No, this is all a dream, it can’t be real… But the drops of hot blood dripping on me wouldn’t let me lose my grip on reality. It really happened. I struck with my aura beneath myself, destroying both the bed and the floor underneath, and simultaneously activated all of my magic circles. I still had a chance, I hoped I still had a chance.

  Sixth-circle magical spell — Stable Time. I thought that using Stable Time in such a small area should last ten seconds, which was at once enough and catastrophically little to try to save Irgen. Above me loomed a satisfied Grim. You damn bastard! Pointy-ears, please, hold on a little longer…

  “Everything will be fine…” I whispered in her ear.

  I pulled nine spears from my storage and arranged them in a circle using my aura. In the center of them, a multilayered magic seal flared to life instantly. It was nothing like when Raman carefully crafted a seal — this all happened faster than a blink. Five ninth-class cores — more than enough for that bastard — so I placed them in the seal between the spears without a second thought. Everything — the spears and the seal — began to spin around its axis.

  “Kill him!” I pointed my finger at Grim.

  Nine spears of lightning flashed at once, and nine spears pierced Grim’s body from different angles faster than he could realize what was happening. He kept laughing, even as he started to look like a bug a cruel little brat had skewered with a toothpick. Nine times.

  “Wait for me there, I’ll deal with you soon.”

  Grim froze, pinned by the spears, and vomited a mouthful of blood. Near him, I sensed another God’s of War aura.

  “Vasa, give me a minute!” I screamed like a madman.

  I couldn’t fight right now.

  Nine seconds.

  Irgen’s pupils were dilated. She felt everything, saw everything, understood everything. Hold on, pointy-ears, I’ll come up with something, I won’t let you die. Because I’m selfish — maybe the most selfish person on this continent. And I still need you alive. That’s why… Damn it! My hands were trembling and my vision was blurring. Why…

  Vasa’s aura burst through the hotel roof and halted the other God’s of War aura. I focused and assessed Irgen’s injuries. It was horrible. Severed bronchi, left lung, heart, diaphragm, artery, stomach… it was nearly impossible. I had to do something I wasn’t capable of at my current aura mastery. But… the option to do nothing was even more terrifying. So…

  Eight seconds.

  I carefully pulled the glaive from her body, trying not to cause more harm with the broken blade, and began stitching together her torn heart with my aura. Why, why was it so unexpectedly difficult?! One of the mana circles around her shredded heart cracked, then turned to gray ash and dissolved before my eyes. I froze. I couldn’t consult her, couldn’t ask…

  Damn it, I need you alive, and I don’t care if you have magic or not. So stitch, you bastard, don’t think about anything else right now! I continued sewing the heart’s muscle fibers with threads of my aura. Another circle crumbled into ash… and another… Damn it, Aney, don’t lose focus! Now comes the most important part.

  Seven seconds.

  Now I had to do what only Gods of War could do. Materialize my aura, forming it into a soft skin around the heart I had stitched. Just for a little while, just long enough for it to heal under the effect of the restoration pills. I began pulling hundreds of thousands of aura hairs from myself and weaving them together. I had to hurry. I had to move faster…

  Six seconds.

  Almost there. Now, I had to fuse all of it with the surface of her heart. It had to be elastic enough to hold blood pressure, and soft and gentle enough not to interfere with its function. Damn it, the aura fibers had already started dissolving. Densify it. More. Again. Another of her mana circles turned to ash.

  Five seconds.

  Perhaps because of the swarm of thoughts in my head, my consciousness started to blur. Damn it, Aney, not now. I inhaled, realizing I had forgotten to breathe since I’d shouted at the Goddess of War. Refocusing, I saw the penultimate mana circle crumble away, around the heart now coated in a dense layer of my aura. Done, now… artery, lungs, bronchi… I had to manage as much as possible.

  Four seconds.

  Irgen’s last mana circle vanished. And my aura fully materialized, like armor forged from my desires. That gave me confidence, and I pushed the pace even further.

  Three seconds.

  Patches of my woven aura sealed all critical injuries.

  Two seconds.

  Time moved forward again, my spell breaking sooner than I had expected. Irgen jerked in my arms, her mouth opening in a silent scream of pain. I placed three crushed restoration pills into her mouth. Swallow, dammit, pointy-ears, swallow! The moment I was supposed to hear the thump of her heart passed. Then another. The girl’s heart wasn’t beating, she was dying despite everything I’d done. No no no, how could this be, it can’t end like this… I watched as her eyes slowly glazed over and felt her body trembling faintly in agony.

  “Fight! Fight, damn it!”

  This cry was directed both to the silent heart and to the girl, urging her not to give up. Unfortunately, they didn’t hear me. But the aura around the heart did—it pushed the blood forward sharply. Then again. And again.

  “Swallow those damn pills, please, Irgen!”

  I couldn’t tell whether she couldn’t or wouldn’t… If that’s the case… Forgive me once again. I pulled out another dozen pills and ground them into powder. Then I removed the aura patch I had just applied to her stomach and poured the powder directly into it.

  “It’s okay, little one, it’s all okay now. Everything will be fine.”

  I watched for a while as her wounds began to heal and she drifted off to sleep. Now everything would be fine. My aura would keep her heart beating until she fully recovered. I’d just kill a few bastards… I laid her down on the floor one level below and flew into the sky toward Vasa. The Goddess of War stood in a stance with two unsheathed sabers, her fearsome presence alone freezing her opponent in place.

  “Thank you, dear Vasa,” I bowed. “Please, grant your foolish student one last request. Take her to the Healers’ Guild.”

  Vasa nodded silently and instantly appeared beside Irgen, gently lifting her in her arms and walking away. I looked at Grim, who was vainly trying to pull at least one spear from himself. Just hang there a bit, I’ll have time for you later. I pulled out another spear and pointed it at the cardinal in the gray robe.

  “Churchman, you gave him the order…”

  It didn’t even sound like a question—more like a statement.

  “So what…”

  I didn’t let him finish and attacked. First sequential step, fourth-circle warped-space spell… Everything happened faster than a blink. We clashed in the sky, and the resulting shockwave reduced the surrounding buildings to dust. My spear severed the cardinal’s arm at the elbow. I caught it with my aura and pulled it to myself.

  Second-circle spell—wall of flame. Through the tongues of fire, I watched him writhe in pain as the limb turned to ash. Oh yes, Gods of War can feel parts of their bodies anywhere… Something was restricting my movement. I looked to my side—there was the hilt of a dagger sticking out. Fast bastard, I hadn’t even noticed how he’d done it. I swallowed a few recovery pills and yanked the weapon from my body, taking a closer look—it couldn’t be an ordinary dagger if it pierced my aura mail.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Right, ninth class, special property—blood absorption. I wondered how much of the God’s mana it had sucked out of me in those few seconds. Either way, I needed to keep it close to avoid an explosion. I stored it away and dispelled the wall of flame.

  “So then, shall we continue…”

  “You damned bastard, if you kill me…”

  “So what?”

  First sequential step—and the cardinal’s other arm flew off. Oh no, something like that shouldn’t go to waste. I caught it, removed the storage ring from his finger, and again summoned the wall of flame. This time, the cardinal screamed from the pain—he had broken, morally. The churchman realized he had lost and tried to flee, but I was faster. I struck his unprotected back with my spear at the center of his aura to completely rob him of resistance. The cardinal hung from the spear like an insect, flailing his stumps.

  “So, shall we go see your friend?”

  I carried him along, not removing him from the spear, making the cardinal wail with every step. Beautiful… How about this? I gave the spear a slight twist. The shriek became unbearable—so loud that if any windows had survived in the surrounding buildings, they would’ve shattered. Now this wasn’t just beautiful—it was downright cute…

  We reached Grim, who had nearly died by then.

  “Oh no, not so easy!” I shoved a recovery pill down his throat. “You’re staying alive a bit longer—I’ve got plans for you. You’ll love it, I swear.”

  I laid Grim and the cardinal on the ground where a hotel once stood—now just a damp crater. Nothing remained—no foundation, no people who might not have escaped. I threw the cardinal’s body to the ground and broke his legs in several places, just in case. I didn’t want to chase a limbless man through the city if he tried to run. His screams faded into pitiful whimpering.

  “How did the church change Grim’s aura so that I didn’t recognize it?” I asked the first question.

  “Go to hell, you bloody bastard!”

  “Alright.”

  I pulled the spear from him and slung it over my back, then tore open a hole in his belly with my hands—just large enough to fit a seventh-class monster core.

  “Grhaaaar!” the churchman howled.

  “See this?”

  I spun the core in front of his eyes, then shoved it into the hole and crushed it into sand.

  “Ghiiiii…”

  Blood-foam trickled from the cardinal’s mouth.

  “Wait wait wait, hold on, you can’t just die like that…”

  I had to feed the bastard more pills to bring him back to consciousness.

  “I’ll repeat the question—how did the church change that bastard’s aura?”

  I pointed at Grim, who was starting to come to and once again tried to pull the spears out of himself. Yeah, struggle harder. I grinned at the sight.

  “They’ll kill you, scum—you’re a dead man!”

  What to do with him… I summoned yellow circles of absorption with runes and widened them until we were inside. I extended my hand above the cardinal, and yellow clouds of monster mana burst from his body in geysers, boiling his blood.

  “Grhiieeee!” The churchman’s body arched from the unbearable pain.

  I withdrew my hand, calming the monster mana that was tearing apart the scum’s insides, and gave him more recovery pills.

  “Listen here, bastard!” I grabbed the cardinal by the hair. “Either you tell me everything now, or you’ll die like this endlessly. What’s your choice this time?”

  In response, the bastard spat in my face. Look at that—what a stubborn little shit…

  I dragged Grim closer again—he was already dying quietly once more. Damn it… Had to feed him pills again so he’d be able to answer my questions.

  “Your turn…” I yanked one of the spears out of him and pulled a seventh-class core from storage. “Your little friend over there waving his stumps doesn’t want to talk. Let’s see if you’re just as silent.”

  “I’ll tell you everything…”

  To hell with it. I shoved the core under his right lung and crushed it. The mana of the monsters, which had been leaking from the whole core in a thin stream, burst out in all directions after the destruction, scorching everything in its path.

  “Graaahhh! I’ll tell you everything, just stop!”

  I reduced the mana outflow and slapped Grim on the cheek.

  “Alright, speak…”

  “Grim! Scum!” the cardinal tried to influence him with his scream.

  “And you stay quiet, you had your chance.”

  I increased the mana flow from the cleric’s body again so that he thrashed helplessly in convulsions.

  “Now you can talk.”

  “The altar, it’s all the altar in the temple…”

  “The altar? What does it have to do with this?”

  “The altar takes a portion of mana and aura from people to pass it to the White Twins. But the cardinals can also, at their discretion, take a part from there to enhance someone. That’s why my aura changed, after I, after I…”

  I punched him hard in the face to shut him up. Bastards. Damn bastards, all of them — the White Twins, the clerics, Grim… By taking a part of people’s aura and mana, they shorten their lives. And all for the sake of power? They’re just monsters, worse than beasts. They see everyone here as cattle… I increased the mana flow from the shattered core in Grim’s body and fed him some recovery pills again.

  “Aaaaah! Don’t!” the God of War’s body began to convulse.

  “You’re being annoying.”

  Not wanting to hear his screams, I had to tear out his Adam’s apple along with a piece of trachea.

  “Be a good boy, don’t interrupt my talk with your friend.”

  I patted Grim on the cheek, looking into his eyes filled with pain and terror. Yes, it was time to return to the cardinal, with whom I still had a few questions. I reduced the mana flow from the cleric’s body, gave him a few pills, and crushed the bones in his legs again, which had already begun to heal.

  “Uuuuuh…”

  “Ready to talk now?”

  “What else do you…”

  “Who among the clerics gave the order to kill me?”

  “No one…”

  I slapped him, breaking several of his teeth in the process.

  “Who?!”

  “It was a collective decision of all nine cardinals… Grrhhh… Kruk’s Technique, it should not… Hrrrrriii… should not be…”

  “You’re talking about this technique?”

  I raised my index finger before his eyes, where a small black-and-white sun surrounded by a web of gray lightning had ignited. The cardinal’s eyes burned with genuine horror at the sight, his body trembling. I poked the finger into his thigh, causing it to explode in bloody splashes.

  “GRAAAAA!” the cardinal’s body convulsed in terrible agony, so I had to give him a few more pills.

  “Hrrrshhh…” – oh, that was Grim. Had the bastard’s throat really healed so quickly?

  I stood up and turned to the God of War. Indeed, a thin, still fragile trachea stretched from his neck to the torn chin, pulsing in sync with the carotid artery. I shrugged and casually tore it out. A quiet wheeze burst from Grim’s lungs along with splashes of blood.

  “So,” I turned to the cardinal, who had somewhat calmed under the effect of the drugs, “how many cardinals are currently in the capital?”

  “Two! Me and one more White Cardinal.”

  I once again compressed and twisted the aura at the tip of my finger and destroyed the foot on his other leg. From the explosion, the bones in his leg up to the knee joint cracked and crumbled to dust. The nerve endings remained intact, lying in a painful mesh among the bone debris. That’s right — the denser the environment, the faster and greater the damage.

  “Don’t lie to me, bastard, not again… How many cardinals are currently in the capital?”

  “Uuuuuuh,” it moaned, flailing the stumps of its arms.

  I slapped him again.

  “How many, bastard?!”

  “Four! Three White and one Gray!”

  Hmm, that sounded more like the truth. I crushed his larynx so he wouldn’t interfere with my thinking and stepped aside. Four. That’s equivalent to three higher-tier Gods of War and one mid-tier. And I only had myself and the formation of nine spears. Not enough for such a battle.

  Although…

  I looked at Grim and the cardinal, who were writhing quietly under the influence of monster mana. If I manage to destroy the altar before the battle begins, it could change everything. Let’s call it Plan A. But there has to be a Plan B as well. I poured out several dozen small vials and a few thousand sixth- and seventh-grade cores onto the ground. Then I lifted the cores into the air and began absorption, simultaneously filling the vials with God’s mana.

  I figured thirty to forty grams should be enough for each of the bastards. The agony of Grim and the cardinal kept distracting me, but I didn’t want them to die too quickly, so I continued watching them. In the end, there was even a certain aesthetic to it…

  I exhaled and stood up. Thanks to the thousands of cores, I had fully recovered and was filled with strength. Hiding the vials, I approached the two almost-dead bodies. What did the teacher say again? Every task must be completed?

  I raised my finger and lowered it to crush the cardinal’s head. From the aura strike, the skin and flesh on his face spread out like slime in all directions. Damn, they’re Gods of War — that trick wouldn’t work on them. I stepped right up to him, inspecting the bare bones of his skull and the large, unprotected eyes that spun wildly in the bloody sockets.

  “Just die already, bastard!” I stomped down on his forehead with my heel, finally causing his skull to explode and scatter brain matter for meters around.

  Wheezing Grim, watching me with one eye, began to twitch, hanging on the eight spears. He desperately wanted to tell me something but couldn’t.

  Not that I would’ve listened anyway. I methodically began pulling the spears out of him one by one, trying to make it as painful as possible. When I yanked out the last one, Grim fell to the ground like a sack of rags. I raised my leg and aimed a kick at his head, but the bastard twitched at the last moment, and the blow landed on his neck, crushing the cervical vertebrae.

  “Damn it, stop twitching!”

  The next blow was successful, and its effect surpassed even the cardinal’s brains.

  “Good. Good…”

  I exhaled. I was calm and indifferent to everything. I had to do it. Pulling out a cloak with a deep hood and the belt gifted by the second prince from my storage, I put them on. Then I deactivated both my magic, dimming the bright red circles, and the absorption magic.

  Total darkness fell — not a single intact building nearby, from whose windows even a little light could fall, remained. I felt how, somewhere far away, from all directions, the auras of the Gods of War began to twitch, having lost track of my location. Among them, I even recognized Vasa and Munk. Good. That’s good. I moved toward the main temple of the White Twins in the Northern Empire.