Making it back to the university after their failure to apprehend Noreko proved difficult. Pathways that were once available became closed off as previously already damaged buildings crumbled over.

Flames roared ahead of a path they had taken earlier. Chunks of rock and broken wooden beams lay out there burning.

The scent of burning flesh continued to reach his nostrils. It sickened him as he had no other choice than to smell it at a continuous rate.

“I guess we have no choice but to take another route yet again.” Abigail turned to them and looked quite furious.

“We’ll make it back eventually,” Silvy said.

“Yeah, well. I hope so. I’m just really annoyed is all. Come on, let’s hurry it up.”

An intensified orange-reddish glow occupied the sky more vividly than earlier. The brightness revealed smoke and embers from buildings on fire from all around.

They began to walk by a building on a street corner completely set on fire. Kiran hoped nobody had been inside although it was far from unlikely. Its front entrance was still closed and the flames raged out of the open windows on the second floor.

Along the street they walked past, the occasional body lay there unmoving. One dead male’s face looked up towards the starless sky with blood speckled on their face and arm. A giant gash ran across their chest having sliced through it deeply. Kiran couldn’t know for certain but the wound appeared to be inflicted by one of the many strands of energy that flew out of the pillar. Although, the wound appeared a lot fresher suggesting another possible cause.

As for getting back to the university, by having to take an alternative route, Kiran found them having to backtrack and even take routes that led further away from there. Their current route took them through a rather empty area that hadn’t received as much damage as the areas nearby.

Nor was it very occupied. It was quieter than the other areas they had strolled through and it was strangely off-putting. As they kept walking down the dark street, a chill began to run down his spine.

Some kind of subtle sound lingered around someplace nearby. It was faint. It was nearly nonexistent. Yet he could hear just the tiniest amount of it towards behind him towards the right. He stopped and looked over his shoulder trying to see whether anything was following them.

Nothing there.

“You coming or not?” Abigail said ahead of him.

He turned and then saw a dark silhouette rushing towards her.

In a blink of an eye, his body propelled forward sending his newly summoned sword directly towards the creature wanting to send its appendages into Abigail’s body.

A dark liquid ran down his blade as it managed to pierce through some flesh. Due to the lack of hardly any light on the cobbled street they were on, he could not make the creature out very well.

It did however scream.

It backed away continuing to sing a song of misery in a high-pitched tone. It had six appendages with four of them acting as legs. The appendages were shaped strangely with jagged sharp bits running along the sides. Its upper torso was long and slender granting it superior height to any one of them.

Silvy’s sword burst alight revealing more of the creature who decided to attack them. “It appears they’ve started making it into the city.” I thought we had more time before they’d start entering the city. I guess that was just us being too optimistic.

Three vertical eyes ran along the hideous creature’s face as they bled out a bit from the wound it received from Kiran. It moved wildly ahead of them continuing to screech.

Abigail looked at him briefly before returning her gaze towards the creature. “Thanks for the assistance back there.”

“I’ve always got your back,” Kiran said and prepared for the creature to attack once more.

However, it appeared that it was not alone. While it wanted to keep them distracted, Kiran could tell something stalked them from a nearby structure.

A more intense chill ran down his spine. He projected a wide horizontal barrier before he could even make out whatever it was that was preparing to strike him down. Mere seconds later, sparks flew off the translucent barrier as a scythe-like appendage tried to go through it and into his body.

“I’ll take care of this one!” Kiran said as he kept the barrier up.

As it pulled its appendage back, he stopped casting the barrier and rushed forward knowing the other two could take care of the other injured monster.

His arm sent his sword through one of their appendages. They sent it towards him only for him to block it with his sword slamming up harshly against their scythe-like appendage.

He began to focus sending mana to his blade. As he sent more mana into it as he used all of his strength in tandem, his sword began to pierce through the hardened exterior of their scythe-like appendage.

Like a warm knife cutting through butter, it made its way through causing their appendage to fall to the ground. More high-pitched screams erupted but Kiran was not interested in allowing it to suffer. Instead, he took this opportunity to slice its long slender neck.

He lunged forward slicing horizontally. It tried to block his attack only to miss its chance. Their three vertical eyes widened in shock as his sword cut through their neck completely.

It collapsed over onto the ground and as he prepared to assault the other one both Abigail and Silvy fought, he turned around only to see Abigail’s red-bladed short sword sticking through one of its eyes.

She yanked it free only to plant it into another one of their eyes. The monster backed away screaming. Before it could do anything else however, Silvy shoved her flaming sword into its body causing flames to wrap around them.

Its grayish skin blackened as the flames continued to roar. It rolled around madly trying to put out the flames, but they would not go out. They just kept burning no matter how much it wished for it to stop.

They all stood back watchful of the creature that died before them. You attacked the wrong group of people.

It stopped moving eventually. The flames died down as smoke rose off their body. The flames reflected off Abigail’s stern and furious eyes. “If these two we just ran into are this far into the city, I can only imagine how many more of them there are in other places.”

Silvy nodded her head in agreement. “We’ll have to be more cautious as we make our way back. Hopefully they’ve secured the areas around the university better than around here.”

It hadn’t crossed his mind until now, but there was always the possibility that they had already been swarmed. He quickly purged such negative thoughts out of his mind. All it did was act like poison. He needed to not immediately think of the absolute worst-case scenario and just push forward.

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So they did.

More fires had broken out swallowing entire areas that once housed the people of Liall. It didn’t matter which street they went down. This was the norm.

Kiran eyed a man wearing a long brown coat. They stood beside a woman who had debris covering her body. “Can you lend me a hand sir? I fear I do not have the strength to free my wife.”

With the assistance of both Silvy and Abigail and this gentleman, they all grasped onto a large piece of wood from a collapsed building. They hoisted it up with all of their strength managing to lift it up just enough to allow for the woman to crawl out and free herself.

The large wooden piece fell back down once they all let go. She might’ve been free but she appeared injured nonetheless. She lay on the ground unable to stand.

“You should probably take her to the university,” Abigail said towards the man who crouched beside his wife. “There are people there who can help heal your wife.”

“I’ll go there now,” he said and began to bring his wife into his arms. Thankfully she wasn’t all that tall or big so he could carry her more easily. “Thank you all for your help.”

“Just be careful out there,” she said. “There are monsters in the city now.”

The man nodded their head and carried his injured wife away in a hurry to reach the university. They were just one person, but he was glad nonetheless that they took a couple of precious minutes to help them out. Kiran knew there were countless others in the city who needed their assistance. Unfortunately they could only do so much.

Time, energy, and their own abilities were limited after all.

They continued their journey by taking alternative routes to the university. At least so far, they didn’t have to take major diversions like they had been doing so earlier. If they hadn’t had to take any to begin with, however, Kiran figured they would already be there by now. Although that truthfully speaking meant they would’ve not helped that injured woman since they would’ve never run into her or her husband.

“How much further is it?” Kiran asked as he briskly walked behind Abigail with Silvy by his side.

“Not much further,” she said. She stopped ahead of them stretching out her hand. She looked to the right near the rooftops and tightened the grip of her hand as it wielded her red-bladed short sword. “We’ve got more trouble.”

A terrifying roar went out.

Kiran heard a rush of several creatures behind them while at the same time several came running along the rooftops to their right.

Silvy’s sword burst aflame and rather than let the ones coming up behind them reach them, she sent a surge of flames in an arc towards them. The fire ran across the cobbled ground swallowing everything in it. The hideous monsters screamed as their bodies burned.

Several others leaped off the rooftops to greet them personally. As they landed, Abigail drove her red-bladed sword through them. Kiran backed her up killing two more of them with his sword.

His body was beginning to feel tired. He drove his sword into the last of them feeling his arm burn and begging him to give it a break.

For a moment it appeared they were all alone once more. However, he couldn’t help but begin to feel an immense amount of them not far rushing towards them.

That can’t be good.

Something gripped his hand. “Come on!” Abigail said and they all ran.

They could handle a few monsters. Several dozen monsters rushing towards them on the other hand, was not even something they would even consider.

They ran. He began breathing in heavily. With every breath taken, he didn’t dare look behind them. He just knew they had to run or those things would catch up to them.

As they neared an intersection, they took a left to head north. He could see the grand sorcerer’s tower along with several of the university’s large and imposing buildings that surrounded it. The university was still somewhat far away but at least he could spot it.

While he felt somewhat happy about that, that happiness quickly withered away as he realized the street they were running down also had monsters up ahead. They went in and out of the buildings slicing, biting, and eviscerating any living human they could. They were likely told to head to the university only to end up running into a swarm of monsters.

As one monster drove their sharp appendage through the heart of a woman, its head twisted around their neck in an abnormal kind of way. Its head bent back and it pulled its appendage free allowing the woman’s newly dead body to hit the ground. More of its friends and allies took notice of them as it made a clicking noise with its mouth full of at least a hundred teeth.

Enemies ahead. Enemies behind.

He took up a defensive position knowing they had nowhere else to go.

Sweat ran down his face and the heat from Silvy’s sword hit up against his side. The light revealed the many dozens of monsters’ faces who were quite eager to kill them.

While he expected the ones that had been running behind them to keep rushing towards them, they stopped and began to laugh.

The monsters in this domain, while hideous and unnatural-looking, did possess intelligence. He remembered when he fought the giant out in the wasteland and how it had even spoken to him. These too held some level of intelligence making it scarier in some ways since they knew what they were doing.

They laughed and slowly approached eager to drive their many sharp appendages into their flesh.

With little other choice, Kiran in this desperate moment, began to touch a presence he hadn’t touched in quite some time. It was a presence that he didn’t quite understand. He just knew that for some reason, it had saved him before and acted as a repellent towards other living creatures. He began to feel the faintest bit of this presence and directed it towards the mass of monsters that slowly approached them.

However, as he did so, a horn blew out causing him to stop.

“I never would’ve thought I’d actually be happy to see them.” He wondered who exactly Abigail referred to but as he looked behind, he saw armored knights on horseback riding by killing every fiend in the street. An entire slew of them rode by them and charged towards the mass of monsters who seconds ago laughed at them.

They didn’t laugh anymore.

As they were slaughtered by the many dozens of heavily armored green-cloaked knights, Kiran was able to somewhat relax as the monsters died or ran away knowing better than to stay and get slaughtered by them.

A man on horseback approached them. He lifted up his visor revealing their face. “If it isn’t the queen killer himself.” A man who Kiran could only presume was Grand Master Harold looked down upon the three of them, and particularly Kiran, with disdain.

“Should we kill them?” a knight on horseback to his left muttered aloud.

His body tensed up again.

“No,” Harold said. “We have more important tasks to deal with for now. Consider yourselves fortunate. If the city weren’t in such a condition, I would have you killed and you especially Silvy for having betrayed your oath to the queen and our order. But you can fight, and the city needs fighters. So go. Just know that you’ll be dealt with later.”

Kiran didn’t care whether he intended to try to deal with him later. He was just glad he wasn’t about to deal with them currently.

A person on horseback rode through the crowd of knights. “Sir.”

“Yes?”

“The walls to this sector of the city have been secured. Whatever monsters remain within it will be all that we have to worry about for now at least.”

“Very good. Ready yourselves men. It’s time to purge this area of the city of this filth.”

They managed to get a good amount of hollers and cheers from the knights. They all rushed by them without a willingness to deal with them. It was at least a positive sign that even though under any other circumstance Grand Master Harold would’ve gladly slain him and Silvy—particularly due to their actions towards the queen—that he at least was willing to set aside his grievances towards them when there were far more important matters to tend to.

When Silvy caught a glance at him, he could tell she was quite relieved. “Thought you were going to die there, weren’t you?”

She sheathed her sword. “I cannot even begin to describe to you the feelings I felt standing there with him looking down at me.”

“Alright you two,” Abigail said. “The university is right this way. Let’s not get too distracted.”

“Lead the way, my princess.”

She began to frown due to the way he said that. However, she quickly did as he suggested and they both followed her up the street littered with monster corpses.