As they pushed the black gates open, all three of them could see the interior of a huge room, and most importantly, that damned core shining like a diamond in the back of that room

But what really caught their attention, was the giant knight that was sitting down by the throne of the crystal, black miasma came out of the vision ports of his helmet while the rest of his armor was as evil as one could think of, metal spikes came out of his pauldrons while his helmets had two metal horns and the vision port was two diagonal openings merging into one in the middle of the helmet and then going down from there, although through the vision ports all was black, it almost seemed like no man was inside that cursed armor

"So we need to defeat that I assume" Yuna said, unsheathing her blade while the other two followed closely as the gates behind them closed down promptly

"Well, no way out I guess" Fae said as she held her sword tightly, the room illuminated by green fires from the torches spread around

Suddenly, a wheezing breath was taken from that armor, and that voice reverbed within the hearts of the three companions as it alone could be described as evil

Two green eyes formed out of seemingly pure magick energy appeared within the vision ports of the helmet while the giant knight slowly stood up, his sheer size alone was three times of Fae

"De...fend..." His voice shook their hearts while that black fog slowly came out of his helmet, the giant knight grabbed the two-handed mace that was next to him, and with the way he grabbed it, the group knew they were in for war

"You focus on the crystal Fae!" Yuna exclaimed as she then vanished to appear in front of the cursed knight

Although one thing was wrong, she didn't hear anything from either Fae or Claude when she faced the knight, turning her head over her shoulder her eyes widen and her lips parted away as the only people she saw behind her, were her men that died with her in Yokohama

The rain poured down on Yuna while her feet were planted deep into the mud, she was back in that moment, but as she turned forward, she wasn't facing that silver-haired red-eyed knight of the past that she spared on that cursed day, no, she was facing the same damned knight that she and Fae found, it was all wrong

"Aa...hahaha..." His laugh reverbed and echoed within her heart, although Yuna was still unafraid as ever, even if her mind was warped and her senses felt diluted, if not stolen

It was as if he has given Yuna the ultimate challenge, locking her very soul inside a death realm of the past for them to duel in, and nobody could ever intervene

He instantly raised his giant mace in the air while Yuna widened her eyes, and then he smashed it on the dirt to shatter even the ancient stone under both of them

Although lucky for Yuna, she had quick footwork that enabled her to slide between the giant knight's legs

Standing now behind him, Yuna took the time to channel a slice that was deflected by the sheer solidity of the metal

Grunting to the failure at hand, Yuna stepped back while The cursed knight dislodged his mace from the broken stone to face the ghostly woman again

But this time, his strike was far quicker for one it's size as he swung his mace horizontally all of a sudden, catching Yuna off her guard as she was still confused by the sudden blast from the past

The only thing she could do was raise her blade to defend her, but the sheer strength of the strike sent her rolling within the mud

Letting out a grunt, Yuna stabbed her blade into the mud to help her get up, if this was history repeating itself then it didn't make sense, for she had beaten that Aralian knight in that cursed duel

"O...bey..." And that damned voice kept resonating away from the giant knight, the black fog leaving his helmet felt as if it was his own wheezing breath

Yuna gritted her teeth and pointed her blade at him again, holding the handle tightly with both hands

Although suddenly, both hers and his attention were stolen by the sudden rift that seemed to be ripped into their reality

"Yuna can you hear me?!" Fae called out to her as she herself was the person that ripped reality with her own hands, absorbing the magick essence that was the structure of the death realm that Yuna was sent into

The knight wasn't very pleased by that as he started walking quickly towards the little tear in his reality with his mace at the ready

"Fae! Be careful!" Yuna beckoned for her friend, but the latter wouldn't let Yuna be cornered like this and so with a yell and furrowed eyebrows she broke the entire artificial reality, tearing it with her bare hands as that turned it all into particles and dust

Fae stepped back from the mace smacking down into the rock of the cave, throwing tremors and dust into her face as she sheltered it with her arms while she walked back

But as the dust settled and Fae lowered her arms, she was immediately grabbed by the knight that his mere hand could grab Fae by her waist and lift her up high in the air, and the stare that he gave her with his deathly green eyes through his helmet was freezing

Claude and Yuna no matter how hard they tried to make the knight let go of their friend, they couldn't, it was a distraction to him at best as he lifted Fae high in the air before smashing her into the ground

"FAE!" Yuna screamed but the knight swung his sheer arm and threw both Yuna and Claude to smash against the wall

Fae had her vision all blurry, and she didn't even know where her sword went flying at, the only thing she could see as she was laid down on her back was that damned knight walking towards her with his mace resting on his metal shoulder, she slowly crawled back with the little strength she had in her weary body but it seemed that he was only catching up with her crawl

But suddenly, something metallic was thrown at the giant knight as it hit him right in the head, it didn't do anything to him but it did take his attention from Fae away, and as the latter looked at who threw it with her blurry vision, she could only see a silhouette and blonde hair tied into a ponytail, somebody that didn't fit the description of any of her companions but it was somebody Fae definitely didn't decline their help as they waved at the giant knight even with none of their weapon at hand

Out of nowhere, Yuna appeared to give a hand to Fae as she went on her feet

"Are you okay?!" She exclaimed at Fae who kept nodding

"Y-yeah!" Fae answered

"Though where's Claude?!" She added on with a question

"He is taking the attention of that entity away from us!" Fae when she looked behind her couldn't see Claude's face that well, though she could see that same blonde knight taunting the knight and dodging his attack even if her friend was without a weapon

And even then, if Fae came to help him again it would be the same, she had to make use of Claude's distraction

Looking at the gem, Fae pointed at the giant knight

"Go help Claude! I have an idea!" Fae exclaimed while Yuna gladly disappeared to be of aid to their friend

Fae ran towards that core of the dungeon as she confirmed what she saw, there was a link between it and that giant knight

She put her hands on that crystal and she could feel all the energy that it was feeding to the dungeon, to the stone, to the monsters and that damned thing

Fae absorbed it as she could feel a heavy weight on her chest, she then turned around and pointed with her open palm at the giant knight, but she just couldn't let out that energy

She could easily use elemental magic like fire and the like, but this magick seemed to be unique as Fae just couldn't let it out of her core and weaponize it like she always could

Furrowing her eyebrows in the search of an answer, Fae remembered what Yulia said and if she couldn't transform the magic that she absorbed, then she'd weaponize it in other ways

As soon as the knight lifted his giant mace in the air, he was hit by a gust of what seemed like pure energy that smashed him against the wall, cracking and shattering the stone but it did no damage to the knight himself as he soon enough went back to his feet to stand tall

It wasn't enough, using this magick like this just wasn't powerful enough, Fae looked at the link between the core and the knight and then pursed her lips

She grabbed the link itself and then pulled with her hands, grunting and gritting her teeth as Fae kept on tearing that link that made the cursed knight alive, and with a yell, she severed it

The knight immediately fell to one knee with a grunt, lifting his head to see Fae in the distance next to that core

Although it wanted to stand up again, Claude grabbed his right arm and pinned it down, and as the knight wanted to get his other hand to get his pinned hand free, Yuna pinned the other down with her weight, seemingly he could easily get them off with his sheer strength, but his severed link with the core left him weakened and weary

Fae running towards him used his knee as a jump point to jump right in the air and towards his helmet, and before the cursed knight realized that the sword she held in her hand made out of the same energy that fueled him was going to be planted right inside the vision port of his helmet, it was already too late

"Free...dom..." Was the last shivering word he let out

Fae could see the green eyes of the cursed knight made purely out of energy die out, and with it, he simply sat down against the wall, forever dead for the second time

Letting out an exhausted breath, Fae let the elemental sword in her hand die out as well as she climbed down the giant knight to fall down on the ground, getting helped by Yuna on her feet

"Good job, without you we couldn't have done it" Yuna said to her weary friend, who still didn't catch her escaping breath just yet

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Thanks" She gave her a tiny smile, although she then remembered

"Wait, where's Claude?!" As she turned around, she found him standing behind her as he gave her a wave with an anxious smile

"Oh!" She could finally see his face, though something was quite amiss, as it wasn't as much his face

"Wait! you're not-!" As much as it was her face

"A-about that..." Claude said nervously

"I'm actually a woman, sorry for the confusion, Fae" She added on as she chuckled and scratched the back of her head, she had emerald eyes while her skin was snow-white, and a small scar could be seen on her right cheek

"You know what, never mind that, let's talk about it when we get out of this hellhole" Fae said out of exhaustion while Claude nodded

Fae and Claude walked to pick away their own weapons before the two of them alongside Yuna met up at the pedestal of the core

"Well, here comes my part" Fae said as hear face was illuminated by the sheer glow of the huge gem

"Be careful" Yuna told her, though those two words made Fae snicker

"That was never my forté" As she rested her hands on the core, she felt her consciousness get immediately snatched away from her

....

Nearly half of a century ago, a civil war brewed inside of Aralia from the failures of their military in the empire of blades that made the country even worse economically than it already was, famine and poverty soon swept away the commoner's minds and made them revolt against the king that they saw a tyrant

And right at the peak of this civil war, a lone knight was on his horse that galloped at full speed while seated in front of him were two girls, the black-haired little girl wore a dress befitting of nobility while the other had silver-haired and red eyes, just like the knight, and she wore a leather chest plate and a shortsword was attached to her

Suddenly, however, the horse crumbled as the black-haired girl yelped in surprise, the knight grabbed both of them and protected them from the impact against the ground with his own body

"God damn it" He exclaimed as he got up and looked at the two girls he was protecting as he got down on one knee

"Elsa, Sofia, are you two okay?!" he worriedly asked the two of them, both of them didn't get hurt from the impact and they exclaimed it with a shook of their head

"God be thanked" He said as he looked at the black-haired girl

"Princess, would you be so kind to turn away and block your ears for a second?" He asked of her

"Of course" She said in a distraught tone but she still did it

He then looked at the silver-haired girl

"Sofia, I want you to listen to me well, okay sweetheart?" She nodded while he himself brought out a compass and a parchment that seemed the like of a map

"Here, take these two, I taught you how to use them" The little girl nodded as she took them

"But if you lose them, what do you do?" He asked her

"Look for the north star" And she replied just as quickly

"Great, but how do you do that?" The knight spoke just like a parent preparing a child for their upcoming exam

"It's between the cloud and the neophyte constellation, the one that shines brightly" He gave her a smile

"Good good, and which berries are safe to eat?" He asked yet again

"The red ones with soft leaves and the purple ones with black dots" The knight gave her a wide smile

"Great! I won't ask you about the rest because I know you're a big girl, you probably know more than me at this point haha!" He laughed, but she didn't

All she could do was look at her father with a worried expression, worried for what he was about to say next

"You know I always loved you, right?" He then told her, his head tilted gently while his face bore a warm expression

"I love you too" She muttered, bringing him to scoff

"That is the only thing I could never doubt" He spoke with such a soft voice for a man like himself

"Sofia, my dear girl" He put a hand on her shoulder and looked right at her saddened eyes that gnawed at his heart

"You've always been such a great daughter, always listened to what I said and was so kind to all around you, no matter who they were" he closed his eyes as he turned his head away, taking in a deep breath before looking back at her

"Can you listen to your old father for one more time?" Sofia pursed her lips, she didn't want to hear the words she knew he'd say

"Take the princess with you and run, run as fast as you can, run until you reach somewhere safe, somewhere still loyal to Aralia" The little girl frowned at him

"Can't I stay with you and fight?" An answer like that couldn't help but make him laugh

"You have a lion's courage, my girl" he smiled warmly at her

"But I'm afraid you can't" he slowly shook his smiling head

"Once you are of age we will fight anywhere you want, I promise you" he added on with an answer that seemed to clearly upset her

"Don't lie to me, you're just going to die here!" She exclaimed in disapproval, and even though his own daughter saying that shook his heart, he still smiled, it was the least he could do

"Ah, you maturing so early really never did you any good" he said jokingly

"Please my heart, let me do what I think is right" he told her, seeing her chin shiver as she bit on her lower lip just to not cry, she couldn't have failed more miserably in that

"Why not come with us, why stay here?" She begged him, he slowly looked at the blood dripping down his right leg, taking in a big breath, he looked at her again

"I will only slow us down, and if they catch us..." He looked at her with ever-so-worried eyes

"If they catch you" His head shook slowly

"I could never forgive myself" He said

"Please Sofia" He told his crying daughter

"Listen to your dear old father for one more time"

She kept nodding on as she couldn't speak through her sobbing, giving the man a tight hug that he returned just as tightly

And when she parted away from him

"Ah right" he lowered his head to take off a necklace he wore, one that had a ring attached to it

"Do you still have your mother's ring?" He asked of the child, who immediately showed it by pulling up the necklace that was around her neck

The man smiled as he handed her his own ring

"Now you can have both of ours, make sure to find somebody special one day, and then you can give it to him" He said while smiling, Sofia didn't have any words nor could she speak through her sobbing, the father patted her head gently before he tapped on the princess' shoulder

She turned around and removed her hands from her ears, noticing her friend crying the princess' expression was even more distraught than earlier

"Princess Elsa, Sofia will take care of you for a while, okay?" He said softly, the little girl looked at the bearded middle-aged man and nodded

"Of course, uncle" The man looked at the princess and his daughter for a split second, the two growing up together ever since they were little babies, he damned the entire world inside his heart for letting two kind girls like them suffer and witness all of this

"Thank you Elsa, you and Sofia are angels" He said, putting each of his hands on one of their shoulder

"I wish I could do more" He muttered as he looked at the ground with sorrowful eyes

"I really do" He then looked up at each of them

"You two now get going, and take care of each other" Both nodded to him, Elsa with worried eyes while Sofia wiped her own

"I love you two so very much" He hugged them both for a moment, and then let them go

"Go now" He said, but both of them didn't budge, hesitation written on their face, hooking their feet into the dirt

"Please, just go" But his pleading expression pushed both of them to turn around

"Run as fast as you can!" He exclaimed, and run they did, entering the forest to then vanish away from eye's sight

The knight took a deep, wheezing breath as he turned around to find his horse letting out his final exhales

"God..." He got closer to it, pursing his lips as he got to the dying horse's face

"Thank you, boy" He caressed it

"You were the greatest steed" he whispered as the horse let it its final breath, making the knight clutch his other hand into a fist, and then resting it open alongside a sigh that came out of his lips

"There he is!" He heard a voice exclaim, three badly armed men came out of the woods, men the knight swore that he would protect even with his life

"Caught up too fast" The knight exclaimed through gritted teeth as he got up, limping on one leg while he pulled his spear that was attached to the horse's saddle

"The princess isn't with him though! she must have run off!" One of them muttered

"I'll catch up to her, you two take care of him!" Another said as he went running past the knight, the mere thought of that man catching either his own daughter or his best friend's daughter pushed the knight to dash towards him with his spear, even with his injured leg he dashed like a cheetah right into harm's way

"I won't let you!" He exclaimed as he got the man to stop and back off or else he would've been stabbed by the tip of the spear

"Let us pass through you filthy pig!" They told him, but he held his spear at waist level while the point was aimed right at his own fellow countrymen

"No!" He retorted quite simply to them as he gestured with his spear

"What you're doing is just so wrong!" He added

"Why?!" The knight was so confused

"WHAT WILL KILLING EACH OTHER EVEN ACHIEVE?!" He screamed from the bottom of his very heart

"You have no right in saying that you god damn noble!" One of them yelled

"Yeah! while you were cozy in your mansion! your own people are suffering in the slums!" The one in the middle added on

"And all of this because of that incompetent fucking king!" He continued on

"Rather than doing a change for the good of our country he only sent our brothers and sisters to die in foreign lands!" The man wasn't wrong, and the knight knew it very well, because he was there himself

"And even in that he failed! he's nothing more than a vile tyrant that needs to be brought down by force!" They were so determined in their revolution that the knight knew nothing that he could say would deter them, but were they really wrong in all of this he asked himself

"Let us through or we'll kill you too!" They threatened him

"If we get the princess, he'll finally listen to us!" The knight's heart shook from how low they stooped, what desperation could bring people to do

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that" He calmly replied, holding his spear tightly, the three men looked at each other before they pointed their swords at him

"He's just one! surround him and we'll kill him just as easily!" One of them said as they started to slowly walk circles around him, the knight kept throwing his gaze from one to another, expecting an attack

And that it came as the one behind him lunged with a downward slice, the knight with his quick footwork quickly used his spear to parry it before he let the man's blade slide down and sliced his throat with the edged of the spear's blade

The two others were already behind him however as the knight had to push himself immediately backward to have some distance between the two, the pain he felt from his injured leg was insufferable, but he had to, for her

"You god damn noble! you killed him!" They screamed at him as both of them charged at the knight who blocked the first's strike with his spear before punching the man in the face as hard as he could, disorienting him and giving him just enough time to thrust with his spear into the second man's chest and as his spear was lodged into his chest, the knight unsheathed his blade with one swift move to cut down the concussed civilian

Breathing heavily, the knight looked down at the bodies of the people that he took an oath to rescue, to help, and to protect, they stood no chance against him, their footwork was clumsy and the way they fought was akin to that of a starved, cornered animal

He looked down at the blood that jetted into his chest plate and hands, the blood that drenched his now dripping sword

Pursing his lips the knight looked up as he noticed even more people coming his way, his hands shivered and his body felt weary, his heart and mind were so suffocated by the emotions he felt, but the mere laughter of Sofia in his head kept him standing tall, standing firm in front of the people who wanted to bring her harm, the desperate, starved and diseased people, his own people

The knight fought, stabbed, bruised, and cut, and yet he still fought, for a full-on hour he stood tall no matter how many he was facing, blood drenching his clothes and wetting his lips, but he still stood tall

"He's just a demon!" They told the knight that to their eyes, was a demon, standing on top of the many bodies of their own brothers with his sword almost turning red from the blood it tasted, the cold steel now ever so warm with hot blood

His trembling hands grasped the handle of his sword, he stood by his lonesome but he couldn't feel alone, behind him was his little angel that was running to safety, each minute, each second he spent here, pushing them away, could just be the second that would save her life

And that was the only thing that kept him from dying

Raising his sword to his chest and angling it at the people he now called enemies, the knight looked dead at them with his bloodshot red pupils

And the slaughter continued for another dozen minutes, he wished it to continue until he knew for certain that Sofia was safe, but alas, just like the blade woman that he put to death in Yokohama, his will was much, much stronger than his own body

That same body gave up on him, falling down on his knees with daggers, swords and arrows planted all around his chest and back, the knight finally couldn't stand no more, his vision gave up on him as he could distinguish only silhouettes in front of him

"We got him! we finally did!" He heard the people around him celebrate his fall

"We finally got the monster!" He heard that word, that one word that made him frown and look down at the blood and the steel planted inside him

Maybe, he thought to himself

The knight gazed at his blood-drenched hands

Just maybe, his mind whispered

"I...-really am..." Though his body could barely whisper

"A monster" After that last word, he felt his mind gently cut away as he fell to his side, seeing the silhouettes of the people that he dreamed to protect when he was little, rejoice to his death

Though his biggest regret, the biggest stab into his dying heart, was not being with her through her life, not seeing her turn into the fine woman he knew she'd become, and for that, it brought tears out his red eyes

Yet at that one second between life and death, that one second where he couldn't even move his own crying eyes, not even a fiber of his body

Even through that, the corners of his lips that let the blood inside his mouth flow out, were raised

Because he could see her, he could see her and her adorable smile

And for that, he too, smiled