Cadmus walks out the front door of the tavern as she meets Nerys walking back from Helen, the blacksmith. She greets Cadmus in her new set of armor. She has a gray breastplate with fine white engravings, leg and shin plates that are equipped separately for ease of movement. Also black gloves with bracers, she surprisingly does not make much noise in her heavy-looking armor.

"Nice armor, Nerys, just what kind of metal is this? Looks hefty." He inspects her bracers.

"It's really not that heavy at all, but quite protective according to Helen, apparently it's "local specialty" it is melted from a rare ore found in the nearby mine. It was pretty expensive so i hope it is as good as they say..."

"Hmm... sounds like Glass Steel, it is in fact quite powerful in physical combat, but the reason why it never got quite popular is because it does not absorb the Arts, just spreads it which in turn usually empowers it... but in your place it should be the perfect armor." Cadmus grins as he realizes the brilliance of her choice even so if she is not aware of it.

Yet she nervously chuckles and rubs the back of her head. "Yeah, i did hear Helen say something like that, but i was still unsure... it looked mobile yet heavy so i thought i would choose it."

"Hmph, of course!" Cadmus laughs and they both share a smile. But their interaction gets abruptly cut off by several ravens cawing above their heads, flying towards a forest nearby. Nerys looks troubled as she turns towards Cadmus who seems to know what the ravens are flying towards. Knowing they usually mean something to him, he takes a few seconds to see if they are his brother's, or just wild ravens.

"Hey Cadmus... is that not where we saw the spiral appear last night? Does this mean-"

"Yes, whatever it is, it is here now. Come on, let's get ready!"

Nerys looks around in a moment of shock, all the people around them going about their days. She sees them all fleeing in terror for a second. She has a vision of Pakkaheim covered in black flames. All of those thoughts feeding her with dark power. She takes a deep breath and runs to Daisy. Cadmus shortly follows after, a pair of townsfolk look at them respectfully.

"Seems like they are on a hunt again!" They both smile as they make their comment, not knowing what awaits them.

They get up on their horses, Cadmus rides away with Nerys behind him in a quick manner.

"What is it Cadmus?!" She yells forward as they gallop through the wide roads of the country, while snow covers their surroundings as it falls down around the kingdom.

"It's Uthleg! Those were his ravens signalling grave danger!" Nerys thinks to herself, Uthleg is the hunter who she met in the forest, he seemed to go towards Pakkaheim, but why would he still be around here? Judging from their previous conversations with Cadmus he should have moved around and tried to find out what is happening with the beasts, and since most of the monsters around are still alive and their ecosystem didn't suffer at all. Where was Uthleg before?

"We know that the spiral takes a good few hours to get to it's full potential and destroy pretty much everything it can without a trace. We have some time to check up on him before that! He will be helpful in the long run!" Cadmus tries to say reassuring things, but knows well when those ravens caw, Uthleg is crying out for assistance.

As they ride they slow down as they notice the skies above them growing darker and darker. In a different direction a spiral starts forming in the sky, away from the forest they are headed to. Nerys stops and looks at Cadmus. He looks back at her and looks at the spiral. "It will take the whole day for it to form if we are lucky, we do not have to deal with it right now! We have to get to Uthleg!"

Nerys keeps looking at him and she realizes the strange feeling she has been having since the time she starved for darkness. Cadmus's darkness is not in a static form, it is ever changing shapes and colors and pulls him towards different directions. It is probably why they can only use The Arts in certain ways. But she knows there is a deeper meaning to it. She turns towards the spiral and goes towards it with her horse. Cadmus grunts and takes a sigh, he proceeds to go towards Uthleg.

Nerys starts closing in on the dark spiral, she feels the pull yet again, but now it fills her, she knows what it is, it is only darkness that she can devour. There must be something more to it, but she cannot figure out just yet, not until she gets to it.

Cadmus enters the forest and gets off Daisy close to a clearing where the ravens all settled around. He sees Uthleg resting beside a tree stomp. "Uthleg! Are you all right?" He yells.

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"Cadmus! Oh Cadmus finally! Someone saw my ravens after all..." Cadmus feels that something is not quite right. He has his sword in his right hand, he keeps looking around to see if there is a trap of some sort, but he fails to see anything out of the ordinary. Uthleg slowly tries to stand up with a wound across his abdomen. Cadmus goes to help him up instead of looking around.

"We need to get to the city Cadmus, i discovered something... something i need to tell you." Cadmus still looks around half-hazardly as he listens to Uthleg and slowly walk towards Daisy.

"What happened to you brother?!"

"I will tell you, but we need to move quickly."

Nerys slowly arrives at the spiral, but it is not above a city, a town, or any sort of settlement. But above a lonesome man standing on a huge clearing. A strong wind starts blowing her hair as she slows down, she draws her sword and approaches the man keeping quite a bit of distance between them. Her thirst for darkness surfaces, but not as strong as earlier, she sees the man having a huge burden with him as he turns around. He looks oddly familiar, he starts to walk cautiously towards Nerys and as he gets closer her jaw drops.

"Nerys... is that you girl? Finally a familiar face!" He slowly closes the distance and reveals himself completely to Nerys.

"What are you doing here... Zillion, is that really you?"

"My, my you have changed so much, but you still have that charming beauty! I was going away from the castle to the countryside for a while, and then the army came and took over Svirdson in the matter of days. I wanted to go back to search for you, and so i did. But the horrors i saw Nerys... i am so glad you are alive!" He gets an arm reach close to her and tries to hug her. She takes a step back as a tear drops on the floor. Her cold steel sword pushes against his neck. He notices the tear is black as the night.

Against all his worries Cadmus gets to Daisy and tries to help Uthleg up when he feels a cold blade against his neck.

"I'm sorry Cadmus, it's a precaution, i really don't want to fight you, i know i would lose."

"What are you doing Uthleg?! Have you lost your mind?!" Uthleg applies pressure on his neck with the blade silencing him.

"Didn't you notice yet? I have no reason to hide anymore, all of my sadness... despair... and anger is gone. I am finally myself, Cadmus!"

"What??" Cadmus looks confused as he looks under his brother. His shadow is gone.

"Once a hunter's shadow disappears, his true purpose is ready to be fulfilled."

"Uthleg, that is just a foolish prophecy written by old folk who wanted their sons and grandsons to worship them! Have you truly forgot our true purpose to hunt?!"

"No Cadmus, i just realized my true purpose to shield."

Suddenly a hand covers Cadmus's face and after a warm growth he drops on his knees and his eyes turn all white.

"Shield me, Cadmus!" He raises his head to see Ronan with a fire in his eyes.

Nerys conjures fire in her left hand. "You are not Zillion."

"W-What do you mean Nerys? Don't play around! Let's go somewhere and sit down, have a talk, there is so much we need to talk about!"

"Zillion was always a man of action, not words. On our first lesson he taught me something really important though, and i would never forget that. Never closely confront an old friend who looks ready to stab you in the back."

"I'm sorry your lady, but we simply have not met in so long, look at me, can't you tell it's me?"

"If you really are Zillion. Duel me!"

He looks surprised as the girl challenges her. He chuckles and draws his sword from his waist and takes a step back.

"Then let us fight, Nerys. If that is your wish."

And with that they start swinging their swords at each other. He parries her moves, while she dodges his counters. She is quicker with her feet and is more reserved and well paced. Zillion has a hard time finding an opening. When suddenly she loses her balance for a quick second. He goes to stab her through her chest when his sword flies away. She kicked his sword out of his hand as she quickly got on her other leg, faking her fall. She stabs him through his guts as blood drips down from her sword under his feet.

He looks down in horror as he sees her sword's runes glow. She notices the darkness leaving from him and entering her. She feels cold and heartless when she realizes it is truly her old friend, blinded by the shadows of his mind. He closes his eyes as he coughs up some blood. He looks up at her and puts his arm on her shoulders.

"I am glad you became such a fine warrior, guess i did taught you well. I am so sorry that this have to have happened, that man you are with. Do not trust him. Their true purpose..."

Zillion speaks slow after he is exhausted from the quick fight. He loses a lot of blood as Nerys supports his body.

"What true purpose, Zillion?"

"Their true purpose... is the Dragon of Destruction!"

Black tears flow down her face as a dark aura appears around her. His body becomes weak and cold. She lowers him to the ground and pulls her sword out as anger builds inside her. She takes a deep breath and seemingly all the darkness around her is gone. One last teardrop lands on his face as she straightens up. The spiral above her grows even more completely covering the bright morning sky with dark clouds.

A man approaches him, appearing out of thin air. He looks like he is steaming and a sizzling sound can be heard from his direction.

"Wooh hoh, you really are a feisty one, i can feel your rage from all the way over here!" Nerys starts walking towards him eagerly, gripping her sword.

"Not wasting any time huh?" The man puts up his hands as a stream of water shoots towards her.

She puts her sword up as the water completely disappears.

"Hm, seems like your friend is a pretty smart one isn't he? So be it." He summons a pickaxe with a chain attached to the end of it, the chain's other end wraps endlessly around the man's hand.

"Let's get to it."