A menacing blue glow was coming out of his hand, while he started conjuring.
That blue glow, he's about to launch a fireball with fifth-state refined ink. At this distance, even at his current state, he would blow up the whole building from the ground. How did he get his hands on that?! They don't even have it at the capital from what I've read...
Alex's father was on the same page; he realized how dire the situation was. "Xander, stop! You don't have to do this, I'll give you your money and forget about all this!" Elder Herald was practically begging him to stop; he knew that we could all end up dead.
Malena bolted towards him at the speed of sound, not taking a second to think.
"NO! You'll die!" Zora urged Malena to stop. She knew that she wouldn't make it in time and that the fireball would hit her on the way to the library.
Elder Herald had already begun casting a shield around Xander, trying to isolate him from the rest of the battlefield. His calligraphy lit up in crimson red. While the shield was still forming, Malena had already gotten too close to Xander, less than a meter away. The shield finished forming, and they were both stuck inside.
"Damn it! She's much faster than I had imagined," grunted Herald, realising that he had to change his plans quickly. Since Malena was caught inside the shield, once Xander fired his spell, they would both die from the impact.
Herald disbanded his shield immediately and created two more, much smaller this time.
Malena was already swinging her rod, and as she was about to make contact with Xander's head, his cane wrapped around her hand and deviated the axis of her arm slightly. Making her completely miss his target.
The two shields that Herald created bolted towards Malena and Xander's legs, from two different directions, aiming for their ankles. Herald aimed to make them lose balance so that the fireball would miss Malena and the library.
The first one hit Malena spot-on and caused her to fall onto her side, but the second one was blocked by Xander's cane. Malena was safe, but the spell was still about to be cast.
Zora looked back at her husband. She knew what the last solution was. "No, Herald, please! It's not worth your life! Please! Don't leave me!"
Herald took a long look at her, then at his son, and finally at Malena. "You'll figure it out, you always do. And now you have Alex with you. I trust you all."
Elder Herald's calligraphy lit up once again, and the red light filled the whole place. The next second, a giant shield materialized in front of the library. The fireball flew over Malena, barely missing her, and struck the shield directly.
The shield bent so much that Alex thought that it was going to break. After a couple of seconds that seemed like an eternity, the shield took back its original form, flinging the fireball into the night sky. Lighting up the whole place like it was daytime.
Herald fell to the ground, barely caught by Zora. She buried her head in his chest.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU'VE REALLY DONE IT THIS TIME! WHAT AM I GOING TO TELL THEM NOW?!" Malena stood up and grabbed him by the collar.
After two punches to the face, she asked, "Who are you talking about?"
"THE WOLVES! THEY'RE THE ONES THAT PUT ME IN THIS DEBT! AND THEY'RE THE ONES WHO COMMISSIONED ME TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE LIBRARY OR TO DESTROY IT! I SHOULDN"T EVEN BE TELLING YOU THIS! BUT FUCK THEM AND FUCK YOU! YOU'LL SEE WHAT THEY'LL DO TO YOU WHEN THEY CATCH YOU! THEIR NEXT STOP IS LOPNA'S CAVES, AND THEN THEY'LL COME HERE! I CAN'T EVEN TRY TO ESCAPE BECAUSE OF THAT BASTARD! YOU'RE DONE FOR, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE BOSS CATCHES YOU HE CA..." right as he was finishing his sentence, black marks started appearing around his neck.
"..." Too stunned to speak a word, Alex was curious about all the revelations unfolding.
"He's dead. He broke his contract. There is no coming back," said Zora, between two sobs. The black sigils started to spin around his neck, and a contraction was visible, as if he was being choked.
After a couple of excruciating seconds, Xander stopped moving.
Alex had vaguely heard of these contracts; people said that breaking them meant certain death, but he always understood it as a public execution with a jury, not dying on the spot.
Malena went up to check his pulse and looked back at the others, nodding. Xander was dead.
"Mom, let's go home. We need to put Dad in bed so he can rest up." Alex walked over to his mother to comfort her. "The fight is over, you can stop crying, I didn't know you both could cast spells so strong, you have a lot of explaining to do."
Zora's silence was starting to weigh heavily on Malena and Alex's shoulders. Malena ran towards her and put her fingers on Herald's neck.
She let out a sigh of relief, "Uncle Herald is good. I can even see his torso moving from his breathing".
...
...
...
"MOM! Snap out of it! What's going on!" Because of the adrenaline rush, Alex wasn't in the mental state for good manners.
Zora finally stood up. "Help me take your father to Celia's home. I'll explain everything once we get there." She wiped off her tears and spoke once more, "Klutz, this is all because of you. If I had the strength, I'd kill you right now. I'll be at your office tomorrow at noon. We have things to discuss."
Klutz's body reacted viscerally to the threat. His body tensed up, and he felt a burn in his chest. He knew that she was serious and that he had better have a good explanation for all this tomorrow.
Alex didn't quite understand what was happening, but from his mother's condition, he could guess that Elder Herald didn't just faint; the problem was deeper than that.
"Thank you for everything, Malena. I'm glad to have you by my side," Said Alex before picking up his father and starting the march toward Melena's house.
As they started walking, everybody felt all the pain and fatigue that they had accumulated through the night. Every step weighed more than the last, but every breath felt like a rebirth. They were all lost in their thoughts, thinking about what Klutz said, what would happen to Herald, and how they would take care of the library.
A weak voice called out to them as they started going down the hill, "Hey, guys! I'm still here! Can someone help me up? I think I can walk with a little help."
That was Eric's voice. Alex and Melena had forgotten about him after everything that happened.
"How about you sleep here tonight? It's summer, you won't be too cold, don't worry," snarked Malena, who was back to her usual self and knew that he would make it out.
"Help him up, Malena, please." Zora had always had a soft spot for children, but she didn't particularly like Eric, who was known as a bully in the whole village.
"What?! But aunty Zora! He's always picking on us! Why should we help him?!" Replied Malena, visibly frustrated.
"Malena, he's the only one who stayed to fight Xander and his men. He helped the other disciples escape and came back. That's when he got hit by one of them. If it weren't for him, one of us would have probably died protecting the other children."
"Huh? This Eric? Are you sure?" Malena walked up to him and pulled him to his feet.
"Hey! Could you be a little more gentle? Do you always act like a gorilla?" Eric had maybe helped Alex's parents, but his nature hadn't changed.
Malena still had the strength to bop his head with her rod. "If you complain again, I'll leave you here." Added Melena while Eric rubbed his head to ease the pain.
The group walked to Melena's house without a word. The walk was supposed to take only fifteen minutes, but in their current state, it took them almost an hour. Slowly turning each corner, choosing the paths lit up by the moon because they had no more Ink or mana to light their paths. The silence was occasionally broken only by Eric's grunts or the night owl's coos.