The city was crumbling as the minutes passed. The screams of panic, deranged laughs, the neighing of horses, and the clashing of metal were the only sounds that could be heard.

Occasionally, you could see the sparks that could be produced by the clashing of metal swords. Sometimes, a loud gallop could be heard, and a horse would thrust at dozens of people in an attempt to flee with its rider.

Amid the fights, clanking bells could be heard throughout the alleyways, a noise that seemed to overpower everyone else. The sound came from the black spheres Ronan carried in his hand, and as he ran along the opposite path from the one taken by the marked children, he was followed by dozens of those men.

Ronan had several of them close by again, but he was soon able to dodge them off because they couldn't see him clearly in that thick fog. Ronan fought very sneaky way; he moved with agility in combat and constantly confused his enemies. In addition, Ronan was a skilled escape artist, and when given the opportunity, he would dispose of them with a quick and accurate stab to the neck of many of them.

To his misfortune, none of them was his former apprentice, who he knew was following him through the thick foggy walls.

Eventually, he must have stopped, for the pressure of running blind and the constant feeling of paranoia was tiring him down.

"Tyloh!" the marked man shouted loudly, stowing the dagger he had used against those assassins in his sheath but unsheathing the one he carried on his lower back. "Show yourself! Show yourself and fight like a man!"

Ronan used his insults and those loud spheres as a lure that The Butcher was unlikely to resist.

A whisper struck the most profound spaces of his mind, "They are not safe, Ronan of Vilna..."

Ronan shuddered at that; Almond's whispering voice was evident in his head. If he could get inside his head, it was because he could see it. If he could see him, then he could also see them.

Immediately, the presence of his former apprentice was something Ronan could sense, and to his luck, his prowess in the art of escapism allowed him to keep his head when he heard a blade whistle. Ronan rolled to the ground and dodged, again and again, the slash of such a swift weapon. The man couldn't see him, but he knew he was there, in the middle of the fog.

"Let him see me!" a frantic voice was heard to say.

Ronan knew who it was. Once he stood up, he groped with his gloved hands to see if he had any cuts or wounds on his armor or skin. At the same time, the mist wriggled to the sides; the cloudy mantle slid like curtains and gave way to the sunlight. In that way, the marked man saw the bloody wasteland that place had become.

The wide street he had stopped was littered with bodies strewn on the ground. Men, women, and children of all ages were dead or dying. Then, seeing the sunlight, what appeared to be quiet, began to scream and plead for help in desperation.

One man saw the light and soon saw the child he was carrying, which was his son. The lifeless child filled the man with pain, quickly silenced by a red-hot sword blade, which pierced him to the ground.

Ronan watched in amazement as The Butcher appeared out of the mist, and his first act of presence, which gave him his name, was that heinous act.

The boy watched his former master with a piercing, deadly stare with a crooked grin. His black armor was full of straps and knife sheaths, and his arms and face were stained with too much blood. Tyloh had feasted before reaching his master.

"Ronan, it's been a while," the boy exclaimed between his teeth and full of emotion, "Too long, too long..."

"Shit, Tyloh..." exclaimed Ronan, tightening his grip on his dagger. The man's shock was genuine; his blue eyes stared at the boy who had been his pupil. The stories of him were true.

Tyloh withdrew the blade of his short sword from the man's body; the scent and the sizzling sound of blood evaporating from the burning edge excited the boy.

"I hear you have new students, two new students," the boy exclaimed. Little spasms shook him in place. The Butcher at no time took his eyes off the man.

"Did you do this?" asked Ronan. "The explosions, the men, fighting in the streets..."

"Yes," exclaimed the boy without hesitation, "The best way to flee is to start a fight."

Ronan froze at that answer.

"Do you remember who taught me that?" the boy asked.

Tyloh soon shouted to the four winds almost as if talking to himself.

"I'll finish my work when I want to finish it!"

Ronan quickly understood that Almond must have been talking to him, so he didn't hesitate and soon threw his dagger straight at him.

The shaking boy soon saw his mentor's action and dodged the weapon coming straight at him. However, he did not see how his mentor charged at him in turn. The dagger with an ornate handle and a silver blade quickly returned to Ronan's hand, ready to slice his former pupil's throat.

Tyloh spun at his master's blow and quickly regained his fighting stance. Quickly the two engaged in a combat in which Ronan needed to fight too close to The Butcher, attacking with fist strikes and stabs that aimed to bring the boy's guard down. Tyloh, with his sword bathed in a forge-like heat that Almond had bestowed upon him, was teasing his master.

That fight, it was nothing more than a game to The Butcher, and Ronan knew that was only a distraction.

The crowds were running frantically. Both Fynn and Yue must have constantly been dodging innocents and murderers.

Soon, they ran alongside each other and tried not to get too far apart during the chaos. Sometimes, Fynn had to get rid of a wounded person or a murderer, something he ignored at that moment, but all those bloody faces would come back to him in the future. Yue, for her part, would jump between the commercial stalls of that wide main street to get rid of murderers or to evade the pleas for help from wounded people, something that she totally ignored at that moment when her survival was the most important thing.

Then, they encountered their real obstacle when they went down that street and saw the collapsed buildings that cut through it. The ruins wall was high, filled with large wooden pillars and white rocks that were once the walls of the buildings on the site. Some people tried to climb, but many fell from its great height, hitting the rocks.

As the carnage continued, another wave of people scaled the wall that had formed, so Fynn and Yue soon found themselves in a sea of people again.

"D-Don't split up!" desperately shouted Fynn, trying to keep his friend in sight. However, he found it challenging between the fog and the number of people. Soon, Yue became a blur as he pleadingly tried to get those people off of him.

"Fynn!" called the akajsi girl to her friend as the crowd pushed them between hits and desperation, like animals being torn away by a predator. Yue didn't hesitate to hit anyone to get back to where her friend was. However, ten others appeared and pushed her further away from him when she pushed or hit a citizen.

The marked children had been separated by the crowd, and each tried to seek shelter away from trouble.

Fynn made it as far as another alley, where he soon saw another atrocity.

Several of these killers saw opportunities to assault their victims during the mess. Women and girls had been dragged into the dark confines, and depravity had fallen upon them.

The boy saw the low things those criminals could do.

"Get lost, boy!" shouted one of the criminals standing guard, covering that macabre sight while adjusting his pants and closing his belt.

Fynn didn't move, paralyzed by that horrible scene, and the man and a companion urged him on.

One of the criminals, stout and with a sword in hand, stepped forward to the boy, "Don't you hear? Get out, or I'll cut you open like...!"

Almost in the blink of an eye, the boy unsheathed his weapons. With his short sword, he stabbed at the stout man, the blade of his weapon piercing the leather breastplate he held like a piece of paper, while, with his hand ax, he swiftly buried it in the face of the first criminal who spoke to him, pushing him until the man fell to his knees. The man's dead, the shocked face became more disfigured as he removed his ax from his face, while the other criminal realized what had happened when Fynn withdrew his sword from his belly with a quick slash, causing blood and gore to gush out.

The remaining half dozen men heard the agonized screams of their two colleagues, the one with the ax screaming in a guttural and monstrous manner while the other was choking at times.

They saw before them a teenage boy with his eyes wide open staring at them. His look mirrored what had long ago happened to him, his mind had been lost in the fury of his warrior's mark, and he would lay waste to them all.

Fynn shouted the last word he could before the fury fell, a word spoken with a deep hatred, "Monsters!"

Across the road, Yue turned away from the main street and, hiding among the backstreets, proceeded to climb walls. With a more agile garb than her friend, she could move more swiftly, for the pieces of her armor were hardly protective, as Ronan had a prioritized movement for her.

The girl proceeded to run down one of the alleyways where the only noise nearby was those of her traveler's boots as the echoing sounds of fighting could be heard in the distance.

However, as she crossed one corner, something grabbed her by her tattered cloak and, as if it were a creature that had imprisoned, dragged her a couple of meters along the ground until it released her.

The akajsi girl rolled on the ground and jumped back to her feet with a leap. The girl's eyes saw her enemy, but soon astonishment was drawn on her face.

That giant warrior she had seen in the square, with a horned helmet and worn armor, stood before her. But, unfortunately, she had little time to see him, for she soon saw a double-edged ax fall upon her.

Yue dodged the cut and soon took a long stride away from him. Thus, she did not hesitate and swiftly readied her bow to shoot an arrow.

When she did so, her arrow struck the worn plate armor of that fighter's plate armor, but she soon saw how it had been rebounded.

Torkell advanced steadily, his armor clanking with every movement at a heavy, steady pace.

Yue did another long stride again so that the akajsi girl stayed away from him. Soon she readied another arrow that tried to hit another part of the armor.

The arrow was shot, and Yue aimed at the limbs. However, the giant warrior caught the projectile before it hit his arm, where he took his weapon and kept moving forward.

Yue soon hesitated but tried to keep her composure and unloaded three more arrows while keeping her distance. Each one, Torkell evaded them or held the arrows in his hand. Finally, with a fourth projectile, Yue was trying to aim correctly. Her mark gave her an advantage as she watched the situation go slow mode. The girl could see the warrior's knees, elbows, wrists, and helmet. However, doubt came to her, and she lost her concentration.

A muffled chuckle flooded out by the helmet was heard from Torkell.

The Akajsi girl was afraid, and as she fired her last arrow, aiming at the opening of Torkell's eyes, her entire being trembled as she clutched the arrow in hand again. Then, finally, Torkell stopped and split the arrow into splinters.

"My turn," he exclaimed.

Yue knew she had to run.

Yue ran through the alleys, trying to lose that warrior, but despite that heavy armor and his heavy ax, he was fast, and she could feel the heavy footsteps that made the ground tremble coming toward her.

With a strong sense of danger, the girl came sliding across the wet cobblestone before her and dodged an ax that buried itself in a wooden column. The hit was thunderous, and the ax buried into the wall.

With each step, she breathed more and more shakily, her black eyes trying to find an escape route, but everywhere there was chaos and disaster as she made her way back to the main street. She thought she might lose there but soon watched as Torkell tore through the waves of citizens and assassins like an unstoppable force, punching and slicing civilians and killers alike. In Torkell's mind, those people were just pieces on the board.

Finally, doom came for Yue. As she entered one of the alleyways, her path was interrupted by a huge wall.

Yue then turned back to where she had come from. There stood Torkell.

Immediately, she drew her bow at the man and, staring at him, noticed how he entered that alleyway.

"End of the road," Torkell exclaimed, walking towards her.

Yue then tried to hop over to one of the walls, climbing up the timbers overhanging the buildings. However, it was in vain as she soon felt an overwhelming force send her to the ground.

Torkell advanced towards her at surprising speed, and when she took the leap, the warrior sent her crashing to the ground. Stunned, Yue was lifted off the ground, and the warrior grabbed her against the wall that sealed her path.

Yue held on to the man's hand as her breath came in short gasps. The grip was getting tighter and tighter, like a tightening chain around her neck. Torkell enjoyed watching the akajsi girl's pale face grow redder and redder, and that aggressive look on the girl's face grow wetter and wetter.

Yue's look grew darker and darker, and her resistance was becoming less. Then, in her last glimmer of thought, she observed the dim lighting of that alley, and instinctively, she pressed her hands against the wall bathed in shadows.

Yue's eyes were closing, and she tapped weakly at the wall and its shadows. The shadows received her call, and they devoured her.

Torkell made a mistake and was surprised when the akajsi girl was absorbed by the wall.

Yue fell to the other side of the wall, breathing heavily and crawling on the floor. The girl watched with teary, misty eyes as she felt the blood rush back up to her head. Yue was inside a completely dark house from that other end, with barely a light coming from a window. The girl grabbed her neck and felt blood on her neck from the cuts from Torkell's gauntlet.

Soon, a strong tremor came from that wall that seemed to give way at any moment. Torkell was going to make it fall with his fists. The girl let out a whimper, and with adrenaline coursing through her body, she ran out of that house.

Fynn's mind had been completely blinded, and in a voracious advance down that alley, he had committed a massacre again. The women trembled, traumatized in the corner where they had been abused, where they didn't seem to be able to get out of there. The bodies of their rapists lay on the ground, dismembered, with dead stares and their viscera outside.

Then, as the chaos of the street was only a distant echo, the footsteps of a suit of armor became present. Crossing that alley, a knight in polished armor walked by. The imposing figure saw the disaster that had occurred.

The girls trembled and sobbed, for among so many traumas, perhaps they were about to experience another.

"Where did he go?" asked Urian. "The boy..."

The girls sobbed disconsolately, but a single one, thin and with several bruises on her tanned face, pointed her bloody hand in a direction.

Urian looked in the direction where the girl had pointed, and then he saw her.

The trembling, naked girl watched as the man raised his arm and soon closed her eyes, expecting another attack. Instead, upon her fell a heavy leather cloak of ceniz. Urian, with a firm step, walked away from there.