Turn about was fair play: Mithais had proposed Magnus' surrender, and Magnus had proposed his. Either way, Magnus wasn't going to let Mithias leave here alive while still an agent for SOLDIER, not after having seen Lightning by his side. Mithias looked at the girl with his golden eyes. She was young, beautiful, and he could see the fear and wavering loyalty in her eyes. He gathered that she was controlled by him, either by intimidation or compulsion, and that spite and shame conflicted within her. She would become suicidal if not for the small glimmer of hope she clung to... the hope Mithias saw in her eyes when she looked at him. She wanted to be free of Magnus. She didn't want anyone to die.

It was more than enough to trigger Mithias' protective instincts and remind him what he was fighting for. He inhaled sharply and focused again on Magnus. "You know I cannot do that." There had been a number of times in Mithias' life where the threat of death for him was real, when he didn't know what was going to happen, and this was such a time. A wise person would have chosen their words very carefully, but Mithias had decided long ago what he stood for. He would not accept life as a slave, nor impose that burden on anyone else. His true strength came from within, and if that was not enough, then death it would be. 

"Do you think you will reign, Magnus? You will only revert the world back into eternal war. Vampires cannot live without humans, but they can live without us, and you will be providing them with all the reason they need to wipe us out completely. In the end, you will lose, and you will be killed." He paused a moment to gauge the elder vampire's reaction. He was probably getting angry. Mthias brought up another point. "Neither of us are the most powerful vampires that still walk this Earth, Magnus. SOLDIER exists to maintain order and peace; it serves vampires as much as it serves humans. You are gravely mistaken to think it as your enemy and to think you will survive this. I am not going to allow this pointless theater to play out. I'm stopping you now, Magnus." Mithias then directed his words at the surrounding vampire followers. "SOLDIER is already on its way here. If any of you wish to leave, do it now, and you will not be pursued. This will be your only opportunity to escape and reconsider your actions. I will take care of Magnus." Mithias hoped for a few of them to fall faint-of-heart and take the opportunity to abandon their leader. Surely Lightning wasn't the only one with second thoughts.