Zeke could sense the absence of Mana in his opponent’s system and figured his opponent could feel the same about him.

Still, Kian went all out. In a rage, he attacked Zeke with his mystical, Elven martial arts, and the enervated Zeke had no other play available but to take the hits.

Kian was landing flip kicks and jumping punches making Zeke shed more blood—The floor of the clock tower looked like an abstract European painting.

The Elf-Human hybrid’s onslaught stopped abruptly. Zeke fell on his behind and looked up at his opponent. Kian’s jaw was locked in place, and he struggled to exhale. As his body tensed up, he clenched his chest and collapsed with a rough grunt.

“Kian?” Zeke said as he stood up. He fought against his medical instincts to go attend Kian. It could be a ploy, but he was already winning, so it didn’t make sense. Like a burglar wearing the world’s loudest shoes, he tiptoed toward Kian.

He was curled up on the floor, clenching his chest tighter and tighter, looking like Nananiel with beads of sweat all over his face. Zeke kneeled, hearing the concerning shortness of breath, and reached a conclusion.

Kian was having a heart attack.

Calling an ambulance was out of the question, so Zeke resorted to a spell and stopped halfway, remembering he was out of Mana. As Kian seemed to be losing consciousness, Zeke gently turned him over on his back and began CPR.

He kept his arms straight and pushed hard and fast on the center of Kian’s chest in a rapid rhythm—a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. “Come on, Kian! Come on!” Most of the strain in Zeke’s voice was due to the overexertion of his muscles. He endured the aches and sped up until his body gave up and he collapsed on top of Kian.

Zeke pulled himself up and froze as he saw that Kian had also given up. His hauntingly-still face and unblinking eyes stared back at him. “No…” Zeke muttered and checked his pulse.

Nothing.

Zeke crawled back and hugged his knees as he focused on Kian, not knowing what to feel. Relief? Sadness? Victorious? Regret? He just felt numb.

A part of Zeke’s consciousness already started chastising him for not being able to save Kian with CPR.

As this went on, a yellow portal appeared in the room. Gill stepped out of it, prompting Zeke to get back on his feet.

“Gill?” Zeke said as the portal closed and then glanced at Kian. “Gill, you have to help Kian—”

“He’s already dead. What do you want me to do?” Gill said coldly and then began wandering the place. He observed the clock tower’s quaint architecture like a tourist while avoiding stepping on any of the fresh blood stains on the floor. “This place is marvelous.”

It baffled and angered Zeke how indifferent Gill was to the corpse in the room. But the more he thought about it, the less he cared about Kian’s death…

“This country is where the Black Plague started,” Gill said as he stopped to turn to Zeke.

“No,” Zeke quickly refuted. “It started in China… or was it Kyrgyzstan?”

“Azaekias,” Gill called with his expression growing more serious. He pointed at the floor. “This is where the Black Plague started, and it was done by an Infectiologist of the Tainted Generation.”

“Why?”

“Because he was an asshat. Most of the Tainted Generation were and are. Kian had the disease start in this city out of superstition. Believing it would grant him luck in spreading the disease,” Gill put his hands behind his back and approached the broken giant clock. “The Infectiologist who made the Black Plague had the same thinking and only started here because this was the same area where the one who came before him spread the Plague of Justinian. Obviously, there was no Zurich in either of those times, but this was the general area, and Plaga reminds every Infectiologist of it.”

Zeke joined Gill in observing the moonlit glow through the clock. “You seem to know an awful lot about Kian….”

“I did spend quite some time with him, yeah, but to be honest, most of the dirty work was done by Yaalon,” Gill admitted. “I’ve been able to take a couple of peeks into Yaalon’s files.”

Zeke glanced at Gill and surmised he achieved that with the help of his legion of demonic servants.

“You guys were lucky that you only had to reverse engineer the genes to make the cure,” Gill continued. “Kian had to make it from scratch. Do you think our Healer Garbs’ cells were the only prime ingredients for his specimen? There are loads of other materials he needed to craft that thing… and he got them from me.”

“Just for free?”

Gill laughed. “That’s adorable. Of course not. The condition was that he would help me break the Seals.”

Zeke almost lost his footing and then pulled back. “You—?”

“Me, Ashlin, Isaac, and Kian. There I solved your mystery for you,” he turned to Zeke and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “It baffles me how neither you nor Yaalon could figure out that at least Ashlin was part of it. She is the Container Specialist, for Christ’s sake!”

Zeke wanted to ask just how many servants he had surveilling him but decided to stay quiet and let the fat man speak.

“It was clear Kian was trying to make a super pathogen with that alarming list of ingredients he wanted. That sorry bastard really turned his brain off whenever it came to his beloved.”

“Huh?”

“Her name was Iloszea, and she was a goblin. Kian was in love with her. The elves launched an invasion on the goblins when Kian was visiting his sick father in Iceland for a while. She was gone when he returned. Whoever bought her put a Marker on her. Long story short, she’d never be found again,” Gill shared. “He told me the story the night before we attacked the Sanctums. I could feel the rage in him when he told it. Clearly, he was going to make a major move.”

“So, this was all for a girl.”

Gill turned on his heel and walked back to Kian with a bounce in his step. Zeke followed. “Kian was a smart guy, but when it comes to emotions… yikes. Of course, she liked him. He’s an elf! They are the most naturally beautiful creatures in all of the Realms! They put out pheromones that make them instantly likable. Why do you think elves are still loved and respected even though they are all dipshits? It’s all cosmetics, Azaekias,” Gill stopped and looked down at Kian’s corpse. “To a goblin girl, he was probably the most beautiful thing she had ever seen up close in her entire life! And Kian confused being worshiped with true love. He was just a shiny trinket to her she couldn’t help looking away from.”

Zeke curled his lip to the side and said, “Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with appearance. Maybe it was true love.”

Gill laughed uproariously. His bulldog-like facial features stretched horrifically. “Are you taking a piss, mate? Did you not hear what I just sa—ah, you know what? Nevermind. I don’t have time to argue. Believe what you want.”

Zeke looked down at Kian’s body and attempted to feel empathy, imagining what he went through to go mad in such a way. But it was far too late for that.

“Was he the Damned or the Deliverer?”

Gill closed his eyes and checked. “Nope. No essence. He’s neither.”

“Kian was so delusional I bet he didn’t read the fine print of the contract he signed, or maybe he did and was too confident in his plan.” Gill looked over at Zeke. “‘If his specimen fails, then he will perish.’ That was in the fine print, and violating that agreement would result in the Izrastellum crushing his heart until it no longer pumped. And that’s what happened. You’ve seen the Izrastellum before. You saved Jill from being killed by it.”

The image of the star-shaped demon’s creepy face appeared in his mind. “So you let that happen to a subordinate of yours?” Zeke asked.

“She’s family. I needed to know your level of skill, Diagnostician. Yours and the Surgeon.”

“You psychopath,” Zeke said, shaking his head.

The word didn’t seem to deter Gill, not at all. It probably wasn’t the first, nor the thousandth time he had been called that. “I guess your vectors wiped out the last of his specimen,” he said. “Good job. I guess you killed him in a way.”

A pang struck Zeke’s chest after Gill’s comment.

“Don’t worry about it,” Gills said and clapped Zeke’s shoulder, “what he wanted to accomplish would’ve got lots of people killed. He was deranged, Azaekias.”

“Why are you here, Gill?”

Gill paused for a moment, positioning his head perfectly for moonlight to reflect on his glasses. He looked like a supervillain with the ominous glare covering his eyes. “I am going to be honest with you, Azaekias. I don’t want you as an enemy,” Gill said, “your intelligence and resilience make up for your cowardice. But I know offering you a partnership is out of the question. I’m still tempted to do so anyway.”

“I can’t just let people like you do whatever they want,” Zeke said.

“Oh, so you already expect that I am up to no good? Isn’t it exhausting always having to be the good guy? No one is forcing you to, you know.” Gill looked away, moving his glasses from the moonlight. “I won’t be an easy opponent.”

“I know.”

“Good.” Gill bent over and grabbed Kian by the arm. He opened another yellow portal. “See you around, Azaekias.”

And he was gone.

Zeke stepped out of the tower and was struck with a cold blast, reminding him of the unrelenting Swiss winter. Now, without his Healer’s Garb, he was feeling the pain of the aftermath of the prolonged fight multiplied and the bitterly cold weather biting through his clothes and sinking its icy teeth into his bones.

He slapped his neck, missing a mosquito, and it buzzed across his eyeline in mockery. Zeke had to remind himself that they were carrying the vaccine. He waddled forward, unsure of where he was going and on the verge of passing out.

The gods of convenience gave him a break, and his friends appeared in the distance.

Naomi was dashing towards him, screaming, “Zeeeeeeeeeeeke!” and attacked him with a strong hug.

Zeke groaned at her tightening, anaconda-like grip. “Ease up, ease up, ease up,” he muttered as he tapped her arm.

She let go and pouted. “Sorry…”

He nodded with a smile letting her know it was okay and then the others caught up to them.

“Sorry!” Nananiel started. “After the attack, Ugo landed in a peculiar spot and got stuck between two buildings—”

“And then I got a call from Wade saying he released the mosquitoes,” Aida (still in hybrid form) continued and allowed a mosquito to land on her palm. She gently touched it with her pinky.

“We had to go back and open the tent to let the mosquitoes do their job,” AJ said.

“We felt Kian’s aura vanish,” Ugo finished. “Did you…?”

As the eager eyes fixated on Zeke, he explained what happened up until after Gill showed up, doing his best to focus with annoying mosquitoes buzzing in his ear.

“The attack on the Sanctums was done by the hands of the Vicar, Demonologist, Container Specialist, and the Infectiologist,” Nananiel said, rubbing his chin. “But we’ll think about that later. Right now…” he turned back to the ruined city. “We’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do. You guys need to fill up on Mana and help me reconstruct some buildings and wipe out some memories.”

Ugo, with a field of mosquito bites on his forehead, pushed his hands against his mutated face. “I wonder how long until the vaccine takes effect.”

“I have to say,” AJ started and then crossed her arms while eyeing Ugo smugly. “your new look suits you.”

The dirty jab had Ugo contort his face into what must’ve been a mean glare. He called off his Healer’s Garb and slowly moved up to AJ. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, buddy.” He outstretched his arms. “How about a hug?”

“Wait, no!” AJ shouted as Ugo grabbed her before she could escape and rubbed his oily, bumpy face against her cheeks. “Ahhh! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!”

Zeke chuckled, watching the two, and then noticed Aida leering at an unaware Naomi. He acted fast and intercepted an overly-excited Aida by stepping in front of Naomi. “Hey, hold up,” he said.

“Zeke, I am a professional. I am not going to do anything weird,” Aida said, insulted. “I am just going to ask her to bring out her wings so that I can lick them—”

Everybody stopped to stare at Aida blankly.

“No, you don’t understand. It’s so that I can taste the feathers.”

The blank stares didn’t go away.

“That doesn’t make it better,” Ugo said.

“Doggie!” Naomi shouted, stepping around Zeke and running up to Aida. She started stroking one of Aida’s pointy ears.

“No, don’t! They are sensi…!” Aida melted into a dazed state with an open mouth and stood on wobbly legs as she growled happily with her body twitching.

“I was fighting back the urge to do this,” Naomi said with a smile. “I’ve always wanted to meet a kitsune!”

Watching his pals being idiots made Zeke feel calm in a situation he knew he shouldn’t be. He felt slightly guilty for it. “Oh, yeah, um….” Zeke said, remembering something. “Aida wants to join our team. Is everybody cool with that?”

“Yes!” Naomi shouted without releasing Aida from her stupor.

AJ slipped away from Ugo. “Sure, why not?”

“Another chick. I’m cool with it.” Ugo said.

“Alright then! Aida, welcome to the team!” He stretched a hand toward her, and she was still out of it. “Um, Naomi, maybe stop stroking her ear?”

“Ohhhh, just a little longer!” she whined.

Aida’s smile widened as she started drooling and twitching more violently.

“You’re going to break her, Naomi,” AJ said.

“Fine…”

As she was released, Aida snapped back to reality. “Huh? What? What happened? Where am I?”

They waited for Aida to fully recover and then walked down the messy street.

Zeke pulled Ugo away from the group. “Hey, Mora, are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine!” Ugo responded.

It was either the power of their step-brotherly bond or his stomach churning from disgusting maggots and blood that made Zeke sense something was wrong leaving him unsatisfied with the answer.

Almost as if Ugo picked up on this, he changed topics. “Hey, we solved another big one, eh?” He raised his fist.

Zeke bumped Ugo’s fist and then said, “Yeah… but Gill is still on the loose and—”

Ugo smacked Zeke on the back of the head and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. “That’s enough,” he said. “Hey, we should celebrate stopping a plague and our new team member!” He shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I like the sound of that!” AJ cheered.

“A real Christmas party together! Yeah!”

“Aww… thanks, guys,” Aida said coyly, with her tail wagging like crazy.

“Nananiel, you’re coming too!” Naomi said.

“But the place is warded….”

“If we let you in, it’ll be fine,” Zeke said.

“Alright then…”

The now larger Providence Infirmary team and their angelic ally ventured to clean up the Bahnhofstrasse and tend to Kian’s mutating pathogen victims.

And so, the era of Kian’s plague reached its (luckily) early end.