Clemency

and then

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In the blink of an eye, Reaper charged toward Morrison with a confident smile. He unsheathed both his twin katanas and slashed at Morrison. Deflecting the blow, the monster we called Morrison cocked his head to the right, the katana's blade barely missing him.  A couple more slashes followed this until it was interrupted when five brainwashed mages made their way into the fight.

"Tsk," Reaper frowned. My focus in their battle abruptly stopped when it shifted to the sound of a gun being fired. He squeezed his eyes shut to brace himself for a bullet to be embedded into his arm.

It never came.

Looking back to where Reaper was, I saw Grim standing in front, his scythe blocking the bullet. Morrison seized the opportunity and launched his brass-knuckled covered fist into Reaper's head. The lightning mage elicited a curse as he rubbed his temple when a shadow dashed past him towards Morrison.

"HE'S MINE!" Lana cried, lunging towards what was once her father. Clutching a dagger in her hand, she swung it towards Morrison again and again, fury taking over her. Using shadows to disguise her, she attacked from every angle, her speed almost comparable to Reaper's due to anger.

"Uh... I think we have another problem on our hands..." Kaito warned uncertainly,  stepping backward and grabbing the handle of a weapon I didn't know of yet. Removing it from its holder, I realised that Kaito owned a chainsaw as a weapon.

"What-" Hikari demanded, but her query was answered when she saw a figure approach us. The mist cleared to show a small girl with long pink hair tied in pigtails calmly walk towards us with a small smile on her face.

It was as if she meant no harm.

That was until she flung a knife made of stone towards Kaito.

In the nick of time, Hikari managed to pull him away, the knife grazing the metal mage's cheek. Kaito let out a grunt when the pain from his recent injury resurfaced due to the explosion earlier on.

"Be careful, damn it- What the-" All of a sudden, Hikari was lifted up by an invisible force.

"Look who's talking first," remarked the girl smugly. Her right hand was raised up towards Hikari. Her magic must have been force. "Ebony Rose, head of Royal Embers. You all will be arrested for treason if you continue attacking the government's forces."

Sienna couldn't help but let out a snigger. "Treason? Please. The irony here is too strong."

Ebony's humored look turned to one of spite as she turned to face Sienna. Sienna retaliated with a look on her face that screamed 'challenge me'.

Both guild leaders raced towards each other, Sienna with her longsword in hand and Ebony her hook sword. Both blades clashed with a shriek sending sparks flying into the air. Ebony leapt back and slashed at Sienna. The fire mage sidestepped and dealt a powerful punch to Ebony's gut.

Cursing, Ebony dropped Hikari from the air. Hikari and Emma sprinted to the enemy's sides, unintentionally attacking each other when Ebony jumped out of the way.

But something wasn't right.

Someone wasn't here.

"Lyra?" I called.