Alba and his squad were exploring the enemy village. They moved from one street to another, looking at every corner, every crevice, and every secret cellar in the house. They found no one and nothing, only emptiness. It was as if Mother Nature herself, shrouded in darkness and malice, had carried away every single person in the place a few days before they arrived. Pestilence, famine. He felt all the effects of a war that had never really happened, but it was not the first time that Alba had seen such an atmosphere, it had haunted him since the «Great Metentis War», after which this world had changed, as well as the souls of the people who had joined the Inquisition at that time, and of whom there were not so many left.

There was no longer a great empire that gave people hope, a home, an education. It was destroyed and buried under the ground. Alba remembered standing in the middle of the desert on the last day of the war, once the commercial center of this magical primeval world; everywhere lay the wreckage of destroyed houses, sand, dust, and the stench that permeated every molecule of the air for many kilometers, and spread dark shadows further and further, reminding everyone of the consequences of the war. The consequences, Alba thought, of the desire for greater authority and the power of the metentises, and if he had one single wish, right now, he would have asked without a second thought to rid this world out of metovis. There were no more trees, no leaves, no small tame animals, everything was buried and everything was forgotten, mixing with the sand and flying somewhere beyond the edges of this gray, cursed world.

When Alba returned to the same place many hundreds of years later, having lost all humanity inside and out, he saw nothing. He didn't even know why he was back, or what he expected to find here, except maybe nostalgia, probably nostalgia. But it didn’t bring back memories of kindness, happiness and joy, but moments when he had to kill in order to survive. He never went back there again.

"They're just running away, without any fighting," said Alba's assistant.

He suddenly woke up after a long time of dwelling in his thoughts, returning to reality.

"What did you say?"

"I say that everyone runs away and don’t even fight for their own homes."

"Yes, it's true."

"They just sabotage us, strangely finding themselves in our rear."

"You're right about that, too."

"I don't know how they do it. We had already passed half of Porhol land a few months ago, and had met with almost no resistance, only at the beginning, when we declared war on them."

"How many years have passed…"

"They've learned a lot."

"They're just retreating to the capital. Trying to avoid meaningless sacrifices. After all, life is more valuable than any trinkets and any property."

"So, this is another empty village?"

"Most likely, but maybe we'll find someone else, who knows."

"I wonder where their cemetery is?"

"I don't know."

"This is the fifteenth village, and none of them had a cemetery."

"I don't know, I don't pay attention to such little things."

"I think it's strange."

They turned into a small street. On both sides of the paved road, which was laid out with high quality and smooth cobblestone, there were gray stone two-story houses with wooden window frames and small, open balconies. In front of some wooden doors with no locks, there were abandoned shopping stalls. A hundred meters ahead was a huge monument dedicated to an unknown person.

Alba immediately recognized the style of clothing: a long robe, a hood covering his face, a strange book in his left hand with an unknown sign, and the right hand was raised in such a position, like it was ready to use a powerful spell; all this indicated only one thing - here is a sculpture of a metentis from ancient times.

"I wonder who it could be," said Alba's assistant.

"I don't know…"

"Maybe it's some local saint?"

"Hardly, religion is forbidden in this country."

"Then what do they believe?"

"What we don't believe in."

"Is that why we're at war?"

"That's why we're at war," Alba said, but something inside him twitched and he was disgusted by the words. He thought it would be better to say "I don't know" again, that would be honest and true, but the moment was lost.

Alba's assistant turned and pointed to the observation tower and suggested to climb up there and explore the area. Alba agreed and ordered his second assistant to return to the hill outside the city, where the main body of the army was stationed: artillery, gun-tractors, soldiers, and to send a message for everyone to move out.

"I don't see the point in wasting time. We'll go quicker, we'll get to the capital faster."

"Yes, sir!"

Alba went into the house that stood next to him, looked around. Another house without any signs of life. He went back out into the street. On the parallel road to his right and left, a strike force consisting of combat inquisitors was scanning the area. Someone looked at the hidden places, small streets outside, someone went into the houses and checked if there was someone inside. Alba went forward, trying to listen for every sound, but he could hear nothing but the voices of his men talking in the background. A small wind had picked up, spreading sand and dust through the streets like a blowing snow. Birds sang in the trees. Despite the fact that autumn has ruled for a month and a half now, sitting on its rightful throne, the air temperature reached about fifteen degrees above zero.

Alba came to a small bridge built over a narrow channel with clear and blue water, along the course of which small groups of fries swam. Frogs croaked under the bridge, and African fish eagles flew over the houses. On the posts of the railing hung about fifty locks with the names of people, on the railing sat several pander's ground jays.

When people leave, nature takes back what is due, Alba thought.

He turned around, looked back, most of the army had already filled the roads of the small village. Huge hulls of gun-tractors and artillery hit lampposts, shopping stalls, and corner houses, leaving debris under their tracks and ramming them into the ground.

Half an hour later, Alba reached the edge of the village and waited for the others. He looked up at the blue sky, at the bright yellow star, and then his gaze moved to the observation tower in the center of the city, where his assistant was still standing – a small black silhouette against the background of a powerful, blinding eye, a luminary burning hundreds of millions of kilometers away and living how it pleases. The sun was the commander-in-chief among the planets, and a commander-in-chief is known to be free to do whatever he wants.

In that moment, Alba finally understood why Metyr had met the sunrises so often, were their thoughts similar? Once again, he didn't know the answer to that question, but what he did know was that they had the same goal and the same desire.

"Sir Alba, Sir Alba!" someone nearby started shouting.

"What happened?"

"We found!"

"What did you find?"

"A man. He's on his last breath, he’s lying behind that house, come quickly."

Alba followed the Inquisitor. A minute later, he was looking at an old man who was barely breathing, small and shrunken, his face covered with wrinkles, and his gray pupils, affected by cataracts, stared into the emptiness of this barbaric world. His clothes were covered in dust and sand. There was no hair on his head at all. Only the gray beard was faintly lifted up by the gusts of wind.

"Can you bring him to his senses?"

"Yes. I called the medics."

"All right."

The first squad of the medical company arrived in five minutes, but before they could begin to revive the patient with the help of metovis, explosions were heard in the village, one stronger than the previous one. Alba turned at the sound and saw the observation tower shatter, and in its place a huge mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris rose up.

"The dome of salvation! (rank 4)" said one of the medics, and at the same time, a transparent dome formed around their small group, holding back the shock wave.

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However, the destruction of an entire village did not stop at one big explosion. The flashes, the rumbling, and the chaos grew stronger, more frequent. People started to panic. The houses began to shatter one by one. Some artillery pieces flew into the air as mines exploded beneath them. The leader of the medical team looked around, he saw the inquisitors' futile attempts to protect themselves with spells, only to be blown to pieces.

"The village is mined by metovis!" Alba said, trying not to lose his composure. He clenched his fists and his body shook with anger. "How could we have missed it?"

Black smoke enveloped the village. The dust and sand that had settled on the ground rose up, and the group sheltering under the dome could no longer see what was happening outside, only hear the screams of soldiers, inquisitors, and incessant explosions. Alba was stunned to see how the disfigured, barely alive inquisitors, some without a leg, some without an arm, some with scorched skin, alternately approached the dome and beat their hands against it in the hope that they would be allowed inside, but a few seconds later their insides were deformed by shock waves and they fell to the ground.

"Scan the mines below us!" Alba said.

"I've already scanned it!" One of the medics said. "There are no mines here."

There are no mines here, how strange, Alba thought, and looked at the dying old man, and then his attention was distracted by another poor man looking for salvation.

While the group hidden under the dome was busy watching the last seconds of their countrymen's lives appear in the impenetrable sandstorm mixed with thick smoke and immediately disappear, the old man, who had not shown any signs of life a few minutes ago, began to rise, resting his weak hands on the sand, then bent his knee, leaned on his leg and stood up. One of the medics turned around and said:

"Fucking holy shit!"

"Disintegrating explosion! (rank 5)"

The entire squad turned to look at the old man, who laughed, and then exploded, the dome shattered into shreds, and a powerful spell turned everything within a radius of thirty kilometers into debris and ashes, leaving after itself a massive crater.

Despite the huge loss of life in the village itself, most of the large army was still on or behind the hill. Everyone, whether an inquisitor, a soldier, a pilot, a gunner, or a squad leader, watched in horror without exception, completely unaware of what kind of horseman of the apocalypse had descended on them from the hell itself.

A few kilometers from the hill, another explosion occurred, killing hundreds of soldiers fleeing from this bloody, dark underworld. The shock wave knocked down more than a thousand inquisitors standing nearby. And those at the very end of the column could only watch the massive, black mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris rising up to the sky, filling their guts with panic and confusion.

The squad, led by its own general, did not fully rise, some vomited, some covered their ears in an attempt to drown out the loud tinnitus, and some just lay unconscious. A squad of medics came to the rescue, they used one light spell after another, brought people to their senses, treated their wounds.

"As long as they're alive, they can be saved, get to work, faster, faster!" The leader of the second medical team and the deputy general, who in turn used the spell of the 5th rank of the water element, shouted. A huge funnel appeared in the sky, blocking out all light, and the village and the surrounding plains, mountains, were plunged into twilight. Rain clouds began to appear, thunder sounded, and everyone ducked in fright, lightning flashed and a heavy downpour began to fall.

The leader of the second medical team used the Air Element rank 5 spell "Clearing the Air Space" in turn. At the same time, the wind rose, sparkling with diamonds, and carried away the sand, dust, and smoke that limited the range of vision, to the western mountains. In just a few minutes, all the people standing on the hill could see the village through the long raindrops, cold and heavy.

The general ordered the second detachment of the medical company to go with them and try to save those who miraculously managed to survive. As they descended into the village, they realized that even the powerful and experienced Rank 5 inquisitors were reduced to ashes. There was no blood, no bodies, no screams in the ruined streets, only silence, the rubble of houses, and a looming horror that most of the soldiers could not comprehend.

"Search for Alba! He must be in the crater," the general shouted.

They went to the scene of the worst explosion and saw Alba lying on the ground.

"He really wasn't blown to pieces!" the general shouted. "An incredible person!"

When the medical staff came to help, Alba was able to get up on his own and ordered them not to waste any time on him.

"How did you survive?" the general asked.

"I used a Rank 5 Rebirth. I designed this spell myself. It splits my body into small pieces before the explosion does, and in a few seconds restores it again."

"Then you should love metovis more, it's not the first time it's saved your life. The most powerful metentis in the country doesn't like metovis, tell someone and they'll bet their house that it's a lie. You're either crazy or a hypocrite, and it's none of my business anyway."

The general looked down and saw Alba's hands. There was no skin on them, only the blacked, lifeless bones of a skeleton.

"What happened to your hands?"

"That's what I regret the most... think about what we should do about it."

"Why didn't the squad with the «antimetovis» element absorb the explosion?"

"Good question. Apparently, they were blown up first."

"Blown up first?"

"These aren't simple explosions. This is a spell of a level that no one in this army has ever dreamed of."

"You mean Porhol land has metentises?"

"How do you think this crater formed? There was an old man lying here, and when we were distracted by the explosions and the panic, he got up and used a rank 5 «Disintegrating explosion» that kills everyone, including himself."

"Rank 5?"

"Yes. We're up against not just metentises, but first-class metentises."

"Who in the fucking hell leads this country?"

"I don't know, but someone incredibly powerful and with advanced strategy. He made us think that every village in our path was empty, and when we lost our watch, he retaliated by sacrificing his own man, and in return took the lives of two thousand of our soldiers, not to mention our military equipment."

The general suddenly heard a strange sound and saw how the bones of Alba’s hands gradually began to overgrow with muscles and skin. He began to feel sick of what he saw, and decided to leave quickly, so as not to ask any more questions.

Alba slowly began to come to his senses, the tinnitus still loud in his ears. And the people who were close to him were simply wiped out. It was as if they had never existed. Everything: memories, childhood, their military achievements, nothing left. Alba was left alone, in the middle of the crater, alone, and the first sane thought that came to him was about Metyr.

Alba lifted his head, sighed, and looked up at the rain clouds. The calmness of nature abstracted him from this world, he did not even think about the consequences that awaited him. Drops of water broke on his face, on his palms, and the air was freshened quite quickly by the spell. He decided to join the general and search for survivors, as several more explosions sounded over the hill, and ten seconds later he saw more mushroom-shaped flammagenitus clouds and smoke beyond the horizon.

He ran toward the explosions, not seeing or noticing anything else around him, just to see who was behind it all. Alba used rank four spatial jumps to get to the scene first, but when he got to the attack site, all he saw was mountains of corpses, pools of blood, and a completely scorched earth, everything was burning and everything was reduced to ashes. He ran among the bodies of the soldiers and searched for survivors. Five minutes later, he heard someone moan, and he ran up to him and asked:

"Did you see who it was? How did this happen?"

The soldier replied that the ground just exploded under their feet, he doesn't remember anything else.

"What the fuck is going on here," Alba swore, and saw a squad of medics headed by the general's aide approaching.

“What happened here?”

“Don’t you see?”

“Has anyone survived?”

Alba looked at the soldier at his feet. His eyes rolled back and the heavy sighs of his breathing stopped.

"No. No one had survived this time."

The general's aide ordered a search for people anyway. And said to himself:

"There are bodies left here after the explosion."

"Yes, I noticed that, too."

"The explosions were weaker."

"Yes."

"Have you seen anyone here?"

"No. And this is the strangest part. Everything has its own maximum range. For metovis it is 400 meters, for tanks 800 meters, for artillery 15 kilometers. The explosions were obviously made with metovis, but no one was around. Therefore, the logical question arises, how does this happen?"

"How did you know it was metovis?"

"First, the squad with the «Antimetovis» element explodes - the only Metentis who could have saved everyone else. And then they kill everyone else. But at the same time, the spell was much more powerful in the village than here, what we can observe from the condition of the bodies of the dead. There were probably at least two metentises. One of which is an old man, and the other was here all the time. But if the old man blew himself up, where did the second one go? He definitely didn't kill himself, because metovis, requiring a metentis to sacrifice himself, has a devastating effect that is immediately visible."

"That’s sone crazy bullshit, sir!"

"You can't argue with that, but I have to report to my superiors."

"You're out of luck."

"They are more out of luck, than me," said Alba, pointing to the thousands of dead people on the ground.

"What a country! There are no cemeteries, people are fleeing from the villages, no one is fighting, and then there are such sabotages."

"Wait, what did you say?"

"About sabotage?"

"No, before that."

"That there are no cemeteries anywhere?"

"Did you notice that, too?"

"I'm a medic, I notice this first of all. Cemeteries or at least burial pits can tell a lot about the population of this country."

Alba thought about it, and then rushed somewhere, making small spatial jumps.

***

Ofir, Guillotine, and Homer arrived at the gates of the forbidden city. There were two guards at the gate.

"I'll talk to them," Homer said.

He went up to them and showed them the coat of arms of his noble family. The guards stood up and glared at the boy.

"What do you want here?" one of them said.

"We have important information about Egon and Metyr, who have been accused of... you already know what. In general, let us pass, it is very important."

"Egon is no longer here."

Homer was silent for a moment, and then, trying to hide his fear, asked:

"I don't understand… Where is he?"

"How do we know? No one reports to us. Egon left, said nothing, for the first time did not even say goodbye to us, and went to the eastern part of the city. Look, kid, we're only talking to you as a tribute to your family and your misfortune, but get out of here before anyone sees you."

"Thank you. But can you tell me when he left?"

"Half an hour ago."

"Half an hour ago?"

"Yes. Come on, get out of here."

Homer thanked the guards once more and went back to his friends. He told them everything to the letter.

"Where did he go?"

"They said he went to the east side of the city."

"Maybe he decided to take the steam trams to his warehouse?"

"I suggest to go back."

"Fuck! If things can go wrong, they will go wrong, I’ll bet 1 to 100 that Egon isn’t looking for us!"

"Where do you think he's going?"

"I would go to avenge the death of a man who was like a father to me."

"That's all you think about. Start thinking more positively. Egon is not like that."

"We're all not like that as long as it’s not about us."

They moved away from the gate and stood in front of the park, where the wives of officials and local businessmen were walking with their children. Expensive stagecoaches passed along the road. And on the corner of the street, a man stood and invited everyone to a grand event. Ofir did not immediately listen to the words, but as soon as he turned his attention to them, everything fell into place.

"Listen," he said to the others.

"Listen to what?"

"Him!" Ofir pointed a finger at the barker, and together they moved closer to him.

"Only today, on the square of our bright district in the eastern part, the most important event for the last ten years will take place! Thomas has personally captured the mighty metentis and will show him to us here in an hour, come all of you!"

The three of them listened to the little man in the dirty work clothes for a while longer, but he didn't say anything useful. Then Ofir turned to the others and said softly:

"I know where Egon is, and I know what he'll do. Come quickly after me, there’s no time to lose!"