"Listen, I can finish this," Riven said as his eyes shone with life for the first time.
"What are you talking about? How?!" the man asked, as relief, curiosity, and panic mixed in his expression at once.
"Listen," Riven commanded, gripping what remained of the man's uniform tightly.
"I need thirty seconds of uninterrupted time to gather magic; give me that much time, and I promise I can end this," he said as he let out a few panted breaths and his mind nearly swarmed back into unconsciousness.
Gazing at the boy who had already saved his entire world, Holden was tempted to ask numerous questions and express his gratitude all at the same time. But he understood the gravity of the situation prevented him, so he merely nodded.
Stepping back, he turned his head up to his wife and the others and shouted in a voice that cut through the noise of the battlefield.
"We need to buy him thirty seconds!!!"
Hearing her husband's voice clearly, Alice's eyes widened with relief on her scared face, and though she wanted to ask a million questions like her husband, she just nodded and said, "Right."
"Just thirty more seconds!!!" She said to all the firefighters beside her, who looked very worn from using a lot of mana.
"Thirty seconds?" the Royal said, hearing the call as well.
"Thirty seconds?! You think such an insignificant amount could be enough to kill me?!" the old man shouted like a madman as he thrust both hands forward, conjuring torrents of flames.
The torrents of fire streaked upward toward the rim, forcing the firefighters and civilians to cease their attacks and duck.
A young paramedic who was using wind magic screamed as a stray ember caught her sleeve; she dropped to her knees, patting it out frantically, but as she tried to get back up to continue, she suddenly collapsed from exhaustion. Her magic was spent.
And she wasn't the only one.
Another firefighter's eyes turned bloodshot, and veins bulged from overtaxing his mana, causing him to collapse mid-cast, turning his water jet that was keeping the Royal from moving forward into harmless mist.
"Keep it up!" Alice shouted, her voice cracking but all the more fierce as she slammed her palms together, summoning a massive curtain of water that would hopefully shield them from any attack Ignatius might pull next.
Below them Holden and a few others charged at him holding flathead axes and pickaxes, something they normally used to break open doors and save people, and in a way, they were still being used for that.
"Thirty seconds," Holden muttered through gritted teeth. "We got it."
Twenty-five seconds.
Ignatius laughed—a wet, ragged sound that blended in with his constant coughs—before hurling a lance of white-hot flame straight at the charging Holden.
Not able to dodge, he threw up his guard hoping that what remained of the protective gear on his arm was enough to shield some of the attack. Only for a civilian man running beside him to jump in the way before summoning some kind of energy-based shield, but it almost immediately cracked heavily in the middle and was a second away from shattering.
Going around the man holding the shield, Holden wound back his arm before flinging the axe at the old man, forcing him to dodge and his focus to lapse for just a second, but giving the man with the shield enough time to avoid the attack right as the construct shattered.
In the passing of five more seconds, more people faltered.
A firefighter on the rim of the crater toppled forward, unconscious, heat exhaustion finally taking its full toll on many of them. Another to soon fall was a civilian who was using a basic recovery spell on a person who'd collapsed after debris struck him in the head. Midway through healing the surface injury, he fainted from the sheer panic of it all.
Seeing everyone falter, Ignatius pressed the advantage, sweeping his arms out and, with them, a wall of fire along the crater's rim. Completely eviscerating the wall that Alice had put up in their defense.
Screams rose as people scrambled back, but Alice, throwing every drop of her remaining strength into staying right there, shielded herself and a few people close to her in a water shield. But just barely because it broke after a few moments, but luckily, their protective gear took the remainder of the damage.
"Ten seconds!!!" She shouted to all those who remained standing as she stood back on her feet after being pushed down by the attack and the exhaustion of overusing her own magic.
Her voice only made Ignatius's grin twist into a sneer.
"Look at all of you—bleeding, collapsing, dying—for what? For him, the pathetic spirit that inhabits his body?" He pointed a trembling finger at Riven, who looked to be sleeping against the crater wall.
"They about gave you your worthless thirty seconds," he stated, facing him.
"And for what? You've come up with nothing. Admit it, you lied to them; at least let them die with that solace that their chance to win ended when you protected them, you filthy abomination."
Zero.
"Shut up!" a voice shouted.
Not paying attention, his grandfather caught a devastating right hook to his face from Holden, who was sweating heavily and looked to be on the verge of collapse.
Staggering back, his eyes immediately blazed with fury as blood spurted out his mouth.
"You dare put your hands on me again!" Ignatius yelled as he charged up a huge fire blast from his hand and aimed it at Holden's chest.
"Honey, NOOOO!!!" Alice shouted, her eyes widening as she saw the attack. She raised her hand to stop it with her magic, but immediately her head throbbed, her body spiked and jolted as if someone had sent an electric current through her. And she knew this feeling, as did everyone who'd collapsed.
She, too, was out of magic.
"30 seconds," Holden said to himself, not even knowing how much time had passed at this point. Yet he repeated it to himself like a mantra: 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds. He was too tired to move, and his mind was too stubborn to stand down now.
And even as he stared down the barrel of death, he put up his fist, no longer having the strength to hold the heavy axe. He got into a fighting stance as he stood there with an odd smile on his face.
But just as he watched the Royal in front of him release the killing blow, he heard two words in his ear.
"Thank you."