Bryan Moon was inside an abandoned apartment. He had flown up into a window with a clear view of the round-shaped dome, an immense research complex in the city’s center.

Into his binoculars, he could see the many guards patrolling Karl City’s grey dome. While there was a single entrance, the mage had found another way in.

The sewage system had been constructed underground instead of around the complex. It differentiated the dome from the rest of the city, punctured by countless overground pipes. However, it made it easier to break in.

The third layer’s army had opened the gate on the south side, far from the dome. Gabriella was already inside the city, fighting against reptoids, mages and robots. The battle had begun an hour ago.

Figuring that waiting for the Western Army would only put Aaron and Ejiro at risk, the wind mage twins sneaked into the dome’s lowest floor, releasing them during the distraction.

“You must be wondering what I’m doing here while there’s a war going on above ground.” However, Stana, who didn’t care about Karl City, blocked their path.

In the echoing corridor, Aaron asked beneath his heavy breath, “Gabriella? Is she here?”

“Yes, she came to your rescue, but it’s too late now,” The reptoid licked her radiant red lips.

The wind mage twins, Adam and Ariella, stepped forward. “Let’s end this quick.”

…

Gabriella Rivampe dived towards a reptoid in silver plating. The long-haired reptoid saw her but didn’t have time to fire her laser rifle. Gabriella kicked her with gravitational force, unbalancing her, and struck her claws up her jaw. Reptoids didn’t have scales beneath their chin, making it their weak point.

There were more reptoids than Gabriella expected, but they were all weak and untrained.

‘I’m done here, I should find Christopher.’ She raised her wings and flew across the battlefield.

Everything was going well, too well. The werewolves were tearing apart humans on the road, but only soldiers. They left the citizens in their homes. A nearby tank exploded as the werewolves advanced along the city’s edge.

She flew deeper North. The amount of werewolves gradually diminished as she flapped her wings. It came to a point where there were only a few hundred werewolves, the strongest ones. She finally found Christopher Fireblood at an intersection where a broken street pole was lying flat, its other half on the grass.

Blood stained his white fur. Gabriella landed on a pipeline and watched from above.

The reptoids were fiercer in the frontline. One of them, in particular, looked very dangerous. The eight-foot-tall reptoid bore a massive scar spanning his chest and an eyepatch over his left eye. He wasn’t wearing armour, but his scales were thick and as sturdy as iron. He was the reptoid that had caught Ejiro.

Christopher jumped, aiming for his head, but the reptilian stepped back and threw a reverberating punch at him. The werewolf bounced up and fell far away, crashing into a concrete wall. In human form, he coughed blood on the ground as he stood up.

Gabriella flew down next to him. “Maybe we should fight him together?”

“Urgh, fine.” Christopher Fireblood hid underneath his fur and ran towards the reptoid.

The opponent readied his fists. “Come at me!”

Gabriella quickly flew behind him. His elbow strike missed, so he tried jumping to avoid her follow-up attack, but Christopher was already on his leg, munching on its scales.

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“Argh!” He instinctively covered his neck.

When Gabriella flung her claws at it, they almost fell off her hand upon hitting his locked hands.

The reptoid grabbed her arm, kicked off Christopher, and hit Gabriella in the stomach with his other fist. They both rolled on the street and fell over the grass.

“Gabriella! We need your help!” It was Bryan Moon. He had flown down from the apartment.

Gabriella recognized his voice and looked up at his glowing wings. She could barely speak, her diaphragm paralyzed. “I’m… busy here!”

“Shit.” Bryan was at a loss. “No one can get to Ejiro and the others in time- they’re about to die!”

Gabriella didn’t hear him. She was too focused on her current battle.

“Adia!” Bryan spoke to her over the comms.

Adia was swinging between buildings with her dark magic strings. She fired a net onto a reptoid and backflipped to the ground.

“NO! Please-” Her small dagger penetrated the immobilized cursed reptoid.

“I’m already on my way, Bryan. I can see the entrance.” Adia, the other dark mage in Ejiro’s crew, was far away from the werewolves. She examined the grey dome. “But there are soldiers everywhere, and they found the passage through the sewers the twins made.”

“We can only rely on them, then.” Bryan frowned. He had sent Adam and Ariella because they were quick, but he knew they couldn’t defeat the queen of the reptoids, Stana Dragos.

…

“No! Brother!” Deep below, the battle seemed to have already ended. Stana held Adam’s head in her left hand and plucked Ariella’s right arm with the other.

She laughed maniacally, staring at Ariella while she crushed his head with her foot. Next to his headless body, Adam’s blue head was soulless. His jaw had collapsed, and his skull had broken under the thin layer of bloodstained skin and hair. His eyes were white, his cheeks were black.

Aaron and Ejiro were barely standing on their feet. They had hardly recovered their mana after removing the anti-magic handcuffs. Overusing magic could kill them.

Aaron collapsed. He attempted to get back up but slipped forward on his twisted feet.

“You’re next.” Stana looked down at him. He had ended up right beneath the reptoid.

Ejiro couldn’t watch. ‘Are we going to die? Think! What would Seth do in this situation?’

“Bite her,” Ariella whispered.

“What?!” He glanced at her, at her bloodshot eyes and her burning face. He knew what she meant, but it startled him. The thought hadn’t crossed his mind: a vampire’s bite was poison to the other cursed.

The mage didn’t give him time to think. The woman flew behind Stana with her remaining forces, using her legs and single arm to control the wind. She took out her pistol with her non-dominant hand and fired her last bit of mana at Stana’s vertebrae.

The bullets bounced and didn’t do any damage. Stana turned around and slapped Ariella's face. Her head burst: Adia was dead.

Seeing this, Aaron used his small amount of mana to raise the reptoid’s foot, making her trip.

Ejiro staggered forward and impaled his claws into Stana’s trapezius, breaking past her scales, his canines shattered. He persisted, sticking his teeth into the muscle tissues and her nerves. Stana threw him off, but it was too late.

“That’s it? That’s all you can do?” She was still smiling. She hadn’t processed what had happened.

The world started spinning. “What… what did you do?!”

Ejiro, back against the floor, smiled, showing his broken teeth. “The cursed can’t become vampires. Instead, they become paralyzed from the two dark magics’ disharmony.”

“No…” Stana fell. She couldn’t feel her legs, her abdomen, her chest, or anything at all. She watched as Ejiro crawled on top of her and feasted on her soul.

Aaron was in a coma beside him.

…

Isaac was on a rooftop, meditating, rhythmically circulating the newly acquired red mana from his heart.

“Isaac.” Seth appeared in his shadow. “We’re leaving. Have you finished absorbing the souls around here?”

He opened his eyes slowly. “Yes. What’s our next destination?”

“The Second Layer.”

The Western Army’s southern force was two cities away from Shroud City, at the gate of the Second Layer. Slitherland, the theme park, waited behind the gigantic, colourful serpent frame.