I look back to Mia now. She's still trembling. The Crux is eating her energy away, I can feel it.

"Mia, are you..."

"Behind you!" Her voice cracking.

Vermidia emerges, her cloak tattered, her face twisted with fury. "You think this is over?" she hisses.

"I've kicked your ass twice in two days. Do you really want to add a third to the tally?"

"Oh is that what you think? I've left each time because I realized I'd rather not waste my time, especially when killing you would have made finding that so much more tedious. Why kill you when I had you to do all the work for me. Now that you have it though, it's a different story."

"You're such a..."

She interrupts me before I can curse her. "Manipulative mastermind? I know."

I draw my blade at her. She remains staring at me, unfazed by its presence.

"Now let's not get ahead of ourselves and do something rash."

"Leave us now, or I'll kill you right here where you stand!" My words make her gasp. She's playing at something. Buying time maybe? I can't see exactly what it is she's playing at but she's forming a plan, I see it in her eyes.

"I'd rather not waste anymore time Hail." With that she fades into a mist. I feel her fingertips on my mind. I try to shake it off but I can't, it's gripping me tighter than ever. Her whispers growing. I feel her breath on my neck and her presence in my ear. I see flashes of her standing over Zen's body. The way she slit Eluna's throat. Is she taunting me?

"I know your fears Hail... I know what will break you." She whispers followed by deep cackling.

"Get out of my head!" I scream and feel her leave.

I open my eyes to see shards of ice covering the ground around me at my feet. I then pan my head up and Zen is standing there in front of me. His side dripping with blood. I freeze, the sight of Zen standing before me—bleeding, broken—twists my gut. His eyes, dark with grief and anger, pierce through me like a blade sharper than the one in his hand. This can't be real. I watched him fall. I know he's gone. But here he stands, and every fiber of my being wants to believe it's him.

"Zen?" I ask as I step closer.

He's looking down at the ground and sobbing. "You could have saved her..." he mumbles. "You could have saved Eluna!" He shouts and draws his blade at me.

"Zen..." I start, stepping forward cautiously, my blade lowering. "This isn't you. You know I did everything I could. It wasn't my fault..."

"You let her die!" he roars, his voice cracking with grief. His blade trembles in his hand as he takes a step toward me. "You stood there, while she bled out!"

I stumble back, my mind reeling. The flashes of Vermidia's whispers still cling to my thoughts, and I know this has to be her doing. Another illusion, another trick to break me down.

"I couldn't save her!" I shout, my voice rising. "You think I haven't been haunted by that since the moment it happened? But it wasn't my choice, Zen, you know that! There was nothing I could do!"

Zen shakes his head, his face contorting with rage. "No, you chose this, Hail! You were always so wrapped up in your own destiny, looking for a way to leave us, you never cared about us. You wanted us gone!"

His words slam into me like a punch. "That's not true..."

His blade flashes as he lunges toward me, his movements quick, precise, just as I remember him in combat. I barely manage to parry the strike, our swords clashing with a loud, metallic ring. I push him back, my breath catching in my throat.

"Zen, this isn't you!" I yell, trying to reason with him, though his fury seems beyond reach.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Isn't it?" he growls. "Or is this just what you've been too blind to see all along?"

He swings again, and I block, the force of it driving me back. Every strike feels real, solid. Vermidia's illusions have never been this strong before. I can feel the weight of each blow, the heat of Zen's anger radiating off him.

I glance over my shoulder at Mia, who's still clutching the Crux, her face pale and drawn, fighting to maintain her grip on it. She can barely stand, and I know we're running out of time.

I meet Zen's eyes again, trying to find something, anything that proves this isn't him. But all I see is pain. Grief. Betrayal.

"Zen," I say, my voice quieter now, more pleading. "If this is really you, if there's even a part of you still in there, you know I didn't want this. I loved Eluna. I loved both of you."

His blade falters for a moment, his grip slackening. His face twists, as if he's struggling to hold onto the anger.

"I wanted to protect you," I continue, my own voice cracking now. "But I couldn't. I didn't have my power and I had to hold onto Mia but I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

For a second, it looks like I've reached him. His gaze softens, the weight of his grief pulling him down. But then the shadows twist around him, and I feel Vermidia's presence again, thick and suffocating.

Zen's eyes darken, and his face contorts back into rage. "You don't get to be sorry," he spits, raising his sword once more. "You deserve to suffer."

I brace myself for another attack, but then Mia's voice cuts through the tension. "Hail, it's not real! None of it's real!"

I turn to see her stepping forward, her hand glowing with the icy blue energy of her power. The Crux pulses in her grasp, and the ground beneath us trembles.

"Mia, stay back!" I shout, but she shakes her head.

"No, Hail," she says, her voice stronger now, despite her exhaustion. "This is Vermidia. She's trying to break you. You can't let her!"

I look back at Zen, or the thing that was Zen. His eyes flicker with something unnatural, something twisted by Vermidia's influence. And in that moment, I realize Mia's right. This isn't him. This has never been him.

With a roar, I swing my blade at the illusion. The moment the sword connects with his, my blade shatters like glass.

"You'll pay for what you failed to do!" He shouts as he raises his blade once more.

I almost freeze in the moment but at the last second I thrust the hilt of the sword into Zen's chest. I then watch as jagged fragments of ice lift from the ground around me and piece themselves together at the end of the hilt, forming a blade of ice in Zen's chest.

He gasps and looks down at me. "You, did this." He mutters as I pull the newly formed blade from his body. Zen's form shatters apart, dissolving into black mist. Vermidia's laughter echoes through the valley, chilling and cruel.

"You're not as weak as I thought, Hail," her voice slithers through the air. "But you're still predictable."

I spin around, searching for her. Then I see her holding Mia by the throat. She's reaching for the Crux but Mia is struggling to fight her. I then feel a gust of wind blow past them towards me. The gust lifts the Crux from Mia's hands and it flies towards me, landing at my feet.

I grab the Crux and feel its weight tugging on my mind. I quickly toss it into my pocket and turn to Vermidia.

"You stupid fucking girl!" She yells at Mia.

"Let her go!" I shout.

"Ahh ah ah, the Crux for girl, and don't think I've forgotten about that book. Hand that over as well."

I see Mia struggling. Snow is forming around her but it's no use.

"You haven't got all day Hail!" She shouts.

I look down into my pocket and look back to Mia. "Put her down now and I'll let you live."

Vermidia sighs. "Wrong choice sadly."

I see Mia's eyes turn black. Her body begins to shake.

"Stop, don't fucking do this Vermidia. Please stop!"

"I gave you the chance to surrender the artifacts to me. This is what you get for not taking my offer."

Mia's body goes stiff as Vermidia tosses her to the ground. Her body slides for a moment and then stops. I rush to Mia's side.

"Come on. Wake up, come on this can't be happening!"

Her head tilts slightly and her eyes begin to open.

"Mia!" I exclaim.

My heart sinks as I look into Mia's eyes, no longer the icy blue I've always known, but swirling with Vermidia's dark energy

"Why didn't you give her the Crux Hail? You let her do this to me!" Her voice, usually calm and steady, now carries a bitterness that cuts deeper than any wound.

"Mia..." I whisper, but it's like she doesn't hear me, or worse, she does but no longer cares.

"You let her do this to me!" she says again, her voice filled with anguish, and something else, rage.

I glance at Vermidia, who stands nearby, a wicked grin spread across her face. "Ah, the consequences of defiance," she says, feigning sympathy. "It didn't have to be this way, Hail. You could've spared her this, spared both of you. But now... well, you'll have to live with your failure."

"Mia, fight it!" I plead, grabbing her shoulders. I can feel the cold energy pulsing beneath her skin, but it's different, twisted, corrupted. "This isn't you. It's her doing, not yours!"

Mia's face contorts in pain, as if battling some invisible force. "You... should have just given it to her," she says, her voice trembling. "Now... now she's inside me. I can feel her... she's..."

Her words cut off as her body jerks violently, and a wave of dark energy surges through her, knocking me back. I tumble across the ground, struggling to get back on my feet. The air is thick with Vermidia's presence, her influence suffocating, wrapping tighter around Mia with each passing second.

"Come now, Hail," Vermidia says, her voice oozing with mockery. "You've made your bed. Time to lie in it."

I stand, my fists clenched, staring at her with fury boiling inside me. "This isn't over, Vermidia. I swear, I'll find a way to..."

"To what?" she interrupts, raising an eyebrow. "Save her? You're already too late. She's mine now."

I grit my teeth, the weight of the Crux pressing against my chest like a physical burden. There has to be a way to save Mia, to undo whatever Vermidia's done. But I don't know how, and with every moment that passes, Mia slips further away from me.

"Look at her, Hail," Vermidia says, her voice low and cruel. "Look at the girl you've failed."

I turn toward Mia, her body trembling on the ground, her eyes flickering between who she once was and the darkness trying to consume her. My hands shake as I reach for her, but I'm filled with dread.

I try for a moment to feel if this is a nightmare or an illusion but it's so real.

I drop to my knees beside Mia, cupping her face gently. "Mia... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll fix this, I swear."

Her eyes meet mine, and for a brief second, I see a flicker of recognition, her beneath the swirling blackness. But then it's gone, replaced by something cold, something twisted. She pushes me away with a strength that isn't hers, and a cruel smile curls at her lips.

"You can't fix anything, Hail," she says, but it's Vermidia's voice, not hers. "You never could."

I stagger back, my heart pounding in my chest as the reality of what's happening crashes down on me. I don't know how to save her, not yet. But I can't let Vermidia win. Not like this.

I draw my blade, the cold icy blade gleaming under the fading sunlight. "I don't care what you've done," I say, my voice steady but low with fury. "I'm not giving up on her."

Vermidia laughs, a sharp, piercing sound. "Oh, how noble. How predictable. But you forget, Hail, I always win in the end."

The ground trembles beneath us as the dark power swirls around Mia, and I know that time is running out. Whatever Vermidia's plan is, I can't let it succeed.

With one last glance at Mia, I steel myself. "Then let's finish this."