---Cassiel's point of view---

  -''Looking for this?'' He raised the dark sphere that must have been the real deal.

  -That's fair. But can you handle the enormity of what it represents?

  With inhuman speed he threw the sphere with great force at me! Barely had I the time to block it with the dud. The impact sent the painful momentum through my bones, and the sphere that was a fake shattered. Spraying me with hundreds of sharp glass shards, though mercifully I had managed to evade my face from most. I fell backward hard, landing on an exhibit. My hand went instinctively to the holster of my sidearm. However, I had to abort my intention and jump behind the marble cover of a larger exhibit as my frenemy drew his machine-pistol faster. Spraying my area in a shower of bullets.

  -Tsk. It's been so long, and you'd rather pull your flimsy pistol at me than talk.

  -I have to hand it to you. I was caught off guard by the sheer balls of your plan my friend! Might I say that I would have been in an unlikeable position hadn't I chose to spend this morning at my study within my grand collection room.

  -''Sorry if I disturbed your morning cup of tea.'' I answered behind the cover before throwing a fragmentation grenade over my shelter.

  The explosion boomed, yet I heard no tell-tale sound of flesh being impacted. In the next moment I beheld a great block of granite which was the base of another exhibit, crushing against the wall and ceiling above me. About to fall next on me! Had his force been more controlled in his throw I would have not had the time to have sprinted from my place before it would have crushed me utterly. I sprang from one exhibit to the next. Taking cover behind each as I shot with my handgun. Emptying a magazine within a handful of seconds. To my frustration none seemed to make their mark despite as good a marksman as I was.

  I had finally settled taking cover behind an exhibit near the exit which I had closed behind me when I first entered. On the other side I could hear my meepoo making battle with what possibly was a mercenary squad. I could hear the tell-tale hiss of the pneumatic chargers releasing deadly super-heated shurikens. The frequent times I heard it deploy grenades was alarming. It meant it was hard-pressed against a large number of bodies coming his way.

  -Really, my old friend. This would have been so much simpler if you just came to visit me without hostile intent.

  -''Your words are poisoned, I will not be disarmed!'' I replied.

  His voice was his as I remembered alright. But it had something different in it. A venomous tinge, an abnormal inflexion. As if speaking half-truths, hoping not to invite alarm but a sense of false calmness. As if that were still possible in our situation.

  -''You are not the man I once knew. You are but a grotesque monster with his voice and memories! Whatever had hold of you so long back then took you, changed you. If not that then the eons until today have eroded what humanity was left in you after the End Wars!'' I spoke, trying to buy time. In response, I heard him stopping his approach towards me to laugh wholeheartedly.

  -''MeEee-poo!'' I could hear the injured meepoo weep outside the doors.

  ''I'm sorry little buddy, but both of you are in the best position I could hope for''. I thought as I tapped on the mini computer strapped on my left arm, activating the self-destruct. The meepoo read the signal. Dutifully notifying me with a four-second countdown before its internal trio of high density blast charges would detonate.

  I sprang from the cover of the heavy marble block and against the opposite wall. Since it had a designed structural delve which would shield me from the blast at the entrance. I saw my former friend's face as I did, and in the next second a powerful explosion blasted the doors open. The full force and debris engulfing the sarkaz demon.

  It was an intense blast force that shook me greatly. To the point that I almost feared the walls behind me wouldn't hold. The meepoo having carried deep inside its metal body a satchel charge worth of high yield compressed blast charges. Originally meant to destroy and melt even steel beams.

  The area was now a ruin, full of smoke and fire. The impressive artworks and artefacts that were once held in this room and in the hallways outside were now lost to eternity. I coughed heavily as I stuck to the floor. Crawling with my pistol in hand. The smoke was that dense and chocking. And I had a hard time trying to spot that fucking sphere that put me through all this trouble.

  I could see very little in the haze of smoke and dust. But I very well heard the pile of shattered glass being disturbed somewhere on the opposite side of that great room. I sprinted instantly, jumping out of the room and into the equally devastated hallway as I heard the unmistakable sound of the pistol-machine's ''trrrr'' spraying my area with bullets. A few managing to find their mark on me.

  I grunted in pain as I pressed the wall to my back, throwing another grenade into the room. A satisfying boom reverberated with many peppering, ricocheting sounds. My shoulder was hot with pain. I was sure one bullet was stuck in there. My gift always helped me in such cases by dimming the actual amount of pain and quickly closing bleeding wounds. Yet this would affect the aim of my good arm. And it still hurt like Hell.

  I steeled myself before turning the corner back into the room, wielding my sidearm. However, I wasn't prepared for the close up meeting with my former friend being there just in front of me. He slapped the gun right out of my grip, and with great force kicked his foot right into my chest. Propelling me backwards, and slamming me through the burning doors of a second, untouched gallery room.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  I chocked as the momentum of his kick had pushed all the air out of my lungs. If it weren't for my bulletproof vest with the added ceramic alloy sheet, his kick would have ruptured my chest and broken my ribs. His inhuman strength was that incredible. I quickly crawled behind one exhibit in hope of hiding enough to buy more time to think of a strategy. And I didn't have to wait long. Pulling out a satchel charge I had I've left it behind an exhibit near the entrance before crawling further inside the room.

  -''Are you done trashing my art collection old friend? I swear others would have been utterly enraged at this needless loss. Now where are you running away? Weren't you after my magical crystal ball?'' He spoke before delving into another hearty laugh.

  -Though rest assured you will pay. You will definitely pay for all you have done today. It was not enough to trash my priceless collection gathered throughout history, but you had to destroy my manor as well!? I was quite fond of it.

  -''You can cease talking as he did. You're not gonna fool me, demon.'' I spoke as I walked out to face him, though tactically at the opposite end of the room.

  Having come out in plain sight prompted him to stop his pace just besides the exhibit I wanted him by.

  -''I will talk however I like. Who are you to have a say or judge me? You live throughout the eons and see what's left of your soul at the end of it!'' He spoke visibly angered now.

  -''Who forced you to live until you withered?'' I asked in rebuttal.

  -And what was I supposed to do then?

  -To die while you were still yourself! While you still had your humanity with you!

  At that he started laughing heartily, almost maniacally.

  -''What a grand and intoxicating innocence my old friend! Though I say old wrongly. You look like you barely aged since I have last seen you despite the war's marks upon you.'' He spoke as he picked up a piece of debris that was coated in a dark-red colour. And I realised it was my blood that had spilled on it.

  -''You managed to get hold of a Sarcophagus before the end, haven't you? So, who are you, who owns barely three decades of life to tell me how I should have died?'' He asked as he licked the piece of wood. His eyes suddenly widened in surprise.

  -''You... you have the machines in your veins. Hah, hahahahaaah!'' He was now laughing unhinged.

  -Never mind. You shall see for yourself, even if I have to force you!

  -''What are you babbling about? What should I see?'' I asked.

  -To see for yourself how it is living throughout the eons. To see everything die and change. And suffer yourself to see your soul wither until only what is worth keeping remains!

  He raised the quantum sphere then and there for me to behold.

  -And maybe when you are turned, I shall share with you to see what I have seen.

  -I think I'll pass.

  -Who said you had a choice?

  My finger was upon the hidden mini-trigger in the palm of my hand. The explosion of the satchel charge would be enormous. It would engulf him to his death, and more than certain the entire room along with myself. Being at the other end of the room would only give me a slighter, better chance of survival. It was a risk I didn't like the odds of, yet the only one I could still take. My finger brushed the trigger, moments away from pushing it when suddenly, it happened.

  One of the windows shattered, and the quantum sphere suddenly burst violently with the power that it innately contained within. The shockwave blasted me against the wall and the trigger off from my hand. Even so it was a far cry to what the satchel charge would have done to the room. I rose up, picking the detonator which miraculously didn't activate in its fall. The safety having clamped back in reset once it left my hand.

  Quickly resuming my focus on the target, I could see the body of what was once my friend. Twitching in a corner of the room. The upper half of his body obscured by the marble block of an exhibit. I pulled out my second sidearm as I approached carefully. Turning the corner I saw him hideously malformed. His head barely a semblance of what it was. Pierced and cracked by hundreds of crystal shards. His eyes were white as they were burned by the luminescent power that was unleashed right before him. I was certain he was blind. Then, an ill croaked voice sounded out.

  -Should have... known... you had a... partner... too efficient... alone. Who... did you... befriend?

  I refused to answer him as I aimed my weapon at his head.

  -''Is it... a lupa?'' He asked with a now disfigured and hideous grin.

  Again I said nothing. But somehow he managed to smile with that broken, bleeding semblance of what remained of his mouth.

  -Hahah, cough, hahahaah... be held ageless to see her wither to dust. And see yourself live till the sun fails, and the moons are dead.

  My pistol barked harshly cartridge after cartridge until the entire magazine was unloaded into his face and head. Putting down the demon that wore my old friend's face once and for all. I quickly reloaded and checked the corridor. Nobody was coming or was around. I finally dared to break the radio silence.

  -''Nice timing back there.'' I spoke into my comm's device, and swiftly the sweet voice that I knew came back in response.

  -You're welcome~.

  -''Give me your status and of the situation on the estate.''

  -Still undetected. The main entrance and the entire south side is a war zone. The fire from the east wing is quickly spreading towards your location.

  -Plan 3-5, angle B.

  -''Roger.'' And the link went silent.

  Even though the worst was over we had imposed ourselves strict rules to follow until we were well out of Volsinii. We would maintain our cover until then, and we would continue to avoid using our real names as well as using codified speech instead. Again, just in case anyone was listening onto us. I knew I could rely on her to be prompt, and so I hurried myself to make use of the little time I had left.

  The monster before me was truly dead, and the sphere utterly gone. Both threats were eliminated. I kneeled before him and thoroughly searched his pockets, not expecting to find much of interest. I was to be surprised as I found a crystal based USB memory holder. It could have been anything on it. It was easy to carry, and so in one of my pockets it went. There was little else worth my time, so I rushed to my next objective after grabbing the satchel charge back. Finding the portable atomic bomb that I knew he had. I gave myself a short and quick prayer in mind as a last safety precaution not to blow the entire mobile city of Volsinii as I started disassembling it.

  The bomb was real. But to my still holding luck I had found that it was completely inert. One fission component was missing, and on the other my device read so little active material that it might as well have been a plain rock. Millennia did tend to do that to fission materials. I turned away, giving a quick look around me.

  There were many intact wonders still laying about, but I would have no time or strength in both arms to carry anything. Even something minuscule and safe as it seemed might have been compromising. If anyone recognised any item I might have taken, it would raise questions. If that happened people could start making connections between me and the incident that happened today.

  I was about to leave when I heard the sounds of several people rushing through a corridor. I backed myself into the delve of a wall in the most destroyed room and waited. The original silenced pistol in hand now that I had recovered it. The steps stopped at the threshold of my room.

  -The whole room's blasted boss, nothing to loot here.

  -Next one, move it!

  I couldn't help but smile as I sneaked pass the looters we inadvertently helped in their heist. At least this way some of these amazing pieces of art and history would be saved. Rather than be engulfed in the fires of chaos to be forever lost.

  I made my way out towards the northern side of the estate. A most favourable choice since the gardens on this side of the property were rich, tall and bushy. There were no guards for me to take out to my pleasant surprise, and I had reached the iron fence in record pace.

  I saw our 4x4 all terainer moving down the street, and I threw myself awkwardly over the railing. Nevertheless, with enough force not to land impaled onto it. The wound on my shoulder was still fresh, and gave me an ill disposition to continue making too daring a move.

  My black haired lupa winked at me as I jumped into the passenger seat, and we sped away.