Chris slammed his foot down hard onto the cultist's chest.
Gasping for air, the cultist looked up and sneered, "Are you going to kill me? How long will you keep killing us like this? We will keep coming. You might kill me right now, but in the future, someone else will take my place. And then, he will slaughter everyone."
Chris's eyes burned with pure rage, suppressing the deep hatred boiling inside him. "Keep coming," he growled, his voice trembling with fury. "And I will keep killing you all. As long as there is breath left in my body, monsters like you will die."
All around them, the jungle was burning. The fire grew wilder, swallowing the trees in monstrous wraps of flame. Leo looked around in panic; everywhere he turned, burning trees were crashing down to the forest floor.
Suddenly, a voice pierced through the roaring blaze. It was Ray.
"If we don't do something right now, this fire will turn all of Berkyo to ash!" Ray shouted, coughing through the smoke. "This fire is too strong... it's far stronger than my own flames!"
Leo gripped his head in sheer desperation. "What can we even do? We're powerless! This fire is slipping through our fingers like sand!"
Through the crashing of burning trees, a chilling laugh echoed. Leo and Ray snapped their heads toward the sound.
It was the cultist.
Chris's smoke spear was still embedded deep in his chest, and blood was coughing out of his mouth. He lay on the scorching ground surrounded by fire, writhing in pain, yet he couldn't stop laughing.
"Die... just die, all of you!" the cultist wheezed maliciously. "None of you deserve to live. You only care about yourselves. You are nothing but lapdogs to the powerful high-borns, while the common folk constantly die, and nobody gives a damn!"
Chris finally pulled his foot off the cultist's chest. "You monsters have butchered countless innocent people," Chris snapped, "and now you're lecturing me about caring for the common folk?"
The cultist laughed even louder, coughing up more blood. "Forgive me, Captain! It seems the human inside me briefly woke up." He pointed a trembling, blood-stained finger toward the roaring flames. "Look! Look there! The human inside me is burning away now."
He stared at the fire for a moment, his expression suddenly twisting into a mask of mocked horror. "Oh no! What happened? The human inside me just burned to ashes in that fire!" He burst into another fit of manic laughter.
Chris grabbed him by the collar, his patience entirely depleted. "What did you do to the people who vanished? Tell me! What happened to them?!"
The cultist stared dead into Chris's eyes. He lifted his broken arm weakly. "But you broke my hands... why should I tell you anything? Tell me, why?"
Bam!
Chris unleashed a devastating punch straight into the cultist's face. "Tell me where they are right now, or I swear I will not let you die quickly!"
"Look, I'm going to die anyway," the cultist wheezed, wiping blood from his mouth. "And besides, this fire is going to reach Berkyo soon regardless. So, fine, I'll tell you. Every single person we kidnapped... is already dead."
Chris's hands began to shake violently. Rage and horror washed over him. He choked the cultist by the throat. "Why?! Why would you do that?!"
"Look at this world," the cultist choked out, a dark grin spreading across his face. "The world created by the angels... the one they call the Queen of Angels, along with the others. They built this world so people could live in peace. But look at it now! It is filled with nothing but pure hatred for one another."
The cultist's eyes went distant. "Do you remember the 8th-century war? The great war between Norvia and Braven? That entire war happened solely because of the blunders of the kings. And who died? People like us. People who stood up for their continent and their safety. I was in that war. I slaughtered countless people with my own hands, and I lost so many brothers who fought by my side. But later, when I thought about it with a cold, clear mind... it was the kings' fault. The feud was between them! So why did common people like us have to die?"
Chris's hands were trembling uncontrollably now. "But... that war happened over two hundred years ago. How are you still alive?"
The cultist spread his arms wide. "That is the beauty of true magic. My Lord, Null, adopted me. But tell me, do you know why that war started? Do you want to know the truth?"
"Tell me," Chris demanded.
"The King of Braven lost a game of chess to the 8th King of Norvia."
The words hung in the air.
Chris, Leo, and Ray stood frozen. Their minds went entirely blank, their attention completely ripped away from the raging fire. The sheer absurdity and horror of the truth left them paralyzed.
"Now tell me, Chris," the cultist continued, his voice dripping with venom. "What value did a common person hold in the eyes of those kings? What value do people like you hold, who risk your lives to save the continent? They don't care about you."
"Just for a game of chess... they started a war?" Chris whispered in disbelief. "But why?!"
"Think about it yourself," the cultist laughed weakly. "But I did a wonderful thing. in 1860, I murdered both of those kings with my own hands—using my favorite gun. I was sentenced to hang for it, but look at me now, standing before you today, all because of my Lord. If those kings are turning this world into a living hell and letting common people die, then it's better if we demons wipe out the common folk now to build a better future. Don't you think that's a noble cause?"
"But what is the fault of those common people?!" Chris roared. "They just want to live! And you are slaughtering them! You used to be human too! You witnessed all that pain, and at one point, you wanted to serve your continent too!"
The cultist fell completely silent.
He slowly pointed his finger back toward the horizon. "Look... the fire is reaching Berkyo."
Chris, Leo, and Ray snapped out of their shock and looked toward the town. The fire had devoured the massive jungle and was now aggressively encroaching upon the borders of Berkyo. In the distance, terrified townspeople could be seen fleeing for their lives.
The cultist grinned dyingly at Chris. "You can't stop it. And besides... the next seal is going to break in just two days."
"What? No, there is still supposed to be plenty of time for that!" Chris barked.
"In this world, nothing is impossible," the cultist whispered.
Chris glared at him one last time, then turned around and bolted into a sprint. Leo and Ray ran right behind him, pushing their bodies to their absolute limits. Moving with incredible speed, Chris outran the raging flames and threw himself directly in front of the advancing wall of fire.
He raised both hands high into the air. A brilliant, piercing grey light erupted above his palms.
Back in the forest, the massive smoke spear embedded in the cultist's chest began to dissolve into mist.
Meanwhile, Felix was inside the carriage, desperately trying to force the door open as he watched the fire close in. Because of Chris's smoke prison, the door wouldn't budge. But suddenly, Felix noticed the smoke prison around the carriage beginning to fade away.
Looking out the carriage window, Felix saw a massive pillar of grey light illuminating the sky. The smoke from the prison flew rapidly toward that light, coalescing into a colossal, monumental spear.
With a thunderous roar, Chris slammed the massive spear directly into the earth.
BOOM!
A gigantic, impenetrable wall of dense smoke erupted from the ground, forcefully clashing against the roaring flames and halting the fire in its tracks.