The white light took several seconds to fully fade away.

Max narrowed his eyes, still partially blinded by the flash. Everything looked blurry. Figures. Shadows. Vague silhouettes moving through the lingering brightness.

He blinked several times.

And then he heard a familiar voice.

"Are you alright?"

Max’s eyes widened.

"...Dorian?"

His vision finally cleared.

The scene in front of him looked completely different from what it had been only seconds ago.

Vasha was pinned against a stone wall.

Literally.

Four magical purple daggers had pierced different parts of her tight black dress, pinning her to the wall like some particularly aggressive decoration.

The orc woman hung there unconscious, her head tilted to one side and her whip lying nearby.

"Well," Max muttered.

He blinked.

"That’s a considerable improvement."

A few metres away, Seraphine was helping Chloe back onto her feet.

The human still looked exhausted, but far more stable than before.

Chloe tried to smile.

Then she said something in what was very clearly meant to be Elvish.

Or at least attempted to.

"...Tha... nalir... eh... graci... no, wait..."

She frowned at herself in frustration.

"Ugh."

Seraphine let out a small laugh and gently tucked a strand of hair behind Chloe’s ear.

"The intention was understood," she said softly.

Max let out a small smile. But immediately tensed up again.

He quickly turned, searching for Skar. And found him.

At the other end of the corridor.

Absolute silence.

The enormous orc had been impaled against a wall.

His torso was literally embedded into the stone. The other half of his body hung grotesquely forward, blocking part of the path.

Black blood covered the wall, the floor, and part of his cape.

His skin was pale. Empty.

Motionless.

Dead.

Max stared at him for several seconds.

"...Wow."

He turned to Seraphine.

"I expected nothing less from an absurdly overpowered mage."

Seraphine crossed her arms.

"Don’t take all the credit away from Dorian," she said with a small smile.

Dorian raised a hand with obvious pride.

"If it weren’t for my support magic, her spells wouldn’t hit half as hard."

Seraphine sighed.

"That’s also true."

Neros finally lowered his guard. His concern was immediate the moment he looked at Seraphine.

"Are you alright?" he asked quickly.

Too quickly. Too genuinely.

Seraphine blinked. Then blushed slightly.

"I’m fine," she replied.

She looked away a little.

"It was fairly easy to find the warehouse."

She smiled with some amusement.

"Especially when they believe a wealthy noble couple is looking for new and exotic slaves."

The group fell silent.

Neros froze.

"...Couple?" he repeated slowly.

He turned toward the two of them.

"What do you mean, couple?"

He narrowed his eyes.

"Who exactly was the couple?"

Dorian let out a laugh.

"Relax, royal knight."

He gave Neros a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"It was just a lie to infiltrate the place."

He smiled widely.

"But please try not to touch a single hair on my head."

Neros stared at him like he was seriously considering that possibility.

"If I didn’t still need your healing magic, you’d already be dead."

Dorian’s smile only widened.

"How adorable."

Then he blinked and looked around.

"By the way..."

His expression softened slightly.

"Where’s my dear friend Finn?"

The atmosphere shifted instantly.

Max lowered his gaze, and his smile vanished.

"...We couldn’t do anything," he said quietly.

He pointed to the side.

"Skar killed him by smashing him into the wall when he tried to attack from behind."

Dorian followed the direction of his finger.

And saw the body.

The goblin’s small, lifeless corpse still lay beside the wall.

Motionless.

Covered in dried blood.

The smile slowly disappeared from the elf’s face.

Completely.

He said nothing.

He simply walked silently toward Finn’s body.

Knelt down in front of him.

Reached into his pocket.

And pulled out a small copper coin.

He carefully placed it on the goblin’s chest.

Then he opened one of his bags and pulled out a small flask of gunpowder.

He slowly poured it over the body.

Max frowned.

"What are you doing?"

Dorian didn’t look up.

"A cremation ritual," he replied quietly.

He summoned a small magical spark with his fingers.

And let it fall.

FWOOSH.

The flames gently wrapped around the small body.

Not violent. Not brutal.

Just... warm.

Dorian watched the fire in silence.

"I’ll take his ashes to the place he always loved visiting," he murmured.

His voice sounded strangely calm.

"To the entrance of his uncle’s tavern."

He pulled out a small empty glass vial.

Waited patiently for the body to finish burning.

And using delicate magic, carefully guided every particle of ash into the container.

Max watched the scene in silence.

"...I see."

He lowered his voice slightly.

"I’d never heard of that ritual before."

He looked at the small vial.

"But in my world, we do something similar."

Dorian gave a small nod.

Silence again.

Then he spoke.

"It seems to have started raining in here."

Max frowned.

’...What?’

He instinctively looked up. Obviously, it wasn’t raining. They were inside an underground warehouse.

But then he saw a small droplet sliding down Dorian’s cheek.

’Ah.’

Max immediately understood. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

And decided to stay silent.

He wasn’t going to ruin that for him.

Seraphine slowly approached.

"Dorian."

Her tone was soft.

"The king’s pet needs energy."

She pointed at Chloe.

"Can you heal her?"

Dorian took a deep breath.

He quickly wiped his face with his sleeve.

Placed the vial of ashes into his bag.

And stood up again.

"Yes."

He walked over to Chloe and placed a hand on her shoulder. A warm green light slowly began wrapping around her.

"We don’t have much time," he murmured.

"Before everyone discovers this disaster."

Neros crossed his arms.

"What’s the plan?"

Dorian looked up.

His expression had changed again.

Now he looked dangerously calm.

He smiled.

"I want to burn everything down."

Max blinked.

"...Fair enough."

He nodded slowly, though slightly surprised by the elf’s attitude.

"But first we need to get all the creatures out of here."

Seraphine raised a hand.

"If you give me a few minutes, I can use a spell to help move them outside."

Dorian pointed down the corridor they had come from.

"Perfect. Then hurry."

He pulled several more small flasks of gunpowder from his bags.

"Because I’m getting started."

And he ran down the hallway.

Literally tossing gunpowder everywhere like he was decorating for an extremely illegal festival.