Light rays cut like blades through the caverns as the lantern stone swung at Silvia’s hip. Riyu was half cast in shadows, and half lit by the lantern light as he turned back to check on Silvia.

“C’mon, why are you walking so slow”

“Are you seriously asking that? Weren’t you just chased into a river by a troll?”

“I wasn’t chased, you cut the bridge”

“It was just about to grab you”

“You could have shot it”

“I don’t need to explain myself to you. Look just take it slow, there can be dangerous things in these places”

“Yeah… Those kobolds… They really had me… Last ti-”

Silvia’s boots dug into the stone as she came to a sharp stop. The shine of her lantern stone reflected along the edges of her dagger as she tore it from its sheath. Her fingers wrapped tightly around Riyu’s right wrist, and her hips twisted in a sharp snap as she whipped Riyu off his feet and flat onto his back.

Her feet moved with the swiftness of a fox as she drove her hips down onto Riyu’s waist and drew the point of her dagger so it hovered above Riyu’s throat. Riyu’s hair fell softly upon the cold stone floor, and his eyes locked onto the tip of the blade.

“What are you doing you psycho!?” he said with a sneer.

“Give me your hand” she snapped back.

Riyu scoffed and offered his left hand, “Pfff… Fine, take it”

“The other hand”

“What?”

“I said, give me your other hand”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, what are you going to do, kill me if I don’t?”

THWACK

A spurt of blood shot across Yuta’s face as Silvia dropped the sharp edge of her elbow hard into Yuta’s nose. His head bounced off the stone, causing him to convulse in pain.

“Argh!” he screamed, “Arrrgh!”

THWACK

Her elbow landed hard into his forehead. Riyu tensed his neck muscles as tightly as he could to weaken the blow, and his head snapped back just short of the stone. In a panic he shot his arms towards Silvia’s face.

FWIP FWIP SLASH

Spiralling her fingers deftly around Riyu’s right wrist, and driving her knee up and onto Riyu’s neck to box off his other arm, she then sliced along the seams of Riyu’s sleeve.

The tattered remains of Riyu’s sleeve gently settled a couple of paces away as Silvia looked down at the arm with disgust. She took in a sharp breath and spun to her feet, darting back several steps before drawing her bow and arrow.

“What did you do!?” she screamed with her eye behind the tip of her arrow.

Yuta put up his hands and looked up at her with an animalistic glare. He rubbed his nose and glanced down at the splashes of blood pooling in his hand. He thought about saying something, but instead decided it would be more dignified to stand and uneasily made his way to his feet.

“How did you do it?” she continued

“Do what?” he said as he crept towards the ripped sleeve and bundled it in his hand.

“Is it illusion magic?”

Yuta dabbed the cloth against his nose and looked at the tip of the arrow pointed at him.

“No”

“What then?”

“If I tell you will you put the bow down”

“Depends on your answer”

“I was a slave for alchemists okay!? What do you think it is from!”

“So what, it is some potion?”

“Not exactly… It is called the king’s brandy. They make it for the royalty to make them stronger and more beautiful”

“Bullshit, I’ve never heard of a potion that could do such a thing”

“You really think they’d sell it in some market place!? Get real, why do you think they use slaves!”

“I don’t know, more profit in slaves”

“More profit in well kept secrets you mean”

“Why…” she whimpered

“Because it is easier to control others when you fit the image of their ideals!”

“I meant, why are you fucking following me!? Why did you disguise yourself? Why can’t you just be normal!”

“I’ll never be normal… I knew that since the day I was born here. Heck I even knew it when I was in the world before this one”

“Huh?”

“Pfff, why am I even telling you anything, you broke my fucking nose!” he replied as he turned his back on her.

“Hey! Answer me you loser”

“Loser? Ha, screw you, shoot me in the back if you have to, I’m going into the cave. I don’t need you… I don’t need anyone. I can save this world on my own”

Silvia looked on in shock as Yuta travelled deeper into the caverns and the reach of his light slipped away to leave only darkness. Her bow arm trembled violently as the muscles in her back began to cramp and strain. With a huff she let down the bow, and squeezed tightly on the grip until her knuckles were white.

“What the fuck… Seriously… What the fuck!? You are such an insane fucking asshole! I should have never partnered with you! You urged me to continue when we were surrounded by kobolds! You could have been a voice of reason, but instead I killed my team!”

A drop of sweat dripped down the side of her face, as the realisation dawned on her. That the tug of depression and fear gnawing at the back of her mind since Gimly, wasn’t guilt for leading her team mates to their death, but was the invisible hand of Yuta’s influence gripped around her throat.

With that final realisation her breath hushed, and silence flooded in around her.

“That fucking bitch, ugh, to think I was willing to kiss her” Yuta grumbled as he wandered through the winding caverns.

“Doesn’t she get it… She hates me for no reason. So what am I meant to do. Just take it? Not even fight back?”

Yuta’s boot splashed into a pool of water, sending ripples to its very edge as he stopped. A gentle golden glow cast its light upon his flesh. A hum of magic swirled in the air, and Yuta, enthralled by the sight before him, let slip the rag from his grip.

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His eyes shimmered with golden light as he stepped towards the grand cluster of crystals. He thrust his hand onto the crystal in the same way that a man might reach for water when dying of thirst.

“Holy shit!”

He grasped wildly in all different directions as if chasing a moving spirit within the crystal structure.

THWUMMM

The crystal let out a throbbing and deep tone as he finally caught the spiral of light in its path through the structure.

His hands glowed brightly as the magic within the cluster swelled in toward him.

“God stone!”

He lifted the tip of his chin and closed his eyes as the light trickled its way into his flesh, tracing out lines and flowing into his veins.

“Yes… Uhuhuh… Yes!” he garbled in ecstasy.

The magic climbed its way up his body and wrapped itself around every fibre of his being, the bright golden light, ebbing and flowing like a tide.

Listen

“Huh? Who said that?” Yuta replied as he snapped open his eyes.

Yuta searched around in a panic, half expecting someone to be standing beside him, leaning into his ear… Yet there was nobody.

“Who said that dammit! This is mine, I’ll kill you if you try to take it from me!”

Quiet

“Huh?” Yuta mumbled as he turned his head towards the crystal, “Whoa, are you some kind of spirit within the crystal?”

Close your eyes and let me show you what true happiness means

“Well, you haven’t been wrong so far!” he said with pluck as he repositioned his feet and stared at the crystal before slowly closing his eyes.

A wash of colours streamed past his gaze as his body felt as if it was being transported to another realm. The dark mark on his arm began to glow bright white amidst a realm of darkness. A flood of satisfaction filled him up to the brim, as magic settled deep into his bones and flushed through his body until the ecstasy washed away into a serene calm.

You bear his mark, why…

“Who’s mark?”

Oh Ladon… Aren’t you crafty

“The dragon?”

Giving your mark to an other worlder

“Wait, how do you know that?”

Tsk tsk tsk, always so clever, yet always so unbelievably desperate

“Hey, just what the hell are you talking about, tell me what is going on”

Quiet… Submerge within joy

Yuta’s shoulders slumped as all muscles in his body relaxed as magic swirled within him at blinding speeds, washing amidst and blasting through every barrier and insecurity he had ever felt, even deep down into the dark crevices of his soul.

Ah yes, I know what to do with this

SHHHK

Silvia’s boots skidded as she came to a halt.

“What the fuck is he doing?” she let out under her breath as she stared at the swirling mass of magic swirling around and through Yuta.

Kill her

“What? Why would I do that… She’s a bitch but I’m not a murderer”

Not a murder… A mission

“A mission? How?”

All who gain power, sacrifice others for what they can become

“Sacrifice?” he repeated as waves of pleasure flooded through his being

Kings, Dukes, Counts, Barons… All of them have trod this path before you

“...”

You know in your deepest soul, you cannot get there without it

“...”

Will you just keep waiting, as all those around you leave you behind

“...”

I guess it is just part of you then… Just as it was in your last life

To remain a slave

To reason

Yuta’s eyes opened, and he turned to face Silvia. He gazed at her drawn blade, and looked at her angered face.

“So, tell me why?” Yuta said with a smug tug of his lips

“Why what?” Silvia said with an involuntary tremble as her adrenaline still surged.

“Why you are sneaking up behind me with sword drawn”

“Because, I can’t let you drag me down anymore! Because no matter where I go, you are still following me, like some fucking parasite!”

“And so you want to squash me, is that it… Like a bug. A soulless, lifeless bug… Like the one that enslaved me and sent me to the tower”

“You act like you were the only one made a slave that day! Don’t you get it! I was made a slave that day too!”

“How?! Haha? Breathing fresh air, journeying however you want, and playing the heroine!?”

“No!”

“I mean, isn’t that your dream after all?”

“No! No no no!”

Silvia grit her teeth and stared at him as the lights weaved around him.

“Those lights, they are affecting you! Get away from them!” she yelled out with a sudden realisation.

“And accept that you are the heroine again… No… I don’t think so. You don’t have the stomach to understand what it means to become a hero. And I don’t mean a man in a cape…” he replied with a darkness beginning to fill the back of his eyes.

PLOINK

A drop of sweat dropped from Yuta’s brow into the shallow pool of water at his feet and crept its way towards Silvia, until it lapped at her feet.

“I said get away from it!”

“No!” “That isn’t what I need to do…” “I need to get away from you!”

He lifted his right arm, and stared into her eyes with an intoxicating malice that numbed him of all reason and forethought, and for a moment it was as if he was free of everything, free of the pain that always held him back.

*Is this what the voice meant?*

The dark mark on his arm lit up with an intense bright white light before tendrils of it crept around his arm like wild vines coiling their way up a branch.

Silvia’s eyes widened as a flash of energy shot from Yuta’s arm like a bolt of lightning. In a flash of instinct she dived for the passageway, only to be struck in the back as she lunged through the air. Her body became limp and thudded onto the cold and hard floor, skidding just out of view of Yuta and the god stone.

GRIP

Silvia felt a tug at her chest as the world was no more than muffled sounds and darkness. Her arms and legs flopped, as Yuta turned her over and nested himself over her.

“Sacrifices have to be made, I’m sorry, but this is for something better”

Silvia’s eyes rolled in her head as she fought her way to the surface of her consciousness. The broiling tendrils of pain, spreading their grip around her back as she made her way closer to the light of the real world.

A gentle breeze brushed against her skin from the entrance of the caverns, stirring something deep within her, and thrusting her from the darkness.

Yuta slid her dagger from her waist and gently placed it against her neck.

*Do I do it…*

*I mean, I’m not totally serious about this, I just wanted to see where this could go*

*Why don’t I feel bad about it?*

*I don’t think I need to do it… I think I already know what it meant*

*But maybe I should?*

THWACK

Yuta felt a solid thunk between his legs, as his crotch was propelled deep into his pubic bone, letting off sounds of gristle cracking under the pressure. His body convulsed and rolled into a ball, allowing Silvia to toss him to the side with a smack of her elbow, and then a drive of her knee.

She paused for a moment as she stood over him, considering if she could do something, but before she could think of anything she felt a surge of terror rush through her body. She jumped onto her toes and shot through the caverns, bouncing off the walls and driving her legs as fast as they could take her.

She shot out of the cavern into the green of the fields. She paused for a moment to look at the village and then turned to the left and ran north into the trees.

Yuta rocked back and forth on the cold stone, tears in his eyes.

“I wasn’t gonna… I wasn’t gonna… Doesn’t she get it”

You weren’t at fault, she wanted you to die

“She was confused… Wasn’t she… I can’t… I can’t be powerful like you… I’m not made for it”

Oh how quaint, you thought this was about you

“What?”

No no, it was about him

Yuta felt a chill at his back as he stood to his feet, turning his head over his shoulder, a grand shadow swooped across the walls of the cave. Winding and sweeping through the pillars and outcrops of rock, before manifesting as a shadow standing at the heart of the cavern, before the god stone.

“Argh! You weak little shit!” the booming voice threatened as it stomped closer, “You dare connect me to such vileness”

“No, no, I didn’t mean to… I just”

“Grrr… And you wonder why I curse you rather than grant you power”

“No, please, just stay away from me”

Silvia shot through the brush, uncaring to the scratches and scrapes now marking her face, arms and thighs. She heaved and panted as she pushed herself past her limits.

*I have to keep going… I have to keep pushing. I can’t quit, I can’t stop, I have to just keep moving!*