The tiny light was expunged in the grand darkness. Feeling was meaningless. Taste was agonizing. His ears were filled with a high pitch. Pain turned to numbness, and numbness turned to nothing. Understanding was a concept that seemed so far beyond his grasp.

His eyelids shifted. His heartbeat began to pound in his chest. The pitch sound began louder and louder, till it was unbearable, till it was everything he could hear. At long last, Matty opened his eyes and saw the world.

The air carried a crisp freshness and his senses gradually returned. ‘I’m…alive?’

Sound evolved into singing. He tilted his head up and saw seven shifting colours and equally colourful and lovely sparkles. The Ibong Adarna was healing him.

“Ah…”

He was still against the wall, the angle of his position granting him a standing position. Then, the world became all that much brighter when she appeared.

“Matty? Matty, you’re okay!”

Jules.

She spent all her time healing. In all the time she could have abandoned him, she didn't. She stayed. For him.

Her concern for him was infatuating. He couldn’t look away, even as she helped him down to the ground. His eyes never left her face, which seemed so pretty with all the dirt and blood from the battle. He gathered up his courage and asked, “What happened—”

An explosion erupted and a strong wind grazed them. A concentrated point of black energy rivalled a swirling ball of fire for a few seconds, before overwhelming it. The fire was extinguished and spiralled down to the ground. There was silence for a moment.

“Is it…?”

“No.” Jules smiled. “Not yet.”

The temperature suddenly thickened. From the location that the fire had crash-landed, an orange light erupted and flew back into the sky. The black ball met it again in a mighty clash of magic. Once again, the Phoenix fell and was overwhelmed.

And once again, it rose from the ashes.

“The Phoenix is immortal, so even though Jack is stronger, he’s not able to put it down.” Her smile waned as she observed the battle. Jack kept blasting it away, destroying the Phoenix’s wings over and over again yet never managing to kill it. Seeing the light of hope in her, a small smile appeared on his own face.

Jules diverted her attention back to Matty. Sitting against the wall, the black burns on the front of his body were healing from the Ibong Adarna’s singing. “Come on, we need to run. There’s thirty minutes left till the raid is over. We can make it.”

She did her best to help him up. She pulled and pulled, but ultimately, it was up to Matty to gain the strength to stand up. Jules was too weak. The Ibong Adarna dissipated and her expression winced. She was out of mana now. He knew her well enough to be able to tell.

“Okay.” His arms and legs trembling, utterly drained of their stamina, he forced himself up. Half of his chest was exposed, his black vest burned to a crisp and his brown tunic holding on by the fabrics on the arms. “Ngh!”

He nearly fell and he stopped himself through sheer grit. Jules remained steadfast by his side, an arm on his waist and pushing him onwards. There was a hole in the outer city walls created when Nash and his cohort were blasted. “Let’s go there,” Jules said. “You can do it, Matty!”

“Y-yeah.”

His body might have been healed of its burns. The pain might have been dulled. However, that did nothing for the disoriented sensation of having no hand. It was like a part of himself was missing and every step he felt like he would go splat.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

From behind, a surge of magical energy went off and they froze.

“I will admit, Jules. The Phoenix gave me as much trouble as the army. But you should know that the Phoenix’s power comes from the sun. All I needed to do was block it out and death was inevitable.”

The haunting remark was followed by a screeching sound, a blade sliding against the rocky ground uncaringly.

‘Fuck.’

Matty and Jules slowly turned and saw him. Jack the Ripper, donned in black attire that was somewhat tattered and his bloody mask nearly split in half. The golden rapier glowed with the mana to wipe away armies. To wipe away their existence without a trace. Yet, it remained on the ground.

“Hope is not lost, friends. Hm, yes, any second, they should be arriving.” Jack pointed his gaze elsewhere, towards another part of the city walls. Matty followed and didn’t find anything of interest. Neither Jules or Matty understood till the call of a spell.

“Super Spectral Snare!”

From behind, Jack’s limbs were trapped by a pair of dark entrails. Thick, motionful arms of black energy that kept him still.

Then, in the next instant, she appeared. Yoon Sun-young leapt down from the city walls and charged at him, her katana brandished. A chill went down Matty’s spine and the softness that had been healing his chest dissipated. Sun-young swung. Jack countered.

Clang!

“You’re finally here. I wondered where you were, Yoon Sun-young. Going straight for the head, I see.”

With one hand, with a limb that was tightly constrained, he blocked the full-throttled swing of Yoon Sun-young. The woman was Level 26 and absurdly fast. Even so, Jack commented on her arrival as if it meant nothing.

Jack grunted and ripped the black tendrils apart with his bare physical strength. Clang! The first swing of his blade pushed her to one knee. The pressure of magic that usually surrounded Jack was gone. This was his pure physical strength and yet…

‘If we move, we’ll die!’

That was what Matty’s instincts told him. If he and Jules moved, he would slaughter Sun-young and move onto them. ‘No, wait, he said he’s interested in those that are worthy. He might let us live…right?’

Maybe, maybe not.

The strength in his legs suddenly gave out and he fell. Jules called for him but the ringing in his ears wouldn’t stop. His health bar was half-way complete. “Haa…haa…” Did Sun-young’s arrival disrupt the healing? The pain in his ribcage returned and he wasn’t sure if he could fight it off.

“Oh no…” Jules went down to his level and glanced over at Sun-young. Clang! Clang! Clang! Sun-young and Jack were ducking it out, it seemed, and Matty wasn’t able to see, only hear it. She shook his shoulder. “Matty, I’m going to summon Ibong Adarna in a couple minutes. I just need my mana to recover. Then, let’s go!”

He managed a nod and Jules helped him turn over. Neither of them had the strength to move. All they could do was watch and pray.

Sun-young was fast and Jack was able to keep up with her pace and swordsmanship. She seemed to specialize in super close range whereas Jack preferred to keep her at length. Clang! Sun-young forced him into a clash that Jack clumsily met. Beside him, Jules smiled.

“Goldy’s power is working…!”

The power of the black cat that touched Jack some minutes ago was coming into affect. It was simple as it was all-powerful: it stocked up misfortune and gave all the misfortune to a target of its choice. With all the beasts in her disposal, Jules didn’t have a need to use Goldy. For nearly a month and a half, she had been stocking up on the black cat’s misfortune—and now, all that misfortune had been given.

Jack found himself stepping on a rock that nearly knocked him off-balance. Sun-young instantly honed in on the misstep and thrusted her katana to his mask. It grazed the blood of the mask.

She was close. So close!

“Super Shadow Bolt!”

Jack didn’t turn. He extended a hand towards the attack and…absorbed it? Yes, that was exactly what happened. With one hand, he fended off Sun-young’s strikes and with the other the energy blasted merged with his gloved hand.

“Thank you for the mana,” Jack remarked. Clang! Clang! Clang! He stood still, casually parrying the long katana. “Regardless, this is disappointing, Sun-young. I hope you understand that I can kill you at any moment. You better show me something new or else.”

Sun-young didn’t reply, remaining steadfast in her attacks. The golden rapier had a mind of its own and crackled with a sickly black spark.

“Is this it then?" he asked. Clang! Clang! Clang! "Go away. I’m done playing with you.”

The crackles evolved into lightning that struck Sun-young and hurled her back. She failed to get back up. Jack focused his attention to the Wizard that had fed him magical energy: Marta Kowalski, Level 19. Matty didn’t understand why she was here. She was out of her league—

“A Wizard Class already? I knew I was right to keep you alive. Before, it was out of a sense of nationalism. Now, I can sense a glimmer of potential.” Jack disappeared in a burst of speed. At last, Matty was able to see Marta fully. Neither tall, short, or fetching, the blonde's most distinguishing feature was the silver armour she wore and the dark staff at her side. Upon Jack's disappearance, confusion crossed her features.

“Behind you!” Jules yelled.

Jack reappeared behind her and casually swung his sword. Marta’s reaction speed was on point and she summoned her Magic Barrier right on time. Alas, it wasn’t enough. The sphere of mana shattered upon a single swing. It was no fault on Marta's end, the issue was him—

“But you act too dirty," Jack said.

He ran the golden rapier through her.