Tessai's brawl with the brothers was not looking good for him. Regardless if he was stronger than Kin and Lan when separated, together they outmatched him completely.
It didn't help that their aspects countered his by a big margin, the ward's ice barriers couldn't stop Lan's punches infused with his weakness aspect, and right after he broke them, Kin wounded him severely precisely enough to hurt, but not kill.
They got stronger, faster. And Tessai couldn't keep up.
Eventually, it all ended the same way it began, with Lan breaking his defences and Kin slashing his body.
Tessai was forced to kneel because of his legs failing him, he didn't have any more strength to keep going. A sword was placed mere millimeters to his throat.
He looked at the brothers who stared down at him, anger and disgust evident in his eyes. His thoughts displayed a similar emotion.
'How could I lose? I am the ward of the guards of the Bright Castle, you were my subordinates, you should be the ones on the ground, not me!'
Upon looking at the weak state of the ward, Kin sighed and retracted his blade from his neck, wiping the blood on it with the fabric of his armour.
Tessai stared at the blue eyes of the man in front of him, questioning his action, his voice filled with the same hatred that the brothers displayed to him, only Tessai's hate was born from something else.
"What do you want?!"
Lan laughed weakly, they may have defeated Tessai, but not without injuries, he approached the fallen ward.
"We want you to play your part, do what you were supposed to do for once in your miserable life."
He grabbed the collar of the armor of the ward and pressed his gauntlet on Tessai's jugular.
"Just don't think we are leaving you alive because we want to."
He tossed Tessai to the ground, who grunted and cursed.
The brothers turned around, armors mangled, blood flowing, but still up.
"Why… Do you hate me anyway?!"
Kin stopped and turned his head to meet Tessai's eyes.
"Because you are worse than Gunlaug, he had his reasons for what he did, but you? You just want the power, if he dies tomorrow you will want to just take his place and move forward, not caring about anything else."
With that, Kin turned once again and followed his brother to assist the other Shadow Watchers, even with their deep wounds.
—
It didn't take long for the guards and hunters of the Bright Castle to fall, it wasn't that they were weak, rather, their opponents were too strong.
The Shadow Watchers had trained with Sunless, who was the son of Song and had an Aspect Legacy that let him read the battle style of their opponents, meaning every time they faced Sunless in a spar, they faced an enemy that knew every weakness you had in addition to multiple styles of combat. Not to mention the training after the Echoes of the Stone Saints were acquired.
The members of the team were already among the strongest of the Dark City, now, they were even stronger.
The vanguard of five guards were trampled by the Stone Saint and Merlin, their overwhelming styles crumbled the shields and armor of their opponents and left the hunters wide open.
Mei and Lycon didn't miss the chance and faced the ones who were once their allies.
Before the hunters of the Castle could react, the purple haired huntress instantly destroyed Tach's weapon with her aspect through a simple slash, disintegrating it and leaving Tach defenseless.
Lycon then grabbed his face and pushed him to the ground, smiling coldly as he did.
"Don't bother… We both know what my aspect does Tach, you wouldn't want to go back to being mundane… Would you?"
The hunter on the ground trembled, grabbing the arm of the one holding him frantically.
"You can't do that! You can only go back so far!"
The blond Watcher's wicked smile widened.
"I don't know actually, never really tried, want to be my test subject?"
Tach's eyes widened, and stopped resisting. Lycon pulled his head and struck it on the ground, knocking him out.
Lycon looked up and saw the other two hunters, the guards behind him being destroyed by his companions.
"Any more volunteers?"
—
In the mist, Harus was getting more and more frustrated, because his opponent decided to transform their battle into a game of hide and seek.
Motza was moving around the battlefield non stop, he resorted to using long range attacks from the endless supply of throwing knives of his memory. Hiding in the mist created by his ability he created more and more clouds of dense fog, so dense Harus could barely see when the knives came close to hitting him.
Every time the Hunchback got close, Motza fled and created even more mist every time he did, making Harus lose sight of his opponent again and again.
That was the most powerful facet of the assassin's aspect, Motza was the one who decided the state of the battle, every battle was on his territory, his grounds, his preferences.
And now, Motza wanted Harus to lose to exhaustion.
In the beginning, Harus was able to deflect the knives by their entirety, however, once he missed one and got struck, little by little, Harus started to falter, more attacks pierced his defences, his body started to get struck with more and more wounds.
To be able to move, he began to take the knives out of his body, it was a mistake.
He began to bleed out, to become slower… Weaker…
But his anger on the other hand only grew stronger, the fun he had was being spoiled, the hunt, boring, and more importantly… His mission was being thwarted, the mission given to him by his master.
"Come out assassin! My mission needs to be fulfilled."
Harus wasn't expecting an answer, but a voice came out to surprise him.
"Do you value your mission?"
It echoed in the area, it was a dark, deep, horse voice.
"Will you die for it? All because Gunlaug said so?"
Harus decided to answer the questions, using it to locate the origin.
"Of course… I am loyal, just like you…"
A scoff was heard.
"I am nothing like you."
Harus found the direction.
"Of course you are… I heard the lone hunter from the outer settlement was one of the first to join Changing Star and the Shadow, yet you were never seen again, an assassin, like me, you live for your master… Is it the girl? Or the Shadow?"
"I serve who is worthy, who doesn't see lives as mere tools. You seem to see lives as entertainment."
The voice got closer, Harus smiled.
"An assassin that cares about lives? We live for the ones we serve, their word is law, their will is our will, we are their implements!"
"You are pitiful."
He found it, the origin of the voice, he swigged his chains… Only to find mist… A rock on the ground, speaking with Motza's voice…
"You are pitiful. You are pitiful. You are…"
Harus stared at it confused, only to hear the same voice behind him.
"I may serve a master, but he sees me as a person, not a tool…"
The mist started to clear, and all the fighters were revealed, along with the results of each fight.
The Shadow Watchers surrounded Harus.
Tessai, the guards and hunters were on the ground, unconscious, while Gemma and Kira stopped their fight.
The leader of the Pathfinders was physically fine, no wounds on his body, but his armor was mangled, destroyed, almost burned to ashes, his eyes seemed to be lost, overwhelmed by pain.
"And my master is brave enough to leave the safety of the Castle."
Harus gritted his teeth in frustration.
Seeing this, Gemma sighed… And accepted defeat.
"We'll leave, you won Kira."
Kira nodded.
"Very well, our task was already over anyway."
With a simple signal, all Shadow Watchers desengaged and started to leave, using the buildings as cover and shadows as protection.
Motza left one more message to Harus.
"Your blind loyalty will lead to your doom, I'll guarantee that."
The Hunchback could only curse in frustration.
—
"Why did we have to go through all of that, again? We could have just gone through the other entrance."
Kai's question was valid, they had just faced hundreds of undead skeletons and almost woke up a Fallen Tyrant, when we could have just gone another way instead of now having to go around the Dark City.
Sunless sighed, answering tiredly.
"Don't know, Cassie insisted, saying Gunlaug would know where they were going…"
The girl in question grunted in annoyance.
"It's not like I wanted to…"
Sunny glared at Cassie.
"Right… And I almost died to a Fallen Beast if not for Wraith."
Cassie was about to retort, but Nephis suddenly turned to Sunny and got close to his face, touching his torso with an accusating finger, her voice even, but hidden with emotion.
"That was because you and your stupidity decided it was a great idea to grab something from the body of a Fallen Tyrant!"
Sunny got surprised by how close they were, but soon sighed again, thinking of the damn mysterious key he risked his life to get.
"Said the girl that would try to kill a Fallen Devil as a Sleeper… Without any preparations or allies!"
She stared at him with the indifference she always carried, but Sunny could tell she was angry.
"Don't think just because we have a..."
She hesitated, remembering they weren't alone. Nephis almost one of the secrets Sunny shared with her.
"Whatever, let's continue."
She turned once again and continued walking.
Sunless crossed his arms and sighed. When he told her he wouldn't hide things from her, he meant it.
She already deduced he had a Divine Aspect from the day he gained his Demon Core.
Because she also had a Divine Aspect. It made sense really, her core never seemed to saturate, she was almost a Demon, like him.
But he also told her he had a True Name, and asked her to keep it a secret.
Sunny noticed some people staring at him and turned his head to see the rest of the cohort with surprised and confused faces, or, in the case of Effie, a knowing smile.
"So that's your type…"
"Agh! Shut it! Get your mind out of whatever thoughts you just had and keep going, we're still in a Death Zone."
Eventually, after laughing for whatever reason. Well, it was a good repose after seemingly hours of fighting.
Caster got closer to Sunny and whispered so only they could hear.
"Hey Sunny… What are you doing?"
Sunless looked at him confused.
"I'm walking... What do you mean?"
"I… You know what my mission is…"
He stared at Han Li's scion.
"One day… You are going to have to choose, and decide who to follow."
Sunless moved forward to be on Nephis's side, leaving Caster alone with his thoughts.