The boy crouched low, lightning crackling across his shoulders, eyes glowing like stormlight.
Inside his head, the thoughts weren't words. They were instinct.
"This demon… I don't think I've seen one like this before."
He inhaled sharply.
"But that stench...I just can't get over it. And I thought he'd be different."
Tamura's aura hit his senses like blood in water, his explosive mana was like an open invite for his unmaking.
The boy could taste Tamura's nervousness.
And lunged.
Tamura barely moved before the boy was on him.
Teeth sank into his forearm. It was sharp, deliberate, ravenous.
Tamura roared, yanking back, flame flaring around his wrist.
"You little bastard! So we're biting now, huh?"
The boy didn't respond.
He sliced at Tamura's feet, quick, and precise.
Tamura stumbled, blood trailing.
The boy grinned.
"He bleeds like the rest."
Tamura's mark flared.
Not in pain.
He was getting irritated. And soon...
Tamura stopped reacting.
He started watching.
The boy moved like lightning, but lightning had rhythm. Pattern. Repetition.
Tamura scaled it.
Every twitch. Every breath. Every spark.
He mirrored the boy's stance, low, aggressive, and baiting.
He could read the boy's mana signature now.
The boy lunged again.
Tamura sidestepped.
Countered.
"I can read you now."
The two clashed all across the southern parts of the lower city.
Tamura was getting tired of being on the defensive. He allowed his Cardinal state to slip.
"This is getting annoying."
But then, Tamura noticed. The boy's strikes were getting sluggish. He wasn't as fast. His body couldn't ignore the wounds any longer.
This is Tamura's chance.
Flame surged around his fist.
Tamura ducked under the boy's strike, pivoted, and drove his fist into the back of the boy's head.
Not to kill. He just needed to end it.
"It's been fun...but there are others that need my attention."
The boy dropped instantly, his lightning was sputtering, eyes dimming.
Tamura stood over him, breathing hard, blood dripping from his arm.
"You're strong," he muttered.
"But you're still a kid."
He knelt to pick him up.
---
A blur.
A crack.
A kick to the ribs, hard enough to lift Tamura off the ground and slam him into a nearby building.
Stone shattered.
Smoke rose.
Tamura groaned, coughing blood.
His mark flared erratically. His vision was getting hazy.
He looked up.
The boy was gone.
No scent.
No mana trail.
He wanted to get up and chase before the boy got too far.
"Crap! The others!"
He staggered to his feet.
And ran.
Tamura sprinted through the fractured streets of Xathia, blood still dripping from his ribs, breath ragged. His mark pulsed erratically, more from guilt than pain.
The red glow had faded.
But the screams hadn't.
He turned the final corner into the guild district.
And stopped.
---
Demons littered the ground.
Bodies twisted, burned, cleaved in half.
A mountain of corpses rose in the center of the courtyard, brutal.
Atop it sat Mugen.
Silent.
Still not all the way there.
His clothes were torn. His mana flickered faintly. His eyes were distant.
Tamura stared.
"What the hell happened here man?"
---
Guild members moved slowly through the wreckage—healing, dragging wounded, whispering.
No one cheered.
No one spoke.
Thankfully, nobody died. But the destruction was overwhelming.
Tamura stepped forward.
Vayrik turned to him, his face was twisted with disgust and disappointment.
His voice wasn't. It was just cold.
"You're late."
Tamura flinched.
"I—"
Vayrik didn't let him finish.
He just walked past.
Tamura looked around.
The courtyard was broken.
---
Tamura spotted her near the infirmary steps.
Nekeya knelt beside a wounded mage, flame flickering softly around her hands.
She didn't look at Tamura.
Not once.
Tamura stepped closer.
She turned her head, just slightly.
Enough to obvert his gaze.
Enough to say everything without a word.
Tamura stopped.
"I let them down."
He didn't speak.
He didn't move.
He just watched her heal someone else. And ignore her own pain.
Mugen sat atop the corpses.
His breath was slow. His eyes were wide. He wasn't proud. He wasn't angry.
He was lost.
He looked at his hands. They didn't shake. They didn't burn.
They just… held power.
Too much for him to make sense of.
More than he understood.
More than he wanted. What is he? Where did his power come from?
Tamura climbed halfway up the pile.
"You okay?"
Mugen didn't answer.
He didn't blink.
He just whispered.
"I didn't know I could do that."
Tamura didn't respond.
Because neither did he.
---
Later at the guild,
The food hall was dim.
Half the guild was in the infirmary. The other half sat in silence, their plates were untouched, mugs half-full, eyes hollow. They were drained.
Tamura entered slowly, ribs still aching.
He saw familiar faces.
None of them looked up.
He sat near the edge, alone.
Mugen didn't join him. He was still outside with a crisis of his own.
Vayrik stood near the wall, arms crossed, watching the others.
The silence was thick.
Then,
Yanis stood.
---
Yanis was tall, sharp-featured, robes torn but still pristine. His eyes burned with conviction.
He was also a renown mage in squad 5 recommended by the royal family themselves.
"So we're just going to sit here and pretend nothing happened?"
No one answered.
"A portal opened in the middle of our city. Demons poured out. People almost died."
He pointed at Tamura.
"And where was he?"
Tamura didn't move.
Yanis stepped closer.
"He ran. Vayrik's golden child. The demon we're supposed to trust. And he ran away as soon as his friends came to say hello!"
Tamura's mark pulsed.
Yanis sneered.
"You think it's a coincidence? That the Red Gate opened the same day he returned?"
Tamura stood slowly.
"You done?"
Yanis didn't flinch.
"You should've been exiled. We voted. You should've been cleansed like the infernal dog you are."
Tamura's eyes narrowed.
"You worship fae supremacy. You think infernal blood is a curse. You think people like me should burn. I wouldn't be surprised if you felt like that around everyone who isn't of fae descent."
Yanis stepped forward.
"I don't think. I know."
The room tensed.
Vayrik didn't intervene.
Tamura's voice dropped.
"I didn't open that fucking gate."
Yanis spat on Tamura's shoes.
"But you called it here. Right?"
Tamura's mark flared red, then still.
He didn't strike.
He didn't speak.
He just walked out.
"And there he goes. The demon runs again!"
---
Tamura stood outside the food hall, breath shallow.
The door behind him shut with a hollow thud.
No one followed.
No one spoke on his behalf.
He leaned against the stone wall, staring at the sky, clouds were heavy with rain, the scent of ash still lingering from the Red Gate's aftermath.
He thought of Kael's voice. Aylin's laughter. The way they used to walk ahead of him, always arguing, always alive.
But they were gone. They betrayed Tamura he thought to himself.
Back in Druira.
Squad 2 was done.
He felt like the only one left.
Footsteps approached.
Vayrik.
He didn't speak at first. Just stood beside Tamura, arms crossed, gaze fixed on the horizon.
Finally:
"You gonna let him break you?"
Tamura didn't answer.
"Yanis is a zealot. He wants purity. He wants control. You scare him because you have something that threatens that goal."
Tamura's voice was low.
"I scare everyone."
Vayrik turned.
"Good. Let them be scared. But don't let it make you feel small."
Tamura looked at him.
"They think I caused the gate. They think I'm a burden."
"Did you call it?"
Tamura hesitated.
"No."
Vayrik nodded.
"Then stop apologizing with your silence."
"Kael and Aylin aren't coming back."
"They weren't meant to."
Tamura's jaw clenched.
"So what now?"
Vayrik stepped forward.
"Now you decide what kind of monster you want to be."
Tamura blinked.
"Monster?"
Vayrik's eyes burned with that same crazy look he gave Tamura years ago when they first met.
"The kind that devours cities, or the kind that protects them."
He walked away.
Tamura stayed.
The wind picked up.
Tamura was left with a new decision to make.
---
Later that night, in his chamber.
Tamura sat on the edge of his cot. The room smelled of ash and old incense, remnants of the Red Gate still clinging to everything.
He hadn't slept. Not since the boy. Not since his fallout with Yanis.
The door creaked open.
Nekeya stepped inside without a word, her eyes shadowed. She didn't ask permission. She didn't feel she needed to.
Tamura straightened but didn't rise.
"I was going to come to you."
"But you didn't."
He nodded with his head down. He couldn't look at her with this guilt still weighing on him.
"That's fair."
She crossed the room slowly, then stopped near the far wall. Her silhouette flickered with the candle light like something trying to stay whole.
Tamura soke again, "I want to make things right between us. Before we are on the move again."
Nekaya spoke, her voice wasn't sharp. Just tired.
"You think we're moving forward?"
Tamura turned to her instantly, and his voice began to crack.
"I don't know what we're doing. I just know we're not done."
She turned slightly, enough for him to really see her, and to see something deeper was lurking on her mind.
"What happened?"
She didn't answer.
"Nekeya."
"It wasn't what happened at the fight. I'm used to seeing people abandon each other where I'm from. For survival. But seeing you leave and not knowing where you went or if you would come back..."
"I'm back. I'm right here. I shuldn't have left you and I'm sorry."
She stepped closer, the silence between them felt thick with everything unsaid. Everything they wanted to say but couldn't find the words.
Nekeya then spoke, "I'm not angry anymore. I'm just… not sure I'm me at the moment."
Tamura stood, slowly.
"I'm here for you."
She didn't respond. Just looked at him, like she was trying to remember this feeling she had before. When she was younger.
Then she turned and left.
Tamura didn't follow. He felt it would be the wrong call.
The candle light dimmed once more and then...
Burnout.