Desperately, Rain and Frederik hacked and chipped away at the softly glowing crystals that enveloped Lunette, holding her limp body pinned to the wall. Cracks were slowly beginning to spread throughout. After one more good whack with the damaged cleaver that Rain swung, a large chunk was knocked loose and Lunette’s arm fell from its confines, her body slumping forward on an angle.

“I got you!” Frederik said, dropping the spear head as he quickly scooped an arm under her shoulder to help support her.

Lunette groaned, her pale and skinny arm draped around his shoulder, fingers faintly twitching. She looked up through the shade of her hair to see the horrified look on Rain’s face, and whispered, “What?”

Rain was staring at Lunette’s hand dangling over Frederik’s shoulder. Her once very human hand had changed, the skin turning black as coal halfway down her forearm. Her elegant fingers had lengthened to razor sharp tips, just like Melodia’s.

“N-Nothing,” Rain stammered, forcing a small smile before she began to bash at the crystals that bound Lunette’s left arm, “It’s nothing. Just hold on. We’re going to have you free soon.”

Lunette slowly tilted her head and looked at her hand, her fingers weakly twitching as she confirmed that it was indeed an extension of her own body. She closed her eyes, and let out a heavy exhale, no longer having the strength to argue.

Rain hacked and chipped away at the crystal, swinging the hatchet as hard as she could until the crystals shattered. Lunette slumped forward completely onto Frederik, who was nearly knocked over by the sudden weight, but her legs remained embedded in the walls. Suddenly, she let out a sharp scream.

“W-What?!” Frederik asked, “What’s wrong?”

Lunette’s body jerked and convulsed as she leaned against him, her face against his shoulder as she bit back her voice. Her lank and stringy hair slipped over her shoulders, revealing the bulging and contorting muscles in her back before a pair of lumps began to take shape beneath the skin. One of them surged upward suddenly, and Lunette let out another scream as a wet, black feathery mass began to tear through her thin skin, dripping with dark purple blood.

“Th’hell is going on over there?!” Arvel shouted from across the room, looking back at the sight of Lunette flanked by Frederik and Rain both as her body changed and shifted violently.

Rain looked up at him, fear and hopelessness in her eyes, before she grabbed one of Lunette’s claws in both her hands and held it tight, whispering words of comfort to try to soothe her.

“Damn it,” Arvel muttered, before returning his attention to Melodia, perched up on the rock outcropping high above them.

“She tried to tell you it was too late,” said Melodia, “But you wouldn’t listen. Now it’s going to be too late for all of you.”

“No!” Fidget shouted, “Never too late!”

Fidget clenched her teeth and ran toward Lunette. With both of her battered swords, she began to wail on the crystals that kept Lunette affixed to the wall, chipping away at small shards that clattered to the ground around her feet.

Melodia watched Fidget run, before her eyes snapped back to Arvel, who had turned his attention to his friends.

“All alone again,” she whispered as she leaned forward, diving off of the ledge toward him, lashing out with her renewed claws.

Arvel lifted his father’s sword to block her strike, but while his muscles were burning, her strength had recovered. Arvel began to step back with each strike, grunting and struggling to deflect them, beginning to take small nicks and scratches on his arms.

“You can’t deny your birthright your whole life and then think you can count on it the moment you change your mind!” Melodia taunted as she pressed the attack, “That sword means nothing more in your hands than a shovel did.”

“That ain’t true,” Arvel said, “This sword... this sword was my pa’s sword, the sword he used to cut down a thousand demons. And that besides... I’m pretty damn good with a shovel.”

“Another useless tool!” she snapped, drawing one of her hands back as she straightened her fingers, before thrusting her claw forward like a spear aimed at his neck.

“The real trick,” Arvel said, “is not lettin’ th’weapon be the only thing y’fight with.”

As Melodia’s strike narrowly missed Arvel’s throat, he let go of the sword with one hand, reaching up and grabbing her wrist. Arvel stepped into her guard, turning and pulling her arm over his shoulder. With a loud grunt, he put all of his strength into throwing her over his shoulder.

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“Wh-What?” Melodia asked, her eyes wide as the room spun around her.

Melodia hit the ground with a hard thud, a crack resonating through the room from her wings breaking beneath her fall, crushed beneath her own weight. She pushed herself to sit up, but was instantly thrown down again, this time with a glowing white blade through her left shoulder, pinning her to the ground.

“NO!” she screamed, raking at the sword with her claws, her eyes wide as she watched a purple aura of power slowly beginning to draw up from the wound, wrapping up along the blade and pouring into its glowing steel.

“It’s over!” Arvel shouted, bearing his weight down on the hilt of the sword with both hands as he leaned over her. His voice then grew more quiet, as he murmured, “It’s over, Mel.”

Melodia stared up at him, as her hands slipped from around the blade, and she slumped back onto the floor. Her gaze never broke from his, even as her eyes overflowed with tears.

“How could this have happened?” she whispered, “I don’t... I don’t know what to do...”

Arvel clenched his teeth, before he pulled the sword back, and Melodia let out a sharp cry of pain. He reached down and grabbed her right arm, pulling her up off of the ground and hauling her alongside him toward the others. Melodia was practically dead weight as he pulled her along, stumbling behind him, before she fell to her knees on the floor. When she opened her bleary eyes, she was looking down at Lunette, lying curled up on her side on the floor.

“I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do,” Arvel said, holding the sword down near Melodia’s neck, “You’re gonna help her. You’re gonna make her whole again. You’re gonna take back all that ‘power’, that poison you put in her, and you’re gonna give her back that piece of her soul you ate.”

“Why?” Melodia asked, “Why is it so important to you? She’ll never be a strong knight again. Her purpose lies in tatters.”

“Her purpose is to live,” Arvel said, “She don’t owe anyone anything besides that.”

Melodia looked down at the trembling lady knight.

“Do it,” Arvel said, pressing the glowing blade against the side of her neck.

Melodia bit her lip, before slowly lifting her hands toward Lunette. Rain and Fidget both clung to their friend protectively, and Fidget even hissed at Melodia, but neither of them stopped her. After a moment, Melodia’s hands began to glow softly, and purple light pulsed through the veins under Lunette’s thin, translucent skin. Lunette squirmed, and she let out a whine of pain as the purple energy began to flow out of her, and into Melodia again.

“S-She’s taking the energy,” Rain said, “What if Melodia—”

“Let her do it,” Arvel said, watching closely.

Steadily, Lunette began to change. Those budding wings on her back began to drip from the tears in her skin like thick, viscous ink, before the wounds knitted themselves shut. Her pale skin began to darken, slowly returning to its rich, warm, golden-brown shade.Color began to return to her hair, like honey washing over white, beginning to curl and enliven once more.

“Knight lady!” Fidget said, grabbing hold of one of Lunette’s hands as her claw gently shrunk and softened into a human hand once more.

All of the rich purple energy flowed out of Lunette’s body and into Melodia’s hands, as Melodia’s own wounds closed. When Melodia withdrew her hands, and rested them on her lap, Lunette lay on the floor with her head on Rain’s lap, looking human again, but quiet and still.

“Lunette?” Rain asked, gently shaking her shoulder, “Please, say something...”

“She won’t wake up!” Fidget whimpered, before she turned and snarled at Melodia.

Melodia leaned forward, and touched Lunette’s cheek, tilting her head and slowly pressing her jaw down to part her lips. When they were close enough for their breaths to mingle, Melodia opened her mouth and softly exhaled, a white wisp flowing from between her lips and into Lunette’s. All at once, Lunette gasped softly, her body stirring as she pushed herself up from the floor in a near panic.

“Lunette!” Rain cried, reaching up to grab her shoulder, “It’s alright! You’re okay...”

Lunette opened her emerald green eyes that shone more brilliantly than they had in weeks, looking around the cavern, before she spotted Arvel.

“What... What happened?” Lunette asked, before looking down at Melodia beside her.

“You don’t worry about that,” Arvel said with a warm smile, “Rain, Fidge, Freddy, y’all go on and get Lunette on her feet and get outta here. I’ll be right behind you.”

The three of them crowded around Lunette as they helped her to her feet. Even though she had the strength to stand on her own, she could hardly move an inch without their insistent support. They turned to make their way toward the cave, though Rain looked back worriedly at Arvel and Melodia as they went.

Melodia sat on the floor, quiet, watching as the others left. Once they had vanished beyond the tunnel threshold, and their footsteps began to fade away, she looked down at the floor and asked, “Is this the part where you kill me?”

Arvel watched Melodia for a moment, before he went and retrieved the dry-rotted scabbard from the floor nearby. He slowly slid the sword back into its sheath, and he said quietly, “You spared my life once, because you loved me. I’m returning the favor.”

“Do you love me still?” Melodia asked, looking up at him.

At first, Arvel didn’t respond. He looked down at the sheath of the sword, free of dust for the first time in years. He then looked back at her and said, “I used to. Now it just feels like there’s just a hole where love used to be. Or maybe I just loved the person you pretended to be back then. I don’t... I don’t know how you played the part so well if that person wasn’t really in there somewhere.”

Melodia looked down at the cave floor, quiet, until she saw Arvel’s boots come to a stop on the ground in front of her.

“I hope there’s something in you that still knows how to be kind,” Arvel said, “I hope there’s a piece of you who’s good enough to leave this mountain... To relinquish your ‘throne’ and leave those humans and their settlement alone.”

She stared up at him in disbelief, and whispered, “You still have that kind of faith in me?”

“I believe you can,” Arvel said, as he turned to leave through the cave, “And if it turns out I’m wrong, I’m comin’ back to correct my mistake.”