I’m wading through a watery black marsh. I don’t know how long I have, but a sense of heavy weariness had washed over me a long time ago.

   I can see only a few feet in front of me, and anything that goes under the water seems to disappear completely. The sopping ground beneath my feet seems to cling to me with every step I take. Every step, I sink deeper.. But soon I realize that it isn’t mud I’m wading through, but is instead a sea of hands slowly dragging me deeper. I can feel them wrapping around my ankles and tugging at my armor. The water has gone past my chest now, and licks my jaw with every passing wave.

  The hands are crawling up now, tugging at my waist. The water is nearly at my mouth. I tilt my head up for one last breath as the hands reach my shoulders and pull me down the final stretch. Now submerged completely, I can see down to the hands and at the bodies with which they belong. They are dark beings that are hardly discernible to the darkness that surrounds them, and it’s their red glowing eyes that are the most apparent. They hold me in contempt, those red eyes. They hate me. They’ve pulled me down so that I am beneath them. They swim to the surface, leaving me to sink to the depths alone. I can see them tread water far above, the current they make only pushing me further down. They disappear from view soon after, as the light escapes the world around me.

   I hear a pulse. The sound of a heartbeat echoes all around me. I don’t know how long I had been drifting, but the pulse awakens me. I can feel a pressure converging on me as the fluid I sink through is compressed and decompressed. It’s then that I realize my eyes are closed. I struggle to open them, and when I do I notice a large, veiny structure encapsulating me. It’s what’s compressing this liquid.

  I’m inside the beating heart, that which sustains myself, and this metaphorical entity. I swim my way towards the veiny wall, and realize it can be easily penetrated. I reach my arm through it, and find that there is something beyond to grab onto. With all my might, I grasp it to pull myself through. But halfway through, something grabs ahold of my leg. I try to shake it free, but it only holds on tighter. I’m slowly losing my grip on that which I’ve latched myself to. It’s pulling me back— back somewhere I don’t want to be. With all the force I can muster, I kick at the entity that holds my leg. I kick it over, and over, and over, until finally it lets go. I quickly pull myself the rest of the way through before it can grab me again.

   I’m now on dry land. But I once again can’t see anything.

   “You dare enter my subconscious as I am in the process of eliminating yours?” a voice reverberates. It’s Nora’s voice.

   “I’m here to save you,” I try to say, but my voice travels no further than the back of my throat.

   “I won’t allow you to speak as you please in here,” I hear. “I laugh at your foolishness. You allow yourself to sink into the depths of despair, then only begin to crawl your way out when you can plainly see the light.”

   “What do you mean?!” I again attempt, but it carries nowhere.

   “I am the master here. I will watch your mind crumble while you stumble aimlessly through the darkness.”

   “That’s not what you want. I know it isn’t.”

   I can’t hear myself say this, but the lengthy pause makes me feel like she can.

   “I made it this far. What can I do to—“ My voice comes through on the last few syllables. I can see again, as well. But all that is around me is a mass of ever-changing violet mist.

   “You really have come far,” says a voice. It is Nora, but not the Nora I’ve been hearing up until now. It’s the voice of her younger self, the same one I met over half a year ago. I would recognize that voice anywhere.

   The murky mist in front of me begins to swirl, and out walks a very small Nora, one devoid of her eye who wears tattered cloth. The mist parts for just a moment as she passes through it before slowly coming back together.

   “Once again, I’m in hiding. This time... inside my own mind. This time... hiding from myself.” Like tears, a trail of blood leaves the socket where her eye should be.

   “Let me help. I can’t let you fall into their hands. I won’t.”

   “Do you know how long it’s been since my mind was corrupted?” She takes a moment as if to look to a distance that I can’t see. “Since Mephistopheles—or maybe it was Gorgon that embedded it in me all that time ago. And they made sure I knew. They made it painfully aware that at any point, I could suddenly be replaced by an entity that wants only to hurt you. The person I was... Gone in an instant. I knew it would happen, and I reserved myself to that... but I never knew when. So I did the best I could with what I was given— to ease the pain for when that time came. I tried to distance myself from you. But... that alone hurt more than even the thought of ceasing to exist.”

   I have nothing to say. The adult thing to do is to keep my mouth shut. Or maybe it’s the immature thing to do. But regardless, no words come to me.

   “When someone’s mind is lost, there is no recovering it,” she says. “The entity that now inhabits my body is scouring every crevice of my brain to find me— the last remnant of myself that still exists. It is only a matter of time until I am found.”

   “That can’t be true—! There has to be—“

   “—So before it does, there is one thing I would like to ask of you.” She leans in close and tenderly lays her tiny hands on my cheeks. “I can’t be saved so easily... but I can be stopped. I can lead you to the invading entity’s core. Destroy it, and you destroy what is controlling me.”

   “If that’s the case... Then you can take back control of your body, right?”

   “If my whole conscious still existed, then yes.” Young Nora takes her hands away, and looks down with sadness in her eye. “But as I mentioned, I’m only a fragment. I’m not enough to reinstate my— her memories, in full. This mean she likely won’t remember very much at all. However... The alternative is much, much worse.”

   “Why... Why didn't you just tell me?”

   “They might have triggered the collapse even sooner,” she replies. “It was all for just a little more time...”

   “And why’d you say that you had things you wanted to talk about? That we’d have the opportunity to later?”

   “Those things are what I am telling you now,” she says. “Well... There may be more, but given the circumstance...”

   “...I understand. What do I need to do to free your body?”

   “Know that can only give you a chance. But first, I need you to answer me this.”

   “What is it?”

   “As you may know, the corruption spread through my mind by grasping onto a constant negative thought. What was this thought? You cannot hope to save my body if you don’t know it.”

   What was the thought? How am I supposed to answer that? Is she asking because she really doesn’t know? Wait... she did say she’s only a fragment of Nora’s consciousness. But how does she know about all this, anyways? A-And what the hell kinda negative thought would cause her to get possessed by a mind-sucking parasite?

   “My time is running short. It draws near,” she says.

   “J-Just hold on—!” I say. “Um... thoughts... bad thoughts... negative...”

   But then suddenly I start to feel things click together in my head. Like it was so obvious that I completely overlooked it, how it goes back further than even the events at Velaruux’s tomb. I’ve noticed it before, but to think it went any deeper than what was seen at surface level...

   “You resent always being labeled nothing more than a sidekick,” I say. “That has to be it.”

   She remains silent for a moment. “I’m not sure what you mean. Please elaborate.”

   “Of course. It couldn’t be any clearer, if only I knew where to look when I noticed it,” I say. “Nora, for the six months I’ve known you, you’ve grown at an incomprehensible level. Faster than any normal person could ever grow. You’re basically on my level of combat, even though most of my strength comes from a power I didn’t earn. I knew from the moment you started crawling from that shell of yours, you’d come to have pride to rival the devil— and that’s why I know now just how much those remarks hurt you. To not be seen as an equal, to be pushed into the background like some kinda side character. I saw it at the Admiral’s, I saw it last night, and even just earlier today. That’s why it has to be it. The only thing that can dampen the soul of someone who’s been secretly—“

   “I don’t think you have all the information,” she says. “What comes to mind when you think of a sidekick?”

   “A lot that doesn’t apply to you,” I mutter. “Wait, are you saying you already know—?!”

   “When I think of a sidekick, all that comes to mind is their weakness. How they’re always the ones in need of saving,” she replies. “I didn’t want to be seen as someone who needs protecting— I wanted to be seen as the one who did the protecting. Protecting you. Saving you. Of course... I only lived up to the sidekick’s stereotype, and as a result— I will perish.”

   “Not if I can help it,” I say. “Show me the core. Take me to it.”

   “Didn’t I tell you that at best you can save only my body, not—“

   “Yeah— I’m not gonna buy into that shit right now,” I say. “If you want to reserve yourself to this, to bend a knee to the bullshit called fate, then that’s one thing. But I know you don’t want that. You want to live, just like me. So no, I don’t intend to settle with anything less than a complete victory, one where you and I save those girls together and walk out a pair of heroes. Call me crazy, or maybe just cheesy, but if I’ve learned anything from this world, it’s that nothing’s out of reach if you’ve got the will to do something about it.”

   “...I understand. Then, here.” She reaches out her hand and suddenly something small, maybe the size of a grape, appears in her palm. Looking closer, I realize it’s a little purple gem of some sort. “Maybe you can make use of this.”

   I accept it from her and begin to examine it on my own. “—Hey, what is this?” I ask.

   “A shard. A piece of myself. But perhaps not. Perhaps it is a part of you, not me.”

   “This shard... You don’t mean—“ But as I turn, I realize she’s no longer there. Slowly, the fog around me lifts, expanding on the vast cavern I now find myself in.

   Everything around me is soaking, moist, and anywhere in between. The boundaries far around me seem to convulse and pulsate of their own accord like a wall of living, breathing entity. And looking down to the far end, I see this mass of veiny flesh suspended by what looks like giant arteries that hold out their spindly fingers to pump blood through it. To better visualize it, just think of it as a giant tumor. But if I’m inside Nora’s mind, then obviously it’s not really a tumor. It must be how Nora perceives the thing wreaking havoc in her head. I’d better destroy it before it finds Nora’s remnant... wherever it’s gone off to.

   But before I can do anything, before I can even take a step, I feel a chill go down my spine. Slowly, I turn my head. It sits upside down, dangling from the ceiling with insect-like appendages, a long, nightmarish black slug creature with Nora’s eyeless face protruding from it. It chatters slowly, the head shaking and jolting from side to side. It’s eerily close, like no more than four feet from my eyes. Despite it not having eyes itself, it seems like it’s staring me through. At first, I’m too shocked to move. But when I finally do, all that I can muster is a few words.

   “A-Ah. So it’s you, huh...?”

   With one final snap of the neck, the beast’s jaw comes completely unhinged as it bellows a bloodcurdling howl. While it lunges for me, the lower half of its face bobs around like a ball on loose string. I try to reach for Kenkui, but I realize I don’t actually have it. So now I’m being attacked by a beast that makes my paralysis demon look like a teddy bear without anything to defend myself, much less to fight back with. I resort to hastily dodging with everything I’ve got.

   Granted, I’m not totally without a plan. While dodging, I’ve also been making sure that I’m steadily moving towards the flesh wad at the far end of the cavern. It’s far away, but at this point any progress is worth it. I made some pretty bold claims to Nora’s remnant, and the only way I can hope to back them up is by doing the right thing— and hope that what I’m doing is the right thing. Because I honestly don’t know what’ll work.

   “Yeah yeah, right this way you freak,” I mutter under my breath.

   This makes the beast shift. It looks over to the pulsating mass, and I realize it’s not as brainless as I thought. It suddenly changes its attack, swinging around so I can no longer dodge backwards towards the mass. I curse my big mouth and scramble to think of a new plan. I’m able to now dodge in a way that doesn’t make me lose progress, but getting any closer seems like it won’t work. If I book it, I might be able to at least make it most of the way there, but even if I got to it, I’d have no way of destroying the thing. I can’t fight, and I have no way of fleeing. This isn’t good. I’m already exhausted, but the monster with Nora’s face isn’t batting an eye to it. With Nora’s face... With... Nora’s... Face... Why would it have Nora’s face if it’s something someone planted in her...? If this is how Nora perceives the threat, why would it have her own face on it...?

   I know I’m making a lot of assumptions here, but what if this monster isn’t what was implanted in the first place? Could this be... an apparition of her distorted thoughts...? And remembering what Nora’s remnant told me, am I’m supposed to believe that knowing the trigger is the key to saving her?

   Aw, shit. Fine. Let’s take a gamble. Gotta slow down. Maintain calm breathing. This isn’t just some beast. It’s Nora. I’m partially responsible for this. Now I’ll make it right. So get calm. Stick my hand out. I’m not looking for a fight. She’ll recognize that. She has to.

   Well, she doesn’t really. So now I’m forced to recklessly bypass a safe dodge in order to make a beeline for the core. Before this, I had really no idea what she had been attacking with. She just seemed to mash herself towards me, and I dodged. But as I’m grazed on the shoulder by it while making my escape, I realize just how screwed I’d have been had it really hit. Six inch long barbs stick out from my shoulder like porcupine quills, bypassing my metal pauldron like it wasn’t even there. I can immediately feel them digging further in as I move. I struggle to pull them out one at a time, as some are lodged deep within the bone of my shoulder and each one brings with it a lot of blood. I continue to yank them as I run, with the beast getting closer with each step.

   “Listen now, Nora!” I yell. I’ve made it to where I need to be. I dig my heels into the ground and spin abruptly towards it. It hesitates for a second, but its momentum carries it straight into me. I brace as a dozen or so more giant barbs pierce by abdomen. I instinctively clench my teeth, but manage to hold my resolve. I back a step away from it, but I also make it clear I’m not going to move any further. In exchange, it doesn’t move, either. We stand there, looking each other through. “You must hurt,” I say. “You just wanted to be seen as someone who could protect the things she cares about. But no one gave you the time of day... Not even me. I can only apologize for how it ended up.”

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   It retches and screams, but something is holding it back from attacking. The gamble might just pay off yet.

   “There isn’t much I can do for you now,” I mutter. “But I promise I’ll do what I can from the outside. All you need to do is put yourself back together from here. Can you do this for me...?”

   I’m suddenly slammed again by its head, another set of barbs piercing the whole right side of my body.

   “Yeah... figures it wouldn’t be that easy,” I grimace, propelling myself backwards. But I don’t need her to understand me right now. What’s important is...

   ‘Mana which surrounds me, fills my being and quantifies my soul, I ask that you inhabit my weapon so that I may save that which I hold dear. Mana which has absolute control over everything— All I can do is ask. If no other weapons present themselves, then let it be my fist alone that penetrates the beating heart of malevolence. Take my skin, take my flesh. Burn it all away if it means securing a future for the one I’d give my life to save.’

   My hand ignites in a burning blue flame. It hurts as much as you’d expect being on fire would. I feel my skin bubble and scar under my gloves. But I swallow this pain and take the last few lunging steps towards the pulsating flesh. The beast clambers after me, roaring and wailing, but it is too far behind to prevent anything from happening. With a scream of pure intent, I drive my fist with all my remaining strength straight through the fleshy outer wall of the core. The burning intensifies, and I realize the core is trying to reject me all while I’m turning it to ash from the inside. The beast catches up with me, and I feel it slam against me over and over. The first few barbs have already dug straight through my body and are now visible from the other side. My whole body might as well be on fire. My blood is everywhere. The core is pulsating uncontrollably now, and puffs of blue fire escape with every movement it makes. The beast sails as if in agony, and slams even harder against me. My eyes are losing focus. I’m running out of mana. But the fire only burns brighter.

  My voice straining, I give one last yell as I push through it the absolute last bit of energy I hold. A piece of the core goes flying, a large chunk broken off the main body. Then another. A sound like ice breaking erupts from the core and I’m blown backwards by a sheer white light. The beast takes one last swipe at me as it disappears from my vision, its screams fading into an endless silence.

   The darkness I’m left in is overbearing. I can feel my legs, my arms— just about everything. I don’t hurt in many places, either. Just my hand. A searing pain in my hand, bordering on a complete numbness. It seems my body can’t make heads or tails of how much it hurts, so it can’t be sure it’s even hurting at all. My eyes are sore, as well. My... eyes... My eyes...? Realizing my eyes are closed, I suddenly jolt upright and force my eyelids to open.

   At first, everything’s totally blurry.

   “C-Cyrus Avette—?”

   That voice... It’s Reuben Khol. And he sounds very... very—

   “—T-Too close—!!” I exclaim on instinct, accidentally jolting forward and head butting him. He sails backwards, holding his forehead.

   “Ow—! Go to hell! Go to hell!” he hollers, rolling around on the floor.

   As my mind clears, I’m able to calm down and grab ahold of the situation.

   “...You better not have kissed me,” I mutter.

   Without warning, I get a solid boot to the cheek as Reuben retaliates.

   “Go to hell! You stopped breathing! Revival! Revival! I didn’t have a ch—!”

   “You mean you actually did, you little shit?!”

   “I want more thanks! I saved your life! Thank me! Worship me as your savior!”

   “I can’t believe—! ...No, I’m not doing that,” I mutter.

   Reuben sits back down. Silence returns to the room.

   “Your hand caught fire, too,” he says. “I put it out, but... it looks pretty bad.”

   “Don’t worry about me, that hand's broken, anyways. What’s more important is...” I look over to where Nora late, still unconscious. I look back to Reuben. “So, before... you pushed Nora out of the way of the rat-thing’s attack. I guess I should... say thanks for that, at least...”

   “Sh-She was just being stupid. A stupid girl,” he mutters, turning away slightly. “O-Oh, but I wanted to ask... What’s happening? What happened?”

   “Well... I’d like to think that she’ll be alright now,” I say. “But honestly, something’s telling me that it’s totally out of my hands. She’s locked in battle inside her own mind, and it’s all up to her now.”

   “Ehh? Doesn’t sound like that makes much sense,” he remarks, idly digging a finger in his ear.

   “...It just means it’s time we finished the job we came here to do,” I sigh.

   Reuben grins. “That’s what I want to hear.”

   “Hold on... Except, you weren’t sent at all. Why the hell are you still here?!” I say.

   “...Cuz... Well, the princess is... maybe someone I care about... too, kinda...” He spins back around. “I sent the other two upstairs because I knew only you could save her, okay?!”

   “What are you... talking about...?”

   “All that’s upstairs are the rest of the guards. A whole lot of them! Really strong, too! But that’s just a trap set by my father. He’s really down here with Baldy!”

   “You... You just sent them—“ But I stop myself. I remember back to when I fought Reuben earlier. “...So then you mean to tell me... that our fight was just so see whether I’d actually be strong enough to save the princess?”

   “Of course! Not anyone can break my bowstring like you did!” he exclaims.

   “Speaking of which... How’d you fire an arrow back then when your bow wasn’t even strung?”

   Reuben smirks. “Well— while you were having your fun in the dungeon, I was fashioning a brand new string out of the rope you tied me up in! See?!” He holds up a perfectly strung bow. “And as for the arrow... I don’t need one! That’s the power of my magic. I can make as many as I need!”

   “Huh. Well that settles that,” I mutter. “But how’d you figure I’d be right to save the princess just by cutting your string?”

   Reuben quickly scoots himself closer to me on the floor and leans my way. “...Here’s a little bit of info you might find useful. Baldy’s a master of spatial magic. To beat him, you’ll have to put yourself in his mind. You’ll have to think like he thinks, and act before he even can. If you don’t... You’ll be dead! Dead, dead, dead!”

   “Spatial magic, huh? Makes sense, I guess.” I slowly move a hand to push Reuben away slightly. “He managed to capture so many girls without a single trace. He’d have to be good at that stuff.”

   “Exactly!”

   I put a hand to my knee to push myself to my feet. I slowly reach down and pick Nora up into my arms, carrying her away from the rubble. I then softly lay her back down, promising her in my head that I’ll be back as soon as I’m done. I then motion over to Reuben, who excitedly hurries to my side.

   “Let’s kill this fucker,” I say.

   Soon past the only other gate, we reach a long dark corridor lined with row after row of cell doors. It’s dead quiet. We scan the first few cells, but they’re mostly empty, save a few strewn bones here and there.

   “They’re all up a few more,” Reuben whispers.

   I nod.

   As he said, once passing the fourth or fifth row of cells, we find dozens of them, each four or five to a cell. They lay silent in the dark, completely naked with what was once their clothes lying in tatters below them. Most of them don’t even realize we’re there. Some of them are so beaten up, scratched, and even burned, that I can’t be sure they’re still alive. The sight causes tears to well up my eyes, but more than anything else, my jaw is sore from how hard my teeth are clenched.

   “He’ll die for this,” I mutter. “He’ll die. I’m gonna kill him.”

   Something frail grabs ahold of my cape. I stop, turning slowly around.

   “Don’t... Don’t go...”

   A girl, who can’t be older than seventeen, lays with her head against a limp arm with the other loosely pushed through the cell bars, that which just barely grips my cape. She’s barely clinging onto life, with such little muscle that I can see her ribs and spine through her back. Her legs are at odd angles, obviously broken in multiple places.

   I turn my body towards her and slowly lower myself to my knees. She retreats her arm slightly when I reach for it, but relaxes a bit when I cup her hand softly in my own.

   “Stay strong,” I whisper. “Please... hold on for just a little longer. I’m here to save you.”

   A weak smile creeps onto her thin face, and she slowly draws her hand back into the cell.

   The sound of footsteps creep up from ahead in the hall. I spring to my feet, and Reuben quickly lets an arrow fly. From the shadows, holding the arrow suspended midair, is Elstaire of the Six.

   “So the girl isn’t with you. Apparently you had more spine than I gave you credit for,” he says. “To cut down one which you thought was your dearest companion...”

   “Lemme right one little inaccuracy you said there,” I say. There is a little black blob in my hand. I throw it at his feet. “Caldevarian slugs, right? Found that thing trying to leave her ear right after I rescued her. Hear that? I saved her. She’s alive, and now you’ve got no hold over me.”

   Elstaire picks the black blob off the floor and examines it.

   “Strange. I hadn’t thought it possible,” he mutters. “Perhaps it simply didn’t have a strong enough hold over her subconscious, is all. Or perhaps... the object of interest was...”

   “Yeah, you said something about that. What is it Nora has that you’d do all this to get?”

   “A stone,” he replies. “I will have to extract it myself once I immobilize you.”

   “A stone? You’ll have to be more specific,” I say.

   “Even I don’t know. Only the All-Master knows,” he replies. “Now... bend to my power.”

   “You can’t kill me. But I can easily kill you,” I say. “You must really hate Scourge right about now.”

   “Well, the All-Master is sure to have my head for not bringing the girl alive,” he says without giving much vocal indication of that being a problem. “But bringing you to him will please him just as much.”

   “Elstaire, you useless dolt!”

   From the shadows now comes a second figure.

   “Ah, Wyrmton. Have you met our guests?” says Elstaire.

   “Guests? I can’t believe you’ve—“ Wyrmton stops mid-sentence as he sees us standing there.

   I give kind of a weak taunting hand-waving motion.

   “W-Well kill them already! How have they made it this far?!” Wyrmton shouts. “And... Reuben?! You useless brat, what have you done?!“

   “The original plan has failed. I will now bring this entire castle down on top of you all,” says Elstaire.

   “Elstaire! This is foolish! Your services belong to m—!”

   Another arrow is let loose, which passes through the gap between Wyrmton’s teeth and clearly comes out the other side, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly. He collapses to the ground, blood pooling in his gaping mouth.

   “So long, Father,” Reuben hisses, spitting in the corpse’s direction.

   I use this opening in Elstaire’s attention to launch head-first towards him with an enhancement enabled.

   “Foolish.”

   As if I missed entirely, Elstaire appears just inches out of Kenkui’s range.

   “For the sake of these girls, for the sake of the princess, and for the sake of Nora, I’m going to kill you right here. Right now,” I say. “Use whatever magic tricks you want. But I will kill you, just the same.”

   “Then show me, he who calls himself Cyrus Avette,” he says. Rubble begins to float around him, and his body glows a crimson red. “I am Elstaire of the Six, master of all spatial magic. I will humor you for the time being. But when I am finished with you, you will watch as I dispatch every soul that remains here.”

   “Like hell I’ll let you!” I yell, bursting forward.

   “How dull,” he says, moving plainly to safety.

   I attack again. He does the same. I try from every angle to get just a bit closer, but he always seems to be out of reach. This gets me really going. I find myself moving faster and faster, leaping off the walls and trying to fake him out. He isn’t even attacking.

   “Quit dodging and fight me!” I shout, clenching my whole body to take a heavy swing. But something’s different this time. The one I’m going for isn’t moving away. I don’t see it until it’s too late.

   One second, I’m about to strike down one of the four copies. The next— a girl appears right in front of me. My hand is already in motion. I can’t do anything. I can’t stop my blade from running across her chest. A look of horror washes over her as blood sprays from her open wound.

  Immediately, my legs go limp and I catch her as she falls. I’m stuck in a state of disbelief. She’s already gone, laying motionless in my arms. But the look in her eye is engraved in my mind. She wasn’t involved. She was forcibly taken from her home, only for the one meant to rescue her to...

   “B-Baldy—!!!” Reuben screams. A pressure grows on my shoulders, a physical weight that seems to make it harder to breathe. An aura grows around him as he takes heavy footsteps forward. The ground underneath him trails steam, and his bow is glowing with magical power.

   “Did you learn nothing from our fight before, young fool?” says Elstaire.

   “Shut up!” he retorts. “Cyrus! Put that corpse down and fight!”

   My mind isn’t working. I can’t respond, and I can’t tell my body to move. I’m stuck in that one moment in time. Her face. The innocent I killed.

   “Cyrus! Oh, fine! Go to hell, then! I’ll fight him myself!”

   All of a sudden, dozens upon dozens of arrows appear all around Reuben. They must stretch into the hundreds. With the notching of one, it seems every single one is ready to fire. Reuben launches the first, and suddenly Elstaire is flooded with a barrage of raining arrowheads. He turns into a blur as his spatial magic searches repeatedly for a clear path. The arrows continue to rain, and Elstaire’s teleportation begins to shift, becoming less precise with more and more time that he is visible. One arrow manages to strike him in the shoulder, and he grunts in frustration. The last of the arrows fall, and Elstaire raises a hand to stop them. In the middle of this, Reuben fires another arrow. It sails past Elstaire, but suddenly glows blue and transforms into Reuben himself. Reuben nocks another arrow.

   “You aren’t the only one who can use spatial magic,” Reuben mutters, drawing back the shot to a point impossible to miss.

   Elstaire looks from Reuben, down to the arrow protruding from his left shoulder. He takes the lodged arrow and yanks it free, allowing it to drop to the floor.

   “I will admit one thing. Perhaps two,” says Elstaire. “One... I admit that, seeing as you used most of your magical power in that one attack, you managed a slight wound on me. No matter. But the second... A true master of spatial magic does not simply move himself through space. Instead, he bends space itself to his own will.”

   Reuben sputters and coughs, blood dribbling down his lip. He loses a hold on his bow, and the arrow fires harmlessly past Elstaire’s head.

   “I thank you for standing still this long. Now... do you feel your organs begin to rearrange themselves in your body? Do you feel your blood turn to syrup in your veins?” A thin smile grows on Elstaire’s face. “This is the true power of spatial magic. Anything that exists in this world can be controlled. Even your very body bends fully to—“

   An arrow forms in Reuben’s hand. In the second Elstaire is distracted, Reuben swings upward and stabs him in the side. Elstaire staggers backwards, and Reuben drops to a knee, coughing and panting. Elstaire grits his teeth and reaches out a hand. Reuben is picked off the floor by an unseen force. He reels back his hand and slams Reuben against the wall. Reuben coughs blood as he drops to the floor. His eyes twitch for a few seconds, but then he grows still.

   “S...Stop it...” I mutter.

   Elstaire looks to me for only a moment, as if to make sure I’m watching. He slowly reaches his hand through the bars of one of the cell doors. A girl inside screams as she’s lifted from the ground.

   “S...Stop it...” I repeat.

   The girl’s screaming turns to a deathly choking noise. Her neck slowly begins to twist, her eyes bulging from her skull. My mind tells me that if I’m going to do anything, I have to do it now. Force my feelings aside to protect those that are still alive. But... will I even have the power to do it? I won’t be getting a pep talk from the Bloodstained Hero this time. If I’m going to find my motivation, I’ll just have to do it myself.

   Time slows as my body is pumped full of adrenaline. Elstaire is powerful, but Reuben’s wounds on him are a testament to the fact that he’s mortal. A new power flows within me, one separate from what I’m used to. The augmentation takes place, and suddenly everything grows crystal clear in my mind. I feel it crawl across my skin, as my veins blacken and pulse with the power of a thousand hearts. Time may be slowed, but I’m at full speed. To his eye, the only thing that happened is that his arm is no longer attached to his body.

   But to me, I sliced it clean off and landed several feet away. I turn around before the pain even hits him, before it even occurs to him what happened.

   “Sorry it took so long,” I say, a scowl spread thick over my face.

   The realization washes over Elstaire. His arm stump gushes blood. The girl slumps to the ground, free from his grip.

   “You...” he mutters. His face is twisted with him trying to hold back the pain of losing a limb.

   “Yeah. Me.” I appear behind him again. A deep cut opens up in his cheek. He recoils, twisting around to face me.

   “How... How dare you—!” he spits. “I am Elstaire of the—“

   “Of the six? Yeah, I’m calling your bluff on that one,” I say. “Assuming those two crazy strong guys from the tomb were just the low level errand workers of the group, there’s no way someone as weak as you could really be ‘of the six’. I know because I fought them both. I almost lost someone I care about to them. And I beat them. So take whatever phony pride you have in that narrow head of yours, and shove it so far up your ass it comes out your stupid fucking mouth.”

   “I— I am Elstaire of the six... m—master of spatial magic, and—“

   “You’re the master of jack shit. Now sit pretty while I carve you a new mouth from the torn bowels of your cold, dead corpse.”

   Elstaire frantically teleports back as I take a swing. That was the last thing I needed to prove I could beat him. Elstaire leaves a heat signature in the spot he’s about to teleport to. The less focused he is, the greater the signal. Whatever power it is I have in play is allowing me to see these very signatures as if they were tangible in the space. That goes the same for space he manipulates directly. He can’t manipulate space that’s moving too fast. That’s why he can’t just tear out my organs while I’m attacking. That must also mean that when Reuben’s arrows were stopped, it must’ve been because he had a grasp on the space in front of him. But seeing as he was forced to dodge Reuben’s arrow flurry must mean he isn’t powerful enough to completely shield himself. Pick this apart, and you realize he’s good at nothing but running away. But I won’t let him do that any more.

   Just as Elstaire’s heat signature reappears, I redirect myself so I’m directly behind him. He gasps and just barely teleports away. A new trail of blood suggests I grazed him before he did so.

   “Teleport back to your master, why don’t you,” I say. “Oh wait, you can’t. Because you can’t even teleport outside your line of vision. ‘Master,’ my ass.”

   “I will end your existence!” he screams, reaching out his good hand. Big mistake. I lop it off with a single movement. Elstaire wails in pain, screaming down at the two stumps where his hands used to be. He fearfully moves to teleport again— as far as he possibly can, but when he does I’m already waiting for him there.

   “Show me the real enemy, you goddamn faker,” I say. I swing for his neck. In the moment of his ultimate demise, a cowardly look washes over his face that carries on well into when his head lolls off his shoulders and rolls around on the cold dungeon floor.

   I drop my sword, and slowly pace back to the body of the girl. I bend down and pick her back up into my arms as I slowly break down into tears.

   Another pressure washes over me. In it, I hear a voice.

   “You have bested my disciple. He who borrowed my name. But the All-Master is not so easily convinced. His power far surpasses even mine, the orchestrator of this assault. Take your meaningless victories, for your days will be forevermore filled with loss and grief.”

   I look up at the ceiling with tears streaming down my face.

   “Then come at me! I’m waiting!” I wail into the nothingness. “Stop with the theatrics and face me already, you goddamn cowards!!!”

   I hear nothing more. I let the tears flow as the emotion overcomes me.