The remaining two Seats gathered in the dark council room, somewhere in the Obscure Guild’s inner layer, also known as the sixth layer. Sitting across from each other, they stared at the empty screen in the centre of the table. The Reptoid King owned the second layer, while the Bone Mother, the ruler of the skeleton cursed, led the fifth layer.

Once the time indicated four in the afternoon, Jacob and Rico’s faces suddenly appeared. They were each calling from within their guilds.

“The Dark Faction will give you one last chance," Jacob sighed. "Gabriella Rivampe is trying to create a rebellion against you. If you fail to stop the rebels, the faction will send a friend to do the job for you. And none of us want that, right?”

The bone matriarch crossed her arms on the table. “We understand. Sending an apostle won’t be necessary.”

“There’s one more thing.” Rico intervened, “My brother has come within your walls.”

Rico looked at the Reptoid King. “Zephyr Dragos. My tracker indicates that Aaron’s in the second layer.”

…

Isaac entered a tunnel. He was in the second layer. One of Stephen’s friends accompanied him. It was a tough woman, a water mage. She drove their blue car as he quietly looked out the window. They were driving out in the open, but no one stopped them from going to the following secret passage using the streets. No one noticed that they were out of place.

‘Despite travelling in the second layer for some time, I haven’t seen a single reptoid cursed.’ Isaac had only seen humans. Even if the Obscure Guild was the place with the most Cursed in the world, humans were much more present than them. Yet, to have not seen a single one was alarming. But, he didn’t know much about reptoids apart from that they were good politicians, had superhuman strength and couldn’t hypnotize like snake humanoids.

‘Stephen sent me to the first layer. It’s because I’ll be able to grow my mana points from the war. I plan to meet up with the others while Gabriella finds Aaron in the second layer.’

…

Gabriella had split up from Isaac a while ago. She entered a remote pub in the second layer. It was mostly empty. She came inside a storage room. However, when she opened a cabinet, its secret mechanism activated, revealing an opening. A vampire greeted her on the other side of the wall.

“This is the place?”

“Yes. You can come down the stairs.” The woman vampire bowed.

Gabriella arrived at another pub. It was much busier than the one above ground. However, everyone was either a soldier from the Western Alliance or one of Gabriella’s followers.

‘I wasn’t aware it would be this crowded.’ She thought as she looked at the fifty or so militants.

She quickly spotted Aaron. He was waiting for her at a table. “Hello, Aaron. How are you?”

Aaron Amon had changed; his expression was stern and reserved, his hands rough. He had a scratch slightly above his jaw from a bullet wound. “I heard what you’ve been up to, Gabriella. Good job. Meanwhile, I’ve been fighting in the war with my unit. I’m just a simple soldier.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“At 15?”

“Yes, Seth allowed me. 16 is the minimum age requirement, but they made an exception. As everyone gets stronger, I can’t afford to be left behind, after all.”

Gabriella looked at him. He was still the Aaron she knew. “I’m glad you’re fine. What can I do to help here?”

…

A drip of sweat ran down Gabriella’s white cheek. It was daytime. The climate was hot and moist. She, Aaron and a dozen soldiers hid behind trees in a shadowy forest near a military camp. Strangely, the base didn’t have any reptoids in it. There were only humans.

Only Aaron and Gabriella left the trees. They were assigned a mission to plant explosives around the base.

Aaron closed his eyes before activating his wind magic, passing past two guards by the entrance. ‘I lost count of how many people I’ve killed in this war. My hands are cold despite the heat, my breath quickens after each pace, and my legs tremble as the wind violently pushes me away from my opponents’ view.

‘I found that despite my age, not many people are as quick as me. It’s how I’ve managed to survive these past few weeks. I run faster than my opponents can react.’

He looked at Gabriella. She was hiding behind an armoured vehicle. ‘But what reassures me is that I’m not alone.’

They planted explosives as they traversed the military camp. Barely anyone saw them. Every time a soldier found them, Gabriella or Aaron would kill him.

‘During my time in the Wandering Lands, I found that there are many I can rely on.’ Aaron thought of his new comrades that were waiting behind the trees. Some of them had saved his life multiple times. He had also saved theirs.

‘There was that one time I hijacked a tank, but it was about to blow up, and they pulled me out, and that other time a missile almost killed us, but I used wind magic to push us away.’

Gabriella arrived inside the surveillance room and killed the two officers. They had been looking through the cameras to find where some of their soldiers had disappeared.

After receiving her signal, Aaron arrived at the lieutenant’s office. The lieutenant was speaking to his superior. While the lieutenant was the operator of this small military camp of about a hundred soldiers, the superior, his captain, was in charge of many different units.

Their mission was to kill the captain who was visiting the place. Aaron snuck closer and set a few oval-shaped detonating explosives under the lieutenant’s desk. He didn’t intend to fight them head-on.

‘At first, everyone worried about how young I was. But after a while, we were laughing together. I laughed at the banality of life with my new comrades. They told me that being a soldier is taking responsibility and assuming the consequences later.’

Aaron exited the building. ‘I realized something. There’s a clear distinction between good and evil in this war, and fortunately, I’m fighting against evil.’

Gabriella and him arrived back in the forest. They nodded to the soldier who held a small controller, the detonating device.

The military base exploded. Countless cries echoed, but most stopped after a few breaths. ‘I don’t know the faces of people I’ve killed, just that I do so for a just cause. It separates me from people like Rico, who kill for their own benefit. If killing is what it takes to win, I’ll stain my hands and do it.

‘Only by killing can we create change in times like these.’

Aaron stayed behind as his dozen comrades rushed inside the gates, firing at every survivor still breathing.

“At least, I hope that’s true.”

Coordinated attacks on the military and government appeared all over the Obscure Guild. It was thanks to the secret passages that Snoid provided.

…

Meanwhile, Jenna and Luo looked at the Northeast Gate from its control room. “Open it,” Luo asked Jenna.

The gate opened, unveiling a third of the Western Alliance’s giant army. There were mounted vehicles, tanks, and robotic devices. Thousands of people and androids walked on foot, and even a few jets flew in.

Jenna laughed. “Right on the Obscure Guild’s doorstep. Stephen Cure sure is good at keeping information hidden. Maybe the Seats should take pointers from him.”