— Miss Daena, that man isn't yours...

— Father?! — She almost choked. — Get out of there now! You can't fight them!!

If he even heard his daughter's plea, he completely ignored it. Advancing through the courtyard while avoiding the rubble, the governor did not take his eyes off the young man who continued to attack the hooded duo. Each movement released a blast of accumulated blue energy that seemed to gush from his body.

— Noite, he's very angry with us. — Dia chatted casually with his brother while dodging the powerful blows. — But I think it's not too bad because he's taking it easy with his attacks.

— He must be testing us. Focus, Dia, and don't let him down!

— Right!

Dia then prepared for a counterattack. Darka stopped when he saw the little hooded woman doing an attack pose, strangely similar to that of a famous ninja from a famous anime named after him. A current of magic concentrated in her hand.

— No way is she going to release a Raseng...

— Die, demon! — He heard the voice of the governor, who was running towards him brandishing a giant saber. He was still relatively far away, as avoiding the fire's trail of destruction slowed him down, but we could already see his hateful face staring at him.

Darka realized he was in trouble. The fire energy he absorbed was already overflowing and had to be directed soon, before it exploded in a wave everywhere. Furthermore, with Dia attacking on one side and the governor on the other, if he got out of the way the encounter between saber and magic would clearly end with someone there, most likely Daena's father.

Without thinking much, he just charged at Dia, focused on the sphere of energy that was growing in her hand. With a quick movement, Darka pulled the girl's arm, directing the blow elsewhere. She looked at him with a confused expression, soon replaced by surprise as she felt herself being thrown very, very hard towards Noite. He still tried to hold her back, but the speed with which she hit him pushed them both against a wall that collapsed on impact.

"Jeez, I think I tossed too hard.", Darka thought. "Nice."

A loud bang caught his attention, coming from above. He turned in time to see half of one of the towers, destroyed by Dia's deflected blow, fall towards the man who was still trying to reach him. Daena's scream was the trigger for Darka to finally direct his attack, practically disintegrating the rubble seconds before it reached the governor.

— Father! Did you hurt yourself? Are you injured? — The girl ran to him worried, followed by Miko. He had fallen to his knees from the shockwave of the explosion and was leaning on his saber.

— I'm in perfect condition, my daughter, and I'm going to finish this now... — When she saw that her father was in one piece, Daena's mood changed and she punched him in the face.

— Ouch! Daena! What...

— Are you an idiot?! How are you going to get into a fight like that, didn't you see how dangerous it was?!

— I just followed my heart, Daena! And it told me to fight!

— Your heart is trying to kill you! A heart attack would be a less cruel way for you to die!

After realizing that the two had run away, Darka just huffed in frustration and approached the governor and his daughter. He was still wary of being impaled with the warrior's saber, so he tried not to get too close.

— Damn, I can see who Daena got her temper from. Are you okay? Sorry about the explosion, there wasn't much I could do about it. — Miko ran to Darka and handed hiscloak. — Oh, thanks, Miko.

The man, who was still rubbing his nose, turned to him, immediately raising his blade and stepping in front of Daena.

— You...

— Demon? Scum? Jerk? Stupid? — Darka listed the possible insults that would come. — What will it be this time?

— Traitor! I trusted you!

The speech took everyone there by surprise, especially Darka. H didn't remember meeting the governor in person during any part of the game, even in "Time and Greatness", a mission in which he spent an entire week in Talphen helping to renovate the city's cathedral clock tower. This mission even ended with Darka's most famous attack: the explosion of the said tower.

— Hold on. What exactly are you talking about? I've never seen you before, whenever I came here you were holed up in your office and wouldn't come out for anything!

— Are you going to fake dementia now? Does the name "Estephan" ring a bell?

Lauren remembered Estephan. She couldn't help but remember, he was an important character and very present in "Time and Greatness". The mission began with Darka accepting a request for labor help to renovate the cathedral tower, and the person responsible for planning and execution was Estephan Evelot. Lauren really liked that NPC because he acted like a "big dad", was very friendly and always worried about everyone, which reminded her of her late grandfather. At that time, Darka's bad reputation had not yet reached Talphen and there were no posters with his face plastered around, so being able to do a mission with someone who didn't want to kill your character was actually comforting.

One of Estephan's characteristics was wearing a gas mask, so it made sense that Darka wouldn't recognize him. He never mentioned his identity as a ruler, and come to think of it, that made some pieces of that mission fall into place, like the fact that he was always accompanied by two guards and constantly complained about having two jobs.

— How could you destroy the clock?! You knew what he meant to me! Plus, dozens of people almost died in that explosion!

— Ok, wait! I can explain, but most likely you won't listen to me, at least not while you're acting like an irrational brute. — Darka crossed his arms, facing the man.

— Dad, it wasn't his fault, it was those two who were here! They planned everything, they're trying to blame it on Darka!

Estephan looked at his daughter, trying to resolve his internal conflict about believing that she hadn't been brainwashed into saying that. He took a deep breath and lowered his saber.

— Explain yourself.

Darka was surprised at how easily he gave in. It seemed like Daena was his weak point, and thinking about their relationship made Lauren a little jealous. In real life, her relationship with her father was very different from that.

— You sent me to get the parts to fix the tower clock generator, I took the parts and delivered them to the renovation people. — Darka began to explain himself, gesturing. — Then at the end of the day, one of the engineers asked me to go back and check if the boiler was off, I went back there and in addition to it being on, it was also, like, very overloaded, I think something important was blocked, anyway. That's when I tried to turn it off, but before I even got close to it, it exploded.

— But the boiler was new! I had installed it myself a week before!

— Yes, but now that I know that there are those two kids trying to burn my image I can have an idea of ​​what happened to the boiler. They must have spread the word that I was the one who caused the explosion. — He paused, becoming a little more serious. — I would never deliberately destroy the clock your late wife created. I never forgot how much you repeated that you loved her. You told me that was the most precious thing she left you, after your daughter.

This time it was Daena who was surprised. She didn't know that the clock was something related to her mother, and if she had known before she wouldn't have bothered to leave Darka alive when they first saw each other.

— I don't want to resurrect Yrina and I don't want to destroy anything. This whole time I was just doing random missions and I thought I was helping with things, but in fact I discovered I was being made a scapegoat. I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but I'm telling the truth. At the moment I just want to meet a friend of mine there in the village of Olsid and nothing else. I'm really sorry, anyway it was indirectly my fault too, but it wasn't intentional.

Estephan was still processing everything, not knowing what to say. Katarina's voice could now be heard again, shouting orders and apparently returning to the courtyard. Miko tugged on Darka's hand.

— Sir, Katarina is coming here. We better leave.

— You saved me just now, didn't you? When the tower fell. — The governor recovered his posture. — Therefore, I will let you go. With that, we're even.

Darka felt like he didn't need to say anything else to Estephan, at least not there, so he just bent down and motioned for Miko to climb onto his back.

— Well, then I'm going before I get impaled by that crazy woman's sacred sword. — He ran towards the part of the wall that was broken by the impact of the boys. — Sorry for the mess!

Katarina arrived just in time to see Darka jumping through the hole, but as soon as she ran towards him she was stopped by Estephan.

— Enough, Katarina. Let him go.

The woman looked at him as if he had been stabbed in the back. Daena had never seen her aunt so offended in her life.

— Let him go? What happened to you, Estephan?! It's The Unpronounceable!

— I told you to leave him alone. — he raised his voice. — Are you challenging me, Miss Aurea?

The paladin just stared at her brother for a few seconds, before turning and heading back to the courtyard gate. Daena could have sworn she saw a glimpse of red glow in her eyes.