Severance ground his teeth in frustration. Why did the Knights have to show up now?

He spotted Gorvoth next to Maknite. The Trader looked like a complete mess. Blood soaked the front of his clothes, his was face ashen and contorted in silent pain. He was on his knees, supported by Maknite, alive, but just barely.

I can fix that, Severance thought.

His mind was weirdly focused. Everything else faded into the background; the combat going on nearby, the Shade who'd attacked him backing up in the presence of the Knights, Vast's rumbling, the terrible sense that something was wrong—all of it was unimportant.

His fingers flexed on his fans while he did a quick mental rundown of all his skills. Which one would work best? Which one could turn Gorvoth into a violent explosion of death sparkles that would dissipate and never return?

"No." Knight Rohhk moved to block his view of the half-dead Trader. He extended his slender blade to the side, further cutting off Severance's path. "You will not lay another hand on him."

Severance's attention snapped fully to the Knight. His lavender gaze sharpened. Weird. It was like Gorvoth held some kind if importance. Why else would Rohhk be so protective?

If there was any doubt before, it was gone now. Gorvoth needed to go. Anyone the Knights protected was dangerous.

"Sorry," Severance said. He didn't feel sorry at all. Just a grim sort of determination. He raised his war fans—

Rohhk vanished.

Alarm shrieked in Severance's head and he moved instinctively, darting back a dozen paces. Even then, light flashed before him and a hot line of pain seared across his chest. Both his shirt and coat fell open.

Severance sucked in a breath, feeling dismayed. His coat! Mouna was going to kill him!

"Sev!" Someone yelled at him, but he didn't dare look their way. He couldn't afford to take his eyes off of Rohhk, not even to check if the female Shade was lurking behind him or if more arrows were falling from the sky.

All he could do was keep moving.

Another flicker of sliver. Another slice, another burst of pain. Severance twisted his body sideways. "Flutterstep!"

The movement skill zig-zagged him past Rohhk's reach. The Knight would catch up within a moment, but that was fine. A moment was enough.

Severance now had a clear line of sight to Gorvoth.

"Precaution!" He called.

The skill activated instantaneously, releasing its stored skill without cost or cast time. Lightning speared up into the stormy sky. Thunder cracked and the entire space around Gorvoth and Maknite lit up in a veritable tempest.

"No, you fool!"

Severance didn't see what happened next. He only knew something grabbed him and yanked him backwards. His feet left the ground. Afterimages of lightning still flashed in his vision, and his ears rang from so many Ionizes one after another. He was aware of shapes darting about, of fighting going on all around. It only lasted for a short time.

His feet settled on solid ground, and as his hearing returned, all he heard was a dead silence. His first thought was that he had gone deaf. He felt a cool breeze tickle his cheek, carrying the sweet tang of blood and ozone.

Then he noticed the dark fur in front of him. The person wearing it was tall and lean, with short blue-black hair. Slowly, the figure turned his head just enough so one piercing gray eye pinned Severance in place. A black scarf over the lower half of his face, hiding most of his features.

Severance stared in disbelief. No way.

Aeneas the Vast stood firmly in front of him. And beside Aeneas, in spotless white furs, was none other than Lothaire the Worm, the Head of the Fang clan.

The entire crowd had gone silent. Actually... what was left of the crowd. The level of quiet was unnatural, so Severance turned. Absolute carnage greeted him. Half of the crowd had turned into corpses, splattered across the ground in twisted, mangled limbs, their blood turning the dry dirt of Ascendance into viscous mud.

What the heck had happened?

There was no sign of Valentin, Awesome Dude or Chad, but there were a lot of bodies, some of which were starting to vanish in order to Revive on the town's platform. Then Severance noticed Eusebius stepping over a body casually. His large hands positively dripped with crimson, almost as if he'd used his bare hands to rip people apart. Severance's stomach abruptly rolled over and quivered sickeningly.

Had Eusebius done all this?

Jack's warning about Eusebius came to mind. About how the man was a monster. It was very hard to disagree at this moment.

The few surviving players kept a wide berth, their eyes warily shifting between the Fang and the Knights. Both Rohhk and Traal still survived stood opposite the Fang. To Severance's disappointment, Traal didn't have a single singe mark on his leathers. Was the guy immune to lightning?

Strangely, both Knights stood unnaturally still. Their expressions were oddly blank, as if they were frozen in place.

Neither Knights looked at Severance at all, not even when he went to stand beside Aeneas. And likewise, the Fang seemed to be unaware of Severance's presence at all. The two groups only had eyes for each other.

Weird.

Since they were busy doing whatever this was, Severance tried to spot Gorvoth in the mess. Unfortunately, there was no sign of him. Just charred ground where he last was.

Severance sucked in a breath between his teeth, feeling dismayed. Maknite must have taken the Trader to safety. There'd been no supernova of death sparkles, which was what happened when an Elionan died for real.

Yet despite his disappointment, there was a tiny measure of relief. If he'd succeeded, he'd have killed yet another person.

Severance tried not to think about that. Tried not to pretend how his hands trembled, or how a cold sweat soaked the back of his shirt. He shoved down the tiny inward voice that accused him of being mad, of being a monster.

"Why are you here?" Rohhk finally broke the silence. He regarded the two Fang carefully, as if they were the only two people in the entire area and everyone else currently watching in great curiosity were nothing but air.

Curious chatter began to arise from the surviving players, but no one paid them any mind.

Lothaire the Worm didn't say anything. It was like he was carved out of stone. He simply looked at them for a long moment, before he turned his gaze towards Severance.

Not expecting the sudden attention, Severance stiffened. Why was the Fang Leader looking at him now? He could practically feel dozens of eyes turning his way, like Lothaire had just set up a giant arrow sign pointing at him.

Great. Now everyone would think this affair was his fault. Severance felt vaguely annoyed. And a lot alarmed. He didn't need this attention.

"What?" he defensively asked.

At that moment, a silver beast trotted out from behind a building. Vast's fur was more crimson than silver at this point, and it was impossible to tell if the staining was from his blood or someone else's.

The vastlhidan pranced over to Severance and sat in front of him, holding part of someone's leg in his jaws. A tank, judging by the greaves still wrapped around it. Vast bumped Severance's hip with the leg, tail flicking against the ground.

Severance felt disgusted. "No. I'm not taking that."

Vast whined, and bumped him again. His tail struck the ground with a little more force. It was his way of insisting.

"Ugh, fine." Grimacing, Severance took the leg gingerly. He hoped its owner chose to Revive in the next three seconds, because this was seriously gross. Vast panted happily, even as his ears flicked towards the knights. He rumbled steadily, a constant vibration of warning.

"I see," Rohhk murmured. "So you've allied with the Veiled. Can't say I'm surprised, but it's still disappointing."

"I care not for your thoughts, recreant." Lothaire delivered this line before he turned and began to walk away. His dismissal was sharper than a double-edged sword.

Aeneas followed like a shadow. Obviously, the two Fang couldn't care less about showing their backs to the Knights.

Severance watched in numb confusion. They knew each other? What was even going on here? He distantly noticed the leg vanishing from his hands in a flash of pale sparkles, but his attention was more on the scene before him.

It was also the first time he'd heard the Knights mention his clan by name. It really wasn't that surprising, he supposed, considering everything that had happened, but it still gave him a jolt of alarm.

Lothaire paused. He didn't turn his head as he spoke. "What are you waiting for, healer? Come."

The crowd's murmurs grew louder and the Knight's expressions grew darker. Even Traal's friendly look had morphed into something far more solemn. Only an idiot would hang around in this situation.

Severance went.

***

By the time he settled down in the little shelter in the bitterly cold Untold with the Fang, Severance had received multiple messages. Awesome Dude was completely exuberant and gushing over the 'amazing Ascendance showdown,' and both Chad and Valentin checked in to see what happened after they were taken down.

Severance walked outside of the shelter to give his replies. He shivered in the cold, tugging his ragged furs closer. He reassured Chad that he was fine, gave Valentin a quick rundown and asked Awesome Dude how he's been and what he's been up to.

He learned that his overeager friend had actually been offline for a few days due to real life stuff. Not anything crazy, Awesome Dude had assured him, just that he had some cousins over and wasn't able to get enough time to play Eliona. Such a reason made Severance relieved. He was glad that everything was normal with Awesome Dude. Well, as normal as it could be.

Footsteps crunching through ice alerted Severance to Aeneas the Vast's return. This time, the Fang was able to walk back to the shelter under his own power, which was a good sign.

"Sorry, got to go. I'll message you in a bit." Severance quickly sent the message, then closed the System window.

He hurried over to Aeneas, looking over the Fang with a critical eye. There weren't any obvious injuries, but there was a subtle stiffness to Aeneas' stance. Without hesitation, Severance cast a Mend, then set up a Radiant Dome over the shelter.

Then he ducked inside, crouching by the fire to warm up. He watched as Aeneas sank to his knees. For the first time ever, the grim-faced Fang revealed a smile. He held out a mittened hand, revealing the sparkly stone in his palm.

Lothaire glanced at it and gave a curt nod.

"Aha, brother, I knew you could do it!" Eusebius was far more exuberant. He got up and clapped Aeneas across the shoulder.

Aeneas winced, but his pleased smile didn't fade. In fact, in that moment, he looked more at ease than he had been. It was like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Severance dropped his attention to the fire. Considering what he himself had to face in the fog, he understood the quiet change in the Fang.

"Are we going to keep going?" he asked quietly. Since they all passed the first 'room', it'd make sense for them to at least see what the next one had to offer. It'd be what he'd do. When no one immediately answered him, he added, "I have lots of time today."

Eusebius snorted. "Aye, and lots of it, judging by the mess you made in town."

"That wasn't entirely my fault," Severance defensively said. "I was just going for a walk, and people got offended."

Apart from the little thing with Gorvoth, but there was no need to mention that. He was also trying very hard to avoid touching that uncomfortable package. It sat in his mind like a stinking bag of refuse, foul and ugly.

"Spoken like a true Veiled," Eusebius sneered. But then he gave Severance a slap on the back, much like he'd down to Aeneas a minute earlier. Whereas Aeneas only winced, Severance found himself pitching forward into the fire from the force of it.

He barely managed to catch himself in time, though his face got uncomfortably close to the flames. Scrambling back, he sucked in a deep breath. Was Eusebius trying to be friendly or was he trying to kill him?

Lothaire unfolded himself and rose. "Let's go."

He stooped to pick up the heavy pack with dry firewood in it. At once, Aeneas hurried over, reaching out.

"Let me," he murmured.

But Lothaire ignored him, stepping outside of the shelter. Aeneas's expression fell slightly. He exhaled softly before following.

That left Eusebius to put out the fire. He kicked the logs apart, then stamped out the coals. Severance had no desire to be left alone in a tiny space with the wildman, so he decided to catch up with the other two.

Outside, the fog had cleared. Severance was able to make out the rounded structures flanking the wide road. They glistened with ice. Ahead, the pillar in the middle of the road was easily visible as well. It looked perfectly innocent, like a monument or a road marker rather than a cursed object that enjoyed dishing out cruel hallucinations.

The two Fang were waiting near it, so Severance hurried over. Even through his mitts and boots, he could feel the cold nipping at his fingers and toes. The loss of the fire's warmth was already keenly noticed.

"I don't know how you can handle this," he muttered at Vast, who padded along beside him. "Maybe I should make a fur coat out of you."

Vast huffed and smacked Severance with his tail.

"Fine, fine. I was just joking."

They reached the pillar. Severance took the opportunity to walk around it, examining it closely. It was perfectly smooth and polished, without nothing but a layer of frost covering its pale surface.

Eusebius caught up to them then. "Come on, lads. What are we waiting for?"

You, Severance wanted to retort. He kept quiet though, and followed the Fang onwards down the road. The fog had only retreated, not completely dissipated, for it grew thick over the road half a mile ahead.

There, the next test undoubtedly waited.