Marco's vision becomes blurred; the houses, the fire, and even Zoe becomes blurry; it seems his time has come... 

His body stands upright, looking at the moon, with his mouth half open. 

"Maybe this is better..." Marco thinks, as he slowly loses consciousness. And that's how Zakov's right hand, after countless fights, di—"AS IF!" He screams, regaining his vision, consciousness and rejecting death! 

The man stretches his two arms towards the sky, and above his head, a ball of fire begins to form. It grows and grows larger and larger, until it reaches a height greater than that of a twenty-foot house. 

Even from miles away, it would be possible to see the glow of the flaming sphere. It is almost as if Marco had created a second sun in Legorio. 

Of course, this amount of mana wasn't free, and Marco knew it. If he managed to get out of this situation alive, his body wouldn't be able to handle such an effort, and he certainly wouldn't give in and die. But that didn't matter anymore. 

The Supreme Mage steps back, moving even further away, and then just watches this ridiculous amount of mana being accumulated in an absurdly short period of time. She can feel the heat emanating from the sphere in front of her. 

Marco then begins to spin his arms as if he were holding the fireball by chains, or it could resemble an eccentric dance. The fact is, the flames begin to advance towards Zoe. 

The flames travel through the air relatively slowly, however, their size makes up for their lack of speed. 

Zoe just stands there, waiting for the right moment to act. The heat builds, and builds, and builds. Until it's enough! 

She extends her right hand, taking it from within her cloak and bringing it towards the center of the incandescent sphere. Her palm is completely open, while her other arm is underneath her clothes. 

On her face, she sketches a slight mischievous smirk while arching her eyebrows. 

At the moment when the Fireball appears to be just under ten meters away from Zoe, the flaming sphere is violently dispersed to both sides, splitting in two vertically, exactly in the middle! 

On her right side, the flames end up losing strength and colliding with the ground, passing next to the Supreme Mage. On her left side, the flames also pass next to her but end up colliding with a house and completely incinerating it. 

"Impossible..." Marco, his eyes wide open at such a simple display of power, simply says. He looks at the girl in front of him, and the palm of her hand is now pointed at him. Before he can react, Zoe quickly moves her arm towards the wall. 

As if she were holding him with a rope, Marco feels an enormous force pulling him against the great walls of the kingdom. How can he defend himself against this? 

I mean, is there a way? 

Marco is brutally thrown against the wall, making the sound of the impact echo. The stone breaks into pieces, causing Marco's body to infiltrate the solid walls, making a hole in the rocks. 

His body no longer moves—not a single muscle moves. His heart starts racing, and a sudden fever spreads through his body. It becomes difficult to breathe; each breath is painful; his lips become dry. Only small spasms are what move Marco's body. 

And then the sounds of footsteps begin to come towards him, which gradually increase. His head is unable to move, so he is at the mercy of his vision, which wavers. 

Zoe finally reaches Marco, who is lying in the hole in the wall, looking like he is sitting. A pathetic situation where the only thing left of his body are his senses, which are also getting weaker and weaker. 

"How humiliating..." He thinks and then immediately feels a powerful migraine. 

Zoe approaches and holds Marco's head by the forehead. Unlike before, Zoe has a neutral expression, but it's difficult to interpret because of the blindfold. 

In his last moments, Marco gives a small, ironic smile while blood runs down the sides of his mouth. 

Suddenly, he feels all the skin on his body aging and becoming dry; his hair falling out uncontrollably; his hearing turning into an irritating buzzing as the noise of the flames becomes muffled; his sense of smell no longer works; and his vision becomes blurred, until he becomes blind. 

"... Shit..." Then he realizes—he's dying. "I lost..." That's the last thought Marco has before passing into the world of the dead. 

The right hand of Zakov, the invader of Legorio's kingdom, a respected criminal throughout the Lightning Slit, dies at the hand of the strongest mage. Until his last breath, Marco fought bravely, but he could not win the war after defeating so many enemies.