"—king news, the Trial-of-the-Century for the Fomorian Army Leader Shining Shakarr and his two Commanders, Black Scar and Everwhite, has just finished. Judge Jarlath will be issuing his official statement to the press in a few minutes, so stay tuned. This is Esyllt of channel five news, now back to you Asher…"

Lann hummed absently to the commercial jingles coming from one of the flatscreens mounted to the wall of his diner as he bagged up several sandwiches and bottled drinks for a group of customers waiting by the door. Two meatball subs, one veggie, and a diner's special…

The clean glasses on the rack by the sink suddenly rattled, the noise barely audible through the noise of a diner full of people eating and talking.

Lann looked up. The overhead lights were starting to swing.

An earthquake?

The linoleum floor shook and rumbled ominously. Some of his customers screamed as they quickly sought refuge underneath the tables, while most were already trying to shove each other out of the diner. Lann quickly vaulted the counter and pushed his way to the front of the mob, a tell-tale prickle signaling danger zinging up his spine as he unlocked the latch for both front doors so more people could leave.

The mass of people pushed him outside and Lann saw a plume of dark smoke rising up into the sky a few blocks away. His eyes widened as a huge fomor on top of one of the ten-story buildings sniffed the air, turned in his direction, raised two curved swords, and screeched mockingly.

Larken.

Lann had only a second to wonder why he knew such a name before the fomor jumped down from the building. A shockwave shook the street a moment later.

Lann ran back into his now-empty diner, tearing off his apron as he stumbled up the stairs to his adjoined apartment. His key went through the lock in one attempt (for once) and he quickly shoved open his closet door, tossing out a pile of old clothes and shoes.

A few seconds later, he unearthed a long black case and a smaller one. He opened up both.

Lann ran a finger down the shining length of two well-cared-for swords before unstrapping both from the case. In his hands, he felt… right. Whole. Balanced.

"I've missed you both, Noblesse."

From the smaller case, Lann took out a bottle of light green liquid that Evie had gifted to him 'just in case' a few months ago. Apparently it was supposed to 'fill up his SP gauge' or something like that. He hadn't paid too much attention to her after the first half hour of constant talking.

Lann gulped that down and made a face at the strange taste.

A nearing roar coming from Larken had Lann getting to his feet and dashing out of his apartment and the diner.

Larken was a little less than a single street away and the fomor gained a sudden burst of speed when his gaze caught him standing in the middle of the street. The monster cackled as wailing alarms in the distance signaled Royal Army reinforcements on their way. No doubt the CBDC were also rushing to the area, too.

"You… I know you…" Growling, the fomor surprisingly stopped when he had was twenty meters away and pointed one of his swords at Lann. The fomor's jagged mouth twisted into a gruesomely psychotic smirk. "I'm going to have fun with you, Fury."

Lann raised his swords into a familiar stance and exhaled slowly.

The fomor charged with a cackle.

Lann waited until the fomor was close enough before he moved. His swords went up in an arc as he twisted, slicing cleanly through both of the fomor's hamstrings, before dashing between the fomor's legs.

He moved again, this time against an unprotected knee ligament.

Another howl of rage.

The other knee.

The fomor crashed down, screaming and waving his swords around ineffectively.

As his swords sliced through the large gaps in the fomor's defense, Lann felt as if he was almost weightless with how fast he was moving. He was leaving trails of fire with each dash! It was both unbelievable and a familiar sensation.

Fomorian blood and ichor sprayed from each cut. Lann's mouth twisted into a beserker's smirk as he dashed one more time, separating both of the fomor's hands off with one clean stroke, and leaping upwards to aim his swords in one final attack—

—right at Larken's head.

Apparently it was a fatal blow, since Larken's head separated from his neck with a mighty crack!

While falling back to the ground, Lann whooped and did a backflip.

He fell flat on his face when pure exhaustion slammed into him mid-air and passed out not a moment later.

"Is that a basket of just apples? Seriously? All for me?" From where he was sitting up on the hospital bed, Lann laughed out loud when Kai and his boyfriend finally decided to make their appearance.

Kai slammed the basket down on the table, glowered at Lann as if to telepathically say You Fucking Idiot, and then stalked back out of the room.

"Eh, don't mind him. The kids pranked him this morning and he's still salty." Hurk picked up one of the apples, flicked out a pocket knife from somewhere, and started cutting out slices.

Karok picked up one of the apples and bit into it.

Then promptly spat it out – onto Lann. The apple went flying and hit Hurk in the head.

"Oi!"

"Eugh! Karok, why?!" With one arm and a leg in casts, Lann didn't have too much luck in hitting Karok.

Fiona raised an eyebrow and handed over some tissues to Karok and Lann.

Evie picked up the apple that had bounced off Hurk's head and inspected it. "It looks pretty real and feels heavy enough for a fake."

Hurk raised an eyebrow. The one he was cutting was real. He set the half-cut apple down back into the basket, wiped his hands on his pants, and then pulled out his cellphone while heading in the direction of the door to the hospital room. "The brats are getting quadruple-grounded – a new record."

Just then, Evie's cellphone chimed and she pulled it out. She laughed at the notification before handing her phone over to Fiona. "Oooh, Lann you're on YouTube!"

"What? Lemme see." Lann craned his neck over.

The video was hardly more than ten seconds and was shaking as if the person capturing the video was having a seizure, but it did capture the last bit where he took off Raiding Party Captain Larken's head with one blow, did a backflip, and then hit the ground like a heavy sack of flour.

Not a moment later, Fiona, Karok, and Evie's cellphones all chimed at the same time.

Fiona sighed. "Captain Aodhan wants us all back at HQ."

"I'm guessing that we're probably going to have to release some kind of press statement about your video. No doubt the Internet's going crazy over it." Evie shrugged a shoulder as she stood up and gathered her purse.

"Keep me updated since I can't exactly…" Lann gestured at his broken arm and leg with a sheepish smile.

"I'm coming back after the meeting." Karok looked over at Fiona, who frowned when she checked her watch.

"If the meeting runs over too long, I'll have to go back to work." Fiona leaned over and placed a quick kiss on Lann's mouth before straightening and sweeping her hair back over her shoulder with a gentle smile.

Evie sighed. "Same for me. Well, don't exert yourself too hard while we're gone, Lann. You've got to heal naturally for a few more days before we can start using potions on you again."

"I know, Evie. See you all later." Lann smiled as his friends waved and left the room, leaving him alone with the TV permanently stuck on some soap opera that was some kind of terrible modern-day adaption loosely based off of Captain Solair and the Treasure Hunters.

"Hey, where'd everyone go?" Hurk stepped back into the room and sat down in one of the unoccupied chairs.

"HQ called them in for something."

"Darn. Well, up for a game of rummy? I lifted this off an orderly." Hurk pulled out a deck of cards out from one of his innumerable hidden pockets.

Lann raised an eyebrow and smiled. "And you wonder why your kids keep stealing things? Shame on you."

"Hey, do as I say and not as I do. Don't have kids, man. It's like being on acid for a few decades." Hurk grinned as he shuffled the cards.

"Pfft, whatever you say… gramps."

"Oi!"

Author's Notes:

I've been waiting for this for a long time. This is what I would consider the official closing of this series, but there's going to be a separate fic where I'll put various one shots and drabbles that reside within this universe (because there's no way I'm going to just stop here, honestly). Thank you so much for taking the time to read, as it's been a pleasure to write this series.