Shiim!

A large piece of gleaming black metal tore through the sky.

Chuuk!

Piercing all seven beasts to a standstill as they stood in a single file.

Boom!

The cracked soil caved in tremendously, blowing up a wall of dust and those approaching were blown back.

Blood dripped off the blade continuously, forming a puddle in mere seconds with a deathly silence right behind it.

They could only be silent. The shock was too much.

Experts were unable to register the attack taking glances at one another while wiping off the dust on their faces. Ezra and John had their faces to the sky.

Then, the clouds split to reveal the skinny figure whose clothes had wings attached, with half of his face hidden behind a black veil.

Ezra could see this thanks to his clarity rune, his eyes never left the figure in the sky.

Ezra could release an attack of such caliber, but not casually.

So, the level of the flying man lay bare, even if he thoroughly concealed it.

\'Grandmaster\'

The metal drew out of the Beast\'s bodies, and they fell backwards like trees.

The blade dismantled, scattering into many pieces and attached to the wings in layers, rapidly increasing them in size.

The grandmaster landed meters away from Ezra soon after, each flap of his wings coughed up a lot of dust.

"I am Finstor Deneris. A Grandmaster sent to oversee things here" he says.

"Ezra Miller at your service"

\'Miller?\' Finstor\'s eyes widened. Taking a quick scan of Ezra.

"I did not expect to see royalty here"

"Unfortunately, it was an impromptu decision"

"I see. Take me to your commander"

Ezra stepped forth. "Here he is"

Deneris gave a weird look.

"The last commander died"

Deneris gave a slight nod, leaving his comments unsaid.

His gaze pervades the destroyed landscape. "What is the highest of the Beast you\'ve encountered?"

"B rank" said Ezra, locking eyes with Deneris.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely"

"How many of them?"

Ezra points to the seven bodies sprawled on the ground, his other hand holding onto the sword tighter. "Apart from those few? Two"

"You seem to be on the lucky side of things"

His wings start flapping and he takes off.

Ezra\'s gaze followed his figure as it disappeared into the horizon, and once it was out of sight, Ezra breathed a sigh of relief.

Touching his neck where the cold feeling usually came from.

The feeling didn\'t grow any colder, or Ezra would\'ve attacked Deneris without any question.

More importantly, Ezra caught onto something else.

\'The grandmasters are personally taking action?\'

They didn\'t take action in his past life-because Niton\'s population of masters was enough to take care of things.

It was evidence that they were deviating from the future he knew more and more as time passed.

"Boss" Theron called.

Ezra whipped his head to the side; the others were waiting for his orders.

"Gather the corpses and let\'s head back to the fortress"

_________

Niton witnessed a show of power as Grandmasters decimated the Beast hordes terrorizing the Empire.

Places close to the Traxford had it better than others because of Black Jaws.

Under Fredrick\'s command, cities and towns were assigned \'important\' or \'unimportant\'.

Places deemed important was where the cavalry was sent, troops numbering hundreds, while non important got the opposite.

For non-important places, members were ordered to retreat the moment a force beyond their ability appeared.

Surely, Gattiste was part of the latter, hence the few members.

Thanks to Ezra\'s warnings. Except for land, most things owned by Black Jaws had been kept safe, leaving just enough to avoid any accusations that they\'d known about the beast tide beforehand.

_________

Gathered in the Russel palace were six men, each garbed in different armours.

Each person being a person of importance anywhere in Orion, the pressure they gave off was nothing to scoff at.

The atmosphere was as tense as ever.

"Irazet, Preston, Baldric. This is…surprising"

Gaga made a sad smile with Gilliard standing beside him. All the members in the room were grandmasters, and at the same time, all of them were puppets.

He recognized these three because they were kings of neighbouring kingdoms.

He didn\'t know the last guy. "Who are you?"

"Revenmar"

Clearly, the other party was unwilling to communicate, so Gaga kept to himself, while his mind whirred.

\'Six grandmasters…h(huán)ow terrifying\'

No one else spoke, they weren\'t here because they wanted to be in the first place.

Recalling the summons, Gaga\'s expression hardened.

He wasn\'t curious as to why they were summoned, because he knew it was nothing good.

On cue, the red mirror laying at the center lit up, and from it, a face was illuminated, but this face was hidden beneath a skull mask.

The raspy tone came again. "Ah, I see you\'ve all gathered"

None spoke as he continued.

"Alright then. There\'s been a change of plans"

"What does that mean?" Gaga questioned.

"It means we\'ll have to go about our plans a bit differently, because of a few nuances" he said.

"This is what you\'ll do…

Over the next five minutes, the leader explained their new course of action.

"What?!" unsurprisingly, Gaga was against it.

"You heard me clearly"

"That can never happen. I will not allow it"

The face stared him down for a short while.

"Such pity. I guess this is the end" the tone turned cold. "Kill him"

Puhk!

Gaga quivered, blood running down his mouth as he looked to see his heart beating in the arm stretching through his chest.

Kugh!

Gaga spat out large amounts of blood, his eyes now bloodshot.

Slowly, he looked to the side to see Gilliard.

"What are you doing?!"

Each word flew out of his with a spurt of blood.

But he realized that the one he was speaking with was not his son, for in the eyes of his once loving son, was now a gaze cold and unfeeling.

"The demon lord demands it" said Gilliard, ripping out his arm from Gaga\'s chest.

As the Russel\'s king saw his body fall to the ground, unable to do a thing, only then did he realize how horrible a mistake he\'d made.

He falls to the floor, his crown bouncing off like the trinket it was.

Gaga stared into the white skies beyond his palace, an unending regret lay in his heart with the solemn wish of undoing his mistake.

Yet the world refused to reply.

A tear dropped as he let out a silent cry before breathing his last, his eyes wide.

Who would have thought that death would come so swiftly? Indeed, Gaga had not woken up to think he would die hours later, in a pool of his own blood.

Others made not a change in expression, even Gilliard did not look twice at the body of his father.

"Now" the skull said. "I will have someone come and pick up his body. Get to it"

"For the Demon Lord" they hailed.

The grandmasters promptly dispersed, for each an opponent of his own.

Desperate times called for desperate measures and Big events called for Big Moves.

Pieces moving to a destination uncertain, with the future deviating into chaos, a crescendo was soon to be reached

________

Night fell. Soldiers moved about the fortress, rowdy as ever, talking about Deneris\' mind blowing attack.

News that grandmasters were actively helping with the beast tide had spread beyond the edges of Orion and calmed a lot of hearts.

But Ezra\'s heart was not at peace, because the feeling came along that night.

In his tent, Ezra stared at the mana stones in his palm, unsure of what path to take.

With a grandmaster coming for him, it would be most viable that Ezra advanced as well.

But he wasn\'t at the Late stage yet, moreover, the last time he forced a breakthrough he almost died, Ezra wasn\'t so quick to forget that.

\'Come on, come on, come on\' he chanted within himself, staring at the four mana stones in his palm.

Slowly, he raised them towards his mouth, but at the crucial juncture…

\'No, no, I can\'t\' He drops it. \'It\'s too risky\'

Quickly, he sucks them into his ring as he rubs in hair frustration.

While ruminating, Benjamin steps in.

"Sir, we\'ve found the boy"

Ezra plopped to his feet with thoughts of the approaching danger melting into the background as his expression of frustration melds into one of menacing glee.

"Where?"

"At the intersect-uuu!" Benjamin shivered as Ezra\'s face shone under starlight.

"Is there something on my face?"

"N-No-Not at all Sir!" Benjamin cried out, still unable to look away.

A grin stretched across Ezra\'s face, his eyes glimmering with glee. Like a beast almost on its prey, Ezra seemed possessed.

Benjamin was thoroughly afraid, but managed to speak the coordinates in stutters.

Ezra dashed away the moment Benjamin said the last word.

\'Marcus, here I come\'

After waiting for so long, it was time to take his first steps in paying his dues to ones to use him as a discarded tool.

Ezra\'s skin stood from the exhilaration, envisioning how Marcus would react before and after he was done with him.

Across the silent city looking almost dead, whose only light was the moon, Ezra rode along the streets adeptly, the winds generated by his speed blew the dust away.

Taking seconds to register the road signs as the height of his brain was functioning, Ezra reached his destination in less than two minutes-and it was at the other end of the city!

He skidded to a halt, calming his pounding heart as he walked ever so slowly to the boy\'s abode.

When suddenly…space warped, and a familiar figure appeared behind him.

"What are you doing?"