The explosion caused by Narati drew the attention of Tulis and N’Dari. They both turned towards the third-floor office where the windows were blown out, shattering the glass. It also revealed the green aura and a sense of danger that unnerved both of them.

“Aether?!” said N'Dari, bewildered. "What was that mad rat doing?!"

Tulis raised her guards, even though she knew it wouldn’t matter against Aether. At the same time, she heard a growl right behind her. She turned around to find the Crocodilian restrained by her web waking up. She was ready to knock him out again when he looked around confused before his reptilian eyes found Tulis. He growled in surprise, mildly struggling in his restraints, before he grunted, trying to say something to the Mygalean. Tulis did not get it at first, but realized what he needed when his eyes looked down at his snout. She promptly removed the web tying his maws together, knowing that he couldn’t do much harm.

“W-what happened?” said Karkas. He looked at his body, then at Tulis. He reeled back, surprised by the Mygalean’s appearance before exclaiming, “By Sobek! A spider!”

“Yes, I am a spider,” said Tulis with her matter-of-fact tone. “And no, I can’t let you out of that. You almost killed us.”

“O-okay…you’re a beast person. A spider beast person.” He then groaned. “Why does it have to be spiders?”

“I will let it slide for now. I am aware of those who has irrational fear of spiders. I have no time to explain. The subject of your vengeance is up there, fighting against Narati.”

“Narati?! You let him in there?! He’s a Dark Race! He can’t deal with this much Aether!”

“We didn’t know Aether’s involved until that explosion just now,” reasoned N’Dari. “I think we got ourselves a mad Fa’ar to deal with. There is no way Asran’s going to survive that.”

“Then let me go! I need to save that kid before it’s too late!” demanded Karkas as he struggled in the webbing. “Damn it! What’s this web made of?!”

“Mygalean silk. Soft and elastic, yet strong as steel. I’ll go help him.”

“Tulis, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said N’Dari. “You’re a Dark Race, too.”

“That does not mean I am vulnerable. Keep an eye on the Crocodilian. I cannot create this much silk in such a short time.”

Before N’Dari could say anything else, Tulis shot out a thin string of her silk from her wrist, propelling her up in no time at all.

“There she goes,” said N’Dari with a sigh. He then turned to Karkas and said, “Feeling glad she’s gone, Crocodilian?”

“I don’t mean it that way! I never thought—”

“There is such a thing as a humanoid spider lady? Despite what happened long before we were here, this world's mostly intact. And it's a pretty big world.”

Karkas sighed, turned his head towards N’Dari, and said, “What happened? What did she meant about me trying to kill you? The last thing I remember was when I…I crushed a Fa’ar’s skull in my mouth.”

“Predatory instinct,” explained the Leonian. “Whatever drug Asran used against you awakened that primal instinct, making you bloodthirsty like a hungry crocodile. I have that instinct, too. It takes one to know one.”

Karkas looked away. “If that Fa’ar happened to be Narati….”

“You and that rat are rather close, huh? I’m surprised. To think a Crocodilian of all people would be close to them. Even we are wary of them, though not to the point of hostility.”

“Only towards Narati. He made me see what I have become. He tried to convince me to let go of Asran, saying that it’s not worth it. I put us in this situation. I owed him an apology.”

“Hey. Try and look at the bright side. If you’re not so stubborn, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”

Karkas managed a chuckle. “I suppose…. The Aether’s getting thicker by the minute. Please free me. If this continues…Narati will…”

N’Dari was reluctant, but Karkas’s soft, apologetic voice was genuine. He also made a good point. Sooner or later, they had to get away. It’s better to have Karkas be able to fend for himself than putting him in unnecessary danger.

So, despite Tulis’s warning, N’Dari cut through her webs, which took him several tries before he managed to free Karkas. The Crocodilian dropped to the ground, but soon realized that something was wrong when he could hear his heavy, short breaths.

“Hey. What’s wrong?” asked the concerned Leonian. "You don't look so good."

“It’s…stuffy in here. I can’t breathe…well,” said Karkas, clutching his chest. “My chest…hurts….”

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***

Tulis reached Narati and Asran in no time, finding them locked in a grapple. She landed on both her legs and her extra appendages, finding the place in ruins. She quickly found herself looking at Asran’s monstrous appearance, taken aback by his bright green eyes, horns, and what looked like bony ridges growing out of his spine. His body also started to deteriorate, evident from his exposed rib that oozed black substance that may or may not be blood.

Narati noticed her and exclaimed, “Tulis, get back! The whole room’s flooded with Aether!”

Snapping back to the situation at hand, she said, “You are in more danger than I am, Narati! I must help you!"

“Do not interfere!”

Tulis managed to notice the fire that came out of Asran’s hand moments before he casted the spell. She shot a string of thick silk out of her wrist and pulled herself away before the green fire struck her. Narati found the opportunity to punch his face and free both of them from the grapple. He immediately scrambled towards his gun and quickly cocked the revolver's hammer before pulling the trigger. This time, he held the gun with both hands to compensate with the recoil, which gave him a better aim. He shot Asran's face, causing the mutated Fa'ar's head to jerk away. To Narati's surprise, rather than killing him, Asran simply groaned in pain. He returned to face Narati while rubbing the part where the bullet hit him. It started to deteriorate, exposing his skull.

“No time left,” said Asran. He then glared at Narati and held out his hand, forcing Narati to dodge. He realized too late that it was a feint. Asran dashed towards where Narati was moving and tackled him with his immense strength. Narati could not adequately defend himself, causing him to be thrown across the room towards the open gap where the windows were.

Tulis anticipated this and created a small netting to catch Narati. She correctly assumed that shooting her silk like a string would not stop his fall properly and would in fact broke his back or worse, his neck. Nevertheless, it wasn’t that high, so Narati wouldn’t be critically injured by such a fall. Even so, Tulis was aware that Narati was severely weakened by the Aether. She could withstand the radiation like most mana-based races, but Narati, a Fa'ar, was particularly vulnerable.

Asran did not heed Narati after the fall. He even jumped out of the window with reckless abandon when he found where Karkas was, apparently uninjured when he landed right in front of N’Dari. Like Tulis, N’Dari’s reaction to the Fa’ar was of surprise and repulsion. The Fa’ar in front of him was no longer a Fa’ar. Even Karkas was not able to recognize Asran for a moment until he heard him speak.

“Karkas the Unmarked,” said Asran with a condescending tone. “How is that head wound treating you?”

“Asran?” said Karkas, bewildered and struggling to focus while enduring the pain on his chest. “What…in Ammit’s name….”

Asran was not one for small talk, however. He immediately put his hand on Karkas’s head and started siphoning out his mana. N’Dari tried to fight back, but he quickly found himself being burned by the green fire spell. The Leonian let out a pained roar while he dropped and rolled, trying to put the fire out. The Aether-based fire was not put out as quickly as a regular fire would, and it started to burn him alive.

The stress Asran put on Karkas, coupled with the chest pain and his trouble breathing, culminated in the Crocodilian suffering a painful cardiac arrest. Karkas had no more strength to let out a roar as he fell forward, clutching his chest. Asran laughed as he felt his body rejuvenated.

Yet it was not for long. Unbeknownst to him, Narati climbed out of the safety net and rushed towards the monstrous Fa'ar. Disregarding the trap he bypassed, which triggered an explosion behind him, he grabbed Asran just as he became aware of Narati's ambush. Without so much of a hesitation, Narati, who had readied his revolver, shot through his back point-blank. The bullet pierced Asran's heart and broke his back. Normally, it was instantly fatal, but Asran was not killed. In fact, he still managed to turn around and glare at Narati, who did not have time to be horrified.

Before the Fa’ar could say anything, Narati finished the job by slitting his throat with the dagger Asran discarded. Even that wasn’t enough to kill Asran, who forced Narati to break off him by throwing him onto a nearby wall. The bony spine ridges impaled Narati, but it wasn’t fatal as they crumbled before they could reach his vital organs. Narati scrambled towards Karkas, but was drawn towards Asran, whose body rapidly deteriorated, clearly caused by all the fatal injuries that should've instantly killed him. Narati could only watch in horror as Asran’s body decayed rapidly, exposing his organs and deforming his head. His flesh melted away, partially exposing his skull.

“Bested by a Fa'ar. How pitiful of me,” said Asran, glaring at Narati. “Curse you, sabangse. Curse you!"

Narati was too horrified to even say anything witty as Asran’s body crumbled into a goop of flesh, eaten away by the Aether he used to power his spells. It was a relatively short fight, but it was a horror-inducing fight. They fought something beyond what they expected. This was far more than hunting outlaw mages or even the wendigo that was so easily dispatched by Narati's equally-terrifying circular saw axe. A Fa'ar wielding the power of Aether was a force to be reckoned with.

After Narati checked that Asran was truly dead, he sighed in relief. He suddenly felt sick. He coughed and vomited blood, his body severely affected by the Aether exposure. He wondered why he did not keel over earlier, though he attributed this to his determination to win. His priorities were to check on Karkas, who fared worse than he was, and N’Dari, who was almost burned to death before Tulis managed to extinguish the fire with her web. Yet, he overestimated his own health. When he took a step forward, his legs felt like they turned into jelly all of the sudden; he lost his balance and fell forward.

“Is this it?” he said, as he closed his eyes. “Is this death?”

Narati blacked out soon after. His last thoughts were of Raine and the others back in Dragon’s Rest. He never told them the truth, preferring to defend Karkas’s quest for vengeance even though he tried to dissuade him several times. Now, Karkas lay motionless on the ground, dead or close to death, while Narati was dying.

Moments before he finally lost consciousness, the Fa’ar, in his mind, drifted towards the first person who cared enough to treat him kindly, and one of two who would eventually free him from a traumatic life. The Loup was no longer with them, and his past tainted his legacy, but for the ratfolk, he was the reason for him to continue living, and to believe that he would never be alone again.

Jacques borrowed him some more time to enjoy life, but life was always short for Narati, who once wished for death. He soon realized the irony of being alive despite of wishing for death, and dying when he wanted to live.

“I guess this is it,” said Narati in his mind, just before he fainted. The last thing he remembered was Tulis, looming over him.