Ryan stood over the man, glaring at him. His hilt was in his hand, with the barest shimmer of the ultrasonic sword visible as dust bounced off.
Without the army of monsters, the robed man was just a prisoner of four powerful Illuminated. Any of them could kill him with ease. He glared at Lyssa, his eyes filled with hatred.
Antoine helped Lyssa stagger over to the robed man. There was nothing distinctive about his plain features. She didn’t recognize him or have any idea who he served.
“Who are you?” Lyssa asked. “You have to get that you’ve lost. Your army’s gone. Your town-killer’s gone. We beat you. Now you’re going to answer our questions.”
“You ruined everything,” the robed man snarled. “All my master’s work destroyed for nothing but one pointless death. If you’d only waited until tomorrow, even your twisted darkness sorcery wouldn’t have been able to stop everything when we had all of the ultimate creations. We were supposed to test everything then.”
“You shouldn’t have lured those two guys down here,” Lyssa replied. A shiver wracked her body. “You screwed up. No dead livestreamers, no investigation, no Torches. You shouldn’t have sent the email. Then you could have started World War Kaiju all you wanted and taken down half the county before we got there.”
“Email?” The man stared at her. “What email?”
“The one you sent, the one where you convinced Lucky Nardi to come down here. The one where you taunted Torches.” Lyssa tried to shrug, but her shoulders didn’t respond. “You got not one but three and a bonus healer.”
“No, no, no.” The man shook his head. “We sent no email. I sent no email. Why would we bring you to us before our plan was ready? There were supposed to be five destroyers, not one. Why would we squander all that time and planning? All those resources? All that power? For what purpose?”
“Then who the hell sent the email?” Lyssa asked. “I didn’t imagine it, nor did Lucky Nardi. It was real.”
“I don’t know, but whoever they are, they’re our enemies. I hope my master finds them and makes them pay.”
“Why?” Aisha glared at him. “Why create monstrosities and release them onto the world? What could such a disgusting, twisted aberration accomplish but pointless destruction? Your master is an abomination, and the Society will execute him for what he’s done.”
“For trying to create a better world?” the man replied. “The only way to get stronger is to force things. You’re a Torch. You understand that.” He coughed up blood and smiled. “If you don’t understand now, you’ll understand soon enough. This wasn’t my master’s only plan. You think you’re clever, but someone helped you. It won’t change anything in the end.”
Lyssa frowned. “Antoine, set me down and keep him alive. There’s no way he gets the easy out. We need him.”
“It’s too late,” the robed man said, coughing up more blood. “They’ve protected me from you.”
Antoine set Lyssa on her knees and headed toward the robed man. She couldn’t support herself and fell forward, to be caught by Aisha and steadied.
The healer set his hand on the prisoner’s forehead and began chanting in Latin and moving the tip of his staff.
Hissing, Antoine yanked back his hand and shook it out. The robed man’s eyes clouded over, and his veins turned black. He’d stopped breathing.
Lyssa was trying hard not to pass out. She couldn’t formulate a decent question.
“What happened?” Aisha asked, staring at the robed man.
Antoine clutched his hand. “I haven’t seen anything like this in a long time. Damn, those people are messed up. This was even worse than their monsters.”
Aisha glared at him. “He’s dead? But you were healing him. You don’t strike me as capable of that level of incompetence.”
“Sorry, but they tricked me.” Antoine frowned. “He had a passive spell on him that reversed sorcerous healing. I don’t get why it didn’t go off when I healed him before. I sensed sorcery, but I figured it was just leftover shard stuff.”
“He triggered it somehow,” Ryan said with a frown. “He thought he could get away before, but he finally gave up and took himself out. He was never going to let us capture him.”
“Why would anyone create a spell like that?” Lyssa asked with a shudder.
“In the past, it was done as punishment.” Antoine shook his head. “I would have never thought of someone using it for protection, but I also would have never thought of feeding an army of monsters to make a huge one and set it loose on a town.”
Aisha scoffed. “You don’t have a corrupt mind. There’s no shame in that.”
Lyssa groaned at her churning stomach at the situation. “Damn it. We lost him.”
“No.” Antoine smiled. “We saved a town.”
Aisha smiled and folded her arms. “He’s right. We delivered a resounding defeat to his master.”
“Okay, that’s good, but I think I’m going to take a little nap now.”
Chapter Thirty-One
A week later, Lyssa smiled when she opened the door to the black-suited elderly man on the other side. She didn’t even need the sorcery pressure to know it was Samuel. He’d scheduled an exact time for his arrival. There were no cryptic comments or ridiculous home-delivery-style arrival windows. Much like the team, it was another thing she could get used to.
She headed to the couch to take a seat and let him commence his looming as a small reward for his administrative help on the job. Despite the lingering fatigue afflicting her from using the three showstoppers, she’d gone through the mine suffering far less direct injury than she’d received when taking down the smuggling ring.
Antoine hadn’t been wrong when he called her a loner, but the idea of a team was growing on her. The future might bring more of those, as she suspected, but for now, there weren’t enough Sorcerers to go around, and she couldn’t have a permanent team.
She’d made sure to get contact information for the others in
