Ulric slid backward as his opponent's attack landed. His claymore rang with the peal of metal striking metal as the opponent's iron-encased fists slammed against it. This guy was dangerous and used a form of hand-to-hand combat that was difficult to counter with a bladed weapon.

The light was dim, but a few dozen torches lit the area enough to see that he had arrived in a large chamber. He was deep within the ruins beneath Ardua and had not expected to be attacked so soon. Still, he had expected the Order to come through eventually. The acolytes on the surface had been mere fodder against one as skilled as Ulric, but to find himself fighting with an Order lieutenant so suddenly in these depths had caught him off guard.

Fighting underground had its dangers. Pillars could be broken, and cave-ins were possible in most underground environments, but down here, some incredible force kept them mostly intact. In fact, a thick aura of Zight permeated the entire area. Its influence had waned over the centuries. After all, Ardua had once held a high concentration of energy that allowed Conductors to grow at an increased speed.

However, now the aura of energy only reached the outer layers of this ruin and barely flowed on the surface. Perhaps it was this force that kept the ruins intact for all these years. It was clearly the power source for the strange spell that affected everyone who entered this place.

Ulric had fallen victim to that strange spell or trap, or whatever it was. Visions of his past had flashed before his eyes, and it seemed that every failure in his life had come to the forefront of his mind in those instants. He had seen his days as a child growing up and had come to understand more about himself through those visions.

However, the main focus had been his failings. The death of Ashley was something that he still hadn't been able to move on from. He blamed himself for not seeing the treachery of Jason and Harold sooner. Certainly, he had gotten his revenge, but in the end, even they were only pawns in a greater scheme.

Cypher had been the target of his anger for a long time. When he had allowed the boy to retreat within that statue all those years ago, he had technically failed his mission. Ashley's death had been for nothing. At least, that was what he thought at first. After some time, though, he was able to come to terms with the fact that it had all been an unfortunate event that nobody could have foreseen or worked to avoid.

Cypher would have needed an escort sooner or later. The Order would have attacked the Academy to get at him sooner or later. In the end, more lives had been saved by being proactive and striking out when they did. The real enemy had always been the Order of Eternal Night.

Headmaster Sequinnen had seen the state that Ulric found himself in. With Ashley gone, it was as if a fire had been extinguished within him. Only his desire for true revenge still burned inside him. It smoldered in the ashes of his happiness and threatened to drive him mad with grief. It was then that Sequinnen had offered him a way forward.

Joining the Radiant Corps was an opportunity to redeem himself and perhaps find a way forward without the love of his life. It was a hollow existence without Ashley, but one that could still find purpose. If the Order were truly responsible for her death, then stopping them or throwing a wrench into any and all of their plans would be a victory in itself.

Ulric was all too happy to join the other Radiant Corps members' ranks and become a paladin. His Conduction level had stagnated over the years, but recently it had seen some improvements, and he was stronger than ever. He was one of the best Rank-Three Conductors in the entire organization, and now the time had come for him to reach higher in the chain of command.

That was what this whole endeavor to the ruin was about. It was a test of his will and fortitude, and obtaining the artifact was the last hurdle he had to face before becoming part of the Radiant Corps' inner circle. He wouldn't allow himself to fail in this. Achieving this would bring him one step closer to stopping the Order in his mind, and if he did that, he could properly avenge Ashley.

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Ashley.

Everything he had done over the last few years had all been about her. Every choice, every mission, every training session. All of it was to get closer to putting the Order down once and for all. Through all of that, he remained focused and strove toward that singular goal. It was that focus that allowed him to break free of the influence of the spell after he had entered the ruin.

Ulric had broken free of that influence just in time to avoid a deadly blow from the Order lieutenant. If the Order member had suffered the spell's effects as well, then he showed no signs of it. Perhaps it had to do with the convictions of those who aligned themselves with the Order.

Ulric couldn't tell, and quite frankly, he didn't care in the slightest.

Ulric had been alone when he entered after all, and while he couldn't know how long the spell had entranced him, he knew that some time had passed while his body lay unconscious on the floor. In any event, that had been enough time for the lieutenant to catch up to him and almost kill him.

He had raced through the many chambers and hallways fighting this man, and several times both had found themselves within reach of victory. However, they were seemingly equally matched, and Ulric's frustration grew in tandem with that of his opponent.

Right now, though, he was facing down this Order member in one of the final chambers, and his rage and grief could only blind him. Ashley's face burned in his mind as he battled with the lieutenant. Acolytes were small fry. They were failed Conductors, misguided fools following an ideal that they didn't fully understand. Killing them or stopping their petty acts was something that didn't really serve to achieve his goals.

But defeating a lieutenant, now that was something that could truly bring him closer to avenging Ashley. Lieutenants in the Order were some of the most powerful members and were hard to replace. Killing them really did large damage to the structure of their organization.

Beyond that, he didn't care about much else. Even his allegiances to the Radiant Corps were nothing compared to his overall goal.

This bastard would die down here, and he would lay claim to the artifact. In his mind, there was no other way this could go down. In fact, the artifact itself was only a few chambers away at this point. He could feel the power irradiated from here as he deflected the incoming blows from the Order lieutenant.

The man was fast. Much faster than he had first expected. His fighting style seemed a direct counter to Ulric's own. A claymore was a long, two-handed weapon. Ulric could certainly use it with one hand, but it was designed to have a longer reach than normal swords, as well as a heavier downward strike.

However, this man used Iron Knuckles. They were heavy, but that weight was nothing for a fellow Rank-Three Conductor. With a body in the third rank, such a weapon was like fighting barehanded. His strikes were well-timed and always aimed to throw Ulric off balance. However, Ulric was quite skilled and always recovered before his opponent could land a decisive follow-up attack. The two were locked in a bout of constant attacks and counter-attacks.

Neither could gain the upper hand, and even their spells could not shift the balance of this fight. Both of them knew that the other wouldn't let up, and so the battle quickly devolved into a melee brawl.

The lieutenant had a slight advantage, though. The Iron Knuckles could open and grab Ulric's weapon without endangering the hands of the Order member. The lieutenant didn't even need to use both hands for that. Thus, Ulric was always wary of his weapon being grabbed and wrenched outwards, exposing his body to an attack.

Each blow the two landed shook the entire ruin and caused vibrations to ripple through the stones around them. The sound was deafening as the clangs rang out, and their feet moved across the stone floor. It didn't help that it was dimly lit in here either. Both of them could see pretty well thanks to their body's level, but every so often, their weapons would catch the light of the torches just so that a glint of light would momentarily blind the other.

Ulric struggled the most with this. His sword was an extension of his arm, and he was well-versed in its use. However, the Iron Knuckles were directly part of the body of the Order member. He didn't need to adjust his grip or switch to an offhanded stance. He could fight freely and was quite skilled in martial arts.

The lieutenant dropped low and let forth a sweeping motion with his leg. Ulric jumped up and over it and returned an attack of his own, a downward strike. The lieutenant jumped aside and dodged the strike and returned one of his own, a backhanded strike that Ulric blocked with his Claymore's pommel.

They exchanged a few more attacks like this before they leapt apart and stared each other down. Neither could underestimate the other. The aura of the artifact radiated through them, and Ulric did not doubt that the lieutenant was eager to get his hands on it as well. If Ulric fell here, a powerful item would fall into the hands of the Order, and that simple thought disgusted him and drove him mad with rage.

He wouldn't allow them to gain anything if he could help it, let alone something so powerful. With a roar of determination, Ulric dashed forward and attacked once more.