I desperately kept running through the Sandstorm that was now raging with a fury so unfiltered and unrivaled that I very well could have been in a Typhoon in the center of the ocean. My eyes stung while my lungs were alight with pain from the heat and sand, not even the slightest vestiges of mana would heed my call almost like I had drained it all from my body in trying to keep myself alive against Geldin.

Every step felt like I was trying to lift hundreds of times my own weight, like my body was ready to give out entirely—I was utterly exhausted.

I could still hear the fight in the distance behind me, the clash of overwhelming pressures between Brimrose and Geldin. I couldn’t even begin to tell who was winning in the fight, let alone the fight that was accelerating even further in the distance.

On the other end of the city I could see countless explosions of blinding light colliding with gale-force winds so volatile that even the sandstorm gave way to them for an instant. James and Tyrosa had already been fighting for over ten, maybe even twenty minutes by now. I could only envy the stamina they had to keep fighting that long as my eyes moved forwards.

Finally, my hand reached out, desperately clawing for the door of the massive bell tower mere inches away from it before my grip tightened around the hanging metallic loop it had for a handle. With the marginal extra support I threw my body forwards with all the force I could muster, the door was shoved forwards and open with surprising ease; So much so that I was sprawling across the ground when my support was suddenly swept away from me.

“What the?...” I audibly muttered as my eyes moved up slowly to examine the room.

On the far end of the room I could see a table blazing in a roaring fire that was hungrily eating its way across more of the circular chamber, dozens of stands of armor sat strewn around with several knocked over. A horrendous smell of scorched hair and flesh filled the air, a scent that I wished I couldn’t immediately recognize.

I however didn’t spare a second to spare the thought of where the scent could be coming from. I desperately pulled myself to my feet, and for an instant I thought about calling out for Tulip before thinking better of it, instead I dragged my legs back under my body and half limped from my aching feet towards a stand of blades I decided to search for her.

With a blade similar to the one I had previously had in hand I debated for a moment if I had the energy in me to even put it into my ring, but before even a few seconds passed I decided against it entirely. I felt like if I attempted to use even the slightest bit of mana I would fall over and be incapable of even trying to move.

With both hands I did my best to heave the rather short blade over my shoulder, it was far heavier than the one I had grown used to, its quality was obviously far inferior to the ones given to us by Crag judging just by how imbalanced it felt.

With the flat of the blade resting against my body in an almost comfortable position I turned my gaze to the stairs, with my good arm supporting the blade and my aching arm guiding me for support I made my way past the table that sat ablaze and towards the stairs.

Multiple holes had been punched into the walls all around the room, smoke was clearing out nearly as quickly as sand was rushing in to snuff out the flames so I wasn’t incredibly worried about them spreading and trapping me inside of the building.

My eyes snapped up towards the stairwell when I turned the corner, up higher, probably multiple floors above me, I heard shouts—A fight?

Panic rushed through my body and my legs began pumping, guiding me up the stairs while the adrenaline of fear numbed the pain away. At least it numbed as much pain as it really could, it wasn’t as if I suddenly stopped aching entirely.

I ran up floor after floor, two doorways passing by my side while the stairs narrowed inwards in the cone shape of the tower. The bell that I knew sat overhead was no longer ringing, bellowing out its hate filled echoes in defiance of the storm as even it finally had to give in.

The stairs suddenly turned at a harsh angle while the sounds of the fight grew louder. I could hear the clanging of metal, the whistles of things flying through the air, and the faintest hint of distant murmurs through the fighting.

“Just die already!” I suddenly heard Tulip’s voice scream out, before the scream was replaced by one of panic—of fear.

“Tulip!” I shouted out as I slammed my body into the door, there was something blocking it, some kind of barrier that wouldn’t give in.

I pulled back, with almost no space to get momentum I slammed my shoulder into the door again. The jolt of pain sent my body reeling for an instant while tears graced my eyes from it, Tulip’s scream was cut off.

“No, no no no no no…” I trailed off when I heard another shout of pain from Tulip, bashing my body against the door again. “Not again… Please not again. I can’t lose everything again!”

I didn’t know who I was shouting towards, I didn’t know who I was trying to draw to help. It wasn’t like the world cared about me, it proved that time and time again. It was just a vile trick it played on me, giving me a handful of months of genuine hope for a life that was stolen from me just to be torn away again.

“Not again… I can’t—I won’t lose everything again” I screamed out into the world as if something would hear me. Maybe something did, maybe some god did hear my screams but just scoffed at them, maybe some unholy creature was laughing in joy from my misery.

But my own body, my own will struck with a heartbeat like thunder when I slammed my foot into the ground. The screaming cry of desperation, the screaming cry that felt so familiar to me. The cries of anguish that I hadn’t let out since Father never came home and left me along, they came out with vindication. Because this time I could do something.

The door didn’t give in as my body slammed into it was the power of a storm, it shattered. Splinters of wood moved out of my way as if I had just pushed through a curtain and my eyes moved to greet the room I found myself inside.

Long shadows crawled across the walls of a chamber that was covered in countless levels of intricate lines that all danced with the feeling of mana from them. In the air hovered dozens of blades of darkness–-No they weren’t hovering, they were moving.

Everything was just slow, like the world itself was slowing down while my heart pounded faster than I thought possible. Tulip was on the ground, bleeding profusely from a wound on her side, but her eyes were moving towards me. Each second felt like a century before my eyes settled on the figure on the far side of the room.

Mana was rising around him, fury was painted on his face while their eyes moved slowly towards me. With a crossbow in his hand slowly raising to take aim. Why was everything so slow? I didn’t have time to question it though, Andrew was raising his crossbow with a bolt readied, and I had no doubt that it was poisoned just like the one that hit me.

My legs moved faster than I could really understand, my entire body felt like it was moving in a way that wasn’t possible, that shouldn’t be possible and yet it happened. The blade in my hand began moving, a heavy overhead swing curling around and down towards Andrew, the head of the slavers, the reason that Tulip and myself were stuck in this desert.

And suddenly the world accelerated.

My blade came down fast and hard, colliding with Andrew while a wave of pain and exhaustion hit me like a mountain had fallen on top of me. Andrew having either heard me, or having been prepared this time managed to bring his small crossbow up to intercept my blade.

But the strings snapped alongside the frame as steel and wood alike were sent flying to the side. I didn’t have the strength in me to keep a hold of my blade, my eyes moved up meeting Andrew’s just as a fist covered in shadows came down.

I felt it collide with my cheek from the angle he punched me at. The power behind the strike was incredible, the shadows that covered his knuckles felt like frozen steel blades that cut into my skin with pure force in the instant they collided.

I was sent sprawling, thrown back a dozen paces. The world was spinning, the room was spinning… I was spinning?

It was like I landed on ice, stuck spinning until a flailing hand caught onto something, I heard a grunt while it tried to stand up. And my eyes moved over to greet Tulip who glanced at me with a grateful gaze.

“Not a moment… Too late…” Tulip muttered out while she tried, and struggled, to hold her blade. “Don’t… Take it… You can do that again?”

I lay on the ground for what felt like centuries trying to regain my composure before I rolled slowly to my chest to push myself back to my feet.

“Not… A chance… I… Don’t know what happens… If I run out of mana… And I don’t want to find out…” I sputtered out, trying just to breath felt like agony while my entire body was bordering a total shutdown. How could we even survive against him?

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“Well… At least we have numbers now…” Tulip sighed out, I could see resignation in her eyes. Hatred burnt almost as bright, but fear burnt even brighter in them. The fear of death, the fear of not going home.

“Insolent little brat!” Andrew screamed out like a Banshee, his right arm slashed down to the side, shadows following his motion while the stones in the floor began to crack and crumple. “How do you ruin everything! Everything! Every possible chance we had to recover and you just show up and ruin it all!”

I almost recoiled from the rage in Andrew’s voice, so volatile that the very room underneath us was starting to shake.

“You ruined our perfect escape plan! You ruined our hideout! You dragged her away into a damned Elven city! Can’t you do anything other than fuck everything up?! Oh wait- You can’t! That’s the entire thing your family name lives by!” Andrew continued as he took a menacing step forwards. The shadows in the room were moving towards him, accenting his body as they turned to claws over his hands.

“Careful, Kirin… He’s using the same magic I can—It’s even stronger in a room this dark…” Tulip spoke in a whisper next to me. My jaw clenched while I nodded gently, my eyes moved towards my blade that was now to the far side of the room. As far away as it really could be, sitting nearly at Andrew’s feet.

“But… Now I get to kill you both. And I get to revel in it.” Andrew spoke like a madman before he let out a scream like a wild animal, he leaned forwards and started a charge straight forwards.

“Move!” Tulip shouted in the same instant, forcing a reaction from me.

Andrew brought his clawed hands up and across, slashing through the air where I had been standing mere moments before I pushed myself to the side, my legs pumped against the ground despite the agonizing strain throughout my body. The need to survive proved to be far greater than the need to give in to pain in the moment.

“Kirin!” Tulip shouted, eliciting me to duck down, barely avoiding a clawed hand that whistled over my head from Andrew. I was forced to stop my charge towards my blade as I turned to face Andrew face to face.

His left hand turned, his clawed fingers aiming to shove straight down into my neck. I barely moved myself out of the way in time with my knee coming up and across into his side. It didn’t have much force, or weight behind it but it left Andrew reeling back a couple of steps.

It gave me just enough space to keep backing up, with my eyes firmly locked onto Andrew, Tulip began working her way around the side of the room while she tried to get behind Andrew in an angle to attack, though with only one arm holding her blade and the other trying to slow the bleeding wound on her side I knew we would be fighting just to survive, let alone win.

Andrew let out a bellowing warcry as he charged forwards, I couldn’t see any sense of humanity in his eyes. It was like he was nothing more than a wild animal listening to instincts, and he was acting like one too.

With both arms coming down in a cross slash as he leapt forwards at me I moved back out of his range to avoid the strike. Coming back up his arms began swinging haphazardly to strike at me, yet each move was exaggerated and wild, it was easy to predict and avoid just from the way he was moving.

“Watch the shadows!” Tulip shouted a moment too late.

I let out a shout as a piercing pain shoved itself into my hip, a long blade of pure darkness had grown from the shadows, piercing into my skin and holding me in place while Andrew cocked an arm back to prepare a piercing strike.

I slammed my arm down on the shadow spike that was piercing into me. Hitting it again and again with my forearm until it broke, with the support suddenly gone I fell to my knees, my eyes moved up to see Andrew’s deadly smile on his face.

“And now the cursed bloodline can come to an end.” Andrew mused, smirking as his clawed hand launched forwards.

I ducked my head down while he threw himself forwards, bending forwards while my good leg extended with as much force as I could physically put behind it. And while I missed my initial target of smashing the top of my skull into his groin, I at least saw some results when I impacted his stomach.

He stepped back hard with a heavy wheeze as the wind was knocked free of him, just for Tulip to close the distance with a shout. I saw the glistening silver edge of her blade move through the air while I lay on the ground trying to find my footing.

Her blade met its mark, slashing through Andrew’s back he leaned forwards just in time for me to throw myself at him again, using my body like a battering ram into his legs.

It felt like I was slamming into tree trunks as he stood steadfast, anger ever more prominent in his voice.

“You think these stupid tricks will work?! You really think any of this will work?!” Andrew screamed out, his leg pulled back before kicking me in the chest. I was sent rolling across the floor again, stopping near the center of the room near the wreckage of his crossbow.

Next Andrew turned with his fist tightened, he slammed not the claws—but the brunt of his fist into Tulip’s ribs giving similar results as she was sent to the ground, though much closer to him than I was.

My hands moved across the floor, I barely found the edge of my blade, sliding it towards me while I stood up with a limp. An idea formed slowly in my head, I just had to get close enough to him again.

“Yea… I think they will…” I spoke slowly, with Andrew’s malice filled glare turning towards me.

“Oh really? And just HOW do you think YOU can do that?” Andrew emphasized each of his words as he took a menacing step towards me.

I steadied myself, somehow courage found its way into my body. Maybe it was seeing Tulip on the ground, her pleading gaze, maybe it was my own survival instincts. I didn’t know, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know, not right now at least.

“Because you’re clearly a terrible fighter…” I spat out with a smug grin. “I haven’t even… Been fighting for more than half a year… And you’re barely winning.” I continued slowly, taking my own shaking step forwards.

“You little!” Andrew screamed out as he charged forwards, the shadows following behind him like a tidal wave. No longer were they hiding in the darkness, waiting to strike. Now the darkness itself was following in his step, circling around me, threatening to consume me.

Andrew’s arm came down fast and wild, striking my blade again and again, every successive blow nearly tore it from my arms while I fought to hold him back. A wild swing from my blade barely cut him on the chest, and it did all the more to enrage him.

Both of his arms came down from above, with shadows following his strikes like ghosts haunting his fingers he gripped down on the sword, even as I turned the blade to cut into his hands.

And I let go of the sword, he threw himself down as the total lack of resistance caught him off guard. My right hand opened up, and out came the bolt from his crossbow.

Andrew’s eyes moved up just in time to see the glint of the tip jab forwards, catching him in the throat as I put every bit of force into the strike I had left to muster. Every bit of will to live that I still had, every bit of energy I still had in me to fight, went into that strike.

And it found its mark.

Andrew fell hard, gargling, liquid was rushing through the wound, filling his throat as he fell to the ground. Blood was spraying out from the pressure widening his wound, quickly covering me in blood that wasn’t even my own until he fell to the ground. The shadows didn’t last long after him, fading away rapidly.

“I… We…. Did it?...” I asked out loud as I looked at Tulip who was struggling to pull herself to her feet. She was bleeding, her left arm was clearly broken, but she was alive. I was alive. And all that remained was silence, an unnerving silence, did the storm clear?

“Let’s… Get out of here… Kirin…” Tulip spoke slowly as she turned for the doorway.

I left the blade under Andrew’s body alone, limping forwards to Tulip. I offered a shoulder for her to lean on once I stood beside her.

“How are your wounds?...” I asked after a moment of silence, I felt Tulip grimace as she let as much weight onto my injured body as she dared.

“No worse than yours…” Tulip commented before falling silent.

It took several minutes for us to make our way down the spiraling stairwell with our injured bodies. The horrid burning stench still persisted and yet the fire was no longer burning, already being put out by gathering Elves that looked questioningly at the two white haired girls that limped out of the building.

Though, once we were outside I was left speechless.

The city, it was gone. The storm, the fighting between the Mages and High Mages left nothing but rubble. There was no sign of roads, no hint of structures outside of the few rocks that had once been foundations, all that remained standing was the now almost ominous black keep, and the gray stone tower behind us.

We had survived, not because we made any difference in any of the fights, well, maybe we made a difference by killing Andrew but I wasn’t certain about it. But we survived because we fought, because neither of us gave up.

“Tulip! Kirin!” The two of us turned our heads in unison to look over towards the source of the sudden noise calling out our names. It was?...

“Lotus!” Tulip filled in the name for my thoughts as she shouted, quickly trying to limp over to the armored woman while I hobbled along with her.

“Thank the light… You’re both alive!” Lotus quickly looked us both over before muttering under her breath. “Barely by the looks of it…”

“Now now, don’t scare the girls. Let them rest a little.” I turned my eyes towards a voice that was so gentle, and so familiar that I almost broke down there and then.

The familiar face behind the voice bore only one eye, and with Tulip shifting to be supported by Lotus I couldn’t help but run with what energy I had left. Hugging Darek and burying my face in his chest.

“You’re here! You- Why didn’t you stay?! Why did you just run away as soon as my trial started?!” I quickly went from joy to annoyance with the older man, while he just raised an innocent hand and smiled.

“We can talk more later, Kirin, let's get you both to the keep to get some rest.” Darek spoke softly, he turned slowly leaving me to hobble along with him.

“I… Guess.” I pouted a little as I spoke, but my heart felt warm.

“Oh my… This must be a lucky night indeed.” Darek spoke suddenly as his gaze shifted up towards the star-filled sky. “Such a beautiful sight, such a shame that it only comes after a battle.”

I turned my eyes upwards alongside Tulip and Lotus, all three of us were left awe-struck by the sight.

Countless colors lit up the sky while brilliant specs danced across the colorful plain of existence all illuminating the desolate desert underfoot in tones like stained glass. A Mana Surge, though this one seemed incredibly weak compared to the one Darek had shown me, it felt so long ago now since I saw it.

“Amazing…” Lotus commented with a smile across her face.

“Must be a good luck charm… Now… Can we get inside… I’d rather not bleed to death while stargazing.” Tulip commented, somehow mustering some sarcasm through the exhaustion we both felt. And while Lotus hurriedly nodded, beginning forwards while picking Tulip up off the ground, Darek and myself were left chuckling gently.

And for several moments we stood there, watching the sky until we moved forwards. To the only building left standing, where Brimrose and James stood talking to the guards in hushed voices. They survived—they won even, but at what cost did that come with?