As if the situation hadn't been tragic enough, the other Aura was approaching them at high speed.

Vlad took a huge scarlet bow, ready to fire the first arrow as soon as it was needed. For the moment the man did not seem to give the idea of wanting to attack and was calm and smiling in front of Helial.

"Ah, I forgot," said the Assassin breaking his mocking silence and looking up at the sky, "he is coming."

That someone else was coming Helial knew very well, but he was totally ignorant of who "he" was. Apparently his curiosity would soon be satisfied.

An almost misshapen figure darted through the sky above them and landed accompanied by a thunderous whistle and an explosion.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A beam of green light crashed into the ground at full speed, creating a shockwave even more powerful than the one created by the collision between the Assassin and Snowflake.

Other houses were completely destroyed, other meals stolen from Snowflake's demanding stomach. The cat trudged through the rubble, cursing loudly and trying to reach the others. As he walked, the figures of Helial, Lumia, Vlad with his bow, Circe, Caliban and the man he had collided with just before slowly entered his field of vision. To his surprise he realized that the bastard was still standing and had not received any damage, not even a small scratch, while he had almost died - this time for real.

Once the whole scene was in focus, the cat realized that another figure had been added to the apocalyptic picture. From a distance it was difficult to distinguish its features, which seemed totally disfigured, and his body was twisted, folded forward and with his arms almost touching the road. From the greenish color of his skin, Snowflake knew it was a Goblin.

The closer the cat got, the more oddities he noticed: deep scars marked the Goblin's face and hands, pale, like faded paint; his muscles were in constant spasms and his body seemed to rebel against its own master.

"Here he is!" the Assassin clapped his hands excitedly.

At those words, the Aura of the Goblin became more and more devastating. A poisonous cloud seemed to have surrounded that almost monstrous, unrecognizable being.

But Circe knew only too well that haunted gaze, which had remained the same as ever. "Comodo," she barely whispered. But her lips struggled to part and her body was paralyzed, nailed to the ground. Her brain screamed from every nervous connection to react, to fight against that overwhelming feeling of death, to flee, but her limbs were unable to respond.

She even thought that she would gladly burn some of her vitality to escape that feeling, which was worse than death itself.

Once the potential for vitality within the body was exhausted, this would lead her to gain powers far above her own Phase. But such an efficient practice required something in return: the life of anyone who used it would be extinguished in little more than a few minutes. Burning one's essence was a desperate measure, but it would have allowed to use, for a very short period of time, a divine power.

Recognising the figure of Comodo who was slowly standing up and gasping, Vlad's worries materialized in a single sentence, pronounced aloud and without hesitation: "Where is Francesca?"

The bow that he was pointing before towrds Assassin, now it was aimed at Comodo.

"Where is Francesca?" he repeated again. Vlad felt his eyes filling with tears against his will. They were scarlet tears, the most sincere sign of one's unbridgeable and infinite suffering, tears of blood.

"He'll never answer you," the Assassin interjected, his hilarious gaze on the red-streaked cheeks of the half Goblin. “You know, he's gone crazy. After I beheaded, ”and he ran his thumb over his throat,“ the Goblin he was supposed to fuck, his Mana went Berserk and now he has only primitive instincts left. His body has been emptied of his soul and only hatred and anger remain.”

Circe's eyes widened. The Human in front of her had killed Francesca, her best friend, the Princess of the Goblin people, without hesitation and admitted it with a smile on her lips.

She wanted to cry, but she couldn't. The pain was too great.

She prepared to send a message to the rest of his group.

“Francesca is dead. Come back." But there was no one to receive his Divine Sense and there was no one to answer.

"Oh! I don't know if they were yours. I killed three other very nice Goblins,” the Assassin said, throwing the binoculars that Zion always carried with him to the floor.

Circe had long wondered what Helial felt when Frankenstein and Lulu died, and now she thought she knew.

A blood-like Aura spread through all the surrounding streets, starting from Vlad's inert body. His killing intent was directed like a battering ram against the Assassin.

What did it matter to live if the only person who had ever loved him was dead? What did it matter to survive, if he could no longer enjoy the hope of meeting Francesca on the streets of the city?

A sensation of angry suffocation enveloped Vlad's throat, a shadow covered all his rationality.

Disdainful of any feeling, the Assassin looked satisfied at the petrified reactions on the faces of the kids and laughed heartily. He was having a great time, much more than when Comodo acted like a tall and high-sounding noble, but it was time to end it, otherwise he would have tired of them too and would have lost all pleasure in killing them.

“Ah, kiddo,” he said, squinting at Helial and pointing to Comodo, “he's another gift for you! While you are fighting with him, let me take care of the others."

Having said that, he quickly disappeared.

In a lightning-fast intuition, Helial thought the Assassin wanted to attack Lumia, began to worry about her safety, and as soon as he turned to her, he noticed that it was too late. The Assassin had been faster than his mind.

The man reappeared behind Lumia and put a blade on her neck.

CLANG!

To his surprise, the Assassin discovered that the maneuver had not been successful and that the handle of a silver scythe was between the dagger and the girl's neck.

Lumia elbowed behind her but hit only air. She dashed forward, swinging the scythe behind her, creating a blast of air.

Swooosh!

The Assassin disappeared again in a black flash and reappeared beside her, trying to eviscerate her with a quick blow. But again he failed.

Lumia had evoked twenty times more gravity than normal, slowing his movements and creating an opening to dodge.

Before there could be any more exchanges, the earth shook violently.

Comodo had pushed and hurled himself at Helial like a wounded beast. It was the fault of that filthy Human that things had gone this way, it was that devious brother of his, that he had now become a cripple, an abomination!

Helial felt Comodo's Mana trying to eat away at his own existence as soon as they collided and activated his Runes to the max, using the cleansing effect of Flame of the Qilin to disperse the toxins present in the Goblin's attack. Although Comodo's poison was terribly powerful, it could do nothing against Flame of the Qilin; it possessed the most prominent effects of Life, making it an unparalleled cure and nemesis for Destruction-like Mana.

Helial did not hesitate to fight back. Comodo would have been at a disadvantage if he faced him directly, and it would have been easy to defeat him. Although Lumia had shown that she knew how to defend herself, Helial was by no means calm: Hades had instructed his trusted hitman to kill Lumia even before him.

"Run away while you still have time and if you can get to your master alive, tell him I'll kill him, I'll tear him apart and our parents will only see him once it's impossible for them to bring him back to life!" Helial's voice was even more gruesome than Comodo's animal growl, as if it came from the depths of hell itself.

As he separated from the spar with Comodo, Helial felt Vlad's Aura reach too high a density and saw his lightless eyes explode into a scarlet hell.

The young Human saw himself being overtaken by the half Goblin, who stepped in front of him, ready to face Comodo.

“Francesca is gone,” Vlad said solemnly, putting the bow in place, “and I'll go with her. But first let me do you all a favor.”

Helial only realized what it meant to live after seeing Vlad's death: the scarlet-haired half-goblin was already dead, even though it was still standing and its body kept moving.