“A few minutes more and the moon is up. Keep up the good work muscle brain”, Liam cheered, delighted that everything was going smoothly. He cackled and cackled that even Matthew started to feel annoyed.

A moment later, a sudden unpleasant feeling shut him, a heavy feeling went pass his shoulder as he suddenly frowned.

“That bastard!”, Liam’s mood swung to anger as he eyed Anton carrying Hunter to safety.

“Wake up Hunter”, Anton, who narrowly escaped the giant’s punishing hands cried while distancing themselves to the giant. “I might die any second now for this, so wake the hell up”, he uttered shaking Hunter’s head as they fled to the trees.

“How dare you disobey my master!”, the giant furiously yelled.

His muscles contracted, veins showing all over his body, he’s turning red and that’s the proof of how furious he was. He mindlessly threw boulders on the forest hoping to crush Anton and Hunter with it.

“Why do you care”, Anton replied but the echo made it hard to pin his location.

“You damn traitor!”, the giant exclaimed as he carried the biggest boulder he could find.

“Yes I am, I already betrayed everyone, not even Selene might forgive me this time”, Anton revealed himself. He watched as a boulder hurdled towards him, but instead of trembling in fear, he waited for it. Accepting his faith with open arms with no intention to dodge. The traitor waited for his demise; he knew he deserves it.

It was a sure hit. He was the second victim and soon he’ll be tomato paste on the ground. He was certain, not until the feeling of warmth radiated to his face. Opening his eyes, he was met with a line of fire. The rocks was melted in a straight line as if a punishing light was shone over them. The boulder vanished in thin air, leaving not even a single piece.

The giant turned around when he was caught on another beam. It came from Alisa, her eyes glowing fiery red, anger can be felt from her. The man was forced to kneel on the ground and take the shot.

“How’s that for a payback”, Alisa uttered focusing everything on the monster.

“That’s too farfetched from what I asked you to do Anton!”, Liam yelled from above losing his cool.

Anton could not help himself but laugh looking back at the man.

“Forget everything about the deal. You and your wife will never see the light of day again”

“Tell me something I don’t already know”, he yelled back, smirked, and returned to Hunter while Alisa was enjoying herself.

“Sorry for this Hunter but you need to wake up. Your comrades needs you. This will be the last thing I’ll do to try and make things right”, he whispered, holding Hunter on the forehead.

He closed his eyes and focused his energy in his palms before forcefully shocking Hunter back to the conscious world. A second later, Hunter opened his eyes, bewildered by the sight of Anton. The former knight smiled at him for the last time before out of nowhere he fell lifeless to the wet foliage of the forest.

Back at the clearing, Alisa couldn’t help but laugh as she felt power surging from inside her body. Spamming a combination of arrows and laser like beams towards the giant.

“Enough Alisa, you’ll die if you keep that up!”, a familiar voice called her.

“Father, you’re alive!”, Alisa replied as she watched her father emerge from the other side of the river, soaked but determined to fight.

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“I’ll handle him”

As Alvor began to approach the monster, Alisa finally fell to the ground.

“I knew I’d see you again”, said Alvor, although he himself was a sword, it’s shape was quite different from the others. A claymore or a great sword if you must say.

“And who are you supposed to be?”, the giant replied clenching his fist despite his arms being severely burned from Alisa’s barrage.

He did not mind it at all and with all his strength, he punched the ground. It split open while at the same time sending shockwaves to his opponent.

Alvor countered by simply jumping to an extraordinary height. Hesitance cannot be found on his face as he slashed the man on his way down. Unlike the others, he dealt a wound to the enemy.

“I never thought a mere mortal would be able to wound me”

“You should have, do you think I’ve forgiven you for what you did to my daughter”

Alvor charged again, using the boulders as jumping platforms. He was very agile, leaping form one boulder after the other, sneaking some slashes. When he finally stopped, the giant was already bleeding from different parts of his body, though the wounds are not too deep.

“You are indeed strong, but you can’t protect your comrades if you’re here”, the man laughed followed by a punch.

Taken by surprise, Alvor took a direct hit as he watched the enemies they defeated earlier at the first hill emerged from the trees. He knows that they were heavily wounded, dead at most, but nonetheless they are walking as if nothing happened. He thought it only applied to living bodies, how wrong he was.

At the top of the waterfall, the night sky can be clearly seen as the clouds began to scatter and make way for the stars. The moon was already in place, donning its grey hue. It was the moment Liam was waiting for, but what Alisa did swept the smug look on his face.

“Matthew”, he urgently called as he turned around. Extending his hands to Nicolas. The boy levitated in the air and the water that’s giving life to the waterfall stopped flowing.

“Starting the ritual already?”, Matthew lazily replied watching Nicolas twist in pain.

“Kill that girl”, Liam blurted. His expression was far from the merry man he was minutes ago. He was furious and the sweat on his forehead suggests that he’s anxious about something.

“Why?”, Matthew asked.

“Just kill her, no questions asked”

“Well, I’m asking why”, he calmly asked again.

“Don’t listen to him— AHH”, Nicolas squealed in pain as Liam got even more furious.

“Head down there and do what I ordered!”, Liam exclaimed staring sharply at Matthew.

Nicolas could only beg as he felt being forced out of his body while at the same time being pulled in half.

“I will not go down there unless you tell me why”, Matthew said not bothered by Nicolas’s cries.

“Just move you son of bitch!”

Matthew sighed, “Let me change the question then. Is Marco still in there, Liam?”

“Who’s Marco?”, Liam asked back while the ritual wavered. The water almost continued flowing again and Nicolas was flipped from his initial posture.

“Uh huh, I felt that. You wavered. Now I’m certain that he’s still there”, Matthew smirked as if he was celebrating while pointing his finger at Liam.

“I don’t care about your nonsense, kill that girl now!”

“Say Liam, have you already found your third piece?”, Matthew smiled.

“What are you doing Matthew!”, Nicolas squealed despite the pain.

“Shut up, Nicolas, I know what I’m doing”, Matthew yelled back at him, his calm demeanor starting to slide off.

“You both shut the hell up and do what I want!”, Liam exclaimed clenching even tighter and tormenting Nicolas even more.

“I will not go down there and kill the girl”, Matthew blurted.

“What did you say?!”

“I said no!”

Matthew swiftly called his scythe and slashed Liam who’s not on guard. The ritual was interrupted, the water flowed, and Nicolas fell to the ground. A dark being and a rotting white soul came out of Marco’s body.

Without wasting a chance, Matthew freed Nicolas from the rope before tending to his father’s soul.

“Why did you do that”, Nicolas asked unsure what was happening, “I thought you are siding with him?”

“Would you prefer it that way?”

“No, I’m glad we’re in this together”

“Good”

“But you could have acted sooner. I almost died”

“That’s fine, I enjoyed watching you suffer for a bit”, Matthew sarcastically replied.

“So what do we do now?”

Matthew gave no reply, he was now focused on tending to his father’s soul. Marco’s soul was already rotting as if he had several pieces bitten off by an insect or rat. Slowly losing its shaped, corroding and on the verge of collapse.

“His soul is already beyond repair, I’m sorry”, Nicolas whispered, shaking his brother’s shoulder.

“I know, I just wanted to set him free. It must have been painful for him having Liam as a body mate”, Matthew shrugged his head, trying to contain his tears.

“Of course it did, but we have a problem at hand, better send him to the flow of life now”

“Yeah”, Matthew knew exactly what to do and closed his eyes.

The soul grew bright as it slowly turned to dust, gracefully floating into the air like a small patch of aurora borealis. It was a beautiful sight as he sent Marco back to the flow of life.

Liam on the other hand possessed the empty vessel back. It’s like watching a thick smoke entering a deflated balloon. The body started to have a convulse, its limbs trembling before shooting up. It suddenly stood up, once again had a little seizure before Liam finally gained control.

“You stubborn child of this useless body, what have you done!”