The two Brotherhood Adepts regrouped quickly.

The one Barlas had hit with the spatial punch had recovered, stopping his momentum through the air.

And the one Le Fay had cut was pressing his free hand against the wound in his torso. While the injury was deep, it wasn’t disabling. The man’s constitution was strong enough to keep him fit.

They moved apart, widening the distance between them to force Le Fay and Barlas to split their attention.

Le Fay went left without discussion, leaving Barlas to go right.

His opponent was the larger of the two, and it showed.

The man had broad shoulders and thick muscles that didn’t even matter one bit. Regardless of muscles, one can only unleash the force of their strength stat.

However, the man carried a broadsword in both hands and used the reach of it to keep Barlas from closing the distance.

Barlas distorted the space between them, compressing it, and appeared inside the sword’s range.

The Adept had seen the trick once, and he was ready for it.

His elbow came around before Barlas had even fully arrived, catching him across the jaw and snapping his head sideways.

Barlas absorbed the hit, planted his feet in the now distorted yet solid space beneath his feet, and drove both fists forward into the man’s chest.

The punch slammed into the Adept, sending him flying back. However, the man simply stopped in the air before he could go more than a few feet.

Barlas was caught by surprise by the sudden stop, and almost missed the fact that the Adept had kept his grip on the broadsword.

The cultist swung his sword, aiming to shear through Barlas’ ribs.

Barlas twisted, blocking the attack with his forearm. The sword scraped against his gauntlet, sending sparks flying through the air.

He shoved the sword back, the blade coming a few inches close to his skin. If he’d been just a fraction of a second too late, the attack would have hit him.

Instead, he activated the gauntlet, distorting space as he suddenly appeared to the left of his opponent.

The man flew backwards, but Barlas snapped his fingers, distorting the space around the man to make him still be in the same place even as he flew.

Then his punch slammed into the man’s face, this time sending him flying.

Across the sky, Le Fay laughed as he fought. He might as well have been in training at how leisurely he seemed to fight.

However, his opponent didn’t dare lose concentration for a moment. Le Fay might have made it look easy, but he couldn’t forget that this was a life and death battle.

Le Fay’s darkness slashed through the air, trying to find an opening to end the man’s life.

After almost a minute of defense, the cultist decided to change his approach.

He grew more aggressive and erratic, forcing Le Fay to work harder to predict his moves.

Le Fay adapted without breaking a sweat, his [Wraith] phasing him through two strikes that would have connected, and his counterattacks drew blood twice in quick succession.

The cultist began to realize... there was no way he could defeat Le Fay alone. Which meant Barlas had to die.

Beside them, Barlas didn’t let up, distorting space as fast as he could, his mana draining rapidly with each use.

He zoomed through the air, attacking from angles that his opponents sometimes failed to predict.

The Adept was good, but the spatial manipulation was disorienting even for someone experienced, and Barlas could feel the man’s responses slowing down.

He compressed the distance one final time and drove his gauntleted fist directly into the wound Le Fay had opened earlier.

The Adept roared in pain, his guard breaking.

Barlas reached for his throat.

That was why he didn’t see the second Adept coming.

Le Fay’s opponent had broken away from their fight, taking the punishment of leaving himself open to Le Fay’s sword in exchange for crossing the sky in a single burst.

Le Fay had seen it and was already moving to stop him, but the man was too fast.

The second Adept appeared behind Barlas in the moment his full attention was on his own opponent.

The broadsword drove through Barlas’ back and emerged from his chest.

Barlas froze in shock.

"Barlas!" Le Fay’s voice reached his ears, filled with genuine alarm, but it sounded hazy.

Below him, the city kept burning, and his eyes landed on it.

’I... I guess I’ve done my part.’

Then his body went slack, with both his skills and [Item] deactivating.

And he fell from the sky.

In the same instant, Le Fay’s sword tore through the Adept he’d been fighting before the man could fully turn back to face him.

The darkness blade tore through his torso from the side, completely destroying everything it passed through, the dark energy consuming any tissue it touched.

The man had no time to turn. He was dead before he even realized what had happened.

Le Fay didn’t bother to watch him fall. He was already facing the remaining Adept, his blood boiling in his veins.

The fight that followed was short.

Without the numerical advantage, the cultist’s attack kept collapsing.

Le Fay didn’t even give him a second to reset or defend himself, his darkness sword tearing through the air with the force of a mountain.

The attack slammed into the man’s sword, the attack sending him flying. But before he could fly more than a few meters, Le Fay’s hand closed around his ankle, dragging him back.

In the next second, his sword sheared through the cultist’s throat, beheading him instantly.

This time, Le Fay watched him drop, then turned and descended.

Barlas had fallen into the street directly below the sky where they’d been fighting, his body hitting the ground hard enough to create a large crater on the floor.

Le Fay landed at the edge of it and walked to the center, where Barlas lay on his back, the wound in his chest visible and his gauntleted hands still loosely curled at his sides.

Le Fay knelt.

He placed his hand on Barlas’ chest, checking for a pulse and found nothing.

He stayed there for a moment, one knee on the cracked stone as he stared at the City Lord of Havenhart.

Barlas was dead.