Gardinal swung his hammer, crushing X’s shoulder. Even so, X did not even flinch as he clawed deep gashes into Gardinal’s chest plate in return.

Celeste turned to her handmaidens, grim determination plain on their faces.

Kriss thrust with his spear, blade clearly aimed for the heart, and X batted the strike away. His formerly crushed shoulder now re-formed with spikes of what looked like red plate jutting up. Grinning, X slashed Kriss’s outstretched arm, a thin red line running the length.

Celeste tried to rush to Kriss, but was held back by Tabitha and Arabella. The women were prepared to kill, their hands white knuckled around their own blades, but they would not let her heal. Celeste bit her lip in frustration.

X was pressing his advance now, slashing his dagger across Kriss’s face. Kriss stumbled back as the blade tore flesh, a thick crimson gash from cheek to nose. Stepping in to protect the younger man, Gardinal found his shield shoved away, and met X’s claw straight to the gut. His plate slowed the strike, but still blood dripped out of shorn metal.

X was killing them. And they sought to kill X. No talking, no hope, no mercy. Just a bloodied duel until they all were broken and dying on the ground, with only the marble visage of the Mother to look on their corpses.

Ripping his claw free, the blood from Gardinal’s wound floated in the air, coagulating into a sphere above X’s outstretched claw. X turned to Kriss as Gardinal stumbled back, clutching his gut.

Why? Celeste thought. Why this unending cycle of hatred? Gardinal sought to kill X because he had hurt her. X sought to kill her because he had been hurt by nobles and mages. Who had hurt them? What had made them so bitter and angry to do that to young Morkad?

X grasped the ball of blood with his Daemon-like hand, the macabre ball bursting into flames, and then thrust it towards Kriss. Gardinal was there in an instant, pushing Kriss out of the way. The sphere exploded, an inferno so hot Celeste could feel it near twenty paces away. The fire ripped up X’s arm and burst into Gardinal’s face.

She couldn’t tear her eyes from it. Couldn’t stop staring in horror at the brutal display of hatred before her.

The force of the blast shot all three men away from one another, their singed bodies careening over the bloodied cobblestones.

“Please…” Celeste cried out, pushing past the Valleresa and Arabella, rushing to her friends’ side. They needed her now, and she would not fail them, no matter how errant their ways.

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Another arrow whistled through the air, this one marked with the macabre sound of piercing flesh. Celeste didn’t glance back, didn’t need to see as Vallerian filled the still down X with arrows.

Kriss had fallen nearest her, and Celeste fell to his side in moments, hands already glowing.

“I’m fine.” He shrugged away from her hands then rose, brushing off his singed cloak. “Get to Gardinal,” Kriss whispered to her. “He took the brunt of it. I’ll keep X busy.”

“Kriss.” Celeste gasped, looking at X on the other side of the courtyard, having been thrown back to the colonnade. The man had already risen, the burnt flesh of his arm and chest peeling away into crimson red chitin to match his shoulder. The man looked nearly half daemon as he reached down and ripped an arrow free from his gut. “Do what is right Kriss.” She begged, and he looked at her with his big brown eyes.

“I swear to you.” He whispered, and Celeste felt comfort at his words. Then he burst off, rushing to meet X.

“Do you feel it child?” X shouted as Kriss dashed toward him. “The power of the Chaos? It is older than your gods, and far greater than they could ever dream of.”

Celeste turned away right as Kriss swung his spear at the man. Eyes dashing about the courtyard, Celeste found Gardinal being pulled toward her by Arabella and Valleresa. Blessed girls, she thought, rushing to meet them.

Kneeling next to Gardinal, she barely looked at the man before laying her glowing hands to singed flesh. The entire left side of his body had been burnt to the bone, but as Celeste poured the light within her into him, the flesh formed fresh once more.

“Your Radiance.” Gardinal gasped as his eyes shot open wide once more. She smiled at him.

“My guardian, defend our friends.” Celeste helped Gardinal to his feet, and the priest flexed his newly formed fingers. “But do not kill him, I beg you. I can still help him. I know I can.”

Gardinal looked to her, a sharpness to his eyes. “I cannot promise that Prophetess.”

“I ask it of you anyway.” She reaffirmed her stance, pouring more light into him. Enough to strengthen his every muscle and bone. Looking past him, she saw X snap Kriss’s spear in half as he used it to block a blow. “Please.”

Gardinal grunted, then nodded. “I will do all I can.” He grumbled, then fixed his shield in hand and dashed away from her back to X.

“Morkad!” Celeste shouted as the man elbowed Kriss across the face, causing him to go sprawling to the ground. “The Chaos does not own you. Your people resisted it once Morkad, you can do so again!”

X grasped Kriss by the throat and lifted him up as Kriss stabbed into the man’s shoulders to little effect. In a flash X slammed Kriss into the earth, stones cracking beneath the force. Lifting Kriss to slam him down once more he flew to the side as Gardinal beat his shield against the man, a glowing pulse exploding off it and pushing X skittering across the courtyard. Gardinal brooked no quarter as he rushed at X.

Celeste stumbled across the cracked marble courtyard to Kriss’s barely moving form. Falling at his side, she found his neck crushed. Wide eyed he stared up at her, his chest struggling to breath. Panicked, Celeste grabbed Kriss’s head in both her hands and funneled light into him with as much force as she could. The light rushed through her veins, bursting through her, and Kriss’s body seemed to suck it up as no one else ever had.

A tear burst from her eyes as Kriss suddenly gasped for air, his lungs rising and falling strong once more. The sounds of battle echoed nearby, but Celeste just held Kriss in that moment.