As soldiers on the battlefield grew tired, others took their place. The battle seemed to go on forever as the sun set beneath a crimson sky, covering the edge of the endless wastelands with the last sunlight.

Overthere, on the crest of a hill to the east of the field, there was another fight. Rico, Crow and Explo faced Luo, Jenna, Isaac and Aaron.

Rico stopped helping his two guards and turned his attention to Isaac. Casting wind with his hands and weakening Aaron with his other power, Rico wasn’t easy to beat.

Trapped in place, Isaac struggled to breathe, no less move. His eyes shut tight.

A few meters away, next to Aaron, Luo effortlessly avoided Crow’s black sword.

“You got weaker!”

The young general blew fire at the assassin swordsman. Crow was incapable of dodging in time and tried to parry with his thin, half-melted sword. Crow felt the rough dirt hitting him as he fell on his back. He tried to pick up his burning sword, but all that was left was the handle. The blade had melted away, feeding the lifeless ground.

On the western edge of the crest, Jenna’s pink plasma daggers’ scratches had combined to form slits in the metal of Explo’s suit.

The armoured woman’s forte was blowing things up, but Jenna stood too close for that. Explo used her cannon like a giant club, but the situation was hopeless. Perhaps if it was someone else, she could have managed to hit them, but the daggers posed a threat, and Explo hadn’t the leeway to ignore them as she’d usually do.

“Arghh!!!” Explo had dropped her weapon and ran toward her foe. She tried catching Jenna with her metallic gloves, but her last-ditch effort failed.

*Swoosh*

The plasma entered her helmet. After melting the glass off, Jenna halted before it reached her face. Behind the tinted glass were a burnt hideous face and crimson-glowing eyes.

At the edge of the crest, Explo had lost her balance and tumbled down the side of the hill.

The only opponent still standing was Rico. One of his eyes glowed green, and the other glowed pink.

“Aaron! You can’t beat me!” Their wind magic clashed with each other, surrounding Isaac.

Aaron saw that Isaac was getting pushed back, and he realized that Rico was restricting his wind magic power with the same magic he had used to kill Alex, Isaac’s brother.

Powerless, he felt Rico’s cold wind breeze past him, saw Isaac struggling to stay up, and a smile came across Rico’s face. But, behind Rico, in the dark sky, a faraway star shone.

He looked back at his friend and noticed that Isaac had gathered the strength to look back at him and open his eyes.

“Maybe you’re right, Rico. But Aaron’s not alone!”

Isaac retracted his blue spear and opened the palm of his hand, aiming it at the younger brother. The mage harnessed the power of souls as a crimson star formed in his palm.

The star turned into a ray, reached Rico’s chest and dissipated after going through him. It left a gap inside Topaz guild master’s upper body where blood would soon gush out abundantly.

Rico fell to the ground and gushing blood stained his clothes, making its way to the soil. Yet, he looked at the stars.

At this sight, Crow tried to run away, transforming his legs into air currents, but a bullet pierced his head. Aaron gave him a quick death.

“Was that my first kill?” As Aaron held his sniper rifle, he didn’t feel anger, disgust, fear or shame. He knew it was how the world worked and that he’d have to kill many others in his journey.

*Vvvvv* Explo had climbed up, she aimed her red-magic cannon at Aaron furiously, but Jenna stopped her. She threw a dagger and crushed Explo’s skull. Explo then stumbled back down the hill.

As the moon rose on the horizon, Rico’s skin grew pale.

Aaron sat by him. He sighed, “You’ve lost Rico, brother.”

His younger brother kept looking at the stars with a slight smile and ignored his comment.

Aaron Amon felt conflicted. His brother was before him, the same one he had known for so long, yet Rico had changed. He was no longer the innocent younger brother he knew.

‘Was it all an act?’ Aaron reminisced.

At the same time, Rico gave his arm a push. His hand reached for his left pocket and found a kitchen knife. He made eye contact with Aaron and, frowning, threw his hand at Aaron’s neck.

Aaron couldn’t back away in time, but he had half expected Rico to act in such a way. He placed his right hand on the knife’s blade and grabbed it.

Failing to kill Aaron, Rico felt exasperated as he pulled his knife away in a swift motion.

“We’ll meet again!” Rico shouted.

Unexpectedly, Rico didn’t hold onto his life and stabbed it into his own throat. The blood gushed all over the place. Some splattered on Aaron’s face, and some entered his wide-opened mouth.

With teary eyes, Aaron puked the blood to the ground before glancing at his brother. Rico’s body had become cold and lifeless.

“R-Rico is dead.”

Isaac gripped the knife and pulled it out, then comforted him. “He was evil, and look, at least he didn’t die by your hand.”

Aaron thought of Rico’s last words. ‘We’ll meet again? How can we meet again if you’re dead.’

He looked at the knife up close and cried, “Why is this so ironic? It’s the same knife he used to slice my throat back in the abandoned metro, where your father helped me escape.”

After that, he got up and screamed.

“I never wanted any of this! I just wanted a peaceful and fulfilling life in the Amon Guild!”

Behind him, Jenna and Luo looked down at Rico’s body. The blood had stopped flowing out.

Isaac placed his hand on Rico’s heart.

He froze.

“What are you doing?” Aaron asked.

Isaac looked at him in shock, his eyes glowing red. “He- he… that can’t be… he’s not humane…”

“What?!”

“He doesn’t have a soul!”

Aaron’s eyes widened. He observed Rico silently without a proper explanation.

Isaac tapped his shoulder. “Come on, Aaron. Let’s go. We’ll be in danger if we stay any longer. We’re on a battlefield.”

“He’s right,” said Luo. “You two should get out of these wastelands.”

Suddenly, a noise crept from behind them. They heard an engine.

The noise came from a hovering vehicle with five seats. The front door slid open, and a metallic human-size robot greeted them.

“Good, you're all here! I am DP20-X, an android of the latest generation made by my creator. My creator sent you a message: If you follow me to the Obscure Guild, he can give you information about the thing you saw a week ago, Luo Ren and Jenna Angel.”

The android glanced at Aaron and Isaac. “He also would like you to come, Aaron Amon and Isaac Tremblay.”

The four humans looked at each other. Luo and Jenna wanted to gain knowledge, while Aaron and Isaac needed to get to the Obscure Guild for Gabriella. The two sides agreed without a word, and without asking questions, they got in the vehicle.

“Let’s go.”

—

End of Part 5 - Resolves

Part 6: Obscure Guild

—