Sharply attuned senses due to an abruptly awoken mind tensed her muscles and accelerated her blood flow. Essairyn’s ears zoned in on the man’s every movement outside while she advantageously waited to strike him as soon as he entered. From the tone of his voice, it was obvious that they weren’t welcome.

And, as if on cue, the grandma started screaming and sobbing. “He’s back! I knew he would be back soon; he never leaves for long!”

Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Essairyn muttered soundlessly, “This stupid woman,” before springing forward on the toes of her boots while swiftly retrieving her ice sword from her magic cache. It was best to save her magic until she gained better knowledge of their intruder. Although, technically, they were the outsiders here, infringing on someone’s property.

Jerked awake by the old lady’s cries, her team alertly scrambled to their knees and feet. Aispin was the first to jump beside Essairyn as he hadn’t completely fallen into deep sleep due to finishing the previous vigil shift. Wordlessly, the group began positioning themselves defensively toward the door just as it opened.

Silhouetted by dusky first daylight, the man overbearingly revealed himself. Sinewy, daunting, wicked. He poised heedlessly in the wide doorway as if no one could possibly harm him. Not bothered by his blatant display of arrogance, Essairyn swiftly sprinted forward and jutted her sword-tip at the man’s neck. But before it reached inches from his jugular, a blast of heated energy deflected her preemptive blow, sending Essairyn stumbling backward for a couple paces.

“Oh? Not bad.” The man emptily praised with a sneer. “But, I can’t have you killing me too quickly, miss knight. Let’s play a little~”

Essairyn tightened her defensive position and eyed the man who insouciantly walked forward. The man was lavishly dressed and protected by an unseen force. She was sure that he had never lifted a finger to block her agile strike. Various snippets of conspiracy theories configured in flashes across her mind. He thinks I’m a knight? Does he know about our mission and is connected to H.T. after all? Or is he just making a wild guess? Her brows furrowed as she strove to decipher the reasons behind his unanticipated appearance.

Aispin deftly made a move during her split-second deliberations. His sword collided with the pompously garbed man’s invisible forcefield. But having knowledge of what happened to Essairyn’s attack, Aispin was prepared for the bounce back. He dug in his boots, enduring the repellant energy, and adamantly launched a series of sword strikes against the now frowning man.

To Essairyn’s great surprise, Aispin had an uncharacteristic bloodthirsty expression strewn across his face. From a bystander’s perspective, it would look like Aispin, who was dressed in all black, was the sinister one striking at the richly attired man in that moment. Contrasted against the ramshackle village, the man’s noble clothes might lead one to presume that he was being attacked by a bandit town during his jaunts.

“Fool.” The man jeered, almost snarling. “Get out of my way.” He withdrew an ornate sword from a sheathe hung by his waist and flung his left arm straight out, propelling and spiraling Aispin into the air and against the walls.

Essairyn shrilly cried out as his shoulders struck and shattered the wooden panels. Before she could rush over to help him, he promptly recovered and picked himself up lightly from the debris. Izlende promptly drew near Aispin to assess his condition and heal his scrapes if needed. Seeing that he was fine on the surface and given a reassuring nod her way, Izlende retreated to her position. Relieved, Essairyn then directed her panic-turned-fury at the malign stranger.

Seeing her expression, he laughed thunderously in satisfaction. Then, with a wide smile, he opened his arms and motioned his hands. “Come at me.”

Essairyn’s left eyebrow scrunched fleetingly in irritation at his taunt so typical of a haughty villain. “…As you wish.”

Two people, both confident in their abilities despite not fully knowing the other’s powers, clashed in a torrent of shredded rubble and whipped wind. The air trembled to breathe in-between the opposing energies. Neither gave the other any space or any opportunity to advance. While the man couldn’t deflect all of Essairyn’s strikes, neither could she slice a single thread of his rich garb due his irksome forcefield.

In the middle of their duel in the doorway, the rest of the group hitched the horses and readied the carriage as Izlende shielded them from gusty whiplash. After twenty seconds of several dozen exchanges, Essairyn detached and blocked the man’s incoming blow while commanding, “Move out now!” Then, she careened forward with a hidden magical attack that she had been circulating within her left arm. She needed to clear the double door entrance in order for them to escape this madman.

Although their opponent could figure out what she was doing, he made no move to stop the maneuver. Instead, he would let the magical attack strike him. Witnessing his complacent, smug mien as she drew near, Essairyn instantly knew that something was wrong. He had a trick up his sleeve. But she couldn’t retreat now.

Upon her charge, Leœss spurred the horses forward. Blowing past the doorway as their opponent was knocked away, the carriage whipped around the bend and hurtled down the empty village streets.

At the same time the madman was hit, Essairyn felt a rebounding force pummel her backward. While she had split-secondly prepared for something to occur, she didn’t expect and was certainly not ready to receive the blow of her own magical attack in two-fold. Her prior physical attacks had merely returned a good majority, but not exceeding, of the power delivered to his forcefield. Shock smeared her face as she gasped and held her chest while stumbling out of the wreckage from her impact with the back wall. Slightly hunched over, she glared indignantly at the smirking man who arose lazily from the other side of the street.

“What? It hurts having a taste of your own medicine, miss mage? Serves you right for pretending to be a knight.” He flipped a stray wisp of his permed, dirty blonde hair away from his forehead. He had been harmlessly buffeted by an upswing of wind from the reflected attack.

“What did you do?” Essairyn growled menacingly, flexing her grip on her weapon.

The man chuckled. “Nothing special. I just graciously returned what you gave back to me in double! I’m so generous, aren’t I?”

A corner of Essairyn’s mouth twitched. “…You sick bastard.” Her curse was enunciated with true venom at this unknown man who reminded her all too much of a certain redhead’s duplicitous speech.

The man narrowed his eyes, clearly affronted by her verbal abuse. But interest also sparked dangerously within the depths of his murky, cochineal orbs. He silently watched the spin of her blade before Essairyn dashed forward to engage him once more. He paid no heed to the escaping crew on the carriage nor the children who had all awoken and shriveled up against their grandma’s skirt at the sight of him and the wreckage to their home.

Flares of raw, magical power erupted between their blades. The two energies danced and fluttered away in widening gyres as metal screeched upon burnished ice. Not wanting to use her magical strengths to only have it slammed back into her face, Essairyn persisted with her sword.

But she was quickly becoming exhausted. Never before had she exerted this much focus, power, agility, and effort to parrying another’s blade after Knight Hætherin’s brutal sparring lessons. Her fighting inexperience and lacking swordsmanship was beginning to rear their ugly heads in the worst scenario.

Must I really have to resort to magic? She frustratingly flipped through possible courses of actions before settling on magic as the only means to hinder the enemy without getting killed first from being worn out and then slipping up in physical combat. Stepping back while drawing in a deep breath to steady her determination and swell her magic, Essairyn spun her hands in two large yet differently sized circles. Her left hand gestured the smaller one while the sword hand carved out an encompassing circle with the blade tip.

Immediately after her rapid motions, bitter cold chilled the surroundings as if winter had suddenly peeked around the corner to greet the dawning day. Icy mist shrouded her sword and lingered in the circles that she had drawn in the air.

“Ice elemental…?” The man whispered in disbelief. His confidence slightly quaked at the appearance of ice magic and the possibility of the human girl before him actually being a disguised elemental—perhaps even a royal at that, considering they trained in both physical and magical arts. He wondered if he had deduced wrongly that she was a simple battle mage.

Essairyn had no idea why the atmosphere became more wintry than usual when handling the ice sword, but she took advantage of his bafflement to speed up her process. Just when he regained his awareness, an array of magic circles materialized and bulleted arrowheads of condensed frigidity at him.

As Essairyn partly expected, the attack bounced off yet again and attacked her. Disappointed, her hopes that the amendments to her magical commands would bypass his reflective abilities slowly began disintegrating. True fear started to well up inside Essairyn. It seemed that not everything in her magic would come true if she willed it. For now, this was the extent of her capabilities. And if she couldn’t injure her opponent, then she wouldn’t be able to protect her teammates.

Clutching her shirt and fortifying her buckling knees from taking the doubled impact, she panted heavily while trying to slowly regulate her breath. Essairyn couldn’t lose her resolve. She was sure that she had overlooked some possibility. So, she steadied her mind to think clearly. At the very least, she could roughly calculate the amount of damage she had done to herself since it was based on her own output. If, no, when she survived this, she vowed to work on her physical endurance and stamina in order to bear more hits and last longer in fights of attrition should a similar, unfavorable situation ever occur again.

“Sairyn!”

Yanked out of her thoughts at the sound of her nickname, Essairyn watched with wide eyes as Aispin returned with laboured breath. Ignoring the stinging of her lungs, she screamed, “Idiot!! Why did you come back?! You—”

“—And leave you here alone? Come on, we’re a team! Don’t insist on doing things by yourself when we’ve got your back!”

“Why, why would you––?” Essairyn began to exclaim until a bubble of something metallic rose up from her throat. Retching, she half-coughed up blood that splattered and pooled in her non-dominant hand.

“ESSAIRYN!!” Aispin hurtled forward, almost stumbling with outstretched arms to catch the bent over girl. But she took a step back, jutting out her hand in a stop motion. Essairyn refused to be supported, regarding that as a show of weakness to the enemy.

“Hahaha! What a scene to behold!” The cochineal eyed blonde held his stomach in mock laughter. “You really thought that hitting me harder would somehow work? Think again, genius!”

A wry smile curved the bloodied corners of Essairyn’s lips. “Yeah, maybe.”

Confused, the man was about to refute when unexpectedly, a drop of blood trailed down from his forehead, nearly touching his eyeball. Startled, he patted the stream lightly with his fingertips and stared with widening eyes at the thin blood. Quietly enraged almost to the point of shaking, he narrowed his reddening orbs. A voice thick with deep-rooted resentment rumbled ominously in the hushed air.

“I hate people like you the most.”

A rumble rippled across the ground like a torrent, unsteadying and even toppling over a few buildings. All of the hidden people streamed out like blind ants at the man’s explosion in power. At first, Essairyn thought they were escaping the crumbling structures as each ripple rolled through the village. But then, she quickly realized it was for a more nefarious reason.

Smoky black twines sprung up from fleeing bodies and dangled in the air above, spiraling toward the man at the epicenter. Before he even spoke, Essairyn roughly guessed what was happening due to the escalating accumulation of power she sensed emanating from him.

“I usually like playing, but unfortunately for you, I got too impatient. Don’t worry, though, I’ll make sure to use your soul well.”

His portentous words prompted Essairyn’s eyebrows to shoot up in trepidation. This man was likely neither bluffing nor boasting. His reflective powers and possession of all these villagers was probably connected to his declared ability to utilize another’s soul. That speculation alone freaked the crap out of Essairyn. Having her soul controlled seemed like a forever damning existence. In no manner would she ever allow herself to be a marionette after finally gaining control of her own destiny.

The air crystallized in response to Essairyn’s heart quickening and fingers tightening around the handle of her sword. Faint, icy billows gushed and undulated from around her, causing Aispin to involuntarily shiver. They poured into the cracks on the ground and mysteriously congealed to form an intricate, asymmetric spiderweb of ice.

“Quick! Take the villagers as far away from here as you can!” Essairyn commanded Aispin. “He’s draining their vitality somehow!”

“That is—!” Aispin hesitated, not wanting to place some strangers’ safety over someone he cared about, but he understood the risk of allowing their enemy to accrue power. “Okay, I’ll go.”

With a grudging expression, he whistled sharply with his fingers, indicating to the others awaiting at the carriage to rush over. None of them had truly gone far and abandoned their comrade. They had merely stationed themselves in a safer location that allowed them to make a clean exit if necessary.

At the sound, the whinnying of horses could be heard. Chaotic clops proceeded, and a carriage burst through the flurrying debris to pick up Aispin. Since the people closest to the vicious man were basically lost to him, the group focused on the villagers in the periphery. Essairyn did her best to gently knock away the villagers in order to disrupt the man’s spell, but it was only a temporary solution as he and the the townspeople seemed connected by some unknown bond.

Observing the girl’s futile attempts, the man smirked and chuckled shortly. “Silly, but needlessly heroic. You knights never fail to amuse me.” He shrugged his shoulders, sighing dramatically. “Let’s just end this now, shall we?”

Essairyn scrunched her face in disgust. “Tch! Don’t get so cocky, noble.” The designation had slipped out based on his dress which had reminded her of Kajarn.

“Noble?” The man’s amused face dropped instantaneously like the wrong button had been pressed. “Who’re you calling a noble?” His pitch raised sharply as he spat, “I would never group myself with those two-faced, self-centered, abhorrent politicians!”

Surprised by his turn of expression, Essairyn stepped back subconsciously at his venomous wrath. But she couldn’t ponder his words as he furiously stomped toward her. Bracing herself for impact, Essairyn dug in her heels and balanced her stance. The air chilled stilly, as if copying the calm compelled by the girl as she readied her counterattack. Slowly, she spun her sword in tight revolutions in front of her, picking up speed as her mind cleared and sharpened. With heightened perceptiveness and control of her magic, Essairyn willed it to enfold her sword length from beyond the point and pommel. The affixed magic lengthened the weapon into a double-sided lance with two sword blades, one on either end.

The man raised an intrigued eyebrow at the sight of the spinning, hybrid weapon. But it didn’t rattle him as he was confident in his safeguard. With a scoff, he halted in his tread and hoisted the palm of his right hand straight into the air. Black twines corkscrewed into a ballooning globe that writhed with resentful energy. Before releasing it, he indifferently spoke to Essairyn.

“The only thing I retained from those bastard nobles is my name so that they’ll know who ended their pampered, shallow lives. I don’t know who you are…but you at least deserve to know who will kill you and your companions. My name…” He simpered with the cursory pause. “…is Balgair.”

The black mass barreled into Essairyn’s spinning weapon. The blades protracted and snapped together in a semi-opaque, lavender shield to ward off the harmful demonic magic. The sphere then abruptly exploded, splintered in a conical shape around Essairyn, and ruthlessly punctured the buildings behind.

“And since you didn’t hear it properly from my dear companion…my name is Essairyn.” Her voice rang true and clear as wispy globs leftover from Balgair’s attack dissipated around the girl as if burnt from simply being in her presence. Her subterfuge of calm and ease at spoiling his ultimate spell gave her the courage to speak.

“Remember it well.” She glared defiantly.

“Sairyn!” The crew regrouped behind her, and Izlende immediately laid healing hands on her shoulders.

“You came back.” Essairyn insipidly stated while keeping an eye on the strained Balgair who was regathering his power. Thankfully, he had overtaxed himself with his ruse. It appeared that he held no apt skill to properly fight without his reflective abilities returning her own damage. Maybe he can’t extract that much power from the humans because they’re mostly nonmagical? But this was hardly reassuring.

“Of course, we wanted a piece of this scumbag ourselves,” Leœss replied, scoffing.

Izlende leaned forward and whispered into the other girl’s ear, “Besides mending our injuries, I can accelerate our self-healing and provide protection buffs. But, we cannot be sure how much damage is needed to bring him down. So, it might be a long fight…” The white mage was frustrated by her lack of ability to directly fight against Balgair’s demonic magic. She was keenly aware of her limits in combat magic, and none of her known spells would be effective in harming him. But her role as a healer was more critical than ever in the face of reflected damage. So, she didn’t let her discouragement prevail.

Heartened by her allies’ support, Essairyn gave a small smile. “I have an idea to keep this fight from getting long and hurting more villagers, so please lend your power to me. I’ll need all of your help.”

Inspired by Balgair’s attack, she had rapidly assembled a new plan of attack. Her previous attempt with the icy arrowheads might have largely failed, but she had learned from the test. Injuring this man was possible, and from his immediate decision to expose and launch his trump card, Essairyn guessed that Balgair had been bluffing at not being significantly hurt by her previous magical attack.

Following her train of thought, having been with Essairyn the longest, Akari caught onto her plan first. The fox frowned and speedily objected, “It’s too dangerous to do a one-hit knock-out. If you underestimate, you’ll all be in critical condition with him still alive. And if you overestimate, you’ll kill yourselves. Don’t be stupid.” Akari had realized from their past demon encounters that Essairyn preferred speedy battles.

The raven-haired girl grinned wryly with downturned brows. “Unfortunately, we only have ‘stupid’ to fall on now.” Essairyn moved her gaze up to Darren holding the fox. “Please place Akari far away. No. I’ll do it myself.” She lifted her hand, intending to sweep the fox to a safe location.

“Stop!” Akari exclaimed through gritted teeth. “Let me stay. I won’t get in your way.”

“But—”

“No buts. You’re confident of succeeding, right? Do it with that mindset and kill that pretentious bastard.”

Essairyn sighed. “Okay.” She turned, her back facing her companions, and squared her shoulders. “Let’s do this.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Leœss whistled with courageous cheer, making a smile creep onto the corners of Essairyn’s lips.

That’s right, I have to believe in myself. If she didn’t, then she was setting herself up for inevitable failure. Luck was not reliable.

“While I agree with Akari on this,” began Aispin reluctantly, “there isn’t any other feasible method. However––” He sternly looked at Essairyn who had turned her head around to listen. “Please let me take the brunt of the reflected force.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “No, you can’t—!”

His steady, serious eyes silenced her budding protests. Essairyn clenched her hands and pursed her lips, swallowing her words. They had little time to argue, and Aispin was unwavering.

“Fine.” She reluctantly agreed, spun around, and took a few steps forward before stopping to concentrate on her magical attack.

Aispin exhaled in relief. He wasn’t doing this out of any particular concern for Essairyn; although, he did care about her wellbeing. He simply had a trick up his sleeve in case her spell went wrong. In the worst case scenario, at least Essairyn had to live. If she was alive, then As’pyze and the Knights had another shining beacon of hope besides Commander Chaera Ch’tahur and the KMA’s Headmaster—the remaining legacies of the Original Knight-Mages.

He was willing to give up the dim prospect of reuniting with his only surviving family over the more promising source of hope for humankind. From his observations of Essairyn, the woman abounded in potential. She only needed time to fully develop her arsenal of abilities. Please…survive this and carry on our will. I’m sorry to entrust so much to you, Sairyn… Aispin murmured indistinctly to himself as he stepped forward to her side.

A sudden scowl twisted his face as he gripped the length of his blade and connected it to his magic. And now, I’ll have to leave everything else to you, K…as much as I don’t want to. He briefly closed his eyes. Last night, Aispin had sent a magigram to the mercenary on their whereabouts. And when they were escaping the building earlier, K had messaged back that he was close to their location. Since their group had spent substantial time dealing with the underground laboratory and rested a night, the mercenary was able to catch up with a day of nonstop travel.

The team formed a trapezoid with Essairyn and Aispin at the front and the others at their backs. They all held their weapons in front of them in defensive positions. Aispin buried the point of his blade into the ground. He quickly chanted a complex charm, triggering invisible red lines to skitter up his blade. Akari crouched preemptively behind their formation.

As Essairyn extended her arms, a faint magic circle materialized beneath their feet before swiftly fortifying and radiating a pulsing force. All of the humans’ energies flowed into her through their connection to the magic circle. It felt like an exodus had drained their power in receding tidal waves. But they held on resolutely. For Darren, it merely felt like he regressed back into a normal human as on Earth. The familiar sensation was oddly nostalgic.

But that feeling only lingered a moment as all of their amassed power hurtled toward Balgair at Essairyn’s command. Even at this point, the deranged nobleman still hadn’t made any moves to thwart their spells. Like two wobbling walls, they clashed in distorted, intermingled energy waves before the expectant force rebounded back toward Essairyn.

Sonic.

The rebounding force was beyond crushing. It shredded their every fiber from body to mind to soul.

Silence.

Gears grated to a standstill. No one could think. After excruciating pain, no one could feel. Heat that chilled into numb. Tumult that hushed into peace. Color that flashed into black. The world seen before them collapsed into nothing as they fell to their knees.