“Your Highness, please reconsider!”

“There is nothing to reconsider,” Adrian said firmly. “It is my duty. How can I just do nothing while the Empire is in peril?” Tall, lean, and sinewy with tanned bronze skin, he had glacial blue eyes and long blonde hair that shone like gold in the moonlight. “We may not be able to save Erad, but we must make sure that no more damage is done.”

Riding a white stallion, he gazed toward the direction of Erad with knitted brows, one hand set on the hilt of the sword at his waist. They were on a mountain peak on the border of Erad with the Dreadlands, and from here he could see Erad in the distance. Not much remained of the fortress walls, which had long since begun to crumble under the onslaught of the dead. There was no doubt that the human force was still struggling, but the steady stream of undead that swarmed into the fortress seemed to reveal how hopeless of a resistance it was. The wind carried the scent of blood, smoke, and rotting.

Fort Erad was doomed.

“There is no time to waste, or the scourge will spread.” Adrian said. “Losing Erad is already a loss. But if the swarm spreads, what then?”

“But Your Highness,” Cael protested. “The amount of Ether required is too much. And even if it is you, it is far too difficult to make it through to the core. We should wait for reinforcements from the Order.”

“It will take days at least before reinforcements arrive,” Adrian shook his head. “And by that time the undead will have spread. We must do what we can.”

“I agree with Cael,” Gavin, a graying knight with a weathered face and a scar across his right eye said. “Your Highness, it is too risky. There are only three of us here. If it doesn’t work, we will only enrage the undead. And we won’t be able to deal with an entire horde.”

“And even if it does work, what of Erad?” Cael added. “There must surely be survivors in the surrounding villages. But if we move the barrier, we will lose Erad forever. The undead from the Dreadlands will occupy this land.”

“So what would you suggest, then,” Adrian fixed him with eyes that were as blue and cold as ice. “We wait until the horde moves west and ravages the lands even further? We have an opportunity right in front of us to stop it. Once the fortress falls, the army will spend some time…feeding.” The knights had complicated frowns of disgust and empathy, but Adrian continued on unaffected. “That time is the perfect time to make sure that they are all confined. We cannot miss this chance. A few sacrifices is unavoidable.”

Gavin shook his head. “The method you’re suggesting is too risky. Especially with—“ at Adrian’s calm, firm gaze, he paused and changed what he had been about to say. “Especially since we don’t know if it’s even possible to succeed.”

“There is no other option. We must succeed.” Adrian said, turning his horse around toward the top of the mountain. “I will head to the barrier core alone. Of us, only I have a chance of making it, so it’d be pointless for you to follow. The rest of you, stay hidden and guard the entrance.”

“Your Highness! The Emperor has ordered us to stay by your side. We cannot—”

He looked at each of his retainers in turn with a gaze that they were all too familiar with. It was the same gaze the Emperor had whenever his subjects dared challenge his authority, and they couldn’t help but fall silent from the pressure.

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“You are my knights,” Adrian continued. “You will follow orders.”

Cael and Gavin exchanged glances.

“Yes, Your Highness,” They said with a salute.

Adrian looked at his retainers grimly before he kicked his horse into a trot towards the peak of the mountain. Although he had managed to get his retainers to submit to his orders, he did not feel any sense of satisfaction. Just a few months ago, they would not have dared to question him. Now though, many things have changed. And he was not sure if they would ever return back to the way things were.

This damn sickness, he thought bitterly. It ruins everything.

It had struck suddenly, starting only with an occasional bout of pain until it quickly escalated into constant pain. Even now, he could feel it eating away at him from the inside. A searing pain burned from within and coursed through his veins, followed by a chill as his body regenerated….Which was then followed immediately by the return of the searing pain. It was as if he were stuck in an endless cycle of having his insides burned, frozen, then burned again.

He still remembered the baffled look on the healer’s face when he had examined him. Apparently, with how chaotic the Ether within him was, he should by all rights be incapacitated on a bed from the pain with a foot halfway—or more—in the grave, not standing and going around as if nothing had happened.

Thankfully, Adrian’s divine Blessing was able to constantly regenerate the damage done, putting his body in a delicate state of balance of destructive and regenerative forces. But it at least allowed him to at least maintain some degree normal function, so long as he could bear the pain.

He had even managed to hide his sickness from being discovered by all except for his closest aides…but he wasn’t sure how much longer that could last. A few months? A year? He couldn’t be certain. What he did know was that there would be no way to hide it forever, especially with so many out looking for his weaknesses. And once his enemies knew, they would pounce on him like a pack of starving wolves and tear him to pieces.

But he would never let them get what they wanted.

The path up to the mountain peak was rough and steep, and it wasn’t long before the dirt trail ended. Soon, he was forced to abandon his horse and proceed alone on foot. The higher he climbed, the more barren the forest became until all that was left were sparse patches of wild brown grass and withered trees.

He could feel the pressure on his soul growing as the Ether in the area grew in concentration. The concentration of divine Ether in the area had long since exceeded the levels in nature to the point where it had actually become harmful. Corrupted creatures would be unable to get near for fear of being disintegrated, and even regular creatures would suffer under such a high concentration. Only those with a strong enough affinity to pure Ether would be able to continue on. But despite his divine Blessing, Adrian still felt the Ether were constantly attempting to erode away the impurity of his physical body.

It felt like an eternity before Adrian finally reached the bottom of a steep, barren crag of dark granite.

“The Ether gets denser here,” he muttered, analyzing the cliff. “It seems like the core is on top.”

He shifted his sword to his back to be easier to carry during the climb, and without hesitation, he started to scale the steep walls.

The climbing was rough, and many times Adrian had to use his Aura to carve out new handholds and footholds with his bare hands. A wintry wind buffeted him as he climbed, as if to push away this unwelcome intruder. As the Ether grew denser, he was even forced to cover himself with his Aura for protection. It eased the pressure a bit, but not by much.

It felt as if he were climbing upstream in a current of magma. Every inch up was a battle. But Adrian refused to give in. He didn’t have the luxury of giving up. He never did.

He climbed.