“Here they come!”

As they ventured down the fiery path of the burning city of Vincilos, Gin was the first one to shout out as members of the Blue Sharks ambushed them from the fire and fought them head on.

“Hyaa!”

Gin, with his brute strength, cuts through three men at the same time with just one slash. With a strength like that, he could defeat an army of a hundred with no problem.

“Gnn!”

Shouya, on the other hand, was merely blocking every attack coming right at him. He doesn’t have any real experience of fighting—or even the thought of killing someone—first hand, so he just defends anyway he can. It makes sense for him to be the shield while Gin, a veteran who has more experience in combat than Shouya, is the sword.

As the thug was about to attack Gin from the back, Shouya immediately defended him before the thug could get a chance, and Gin followed up with a slice.

“Thanks, kid! But it looks like we’re ain’t done yet.”

“They just keep coming.”

They looked around and saw more members of the Blue Sharks approaching. Even though they had defeated as much as they could, more spawned in their place. They were outnumbered, but Gin could beat them all at once in a split second. But Shouya, on the other hand, barely has any strength left to fight. They had been running and fighting the thugs for ten minutes and he doesn’t have much stamina left to stand, like his legs might give out at any minute.

Four of the thugs run towards Gin while one charges towards Shouya, who was defending the great wolf-man’s back. The steel blades touched and Shouya guards the attack that was coming towards him. Despite being on the defensive, he can withhold a sword strike with all his might.

“Haaaa!”

He pushed back the man with his sword with little strength he had, and as he pushed back, he disarmed the man’s sword and the thug tripped and fell to the ground with nothing to defend himself.

I…I did it! Yes! I finally did it! I’ve finally defended myself. But…

Before Shouya could celebrate his achievement, he looked down at the man on the hard pavement. There was no weapon in sight where the thug can defend himself with. He was wide open.

I…need to kill him. I need to survive! I want to survive!

“Haaa!”

Without a moment to think, Shouya charges towards the downed thug, with blade in hand. Shouya’s will to live was unfazed that he doesn’t give second thoughts about his actions. It was a blind act of survival of the fittest.

“Kid, wa—”

Before Gin could warn him, he blocks the upcoming attack from the Blue Shark member. But it was already too late.

“—!”

As Shouya was about to end him, the thug pulled out a short dagger behind his back and stabbed Shouya in the side of his gut. He felt a sharp pain coursing in him; the feeling of cold iron piercing through his skin.

“Aaahhh!!”

Shouya collapsed to the ground, squirming in pain, as he held on the bleeding wound for his dear life. It was reckless, it was irrational, he was too focused on surviving the fight that he didn’t think straight. It was another huge mistake that he made. He didn't expect nor was he prepared for this to happen.

All of these things were happening to him, and only him, because he was unlucky.

“How does it feel to be the one in pain? Well this is what you get!”

The thug who stabbed him sat on his body and raised his knife above him, attempting to take Shouya’s life. Gin would’ve wanted to save him, but he caught himself in a tangle as he was still fighting multiple members of the Blue Sharks around him, so it wouldn’t be possible to even save him in time.

“Now die!”

“I don’t think so! Huah!”

Before Shouya could meet his end, a loud voice bellowed and something struck the gang member’s head, causing it to fly far away from where his body should’ve been as a geyser of blood erupts from the decapitated neck.

“—! Gunther?”

Shouya sees a familiar friend in front of him as he carries a giant hammer on him. It’s not just an ordinary hammer, it’s a warhammer. The size of it is as big as his body as the head of the hammer is a size of a vending machine—at least close to that.

Compared to Gin’s sword, Gunther’s warhammer was the second largest weapon that he had ever seen. If there was a competition of who has the biggest weapon, the clear winner would be Gin, and that’s no exaggeration.

“Hey kid, stay with me! Alisa, help me here!”

“I’m coming! Ah! Sho!”

Alisa desperately rushed towards the wounded Shouya, who had been stabbed by the Blue Shark member as blood continued to gush out from him.

“Alisa, you know what to do.”

“Right!”

As Gunther commanded her, she took out two colored crystals from her bag. It was the Magi-gems, but instead of the blue and green Magi-gems that they’ve shown to him before, it’s green and yellow. She rubbed the two crystals with each other over the stab wound and a sprinkle of small lights fell from the crystals and on to the bloody wound. A small glow casted from the wound and it started to close itself.

This is the power of Magi-gems of what they’re capable of. But it didn’t last long as the crystals started to lose their color after using it once.

After closing Shouya’s wound, he stood up normally with no problem.

“W-Wow. It actually worked. Than— ah!”

Out of nowhere, she hugged him, worried that he might die in front of her. Thankfully she had saved him in the last minute.

“Thank goodness! I almost thought I hadn’t saved you.”

“Yeah, thanks. And thanks, Gunther. If you hadn't been here, I would’ve been a goner.”

“Heh. No problem! And you should thank these bad boys. Speaking of which, how much do we have left Alisa?”

“Sadly, we’re out of it.”

As she searched thoroughly in her bag, she couldn’t find any more of the green and yellow Magi-gems. All that are left in there were all the Magi-gems that are greyed out.

“Wait, I thought you said they have limited uses. What happened?”

“Well, it depends on how they were used. But combining these two in particular takes up the whole thing.”

“So you can only use them once?”

“Exactly. We used them to treat the wounded all the way here. So that’s why you can see that they have no color in them.”

“Oh, I see…”

Would’ve been great if we could use them multiple times. But I guess that’s not possible if you can use them only one time, huh.

Shouya had learned that he can’t rely on the Magi-gems too much, otherwise they would grey out very quickly and they would be a waste. Shouya still has the Magi-gems that he got from Gunther back at the inn, but he has to use them carefully for now on.

“—Ah! What about Gin?”

“Right here. Had to ruff up those guys while I had to defend you all.”

As Shouya tries to figure out where he was, worried what might’ve happened to him, Gin calls from behind him with his blood-covered sword on his shoulder. It seemed like Gin had defeated them all by himself without any help and survived without a scratch. Even though he’s in fine condition, Shouya blames himself for leaving Gin’s side.

“I’m sorry for leaving your side. I should’ve—”

“You don’t have to say anything. Right now, we don’t have time to waste.”

“Oh, right.”

“Time? What does he mean by that?”

Oh, right. I forgot they weren't there.

Alisa and Gunther were confused about what Gin was talking about until Shouya had realized that until now. He explained to them what happened in the events up until now: the battle against Darmac, Jakki’s capture, and the time limit until the Inquisitor arrives. They were shocked when they heard all of that, and not only that, their expressions are filled with worry.

“So the Inquisitor is coming here. Never thought I would hear about him again.”

“Huh? You know about him Gunther?”

“We had a…rough relationship back then.”

“Huh? What do you mean?

“He was the most awkward yet boring person I had ever met. He didn’t even crack a smile or even take a joke. But the one thing that’s been bothering me that I can’t stand about him is that he’s a cold and heartless savage, and no matter who’s with him or what’s his view of the world, friend or foe, he didn’t care for anyone. He’ll attack anyone who stands in his way to achieve their goal. That’s one of the reasons I quit the unit.”

Everything that Gunther had said sends shivers down Shouya’s spine. He had never heard someone that was ruthless before, so ruthless that he doesn’t care if the world turns on him. Even Gin buried his fangs and both he and Alisa turned their face away from the history that Gunther told.

That is why the Inquisitor was not only the most powerful person in the world, but the most infamous person alive.

“While I don’t mean to brag, but we don’t have time to stand still. We can still save the city if we defeat the leader.”

While Shouya was left in silence, Gin snapped him out as he had almost forgotten what was his original task: save Jakki, defeat the leader of the Blue Sharks, and halt the members to regain dominance of Vincilos.

“That's right! With your smarts, that’s the only way to grab his attention. The Inquisitor couldn’t initiate the destruction without proof.”

“So we’re going to help you two out!”

“Alisa, Gunther…”

Both Alisa and Gunther have decided to help out to carry out their plan. This brings joy to Shouya as they'll need the back-up they can.

“Thank you.”

"Daww, there’s no need to thank us. C’mon, let’s get moving! Alisa, you evacuate the citizens in this city and to the gate. I'm gonna go with the boys."

"Alight! And Sho..."

"Yeah?"

"Please take care of yourself."

"Right."

Those last words brings a little hope to his heart as she left to evacuate everyone from the city. With the plan in motion, Shouya, Gin, and Gunther begin their mission and heads down the road to save Vincilos. One hour and thirty minutes left until the destruction of Vincilos.