Bang—
"You're seriously hard to shake," Chen Mo said, driving the Imperial Guard back with a sword strike. "Do you have any idea how rude it is to cling to a man like this?"
He glanced at the wrecked surroundings and felt a headache coming on.
Towering flame and filthy corruption tore at each other, burning and grinding—until everything nearby was reduced to ruin, with not the slightest sign of fading.
She wasn't as overpowering as Patriot… but she was far more troublesome.
"Hiss… haa…" The Imperial Guard's breath rasped like iron dragged across stone. "If you do not come at me with the resolve to kill… then you will be swallowed by Ursus's soil forever."
She stared at the Draco before her, astonished by his strength—astonished, too, that his fire resembled Talulah's so closely.
But unlike Talulah of the past, this man clearly understood what the Imperial Guard were.
"Why won't you strike the finishing blow?" she pressed. "Draco."
"Only then can you reach your sister in time… and stop her from continuing her atrocities."
Chen Mo curled his lip.
As if he didn't know these "Imperial Guard" could self-detonate.
Just thinking about whatever "evil" they carried was enough to make his scalp prickle. If he truly went all-out and tried to kill her, he'd likely die right here with her.
While he was weighing it, the Imperial Guard showed no intention of giving him space—she surged forward again, blade flashing, and a swarm of pitch-black, razor-sharp stone spears formed at her side and shot toward him.
Boom—
They didn't even get close.
The fire swirling around Chen Mo incinerated them in an instant, and he caught her cold gleaming blade on his own—locking it in place.
Metal screamed. Sparks burst.
The harsh ringing tore through the air, and that dreadful breath, so close it felt like it was crawling along his spine, made Chen Mo's skin crawl. He pushed off the ground and sprang back, widening the distance between them.
"Tch," he muttered. "Is there seriously no way to get this freak off my back?"
She didn't let up—already stepping in for another slash.
Chen Mo tightened his posture and braced himself—
Then, suddenly—
Bang—
A halberd—one Chen Mo knew all too well—smashed into the Imperial Guard at the exact moment she was about to collide with him, sending her flying.
And in the same breath, biting frost swept in, freezing her in place before she could rise.
For several seconds, Chen Mo simply stared.
Then he snapped his head toward the figures who had appeared at some point in the distance.
Patriot.
And FrostNova.
"…Did you two rebel?" Chen Mo blurted out.
"No," Patriot answered, stepping forward with FrostNova at his side. "We will never… betray Reunion."
He tightened his grip on the halberd again, setting himself between Chen Mo and the Imperial Guard.
"I had doubts before. But now that I see… the Emperor's Guard… I have no more doubts."
"The Talulah of today… is not the Talulah Reunion needs."
"She must return."
"And you…" His gaze pinned Chen Mo. "You are the key."
FrostNova nodded, Originium arts condensing in her hand.
"I heard it from Talren," she said. "Talulah's younger brother. If it's you… you'll bring the real Talulah back."
Bang—
Patriot's towering frame became a living shield, intercepting every strike the Imperial Guard tried to throw through—each blow crushed, each attempt denied.
FrostNova didn't waste words. She shoved Chen Mo hard in the back and moved to fight alongside her father.
"Go!" she shouted. "Don't let Talulah walk any farther down the wrong road!"
Chen Mo wasn't the sentimental type. He gave them a quick wave and bolted toward the pillar of fire in the distance.
Honestly, he was delighted.
Who would've guessed Talren, after running off, not only didn't sabotage him—but brought him reinforcements?
"Thanks!" Chen Mo called as he ran, his voice already fading with distance. "If we ever get the chance, I'll treat you to Shangshu hotpot!"
When his figure finally vanished, the Imperial Guard stopped her storm of attacks.
She stared at Patriot and FrostNova blocking her path, fury thickening behind that rasping breath.
"Hiss… haa… Wendigo. You have no idea what you've done."
"You are obstructing Ursus's rise."
"You are burying Ursus's future!"
Patriot's answer was another throw.
Boom—
A bottomless crater yawned beside the Imperial Guard—proof that Patriot had decided to kill.
He would sooner die together with her than let Chen Mo lose even a second.
"We said all that needs saying… once before… in the snow," Patriot rumbled.
"Now—Emperor's blade—you and I are enemies."
"I will never… let you succeed."
Thud!
Patriot advanced, FrostNova beside him, each step making the ground tremble.
"Ursus Imperial Guard," he declared, voice like a verdict. "I march."
…
5:48 p.m.
Near Rhodes Island's evacuation point
Fire.
An ocean of fire consumed the Infected, scorched the streets, and forced winter itself to yield—turning cutting cold into suffocating heat.
Amiya, shielding Sonia and the others behind her, no longer paid attention to the cold arrows raining from rooftops. She no longer tried to track the hooded Lupo lurking somewhere nearby.
She barely even registered the deranged Infected writhing around them.
Her eyes held only one thing—
A tall figure standing atop a mound of corpses, wreathed in blazing flames, looking down at them with cold indifference.
"T-that is…"
"A demon king?"
Talulah's gaze found Amiya instantly in the crowd below. Seeing the young girl staring up at her in a daze, Talulah's lips curved into a faint smile.
"Tell me," she said softly, "young demon king—what do you see in me?"
Amiya saw history—endless, ancient history, so vast it threatened to grind the mind to dust.
She saw khans' cavalry stamping the earth.
She heard nightmare guardsmen's scimitars screeching as they scraped across skulls.
She saw tens of thousands of Ross warriors—ship cannons roaring in deafening volleys—while arrogant Gauls were torn apart in blood and mud until nothing remained.
And at the end of it all, she saw a noble duke seated high upon a throne—impaled through the chest by a longsword.
"Amiya! Amiya—wake up!"
Dobermann's shaking snapped her back. Amiya clenched her jaw and violently shook her head, then screamed at everyone staring at her in alarm:
"Run! Everyone—run!"
"She's not just Reunion's leader! She's—"
Boom—
Before Amiya could finish, Talulah hurled a massive fireball.
Its terrifying heat turned everything in its path into ash.
"Fall back!" someone shouted.
"Move—get to cover!"
ACE and Nearl surged to the front, raising their shields to meet the incoming blaze.
Shouts and gasps erupted—
But before anyone could react further, another wave of heat slammed toward them.
"DOWN!" Nearl roared.
Everyone obeyed on instinct, dropping flat in unison.
Boom—
The blast tore over their heads.
When Rhodes Island looked up again, Nearl and ACE were on the ground—armor shattered, bodies wounded, barely holding themselves together.
"Nearl! ACE!"
Amiya rushed forward to help them up—
And above them, something even more dreadful gathered: a mass of flame hanging overhead like a judgment poised to fall.
Talulah's smile faded as she watched Rhodes Island crumble after a single exchange.
Boring.
So the "demon king" of Rhodes Island and the Sarkaz… was only this much?
With the inferno blanketing the sky above them and terror reflected in every face below, Talulah's lips moved again, her voice quiet and absolute.
"So weak. Alien demon king—by yourselves, you cannot stop—"
"Then what about me?"
Boom—
A second blaze surged upward—cleanly tearing apart Talulah's spreading wildfire and driving the suffocating pressure back.
"…Reunion?" Amiya turned, stunned.
The newcomer wore a Reunion mask—yet the fire he wielded was identical in nature, and far gentler than Talulah's violent conflagration.
Mutiny?
And then, Chen Mo—having sprinted here without pause—came to a stop behind Rhodes Island. He lifted a hand and waved at the stunned faces turned toward him.
"Hey," he said, exhaling hard. "Finally made it."
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