Aurelius was paralysed, partly because of the magic that Mr. Tona had cast on him, but also because of the scene that had just unfolded in front of his eyes in the following minutes.

  First of all, that whole “honey” thing was absolutely creepy! The switch between madness and desperation seemed straight out of a horror comedy. It was simply just absurd and scary to the degree that it seemed hilarious.

  But fear was still the main motif in this grotesque scene. And it was because Aurelius knew what was happening to Mr. Tona… kind of.

  Mr. Tona was dying. At least, his soul was.

  The Fae Queen was using his other names, ones given to him by his wife and using the mystical connection between them to steal his soul.

  Marriage… truly was scary.

  Aurelius watched as the man dropped limp on the ground dramatically along with a final desperate wail from the woman.

  And yet, it didn’t quite register in his mind that Wally Tona was… gone.

  His mind flashed back to all the conversations that he had with him. All the times that he had been irritated at the man for his stupid sense of humour.

  The time that they had enjoyed meals together. The time that he had shown him to the Crooked Cafe. The times that he would go on a spiel about his damn wife. The times that he had knocked Aurelius to the ground in their training mere days ago.

  And he also flashed back to his stony exterior in the Commission prison cell, and his desperation right before he had died.

  Aurelius may never hear his voice again, never feel annoyed by the absolute ridiculousness of his puns, and may never spar with the man again.

  No. He would probably see it again. In the next loop!

  And he would be seeing him a little too soon!

  There was absolutely no time to ‘grieve’ or ‘rationalise’ or whatever the hell!

  Aurelius screamed inwardly. Quite intelligently prioritising his own life.

  He felt his senses start to return, given that the mage was no longer passively controlling him. And he twisted his fingers towards the broken window, squirming out of his paralysis like a worm.

  “AHHHHH” The woman screamed, falling to the ground, glass shards piercing her flesh and blood spurting out of her shoulder wound.

  Aurelius looked on in befuddlement, his fingers wiggling with even more intensity as he struggled against his restraints.

  Did the Fae Queen leave?

  “Hello child.”

  Aurelius almost fainted right then and there. Actually, he leaked a little dribble of piss, his bladder under his control once more. Ok maybe a lot.

  A piercing white light illuminated the room right then and there, creating a scene of nightmares as that patchwork smile appeared on Mr. Tona’s smushed face on the ground.

  “Ah… A little old for me…” She said, her voice still leaking femininity even from the decidedly low register of Mr. Tona’s voice.

  Aurelius watched as the limp body on the ground stood up in the most creepy manner imaginable. Mr. Tona’s flesh and bones moved… all wrong, it twisted like a marionette of meat, as if the puppeteer was getting used to its movements.

  With a snap of her fingers, the pipes that lay beneath the floors obeyed her command, summoning chains of metal to restrain Aurelius to his place, and making him fall to his knees pathetically.

  Aurelius kept trembling, unable to even make a noise from his mouth.

  The light from the window started to fade, and the continuous wail from the woman bleeding out on the ground made Aurelius start to warm up to the possibility of death. At least that dark, frozen void lacked this kind of… stimulation!

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  The Fae Queen looked out of the window, smiling even more widely as She surveyed the brightly lit city with anticipation.

  “Ah… I see… New magic…” She muttered, smiling widely as the voice of a hundred mages boomed throughout the building, resonating against Her ears and chest.

  “So, what to do with you…” She said, turning over to Aurelius, Tona’s face turning into an alien look of contemplation.

  That comment immediately made Aurelius change his mind about Mr. Tona. The guy was, in fact, a total dick for selling him out to this terrifying deity in front of him. And he had the audacity to promptly die without even putting up a fight! What kind of madness was this?

  The man had metaphorically driven a carriage with Aurelius off a cliff! But only after shooting a bullet through his own head!

  “Ha… The Commission has grown too powerful.” She muttered to herself, brushing Her hair casually with Her new hands leisurely.

  “They love to use Djinns for every single problem… Absolutely troublesome.” She spat.

  “And they don’t even bother to place an instant kill clause on you. Instead, they feel the compulsion to make you my bait. Disgusting.”

  “Forcing me here… Damn it all… And for what? This untouchable soul?” She muttered, completely ignoring Aurelius and the sobs of Mrs. Tona that was slowly fading with the increasing volume of blood pooling on the ground.

  With a sigh, She finally turned to Aurelius, and started to scrutinise him under Her piercing gaze.

  “Mmm… It’s there alright… You’re His blessed?” She asked pointedly.

  “Y-Yes.” Aurelius replied, compelled to do so under Her horrifying eyes.

  “Do you believe that death can save you?” She asked.

  Aurelius withered under this question, feeling an overwhelming wave of fear driven through his heart. Does She know about his time loop?

  Aurelius couldn’t even manage his breath through his wind pipe this time, instead opting to shake his head.

  “Mmm… Good. Seems that I can leave you alive for now…” She muttered.

  Without so much as a sound, mana channeled itself around the room, forming… holes in the fabric of reality.

  Portals.

  Aurelius looked on in horror as 3 men and 1 woman stepped out of the tear in the void.

  He had a suspicion as to who these were. And it was all because of that single familiar face. Varian Greenwich. The lich.

  “Get to work.” She ordered the kneeling figures.

  Without so much as a glance towards Aurelius, all of them proceeded to jump into the night air through the window, flying with their cloaks fluttering behind through the corners of the city.

  “A few more decades would have been ideal… This is paranoia.” She grumbled.

  “500 million souls. What a waste.” She spat, fury starting to boil from Her eyes, and surrounding Her body with an ominous blue glow…

  ???

  “Get the Djinn.” Archsage Livia commanded.

  “No!” Archsage Andrew protested, blood spurting from his eye socket once more as the final round of rats disappeared into geometric lines.

  “We can contain this without that kind of bullshit!”

  “Oh, so you want to contain… a horde of undead.” Archsage Livia replied, stepping towards her colleague threateningly.

  The two of them had not moved yet from the rooftop, but in front of them lay something new.

  It was a corpse.

  “...They’re not undead…” Andrew shot back.

  “No, they’re worse.” She responded simply.

  “It’s impossible…” He protested.

  “You confirmed it.” She replied.

  “It might be wrong! How could it be that thousands of citizens had their souls infected by those abominations?” He asked, staring hauntedly at the corpse in front of him.

  “Thousands?” She replied.

  “Damnnit. Millions. If and only if the damage report from the Commission is accurate.”

  “It couldn’t have slipped Commission detection… I swear it shouldn’t have. This is an obvious flaw in their souls!” The Archsage responded desperately.

  “Who has the boy?” She asked.

  “...” Andrew shut up.

  “How many people are packed together in the evacuation?”

  “How many will die in the first round?"

  “This is an outbreak.”

  “Do you want the whole world to fall to the fae?”

  “We miscalculated.”

  “And now we need an extermination.” She stated simply.

  With a snap of her fingers, the corpse started to burn to ash.

  “The reports conclude that it’s likely 10% of the population that’s affected…” Andrew replied dejectedly.

  “Each one of those… citizens you talk about had their souls have been parasitised already. They follow the Queen now, whether they like it or not.” Archsage Livia replied curtly.

  “You’re telling me that you are willing to wipe out 10% of the global population, approximately 300 million human beings, without even considering an alternative to cure them?”

  “We both know that a cure is possible. The defect attaches to the soul like a parasite. And it should readily be manipulated off.” The sage replied, pushing back.

  “Yes.” Archsage Livia replied without hesitation.

  “The Queen is making Her move. And we must respond precisely and quickly.”

  “We should have committed to the boy. And now that we didn’t, we must pay the price.” She finished, raising her finger to the man’s face with a dark, humourless smile.

  “It might not even be the Queen… It’s not fae magic…” Andrew protested, clamming up as Livia stared him down.

  Andrew did not have a choice here in the slightest. There was only one path to be taken in front of him, and he would be responsible for the death of millions.

  “Haa… I… Ok… Fine.” He relented, snapping his fingers, and summoning a golden, gilded pen of intricate beauty…