Those in the midst of accepting the substance into their minds were frightened, seeing their relatives fall to the ground like dolls.
But with the halo of death flying over their cities in the form of a grandmaster, they could only comply and allow the murky substance to invade their brains.
All over Itrevezar and Quartez, people fell down like dominos.
__________
Meanwhile, the Emperor and the grandmasters accompanying him reached Iris.
Having spotted them miles away, the grandmaster stationed there had fled without hesitation, but not without dropping vials containing the black substance.
They didn't chase, the enemy could very well use the strategy of divide and conquer to eliminate a grandmaster.
"What is this?"
The Emperor and co arrived to find a majority of people laying around like corpses.
They landed, reaching for those laying on the ground.
Their hearts stopped beating, before suddenly restarting.
With a few words, those still standing hastily explained the situation.
Slowly, those who collapsed stood up, wading about like a drunkard as they rubbed their heads.
Suddenly, "Ahhrrr!"
The man turned their faces to others, growling like a beast, his eyes were crimson, glowing like blood.
"Oh no" Jebas felt trepidation.
The man lunged at Jebas, who casually grabbed his neck, inspecting the man as he struggled to pull away from the deathly grip.
Whatever this was, it was no longer human.
After thirty seconds, Jebas clenched his grip and the man's neck exploded.
Those who hadn't sucked in the substance were looking on in fear.
Jebas looked to the others. "We have a problem"
Getrahan nodded. "A big one at that"
Soon after, others who collapsed, stood up as well, growling and roaring as they attacked those still sane.
The grandmasters wiped them out in flash, but screams and wails were already echoing from afar.
"This is not a problem, but a man-made disaster" His forehead creased, remembering that the same scene happened in both Itrevezar and Quartez. "It seems to be a large-scale demonization virus"
The grandmasters sucked in deep breaths, their expression grave.
Getrahan spoke "We can't handle this on our own"
"Agreed" voiced the Emperor. "Let us clear out this place first"
At this time, "Hmm?!"
They felt the presence of approaching grandmasters, three of them.
"Jebas, help eliminate those contaminated"
The Emperor took off with Deneris and Getraham right behind him.
The Emperor took out a red crystal, infused with mana and spoke. "Alert our allies, grandmasters have joined hands with the demons, have them send reinforcements" before subsequently shattering it.
Without delay, the Emperor's group and the incoming grandmasters collided-the battle subsequently began.
The grandmasters could only furrow their brows, the enemies were people they were familiar with.
"Revemar!" The Emperor was shocked.
Revemar was garbed in his usual blue attire, matching the Emperor in age with a small hair but a long beard, all white.
He was an ice mage of grandmaster level.
Lightning and ice collided.
"Why would join these vile creatures?"
The Emperor truly could not understand.
But Revenmar didn't seem in the mood to speak.
"You wouldn't understand" he muttered.
The Emperor grew in fury, before snorting. "A childish excuse is all you can give me? And here I thought you a scholar, delirious!"
An even greater attack erupted as the grandmaster separated to have enough space to maneuver
"What are you after?!" The Emperor inquired.
Revenmar refused to speak.
"I guess I'll just beat it out of you"
__________
At the entrance of the dark cave stood the leader with his fourteen subordinates, garbed in armour covered with cloaks.
This time, the leader was without the mask, but had a red cloak on.
"Raaz, Maldaga, Jagamar, Naberus, head out and mark the source. I will meet you there"
They nod. Running out of the cave to fulfil the order.
"Infaas, Volbrin, Suramir, Akanos" he nods to them. "They have been confirmed, head there and take it, as covertly as possible"
They nod.
"Goceron, Inimeel, stay here to defend the cave" they nod. He turns to the last three. "Nasrok, Golzaan, bring back only great masters"
The leader turns and then vanishes into the outside world.
_________
At the same time Ezra felt a large chill all over his body.
'So, it's almost time'
He'd known a grandmaster was after his life, but he didn't know which one.
He knew, it wasn't an early stage grandmaster, Ezra could fend off people of such level.
He washed his face to calm himself.
He couldn't bring himself to force his way to grandmaster level-the risk was too high.
But he didn't intend to ignore the warning either, it was true the last time, it was almost certainly true now.
And if the feeling was this bad, the chances of dying were high.
He wondered what grudge a grandmaster bared against him to come after him. He'd only seen the Emperor-so why was he being targeted?
Or was it someone of less or equal power with an artifact capable of killing him? That seemed more likely.
I mean, it could be another assassin.
Regardless, Ezra wasn't taking any chances, unable to come with anything tangible, Ezra could only suppress his curiosity.
Since the first plan, raising his strength wasn't liable, Ezra thought of something else.
The siblings sat with him at the center, he'd called them moments earlier.
Ezra stared at each one. "Someone is coming to kill me"
The siblings were surprised.
Theron facepalmed, suppressing the ridiculous smile unfolding. 'He says such things like he's talking about training'
"The person is strong, either a grandmaster or master, and if you're with me, they might kill you as well"
The siblings were apprehensive.
"So…" Ashton's voice trailed off.
"Your lives are at risk. I want to know if you will still accompany me"
"If we don't?" asked Johan.
"I'll grant you your freedom"
"Oh, you'll…Wait. What?"
Now they were even more perplexed.
A chance to regain their freedom actually came so easily?
Glancing at each other, they could more or less guess what the other was thinking, but someone spoke before they were even settled.
"We will follow you"
Theron's answer sparked a tirade.
"Brother what are you saying?" Johan mouthed, turning to Ezra. "Boss, can we take time to think about it?"
"Sure" Ezra nodded. "You have one hour"
The siblings bolted out the tent, their voices grew louder as they argued while walking afar.
_________
Johan grabbed Theron by the shoulder. "Brother, what are you doing?!"
"I'm helping myself" Theron stared his down, expressionless.
"What nonsense?! Help yourself by taking your chance at freedom! Do you think you'll be of any use against a grandmaster?!"
"Ezra thinks I do, so I believe that I do"
Theron was the only one permitted to call Ezra by his name.
"Ugh! You'll die faster than I spell your name, why are you trying to kill yourself?"
Theron huffed, releasing a long sigh. "Brother, when will you stopping looking at the future through the lens of the past?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Ever since the incident, I only thought of growing stronger. If not for Ezra, none of us would be here"
"But we're already strong!" yelled Roxanne.
"Not enough" Theron replied so fast it felt perfunctory. "It's not enough. Ezra has ascended to master rank, and he's just thirteen! I refuse to believe that there's another like him" he cried out, reducing his voice at the last part.
There was a short silence, until Roxanne replied, "So what?"
"Don't you think? Ezra is a prince, if he keeps going at this pace, he's sure to become Emperor, what about us?!"
"Did you not listen to his words at all?" shouted Johan.
"I did, but I have my doubts. He might be hoaxing us to see our reaction"
"And why would he do that?"
"I don't know"
"So, you expect us to give away our chance for freedom because of such? Even if he's testing us, I'm not losing this chance!" Roxanne yelled.
Theron sneered. "After all these years, you're still delusional. Wake Up! Avilla doesn't exist anymore, so you idiots should stop thinking your freedom is worth anything!"
Theron locked eyes with her. "In the academy we're hailed as the best, but what about the outside world? There are so many masters in the world-but enough of that" Theron came to a halt. "We owe Ezra too much to leave. Surely, he could've ordered us to leave without naming his intentions-and we would have had no choice but to follow-but he didn't!"
"Sigh…forget it. The point is; I'm not leaving. No matter what you say, but I won't stop from doing so"
He looked at Ashton and Velora. "And you two? What will it be, are you leaving or staying?"
The surroundings descended into silence as Theron leaned against a wall, awaiting their answers.
________
Ezra wasn't dilly-dallying either. With quick hands, he wrote to Fredrick of the situation.
The enemy probably knew his location, and since he'd achieved his aim of coming to Gattiste by finding Marcus.
It would be stupid to make himself an easy target by staying in one place.
But running away in itself was not a plan-as it did not affect the enemies.
And passivity was not his forte.
Therefore, Ezra thought up a trap, and at the crux of that trap-was Black Jaws.
Ezra nodded. 'Let's bring in some reinforcements'
