The mother's sister had pushed her out of the way at the very last second. So instead of losing her heart she had lost most of her left shoulder when the nihilate struck.

  "Do you feel that?" the shadow whispered to him in his head.

  It was real bad. It felt like there was another mage nearby, but he couldn't tell where the sensation was coming from. Only a moment later did he feel the tremors beneath his feet.

  "Shit!"

  He scooped up Cherry in his arms and threw himself to the side. The girl struggled against his grip for dear life while crying nonstop. As he turned his head he saw countless razor sharp stalagmites where he and Cherry had stood only seconds ago.

  "That would have killed the kid as well as me you idiots!" he screamed at the two women.

  He quickly raised his left hand and took aim at the aunt kneeling by her sister's side and channeled his power into the spell. She had left herself open and she was certainly going to regret that in a moment if she survived.

  "Nihilate!"

  His aim hadn't been the best, but the spell still landed. With a loud bang her left leg was turned into a fine pink mist as the nihilation struck her. He had reduced her expected lifespan to mere minutes at best if she didn't find some way to stop the bleeding, but she wasn't dead.

  "It wasn't her! It's not her spirit!" Cherry cried out as she fought to hold back the tears.

  Children were almost always too honest, which meant what Cherry had screamed could well be true, and if she was right then he was in far more trouble than he had expected.

  If the spirit didn't belong to the mother or the aunt, then it had to be another Autumn witch targeting him. The problem was that he had no experience when it came to spirits, but if his hunch was on point then it was hiding somewhere in the ground beneath him. Cherry was just a kid, but she was an Autumn so she had to know something about the thing.

  "If you want to survive this, then you're going to have to tell me what that thing is," he whispered to Cherry as he directed most of his focus towards tracking the weird sensation that the thing was giving off.

  "It's Legbiter! It lives in the ground and eats you up if you get in its way!"

  Eat you up? More like impale you where you stand. If it hid in the earth beneath him then there was no chance he would be able to take it out with the nihilation unless he could make it reveal itself. The spirit had been indiscriminate when it had tried to attack him, which meant it could be targeting both of them unless it just happened to be incredibly stupid.

  He pushed Cherry over towards her injured mother and aunt before running off in the opposite direction. How it reacted would give him more workable information even if it ended up being a massive blunder. If it was targeting the both of them, then it would most likely go for the helpless little girl first and give him an opening.

  The thing hiding in the ground immediately beelined towards Cherry the moment she was alone. That meant it was either incredibly stupid or stupidly efficient when it came to its methods. He took aim at the ground right in front of Cherry's feet and charged the spell with power.

  "Nihilate!"

  Just as Legbiter was about to attack the child, it was struck directly by the nihilation. It had partially surfaced as it swam towards her and that had left its back exposed. He heard a shrill cry that seemed to come from within his own head as its spine of jagged stones exploded and left a dust cloud where it had once been as it retreated deeper into the ground.

  The thing was hunting them both, which meant Cherry had been right about the fact that her mother or aunt hadn't called it. If he was going to make it out of the quarry alive he would have to find the one controlling it, but seeing as he couldn't even sense its controller it had to mean they were either hiding nearby or had sent it from somewhere far away.

  Jane had told him that a spirit would most likely return to the place it had been born if you killed the one that had bound it, but that would only be possible if the one controlling it was nearby. He would have to make them reveal themselves if they were hiding somewhere in his vicinity and directing it.

  "I doubt the two of you are weak enough to die from mere loss of limb so protect that stupid kid and stay out of my way!" he shouted at them before running towards one of the larger mounds of crushed limestone.

  The earth was roiling beneath him as Legbiter swam towards him, but there was no time for doubt. Either the plan would work or he was as good as dead.

  As he reached the top of the mound, he could sense Legbiter circling him. It wasn't striking, which meant now was the time to enact his plan. He charged the nihil and directed it at the concept of concealment.

  "Nihil."

  The wave of nothingness spread out in the area around him searching for whatever it had been commanded to erase. This was the do or die moment. If the binder wasn't nearby or the spell failed to work he would fail, but if it worked he would most likely be able to strike the one that had called Legbiter before they could stop him.

  His senses tingled as a new source of magic emanating from somewhere at the opposite side of the quarry made itself known. He saw the outline of someone running for cover behind one of the many mounds around the quarry, but he had the high ground and they weren't nearly fast enough to avoid the nihilation with speed alone.

  Just as Legbiter attacked he threw himself off the side of the mound and channeled as much power as he could muster into the nihilation. A broken leg or cracked ribs would be a small price to pay for victory, and he wasn't going to take any chances with this attack.

  "Nihilate!"

  All he heard was a defeaning bang and all he saw was the blinding flash of light. His breath was knocked right out of him as he slammed into the ground. The pain of what had to be cracked ribs and the unbearable stinging pain in his hands wouldn't stop him. He just grit his teeth and forced himself back up on his feet.

  As his vision cleared he saw that one face of a distant mound had been painted a deep red. Even an indirect hit would have been fatal with that kind of power behind the spell and the smell of blood on the air didn't bode well for his would be ambusher's fate.

  He couldn't sense Legbiter anymore, which all but confirmed that he had killed its master. The bond was broken and now he just had to finish off Cherry's injured mother and aunt. When it was all said and done he could finally rest knowing he had dealt with three Autumn witches in one fell swoop.

  He could see the terror in their eyes as he approached the three of them. He walked with a slight slimp due to the pain, but the damage to his body was superficial as far as he was concerned. The two older women immediately pulled Cherry behind them to shield her with their bodies, but they made no attempt to throw any magic at him.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Looks like I was right about you two not being weak enough to succumb to mere loss of limb," he muttered as he raised his finger and pointed towards them.

  They both looked incredibly drained and what should have been profusely bleeding stumps where the nihilation had struck them instead looked more like nasty big lumps of scar tissue. They had healed themselves somehow, but it seemed to have taken most of their power just to stabilize their own condition.

  "What do you want from us!" the mother cried out as her will broke and tears began to fall.

  "Didn't you hear me earlier? I defeated the assassin that your clan sent out."

  "Your clan made the mistake of getting in my way, so now I'll just have to keep killing you until there's no one left," he sighed as he began channeling the fading power within him.

  "We sent him to kill a Winters witch! We have no quarrel with you!" the aunt screamed at him with tears in her eyes.

  He pointed his finger at her other leg and invoked the spell as he stared at them with cold dead eyes. That had really pissed him off and his rage wouldn't let her slip into the night painlessly.

  "Nihilate..."

  Her remaining leg was blown clean off at the knee. He hadn't used that much power to make sure he wouldn't worsen the strain the earlier spells had put on his body, which left him plenty to work with when he would finally finish them off.

  "Poor response, mind rephrasing yourself or do I have to take an arm as well?"

  "She didn't mean it! But when you decide to kill us then will you please spare my daughter at the very least? She's just a little girl!"

  The mother was a decently good parent at the very least. She may have been weak, but even when faced with her inevitable death she only wanted her daughter to be safe.

  "What if we officially surrender? We swear to step away from this war and lay down our weapons for good!"

  "Sister! How dare you even consider declaring yourself a non-combatant, have you no pride!"

  Well the aunt just sealed her fate. Once an enemy always an enemy. He raised his hand towards her head and sighed.

  "Nihilate."

  Blood rained on the mother and daughter before him as her head exploded like a chunky blood filled balloon. They were both in shock, but shock quickly turned into abject horror.

  "Sister!"

  "She was getting on my nerves, and how can I even trust your word when your sister is no different than the rest of your clan?" he said as he raised his hand towards the mother's head.

  Her eyes went wide as the power surged within him. She could most likely sense her impending death and her next action would determine if she had a future at all.

  "In war even civilians can be a threat. I have no way of ensuring that you won't tell the rest of the clan about everything you've learned here, which is something the history books have proven time and again."

  "I'll do anything you want! Just please spare my daughter," she cried weakly.

  Anything could mean a lot of things, but he wasn't interested in thinking about the sort of things someone else would have done had they been in this exact situation. Killing them both would be the cleanest solution, but that also meant painting the quarry red with the blood of a child. The nihil had been able to suppress her free will so maybe he could use it to erase her memories as well if he was careful enough.

  This was a perfect time to extract some information from the woman, but seeing as he had been followed by another of their clan it would also mean putting himself at risk of encountering more ambushes if there were more laying in wait.

  "See you're making this quite hard for me because killing both of you is starting to seem like the more merciful option," he said as he gave the corpse of the mother's sister a firm kick in the side.

  That should have made him seem even more menacing in their eyes. All he was doing was kicking a lump of dying tissues, but in their eyes he had desecrated a dead relative.

  "Please! We'll do anything you ask just please don't kill Cherry!"

  She was in hysterics. Nothing she said would be useful and torture had been proven ineffective in producing accurate confessions by history countless times. She was going to say anything she thought he wanted to hear and none of it would be as useful as he would like it to be. Any promise she gave him under duress would mean nothing once her mind recovered.

  "Nihil."

  He aimed the wave of nothingness at the young girl and commanded it to devour her memories. Her eyes went blank in an instant and she dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

  "No!" the mother cried out in horror as her daughter fell to the ground like a sack potatoes.

  The little girl was breathing so the nihil hadn't destroyed her autonomic functions, but she appeared to be comatose. There was a very real chance he had just killed her in a way, but if her body still lived there was always hope she may one day recover. It was the one merciful thing he could do for the girl named Cherry on this day. A chance she would never truly remember what she had lost.

  He had used far more power on the spell than he thought was necessary to wipe the memory of the day from her mind, but it was with good reason. If it had worked as he had intended then she would never know what he had taken from her.

  "I suppose the good in me was victorious in the end," he sighed as he looked at the mother holding her comatose child in her remaining arm.

  "What did you do to my daughter?!"

  The nihil was still somewhat of a mystery to him. Its potential was great, but he could never be sure of its efficacy when he used it. A tool you couldn't trust was likely to hurt the user in the end after all, so he would just have to pray it had done its job as intended.

  "If we're lucky she'll never remember any of it, but honestly killing her might have been more merciful."

  She might never remember her mother or any of her family members for that matter. Memories were fickle things and they rarely returned if you lost them. The nihil might have wiped her brain clean for all he knew, but that was still better than actually killing a child.

  "Do you have any last words you want to say to her?" he asked her.

  His weakness had won in the end. The heart couldn't bear the thought of not letting a mother leave a final message for their daughter, even if there was a very real chance Cherry would never truly remember her. If Cherry one day overcame the erasure of her memories or even woke up for that matter, then he would personally deliver the message to her if he still drew breath. That much he promised himself.

  "Why are you doing this?"

  "Love I suppose, and I would be lying if I told you the bloodshed wasn't a bit exciting from time to time."

  She seemed to gaze through him for a moment before her eyes went wide. Had she seen something within him or had she maybe witnessed his soul?

  "You're under a familiar bond, but it shouldn't even be possible to bind a human soul as a familiar!"

  The desire to kill became almost overwhelming in an instant. He just barely stopped himself from casting the nihilation on her then and there. It was like something inside of him demanded that he end her before she could speak another word, but he just forced his body to obey him as the command wreaked havoc on his mind.

  "What the hell do you mean!" he screamed as he forced his body to stay put with nothing but his fraying willpower.

  "We must kill her now!" the shadow howled in anguish from somewhere within the recesses of his mind.

  "Someone has bound your soul and made you into a living weapon," she said as quickly as she could.

  Memories rushed to the forefront of his mind. It must have been when they were on the roof. The promise he had made and the bond he always felt between them. Had Jane been controlling him this entire time? She had to be lying, but the strange urge to finish her off immediately said otherwise.

  "They will most likely throw you away the moment you stop being useful to them!"

  "You're enslaved, but you can fight it!" the woman shouted at him.

  Maybe there was some way to suppress it? He could try using the nihil to wipe his emotions away and return to the emptiness. Maybe then he could think it through rationally and figure out some solution.

  "Nihil!"

  The nothingness tore through him like a wave of ice cold water. It felt like his heart had been stopped and it left him alone with nothing but his thoughts.

  "Can the bond be broken," he said in a cold empty monotone.

  "Not even death severs the bond, you either have to tear your own soul apart or have the creator break it."

  Perhaps the nihil would be able to break it, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to consider it. It was like his mind refused to even consider the idea.

  "It's different from how the normal familiar bond works, but if you give me some time I might be able to..."

  "Nihilate."

  Her headless body slumped over on the ground next to her comatose daughter. The Autumn clan couldn't be trusted even if Jane was controlling his actions and he wouldn't let himself waste any time listening to the former person in front of him when he had already spent far too much time on doing so.

  What he needed to do was find Jane and force her to either break or alter the bond. He could sense her through that strange connection tugging on his heart so it was just a matter of time before he managed to hunt her down.

  She would have to answer for this, and if she valued her future she would comply with his every demand.

  "You will pay for what you've done to me, Jane."