"RIN!" I screamed. A strong blast of wind plucked me off my feet, sending me flailing meters away. My shoulder slammed into the floor, driving a stinging pain to my neck. My breaths rattled in my chest as I fought to right myself in time. I had to see if he's okay. If he's...

A comet of fur and flesh arced into the courtyard, coming from the east, where the battle was. I scrambled out of the way as tons of muscle and claws crashed against stone, shooting dislodged debris everywhere. Wait. Rin—

"The battle is not done," Cavya's voice bled through my ears, accompanied by a strong grip on my arm. It didn't budge even when I tried my best to get it off me. "We'll mourn the dead later."

The dead. No way was Rin...that. He's not in that category. He's...

We've both come this far for him to end like that. It's unfair. Unacceptable.

The creature's legs started seizing, kicking in the air. It's still alive? Cavya readied his rapier. Just the height he raised it at told me enough about his state. He was on the edge too. A little more and we would keel over and join the ones who beat us there. Together, we watched as the netherbeast, a cross between a rhino and a bear, flipped onto its armored back, and lowered its chipped horn at us.

I didn't waste a breath. My sword materialized in my hands as I ran forward. I swung. Black connected against the brown hide. Purple blood watered the pristine stones. Dragon's Bane—it had never failed me. Not even once.

I turned to Cavya who stood frozen from his stance, eyes slowly blinking like how a cat back home would. I tightened my grip on my sword. The creature's carcass, still leaking blood with gasoline-like consistency down the steps, blocked most of my view of the other wing of the palace. It's taking everything in me to resist climbing over and seeing it for myself. I needed to know, but at the same time, I didn't want to.

My cheeks scalded from the trail of tears I learned to never hold back. I wiped the back of my hand against them, my skin coming out streaked with blood, both purple and red, and dirt. Beyond us, the remaining adventurers ran for the palace—the last place of refuge and where their leader was. Where were the rest of the guildmasters? Moreover, why hasn't the number of netherbeast decreased?

It only meant one thing. Arzo was still alive. Knowing him, he probably wormed his way out of the Western Tower, saving himself first. He could always summon the Monarch again, on his own timeline. A man with an undying devotion to a cause, to a mission he believed only he could fulfill—they're the ones who kept coming back. Because they have to.

Would that make Rin's sacrifice for nothing? Yeah. Which wouldn't stand by me. There's one message I would like to send today.

Everyone who messed with me and the people I fought for—they would all pay. In the worst way possible.

I raised my sword to the heavens, the inky tip catching the rays of the afternoon sun. "As the Guardian of Darkness maintaining the balance of the world and life, I summon you, Haalor, the great dragon of the West," I said. "Wreak havoc!"

The stones beneath my feet exploded into a shower of purple light. Runes I didn't remember knowing scrawled themselves into a summoning circle like the ones I saw Revery and Nazran used. Cavya, even if he didn't want to admit it, stepped the littlest of steps back.

Thunder and lightning crackled in the sky, making him crane his neck up. The once-blue expanse plunged into deep purple, an ear-splitting growl roaring from somewhere behind the carpet of gray clouds. Panicked screams rang from the adventurer side, momentarily forgetting their opponents, as a lengthy shadow swished past them on its way to me. Even the nether beasts stilled, suddenly aware of a stronger force rising against them.

Claws crushed the rocks of the stairs and the courtyard as Haalor landed next to me. His long, snake-like body curled around me, leaving at least a three-step radius. "Why must you call for me in battle?" he asked. His scales appeared darker and shinier outside of his dingy temple ruins. He turned his head to the plain beyond us when everyone got over their surprise and renewed the fighting.

I glanced at Cavya who stared at me, for once, at a loss of words. "I need to end this quickly," I jerked my chin at the unfolding battle. Against the height of the crumbling palace, Haalor's sheer size belittled it. "You're my best bet."

"You must know I am unable to harm the creatures borne from my realm," Haalor tilted his head at me, his horn glinting against the sun. His milky eyes remained celestial as ever.

"Can you command them?"

Haalor's nostrils flared. A column of white smoke puffed from his snout, rising to the heavens in an almost invisible plume. "I might be able to extend a bit of influence," his lips parted to reveal a set of sharp fangs lining the sides of his mouth. "I don't like this...taint in their anatomy. Tell me, has the one responsible for this been playing with Dark Magic?"

I snorted. "When is he never?"

The guardian's eyes blinked, black lids putting a brief respite from the white. "I do not know what that means," he said.

"What Seline meant is that the person responsible for this chaos has been an avid user of Dark Magic," Cavya's steps were hesitant as he approached us. His grip on his rapier's hilt never loosened. Not one bit. He put a hand to his chest and gave Haalor a small bow. "He is also known to conspire with the previous Monarch, Laela Betradis."

Haalor's claws scratched against stone, making it crumble further. A little more, and he would probably start pulverizing the floor. "I remember the War," he turned to me, his white eyes glowing a tad brighter than I was used to. It reminded me of a lamp. "You are correct in calling me here."

I cocked an eyebrow. "You're going to war? I thought you're not allowed to hurt your beasts?"

Haalor snorted. " 'Allowed' is a relative term," he said. "And if they're touched by a magic darker than my blood, then they're no longer nether beasts. I can't keep treating them like one."

A grin pulled at my lips. It did little to erase the fact of Rin's death, but the adrenaline rushing through my veins pushed it to the back of my mind. The pain would come later. Right now...

Now, it's time to live.

"Ready if you are," I nodded to Haalor who unfurled himself apart from me. With a mighty tense of his haunches, he launched into the air. I started running, jumping down the stairs towards the Palace's melted gates.

"You can't have mentioned a word about your contract with the Guardian during your spare time?" I heard Cavya's clipped hiss beside me.

I didn't stop my mad dash forward but threw a quick wink in his direction. "Information is power, Leeds," I said. Overhearing Nazran telling Ahrian off one meeting about calling Cavya that name made it appropriate for this context. Too appropriate, in fact. "I'll help myself to some nether shitheads. You're welcome to join me."

Cavya didn't appear too confused by my profanity. Instead, he flipped in the air, landing straight into the plain between the palace and the walls. "I've been helping myself to 'nether shitheads' for quite some time," he said. "You're the one who might need to catch up."

A pack of wolf-like creatures found us upon our entry and started surrounding us. I lunged and slashed my sword in every direction I saw a flash of gray in. Everything else blurred around me. All I had my eyes on were the blobs of dark magic rushing towards me and the ones I dashed towards. At times, I would hear a pained scream from an adventurer and I would steer towards it. One slash, and the screaming was over. I couldn't remember if they ever thanked me.

Up ahead, Haalor's massive shadow circled the expanse. Black fire ripped from his maw, dousing the western flank of beasts, leaving the adventurers to finish up the skewering. That's what they're good at, anyway.

We were winning. The beasts, without their master, scrambled without aim. All focused on survival, attacking because of fear and not because they were told to.

A giraffe-like beast got in my way. As it reared its lofty neck, I pointed my sword at it and shouted, "Aftershock!" A sharp, snipping squelch. The severed neck flopped to the ground like a worm. I leaped and drove my blade into its flank just in case there's a brain somewhere in there too.

My stats whirred red at the corner of my vision. HP and MP too low. Retreat.

I snorted. Not a chance, menu screen.

Not a chance.

I yelled as I flipped onto the back of yet another beast, driving my sword deep into its spine, burying it until the hilt. With a strong yank, I ended up cutting all the way through the head. Well, that's that.

Minutes grew up to be hours. Hours to be years. It didn't matter. So long as I could continue swinging my sword, decapitating as many of these horrid beasts as I could, I would. Just so no one would lose the people I have to. Just so nobody would ever be forced to shed a tear for something avoidable.

My blade clanged, embers flying in the air as a metal-like fang closed around it. I bared my teeth and drove my blade deeper, aiming for a wide slash to come out at the other end. My arms strained, pain riding up my muscles. Shit. Not now. I grunted, gripping my blade tighter. My fingers wouldn't follow. A red popup blared at the edge of my vision. HP and MP too low. Retreat. HP and MP too low. Retreat. HP and MP too low. Retreat.

Fuck retreating. It's the last thing I'd ever do.

The beast clamping my sword growled, attempting to wrestle it away from my grip. Tears from both pain and anger streamed down my face as I clenched my fingers tighter. I promised I wouldn't let go. I couldn't...

I couldn't break that promise again.

Because the last time I did, someone's heart got shattered to pieces. Someone who might have been the last person I wanted to have to pick up the shards on his own.

A shadow creeped behind me. Good. Haalor's got my back. The painful shriek and the familiar whizz of a stinger told me it wasn't the Guardian. Well...shit. The stinger slammed down just as the beast gnawing on my sword pushed me straight into it.

My shoulders bent forward as a torrent of purple blood rained down on me after a wet squelch. It drove my hair forward, forming a dripping silver curtain over my head. I sputtered, my fingers clawing at the sticky strands to make sense of what had just happened. Some of the blood flowed down my neck and face, even going as far as my mouth. I gagged. Netherblood did not taste good.

What—

Rin stood over me, his sword still dripping with purple blood. Two carcasses lay at our feet, both having their bodies split open. I raised my head. Despite everything happening around us and everything he put me through, this stupid boy still managed to grin like that. "Now we're even," he said.