Magnus and Sandor’s spell casting speed was eye-popping, people could see only their shadows and occasional thunderous collisions, and whenever they slammed into each other, the ground would sink and vegetation would vanish, and the pouring water would come down to fill them, forming puddles here and there.

 “You have reached Mature Rank, huh?” Sandor narrowed his eyes when he couldn’t take any advantage in the battle against Magnus, but then he sneered. “So what if you can fight me? You won’t be able to defeat me that easily, and even if you did…” he said as they continued to cast spell after spell on each other, “…even if you did, so what? Could those people hold that long? Although their number is greater, the strength of my people far surpassed theirs. As time passes, their number would start to decrease. Don’t you want to save them, Magnus?”

 “You…” Magnus gritted his teeth in rage when he looked at the battle between vampires and elves. Although Sandor said those words to affect his state of mind and to find an opening to attack him — and he knew that — what he said was indeed true. 

The number of villagers was rapidly plummeting. It won’t take long before only a few villagers would remain. He trembled in fury but then his gaze fell on a particular corpse and his body stiffened. His mind went blank and tears dripped from his eyes which were cold and impassive all this time.

 “So what if he is a vampire!?” a memory surfaced inside his head. “Can’t you see there is a human with them as well?” It was a memory about a teenage girl who had protected him, Salona, and Eddena, when they needed the help most.

“You want to kill them?” she roared. “Over my dead body!”

“How could you think such a thing? Do you still have hearts? Can’t you see how injured they are?”

She was the girl who had gone against her villagers on their behalf. She was the one who convinced Grandma Ti to treat Salona and let them stay in Yefsari. She was a kind girl. Innocent, but smart. She was stubborn, but with a heart of gold. She was Shasha.

[Note: She is the same girl who went hunting with Eddena last time.]

Beside Shasha was another corpse. The old lady who acted uncaringly, but there was nothing in her heart other than kindness. The old lady whose eyes used to shine with wisdom, now they were closed. Her body that was old but still filled with vigour had already turned lifeless, cold.

Magnus never imagined that the two most kind people he met would die because of him. He just wanted to live peacefully with his loved ones. He was even thinking about bringing Kadyn and Elora to this village. Who would have thought…

He fell on his knees in the puddle as the tears dripped down from his eyes with rain. He clenched his fist and roared towards the sky, full of pain and indignance, full of sorrow and misery. However, at this moment, a kind of aura started to seep out of his body, and with the aura came a kind of pressure, freezing the entire battlefield. Even Sandor couldn’t budge from his place.

Magnus held his right hand with his left and screamed. However, this time the scream wasn’t due to fury, but due to pain. No one knew what was going on with Magnus. Salona and Eddena looked at him worriedly. They didn’t know what to do, and even if they knew they wouldn’t be able to do anything, as they were also under the pressure released by Magnus.

As time went by, Magnus’ right arm started to morph. First, red-coloured scales appeared on his arm and when the scales reached the elbow, they morphed into a sharp spike, and then the scales cracked, a white light mixed with blue hue emitted from within as if the light was burning underneath them. The entire hand was covered in red scales but his fingers were emitting cyan light. Each of them as sharp as any dagger. 

Other than the change in his hand, Magnus’ hair also turned blue from silver.

This strange evolution frightened most of the people that were present there. Sandor or elf, even Eddena looked pale. There was only one exception — Salona. Previously, her eyes were filled with worry and confusion, but now, she looked at her husband with eyes full of tears, as if she had remembered something. 

Everyone’s attention was on Magnus sp they failed to notice the change in Salona. Her body also released a kind of aura, but different from Magnus. Her hair turned green, her eyes became emerald, and she looked younger than before

Previously, she was appeared about thirty, but now she looked around eighteen. Her bearing changed, she looked like a goddess descended from heaven. However, tears never stopped falling from her eyes. Without realising the pressure that she was feeling just now vanished. She stumbled towards Magnus. Only then people noticed her and the change in her.

Salona walked to her husband and crouched down. Then a choking voice escaped her mouth. “Da-Darius~”

Magnus lifted his head and revealed his face that had become a lot younger than before, tears dripping from his blue eyes— but when his gaze fell on Salona, a smile appeared on his face as he muttered. “Sylvia~” and then the duo hugged each other tightly in front of the bewildered and frozen crowd, who were already on the verge of crying.

The duo lost in each other’s embrace; it felt like an eternity, only then they separated from each other. Magnus looked at her with eyes filled with love and said. “Let me finish something first.”

“Go ahead,” the lady nodded.

Magnus turned towards frozen Sandor and his face turned cold as ice. He strolled towards the man at a slow pace. Sandor shuddered when he saw him approaching. “Mag-Magnus, we can talk about it peacefully. Didn’t you want to live peacefully?”

Magnus didn’t speak anything as he stood in front of Sandor and looked at him emotionlessly. Then he lifted his right hand(evolved one) and grasped his hand and before the man could plead anymore his head burst into a bloody mist. 

People’s hearts shuddered in terror at such a sight. No one dared to make a noise.

Magnus wiped the blood from his face with his hand and said. “One time offer. Take it or leave it. You didn’t take it, and you didn’t leave it.. Got to make you leave.”