“All right as promised Lamont’s wounds have been cleaned and bandaged.” A guard spoke.

The two guards were carrying Lamont as they appeared within the depths of the cold and musty dungeon. Everyone who was locked up remained silent even with the arrival of Bram’s son. The guards were wondering what cell to place him in and appeared to be walking over to the cell with the former king.

“To show that there are no hard feelings I’ll let you be with your son.”

Lamont glanced around and upon seeing his family behind bars he couldn’t help but bite his lips. This seemed like a nightmare, how could someone he called family do this to him? It was like he became a different person now. Was all of this because of the throne or was there something more?

If only he had a bit more strength to fight then he could at least free his family, but he was too injured to move right about now. He didn’t want to reopen the cuts along his body and bleed out, but… what choice did he have?

However… before he could even put the thought into action something odd happened. One of the guards unsheathed his blade and… impaled the other guard through the stomach. It came as such a shock that the other guard couldn’t even react.

“W-what are- Aggh!”

Lamont soon fell to the ground with a thud as he looked on with confusion. Why would he do that? Had snakes no honor? What would he gain from this? Was this someone still loyal to his father?

“King Zain wants the prisoners free now. He also told me that you were a spy, ready to backstab him. That won’t be the case anymore.”

“I don’t under…. stand.” The guard gasped his last breath before his eyes closed.

The guard could be seen grabbing ahold of the key before he unlocked everyone’s cell. The locks made a loud click before they were opened and everyone seemed impressed and glad that they were finally free. His eyes emitted with a faint pink glow.

“Not bad, Claire. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Is that a compliment from you, Keianna?” Claire could be seen smiling. Her eyes glowing with a pink hue that matched the guards.

Keianna rushed over to the guard, summoning her gloved claws in her right hand as she stabbed the guard’s chest. He didn’t react much aside from his pained screams.

“I was happy to serve you, King Zain.” He muttered out.

Soon she started to channel her Mana, forming electricity along with her clawed hand as it surged through the guard’s body. His body shook violently as his eyes widened with pain, red veins spiraled from his eyes and soon the life faded from them as he fell back onto the ground roughly. Smoke rising from his blackened body.

“God damn! Did you have to brutalize him like so…?” Noel complained.

“I’m in a bad mood, rich boy. I think it’s time I paid your highness a visit and shove my foot in his ass.”

Bram was seen tending to his son along with his wife. He showed a disappointed expression seeing how far Zain had gone to pursue his selfish goals.

“Defeat my son… but please, spare his life.”

“How could you even think of sparing his life, honey? While noble of you… I believe he deserves to die.” Kiana added.

“No. I failed that boy. Killing him would only show that I couldn’t correct my mistake. He’s an Ingram I won’t give up on him.”

“If that is your wish, Bram. We’ll defeat Zain and spare his life. The actions we take from here will be left in the air.” Claire stated before looking around the room. She knew that Noel would be useless in this situation, so it would be up to her and Keianna the person she didn’t feel too thrilled to work with.

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“Girls… provide them with support. Make sure they aren’t hurt.” Kianna pleaded.

“Understood, mama. I’ll do all I can.” Callista muttered.

Estelle simply nodded before speaking. “Stay here and tend to the weak. We’ll deal with our stubborn brother.”

The four rushed upstairs determined to put an end to Zain’s madness. Before they could reach the surface Callista bumped into someone and nearly fell down the stairs if her hand wasn’t grabbed.

“Careful,” Jace said bluntly before looking at the others. “How did you get out?”

“We had a plan and it seemed to work like a charm. I’m so glad you’re all right, Captain. I told you they were fine.” Claire cheered.

“We need to help Isaac, he’s probably fighting Zain in the throne room right about now. I am glad to see that you’re all safe.”

“Isaac’s fighting Zain? Alone? What’s Yadon’s lazy ass doing?” Keianna asked.

“We’ll talk about that when everything is over.” Jace brushed the question aside as he signaled for everyone to follow him.

. . .

Back in the throne room, Isaac was struggling to stand. He was wounded along his chest and his dominant leg which would force him to limp. Zain was slowly approaching him, prepared to deliver the final blow.

“I’ll make it painless. Swift and deadly.”

“Zain… did I ever tell you that I was a magician?”

“What useless nonsense are you babbling now?” It didn’t matter anymore he gripped his spear tightly.

“I still had one more card out and about… but it’s gone. Where could it be…?”

“Hmm? Why should I care about that?” Zain paused for a moment as he glanced to the side, seeing the card emitting an orange glow… and soon it was torn before releasing a medium-sized fireball.

Zain’s eyes widened as he quickly swung his blade to slap the ball of flames away, but it seemed to explode as he did so, knocking him back, forcing him to slide against the ground.

“Fire magic… so that’s your real ability. The cards were just a parlor trick!” His eyes went back to the previous location, but Isaac was now seen with an array of cards floating around him.

“Not quite… you see my magic allows me to copy another person’s magic. All I have to do is observe it.”

“Copying magic…? That’s quite impressive for a human-like you. You sure you aren’t bluffing.”

I truly can copy magic but it’s not as cool as I’d like to think. In order to scan a spell, I have to use a lot of my Mana to analyze it and make it my own. I can only hold four stolen spells right now. The biggest bummer is that when I memorize a spell it copies the exact specifics of that spell. The fireball was from Junji.

An example of this would mean if Junji was capable of using fire magic to freely shape the fire to his desire. Isaac would only be able to copy one specific movement of attack at the cost of one of his memorized spells.

“Try me and find out.” Isaac baited him as he remained on the wall… there was no point in moving as he couldn’t outrun his opponent. He would have to lay all his cards on the table right now.

Isaac’s cards continued to float around him, a lot of them turning orange as they fired off a fireball before fading away. The flames shot out and Zain seemed concerned as he prepared to dance around them.

For the ones, he couldn’t avoid while making his way to his wounded target he would knock them away with his spear. The amount of force and energy it took was starting to wear him down, but who would give out first?

Having enough of the idle play, Zain stabbed his spear into the ground… forming a green-colored symbol at the bottom of Isaac’s feet to which the boy knew was going to be something bad.

“You aren’t the only one with tricks!”

Isaac quickly leaped… well more like jumped and fell away from the range of the attack as numerous spears rose from the ground. If he was still within that magic circle then he would have been skewered like raw meat.

Now that he was floored he couldn’t get up… his strength was fading and all he could do was hurl one more card. The attack was light but caught Zain off guard as it stabbed into the front of his left leg.

“Nagh!” Zain felt the unorthodox weapon wedge into his skin flesh. It wasn’t a metal weapon, but it still felt pretty uncomfortable. However… it wasn’t enough to keep him down. He placed his dominant foot forward as he chuckled.

This was all I could muster… it’s not good enough… How can I save anyone like this?

“Be proud. You were able to wound me, kid. Like I mentioned earlier… it’s a waste of talent.”

Things seemed bleak for Isaac with Zain standing over him. The boy remained silent as disbelief set in. This was the real world sometimes things just didn’t go as planned and now he was facing the music. Maybe he should have let Jace assist him with this… things could have been different.

I’m sorry…

Zain raised his spear and proceeded to bring it down onto the boy, but before he could impale his enemy his spear crumbled into dust.

“Brother please stop this!”

A familiar voice called out to him as he looked over at the entrance. Not only were the humans there, but so were his siblings. They were able to break out of jail? So Jace was still alive he was a fool to assume that only Isaac had survived.

“Callista, don’t butt in.” He looked over at his other sister, Estelle before shaking his head. “Your magic is as random as always.”

Estelle’s hand was held out, emitting with a dark red colored energy. She had a creepy smile before whispering. “Looks like your luck ran out, dear brother.”

“It’s over just surrender unless you think you can take all of us on.” Jace spoke out.

Zain looked down at Isaac who seemed glad that his friends were here to support him. He then sighed before raising his hands into the air.

“I’m tired. I never expected you guys to get out of that cave alive… I underestimated you, humans…”

“Zain… it’s over… Now please turn Yadon back.” Isaac demanded.

“I can’t.”

“What… what do you mean?”

“I cannot revert your friend to his original state. Such a thing has never been explored.”

“Captain, what happened to Yadon?” Claire asked, worry present in her voice.

“I’ll explain everything...once he’s locked up.” Jace sighed.

He can’t turn him back…! Then… Yadon!