“I am…free…” Narikas whispered, still on his knees, eyes on the ground.

Even if he spoke in a whisper, his voice had returned to normal, or it seemed so. No longer did it have the raspy inflection of a snake. His hair slowly turned blackish brown from the white of Erenyx, and similarly, his skin was regaining its original color again. Narikas was returning as Erenyx was being purged from his system.

When he looked up, it sealed the deal, and Erenyx had no hold on him. His eyes were no longer golden but the dark brown she remembered.

Narikas looked at her through teary eyes. "I am free, Meera." He looked at his hands and ripped his armor off him, revealing his broad chest. A laugh escaped his mouth, and a tear fell. "No voices…no more pain. I…”

The tears started slowly, but then he broke down into sobs, and a torrent flowed from his eyes. "I am…free of that vile thing. Thank you…" He fell forward, and Meera saw the wound on his back.

Meera went to him. "Hey, you're hurt."

She touched his shoulder, and he jerked. He looked at her through teary eyes. "No pain. You just touched me, and there was no pain."

Meera couldn't hold back her tears, and a few spilled from her eyes. "It's okay, Narikas. You'll be fine."

He took her hand in his. Her hand looked so small in his, but he held it so gently.

"Meera, you don't understand. This is the first time in ten years that my thoughts are my own. I can touch a woman without flinching from pain. I can think of something without threats or the moans of those I wronged. This is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me…C-Can I hug you?"

Without even thinking about it. Meera put her arms around his neck, and he wept into her shoulder. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for freeing me."

He sobbed and cried like a little babe, crying thank you again and again. When the tears left him, he still held her, and she didn't withdraw either. She had been holding back a lot of tears from her own troubles that she needed to let go of. Besides, he needed this more than she did. She could only imagine what it must've felt like not being able to touch anyone without going through tremendous pain.

Finally, he let go of her. "I'm sorry—"

"It's okay." Meera smiled. "There is a wound on your back." She pulled out a Health potion. "Here, drink this before you lose any more blood."

He smiled and drank the potion. "My debts to you keep piling up."

Meera returned the smile. "You give me information on my brother, and I'll call it settled."

"Meera, for what you've given me, I will scour all the worlds to help you find him."

Meera's heartbeat quickened. "Are you saying you'll come with me?"

"If you'll have me along, and I promise not to be a slobbering mess."

She chuckled. "I think you were allowed to let that out. You had ten years of crying to do."

He looked away, a solemn look on his face. "Towards the end, I had resigned myself to this fate. When Erenyx took over, I was empty…or so I thought. But then, years of guilt washed over me. Meera, I saw them…all the souls I fed to the armor, waiting for me. They assaulted me with their acquisitions, asking me why…" More tears formed in his eyes.

Meera placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's over now. You did what you had to do. I hope, in time, you learn to forgive yourself."

He nodded and looked at her hand, so she quickly withdrew it. He wanted to say something but didn't, so Meera spoke instead. "Don't you still have an obligation to the kingdom?"

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"I am no longer the Shadowsteel Warlord," he replied. "I no longer have the armor. My brother should have no need of me. Besides, I've been confined to my cage for ten years. I want to see the worlds and make something of myself that is not associated with death and war. And something tells me your adventures are going to take me everywhere."

"Cage of tears…" Meera mused. "Why did you call it Tearsfell Prison?"

"It should be obvious. Because it was my prison," Narikas replied. "A place I could not leave for long. A place I had been confined to wallow and weep in my solitary pain. Aunt Hilnoa could understand my pain but not feel it. No one could."

Meera smiled. "Well, you're free of it now. I melted it down for you."

He snorted. "Another debt that I hope to repay soon."

"If you keep talking about debts, I will have you wash all the dishes on the road."

His eyes lit up. "Does that mean you'll bring me along with you?"

She felt a rumbling beneath her feet. It was almost like an earthquake at first, but the trees quaked, and leaves fell from the trees. The water in the moat splashed about. Unfortunately, their private moment would have to wait.

Meera stood. "I'm thinking about it, but for now, you have company." She motioned towards Hilnoa, who was rushing over like her life depended on it. "And I have one more problem to deal with."

His face darkened as he surveyed the clash between the living and the dead. The Mistblades were no more. Killing Erenyx evaporated her shadow armor, and the sun took out the Mistblades.

"I'm sorry. I would help if I were able, but my body, despite looking healthy, is not so at the moment."

"It's okay. You should rest. Besides, how will you wash my dishes without hands."

He chuckled.

Meera teleported to the furthest mirror by the tree, where she had created her unsuccessful level 3 chakram. Hilnoa reached Narikas a moment later and enveloped her nephew in a big hug. They both cried for a little bit before Hilnoa lifted Narikas onto a shadowy wave and carried him away.

The problem found Meera a moment later.

Doromar ripped through the trees as he came to a stop at Narikas's broken armor. He had taken some hits, but the possessed queen looked fine, mostly. He took heavy breaths as he fell to his knees before the armor.

"Erenyx…" He touched the armor reverently. A few tears dripped from his red eyes.

Meera should have felt sad for him, but she was just disgusted by the whole affair. The necromancer was using another's body, not to mention all the death and destruction it had caused already.

Meera slowly reached for her level 2 chakram without making any quick movement, but before she could pull it off, Tekton and Zona appeared.

Zona shot an arrow at blinding speed. The arrow flew straight and true like all of Zona's arrows, and it looked like it would have hit the mark, but a misty tentacle appeared from Doromar's back and swatted the arrow out of the air.

Meera teleported away to create some distance between her and the livid Cosmarian.

"Sit this one out, lass," Tekton said. "You've done enough. We got this."

Meera was only too happy to comply, but she kept a level 2 chakram in her hand regardless. She figured if she got a good shot, she would take it.

Brison appeared a few moments later, like he always did, by walking out of a shimmering door, bringing the rest of the wardens with him. Pallas, Melas, Lexa, and even Delkoris were resting in Brison's healing bubbles, and he stood watch over them.

"What happened?" Meera asked.

"Doromar lost it when you killed Erenyx," Brison said.

"How did he know Erenyx died?"

He motioned his head towards the possessed queen. "There must've been a connection between the two as he went mad. Melas and Dirik were already weakened from their fights with the other Cosmarian, and they were the first to fall, followed by Pallas and Lexa."

"All of them went down. That's hard to believe. How strong is this necromancer?"

"Truth be told, Tekton and Zona don't have long left, either."

"You said you had a way of exercising Doromar's spirit. Can you still do it?"

He gave a single nod. "If they can weaken it enough, then yes. But we need to do it fast, or I fear he will change bodies again. The queen wasted a lot of his Mana by bringing down the border wall and then killing all the undead. If she hadn't done that, I fear we all would have been part of Dormar's army by now."

"Why is he so much stronger than his wife?" Meera wondered.

"Because Erenyx's power was connected to the fortress. Once you destroyed that, her power diminished greatly. Doromar…well, you know of his history. He was one of the strongest of Rothedon's generals. It took everything Lady Numheia had to bring him down."

Meera nodded. "How long do you need to get everything ready?"

"I've been preparing the spell for some time, and it's just about ready. Just whittle him down a little more, and I'll draw him out like poison is drawn from a festering wound." He gave her a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, Meera, but we need to end this now."

She smiled. "No, need to apologize. I figured once Doromar was done with them, he would be coming for me since I killed his dear wife. One last question, what was his level again?"

"He's level 459."

Meera let out a deep sigh and pulled off another level 2 chakram.

"Thank you, Meera. Just get me as much time as you can."

"No rest for wicked."