Anaga's POV:

I fell to the ground barely holding onto my consciousness. It was painful, yet it hurt even more when I saw through the blood flowing on my face how the assassin dispelled his protection and slowly moved forward towards my niece. Nooo! Get away from her! Kill me but spare her, you bastard! She has nothing to do with house Estwill anymore, not with her whole family dead! Why, why must you murder us too?!!

Suddenly, an earth spike rose from the ground behind the wizard and stabbed his back. Yes!! My sweet cookie, just like I taught you, fight till the end! No one expects a child to attack you! My hope was quickly lost when the man moved another step ahead, showing the same liquid barrier behind his back, one that protected him from Quiliana's magic.

-Clever but ineffective. - he said while smiling. He seemed weirdly glad to be challenged like this.

The young girl slowly fell on her knees showing despair on her face but the next moment a fiery wall of flames rose in front of her. It was as if the archmage didn't even notice it and he stepped through the flames - as if they weren't even there! My gods! This... this... There's no way to win with this thing!!! Is this still within human capabilities?! I don't want to watch anymore! My dear niece... Goodbye. I will see you in heaven.

That was my last thought before my tired eyelids closed forever.

Q's POV:

I gave up. I tried the 2 highest tiered offensive spells I know and there is nothing more I could do to this monster. Anaga... Forgive me and thank you for trying so hard for me. I wouldn't be alive now without you by my side. It's actually somewhat comforting to die together after all those years of struggle... Goodbye world. You can finally stop running now, Quiliana. Both of you can. Just close your eyes and it will all... stop. Who knows, maybe where you're going after this will be at least a bit better? It can't be much worse after all, not after what you already went through.

I was kneeling in front of my killer, waiting for this last strike. Please have mercy and do it fast.

...

...and waited.

...

And... waited.

...

Finally, I couldn't help it anymore and lifted my eyelids only to look into deep purple eyes right in front of me.

-AaaaaahhhhHHHH! - my scream appeared out of nowhere and made me fall down behind. Why was this guy so close?!!!! Did he try to kiss me? Is he going to... do that before he kills me? Oh gods no!

- I-I'm only 14 this, this y-year! P-Please, just kill me now! Please! - I begged him frantically.

...

Eh?

Why is he so surprised by what I said to him?

...

-Do you want to die? - he finally asked.

What kind of question is this? Of course I don't, you idiot! Why ask, if you're going to kill me anyway?!

When I didn't answer him he looked left and right, then started stroking his chin in thought:

-Are you suicidal because someone is after you?

W-what is wrong with him?! What kind of question is this?! Is he a complete psycho? Just kill me already or go away! Which killer asks his victim if they're suicidal?!

-I guess you're in shock. And I just wanted to talk... Come on, let's talk, Q.

Just wanted to talk? What? And he only knows my current alias? That means he really just recently started to pursue us. But why is he acting like this? Didn't Perril Estwill tell him to kill us on sight? Is he an eccentric who wants to have 'a talk' before he kills his victims? Is he into that kind of death? Does he want to terrify me first?! Is that what I need to go through before he murders me?

I licked my dry lips and asked weakly:

-W-what do you want?

-Ohh, it can speak! Hello, toy! - he started talking in an awfully cheerful tone: - I'm Alex! You can call me 'High Master', hohoho.

... there is seriously something wrong with his head! He just called me a toy! If I could, I would get out of here this instant!! This person is insane!

-Should I say nice to meet you? Since this is our second time talking I shouldn't but the first conversation actually never happened in this version of the universe anymore so...

Is he high?!!! I really have no idea what he just said to me! What is this gibberish?!! Why do I have to go through this before death?! Girl, perhaps you already died and this is hell! The actual purple-eyed brunet killed you so fast that you didn't notice it and this talk is meant to drive you crazy! It can't be real!

...right. Something like this is definitely not real. It's punishment in hell meant to make me despair!

I suddenly calmed down. If this guy is fake then there is nothing to be afraid of. Good that you realized it so fast, girl. Bravo for you.

-Yeah, it's nice to meet you, sir 'High Master'. - I answered him as cheerfully as I could, trying to mimic him. -Could you tell me why you're here, please? - move your head sideways with wide eyes for higher cuteness level and hope he goes along with it.

He did.

...didn't he realize I just talked in such a weird way??!! Or is this considered normal for him?

-Oh!! So you can talk normally, that's good. I almost thought that you're not as intelligent as you seemed to be before, what a relief. I never understood teenagers even when technically, I was one of them too for some time. But talking about mind level... I surpassed them when I was 3. That's what living your whole life in a library makes you be. Well, 2 libraries to be exact. But biggest ones in the whole world, so that's something, right? My father had this weird idea to hide one of his successors in case something happens to his other son and so I, as the second son, was left alone to live my life inside the walls of the huge library, probably in hopes that I become more intelligent while surrounded by books. And only books. Oh right, 3 times a day I caught a glimpse of a servant who brought me my meals but he wasn't allowed to talk to me or even look at me. I was locked there since I was 1 year old and well, what do you do in a library when there is nothing else to do, Q?

Completely flabbergasted by his story I needed a moment to collect my thoughts before answering:

-...read?

-Yes! Correct answer, you earn 1 point. The whole 16 years I was there, the thing I did the most was reading. Well, and checking if what the books said was true. I learned everything from those tomes, how the society works, what is electricity, how the world works, facts about nature, languages, math, knowledge of the universe and many, many more things including magic.

-Wait, wait, what?! Did I hear right? You learned magic from a book?!!!! Is that even possible?!!

-Well, no. Not with just one book, you would need more but I did start my practices based on all the magic tomes hidden on the deepest level of the tower. Because it was a tower, it was reaching high into the sky and deep, deep underground where I resided far from human eyes. The lowest levels even had magical tomes which were guarded by powerful defensive formations. Curiosity made me learn magic to uncover their secrets and I did it. In time I slowly unravelled their mysteries but it cost me a lot of trouble. It was worth it though, I quite liked reading those. More complicated than the rest and very interesting. They gave me a lot of ideas for future experiments and helped me a quite a bit in getting out of that damned Tower for the first time. That was when I was 4.

Cough!

I accidentally spit my saliva hearing his last words. 4?!!!!!!! Doesn't that mean that he was in that huge Tower for only 3 years?! He learned so much AND escaped from the underground in such a short time?!?!?!?! And what's more, he wasn't even 5 years old at that time?!!

...what the hell?!