"AHHHHHH!” I screamed as my body rematerialized but something was different.

My legs were hooved and covered in pitch black fur. My dark, near black claws were thick and sharp. My head was goat like.

I knew this because as the morning sun rose, my head cast a dark shadow onto the burnt dirt atop which I sat.

I flinched as an explosion filled the air.

I crawled onto my feet and saw that my body had returned to its previous, sturdier state but my focus quickly shifted to the managed corpse that sat a few meters away from me.

My chest ached but before any I could process anything, my attention shifted to a place beyond the crater I was in.

I crawled out of it and gasped upon seeing that almost all of northern Centora was gone.

Sitting at the bottom of a series of massive craters was a wounded dragon and standing in front of the dragon were two men.

[Gula and his men were rather accommodating, even though they were bandits. Why not help?]

A certain small voice asked.

“Hehe, you haven’t been back for a full hour and already… oh, well. You’re right.” I chuckled before turning around to face the corpse again.

I slowly walked towards it and fell to my knees upon reaching its side.

I raised my hands and allowed thick plumes of smoke to pour out of them.

These plumes engulfed Ncil as she sunk into the dark realm.

I then sent her to the lowest possible point in the other realm before standing and making my way back to the edge of the crater again.

I dashed down the larger crater with a speed and power that I was more than familiar with.

I winced upon seeing just how much damage Xenagós had sustained.

Her wings had been cut to pieces, with one being a small stub. Her entire body was covered large gashes which were covered in caked over blood.

Gula wasn’t in any better condition.

His right ear was missing and his held his bowels in with his free arm.

As for Sidus… well, I don’t even know how he was standing.

With eyes that glowed brightly green, he stood ten meters from Gula even though large chunks of his head were missing.

He was covered entirely in burns much like the pile of meat and metal behind him.

I walked up to Gula who greeted me with a pained smile.

“Idiot. I told you to run.” He wheezed.

“Yeah, well, I feel like I owe you one, so shut up and accept it.” I scoffed.

Gula coughed out a laugh before pointing his sword at Sidus.

“Well, let’s finish this. Oh- umm… it looks like you’re now in the form I’ve heard so much about. Could you create a safe place for Xena?” Gula asked.

“Mmm… the limit for you space magicians is one hundred kilometres, right?” I asked and Gula nodded.

I nodded back before creating a large, reinforced hall far to the south.

“Can you see it?” I asked.

“Yep! Now, hold that asshole off while I teleport her out.” Gula instructed.

I nodded before facing Sidus whose eyes narrowed while Gula dropped his sword.

The Helma tried dashing past me to attack Gula, but I summoned a bed of spikes from underground.

He dashed to the side as the spikes shot high into the air and tried running for Gula once more but I created a massive wall between the two.

Without missing a beat, Sidus changed his direction and started sprinting towards me.

The Helma then swung his Lance downward but I quickly dashed backwards.

His lance struck the ground and I noticed that he was far weaker than before.

It looked as though he was using life magic to keep himself alive and his condition meant that he couldn’t haphazardly use light magic.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

I, on the other hand…

I dashed towards him, just as he raised his sword and I sent fourth a powerful punch, Sidus easily avoided the attack by dashing to the right but I created a dark sword in my left hand and I swung it towards him while filling it with darkness.

Sidus tried deflecting the sword, but by the time it reached him, it had already grown infinitely heavier.

The force from this interaction sent Sidus tumbling backwards as his Lance bounced off my sword which I let go off quickly after.

I then dashed towards him after summoning a certain golden sword which I swung in an attempt to take what was left of his right leg.

Sidus dashed to the side again before letting out a pained groan.

I then watched as wisps of green light left his body.

They rapidly moved over to his wounds but instead of healing them, they formed strange ethereal replacements of what he had lost.

The Helma tapped the ground with his lance and his left eye started glowing gold.

“Shit.” I cursed as he dashed towards me with the speed one would expect from a Helma.

I dashed towards him while he raised his lance which was rapidly being coated with light and just as he swung it down to cleave me in two, I deflected the attack to the side before punching him in the chest.

He briefly stumbled backwards and I wasted no time in surrounding him in black smoke which turned into countless small spikes, but just as I squeezed my hand into a fist to force those spikes into him, Sidus released a massive flare of light, burning away all of the darkness I’d summoned.

He then glared at the wall before glaring at me once more.

He readied himself to strike, but just as he took a step forward, Gula appeared above him with his sword raised.

Then, at a speed that defied reason, Sidus turned around to block the ambush but while his focus was on Gula, I summoned another bed of spikes.

Sidus tried dashing backwards but that led him to me and I gave him a powerful kick in the back forcing him forward where Gula swung his sword yet again.

Sidus tried jumping up and away, but I foresaw this and so, using all of the darkness in the wall I created, I created countless horizontal spikes which impaled the Helma’s legs as he leapt.

Gula them teleported above him before kicking him in the face and as he fell, I dashed forward and hacked at the Helma’s exposed shoulder.

Unfortunately, my strike was far too weak to cleave his entire arm off and so it now hung by a few threads.

Sidus tumbled onto the ground while Gula landed next to me.

We then made our way to the walking corpse of a knight who weakly tried crawling to his feet, but his legs were now strips of burnt flesh and chunks of bone.

Sidus raised his glowing eyes and glared at us both.

“Hehe.” He wheezed.

“You are both dead men.” He said as the sun fell.

“For you to fell, not one but two Helma… I cannot imagine your final moments will be painless.”

Gula and I remained silent.

Sidus then fell to his side.

“Goodbye… everyone… Zuri…”

A moment passed as darkness enveloped the crater.

Then something strange happened.

I looked around and saw that it was getting brighter for some reason.

Gula and I looked up and collectively groaned upon seeing a massive ball of light high in the sky.

“Shit, that’s Astír. Oi, Kenos. It really was a pleasure meeting you, but this is goodbye.”

I opened my mouth to ask what his plan was but he pushed me in the chest and I gasped upon finding myself in a vast field of grass.

“Gula?” I called but received no response.

A moment passed as I stood in the otherwise silent plane.

I looked up into the afternoon sky and coughed.

My coughs eventually turned to wheezes as my body ached in pain. My armour was beyond broken. What was left was a few threads of tattered leather and the cape was surprisingly intact.

“Where were you?” I asked.

[I… don’t know. After… Caligo attacked, I felt myself sink. I then slept in that dark place and only woke up recently. I’m guessing a certain someone had something to do with it.]

Katsíki said.

“Why.. why couldn’t you have returned a moment earlier? Why did she take my magic away? Why…?” I asked but Katsíki remained silent.

“ANSWER ME!” I yelled but I knew Katsíki didn’t know.

“At least tell me you learnt something about her.” I asked.

[I couldn’t. The only thing I had with me in that dark place was my memories and the last thing I saw...]

“Fuck.”

[Yeah.]

“So… what now?” I asked.

[We finish this. This world will know no peace so long as that asshole lives. I don’t care what you do… just get us to him so that we may fall your sword.]

Katsíki said but…

“I’m a bit tired… could you… could you take over for a bit?”

[Mmm… alright, but we get small when I manifest.]

“Oh- about that-“

I raised my hands and tapped the horns on my head which promptly sunk into my skull without leaving a trace of their existence.

[Mmm?]

“Yeah, we can tweak our appearance somewhat. I’ve also changed our eyes to appear as human as possible. Anyway, don’t worry. I’ll take over if shit gets sticky.”

[Alright- AHHHHHHHHHH!”

I cried as a massive explosion of darkness erupted from me.

Being fully conscious meant that I remembered everything.

Every sensation returned to me as though it were fresh but I bit my teeth and absorbed all of the darkness back into me.

“Kenos?” I called.

[Mmm… I’m back in the throne room and uh… our guest is here. Only she looks like a guy now.]

“Mmm… keep an eye on her- him.”

[Alright. I’ll rest up for a bit. Go on. I have a feeling Gula teleported us one hundred kilometres north so we should be in Medelona.]

“Alright.” I said before looking myself over.

Strangely enough, I was in our Kenos form.

I took off the remnants of our armour and tore off the cape which I wrapped around myself as a cloak to hide my legs.

I then took a deep breath and made my way north.

[Seems like Coh is doing fine. Y- they placed her in the egg and they’re taking care of her-]

“Wai- is she-?”

[N-no.]

Kenos said.

I bit my teeth but continued walking regardless.

My steps were loud in the silence of the night, but they grew to become a sort of lullaby for me.

With each step, we got closer to our goal and that brought me faint joy.

.

..

I had been walking for several hours and the sun had begun to sunk.

My stomach ached slightly from hunger but it wasn’t something I couldn’t handle.

“Do you think there’s any way we could conceal the fact that we’re magicians?” I asked dryly.

[Nope. Even when we were sick, everyone and their grandmother could spot us from a distance. Our passive absorption, plus our ungodly storage of darkness is a dead giveaway, so avoid towns and cities at all costs.]

“All cities except Middlen.”

[Yeah, but chances are, now that two of his friends are dead, he’ll come for us.]

“Mmm… knowing him, he probably spotted the sword a while ago. I’m gonna send it a little higher and reinforce it some more. This’ll give it more momentum when the time comes.”

[Good idea.]

Kenos said as I walked.

I had quickly grown accustomed to moving around in my bigger form and the cloak shielded me from the worst of winter’s winds.

And so, with eyes that glowed dimly red, I continued northward.