Artemus managed to evade the ghouls after his injured leg had stopped bleeding. He then circled back to Abigail's tree but remained out of sight.

His dark gaze was on the child who was clinging to her tree, clinging to life despite the odds that were against her. Thunder rolled in the sky, releasing more lightning that flashed so brightly it hurt his eyes. The anti mage had worn a spare set of clothing that he kept in his dimensional bag but it was already wet and chilly.

"Forgive me, Abigail," he whispered. For what he was about to do, Artemus was willing to take any punishment from the entity that would judge him in death. His heart was bitter but his hand was steady.

The anti mage removed his divine staff and hesitated for a few moments. And right then, the little girl looked in his direction. Weak from holding on against the rain, the wind, and her own paralysing fear, the child could no longer hold on.

Artemus' eyes went wide when Abigail's hands weakly fell to her sides. In a flash, he was down on the forest floor, running to catch the girl as she wobbled off the branch that had sheltered her from certain death.

_____

At the edge of the forest, Lucien felt a great number of trapped spirits cry out at once when his spell engulfed the woods. The weaker ghouls collapsed to the forest floor while the stronger ones were driven berserk. These crazed ghouls began running out of the forest to find the source of power that was singing to them.

The woods became chaotic and noisy with dying and fleeing monsters. A small-statured ghoul lying on the ground was trampled upon by two larger ones as they rushed off towards the necromancer who was calling them.

This great upheaval was felt by the original necromancer who was responsible for creating the monsters. Eva rose to her feet and screamed in fury when she felt each link that connected her to her children get severed like silk strings cut with a sharp knife.

"Eva? What's going on?!" Theo asked the woman who was throwing a massive temper tantrum.

"I'm going to kill them!" She screamed. "They're killing my children, stealing my babies!"

"Who?!"

Theo grabbed her by the shoulders. "Eva! Get a hold of yourself!"

"We have to go now!" She yelled and began to struggle against Theo. "Let me go!"

Eva was vicious when she lost her temper. Theo knew he had to get her under control but it was a difficult task to accomplish when Eva was experiencing an outburst.

"Fine. Go," he told her. The worst that could happen was Eva leaving dead bodies for the humans to find. He would clean them up after her meltdown ended. Theo was confident that the humans acting against them posed no danger to a powerful half-demon like Eva.

She rushed out of the cabin and into the rain, leaving the door swinging on its hinges. Theo watched her disappear into the forest and waited till she was out of sight before taking out a magic scroll. Juvan would have to be woken up whether he liked it or not. Theo believed that Eva would be victorious but he also believed in covering all his bases.

_______

Sebastian cursed when he saw the huge numbers of monsters barrel out of the forest. "Lucien! Orders?"

"Annihilation," came the redhead's reply. "Kill every last one of them."

Lucien had sensed the grief and anger in the spirits of the ghouls. Human souls were trapped inside the bodies of the monsters and it was the sort of necromancy that crossed bounds into the territory of being evil. He couldn't imagine how much suffering the souls were enduring inside their monstrous shells.

"Sebastian, allow me," Magnus told the mage. Between them, Sebastian had a deeper well of magic, but Magnus had a fire that could burn in the rain.

The fire mage condensed magic in his palm and it gave birth to a pool of liquid black fire that dripped from his hands.

Sebastian and Akida were both taken aback by the revelation of dark fire but they remained silent. They watched the fire mage fling droplets of the liquid fire in the air. Wherever the drops landed, the black fire surged up to engulf the grass, trees and the ghouls that it touched. The rain continued to fall but the fire was untouchable. Only Magnus could put it out, direct its path, and decide who it killed. He had absolute power over his fire.

"So we're no longer keeping it a secret then," Lucien commented to the fire mage.

No, Magnus now had bigger secrets he was hiding. Like how he was attracted to a redheaded teenager so much so that he couldn't get it up when he was with anyone else. What kind of a trauma he was suffering from, Magnus couldn't tell. Not even redheaded women could cure him of the affliction. That night at the bar had been a massive failure because Magnus had chickened out after a kiss. It was more like his body had chickened out. Embarrassing but quite telling of where his heart was really at.

"Seems like I'm not needed here," Lucien told the others. "There's something I have to take care of so I'll leave the rescue mission in your hands."

"We're not splittin' up like that, Luci," Sebastian told him. "No solo missions."

"I'm not going alone. I'll take Akida with me."

"And go where?"

Lucien just hated it when the adults in his life were so protective. He wasn't an invalid that needed babysitting all the time.

"To the necromancer who is responsible for the ghouls," he told the mage. "If this person is allowed to escape then there will be a repeat of what has happened here. We can't let it happen again, Sebastian."

The mage understood the urgency of the situation. He would have gone in the redhead's stead but Artemus was the priority.

"Luci, don't take any unnecessary risks."

"I won't," Lucien replied then turned to the avian whose wings were still soggy and getting wetter by the minute.

"I can't fly you very far while it's raining so hard."

"Then take me as far as you can. We'll walk the rest of the way."

"Wait, I'll come with you. Let Akida stay," Magnus told the teenager. "If he can't fly you far then you might as well ride-" Magnus paused, realising he had chosen the wrong words. "I can carry you in my panther form." It wasn't the words that were a problem, it was his mind.Â