Zephyr was falling face-first toward the asphalt road. Seth was holding onto the reptoid and suddenly let go. He slowed himself down by landing in a shadow in the form of a net while Zephyr fell increasingly faster.

Zephyr’s helmet cracked into the road. He bounced up from the reaction force and landed on his back farther away. He stood up, adjusted his helmet, and coughed. “Try again!”

His armour was far better than Seth had imagined. It had incredible blast resistance, meaning it had absorbed and redirected the damage from the fall to protect Zephyr, making him bounce instead. However, Zephyr had lost his gun.

Zephyr jumped at Seth with his quick lizard legs. Seth avoided his fist by teleporting behind him and casting another shadow on the reptoid.

“Seriously? Is that all you can do?” Zephyr Dragos couldn’t move.

“Argh!” Seth groaned. Sweat dripped down his forehead and blurred his vision. His heart was pumping quickly and much too loudly. His face was red with popping veins.

His body trembling, his hand cracking, Seth couldn’t hold the shadow any longer. His mana was finally running out!

“What this? I can move now!” Zephyr turned around, grabbed Seth by the neck and smashed him against a brick wall.

“It was a lie, wasn’t it?”

“What was?” Seth’s ears were ringing. “Your wife’s fate? No, she really is dead!”

“I know you’re lying! Tell me the truth, or I’ll kill you!” Zephyr’s green, narrow eyes pierced his soul, trying to find a satisfying answer.

He loved his wife almost as much as his work. Having failed at ensuring dominating peace within the guild’s concrete walls because of the rebellion and the Western Alliance, she had been the only one he could be at ease with this past month.

He wasn’t ready to face reality.

Seth’s sweat had only increased. He looked at his feet, then stared into his eyes with a serious tone. “I’m not. Ejiro, my disciple, a vampire, ate her soul. You’ll never see her again.”

“AARGH!” Zephyr bottled his negative feelings inside his hand and let them all out, smashing at Seth with his fist. However, the master had already anticipated such a predictable move and tilted his head to the side. The fist broke through the wall, causing a chain reaction. More and more bricks fell out until a large portion of the building’s wall had collapsed.

Seth hit Zephyr’s hand with his staff, breaking out of his grasp. With his old bones, he lept down and rolled behind Zephyr. He was an arm’s length away.

Zephyr tried to turn around, but he couldn’t.

“Why am I frozen again?” He looked down: a giant shadow surrounded him.

“You lost,” Seth explained under his heavy breath and bleeding eyes.

“No!” Zephyr screamed before going silent.

“Say your goodbye, you monster. Do you even know how many people you’ve killed on your way here? Millions. Their close ones felt the same thing as you are right now. It’s all your fault.”

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“All I wanted was peace. You’re the ones who barged in our guild.”

“Peace? Really? Who started this war? Who attacked first?”

“You did. We’ve been struggling here in the Obscure Guild as the DA constantly sends spies in and terrifies the people with your liberalism.”

Seth couldn’t speak. He was too exhausted. He looked to the side. Zephyr couldn’t see what it was.

Zephyr continued. “I did not want to go to war, but killing people? It’s a necessary sacrifice to ensure the guild’s peace. As long as I eliminate the opposition and control the media, people can live happily. The human citizens’ lives are simple here. And they bring us, the Cursed, more wealth. If a new rebellion started, it is because you complicated their lives by imprisoning them with ‘ideals’ such as liberty!”

Seth ignored him. His black robe was soaked, and his face was burning.

Zephyr bursted out laughing. “I don’t believe you can last more than five seconds in this state. You do not have the power to get through my armour. You can not kill me. ”

“Maybe, but they can.”

“Zephyr Dragos!”

The reptoid caught a figure entering his peripheral vision. It was Isaac.

As Seth Rayn let go of him. Zephyr turned around to find a giant red spear approaching him.

He stopped it with his scaled hands, but it still hit his armour, making him slide back three metres. The spear disintegrated.

Zephyr looked around. Almost all of the cursed wizards had fallen, and so did the skeleton army. Near him, Anne had just killed three reptoids that had attempted to save their king.

Someone on a tower launched a missile that exploded on Zephyr’s back. He fell to his knees before standing back up. His helmet had fallen off!

“Fire!” The soldiers tried to make holes in his brain. Zephyr put his arms around him and miraculously blocked all the bullets.

He jumped into the sky right before another missile hit the ground.

“Can you catch up to him if I support you?” Anne asked Isaac.

“No, he’s way too fast.”

Even the aircraft were having a struggle chasing him. Thirty seconds in, a bullet from a machine gun on a jet finally hit his face. However, it only grazed him, making a diagonal wound across his face.

A targeting missile hit him right as he leapt from the ground. The reptoid swiftly rolled on his landing thanks to his armour’s defence mechanism.

He stood again, only to be pushed back down by a second missile. Zephyr didn’t have time to jump away. Rebounding from a third missile, Zephyr found himself in an alleyway. He entered an apartment complex and hurried to the elevator.

“I don’t have time to disguise myself right now. They will find me no matter what I look like. Please tell me this place connects to the roof!”

He got out of the elevator. Luckily, the building was one of the few with a staircase leading towards the sun. He climbed a few stairs and barged outside. Blinded, he realized he wasn’t the only one there.

Soldiers were already waiting for him. However, an aircraft pinned by an enormous ice spike crashed on top of them.

Zephyr looked up. There was a cursed wizard. The skeleton woman had surrounded the field with ice spikes. She flew down to him.

Zephyr fell on his knees. “Get me out of here…”

He collapsed on the Obscure Guild’s warm roof.

…

“Seth’s asleep… I’ve never seen him so run out before. It’s amazing how he fought so long despite being exhausted.” Isaac helped the medics put his body on a stretcher.

“Isaac,” Anne called out. “We’re not done here. Help us finish this!”

He looked at the wind mage. “Yes, I’m coming!”

He ran toward a wizard that was still standing and killed a few reptoids that stood in his path.

While the casualties were in the tens of thousands of soldiers and a lot more citizens, the battle was finally over. They had won.