Garina didn’t waste any time. The moment Noah’s final word of assent had left his mouth, her hand clamped down on his shoulder. Rushing black swallowed the world as Garina’s domain exploded out around all three of them.

The ground vanished from beneath Noah’s feet. His stomach lurched into his chest as they accelerated. It was almost like getting launched from the Transport Cannon, but the feeling was magnified a thousandfold — and his body didn’t get the benefit of getting transformed into energy first.

Pressure bore down on his chest. Even through Garina’s domain, Noah could feel his insides squelching around. A faint stream of nausea bound around his stomach. He couldn’t even see anything around them beyond the burning streaks of black magic peeling away from the meteor that they had become.

A brilliant crash tore through the air, followed by a tremorous crunch. Noah felt the ground materialize beneath his feet again. He fought to grab the breath that had been stolen from his lungs back as Garina’s magic peeled away and pulled back into her body — though her domain remained at full strength all around her.

Jalen’s domain coiled out around him as a cave materialized around them. High, smoothed ceilings rose up above. They curved down to the ground to form a circular room of clearly human make.

Some old stone chairs and a table littered the ground before them. They’d long since been broken and covered in a heavy layer of dust that made it clear nobody had sat anywhere near them in quite some time.

Old piles of rot that had probably once been bookshelves judging by the few ancient-looking book covers poking up from amidst them laid around the edges of the cave. The only thing that hadn’t been claimed by the passing of time was a tall wardrobe-adjacent cabinet at the back of the cave, doors hanging open and contents looted.

While the cabinet was clearly made of wood, ancient-looking runes covered its surface and shimmered with dim yellow light. They’d likely managed to preserve it. The light coming from the old runes washed over the figure of a man standing before the cabinet, a large halberd clutched within his hands.

The weapon was carved of the same wood that the cabinet seemed to be made from. However, the runes covering its surface burned with blood-red light and showed no signs of wear from the years it must have been left untouched.

Noah, Garina, and Jalen all stiffened.

Even though the man’s back was facing them, there was no mistaking who it was.

Father turned. Dim light washed over his harsh features, but it didn’t quite manage to reach his eyes. The man’s hands tightened around the haft of the weapon.

A silence hung in the air like an untightened hangman’s noose resting around the shoulders of a condemned man.

For once, nobody had anything to say. The only sound was that of their breath and the patter of gentle debris falling around Noah’s group in a gentle rain. Above them, a long hole led up to the distant sky. Light filtered through it and made a pitiful attempt of illuminating the cave around them. They were clearly deep beneath the ground.

“Just like a dog, you chase long after your masters are no longer in range to help, Garina. Your magic is spent,” Father said. His voice echoed against the silent stone. “You think some fledgling Rank 7 and a cockroach are enough to end me?”

“I let you escape once before. It wasn’t going to happen a second time around,” Garina said. Power gathered around her. Black wings exploded out from her back. Shadows coiled into the form of her sword within her hands as her lips peeled back into a snarl. “I told you that you would die today, Father. And I am not a liar.”

But Noah could see the slouch in her posture. The slight dip and sway of the point of her sword, her arms inability to stay perfectly still.

Garina was exhausted.

Noah summoned his violin and drew on his own magic. He was mildly surprised to find that the power came to him just as easily as it always did — and he could feel that Garina’s domain wasn’t in much better shape than she looked to be in.

“We are all liars,” Father said. “The difference is who we lie to. Only a fool believes their own stories. I will not be the one that falls today.”

“Suppose we’ll find out, won’t we?” Jalen asked. “But I really don’t appreciate being left out of the shit-talk. I owe you for last time, you conniving asshole.”

Father’s gaze flicked to Jalen.

The air thrummed.

A patch of space before Jalen warped and bent in on itself, arcs of jagged green energy twisting out as if a slow-moving bullet were passing through the air toward his chest. Jalen stepped to the side.

The green magic shattered. Noah lost track of the warp in existence. It simply vanished, presumably streaking past Jalen and failing to find its target.

“Okay. Now I’m genuinely offended,” Jalen said. His eyes narrowed. “You tried to get me twice? With the same damn trick? And the same spot, too? That’s just disrespectful. I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

“I would say the feeling is mutual… but this is nothing more than cleaning up. It amounts to a waste of my time,” Father said.

Jalen and Garina exploded into motion. They streaked through the air, the rumble of magic tearing out across the cave as Father raced to meet them and Noah played his violin.

Garina brought her sword crashing down for Father’s neck, but it came to a ringing clang against the haft of his halberd. Father spun, sending the black blade skittering to the side and whipping the edge of his weapon for Garina’s stomach.

She vaulted back, her wings snapping and pulling her to safety a moment before Father’s blade could catch its target.

Before Father could press his advantage, Jalen was upon him. He thrust his hands forward and a ripple of green energy passed through the air.

Father flicked a hand in its direction. There was a deep, bone-shaking crunch as Jalen’s magic came to an abrupt stop against something invisible. An explosion of power tore through the room and blew Noah’s hair back.

He played on, clenching his teeth in concentration as the Rank 7 mages clashed. Power flashed through the room all around him. It scored through the walls and tore massive chunks of the cave apart like it was made out of putty.

The only thing keeping them from bringing the earth down on top of them was the fact that their domains were canceling each other out. Even still, walls of Rune Force slammed into Noah like crashing waves.

Their intensity threatened to choke the breath from his lungs. Even with his domain, he could barely remain standing in the presence of a fight like this. But still Noah played. It was all he could do.

Father danced by Garina in surprising grace, using his magic to fend off Jalen’s attacks before they could ever land. He didn’t seem bothered in the slightest that he was squaring up against two mages.

“You are weak. Coddled. You do not know what it means to strive,” Father snarled. He spun his halberd, knocking Garina’s sword away, then swept the weapon down and forced her to leap back.

Stolen novel; please report.

She wasn’t fast enough.

The edge of the halberd carved across her chest from shoulder to hip, sending a spray of blood arcing into the air before her. Garina didn’t even flinch. She lunged at Father again, thrusting her blade for him.

Father’s leg flashed up. He twisted his body, letting Garina’s strike whistle past him harmlessly in a blur. He planted his foot on her chest with the same motion, then kicked Garina back.

Garina’s wings wrapped around her an instant before she slammed into the wall with a resounding crunch. She dropped to the ground, wings unfurling, teeth barred in anger. Blood dripped from the seeping wound in her chest and stained into her dark clothes.

Father spun to Jalen as the other man darted for him. He swung the halberd in a streak, bringing the blade of the large weapon to Jalen’s neck in an instant —

Jalen vanished.

He appeared to Father’s other side, driving his knee up into the other man’s chest even as he grabbed onto the haft of the halberd.

Father stumbled back, and Jalen vanished again. He appeared beside Garina in a burst of swirling sparks, then brought the halberd down across his knee with a yell. Magic exploded out from where his knee met the wood, sending angry green snakes of molten energy tearing through the length of the weapon.

The wood splintered. Then it cracked, shattering in a spray of fragments and sputtering imbuements. The dark magic illuminating the haft of the halberd waned and faded out. Jalen tossed the halves of the weapon to the ground at his sides.

“That’s twice today,” Garina said, her lips peeling back in a bloodied smile. “Forming a habit of letting people break your weapons, Father?”

Father clapped his hands together. As he pulled them apart, the blood Garina had spilled across the ground swirled up into the air. It spun around him, little more than a dark shadow in the dimly lit room.

“It is nothing but a tool,” Father said. “A broken tool is simply one that has finished serving its purpose.”

Garina and Jalen both charged toward Father again. Garina’s wings snapped down and Jalen vanished in a burst of green magic. The three of them clashed in the center of the room with an explosion of Rune Force — and Noah continued to play as they fought.

None of them spared him a second thought. They couldn’t afford to. The fight was too close as it was. Whoever turned their attention away for a moment opened themselves to an attack.

Noah himself didn’t have much attention to spare. Keeping his formation intact through the waves of Rune Force slamming against him was taking every scrap of attention he had.

Blurred forms danced through the cave around Noah. They slipped in and out of the light, passing through his domain so quickly that he couldn’t even register who they were before they were gone.

Reality warped and swam around the three of them. Garina’s blade was a blur of motion and Jalen shifted in and out of being, sending hammering blows raining down in Father’s direction that shook the ground beneath their feet.

But Father didn’t falter.

On the contrary. He was gaining ground.

Garina’s assault slowed. Her magic was running out, and the wound on her chest was still weeping blood — blood that quickly flowed to join Father’s side and turned against them.

It was only a matter of time until she slipped up.

And then she did.

Garina’s blade carved through the air where Father’s shoulder had been a moment before. She went to pull back, but she was an instant too slow. A blade of blood sliced down through her arm, severing it at the shoulder.

Father thrust his palm forward, driving it into her stomach. Garina doubled over. She shot backward, crashing into the wall with a pained wheeze before dropping to her knees on the ground.

Her domain sputtered out.

Father blurred. Jalen vanished, but when he re-appeared, Father was already upon him. He grabbed the other man by the wrist and his knee blurred up, snapping Jalen’s arm at the elbow. Even as the crack echoed out, Father swung Jalen to the side and sent him smashing into the wall with a sickening crunch.

“Damn!” Jalen snarled, coughing as he tore himself free of the rubble and staggered back to his feet. “You bastard! That was my dart-arm! How do you have so much magical energy left?”

Blood rose into the air around Father. There was a river of it, now. Garina had lost a lot of blood — and Jalen had contributed his fair share as well. He was covered with gouges and seeping wounds that probably would have been fatal to anyone below Rank 6.

Father lifted his hand.

The air crunched. Jalen’s magic rose around him, but it crumpled like cheap cardboard as he was slammed back into the stone with such force that he drove through it, vanishing into the wall.

“You were always insufferable,” Father said. His cold eyes finally turned to Noah. Dust crumbled from his fingers as his rings fell away, turned to nothing but ash. “Hundreds of years of preparation, all wasted. You can’t even comprehend just how much time I’ve lost.”

Garina tried to stand, but she’d lost too much blood and spent too much magic. Even as she pushed her back up against the wall, using it for support as she slowly rose to her feet, Noah knew that there was nothing more she could do.

She’d just spent too much power trying to defeat the Long Night. Even in a two on one fight, Father was just too strong.

Noah’s eyes flicked to the remains of the rings Father had been wearing as they drifted away.

He stored magical power in artifacts, didn’t he? That’s the only explanation as to how he was able to fight at such strength for so long.

“No more artifacts?” Noah asked, his bow still flitting across the strings of his violin. “That’s rough. All those years of schemes, and all you have to show for it are two barely won fights.”

Father’s lips pulled back. It might have been a smile… but it probably wasn’t.

“I spent nothing more than a few tools,” Father said. “But I wouldn’t expect one who only has a single trick in their arsenal to understand that.”

Father vanished.

Pain exploded through Noah’s chest. He heard his blood splatter across the ground behind him. Father’s arm was buried up to the elbow within his ribcage. There was a crunch as Father tore his hand free, his fingers clenching to pulp the heart culched within his fingers.

With his free hand, Father grabbed Noah’s arm. He gave it a sharp tug — and with a crunch and a spray of viscera, tore it right off his shoulder.

Noah’s scream was driven to a sharp, wheezing halt as Father slammed his foot into his wounded chest, driving him down to the ground. The man’s dead eyes bore down into Noah’s, holding his gaze.

“Who — who said I only have one trick?” Noah wheezed, blood speckling his lips.

“Your Formations are impressive, but you’re only a Rank 5,” Father said. “You can’t do anything now that your Formation is lost. After I’m done here, I’m going to go break that vessel of yours. We’ll see if you keep coming back after that.”

Noah’s features twitched.

“Who said my Formation was broken?” A pained smile crawled across his face. “It’s been finished for a while, Father. I was just playing some battle music.”

Noah released the magic holding his Formation together. The threads unraveled in an instant. Magic came spilling forth. It wasn’t anywhere near enough power to actually hurt a Rank 7 unless they were incredibly unlucky and worn down—

But Father didn’t take risks.

He lurched to the side.

A black line carved down through the air — and completely missed. It didn’t do anything but make Father dodge to the side. But, in doing so, Father was forced to move away from Noah.

The instant his foot was off Noah’s chest, Noah thrust his remaining hand upward and grabbed onto the other man’s shirt. He yanked himself up, driving his forehead straight into Father’s nose. It connected with a loud crunch.

Father staggered back, backhanding Noah across the face with enough force to break his neck.

Stars exploded through Noah’s vision. His fingers slipped, but Father caught him by the neck before he could fall. He lifted Noah into the air, blood dripping down his face as fury burned in his eyes.

“You won’t even die properly,” Father snarled. “Isn’t this the one thing you can actually do?”

“Actually, there’s one more,” Noah whispered. His eyes fluttered. “How many tools can you break before you realize it’s the wielder that is the problem?”

Then, for an instant, his eyelids drifted closed.

When they opened again, his eyes were pitch black.

Noah’s remaining hand shot out. It grabbed onto Father’s hair in a vice grip, bringing the two of them so close together that their noses touched.

“What do you think Janice thought about as Brayden snapped her neck?” Spider asked. “When you let the only person who stood by you in the last few hundred years die? Do your other tools whisper their name as they die?”

A flicker of something passed through Father’s eyes. It was so small that it might as well have been nothing. But, for a tiny fraction of an instant, his guard faltered.

“Why don’t we find out?” Spider hissed.

His mind clamped onto Father’s. Normal humans were used to emotions. They weren’t nearly as disrupted by little things such as a flicker of sadness or regret or disappointment.

But when one never allowed such worthless things such as feeling to mar their thoughts, even the faintest flicker of feeling was enough to open the smallest of holes.

The gap was minuscule. Little more than a hint of a thought, a memory of an already fading name.

But that was enough.

With a sharp tug of magical energy honed by thousands of millennia, Spider dragged Father’s soul into the depths of his own.