The tower’s tip plunged like a meteor and smashed into the rocky earth with a thunder-drum roar. Eyes jerked toward it like iron to a magnet, yet feet skittered back as from a cliff edge.

Cecilia’s heart burned like dry tinder as she sprinted under the Lita Sisters’ spellwind. The Stone of Truth in her arms was a lone lamp in storm-dark night, the last hope to save all.

Gill was flecked with blood, his brown eyes cold as winter water. Their sword and footwork weren’t on the same peak; a blowout was as natural as a rockslide.

He vaulted suddenly, a hawk dropping, and leaped off the castle more than ten meters high. Medith stared, stunned, as seconds fell like pebbles; then Gill hit the ground.

Somehow he bled the impact into the earth like rain into sand. The ground boomed into a ten-meter-wide pit, while he stood unruffled like a pine in wind.

Medith dove after, toes tapping like a swallow on reeds, skimming junk below to bleed off force.

Gill angled his flight on purpose, sprinting onto an open road like an arrow to a knot. Crossroads spread four ways like a net; this was a key junction at a glance.

A prickle ran up Medith’s spine like frost; her face set storm-dark.

"If I can help it, I don’t want this," he said, faith creaking like an old gate. "But this is a mourning fight and a revenge fight. We both have reason to put the other in the ground. No more holding back. Come, Medith. Witness godly power. Lei! Ji! Duo—"

Light flared at Gill’s heart like a lotus opening; a violet flame bloomed and licked his chest.

Then the earth around him split like drought-cracked clay, and houses within a hundred meters shimmered like kilns.

The air thinned as if wrung dry, a squeezed sponge over a fire.

The ground withered to fissures, and every flower and tree curled like burned paper.

Snakes, rats, bugs, and ants roasted to charcoal, bodies venting white steam like kettles.

Medith stood within it, bracing on raw grit like a cliff against surf, then chose to fall back.

"Too late," Gill rasped, his voice a judge from the underworld, rough as chain on stone.

Medith’s phoenix eyes flared wide; the ground burst like ice in spring, then a violet pillar roared up a hundred meters wide. The pillar speared the sky and painted the land a demonic purple-red, like dusk set on fire.

Everything within its reach burned to nothing, turned to ash that drifted like gray snow. The purple fire rose again and ate even the ash, a snake swallowing its tail.

Woom—crackle, crackle...

The giant violet blaze clawed up to the heavens, its heat-wind sweeping houses five hundred meters out like a desert gust. Windows couldn’t bear it and burst like thin ice; road signs lifted, flipped, and melted like wax.

Many civilians, too late or unwilling to flee, were caught like leaves in a wildfire and suffered searing burns.

For a moment the city was all wails and panic, rescue and flight tangled like a flock in a storm.

Many in the Kuso Guild finally grasped whose tail they’d stepped on; their Guildmaster’s full Magic Breaker was a first in their lives.

"Hurry—hurry—" Cecilia’s terror pounded like a drum; the duel had climbed into death-match air. If she didn’t reach them, it would end only in death, like two rams on a cliff.

"What’s going on?!" Sais felt the tremor and heat roll in underground, like an earthquake breathing fire.

Jade stripped off her ninja garb and knotted it at her waist, thick bandages masking her curves like fog over hills. The look dragged her closer to a man’s silhouette, a shadow reshaped by cloth.

Sweat poured down her face like rain. "Hey... how are you fine? I’m roasting here..."

Sais stuck out her tongue. "A Wind Sprite comes with summer-cool, can strain hot air like a sieve. But even the air’s turning molten. I won’t last long."

"Then... can you wring the heat around me too?" Jade panted, sweat beading like dew.

Sais tipped her chin, showing her hands still bound like a trussed bird.

Jade cursed under her breath, loosened the restraint on Sais’s right hand, and Sais flicked a hand like wind over water. Coolth spilled; Jade felt relief like shade at noon. She pulled two jugs of water and handed one to Sais like passing a canteen on a march.

Sais drank it down like the parched in a desert. "Even the water’s hot. What the hell is it?"

"Tsk... ha... hoo~" Jade let out a pleased sigh, like a cat in sun. "Gill used his Magic Breaker. Full power. I’ve never seen anything this fierce in my life."

"What?! That’s Gill’s Magic Breaker?" Panic flooded first, thoughts trailing like torn silk. "Let me out. I have to back Medith!"

Tears stung Sais’s eyes like smoke; she pictured Medith alone against that storm, burdened with guilt, grief, and rage like stones in a pack.

Jade crossed her long legs, amusement playing on her face like ripples. "Did you take me for one of yours?

"Who lives or dies isn’t fixed yet. You staying put is good for you and me."

"Then let me out, and I’ll say I escaped. It won’t drag you down. Please, okay?" Sais’s urgency shook like a bowstring.

Jade snorted, dismissive as a flicked ash. "Give me a break. Gill’s seething. His brother’s dead. Eddie got blasted to dust. Haywood and Gus are likely dead too. And hundreds from the guild.

"If you run now, I take the blame. I can’t beat him. I do think your guildmaster wins, but there’s always exceptions. Sit tight, yeah?"

Sais bit down her fury like biting a chili, then thought it through; Jade’s words weren’t baseless as stones. For now, all she could do was pray, like a candle before a shrine.

"Aa-oh-oh—" Gill roared inside the flames, a hell-bellow raking his throat like rusted iron.

After five heartbeats, the fire pillar blew apart like a bursting star and curled into thick smoke that sank back into him.

And what stood there, looming like a statue in stormlight, was—