Visumk had no time to cry or rage over his brother’s death.

A spear was already hurtling at him from the left.

He had to deflect Lazar’s spear, which came from his blind spot.

Visumk managed to defend against the sneak attack but lost focus once his gaze fell on his sixth brother, who had just lost his head to Sokram’s blade.

He realized then that the attack he was so afraid of, causing him to dash backward, was just a feint.

No, it was a fruit of the fear reigning in his mind.

As the Sixth brother’s head tumbled across the snow, leaving a crimson trail behind, Miralyn and Sokram lunged at the Seventh, their blades flashing as they sliced him into bloody fragments.

Visumk’s mind was in disarray, but then he remembered, ‘Nulk!’

He was right to be worried, because Kasine was already rushing to face the Shaman with Miralyn by her side.

“You don’t have the luxury of worrying about others, orc!” Lazar growled.

Visumk barely deflected the spear aimed at his neck, the blade skimming so close he felt the blazing kiss of Aura’s covered steel against his skin, missing his jugular by a hair’s breadth.

Lazar gathered his spirit essence for one of his deadlier techniques. ‘Spear of Fire - A Hundred Stabs!’

Visumk quickly put his guard up as Lazar stabbed toward him.

When a barrage of stabs came, it forced Visumk into a defensive stance as he tried his best not to die.

His mind in turmoil, and his heart grieving, ‘It wasn’t supposed to be like that, but no one informed us that the boy the duchess had adopted was such a monster, FUCK!!’

Right at that moment, the monster appeared behind him in a flash of dark lightning that came from above.

“Shring!”

Visumk felt his vision splitting in two before blacking out; half of his body fell to the right, and the other half to the left.

‘Just in time…’ Sokram thought as the spell he was sustaining dispersed as he was no longer able to withstand it.

The Shaman saw Sokram kneeling again.

But this time, his hair was no longer shining and fluttering.

The runic marks that had pulsed with brilliant light now looked like jagged, angry scars of burnt flesh, their intricate patterns faded and blackened.

And the Cores floating above him dissolved into dust one by one.

Kasine, Miralyn, and Lazar rushed to finish off the Shaman, while Alain, no longer held back by the power of the contract, rushed to Sokram’s aid as his safety was a bigger priority now.

The Shaman, seeing this as an opportunity to avenge his son, brothers, and the army he had lost, took out an artifact, a golden sphere used to imprison anything below the Perfect Existence Level.

With a flick of his wrist, it flared to life, ready to entrap the three rushing at him.

Kasine and Miralyn, sensing his intent and recognizing the artifact, tried to stop their momentum, but it was too late.

The golden sphere erupted with chains that shone like blazing sunlight, their links clanging and hissing as they wrapped around their bodies, biting into flesh with every tightening loop.

They were defenseless, but the Shaman paid no mind to them.

He only had eyes for Sokram, and using a movement spell, the Shaman practically teleported behind Alain with blink, catching him completely off guard, and trapped him using another of the same artifacts.

Only then did the Shaman move toward Sokram.

Hilda and the others ran, wanting to stop the Shaman and save Sokram.

Yet, the Shaman activated another artifact that created a golden barrier around them.

It wasn’t something that could have stopped Sokram back when he still had his power boost.

But now, it would give him time enough to torture Sokram for a time before the others broke through it.

Picking Sokram’s katana from his hand, the Shaman looked down at him, kneeling and so frail, and smirked, “I commend you, dragon. You are, as you stated, quite mighty. But you should have killed me when you got your chance.”

“Pow!”

A sharp, sickening crack of impact echoed as the Shaman’s foot slammed into his ribs, the force of the blow driving the air from his lungs as he tumbled onto the frigid ground.

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Towering over Sokram, he ordered, “Beg for my mercy, and I’ll give you a quick death!”

Sokram’s eyes, which he was struggling to keep open, shifted behind the Shaman.

Hilda and Brunhild, desperately trying to break the barrier, released their most powerful spells, as others rushed to try and free Kasine and the others.

“Pow!”

Another kick snapped his head back, a burst of stars flashing in his vision as the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.

But no pain the Shaman inflicted on him hurt more than the damage caused by his own spell.

Sokram lay on the snowy ground, struggling to stay conscious, but when his eyes opened again, facing the sky, his usual confident grin appeared, “Kill... me... quickly, hm? Are you even... capable of doing that?”

The Shaman, thinking the boy was acting prideful, raised Sokram’s katana to cut off one of his arms, but once he raised his arm, his body froze.

The ethereal golden barrier shattered with the sound of a thousand panes of glass breaking all at once, the shards of magic dissolving into a glittering storm before fading.

Its magical shimmer dissolving into dust as a giant, scaly claw burst through, its talons gleaming in the moonlight.

The Shaman felt his body floating until he was face to face with Hannah, her huge dragon eyes full of hatred looking at him, but all she said was… “Die!”

With a wet, guttural explosion, the Shaman’s body erupted into a fine mist of crimson blood.

The sound was a sickening, final punctuation mark to his life, and the gory mist didn’t even have time to settle on the snow before it turned to ashes.

With the Shaman’s death, Hannah’s attention turned back to Sokram.

Her gaze softened as she thought, ‘Why do you always have to go so far with everything, child?’

Her gaze shifted to Hilda as Sokram’s body floated into her palm, and Hannah’s voice sounded in her mind, “Go call Moira, I’ll take him back home.”

Miralyn, finally free, jumped on Hannah’s hand, embracing Sokram’s body.

She took an elixir from the ring her mother had given her and told Hannah through voice transmission, “We can’t take him away from the moonlight. Can you clear the skies?”

Hannah looked up at the cloudy night sky and gathered a colossal amount of mana into her lungs.

With a guttural roar, she released it all.

A powerful, invisible force of compressed air roared upward, the sudden pressure making the snow around them swirl and leap into the night sky. A tangible wind-like force that tore a hole right through the clouds.

When it exploded with a thundering sound, it opened the sky, disintegrating every cloud for kilometers.

Moonlight poured over Sokram as Hannah took off.

Hilda and her family rushed to call Moira, while the others around didn’t know what to do.

Only after they were away did they celebrate the victory over the orc army.

Meanwhile, Sahvus and the others were finally flying toward the city, as Kamus, in a good mood, praised Sahvus while looking back at a gigantic crater of 2 kilometers radius filled with molten lava.

“If you had told me the spell was so strong, I would have stayed quiet, haha. Now I’m embarrassed, I doubt any Necromancer or even the Kasulla will escape that, hahahaha.”

Kamus laughed aloud in a good mood.

“That’s true, sorry for rushing you, Sahvus.” Neloph also apologized.

But Licarus continued anxious, especially after he realized that in his rush to deal with Kasulla, he had forgotten to take the communication crystal connected to Eversnow.

“Don’t worry, Licarus. I’m sure the city will still be standing when we get there.” Kamus smiled reassuringly.

“I know it will, Eversnow’s walls are harder than they look, but that monster and those Necromancers working together to stall us like that…” Licarus stopped himself, but he didn’t need to continue saying anything for the other to understand.

But what escaped their notice was the small skeleton of a horned hare dragging its burnt body out of the lava.

Once it was safely away from the burnt zone, it opened its mouth, and condensed Death Energy came out from it like a stream.

Then a small, slug-looking snake left its mouth and started snaking its way through the snow, beginning a long journey back home.

Once Licarus and his team finally saw Eversnow, the first thing that they noticed was the open sky around it.

The sky above the city formed a perfect, star-dusted circle of blackness, as if a great hand had swept the clouds aside to reveal the heavens above Eversnow, bathing it in cold, pure moonlight.

Then, the metallic tang of blood, thick and cloying, rolled into their noses, carrying with it the scent of smoke and iron.

It was a smell that spoke of widespread carnage, of a thousand lives cut short, a smell that made Kamus’s and Licarus’s throats tighten with fear.

“Faster! I smell blood, a lot of blood!” Kamus said with a frown.

Neloph, who was carrying them this time, increased his speed, leaving Sienna and the tired Sahvus behind.

Once the wolves were far enough for them not to be heard, Sienna finally asked him, “Was it Lady Mentyr who told you to stall the spell like that?”

“Yes, she told me Nhiria and her wanted to see something. What exactly? I have no clue. But I think it has something to do with our future Seeker.”

Meanwhile, in the backyard of the Dracnakrid estate, Moira and Hannah worked together to save Sokram’s life.

Moira was casting multiple healing spells at once, and Hannah was forcing Sokram’s organism to digest the Elixir Miralyn had fed him at the same time they bathed his body in the moonlight.

Kamus appeared on their rooftop, looking guilty, along with Neloph, Sahvus, and Sienna.

Kasine met his gaze, not hiding her relief, “Good, you’re alive.”

Then her gaze shifted to the other three with a frown, “Why aren’t you down here helping?!”

“Excuse us,” Sahvus said in a morbid tone before starting to set a formation to gather Magi and Vitha around them.

Sienna started copying Moira’s healing spell; one look was all she needed to understand it.

And Neloph decided to cast a concentrated grand healing spell.

Kamus bowed to Sokram’s family before joining Leona. “Tell me everything.”

Leona started retelling him all that had happened since they left to hunt down the Kasulla, and the more she told them, the more incredible the tale became.

Once Leona told him about the new and strange techniques Sokram used, Kamus didn’t seem surprised, “So he was truly holding back during our training sessions, hm?”

“You knew?” Leona felt embarrassed for many reasons, but looking at Sokram, her pride was overshadowed by her worry.

Then, Hannah’s voice reached their ears hoarse and brimming with despair as she began to cry.

“No, darling. Please react! Please! I can not lose you, too, please! Please don’t leave me alone again.”

Moira increased her mana output, and Sahvus abandoned the formation to cast his own healing spell.

Hannah’s anguished cries hit Sokram’s two mothers like a physical blow.

Their legs gave out from under them, and they collapsed into each other's arms, the strength gone from their limbs, their bodies shaking with a silent, heart-wrenching grief.

Margiory rifled through her rings with trembling fingers, each gem flashing in the moonlight as she searched for something, anything, to help.

While Brunhild looked up, silently praying with tears streaking down her face.

Leona was trembling, a deep, bone-rattling tremor that she fought desperately to suppress.

She bit her lip until she tasted blood, a small, futile attempt to hold back the storm of grief building inside her as Kasine held her tightly.

They all shared the same hope, but Sokram’s vitals only got weaker by the second.