Jade cleaned the blood from her face as she dodged a blade coming for her throat. After so long, her reflexes had slowed down, and the blade still cut through her skin.

Beneath her, Aria the Monster of Mars tried to break the barrier, and in front of her, Scarlet The white star was trying to kill, all while she barely had ten percent of her magic left.

During her chase she had to use her domain and angel form constantly to escape from her foe, and now with nowhere else to go, she only counted seconds until a way for her opened.

"Scarlett, you killed a general?" The woman beneath them, with a calm voice, yet with hundreds of meters of distance, heard her clearly.

"I..."

She was cut short by a new presence on earth; even Aria started her magic and looked down on where the new source of magic came from. The aura of it made Jade’s heart beat faster and all blood leave her skin from fear.

"Did he mean this by a plan...?"

The entity down there was one of the oldest ones in the history of the universe; to Jade’s knowledge, even devils stayed away from it due to its strange powers, and in no case was anyone stupid enough to gamble his life with such a fierce entity.

Jade’s eyes moved to Scarlet’s figure. "She’s shaking out of fear..." Seeing the look in her eyes, she noticed her mistake: "It’s excitement..."

Aria’s patience ran out; her punches landed on the barrier nonstop. Her easiest option was to kill the witch and deal with whatever was inside of there alone. Her voice carried a hint of enthusiasm. "Scarlet, use your domain."

"Use it, and I will face you personally..." A new person joined the small gathering, an old man with bread that reached his legs and a face with many wrinkles.

Taking advantage of the small window, Jade moved to behind the new party; she didn’t know him, but for now it seemed he didn’t want to kill her. "He’s an immortal too..."

"Marshal, you dare to oppose the Goddess Squad?" Aria joined Scarlet’s side, and the glitches on her body grew more.

The old man simply said his words, "I can’t let you destroy this planet. You two, just like me, were once born in here; it’s a shame that such a beautiful place gave birth to demons like you."

Aria burst into laughter. "You think you can stop us both?"

"No." The aura around him changed into killing intent. "One of you will kill me, and when earth is destroyed, the other one will die too. So why not just enter your festival and leave here as soon as possible?"

Scarlet’s body tensed, ready to attack, before Aria put her hand on her chest. "I’m not in the mood to have this conversation, but I will remember your words."

Underneath them, the presence of the Devil left the face of the earth, and no matter how much Jade looked for any living creatures, there were none in there.

"Ray died..."

"He failed." The old man sighed, "What a letdown."

Jade fell to her knees; all the ways out had been closed. Even though their relationship was complicated, Jade counted him as her only friend. Not knowing what to do with him, drops of tears fell on her robe.

"That man fought to his last breath; such despair is treason to your friend." The old man swung his hand toward Jade with a snap; her body turned into red soil, traveling through the barrier.

As Jade regained her senses, with open eyes, she stared at the old man. "Earth magic..." There were rumors of each planet having a figure as its guardian, but many things didn’t make sense; the last time that Earth got destroyed, there was no Marshal to stop the event.

In the north, a horseman was awakening too. A mix of both destruction magic and fusion magic was shaping as its main core of magic; the two were reaching a stability to the point that the monster could use both.

Aria ignored the old man standing in front of them, launching another punch at the barrier. This time, unlike the times before, two hands came out of nowhere; each held one of them and swallowed them into the area inside of the festival.

Smoke rose from their bodies, and Aria’s spiritual field around her started to weaken little by little. "It’s only putting limits on our abilities and equipment..." Her lips curled into a smile. "Any last words, so-called witch?"

Too tired to do anything, Jade didn’t make any move; with less than five percent of her magic, even if she could block one attack, the next one would finish it either way.

In the end, Jade felt nothing; the fear of dying was a stupid thing for her. She didn’t have any special goals in life either; most days just passed with no difference.

"Fuck you." With closed eyes, Jade awaited death to find her.

"You have grown weak, Jade."

As she opened her eyes, a familiar person had come to her rescue. On the other side, Aria and Scarlet were on their guard.

Jade could see her companion, but all of her senses told her that there was nothing there, no sign of temperature or magic, with the drastic changes to his looks; once a pair of blue eyes now only hosted pure black eyes, with most of his body losing its skin and muscles, and his organs were there for blind eyes to witness, and the most important change was on his chest; nothing existed there anymore, no organs at all, with how no skin to cover his inner organs, only one thing existed there: a heart with no heartbeat and two flowers growing out of it.

"He’s not breathing..."

Jade made sure of her conclusion, too many signs were there to confirm it.

Ray was already dead.