In a small room with no windows, at the heart of the Obscure Guild, the only light came from a round table where three people were discussing confidential matters.

The circular screen on the table emitted barely enough blue light to distinguish the Five Seats from one another.

Rico and Jacob joined the call, their faces appearing on the screen.

"Rico. Why is your brother in our midst?" one of the Cursed asked calmly. There wasn’t a trace of flesh on her dark skeleton body.

The Tremblay Guild’s new dictator giggled. "Oh, I tried to kill him with my clone, but it didn't work. He and his friend got past me with two adults. The funny thing is, he believes I'm dead! The clone that the Dark Faction made for me is very realistic!"

Isaac’s suspicion was correct. They hadn’t killed Rico.

A man with spiky dark hair stared at him and frowned. He was jealous of the privileged Rico. "Okay, no matter. Where are the snake and the vampire?"

"They are probably dead," said Jacob.

"Huh?"

He explained, "The dark faction gave us a blood compass. We have his exact location as long as Aaron's kin, Rico, stays alive."

'Yes, I know that."

Rico sighed as he looked at his feet. Despite this, he failed to hide the excitement in his voice. "Well… they got dangerously close to Theodoric and Snoid. No one’s been able to contact them since."

“Then what are we sitting here for? Let's chase them and kill them!” The spiky-haired man threw his arms on the table.

The Cursed next to him, a man with green scales all across his body, a peculiar head with eyes on the side, and a long, robust tail, gave his opinion. “Let’s be careful. We should advise the DF first."

The skeleton and the other Seat didn’t agree with the Reptoid. They didn’t want to inform the DF of this humiliating problem before resolving it themselves. “Why? They're just a handful of mages, four adults with two or three children. We can kill them easily with numbers.”

Jacob smiled as he laid back on his chair. “Do what you want, but I will report this problem if you fail to resolve it by tomorrow. The apostles will be happy to fix it with another bloodbath. You’ll receive a tracker shortly.”

He paused before adding, "Kill them all."

As Rico and Jacob left, the three remaining Seats had a bitter feeling. They didn’t like them at all.

"Fine. I'll go," declared Frederic Locus, the spiky-haired man with a dark complexion. Frederic was the werewolves’ Alpha, ruler of the third layer.

…

The seven mages were in the modern vehicle. Ejiro and Luo were in the back seats, Isaac, Gabriella, and Aaron were in the middle row, and Jenna and Seth at the front.

Jenna was driving over some flat metallic pipe above a city. The city’s old rusty look, metallic noises and unpleasant air rid it of the reverence it once had two hundred years ago.

Once the Dark Faction had overtaken Orbarium, pipelines and tunnels were added here. They had aged and proved ineffective at their tasks because the population had continued growing since then.

However, the city still had a charm thanks to its wide roads and highways, but these impractical infrastructures were prone to causing accidents and traffic jams.

They were in Carnoth City, a city in the third layer under the jurisdiction of the cursed werewolves.

"We'll head down to the city to get to the next secret passage. I'll make the vehicle invisible with magic.” Seth touched his door, suddenly making the vehicle invisible from outside.

They followed the pipe and arrived at a residential area. Since it was late, there were barely any cars.

A black vehicle with tinted windows was parked on the other side of the street, the driver looking at his GPS.

“30 metres ahead.” He started up the engine.

Frederic Locus spoke to his subordinate with a microphone. "The tracker’s pointing at the void. It might be a glitch. Try to fire at it."

A small missile launcher grew out of the vehicle’s roof and fired. A missile detonated in the middle of the street and carved a huge hole.

The driver looked everywhere but didn’t see any sign of the trespassers. “It seems it was just a glitch, sir.”

However, Frederic knew it wasn’t. Their location had changed a second before impact, almost as if they had teleported. “No, they moved! Follow the tracker!”

Inside the invisible car, Jenna was stunned. Seth had somehow teleported them away. It was dark outside, and the lights were dim, so the retired magician’s powers were at their finest. He could teleport them as long as it was dark.

“How did they find us?! Did they track the car?” asked Jenna as she looked at the black cars in the rearview mirror. Multiple ones were now chasing them.

Luo opened his window. “Seth, could you get us out of here?"

"I can teleport us, but not forev-"

Frederic’s subordinates started shooting blindly at the car. Knowing their bullets hit, they quickly realized what was going on.

"Aaron, fire back at them," ordered Seth.

Like Luo, he opened his window and started attacking. With his sniper, he landed a precise shot on one of the front wheels of a car, forcing the driver to hit the break abruptly.

“Isaac, you too!” Seth was getting tense.

Isaac shot a red beam, killing one of the black cars’ drivers. The vehicle deviated and collided with the other one. But just before they crashed, Frederic revealed himself, jumping out of the window impressively and landing on top of a third automobile.

The Cursed sniffed and immediately picked up a scent. "This way!"

Tens of similar black vehicles followed his directions in pursuit of the seven mages.

Seth teleported them occasionally to avoid missiles and other dangerous attacks, but it was exhausting him very fast.

Getting close enough, Frederic jumped at their armoured vehicle’s truck, but they teleported again. He was on the ground, but, when they thought they could get away safely, the man morphed into a large werewolf. There were black stripes on the werewolf’s dark pelt and a scar across its back. Its yellow eyes glowed as it howled menacingly.

Ejiro fixated on Frederic and instantly recognized who he was.

“I didn’t expect to meet another of the Five Seats so soon!” he complained.