Frey and Filia could hear the death throes of their magical beasts as they disappeared in a burst of flames that filled the air with the smell of barbeque, sending pieces of burned flesh and fur slapping against their faces.
"Volgun!" Frey screamed at the top of his lungs as his best friend disappeared in an explosion.
The blast was so powerful that its heat reached his face despite the fact that they were moving at high speed away from the battlefield and towards his home.
"Please, mister, go back and save Brionac! She's going to die!" Filia's plea was answered by a strong slap that twisted her face sideways.
The man had used chore magic to conjure a strong wind that hit the kids, striking fear in their hearts and putting an end to their begging. Only then did they raise their eyes to meet those of their savior, finding no warmth nor compassion in them.
As the battlefield became too far away to see and the agonizing whines of the magical beasts were swallowed by the strong winds surrounding the flying mage, the kids froze in terror recognizing the man carrying them.
Fallmug, their violent and allegedly dead father was now in front of them, dressed up like an Archmage. His gaze was cold and full of rage as they remembered it, making them squeal as the memories of the past abuse resurfaced, erasing the last few happy years as if they had never happened.
The kids still remembered Fallmug and his face would often haunt them in their nightmares. The fear would make them shiver even during the hottest summer mornings until they realized to not be in their old house in Xylita and went to breakfast.
'Volgun is dead and Dad is back. This must be a bad dream. Please, gods, let this be just a bad dream.' Frey closed his eyes, but when he reopened them, Fallmug was still there.
He started to cry between hiccups until a second slap hit him.
"Is this how you thank me for saving your life, you ungrateful brat? With tears and complaints?"
Between the pain from his cheek and the traces of fur between his fingers, Frey understood that once again the gods had ignored his plea. He looked at Filia who gestured him to shut up to avoid being beaten more.
'Thank the gods one of Verhen's friends was nearby and must have heard our request for back up.' Locrias thought while dodging a blade, unleashing a stream of bolts of lightning that killed two mercenaries, and being hit on the chest by an earth spike that squeezed the air out of his lungs.
'Wait a second. There are only so many Archmages and most of those affiliated with Lith received a Balkor card. I checked their position right before the attack and none of them was close. Who the fuck is that guy?'
A sword pierced his side, making the Captain bleed profusely. Locrias cursed his moment of distraction, but it was too late. Outnumbered and now outmatched, he suffered wound after wound until a mace broke his neck, putting an end to his life.
The mysterious Archmage flew straight in front of Zinya who was still standing in front of her house. Even in the chaos of the battle, she hadn't lost sight of her children nor had she stopped calling for help through the communication amulet.
The man threw the kids at her before pushing Zinya inside and locking the door.
"Thank you so much." She said amid tears while kissing the children's heads and making sure they were alright. "Don't worry about us and go help the others. The arrays around this house are weak but they will hold long enough for-"
"I'm not going anywhere, woman." The sound of that voice cut Zinya short and made her become as pale as a ghost.
She had failed to recognize Fallmug earlier because she had been blind for most of her life and she had never seen his face after gaining sight. Each word he spoke echoed through her body, filling her with phantom pain and fear.
"Being a widow did wonders to you. You look young and fresh like the day we got married." His voice held a mix of cruelty and lust that she hadn't heard ever since Fallmug had gotten bored of her years back.
"Fallmug? How can you still be alive?" Zinya was scared to death, but even her resurfacing trauma didn't stop her from putting herself between the kids and her ex-husband.
Back when she was blind, the only thing she could do was to listen to Fallmug's screams of rage and to the weeping of the children. Now that she could see, Zinya could finally protect them.
"Is that how you welcome your husband after not seeing him in years? After sending me to my death?" He slapped her as hard as he could, making her lose her balance and fall to the ground.
"Who the heck are you?" Zinya ignored her throbbing cheek and stood up slowly without ever taking her eyes off the stranger in her kitchen.
"Have they damaged your brain while giving you sight? How can you not recognize your lord and master?" A backhand slap hit her right cheek, sending her back to the floor with a chipped tooth that cut deeply into her inner cheek.
She started to bleed profusely as the dizziness from the concussion made it hard for her to regain her balance. Yet Zinya stood up again as spite and rage replaced fear in her eyes.
"You are not Fallmug. I heard his voice for years and he beat me up so many times that I lost count. Whoever you are, you are not him. He would never hit my face nor did he speak like that.
"Your accent, your choice of words, everything in your voice is wrong." She said as blood seeped through her lips, painting them red.
"Gods, you women are so damn annoying." The copycat sighed while dropping the act. "First Distar ruined my fun and now you have thrown weeks of rehearsal into the gutter. I worked hard to find a picture of your dead husband and to learn how to mimic his voice.
"If not for the recordings of court's hearings being available to the public, I would have never succeeded. Yet all that hard work was for nothing! You were supposed to relieve your greatest nightmare, to cry in terror and beg me not to kill you.
"I guess I might as well skip to the second act and rip your children apart in front of you before the big finale."
"What?" Zinya turned pale, raising her arms as a flimsy shield to protect Filia and Frey, but it was all she could do.
"Why do you think I bothered saving them?" He said with a laugh. "To make this much more fun for me and painful for you. I'm going to decorate the walls with your entrails and prepare a nice show for that whore of your sister.
"When she sees the terror twisting the face of your corpses, when she finds her precious niece and nephew dead because of Verhen, it will destroy his future. She and every other woman on Mogar will avoid him out of fear like the monster he is.
"Because if they don't, I'll have to teach them a lesson as well."
