’I will not allow it!’

Dunya reacted immediately, raising her hand to call upon her Element.

Death answered.

The black Rukh quelled the lightning, swallowing it whole while also shielding Malik and herself from the crackling assault.

Thankfully, she didn’t need to shield Isha as well. Malik had moved the moment the maid was struck, lunging forward and pulling the small crimson owl against his chest.

Isha cooed once in confusion but didn’t struggle, her pink eyes blinking up at him.

Around them, the cannon fodder—the White Bear soldiers who had been circling them—were all killed.

The lightning hadn’t discriminated between friend and foe, reaching its own people without mercy.

Their bodies lay sprawled across the cracked stone, smoke rising from their charred uniforms.

Beyond enraged, Dunya raised a hand and called upon their very Souls.

Using them as fuel, she... leveled the entire area from where the attack had come.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Yes, in a single second, before Malik could even react, she sent wave after wave of invisible force crashing into the buildings.

Every single structure in that direction was utterly destroyed, stone collapsing into rubble, dust, and smoke billowing into the sky.

The ground cracked and cratered, splitting open in deep fissures that swallowed the debris.

When the dust cleared, a small group of people remained suspended in the sky above the destruction.

A few were severely injured, their bodies hanging limp in the air, supported only by their comrades’ grips.

Most of them, however, didn’t seem to even have a scratch on them, protected by a glowing white shield that surrounded their group.

Dunya’s attack was incredible, but they seemed to have been prepared for it.

That was when their apparent leader floated a few feet ahead of the others and opened his bastard mouth:

"Hello, Dunya, little sister of the Sultan. A Great Soul... a Class Six."

He appeared no older than thirty, with short blonde hair, green eyes, and sunburnt skin.

His white robes wore no insignia.

"Orphaned at a young age and left with a scar that turned you mute. Many bad things happened, hm? But it was great in the end, because the Sultan saved you. Someone who would have died a nobody became so damned important!"

His smile was thin and cold.

"Important enough for us to target you."

One belonging to a snake.

"Indeed, no one other than you would recklessly try to save someone without proper preparations first."

If it wasn’t obvious by now, this trap wasn’t the work of a single faction.

The White Bear faction had been utterly destroyed by Malik already—they were simply the bait, the unwitting fish. These floating figures before them were the real forces, no doubt strong enough to kill Dunya if she fought them alone.

’Dammit... I might need to use my last peak Soul Glyph here.’

Malik shifted Isha to one arm and prepared himself for the worst.

Meanwhile, ignoring every word that was said about her, Dunya knelt beside the fallen maid and gently patted her head, closing her unseeing eyes.

It was a heavy gesture of apology and gratitude that made Malik feel something twist in his chest.

He didn’t know just how many people his little sister had lost, but he didn’t doubt that today was simply another drop in a very large bucket.

Because yes, he was sure that the group they were with had been killed as well.

After a long moment, Dunya stood up and raised her hand once more.

"Hee."

The dead around them—every corpse that had fallen in the lightning strike—slowly rose to their feet, their bodies jerking and straightening, their eyes now glowing with a dying light.

Only the maid remained still, left in peace, Dunya deciding that she had earned her rest.

A pulse of Death erupted from the risen corpses, spreading outward in a dark wave that made the temperature drop further.

Right after, the undead formed ranks, and before anyone there could blink, the first rank launched into the sky towards the floating invaders.

When they hit the white shield, they exploded in an incredible wave of Death.

The shield cracked in response, its life being drained.

Dunya was targeting their main means of protection!

And she didn’t relent for even a moment, as the second rank was already upon the invaders, followed closely by the third.

By the time the invaders managed to react, their shield had already shattered and dissolved into harmless sparks.

Even then, Dunya kept bombarding them with Death, corpse after corpse detonating on contact with enough force to shake the ground for miles.

It was an attack that seemed to genuinely surprise the enemy, their leader’s smug expression disappearing.

Perhaps this was a Rune she only revealed to the dead.

Or rather, it was a Rune that always annihilated its target.

But, of course, the enemy managed to adjust before too many of them could die.

Lightning and water rained down from the survivors, each elemental blast tearing through the undead before they could reach them.

Dunya didn’t stop, pouring everything she had into the assault, knowing her only chance was to end it fast before they overwhelmed her.

But she wasn’t given that ’chance.’

CRACK!

Without any warning, the same concentrated lightning that had killed the maid struck Dunya directly in the head

Thankfully, an invisible shield of Death surrounded her head, protecting her from the worst of it.

Still, the impact shook her to her core, rattling her concentration.

Because of that, her attacks momentarily stopped, her undead army faltering in place.

That brief pause was all the enemy needed.

"Kill this bitch!"

Under their leader’s scream, they struck her directly, a coordinated barrage of water and lightning constructs raining down from every angle. Especially water, their attack was all-encompassing.

Dunya had raised her Death shield to block what she could, focusing on protecting Malik as well, perhaps even more than herself, but she was off balance, reeling from the hit.

That moment would have decided the battle.

That moment would have probably ended with Dunya’s death.

It was the very moment that Malik finally decided to intervene.

’Ember’s Touch. Peak Soul Glyph.’

He activated it without hesitation.

Yes, without this Soul Glyph, he would certainly be dead if he were ever attacked after this, left as nothing more than a mortal with an aging body and no power.

Yes, Dunya would see his truth.

But that didn’t matter anymore.

He couldn’t let these two die.

Immediately, a rush of fire exploded outward from his body, the flames erupting from his skin and clothes with a roar that drowned out every other sound.

A pure white flame that ended.

The fire formed a dome around him, Dunya, and Isha.

Any attack that tried to get near them was simply erased.

His fire truly was of the end.

Dunya, just getting out of her stunned state, looked to the side with wide eyes.

...it was her big brother.

There was no mistaking it.

She saw him... her big brother.

A tear fell.

Her lips trembled as it rolled down her cheek.

In that same moment, Malik focused on the Water Magi among the enemy.

He reached out with his power and wiped them out, every single one.

Their bodies turned to nothing before they could even scream, and their spells dissolved.

Malik had succeeded, but that success came at a cost.

The Lightning Magi used that precious second to retreat, scattering across the sky in streaks of lightning before Malik could turn his attention to them.

It had all happened so fast, barely a second from activation to retreat, that neither Dunya nor Isha—who had tumbled to the ground when Malik’s arms opened—could process what they had just witnessed.

Malik glanced at his little sister, at the tear still rolling down her cheek, and smiled.

It was a warm smile.

Then, he turned and disappeared, launching himself into the sky after the fleeing cowards, leaving only a trail of white fire in his wake.

"HEEEE!"

A scream more desperate than any other echoed through the ruins on his departure.

Of course, it came from Dunya.

Her voice tore itself from her scarred throat for the first time in many years, filled with grief that no words could capture.

She reached out a hand toward the fading trail of fire, her fingers grasping at empty air.

But he was already gone, and he didn’t look back.