Balgair's eyes went wide with shock but loosened only moments afterward. His eyes were gentle on Aurelius. He didn't even look down. He accepted it. Aurelius could not.

Aurelius' ears locked as he let out a scream that didn't sound human in any sense. His eyes went out. Izir threw Balgair to the side like thrash and they met.

Their hands grabbed each other. This time around, there was no more restraint. All Aurelius knew was blood and bone, and how to break it all. He dug his nails into Izir's large hands before twisting his wrist with force directed clumsily in the hopes that something would break.

Luckily it did. Izir's wrists broke apart and he let out a slight winge, the only humanity the man had shown in a window of a split second. Aurelius shook his body, twisting the wrists more violently before taking him by the forearm and swinging his body widely, slamming Izir's figure into the mud face first, so fast and hard that the veterans surrounding them shuddered, but before he could inflict further damage he was forced to retreat as a dozen blades crossed where his neck had been.

He jumped through the air, ready to shield himself from strikes which eventually came. When he made it back to the ground he turned his gaze to Cade. She was surrounded and still fighting. Roughly half the squadron was dead, but Aurelius was on the finish line, and Cade seemed no better off. She fought with her face twisted into an ugly expression. However, her battle was going just fine. The squadron had underestimated her.

'Wait, is she... crying?' Aurelius shuddered at the thought.

No, it was just the rain. It had to be. She couldn't break down. She was his strength. If she broke, so would he. And then they would both die.

Aurelius' back and side ached as a warm liquid flowed out of his mouth in a constant stream. There was some black in the crimson. He grunted as he met more resistance while he made his way to Cade. But after she noticed him, she made her way to him.

"Where is it?!" Aurelius growled.

Cade's lips trembled as tears built up. She wanted to protest, but she knew it was useless. She could do nothing but obey his command even if it was as good as murdering him. It chipped away at Aurelius' being, but he knew what he needed. He knew what was right. Izir needed to die.

Aurelius fended off the squadron as they came after him. All fifteen veterans out to murder a teenager. Still, he faired as well as anyone could with his injuries. Avoiding contact slyly while not making it too obvious worked for a while and it was all he needed. He had covered for Cade while she got it.

When he finally saw her figure again, coming back from where she had hidden it, he smiled. No warmth, affection, or love. A simple, wide, psychotic smile coupled with eyes reduced to slits that glowed blue with power. Now he would kill them all.

He kicked away his nearest assailants before jumping above the crowd again. It had worked previously. But this time it had been too obvious. And no matter the power of an individual being obvious in battle never led to good things. And that's when a beam ate at his torso from behind. He'd only guarded attacks from underneath because that was where all his enemies were supposed to be.

His body twirled in the air. Izir's head still must've been swimming since the beam hadn't been on point. If it had, Aurelius would lay dead.

Cade rushed to catch him.

"Rey," she muttered, shaking him slightly. "Can you fight? Should I—"

"No." A single flat word shut her up. "You will not."

Aurelius didn't want to hear it. He just grabbed the vial out of her hand and staggered to stand back on his own two feet, his side bleeding profusely, back likely fractured, ribs broken, mouth dripping with blood, eyes red.

He glared at the entire squadron rushing at him and in the few seconds he had, he chugged down the second enhancer.

"Hold!" The squadron stopped in their tracks and split apart, revealing Izir. "I guess this is it."

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Aurelius chuckled. The man thought he of all people would die from two enhancers? Ridiculous. Giving him to digest the—

His eyes went wide as the veins in his neck bulged, their color tainted. His body shut down in an instant, leaving his being to crumble into the mud. He squirmed and squirmed, gritting his teeth, foam beginning to form in his mouth.

"Rey? Rey. Rey!" Cade rushed to his side, hesitating to touch him as he let out whining noises and grasped at the ground, desperate to regain control.

Then she looked up at Izir who stood there smiling. That's when Aurelius realized that Izir knew. He knew this would happen. And now he stood there with his hands folded. After murdering Balgair, he was allowed to be alive. Allowed to kill him. And after that, he would kill Cade. It was all over because he thought taking a second enhancer came without consequences.

And while Aurelius was still adapting to the enhancer, Izir raised a hand. "Fire." A single apathetic word, signaling the end of everything.

Over ten hands clasped together. Aurelius shut his eyes as hard as he could. Then the impact came. He shuddered and looked up. Beams going on both sides, as a precaution even thought Cade couldn't move fast enough anyway at this point. But how was he alive? He struggled to move his neck enough, then he saw Cade and a half-empty vial.

And with whatever power she could muster from the one-and-a-half enhancers in her system, she deflected the power of ten beams with a single curved shield more refined than any Aurelius had ever seen.

He looked on with wonder. But then the shield faded and all the relief with it. However, as he jerked his head toward her, begging his body to obey just this once, his body moved like an automatic weapon and he was there, putting forth both hands around her and putting up a shield twice the size.

She exhaled as he body relaxed and Aurelius' horror grew at the sight of her hands. Nothing but red.

The beams finally stopped, drained of the initial power build-up. Aurelius let the shield blink out of existence and stood to the awe of the squadron.

Izir had placed his bet. 'Wait for the momentary paralysis and kill him before he can ingest the second enhancer' had been the idea. They had not taken her into account. He hadn't either. But as he gently lowered her, he wished he never had to rely on her again. That peaceful face that trusted in him, and those torn-apart hands that suffered for him. He never wanted to see such a sight. It was all on him.

He looked back up at Izir and there was a moment of silence. Then Aurelius limped forward before realizing he felt no pain. He straightened himself and took another step. He walked like on a morning walk before accelerating into running steps and clashing.

This time he moved too fast. It was simple really. Hands moved and crushed everything in their way. He could wrap his hand around a neck and a simple squeeze was enough for death.

But as he shielded a beam they seemed to have one more coordinated strike in store. A blow came to the back of his head, shaking his consciousness before a ball of essence hit him in his stomach.

Breathless, he was launched into the air and hung there in a kind of limbo for a while. Only another reminder that he was not invincible. But one that didn't matter much.

He closed his eyes right as his momentum stepped and he began plummeting toward the ground, hugged by gravity.

At that moment, he dove into his memories. That cursed beast's slashes and his father's Divide. They seemed to possess a shared quality. Speed. How interesting. It wasn't long-range essence usage like Gabriel's technique had suggested. No. That technique was a pathetic knock-off.

It was materialization, separated from the host body at such a speed that it reached the opponent before inevitably dispersing. Aurelius' eyes jumped open. At the same time, some shields popped into existence to guard him from the pathetic attacks of the humans below.

Aurelius let out a laugh full of child-like excitement at a new toy before he came down onto the ground once again. Mud splashed and the men covered their eyes. But as they looked back, Aurelius was gone.

Immediately after landing, he jumped back into the air. This time his body spun in the air purposefully. The men could watch him hurtling through the air for only a peaceful moment before he moved his hands.

And when he did, they saw their doom.

His hands moved, only a glowing blur in his eyes. Then it was done. Tens of ethereal blades shot off in an instant and the wind whistled as he landed.

Men fell, arms and legs severed. Aurelius didn't even know who he had killed or how. Most of all, he didn't care. After disposing of the ones still standing with a few more slashes his way, he ripped his way through to Izir, faced off, and fainted high before kicking the man's previously injured knee inward. The crack was loud. Louder than any before. And the bones stuck out from the back of his leg the very next moment.

He fell back, screaming as Aurelius watched with a hollow expression. He looked at him like staring into the void. After a blink, however, he took in the man's pathetic figure coupled with an ill-fitting gaze. A pained man deserved pained eyes. Not ones of hatred or defiance.

But in the end, he was nothing. Aurelius did not care enough to break the man in the end. He only felt a deep emptiness left by having everything not of animalistic nature carved away only so that he could reign victorious over this pathetic creature below him.

He stepped on the man's chest. Izir was about to move his arms, but then he no longer had them. Two simple slashes had done away with any remaining competence the man had.

Aurelius gazed directly down at him before materializing a long blade. "Like father, like son," he spat and put the blade through Izir's heart.