“Everybody?” I repeated with my eyes narrowed. The words escaped only in a raspy breath. My throat was too tired and my lungs were burning.

“It began with the fairies,” said Elder Kezler, “no, wait, there is no time, Kelser! You have to help Kelser, he went that way, please go!”

A lot of questions ran through my mind. Why would the fairies betray us when the enemy who had wiped out most of their nation was right outside the gates? And did the elder mean that the demons had betrayed us too? But for what reason? And what kind of monster was inside these walls if Kelser needed my help? But seeing the panic in the elder’s eyes, I brushed aside everything else and burst through the lines of fairies mindlessly approaching my position and went in the direction the elder had told me to go.

There I found a confusing and eerie sight.

Kelser stood on top of a pillar of earth, raining spells down onto the crowd that had surrounded him. A small army of well armored fairies and a small number of demons stabbed at him with their weapons while Bain Rusta stood to the side, donning a strange look on his face. Bain Rusta’s mouth and nose were scrunched up like he had been punched in the face, and his eyes had a disconcerting red glow dancing inside them. The red glow seemed to bleed from his eyes to cover the army of fairies and demons who were trying to hack Kelser into pieces, and it shielded them from all of Kelser’s spells.

A small collection of dead bodies formed a border around the jumbled mess of fairies and demons surrounding Kelser. Some of these dead bodies appeared to have been charred or pummeled by Kelser’s spells, although I couldn’t be sure if that was before or after they had been killed. Most of the bodies had cuts and other wounds that suggested they had been stabbed with spears and swords, and the blood on the weapons of the traitorous fairies and demons suggested they had killed some of their own kind for some reason. Bain Rusta’s sword, which had at first appeared merely ornamental, turned out to be absolutely covered in blood, which was stuck to the sides of the blade like rust.

I didn’t have much time to process what was going on because as soon as I appeared in sight, Bain Rusta turned around and glared at me with his menacing red eyes. I cursed lightly under my breath before jumping into the air and summoning a massive earthen pillar beneath my feet. As soon as I had done so, a crowd of angry fairies and demons began thronging around my pillar trying to skewer my feet with spears. I shot a bunch of simple spells at them just to confirm that the red glow from Bain Rusta’s eyes would shield them from my spells as well and sure enough, they kept attacking as if I hadn’t just tried to burn their hair away.

I looked over to Kelser and realized he was in a much more precarious position than I had first thought. The red glow had spread to the fairies’ spears and was cleaving bits of earth right from under Kelser’s feet. In fact, Kelser had to keep increasing the height of his pillar, only to have it get knocked down again. He had to dance around on top of the pillar to dodge the spear thrusts, all the while firing off spells that seemed to do nothing to his assailants. I saw the fairies beneath my pillar had also started jabbing at me with glowing spears, and decided this strategy wasn’t going to work.

I used magic hands and balance magic to jump over Kelser’s pillar while reaching down to pluck him away with magic hands. Then I used air magic to fall quickly just shy of the crowd before breaking out into a reckless run right towards Bain Rusta. Bain Rusta saw me rushing towards him and drew his bloody sword. I swerved to the right and sent a massive ball of fire towards the grizzled old demon. Bain Rusta swept the fireball away with his sword, which also sent out a beam of red energy that began tracing my path as I retreated from it.

I made a massive wall of earth in front of the beam of red energy. A loud crash cut through the noise of the battlefield. The wall of earth became a cloud of dust, which hid Bain Rusta from view. I took the opportunity to rush right back to Elder Kezler, who was now involved in another fight. After dropping Kelser with the elder, I raced back to the hole I had made in the gates of the city. A couple of fairies and demons tried to attack me on the way, but I brushed them aside easily with magic since they did not have the red glow, possibly because that could only be conferred through Bain Rusta’s red eyes.

I jumped out of the city walls again, my eyes scanning in every direction. Thankfully, the Ikon was still lying unconscious on the ground. Behind me, I heard some more shouts and screams, which compelled me to turn around. Bain Rusta had followed me to the gate, and now all of the fairies and demon traitors here had a red glow on their bodies as well. Only Kelser and the human elders could keep these powered up but mindless soldiers at bay, but even they wouldn’t be able to hold out for too long. Thinking quickly, I gathered some energy and extended two long magic hands towards Bain Rusta. Bain Rusta’s red eyes widened as he was pulled right out of the gate through the hole I had made. Since he was quite a bit larger than me, he dinged his head on the way out, but I wasn’t too worried about the devilish demon’s safety right now. I unceremoniously dumped the ruler of Tephon on the ground before closing up the hole in the city walls with some earth magic. Now that Bain Rusta’s eyes couldn’t strengthen the traitors inside, I was sure Kelser and the humans could figure something out. It seemed like a lot of the demons and fairies were still on our side, but had been confused by their allies turning on them. Hopefully, they could gather their wits and help out the humans soon.

I didn’t bother to ask Bain Rusta why he had betrayed us. The red glow in his eyes already said it all. The only thing I wanted to know was if he had been working for the Immortal of Evil since the beginning or if he had been influenced by the Immortal inside the city?

After all, I could conceive of Bain Rusta’s betrayal, but the betrayal of the fairies had come completely out of the blue. It had shocked me into realizing something grim, an assumption I had made based on vague descriptions and unfounded suppositions. I had assumed that if the Izlandi Kingdom had been influenced by the priests of the Immortal of Evil, and the Singing Horde worshiped the Immortal of Madness, then the fairies and spirits must be followers of the Immortal of Desire. Even their god, the Beast of the Valley, reminded me of the Immortal of Desire since they had appeared to me as birds in the Plains of Serenity, which we had learned was a valley. Even the names of the species, fairies and spirits, somehow reminded me of the Immortal of Desire, who had been the only seemingly ‘good’ immortal I had met in this world.

And yet, so many of the fairies had betrayed us that it was impossible for me to not suspect that the Lux Republic also fell under the Immortal of Evil’s domain. Making two nations that worshiped him fight each other was exactly the kind of thing one might expect from that twisted immortal, but then why had the Lux Republic not intervened when I was cleaning out the priests of the Immortal of Evil in the Izlandi Kingdom? Perhaps, because the Immortal of Evil could still rely on followers like Bain Rusta.

A low groan. Bain Rusta had already picked himself up. However, the groan hadn’t come from him. The Ikon’s body stirred. I ran forward with sparks shooting out of my fingertips.