The liquid was thick and slimy, but no longer so disgusting. It was familiar and comforting. He couldn't savor it for long, though. His nerves were wrecked by tension and pain. He had to get the substance down as fast as possible. He drank slowly at first, but suddenly poured it down and gulped.

Time seemed to slow down.

He put his focus inside and regulated his essence in a way he hadn't grasped before, controlling the ingestion process. He couldn't let too much of the substance be absorbed too quickly. The energy exploded inside him, but he pushed it down. He formed something like a shield around his core, letting the energy seep through cracks.

Exhilaration took away or amplified the pain. Aurelius couldn't tell which, but it felt good. So good. Almost too good to be true. But it was true. He was true. Oh, how he missed that power.

He almost didn't care for an instant as Sherridan launched at him. He felt invincible once again. His hands trembled with a power he had to exert. If he didn't, he thought he actually might die.

A laugh escaped him, followed by a trembling noise of insanity. Discolored veins bulged in his neck, and his pupils dilated so much they threatened to consume his irises whole.

Suddenly Sherridan was there. Right there in front of him with a thousand possible attacks. Aurelius didn't even move. She tensed her hand, and streaks came forth to form a ball of compression. But then she just kicked him before thrusting a blade at his chest. The kick was almost the definition of instantaneous, and so was the thrust. Aurelius dodged both, not moving any more than absolutely necessary. He looked down at the blade with neutral eyes.

The combination was followed up by a spin move that switched Sherridan's angle. Aurelius sensed the compression coming and was forced to hurry. All in all, it was a mesmerizing combination. Unpredictable, almost to the point of awkwardness, but with every movement flowing seamlessly into the next, each one carrying an impossible speed and lethality.

Aurelius turned to Sherridan and smacked her hand aside before trying to put a hand through her stomach, but she was gone from sight before he could reach her. Even then, she didn't see her movements.

Her movement speed was somehow different from her attacking speed. It was a particular skill. Sadly, it reminded him of Balgair's hand speed, which had kind of the same quality.

Oddly, Aurelius didn't sense any attacks coming. It didn't make sense. Why would Sherridan lay off the pressure? Suddenly Aurelius felt a large crack in his inner shield, and the enhancer almost overwhelmed him.

His eyes flew wide, and he launched into movement. He maneuvered around pillars, too busy to pay attention to Gadreel, who observed the battle amiably from far away, standing some distance from his throne.

He had his hands full controlling the outburst of energy that threatened to paralyze him even if for a split second. Sherridan had first tested him, and after figuring out Aurelius' ability to hold it back, she seemed to back off to look for cracks. Normally Aurelius wouldn't have been afraid, knowing his own abilities well, but he knew Sherridan's speed was different. Even a single mistake in withholding the energy would cost him his life. Because of that, he had to move and keep moving. That way, he would make a harder target in case of a momentary freeze-up.

Aurelius was in the air, jumping from pillar to pillar as Sherridan flew at him from above. In a panic, he accidentally released more energy, and his veins almost felt like bursting as he forced them to operate despite it.

He blocked Sherridan's attack but was altered on his course and slammed into the pillar. He materialized a blade and dug it into the pillar to slow his fall. He stopped after dragging and felt like his head would explode but kept moving. He looked around. No trace of her again. He looked at Gadreel and realized an opportunity. He launched himself from a pillar towards him. In the air, he channeled some of his newfound energy into gathering it down from the tips of his left foot's toes and bringing it up to his right arm. He spun and put all his torque into an enormous slash that he sent at Gadreel. Far away though he may have been, the slash would've been lethal to even some elites. And Gadreel was no elite, was he?

Aurelius expected some sort of panic. Gadreel put a single hand up against the slash with confidence. Aurelius furrowed his brows as he made a platform and changed his course midair. Then the slash hit. For a moment, Aurelius wasn't sure what had happened as a dust cloud was kicked up. Sherridan's figure became visible, and Aurelius was almost relieved. It was a sign that his final words hadn't been for nothing. However, he found it odd that he hadn't thought for a second that Gadreel had been harmed. Not even a delusional hope.

He saw Sherridan turn to Gadreel and enhanced his senses. From what he could tell, Gadreel told her not to worry about him. He wasn't sure if he made it out correctly or if he could trust it, knowing Gadreel, but it was something.

Sherridan got on the move again. Aurelius' situation with the enhancer had barely been helped. The amount of energy was more than he remembered. He wondered if he should've drunk less than a whole vial but deemed it a waste.

He tracked Sherridan, losing her only a couple of times. Then they met in the air.

Aurelius had never done combat similar to what followed. He wasn't fully prepared for it, but what followed was nothing but art for him. The pinnacle of combat that he realized in the moment, he would never experience again.

The hall around them seemed to whirl as Aurelius and Sherridan materialized platform after platform. They warped around so high in the air that the fall would have been lethal while unenhanced. They clashed again and again. Their resets were so fast it seemed like their blades and hands met again every second. They were in synchrony.

Aurelius found that his lips were stretched in a wide-open smile. His wide eyes gleamed as they jumped around, tracking Sherridan.

It seemed like a dream. His heart was beating out of his chest as he materialized a platform to launch himself upside down at yet another encounter that may have very well been the last. But it wasn't, and right after, they materialized new platforms to do the same thing. Aurelius reset and loaded up unrestrainable power in his leg muscles before exploding himself up into yet another clash. Again. And again.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Hundreds of faint blue platforms popped in and out of existence, formed of what Aurelius imagined to be millions of tiny blue spirits obeying his will. To Gadreel down below, it must've seemed something otherworldly. Aurelius burst out in a yell of laughter at the thought as he met Sherridan in combat, unlike anything he had ever imagined before. He liked to think that it was the same for her as well, but she didn't let out a sound even when he managed to graze her in their encounters, which wasn't often.

They formed a geometric shape in the sky from all the platforms, and their encounters made sparks akin to the lightning raging on outside the castle hall.

But Aurelius began to branch out, breaking the shape. He directed the battle toward the pillars, throwing Sherridan toward one, following after. He swept around the enormous pillar to attack Sherridan from the other side, and their battle turned into one of tactical maneuvers. They spun around the pillars, both trying to direct the other according to their own will.

Materializations glowed around them like they were inside a spinning crystal. The match was unreal but even, and with each second, Aurelius felt closer to victory. He sensed an anxiousness in Sherridan. She had been waiting for Aurelius to slip up and be taken by the side effects, but he hadn't been. Not even for a moment.

He had been suppressing the energy absorption so tightly that it hadn't even been close. But then, as Aurelius tried to give way to the absorption, he lost his grip. He felt a drag and squeeze on his heart, and his materialization went out from under his feet, sending him hurling through the sky, clasping his chest with his mouth wide.

He flung his limbs about, trying to materialize, but was unable. Gravity took him, and he met the blood-soaked ground with brutal speed that would've broken every single one of his bones if his enhancement had failed.

Blood splattered under him as he came to the ground. He suppressed the energy once more, forcing it back into his core painfully, so as not to be paralyzed by it. He hurried up to his feet, his whole side covered in the blood of those he'd slain.

Sherridan hadn't slowed, and Aurelius just barely managed to fend off the following onslaught. He was consumed by the action for a while. When he snapped out of it, he realized Gadreel wasn't very far away anymore. He'd fallen closer to him. Furthermore, Sherridan didn't seem to be blocking him off.

From all this, Aurelius began to hatch a plan.

One that would take a long time. Minutes that felt like hours he spent gradually losing to Sherridan while holding back the effects of the second enhancer. It had given him the energy that he needed, and it was always there if he needed more, but until then, he had to keep it firmly under control. Even one slip-up from being overwhelmed by the enhancer would mean his death with Sherridan.

Sherridan was the very definition of lethal. She dashed in straight lines around Aurelius, striking once each time. Every time she did, she aimed to kill. Her rhythm was erratic to the point that it had a certain art. Aurelius could sense it instinctively, yet he could not comprehend it.

She skidded to a stop and turned into a blur as she feinted multiple directions before shooting off in a zigzag that eventually came to Aurelius at the angle he least expected. Aurelius blocked and dodged, maneuvering with unorthodox but fluid acrobatics. He was never ready for the next strike, and he never got an opportunity to counter. But he did accumulate damage.

Sherridan's fast slices took him on the arms and legs, targeting tendons and severing a few. She almost cut his throat, leaving him gasping in relief when the next strike was already coming.

Aurelius yelled out in pain, tried to rest, and wiped his eyes of blood. Everything was becoming more and more blurry. He was getting desensitized. Death was talking to him. Welcoming him into its embrace. And all the new and old wounds that ached, throbbed, and tortured him begged for him to accept.

At a point, he did not feel like he saw anything but kept dodging, nevertheless. No matter what, it seemed he couldn't stop struggling, so the only way was forward.

Aurelius opened both his eyes, even as the other felt like a nail in his skull. There he was. Gadreel. Right in front. It would take Aurelius maybe four seconds to cross the distance.

Aurelius put a shield up but was still rocked by Sherridan's attack; however, as she was skidding to a stop behind him, he had already begun to rush toward Gadreel.

Gadreel took a step back and eyed Sherridan as Aurelius sped towards him. He seemed to think Sherridan would be in time to save him. Aurelius wouldn't let that happen.

Each of his strides was like a horrible gust of wind that made one's hair and clothes go wild, and soon he faced the genius young man. Only one long stride left. Aurelius felt that no slash would work against him. He needed contact.

But then, he felt Sherridan's presence at his neck. His hair stood on end as a cold tingling sensation spread throughout his body. A warning of the highest order: run!

Aurelius did not run. He roared. And with blind rage, he reached out to grasp the cause of all his loneliness and torment. Simultaneously, Aurelius felt death closer than ever.

At that moment, Aurelius' calculated words must've been running through Sherridan's mind.

'I'll kill you, no matter what.'

It was then that Aurelius pivoted with a furious twist. He faced Sherridan's blade coming down at him. Even though Sherridan's mask, he could read the silent horror as she realized what was about to happen.

Maybe she realized it, maybe not. But Aurelius had been right in assuming she had an instinct to protect Gadreel even if it put herself at risk. As something unconscious, it made her tragically predictable in such a situation.

Aurelius put himself out of the blade's way, and it zipped past his right ear, cutting strands of his hair. One hand stayed by his waist, tendons flexed. The other went up. He leaned in and grabbed Sherridan's wrist.

Streaks of essence gathered hurriedly in the palm of his left hand, ripping apart his glove. The ball of compression formed faster than it had ever before, almost instantaneously with his absolute mastery.

With sharp brutality, Aurelius pulled and pushed. He twisted, dragging the airborne Sherridan towards himself before delivering the ball of compression straight to her stomach.

The impact made her body contort into a U-shape. Her stomach went back while her head and legs shot forward. Aurelius could see as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and he lost his grip on her wrist as she launched back.

He followed right after, dashing to where she would land and was about to shoot off a series of slashes but stopped. His hand moved with weight, drawing a single diagonal line for her. A blade of essence shot off and cleaved her from ribs to hip, and she fell limply onto the bloody ground.

Aurelius skidded and slowed to a walk as he approached her as something in the atmosphere changed. The sound of her splattering to the ground was nothing but sad. His victory was clear, but as he kneeled to look into her eyes, he felt his heart shake in his chest. He glanced down at his left hand, which touched blood for the first time during the battle.

Sherridan's eyes were red under her pure white mask, and she did not pay attention to Aurelius but to Gadreel. At that moment, those eyes of hers were like a child's. Lonely and abused, seeking a single string of warmth that could give her a little company and send her off into the scary darkness.

Aurelius turned to Gadreel, looking to see the man's expression. A part of him immediately wished he hadn't turned, as on Gadreel's soft and warm face there was an expression of such utter indifference that it shook even Aurelius.

He stood up and looked down at Sherridan's corpse. Her eyes had gone still, but Aurelius knew she'd been alive to see that expression of Gadreel's. It was the last thing she saw. And from under her mask, there came a single tear. One of heartbreak. But that significance was made unrecognizable when the tear dropped down and became mixed with the blood underneath.

Aurelius turned away and faced Gadreel, finally letting the second enhancer fill his being with all its might.

It was time to end this.