"You… spawn of a gutter snake and a back-alley harlot!"

Grand Magus Azaris cursed as his body finally collapsed onto the floor, his knees grinding into the shards of glass that littered the ground. Blood seeped through his robes, staining the once-pristine fabric.

"You think you'll get away with this, making an enemy out of House Marenth," he spat, his eyes glowering at me as if he wanted to burn me.

A few feet away, I stood amidst the wreckage, surrounded by broken glass and shattered floors. My chest rising and falling with labored breaths, while my mind was actively shunning down Azaris's curses.

There was no longer any need to pay attention to him, after all. The mage's wounds were too severe. Instead, I peeked outside through one of the shattered windows to check if our army had finally breached the castle's gates.

Doesn't seem like it's going well for them. Damn it, This entire thing has been a complete disaster. I internally cursed as I saw Marenth forces collapse another one of our siege towers.

I need to hurry this up. Shaking my head, I shifted my attention back to the wreckage around me.

Right now, me and Azaris were both in the middle of the ruins of what had once been a grand laboratory and office. Shelves of ancient tomes and delicate alchemical tools lay splintered across the floor, their contents scattered like debris after a storm. A row of cracked glass capsules glowed faintly at the opposite end of the room, their murky fluids swirling around shadowy figures suspended within.

Heck, even the chandeliers hanging on the roof hadn't been spared, all destroyed into tiny pieces veiling the room in an eerie darkness, only illuminated by the occasional fire-based spell being used near the castle gates.

"Damn it," I cursed again, this time outwardly, as I walked past the blabbering mage toward the glass capsules at the back.

My original plan had been so straightforward. Use the chaos of our army breaching the castle to sneak inside Azaris's laboratory, eliminate him, rescue my elder brother, and use his death to force the enemy forces to surrender.

The reality, however, had been much harsher. I sighed as I stepped past the corpses of two women dressed in opulent mage robes and some knights donning the traditional Marenth House's armor.

I should have seen this coming. Azaris has always had a reputation for being a coward. It was totally in character for him to keep his mage wives and a set of armed knights along, especially with the current siege, even bringing them inside his precious laboratory—a place he was known to not even allow his shadow to enter.

In the end, I had to jump out and ambush four armed knights and the three mages, barely killing them all in time to activate the protective runes surrounding the laboratory and stop the outside reinforcements from swarming the room.

"This will not go unpunished," Azaris rasped, his voice becoming weaker with every word. "I swear to you, you and that wretched father of yours, we will make sure—"

"Oh, shut up," I interrupted, as I walked toward the glass capsules and began carefully inspecting them one by one.

"There." My shoulders eased in relief as I found the figure I was looking for. Not wasting any time, I took out a dagger and slashed the glass capsules, shattering them open.

At once the stream of green, murky liquid inside began pouring out of the capsule, but I was prepared. I immediately threw my hand inside the capsule before gently pulling out the human figure from inside the tank.

"Saelis, Saelis, can you hear me?" I spoke while gently nudging the body of the young man with raven-black hair, similar to mine, in my arms.

Saelis didn't respond. Afraid, I immediately checked his pulse. He was breathing, that was good.

"Come on Saelis wake up, wake up." I shook him once again and again until thankfully my prayers were answered, as I saw a slight movement under his closed eyelids.

Saelis slowly opened his eyes, his gaze meeting mine. "Velion." He stuttered, his voice sounding half drunk.

"Thank god you are awake." Seeing him move an involuntary smile escaped my lips. "Don't worry, I'll explain everything in a moment. For now, just know that you are safe."

I carefully placed Saelis body on the floor, all the while making sure that no broken shard of glass touched and scratched his back.

"Just give me a second brother. We'll leave once I am finished with my work here."

Saying so, I gave a short glance at the dying mage as I moved toward the back wall, where a row of weapons lay scattered across the floor.

I bent down and picked up the longest spear, testing its weight in my hands. "This will have to do," I muttered, my voice becoming a tad bit cold.

Azaris's eyes widened in terror as he realized what was coming. "What are you—?"

"I need to inform my father that I've dealt with you," I said, my tone losing all of its emotion. "Unfortunately, you destroyed my communication device. So… I hope you'll be accommodating."

"Wait. No—" Azaris's protest was cut short as I drove the spear through his back, the tip piercing his heart and emerging from his chest. That was it, the Grand Magus's body convulsed for the last time before going still.

"Just wait here for a second."

I wiped the blood from my hands and strode toward the balcony, dragging the spear behind me. The moon hung high in the sky, its pale light casting an eerie glow over the battlefield below.

Hopefully, this was going to be enough to bolster our men's morale.