got a friend in the army, huh? Well, unless...’

  “What?” he growled.

  ‘Unless you track him down using the seal.’ He laughed disgustingly.

  “HE'S IN THE GAME TOO?!” screamed Mateo.

  ‘Remember, I never lie! At worst I can answer vaguely.’

  “I see. It's perfect then...” His face has taken on a disturbing expression. “You're saying that as long as I have a seal I can join the final battle?”

  ‘Yes. You could even not kill any of your rivals at all. Duh, you may actually wait and fight only at the end, if you prefer.’

  “...Perfect” he repeated. “But I'm going to get to Edward much earlier. And then... I'm going to win this and resurrect Ian...”

   ‘Resurrection of someone’ repeated the god, with a obvious amusement. ‘A noble wish. Good luck in destroying the suffering, Matevigo!’

  “Wait” he stopped him. “One more thing.”

  ‘Yes?’ he asked, curious.

  “I swear to you, I'll win this fucking game, even if I have to massacre everyone in this country. You understand me?”

  ‘Well, that’s what I call an ambition!’ He laughed out loudly. ‘I'm counting on you to keep this up and that I'll really see you in the finals.’

  “You will.” He assured and began walking to the direction where the magic that gathered at his hand indicated. The deity laughed again, and then his voice went silent.

  The black-haired man was heading for the village. He put a hood over his head so that no one would recognize him too quickly. It was dark, so it was a comfortable situation for him. After a few minutes he reached the village, which was larger than the name indicated. He walked along the dark streets so that passersby would not notice the magic around his hand. Suddenly he found himself at an old warehouse.

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  ‘Well, there's nothing like a well thought-out hideout...’ He commented to himself. He opened the door as quietly as he could with magic, then slipped inside. But suddenly he felt someone else's presence. He smiled. “I see you care about the seal, you fuckers.”

  “Fuckers? Is that what you say to women?!” They've emerged from the shadows. The first one of them was pretty tall. She had short brown hair, grey eyes and clothes, which consisted of a gray jacket that slightly revealed the shoulders and reached to the navel, and equally gray pants, apparently of some kind of leather, but her shoes were white, with low heels, and her complexion was tanned.

  The other one though looked comical - she was small, had blue, medium-length hair with spiky fringe, creamy complexion and brown eyes. Her clothes were made of multicolored fabrics, incompetently sewn together - one sleeve of the shirt was long, reaching to her wrist and the other to her elbow, the collar covered her left arm, but left the right one revealed. At the bottom it didn’t look much better either, one part was short enough to reveal a piece of her belly, where the other part of the shirt reached to her thigh. It was similar with the trousers, one side exposed practically the whole thigh, when the other reached to her knee. Her shoes were black, and a pair of blue rabbit ears grew out of her head. Mateo barely stopped himself from laughing.

  “I can see that the deity has visited the circus too!” He snorted.

  “You little...” They started growling. “We have a weapon. You, only fists!”

  Then the rabbit turned into a chainsaw that had a rainbow handle. Mateo, unable to hold on any longer, burst out laughing.

  “You may have a weapon, but you must be joking!” he commented, then he focused the magic on his hands. The brunette jumped out and stabbed him in the shoulder, but he quickly moved and hit her in the belly. She jumped away, wanting to strike again, when suddenly the chainsaw got jammed. Mateo grabbed her blade with both hands in the middle and pushed it back hard. The crazy mistress started to hit the saw with her fist.

  “Iris, focus!” she ordered.

  “I'm doing the best I can!” answered the weapon, and then she started working again. At the same time Mateo was focusing on tracing the seal, considering this "fight" like some kind of performance. Suddenly... he felt it. He gathered magic in the soles of his feet and knocked himself up high. He grabbed the beam, which was placed by the roof, and on it the seal waited. He took it and then unfolded it, the number three appearing on his hand surrounded by various strange symbols, which disappeared after a few seconds.

  “EVA, HE HAS THE SEAL!” screamed Iris. Eva laughed.

  “Number three? So we're one place ahead of you” the brunette said.

  “I don't know if this changes anything” said emptily the black-headed, though deep down he was surprised that his ridiculous opponents were able to get one.

  “Yes, it has. BECAUSE WE KNOW WHAT A NICE NUMBER WE'LL HAVE WHEN WE CUT YOUR HAND OFF!” Eva screamed with a maniacal smile on her face. Mateo laughed too.

  “Well, then show me you doing it!” He jumped in her direction again. Eva grabbed the saw firmly, then charged towards Mateo, who knocked the weapon out of her hand with a kick, and before she knew it, he punched her in the face with his fist with all his might… of course, spicing the blow with magic. Eva and the saw fell to the ground, Mateo smiled. “You have a weapon. A shitty weapon. And I have my fists!”

  “No...” Eva squealed. “Don't hurt me...”

  "But I won't. I'm just going to cut your hand off.” He smiled again. But suddenly he heard the military coming. “Fucking hell.”

  Mateo, forgetting about Eva, made a hole in the roof using a magic bullet and jumped through it, focusing magic in the soles of his feet to get out. He was quickly noticed that way, so he ran away fast.

Iris turned into a rabbit, Eva grabbed her by the ears, and also started running.

  “OW OW, STOOOP!” the rabbit was screaming.

  “Shut up or we'll get caught!”

  “Where now?!”

  “Wherever, we'll catch that son of a bitch later!”