Rebirth of the Phoenix God

A sea of fire.

That was the reality right in front of Fen's eyes. 

Standing at the top of the still burning stone gate, the young man watched with mixed feelings how the firestorm of his making consumed more and more of the city. From one side, this city was rather small. Outside of its strategical location, there wasn't all that much to say about it.

But even for this small bit of population, the young man was the very same person like that inquisitor that put a definitive end to the calm and happy part of his life. And as long just a single talented person were to survive…

Hate brews hate. It was a common saying. But despite how brutal that it might appear to the others, Fen didn't really have much choice. After all, the second line of mercenaries that tightly embraced the fields beside the city would ensure no one would survive to left the tale.

This wasn't a siege aimed at conquering this city after all. It was too deep in the enemy territory and they had no plausible way to control it afterwards. The total, utter and absolute massacre of this place served only one purpouse.

To rile up the entire of Kiznar against their perceived, common enemy. The nobles of the east province.

"Hey!"

A distant shout managed to catch the young man's attention. Turning his head to the side, Fen quickly located a small unit of mercenaries from where the shouting came from. One of the soldiers out there was energetically swinging his arms. 

'I guess they still need me out there…'

Judging from the angle that the group appeared, the job was not yet done. While Fen's attack managed to wipe out any semblance of possible resistance to the western gate, it never was the true target of the main attack. But what its possition was useful laid in fact of how far all the City guards would have to run in order to get here. And with the eradication of their colleagues from this entire area, Fen bought his people a lot of time to work with.

Raising his hand high in the skies, Fen glanced pretty openly at his fellow mercenaries, before conjuring a small fireball in his palm. Now that the city was on alert, he couldn't allow himself to act recklessly like he did before.

"There is no point in dawdling out here…"

Muttering under his nose, Fen inspected the burning remnants of the entire area. To be honest with himself, he had to admit that the effects of his attack turned out to be far greater than what he expected. But to be killed by a merciful flame or by the swords and axes of the mercenaries, it would make no difference for the citizens down there at all. No matter who bore the burden of their deaths, it had to be done.

Throwing yet another fireball across what used to be a main street of the city, Fen hugged his wings around his waist, turning them into a sort of protective armour. With the extremely important localization of this place, there was no way the enemy lacked arcanist defences. 

And Fen���s guess quickly proved out to be true.

Dashing from one of the small alleys that the wall of flame that slowly consumed the entire city has yet to reach, a group of three warriors appeared. Judging from their movements, they could save a lot of time by dashing through the main street. But they were no fools either. Giving their presence out so soon would give Fen the time that a typical arcanist would require to deal with the threat.

In a sense, their approach was the absolute best that they could attempt in the current situation. Once out in the open, all three of them, two men and a single female, rushed directly at Fen. The fire of the nearby firestorm glistered on the blades of their brandished weapons.

Instead of awaiting their appearance on the top of the gate, Fen increased the intensity of his catalyst, making sure that his fire sword laid comfortably in his grip. And then, simply making a step forward, he walked off the edge of the building.

'Wait…'

Fen's perception slowed down. Each second seemed to equal to a day. And in just a fraction of a second, Fen's lower hips started to burn with fire. In the city, using too much of speed would only act to his disadvantage. Thankfuly, wasn't true for the completely leveled up area that the trio just dashed through. 

By the time his body angled over the age and put the young man's feet pararel to the back-wall of the gate, his hips suddenly exploded, only to burn out and return to their usual state.

With this short impulse of explosion carrying him forward, Fen skydived into the opposing group, spreading his wings to create an extended, protective cover around him. As more and more adrenaline continued to pump into his veins, Fen's eyes turned into slits.

Crash.

Directly opening his wings as far to the sides as he could, Fen smacked the two defenders of the city away, cutting away at the man in the middle. The blade of his sword directly broke through Fen's enemy guard, sinking deeply into the flesh from his shoulder all the way to his belly button. 

Instead of forcing the sword out of the body of the instantly killed enemy, Fen decreased its intensity for a slight moment, simply recreating it after turning around his own axis. Turning his head towards the other two enemies, Fen could see them unsteadily trying to stand up. With how he knocked them away with his wings while they were running at their peak speed, they definitely felt the burden of that crash against the ground.

But there was absolutely no point in bothering with them. For arcanist, it was always better to take them alive to reason with later. Kingdoms may be kingdoms and sides might be sides, but as long as they could keep them silent for a year or two, there was absolutely no reason to kill them during this invasion.

And there was absolutely no way that either of the two injured enemies could even think about facing Fen's second line of mercenaries. That's why, instead of bothering to add more lives to the burden over his soul, Fen rushed towards the main theatre of the battle.

From that point on, the young man surprisingly didn't met with much resistance. Outside of a few heads of the heroic locals that attempted to stop his dash, no further obstacles slowed his advance.

And then Fen reached the area of the concentration of the army. 

Thankfully, it was an army under his orders, not unders orders to kill him.

"You did it! You son of a bitch!"

Meeting with his younger friend in a truly intimate fashion, Victor instantly ran towards his former subordinate before pulling him into a bear-like hug. Initially shocked, Fen quickly ignored this annoyance and scanned the area. 

'From the looks of things, they managed to accomplish the objective…'

In the entirety of Offmase, the citadel was the only point that could prove to be challenging to conquer. Given how they didn't have the time to starve the defenders out, the situation would turn quite desperate if they were to fail to take over this heavily fortified building. 

On normal days, it would serve as just a reminder of the powerful presence of the crown in this place. Apparently funded by the royal gold, it was filled with contraptions that could make short work of any type of invader, all types of arcanists included. 

In any other situation, no sane man would dare to attack this hell of a place. And yet, Fen's friends still did it. 

"It's nice to see you too."

Finally freeing himself from the arms of his former commander, Fen quickly found the person his eyes were drawn upon. But definitely not in the state that he expected to spot her.

"Are you okay?"

Resting her back against the broken axel of the nearby carriage, Orsha was holding a makeshift bandage wrapped around what was left of her left arm. Separated at the level of her elbow, the cloth that covered the wound was already filled with redness. 

Not a fatal wound for sure. Not for a relatively strong arcanist like Orsha. But something that would scar her for life. 

"I had better times…"

Instead of despairing over her loss, the girl was focusing her mind on coping with the physical pain. After all, no amount of arcanist blood would make it easier to bear with it. But there was no regret on her face. With the gates of the citadel all open and the insides burning with fire even more intense that what Fen created at the other end of the city, they finally accomplished the last hard part of the entire mission.

"But now, all that's left is clean-up and we are set."

Fen understood that any attempt at comforting the girl would only have adverse effect right now. Instead of reminding the girl about her wound, his mind drifted towards one lesson from the Gauna Academy, where the professor talked about using one's catalyst to partialy restore one's limbs…

"Yeah. We are all set to go. I hope you won't run away form me now.��

Suddenly, Orsha's face turned serious yet insecure. It was the very first time that Fen could see her feelings laid bare so openly. Catching up on what the girl meant with her words in an instant, Fen reached out with his hand and gently caressed her cheek with his fingers.

"Don't be an idiot. If I ever had any intention of leaving you aside, I would've done so all the way back where we first met."

Leaning above the girl, Fen moved his fingers from Orsha's cheek to her chin, before raising her head a bit and placing a gentle kiss on her dry lips.

"Now, if you won't mind, I will go and finish the job. Take rest and wait for me a bit."

Standing back up, Fen once again invoked his catalyst in all its glory, before patting the girls head with a loving smile.

"Once we are done with this place, we will finally be able to take it easy for a while."

Fen didn't lie there. As soon as nothing but ash would remain of this city, all their forces would leave for Kinar. By the time they would be crossing the border of their potential protector, the orders would already sweep the entire eastern province, ordering all the people to seek shelter in the cities with all their remaining food and valuables.

At the same time, the news about our defeat at Offmase against the army of the wrathful nobles and the utter sacking of the city would spread like a wildfire across the entire Kiznar. Thanks to that, by the time their armies would march on the nobles that were so damn annoying to deal with, Fen would already fake the appearance of his troops and destroy the other road that connected Kinar to the north. With that connection gone, with the nobles of the province all gone from the wrathful revenge of both Kinar and Kiznar, and with both armies retreating due to the logistical challenges, all the mercenaries would be left to do was to march back to their land and enjoy the benefits of their hard work!

"It's time to finish this."

Standing up in a long line along with all the other healthy mercenaries, Fen reached forward with his hands. All at once, the entire front made of fire arcanists lit up, as all of them started to conjure various arcana at their palms.

"Burn it all down."

All of Fen's plans had one requirement. No one had to be any wiser about the truth of what happened at Offmase. And there was only one way to ensure that.

By wiping all the traces of its existence off the face of the world.