Lillith

Deep red mana forces me to the ground like the planet itself has suddenly grown more attached to me. I flare my own aura to counteract it with force, but my mana cracks and shatters under the power of my opponents. The spell is entirely undiscerning, pushing me, Edward, and Richard down all at once. I have to rely on my actual physical prowess to move at all. As I am barely able to lift my head, just enough to turn my eyes to the sky, I see two men descend on all of us, both elevated by the same red mana that assaulted us a moment ago.

At first, they are black spots in the night, barely visible as more than a blur. But as they grow closer, two things jump out to me. The larger man is missing his right arm and the smaller man is familiar. I forget his name, or if he even gave it to me. But the last time I saw him, I was striking him with lightning. I thought he was dead. The apparently living bard lands first, violently pulling Ed's bag from him before patting him down and pulling his spare riot spike from his jacket. The burnt red mana seems to flow around him and shift directions as he needs it to, but it comes from the larger man. I have three guesses who that is, and they are all Darian.

The mage restraining all of us smiles at me as he finally lands, the mana around him rippling like water as it flows out of his way. He releases his mana around Richard, allowing him to stand. The bard moves on to me, using a knife to cut my pack off my hip. As he continues his search, I make furious eye contact with Darian, ignoring my father's glare behind him. I wince as I feel my own spare riot spike pulled out of my boot. Darian doesn't look away from me as he issues a command to his subordinates.

"Bring those back to the palace," he orders. "Both of you."

"Your Majesty, please. I'd like to share a few words with my children, before we go," Richard requests.

"You'll have the opportunity to meet them on the third plane if you hesitate to follow my commands," Darian growls. Richard grimaces, then offers a half bow. The quiet bard, satisfied he has found all the riot spikes, joins Richard and directs him to the door. I get one last glare from my would-be father before they depart. They can't fly like Darian can, that's good. I can work with that. I don't see Kallon anywhere.

"Ed," I groan as the pressure tries to prevent any movement at all. "When you get that chance, follow them. Get them back, before they reach the palace. Before they find... Kallon. I'll... keep this one busy!" Each word grows hard as the pressure increases on my body. Ed doesn't respond at all, lacking the physical strength to do much more than survive. It's like my force mana but more... directed. More, I'm not sure, universal. Like this spell is reality itself. Darian raises an eyebrow as he looks down at me.

"The Mage of Mourning indeed," he muses. "I've never seen anyone move like this while under my gravity mana. Then again, I suppose I have had little opportunity to use it before recent weeks. I am impressed, nevertheless. With your fortitude, and with your confidence. Your brother isn't getting a chance to pursue my soldiers. The only way either of you leave here alive, in fact, is if you agree to help me get my slaves back. You've caused quite a mess, I hear. All across my country. And after I so generously offered you real power within it. Fortunately for you, I am a generous, forgiving man. And while your headache annoyed me, it annoyed Godfrey more. So I will give you one chance now."

"One... chance?" I ask, "To... what? Pretend I... am... afraid of... a coward... like you? And what... you'll let me... live?" He laughs.

"No, of course not. You and I understand the same thing, I think. Leaving the wrong people alive is dangerous. And you are the head of a very dangerous snake, Lillith of Endings. However trite your name is. But your brother here? All your little soldiers marching on all my cities? I can leave them to flounder, once you have helped me subdue them. So? Are you as loyal as your subordinates? Willing to sacrifice yourself to spare your army? Or are you every bit the coward you claim I am?" He taunts. Mana forms around my right arm. Around my rings and bracelet. The only place where I can create a royal aura if I try. "Oh, my apologies. You must be finding it hard to answer," he suddenly adds, easing up the pressure around my head.

It's not gone, but I can look at him again. The mana continues to gather. Thankfully, with the Radiant Woods still buried all over this city, it remains invisible to Darian while the effect of the artifacts just barely allows me to form the spell at all against his oppressive mana. But it is forming. "You seem to be doing well for yourself, for someone with no fucking clue what is going on," I chortle. "But I'm glad you don't. Your confidence in your infallibility is why you are going to die today. Your obsession with authority, and competing against everyone else who has it. They are why I'm going to be able to kill you." The spell forms as he smiles at me.

"I'm sure. I'm sure you have a foolproof plan to kill me, with your meager, common mana. With your lovely circle that killed so many of Godfrey's little elevated commoner pets. Your special circle he bought all those terrified nobles with, only to watch them die or flee in the face of a supposedly weaker power. Although I'll admit his use of the priests was fairly clever. But that's beside the point. Bluster won't get you out of this one. Nor will a sharp tongue. You've been outmaneuvered. Your clever little plan to trap your betters failed this time. Now tell me what I want to know, or your brother dies he-" I loose my spell in the middle of his threat. As soon as it forms outside my body, his mana crushes mine. But I only needed a second.

Once the spell was formed and aimed, it was too late to stop. Thunder cracks through the empty building as my lightning collides with Darian's chest, knocking him off his feet and releasing us both from his mana. "Run, Ed! Get the spikes back!" I scream. I don't need to, however, as my brother is already running out the door. I don't hesitate either, immediately pulling my axe from my back and swinging it down on Darian's body. He wants to commit fucking war crimes? Let's see how he feels about double-tapping. I flex my arms and swing with force mana enhancing my already powerful strike on what I hope is a corpse.

But this fight won't be so easy. The man's eyes fly open and his gravity mana throws him out of the way just as my axe lodges itself in the stone where he had been lying when my attack started. His tunic burns and he tears it off to reveal a rapidly healing scorch mark beneath. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. A divine mage? Another one? No, he's still missing an arm. If he could heal himself like Baldwin or Sara, why would he leave it like that? I have to kill him now. I surround his head in invisible air mana, trying to create a vacuum around his head. The mana makes it to him, but he crushes the spell the moment he feels something off about the air.

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I throw myself at him with force, forming bladed tonfas with my steel mana. At the same time, I flood the room with as much water as I can and pull the heat from it a moment later with heat mana. The ice and weapons form and I nearly make it to him to stab into his face with my first punch. He moves only his head, easily avoiding my attack while catching me by the throat with his remaining hand. I try and force my other tonfa down on his arm, but his gravity grabs it and forces both arms and weapons rapidly to my side before either can reach him. The blades bite into my legs causing me to grimace as he chokes me easily with one hand.

I can't even flail as his gravity pulls me down, straining my neck against his grip. He shouldn't be this strong physically, but I can feel his gravity mana, counteracting and enforcing itself in just the right spots to grant him strength comparable to mine. "So you really have invisible mana. Fascinating. I was almost certain that was just part of your legend," he smirks. "And so many aspects too! Wonderful. You really would have made an excellent officer, were you a little smarter. Perhaps Godfrey isn't entirely a fool, bringing women to the battlefield. But it's not going to be enough to save you." I start forming a lightning spell again, but he throws me down into my own ice, following it with a sound spell of some kind.

I form a bubble of sound mana around my head to protect my ears, but his spell is so powerful it creates a concussive blast that cracks both my ribs and the ice beneath me. His gravity mana forces me against the ground again. I am no match for him. Not without the riot spikes. Not while he can heal from even a lightning bolt in a moment. How did he do that? How can he heal himself from that but not his arm? I haven't felt that aching in my blood that comes with an attempt to take my mind either. Is he a divine mage or not? I have to do something. I have to fight him somehow. How is he healing? If not with divine magic then...

"Someone told me that you are very sick, but you seem alright to me. It must be true. Your little jewelry is helping you out, I hear. Well. We don't want you making another mistake, do we? Let's see what we can do about that," He says, examining the bracelet and rings on my right arm. He awkwardly draws a sword from his right side with his remaining arm. "I am sorry about this. This sword is primarily meant for display and, well, I have only recently become left-handed. But I'm sure you understand. Sometimes, a little clumsy destruction is just easier than more precise efforts. And, truth be told, I haven't quite taken out my anger over the loss of my own arm yet," he laments.

My eyes lock on the sword as he clumsily raises it over his head. I try to form my lightning bolt faster, but he swings the sword down, biting into the leather armor at my shoulder. He frowns, putting one boot on my collarbone and yanking the sword out before raising it again. "Looks like I need a little extra help. One moment," he apologizes. He then swings again, this time the sword backed by his gravity. This time I feel the blade cut into my flesh and I have to bite back a scream. I lose focus on the spell for just a minute and frantically try to form it again, but he expects it this time. Despite the invisibility, he surrounds me with mana and crushes any spell I try to form.

Again he presses against me with one foot, rocking the sword back and forth painfully to break it free, and again he swings it down. He misses the first cut, biting into unbroken skin and bone with this one. A deep scream escapes through my clenched teeth as tears start to run down my cheeks. Each time he pulls his sword out he first saws it back and forth, drawing an involuntary whimper from me and tearing as much of my shoulder as he can. He is slow. He is deliberate. He hacks at me again, and again, and again. Hot blood splatters against my face as I fail to hold a closed-mouth shriek of pain back.

Each time I try to cast a spell I feel my mana collapse under the pressure of his. I can't focus on it anymore. My own blood fills my mouth as it splatters against my face again, and again, and again. Eventually, he begins to find old cuts again and part of me feels relief. Relief that he is finally getting closer to his goal. That he is closer to severing my arm and stopping the fucking torture. I can take pain. I can take pain. I can take fucking pain. I can I can I can I can.

I don't know how long it takes. But eventually, finally, The sword goes all the way through, and my arm falls to the broken, bloodied ice beside me. Tears and blood mix on my cheeks. I am not sobbing yet, and that is the victory I have right now. Now, I am not sobbing because I have only grown more furious. More determined to kill him. I hold the blood in my mouth. Waiting for a chance. He'd said something about the priest. During the pain, during the torture, that was all I could think about. Divine mages who lack the power to heal an arm. Either he was given divine magic like them or, more likely, he has a few nearby to heal him. That has to be it.

"Now. If you want me to tell Kallon to spare your brother, you will call off your dogs," he insists. "Or I will go to them directly, and kill them myself." I try to summon a spell, and my mana turns on me. The bracelet and rings are on my severed arm, doing nothing to protect me from my own body. I can feel the tumors drinking in the mana. I've also lost too much blood. I have to do something. I can't die here. I open my mouth as if to speak but no sound comes out. "What was that?" he asks. I do the same again. He crouches down next to me and leans in. "Come on now. Speak up, or they all die. And I will make it hurt. A thousand times more than I just hurt you. Now speak. Up."

As he gets just a little closer, I turn my head and cough in his face. My blood paints him before drawing a look of irritation. His mouth is half open, and he spits, confirming I managed my desperate plan. Now I just need him to touch me. And he does. He grips my face in his only hand. "You just killed your brother. Now. Call the rest off, or he won't be the last." I just close my eyes and wait. It's not long before he notices the change. The pain and twitching in his hand. "What did you do?" He snarls.

"Killed you, I fucking hope," I reply. He looks down at his twitching hand and... clenches his fist. The twitching stops. The priests are still healing him.

"Well. Not everyone's hopes come true. Looks like you will need a little more convincing," he sighs. I see the discoloration and bulging veins trying to return. It's not enough but... maybe it will be like with Baldwin. Maybe the next person to fight him can outpace his healing now that he's been poisoned. It's all I can manage. "I guess an arm wasn't enough," he laments. "Well. We'll just take a little at a time until you do as you are told, or die."

He picks his sword up and stands again. As I feel the steel cut into my right knee I can only think of everyone else. I'm sorry. I did all I could. I love you all. I love you, Mom. Ed. Henry. Gil, Leo....

The blade cuts.

Sarafyna.

The blade cuts

I love you.

The blade cuts.

I don't think I'm going to make it any further than this. I did what I could. I trust you all to finish what I started.

The blade cuts, and I finally let the sob escape.