Marcel’s heart thumped louder and louder beneath his ribcage.

His breathing was ragged as he tried to stabilize himself.

"What is this?" He asked, quickly shutting up.

Beads of sweat dropped from his head to the ground, like he was doing a difficult task.

This was Mira’s skill, Override.

It forced the target’s unconscious behaviors to need conscious thought before they could continue.

This meant that as Marcel was, he was constantly willing his own heart to beat, his blood to flow, and his organs to work.

If he shifted focus for even a second, his body was going to implode.

Mira stepped closer calmly.

Her own body was also pale, a side effect of using Override.

Her body had to bear the full mental load.

Although she was not going to die from organ failure, just the burden of carrying the target’s thought was enough to make her head ache.

This was the reason she only used it as a last resort.

Marcel looked at her.

He noticed the fatigue etched in her face.

The way her legs moved weakly, and the shaky breaths that almost mirrored his own.

He could not think for long, but in that one second he could manage, he had deduced the perfect counter.

"Is she sharing my mental load?"

A shimmer appeared beside him.

It was the same starlight clone he had conjured earlier in the fight.

This time around however, instead of controlling it, he transferred the same skill Mira was using against him to it through their link.

Mira’s eyes widened.

Her body dropped to the floor instantly from mental overload.

She managed to hold on to avoid collapsing, but she could barely stand.

"Checkmate," Marcel thought.

He could not say anything else in the state he was in, or he would risk killing himself before Mira even released her skill.

Right now, she was under double the pain he was from mental strain, thanks to her skill affecting two people at once, him and his clone.

"We either die together or you free us. The ball is in your court."

Those were Marcel’s thoughts as he looked at her weak body sprawled on the floor.

If not for the fear of killing himself, he would have willed his legs to carry him toward her so he could deliver the finishing blow.

On the floor, Mira struggled to get back on her feet.

Her eyes flickered constantly, trying to stay open as she clawed her way back up.

She gripped her dagger tightly as she stood.

Her legs were shaky, spread apart to balance her weight.

She took a step forward.

Marcel’s gaze deepened as he saw her move.

"She’s crazy," he almost said, but held back at the thought of dying.

Slowly, Mira advanced, each step taking longer than the previous one.

Then she reached Marcel.

Her eyes, tired and heavy, landed on his frozen body.

For a moment, there was silence.

Unlike the silence before, this felt more oppressive.

The feeling of knowing that this one moment was going to decide their fates hung over everything.

Mira raised her dagger, stopping just above Marcel’s head.

She brought it down, cleanly.

It sliced through the air, then a thud.

The sound echoed through the night, breaking the silence like fragile glass.

"Huh?" Marcel muttered.

His body was freed. His heart beating regularly, his blood flowing normally, his organs following their regular patterns.

He looked to the floor, to the place where Mira had fallen.

She was unconscious, eyes shut tightly, breath waning.

"So, who is dying now?" A crazed laugh erupted from Marcel’s mouth as he looked at Mira’s body.

He raised his sword in the next instant, his clone disintegrating into an armor of starlight around him.

He swung down, aiming precisely at Mira’s neck.

Clang.

The sound of metal striking metal reached through the darkness.

"Scram."

The voice came, cold and emotionless.

Silas pulled his katana back in the next instant.

His sword flashed forward within the same breath, piercing through Marcel’s heart.

His eyes widened in surprise.

"He reached here already?" He thought as his eyes closed.

Silas withdrew his sword, swinging it to remove the blood coating it.

He picked Mira up and began to feed her restoration potions.

After some time, her eyes opened slowly.

The blood in her eyes made Silas feel nauseous.

"What happened here?" He thought as he steadied her.

Mira looked at Silas. Her eyes and face still carried the same stoic expression, but beneath it, she was shocked out of her mind.

"Thank you," she said with a curt bow.

Silas nodded as he looked at Marcel’s corpse and the pooling blood around his body.

Then he turned to face Mira again.

"Are you okay now?" He asked.

He wanted to be sure before leaving.

He had a bad feeling that Billie and Miller were also facing similar, if not worse, problems.

Mira looked around for a while, then nodded.

"Yes."

The word was straight and direct, not even carrying the kind of cheerfulness one would expect from someone who had just been saved.

But Silas accepted it anyway.

"Take care, head to the house immediately. I will meet you there soon."

As he said these words, he shot into the sky, destroying the earth beneath him from the force of his ascent.

Without waiting, he streaked forward, a blue light enveloping his entire being.

"I just hope Billie and Miller are okay," he muttered as he pressed further.

"That should be the place," Silas said.

After thirty minutes of flying, he finally saw it.

The area was in ruins, vast craters littered the ground like an earthquake had just occurred there.

The air smelled of charred leaves and stone.

Silas reached a conclusion instantly. "They have used the Transcension Potion."

His gaze pierced through the darkness as he tracked every clue he could find.

"There."

He burst forward again in a streak of blue.

Stopping mid air, he looked down at the scene below.

There was Miller, counting down. Billie, preparing to attack.

And on the other side, an enemy who held a civilian hostage.

He flicked his wrist and motes of aether tore down at the enemy, cold and merciless.