A one on one fight would end in defeat, their opponents were undoubtedly powerful and whilst Ivan had no understanding of magic, he did understand it could turn the tide of a battle, depending on the caster, but he still did not know the extent of power that mages wielded.

"Come to my aid now!" Ivan yelled, hoping to attract the other guard who had accompanied him.

No one came.

"I guess we are doing this ourselves."

"Prince Ivan, you had best retreat back to the castle."

Had it been some random people they were fighting then Ivan would have done exactly that but he wanted to confront his brother head on and clear the confusion clouding his mind.

"I will not run. Rather I have a plan on how to win, but first," turning his gaze to the other man behind Hadrian, "will both of you be participating in our battle?"

"My lord, we wouldn't dream of fighting you, however sadly we cannot afford to be captured either. Thus only my friend here will fight you, he is not as adept in magic as I am but he is still relatively strong," stated Hadrian.

The guard appeared confused whilst Ivan glared. What were they playing at he thought. He still couldn't shake the feeling of his own brother being someone as vile and grotesque as this but he was determined to reach the truth.

Ivan went out on a limb here and inferred that magic was long ranged, mostly due to the long list he had read of Adolphus' spells which contain names which sounded like projectiles. So the man would need distance whilst all they had was close range weapons thus requiring the need to get close. 

"Damn, that old geezer's spells would really come in useful right now," muttered Ivan under his breath.

Hadrian stepped far back giving them some space.

It was time to begin.

Ivan seemed to be held in high regard to them so injury for him was unlikely, he was still immortal though so there was no need to worry. From his experiments however, he believed he had uncovered that he could not heal whilst alive and had to die in order to return to his original state. 

Ivan leaned in to whisper to the guard.

"The plan is that I shall charge in straight ahead. I want you to follow right behind me and do not leave my lead ever. Once we get close enough I will jump right and you jump left. We will surround him. I will distract him and you take the swing at his head with the blunt side of your side. Understand?"

"Yes my prince but I highly object to you fighting."

"I will not be fighting, just distracting."

"Still your presence here is completely inappropriate of someone such as yourself."

"Enough. I will hear no more protest. Now let us begin."

Taking a gulp, the prince and the guard began to move slowly to the man, cautious with each step, probably because they had no clue as what the man's magic was, they soon broke into a sprint. As they approached the man raised his arm. The next thing they saw was a ball of fire head towards them, it struck the ground, missing them by a hair an causing them to fall back onto their bottoms.

The man wasted no time in casting the next spells, this time 2 at once with both arms raised aimed  to the left and right. He fired off 2 fireballs which began curving to strike them from both sides. Did he actually intend to kill them both? Questioned Ivan.

"Quick dodge!" he yelled, "Jump back!"

Narrowly missing the fireballs again, they collided into each other creating an explosion which warmed Ivan's body up. It had occurred to him that this fire mage was the one mainly responsible for the burning of the village and the slaughter of its inhabitants. Still, both were equally at fault.

Trying to get close to the man was impossible so a new strategy had to be devised.

"I think I'll go for the soldier first," the man said in a soft, calm, emotionless tone.

Suddenly fire appeared around the man's feet, propelling him into the sky. As he fell towards them, he shot another fireball directly at the guard. It was so fast that Ivan barely had time to duck whilst the guard had no choice but to try to defend himself. Pointlessly he swung his sword at the fireball, attempting to slice it in half. He failed and he took a direct hit from the ball of fire.

Screaming in agony, Ivan could see parts of his skin were burnt, other parts were just sore from the heat. The parts of cloth that were exposed by the armour were destroyed. Yet despite all this, the guard still stood proud. Lunging forward, he gripped his sword and positioned his foot as the man fell from the sky with a shocked look on his face.

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"I won't diiiieeee!" the guard yelled at the top of his voice, swinging his sword with the blunt side, just as instructed, at the man, aiming directly for his head.

This was it! Thought Ivan. But that feeling faded and the guards proud stance crumbled, replaced by despair when the man put his hand up in front of him and one giant fireball, directly into the guards face.

Then agony came once again for the guard as his entire face was demolished by the flames. He didn't even have time to blink. 

Collapsing on the ground, writhing around in the dirt, begging for God to save him, there was no hope for the guard. The man stood silently over another victim and continued to throw smaller fireballs at the guard.

Ivan couldn't bear to watch but then he noticed something in the corner of his eyes.

Doing several hand signals, a new plan had been devised in his head.

"Stop!" He shouted at the man and standing up.

The man ceased as ordered, turning around, Ivan could see the man large eyes which sent chills down his spine, not only did they look like those of a fanatic but they were roughly the same colour as his own.

"So you even comply to commands I give, who in the world are you people?"

Then out of nowhere the other guard who had come to the village with Ivan arrived right behind the man. Jumping into the air, Ivan's plan was put into motion.

First the thing Ivan had spotted was the other guard and he believed he was the only one aware of his presence. He ordered the guard to go around to the other side of the village undetected then attack the man.

With this Ivan would distract the man and then...

"I had prepared for this," said the man.

In an instant rubbed he his hands in a circle around him on the ground and in the next instant a pillar of fire appeared, scorching both of the guards to a crisp.

"FLAME COLUMN!" He bellowed.

Their screams rang out for a few seconds then they disappeared along with their lives.

Ivan was in utter disbelief, not that the guards had been killed but that his plans had failed. How could he have been beaten by these scum, it shouldn't have happened, the man was too damn powerful. Yeah, that was it, is what Ivan kept telling himself, that and that the guards were weak fools. But it was Ivan's plans that got both of them killed, how could he miscalculate so terribly, was it because of fear, no, he wasn't that scared, was it because of something else?

Ivan wanted answers, he deserved answers. A rage built up inside of Ivan. How could he be denied something so simple as the truth. He out of every single person on this earth deserved it because, he was above everyone, he was above death itself.

Standing up to face the man who had reappeared from the pillar of fire. Ivan walked toward him, all fear subsided, replaced only by anger. He placed one hand on the man's shoulders, spinning him around. Reaching into the pocket of his jacket and pulling out the weapon that was meant to distract the man the entire time. It was a small weapon and one he had been carrying on him the entire time, he didn't care if this move was dirty, he would do it. He clenched it tightly and pulled it out and as quick as it had been pulled out, he put it in, rather into the eye of the man. It was no dagger but instead was a tiny needle Ivan had been carrying since his experiments. It was small but it caused the man to yell and clench his eye, trying to pull out the tiny object. Ivan strolled over to one of the guards bodies and took his sword, it was still burning hot from the flames but Ivan put up with it. He swung the sword directly into the man's head, smashing it against his skull and knocking him down. Ivan wasn't that strong so he repeatedly bashed the sword on his head.

Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash!

The man fell unconscious as Ivan stood above him victorious. It had seemed so simple yet 2 men had just died.

Hadrian came over clapping, removing his hood, he smiled.

"Well done my lord. Of course you realised that using those soldiers to defeat my friend was impossible, the difference in power was too great and so you took it upon yourself to defeat him. Even more am I astounded by your strategy, you sacrificed those lowlife scum so that you could help people understand where the credit lies, I am truly in awe."

"Enough Hadrian! I want answers now!"

"It pains me to do so but I cannot tell you everything just yet, I hope you can forgive me, just know you are loved and we will do everything in our power to help you achieve your goal because to us and to me, you are the highest form of life, you are perfection, you are the rightful king o this land and we will help you at every step of the way."

"Who is we?"

"I cannot answer that, soon Ivan, soon you will understand."

He raised his hands in such a manner that it almost looked majestic and then wind currents lifted the unconscious man off the ground and into the arms of his comrade. Awesomely Hadrian began to float above the ground and into the sky.

"I am afraid this is goodbye, for now at least, take care of yourself Ivan, my lord."

"You cannot seriously be leaving, after everything that has happened?"

"I am, I am sorry, never forget Ivan, I love you."

"Dammit, you adopted oaf, GET BACK DOWN HERE AND ANSWER FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!"

Ivan's screams fell upon deaf ears as Hadrian had already flown into the distance. Now more confused than ever, Ivan clenched his fist and stared at the carnage around him, dead bodies were everywhere. A history he never knew he had was now lost, his brother who had turned into a mass murderer had flown away, all that Ivan had was a mind full of questions and no answers.

"Prince Ivan are you alright!" Came a voice from behind. It was the other guards of the castle, all carrying water buckets. They hadn't mobilised as quickly as one would expect but most likely something like this wasn't as frequent.

Some came carrying weapons ready for a fight if there was one but Ivan dismissed them and said the perpetrators had escaped. Each of the arrivals was sickened by the scene they had found that they were completely lost on what to do, some searched for survivors whilst the majority tried to douse the flames

And standing in the middle was the prince. Ivan had no expression any longer although there was an aura of sadness. They were peasants, they were nothing compared to nobles or royalty, their lives didn't matter as much but Ivan seemed to connect with one of them, to Laila, she was gone now and there was nothing anyone could do to bring her back. At the end of the day she was another peasant, there was no need to mourn over her death but still, he couldn't help but feel bad.

"Sorry," he said, "but a mere commoner's death won't put me down, take solace in the fact that your deaths will be stepping stones towards the throne."

Ivan began his journey back to the castle.

"You served the future king well."