Quinn held his breath as he stared at the man. Power surrounded him as he crossed the distance to Serenthar in an instant. He did not even bother with the countless strings in his way. They crumbled before him, burning into black ashes before they could touch his body.The man said nothing. He simply raised his right hand and opened his palm.In the next instant, every bolt of lightning in the sky vanished as though it had never existed. The dark clouds cleared at the same time, leaving the sky completely empty. It all happened within half a breath. Then, just as suddenly, every bolt of lightning reappeared inside the man’s right hand. His palm blazed with such intense light that everyone who looked at it had to squint.Serenthar finally reacted. He turned and tried to escape, but it was already too late. The hand of lightning shot forward and clamped around his head. Quinn watched in disbelief as Serenthar’s head began to melt. His body followed moments later, flesh and armor dissolv

Quinn frowned as the illusory light closed around his false figure. Once he understood what the Black Accord had done, the entire situation became much clearer. They had deliberately lured Rhydian away so they could set up a two-way trap. The first was meant to capture or kill Quinn. If that succeeded, there would be no need for anything else. The second was meant to breach the fortress while the High Commander was absent, since the fortress’s defenses were closely tied to his authority.However, when Quinn explained his thoughts to Rhydian, the man had simply shaken his head and insisted that there was no way the fortress could be breached. If that was true, then the Black Accord had no reason to wait until they reached the fortress. The trap had to be placed before they arrived, which meant they had knowingly walked into it in the hope of catching another Black Accord member.“That illusion… it’s from a member of the Black Accord, alright.”The group remained in place, observing the

Quinn frowned and blinked several times as he considered Rhydian’s words. He was beginning to understand the High Commander better. It was not simply his hatred for the Orcs that made him so angry. There was another reason behind his resistance to the alliance. If the Drakemont made peace with the Orcs, they would effectively take away much of the power that came with Rhydian’s position.The High Commander was responsible for guarding the wilderness and keeping the threat of the Orcs’ High Chief at bay. The position also gave him authority over a large portion of the Drakemont’s weapons reserve. That authority had once been extremely important, but times had changed.The High Chief of the Orcs had been dead for a long time, and the Orc Clans had fallen into disorder. That alone had taken away much of the power attached to the High Commander’s position. As for the weapons reserve, the Drakemont had grown weaker over the years and withdrawn many of their weapons from the once-great stoc

Freya quietly observed Quinn from her place at the table. If someone did not know him, they might have believed every word he said and assumed he was simply a hot-blooded young man dreaming of glory and adventure. Freya, however, knew better. At first, she had thought Quinn was nothing more than an intelligent beast, but the longer she stayed beside him, the more she realized how wrong that judgment had been. Quinn was a scheming monster who seemed to have a backup plan for almost everything. That was why she was particularly interested in what he was doing now.Quinn looked from Captain Mera to Canute. “If you want me to be safe and all, why don’t you try and look into that map to figure out what it’s all about?”The woman growled before turning toward Canute.Canute frowned as he studied the paper. “How do you draw this map? I can’t make sense of all of this.”That was the truth. Quinn’s map looked less like an actual map and more like random lines sprawling across a piece of paper

It was morning, a week and two days after they had left the Standpoint Fortress. The group had not yet broken camp, and Quinn was washing his face with fresh water while listening to Canute complain nearby.“Things are too dull! I thought the Wilderness would be interesting, and we would have to fight more than our fair share of things!” Canute scowled at the forest around them as though it had personally disappointed him.Taurus, who stood nearby, raised his brows at the complaint but said nothing for a while. Eventually, he gave a low grunt and shook his head. “I like it like this.”Canute did not look impressed by the Captain’s opinion. He snorted. “You’re just as dull.”A voice interrupted them.“The Wilderness is really dangerous. You shouldn’t be wishing for us to run into dangerous situations.”It was Freya. Canute turned toward her and gave another snort.“Yes… monsters are here, but what’s the difference between fighting monsters and other humans? And I’ve been doing that for