Mustapha lost feelings to his body and his arms was heavy as his battle with the grandmage went on. He was battered, too many injuries to count and blood, dark and insistent, seeped from those wounds, pooling at his feet and leaving him in a dizzying haze. Each csh felt like the one that will undo him but somehow he held on.

  With a heavy wave of the hand, the grandmage sent about a dozen water spearheads hurtling at him. Mustapha quickly activated his shield, which was flickering from low mana. The spearheads shattered the shield and sent him tumbling fast on the ground. While he was still tumbling, the earth projected, smming hard into his head. He got tossed up and nded with a heavy thud, face down on the ground.

  The world blurred and spun around him, his vision swayed with disorientation, and a sharp, throbbing ache pierced through his skull. Nausea churned in his stomach, and his thoughts became a foggy maze.

  His hands trembled severely as he tried to get back up, the blood from his head injuries flowing. Another explosion went off suddenly inches from him, the force from it sending him flying. An even bigger explosion destroyed the spot he had been on as soon as he left it.

  Lying on his back, Mustapha allowed his head to tilt sideways, his vision blurred and disoriented but he could make out the form of the savage and the archer, Erik fighting the grand mage. Every now and then they come within his vision but none of the scenes show they stood a chance. Mustapha wanted desperately to help but none of his limbs would listen to him, and he was fighting to keep his consciousness from slipping away.

  When again they came to scene, there were more of them fighting against the grand mage. He felt himself been lifted and few feet before him, with his back to him, was a presence Mustapha could recognize anywhere---Old man Khan.

  Old man Khan closed the distance, and as he drew near, the nauseating stench of leaking mana invaded Mustapha's senses. Dread coursed through him, a realization as heavy as the blow that had struck his head.

  "No, no, no, no!" he wanted to scream "Not like this. Too many more people will die, everything would be destroyed", but he couldn't. Old man khan stood before him, his old wrinkled face in a happy smile.

  "Take care of tha kingdom, young one, would ya?" he said, his smile broaden. He gave Mustapha two gentle sp to the left cheek as if he was still the little kid he knew.

  Mustapha was losing grip on his consciousness as someone had him firmly on their shoulder, running fast, away from the still raging battle.

  They don't know what's about to befall them. Destruction like never seen before.

  Mustapha went under and he prayed the gods would grant him the mercies of not coming back up.

  ┌─────── ? ───────┐

  I tried to sneak out anyone that was of worth out but at the end of the day it wasn't practical. Some were needed to hold the enemies, and some couldn't get the chance to escape in time.

  When we were several feet away from the battlefield, within the city walls it went off. It sounded exactly what you would expect a nuclear bomb to sound like. Beyond deafening. The very earth shook and wind from the bst was so powerful it was cracking walls and falling houses hundreds of feet away. It would have blown us away if not that the knights timely activated their shields to reduce it's impact and even at that we were still pushed several feet back.

  As soon as it started it quickly subsided. The knights seemed confused and reluctant to deactivate their shields.

  "...what?" I asked.

  "It seems far less than I expected" a knight answered, still not deactivating his shield.

  Less? Fuck! Did it fail?

  "Let's go back" I said and started moving first, almost running.

  We arrived at the battlefield, thousands upon thousands of bodies id on the ground but most were moving and you could hear wide spread low moans of pain. I didn't know when I started running towards where Ulric had been, occasionally stepping on bodies on the floor. I was panicking. If they can survive this then there's nothing stopping the grand mage from surviving.

  I kept running, and when I reached the pce, I paused. Before me id Ulric Von Hohenberg, clothes that had survived a lightning bst now tattered and scorched, and clung to him like a shroud of ashes. His scalp were showing in many pces where the bst had taken away his hair.

  His eyes, filled with intense pain met mine. Each painful breath he drew was punctuated by a cough that expelled dark, ominous blood from his ravaged mouth.

  "...it seems like he contained the bst." a knight said over my shoulder.

  Fuck. Now I can't finish him off without looking like the enemy.

  He looks to be very close to death's door but he was holding on. He kept trying to say something but the pain wouldn't let him.

  "You--used the st resort the gods left us for something like this?" he finally said in distorted pained speech. "You've damned all mankind."

  His accusation hung in the air, heavy with the weight of his fading breath.

  I stared at his corpse as if I expect him to breathe again but he didn't. Is it finally over?

  "Collect his body to be given to his family" I said. "He atoned for his sins with his life"

  A knight moved forward to scoop up the grand mage and I turned around to where the most people are. The strongest of them were already struggling to get up.

  Should I have all of them killed?

  "The war is over!" I said, voice loud but as dignified as I could. "I will grant you the mercies of not taking your lives now but that's the st of it. All enemies of Drakoria have till sunset to leave Drakorian nds, and never come back. Or you will face me again, but worse."

  And with that I started walking. War fought and won but I knew it won't be the st. Not after what Montreal have done, but for now I will focus on growing the kingdom. Drakoria will be a force to reckon with in no distant time and that can't happen if there are people still with our nds as theirs.

  Montreal, Crimea and Estonia. I can't take it one at a time, it has to be all at once, and for that I need money and time.

  I can get the money, and surely the time isn't distant. Surely.