In front of the world tree stood an elegant elf in a greenen dress, with golden hair and golden pupils. She radiated a golden light thatshone around,, firing rays of light into the darkness like bullets. In the darkness, various pairs of blue eyes could be seen, with some pairs being orange or red.

  She was exhausted; fighting for hours with her mana onlyhad taken quite a toll on her body. Her breath was inconsistentas she clutched her stomach to gain some control. Some of the creatures lunged forward at her but were simply dispersed by the golden bullet that shot out of her aura.

  The onslaught continuedtill she eventually fell on one knee,, giving in to exhaustion, with her hand still on her stomach. Her body on the verge of breaking down, her vision blurring as the darkness filled with glowing eyes crept in. Zin had just entered the Square,, looking forward at the Library. It had a barrier up and was not touched. He appeared in front of his sister,, who was now unconscious,, with trails of light following him behind.

  The shadows, which were gathering, were split into a a million pieces and dispersed, leaving Zin,, who laid his sister gently on the ground. She was still breathing,, but she was not going to wake up any time soon. Good thing she was an elf who had the spirit'ss blessing and protection,, which will prevent any backlash

  A loud laughter boomed out from the surroundings. Zin looked in a direction where a lone tree stood. Below it was a masked man in butler’s cloth; he was clapping as he laughed.

  “How touching..”.

  A smug smile forming on his face as he sauntered over towards Zin.

  Zin appeared in front of the man, a vertical slash headed straight towards the “butler.”. The man twisted his torso at an odd angle, responding immediately to his movement. A few drops of blood dribbled down his neck. This elicited no response from Zin, whose face remained expressionless. He followed up again with a swing,, but the masked man dodged again, creating a distance of several feet.

  "Hmm... He's a quick one; must be at least a destruction class."

  The masked man intended to weigh his options. Zin continued his onslaught, giving the “butler” no time to think, his speed steadily increasing, but the masked man matched his pace. This made him frustrated; he was only able to graze him once. He stopped for a moment to size up his opponent. He had a feeling of uneasiness just looking at the butler.

  ....

  Gilly and the others had reached the entrance of the town,, only encountering a few creatures. Her pupils dilatedas she stepped into the town. The scene before them laid bare, part of the town was on fire with body parts strewn all over the buildings. Zenora barely resisted the urge to retch from the burning stench of so many bodies. A scene replayed in Gilly’s head, watching so many people die to the onslaught of a centipede. She shook her head,, bringing her back to reality.

  “Siel, what do we do?”

  Siel was in a daze, unable to answer.

  “Siel!”

  He trembled as he clenched his sword tightly.

  “Yo you guys rescue anyone that’s still alive; I’ll head towards the library..”.

  He didn’t wait for them to respond before running in the direction of the giant tree, his expression turning dark.

  Gilly and Zenora mustered the courage to move deeper into the city, searching carefully for survivors. A few Neather creatures remained but were made quick work of since they were low-ranked with blue eyes.

  The smoke in the air made it difficult to circulate mana. They were approaching the market squarewhen a loud clang could be heard, resembling that of a sword clash. Before they could even approach, a dark figure with glowing red eyes was reflected in their eyes.

  A large sword was swung downwards at great speed. Gilly,, seeing it, dragged Zenora, barely getting out of reach before the sword struck that spot. Zenora, unable to react, screamed, tears flowing down her eyes as a mixturere of emotions flowed through her. With her staff forward, she conjured a large glow of light thatstretched out three meters, spinning faster with with each passing second. With a loud boom,, it launched forward,, splitting into various beams of light.

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  Like a probing missile, it headed straight at the dark figure, shattering it to bits. The remaining beams flew in various directions,s, looking for other possible targets. Gilly looked at Zenora, her eye color still flickering. Zenora knelt down and cried, unable to hold back the emotions she felt. Gilly could only stand and watch. She had floods of memories about strange wars and people,, but she could not recognize anyone in her memories.

  Moments later, she stood up and palmed her face, a determined expression appearing amidst the reddish appearance. They nodded at each other before dashing forward, heading toward the sound of the swords clashing.

  ....

  A stalemate had been reached with Zin silently observing his opponent.

  “He must at least be a demigod to match my speed..”.

  A loud voice echoed from a street close by,, which was calling out Ephini’s name. Few guards led by Pom entered the scene,, shocked to see Zin. They saw the masked figure who waved at them, greeting them as an unusuall smile played across his exposed mouth. This attitude surprised Pom,, and it angered Zin, who frowned. Zin pointed at Ephini,, who layon the ground,, fast asleep,, her hand still being on her stomach.

  Pom led the guards who carried Ephini out of the scene. Pom took a final look at the masked man before leaving the scene. Zin continued to observe the man whose aura was suppressed. His sense was hinting to to him of a demon presence,, but being faint,, he dispelled that thought.He sighedd and finally asked,

  “Who are you?”

  Zin asked,, but no answer came back. This agitated him more as he continued his attack,, which was cleanly dodged by the masked figure.

  ......

  Valmor stood on the ground where Gilly had taken her test. He avoided the buildings to reduce damage done, so he picked an open field. The aura pressing down on him made him frown; even though he could bear it, the fact still remained thated that he was facing a dragon. Valmor on one end of the field and a man in red clothing covered in silver scales stood opposite. Valmor looked like a rag, with with bruises on various parts of his body and a bloody fist.

  “Valmor,, is that all you’ve got?”

  Valmor had a dark expression as he panted heavily due to exhaustion. Gilly and Zenora had just arrived and were surprised that Valmor was in such a state. They were feelingeling the pressure now; it; it was immense as their muscless clenched tightly.

  “Zatrynx, we spared your life. Why are you doing this?”

  The man in red laughed out like a maniac; he did not answer his question but but just smiled and dashed forward. On instinct, Gilly moved forward,, just being slightly faster than him; with a swing,, she hit Zatrynx on his hand. The sword recoiled as it collided with the hard scale.

  He jumped back a fewew meters,, feeling a numbness in his arm where he clashed with Gilly's sword.

  “You,what did you just do?”

  Valmor didn’t intend to waste the opportunity she had created, charging forward immediately. Being assisted by Gilly, they began a two-way onslaught to pressure him. The more Gilly’s hits landed, the more numbness he felt. Zenora could only stand and watch, her mana drained from the previous attack. Clash after clash, Zatrynx's's frustration grew, his expression turning into a grimace as this had never happened before.

  He snapped and released his full Dragon Intent; this bore pressure down on everybody present. A momentaryause occurred, the battle continuing as the duo continued relentlessly. They intended to corner him in a pincer,, but Zatrynx ignored Valmor coming from the rear and kicked Gilly with all of his force. A boom reverberated,, and she flew,, crashing into a serieses of buildings.

  Valmor threw a punch imbued with mana; Zatrynx did not move;; he turned and smiled instead. When his hand made contact, it passed through a warp behind Zatrynx,, and closing the warp, Valmor’s hand was cut cleanly by the space warp. Wasting no time, he turned and kicked him away. He landed in front of Zenora. She quickly rushed to help him; he had a few broken bones and could not stand.

  Zatrynx approached them casually,

  "Little girl,, move; let me finish him off”.

  She stood in front of Valmor,, arm stretched out,, facing Zatrynx.

  “I was once like you,, and it will pain me to kill you, so move..”.

  His patience was thin,, and his eyebrowstwitched. She shook her head and put up a barrier instead, her body glowing silver.

  “Fine, your wish is my command..”.

  Valmor watched in silence, barely able to stay conscious. In his mind, all he wanted was for this little girl to live,, but his body would not move. She turned and smiled; she knew he would tell her to run,, but her mind was made up.

  Zatrynx waved his hand,, and a silver vertical line rippled through the air, causing space to twist. Valmor's face contorted in horror. Zenora, turning back to give him a confident smile.

  “Thank you for being a father to me.”.

  Blood splattered everywhere as Zenora’s body was split in two. Gilly, who had just crawled out from the rubble, Zenora was gone. She looked around until she noticed a body on the floor. Valmor could not cry, anger boiling within as he looked at Zatrynx, his eyes glowing green. Gilly stood, her eyes now pale blue with blue circuits on her skin.