Kiyeri simply sat down where he stood, his hands resting on his raised knees, he watched the others without a word, chaos in his mind.

Zarine sat leaning against the wall, wiping the blood from her face, deep in thought.

Ashiya stood a foot away from Kiyeri, his body stiff, as if not ready for battle anymore, but not yet surrendered.

Ruki picked up the chair lying on its side from the floor, sat down, propped her cheek on her hand, and followed Dali with a cold indifferent gaze, he was already squatting beside Zeni, setting his limbs back in place.

The atmosphere in the hall was as if they had all survived a tsunami or a tornado together.

" You won — why so miserable?" Kiyeri cursed them in his mind.

Complete defeat. Legend has it that the reborn Void Marks were so powerful that they could split mountains and seas, and then grew even stronger by killing their siblings. It doesn't seem like this little brother and sister can do that, but just by healing others, it's clear that they're the strongest here. Now, the only thing that could harm them was that same dagger.

The three legendary warriors received massive sacrifices that made them so strong, and then they sacrificed the other Sigils with their own hands. But how did these two get so strong? The most likely way is that they killed Mia and Sonanta with the same dagger, skipping the original rebirth sacrifice.

Ashiya gathered energy and began to heal his injured limbs, but Ruki instantly fired a jet of water — sharp enough to pierce his palm — stopping him cold. Kiyeri watched the drops of blood falling from that palm and splashing onto the floor with gritted teeth.

"Where’s Seyre?!" He asked Dali in a very aggressive tone, but the latter completely ignored him, continuing to treat Zeni without emotion. Kiyeri glanced at Ruki, but she indifferently turned her face away, as if he wasn't even there.

Zarine stood up with difficulty and began to crawl towards the window. No one tried to stop her. It is not known what she saw through the window, but the sight took away her last strength to control herself, still holding on to the window frame, she stumbled to her knees with her head down, tears falling one after another, and through gritted teeth, a barely understandable string of curses sounded, only some of which reached the ears of the others: "scumbags", "rotten", "degenerates", "cursed", "scoundrels".

After several minutes of bitter cursing, she turned to Kiyeri. “Brother Kiyeri, I curse you for bringing them here. I hope you burn in hell for your reckless steps, you will regret it, remember my words. If I had that pendant of mine right now, I would smack your forehead with it until blood flowed!"

Kiyeri was silent.

After about half an hour, the screams and shouts outside had stopped, Zarine sat under the window while tears of helplessness silently rolled down her cheeks. Dali and Ruki did not answer any of the many questions during that time, Kiyeri and Ashiya sat on the floor, leaning against each other back to back with their heads slightly tilted, and quietly talked.

"Kiye, what would you wish the most now?" - Ashiya began the conversation.

"I would wish that cup of coffee now." Kiyeri sighed.

"Should I bring it?" A smile could be heard in the young man's voice.

"Hmm" Kiyeri snorted.

"Can you guess what I would like most right now?" Ashiya's voice sounded dreamy.

"I'd rather not even try." Kiyeri laughed.

“Do you remember that village by the maple trees lake?”

“Mm... we spend our days in an abandoned forest hut.”

“You went to the village for food, leaving me alone because you were afraid that I would get into trouble”

“And for a good reason”

“Really for good reason... You were so tired, you couldn't sleep, I felt helpless and angry.”

“Mm...”

“Until one day you didn't come back and I went looking for you.”

Kiyeri's eyes twitched slightly and he took Ashiya's hand, but Ashiya didn't return the gesture, he continued speaking "Do you remember what I did when I saw you injured in the hands of the search party?"

"I remember..." - Kiyeri confirmed.

Ashiya's voice became quieter, the pace slower "You told me that no matter what happened to you, your life was no more important than anyone else's. Do you remember what I told you?"

Kiyeri looked at the pale Zarine under the windowsill and knew that no matter what he answered, Ashiya's opinion would be unchangeable. So he turned around and pressed himself up against Ashiya’s back, crossed his arms over that hot chest, and quietly answered in his ear, "That my life is the most important thing to you."

In that very moment, the gates of hell opened. Fierce flames and heat that melted even metal rose from Ashiya's body and expanded at lightning speed in the largest radius around, the floor collapsed, and the ceiling fell, but everything melted and burned to dust. A light so bright that if you opened your eyes, you could be blinded.

Only a narrow safe zone remained around Ashiya’s body - no more than three steps wide. He held Kiyeri’s hands tight to his chest, as if afraid he might fall away.

After just one minute, Ashiya's mana drained to zero and the flames retreated. The two of them opened their eyes and looked at the consequences, only ruins remained of the palace, half of the building around them was simply gone, everywhere pieces of stone bright red from the heat resembling lava. The reception hall was on the second floor of the three, but now they were standing below ground level, probably in a pit where the dungeon was.

"Those tunnels were confusing, it's hard to tell which corner of the building Seyre was in, he probably boiled here alive..." Kiyeri thought, frowning.

Ashiya patted him on the shoulder, "Kiye, look," then pointed somewhere in the distance with his finger.

Kiyeri followed with his gaze and, seeing a huge sphere of water clicked his tongue, "They're like cockroaches." He grabbed Ashiya's right hand, threw it over his shoulders, helping him to lean, and hugged him around the waist with his left, “We need to get out of here."

Holding Ashiya like this, Kiyeri rushed away, sharing his mana, while Ashiya immediately used it to heal his wounds.

"Don't split the flow, heal only your leg until you can run then stop immediately. Ruki, or maybe even Dali will see our mana, we have to hide.", Kiyeri explained, “It's too bad we lost Zeni, may have told us something."

"He probably survived.", Ashiya said.

"How?"

"Before activating the spell, I glanced at them, they were watching us intently when we were talking.", Ashiya replied.

"You don’t say..." Kiyeri thought, remembering the whole atmosphere at that time.

Ashiya continued, "When I looked at them, they realized that something was going to happen and both raised their shields in-between us at the same time." Ashiya's leg healed, he stepped back and they both increased their speed. "I didn't see anything after that, but judging from that sphere, they didn't die. The heat probably blew them away with their entire shield."

Kiyeri frowned. "I don't know whether to scold you or praise you..."