With a final glance at Magnus, Syryn went into free fall over the cliff. The sight of Magnus summoning black flames was seared into his mind as he dropped. Lucien was at least a feet away, plunging down with his hands reaching out to the sky. He had gone into shock. Syryn had a few seconds left before Lucien would hit the ground.

BOOM! Syryn heard an explosion and hope sprouted in his chest. Magnus was a powerful mage and he had the legendary black flames of the Night Pheonix!

Lucien and Syryn were now separated by a few centimetres of distance. He reached out even further. Syryn's brain then supplied another nugget of information. The mounds and the bodies, there were too many of them. Too many bodies, too many kills. It meant that there were more of those things. 3? 4? Syryn couldn't tell.

He enveloped Lucien in a hug and twisted his body so that Syryn's back faced the ground. Like a miracle, he stretched an arm out and grabbed the green vine that sprouted out of the cliff face. Alka had come to their rescue. Syryn's descent came to a halt and he crashed into the wall of rock with a force that drove the air out of his lungs. He could see Alka disappearing away from the edge of the cliff knowing they were safe.

"Hold on Magnus, don't die on me yet," Syryn shouted from where he was dangling. He had to get up there fast.

"I really wish it didn't come to this.." There was no way he was getting up there without wings. Syryn could already hear the sounds of intense fighting and explosions. The stricken cries of the monster echoed down the cliff and it stirred Syryn into action. He did what he had to do to save Magnus from the hands of fate. Like the blossoming of a flower, a pair of gorgeous black wings sprouted from his shoulder blades.

Syryn's leap of faith down the cliff hadn't shocked Alka. Too many things happening at the same time had numbed him of his emotions. Still, he had immediately sprinted over to the edge of the cliff.

The sound of the creature screaming drew his attention back to where Magnus had just sent it flying into the trees with one powerful kick of his foot which was shrouded completely in black flames. Alka turned back to the falling boys and sprouted a vine which, to his surprise, Syryn immediately grabbed onto. He had intended to wrap it around them but this was just the same. With them safe for the moment, Alka turned back to the fight at hand.

Magnus had evaded most of the attacks of the monster but a nasty swipe with its powerful arm clipped his shoulder and sent him almost flying off the edge of the cliff. He had to end It fast.

It would drain everything out of him but Magnus had no choice in the matter if he and Alka were to get out of the situation alive. He cast the most powerful spell that he had in his arsenal.

A shroud of black flames appeared like a cloak on Magnus. His black flames burned many times hotter than the crimson flames the other mages produced. It expanded and enveloped the air around them, avoiding Alka, till it reached the skin collector. The creature could recognise the danger that the fire posed and it felt a sense of crisis!

As desperately as it ran, it was futile. The flame was relentless in its pursuit and caught the monster in its shroud of agonising heat! There was no escape for it. The flames ate through the monster's layers of skin like paper.

With a grunt of pain, Magnus popped his dislocated shoulder joint back into place. It hurt but not as much as the pain he knew was assaulting the monster whose skins were melting off in chunks. The smell of it threatened to gag Magnus and he was grateful that his stomach was empty.

When he thought that the worst was over, Magnus spied three more of the skin collectors. They stood at the front of the tree line. The creatures did not look happy at the sight of the one who was slowly being reduced to ash.

Magnus was truly having a bad, bad day.

"We can't beat them, Al, I'll distract them." Magnus dragged his words out in a tired voice. That last spell had taken out a chunk of his mana. There was also a deep cut on his forehead that was continuously bleeding. Magnus wiped his brow and came away with crusty blood.

"Good friends sacrifice themselves for each other but best friends die together." Alka firmly replied. It drew a snort of laughter from Magnus. "That's so corny!"

Alka smiled peacefully and faced the approach of their looming deaths. The monsters were already charging towards them. "I'm going into stasis. Don't die on me, Magnus."

Alka closed his eyes and crossed his legs in a meditative posture. The dry and cracked stone cliff then visibly erupted into a verdant grassland powered by Alka's magic. Thick vines the size of massive pythons grew around the first monster that was leading the pack. It was the biggest one yet with a jaw that looked like it had the strength to crush through bones like cotton. It roared and growled but the vines holding it in place squeezed tighter.

With Alka backing him up, Magnus calmed his racing heart. Throwing his cloak off, the mage went completely motionless to allow his beast to take over. The moment that the monster's friends had shown up, the panther inside him had been restless, and Magnus had felt it in the way his skin prickled uncomfortably. Being in his panther form severely limited his fire abilities but it enhanced his physical strength, agility and healing power.

All in all, the shift had taken less than a second but it was still too close for comfort! With a savage growl, Magnus bit into the neck of the monster that had thrust its claws into his side. On the other side, vines appeared and tripped the second monster. He wanted to do more but Alka had already poured all of his strength into detaining their biggest. He barely had any to spare for another attack.

From his open jaw, tongues of yellow flames heated the air around Magnus' huge panther body. He unhinged his jaws and from behind the long canines, a fireball coalesced. The hot ball of red flames smashed into the monster that Alka had tripped. It roared in pain but the borrowed skins protected it still. Magnus couldn't hold on much longer. The mana exhaustion had crept up on him steadily. His vision swam at the attempt to reach for more mana.

The black Panther then shook its head and growled. It still had energy left to do some damage. With teeth bared, It fell upon its enemy and tangled with it in a vicious fight to the death.

The other monster quickly recovered from the fireball and jumped into the fray. With a wild jerk of its head, it came away with a mouthful of blood and meat from the Panther's back. It had turned into a one-sided beat down.

In no time, the monster's eyes gleamed with victory and it came in for the killing blow, an exposed neck that would be ripped out! Magnus snarled with fury but he had exhausted all his cards. He was not resigned to death but there was nothing left in him.

When he had thought it was all over, murky grey drops of liquid spattered all over his face, and the creature that was in front of him had its head ripped clean off its torso!

Black wings and a beautiful face obscured his vision. Magnus had never seen a more beguiling sight in his life!

Syryn hated it when he materialised his wings, horns or other body parts that came with leaning in to his demon blood. All the dark tendencies that he kept a tight lid over, fought to reach the surface. And the more he changed physically, the greater the tide of madness that assaulted him. With the wings came a price. It battered upon his control and so he imagined Rowan standing next to him, the weight of Rowan's hand on Syryn's shoulder. He pictured the feeling of Rowan's power blanketing and protecting Syryn from his demon. After all this time, he was still reliant on Rowan, even if in thoughts alone.

His head had cleared enough for Syryn to make a move. With a powerful push of his wings, Syryn took to the air and saw a black Panther about to lose his life. His reaction was swift! Syryn dived and tore the attacker's head off. He enjoyed it more than he should have but he also felt it was still more fun tearing the limbs off of squealing humans. He could start with the defenceless one who was in stasis.

"Hasten to glory and supremacy! United in heart, spirit and vigour as one!" Syryn hastily began to sing the anthem of Sigil kingdom and he felt like an idiot because Magnus was in earshot. It had started as a joke with Rowan but Syryn's human brain had accepted it as a good method to anchor him to his humanity. How embarrassing.

With all the pent up frustration that seethed inside, he struck the other creature. Syryn's hand went straight into the layers of skin that gave no resistance to his strength. He accurately grasped its dried-up husk of a heart and poured his power into it for a quick kill. The creature screamed in agony and it was a beautiful sound. Syryn smiled in ecstasy because it had been too long since he'd heard the sweet cries of his dying prey.

"OUR SPIRITS ARE DEFIANT AND OUR HISTORY IS GLORIOUS!" If Syryn was being honest, he thought he had a nice singing voice. Rowan had said so.

"March on! March on! March on!"

From Alka's side came the sounds of a monster in the throes of rage! "RhgggGRRR... AGHHHH" The thick vines holding the biggest one snapped and fell away as Alka's powers ran out of juice. The grass began to recede and Magnus let out a sound of horror. Syryn would not get there in time. He entertained the thought of letting Alka die.

"Hell's gate!" Syryn spat out painfully.

With a loud cracking sound, the air in front of Alka split open and turned into a portal to hell. Out came a hundred skeletal hands that reached out for the monster that had come upon Alka. When the gate had appeared, the screams of damnation, like the laments of wraiths, poured out and brought with it a high-level suppression of every creature that fed on darkness. The monster stood no chance! It was dragged inside in the blink of an eye.

Now was the hard part, the reason Syryn hated opening a Hell's gate. Hands reached out again looking for more food. It wasn't satisfied with the sacrifice that Syryn had offered it. Gates were greedy things, Syryn had come to find out.

"Hell's gate, I am your master and this is my command! Return to where you belong!" Syryn poured in every single drop of magic left inside him and banished the gate. Thus, with a loud grinding sound, iron chains appeared in obedience to his command! The cries of the damned went up in a crescendo as the gate began to close. Skeletal hands pushed at the closing iron doors in resistance, and for a second, Syryn thought he had lost control.

The metallic grinding sound whined but with a final shot of mana from Syryn, it slammed the iron door shut. And just like that, the gate winked out of existence. Since when had it gotten so difficult to banish a gate?

Syryn saw black spots dancing in his vision. He was powerful but his child-sized mana core could not feed the spells that he had wielded.

"I'm an idiot." He said to himself and swayed dangerously on his feet. He was about to keel over from mana exhaustion.

Through the haze of fatigue, Syryn became aware of a heavy gaze that was focused completely on him. He turned and locked eyes with Magnus. "What are you thinking Magnus?"

His secret was out.

Syryn was fond of the two mages and he hoped that he wouldn't have to kill them, especially not after saving their lives. It would all depend on the fire mage's answer.