Deep down below the Magician’s Manor, Thomas Titanius Junior had closed his eyes with a bitter reminder of the past, something that had been idly vague to him for several years of his life. Within a blink, his eyes felt the ice-cold splashes of the true reality of the past. He was now still just behind the same Victoria and Thomas, but they had been relentlessly pushing themselves through a tremendous storm, where rain and lightning felt more love than the two of them.

"How much longer!?" The younger Thomas said in frustration.

"My love, please! I am trying. The place should be somewhere here, it is not my fault I cannot see anything in this rain!" Victoria yelled out, with a sense of anger to her too.

"Grr, this is painful Victoria! So very painful!" Thomas cried out.

"You're finding this painful!? What about me, my blood, my blood, oh! My blood, my love!" Victoria wailed out in agony.

"I'm sorry, my love. Come close to me and hold me tight." Said Thomas, taking a confident stride ahead of her.

The two interlocked hands as they tirelessly pushed onwards through a forest of nefarious creatures. The beasts had been concealed in a thick fog of dark green, with only their pulsing red eyes lighting the malevolent pathway. These beasts had only covered a fraction of the true journey to the bigger foe - the Dragon of Wrath. Their strength was lacklustre and mundane. A few hounds had lunged out to the couple, but this Thomas could fend them off with a wild display of his sword.

Just like the other reality, a dark tower plunged its sights onto the couple, with an eye of omniscience prowling across its rough, brick exterior. In this true alteration of the memory, the tower was vastly more intrusive with its evil - having venomous vines branching out from its body and a dark mist that carried a sinister scent. This had all added to the fright that the couple felt, but they still persevered through the thickening turmoil. Whatever they were fighting for was not going to fall flat.

The two stumbled to the foot of the tower where they firmly barged the door down with a single push, only to be flooded by a thick, gloomy wave of heat. They had been forced to separate almost immediately, as the villainous Dragon of Wrath soared down to them in seconds, smelling the droplets of blood that Victoria carried unwillingly. She was fatigued and in false shape to fight fully. Thomas, however, had been harnessing his power in his warm, fiery eyes. Blitzing a bolt of lightning toward the beast, he pulled his sword out, and with one swing the dragon had felt the power of a thousand thunderstorms follow through to its skull. This had all been from the embers of the wild blade he carried, a device of destructive capabilities, which with one swing, sparked the dragon to retreat for a moment's time, enough for Thomas and Victoria to regroup.

"How would you feel about touching it?" Thomas asked her, as they faced back to back.

"Touching what?" Chuckled Victoria with a shiver.

"Really?" Thomas frowned in disbelief. "I am being serious here!" He exclaimed.

"Fine, fine. My love. Whereabouts should I touch it?" Asked Victoria.

"The tip." Thomas grinned. "The tip of the tail. Work your magic, and keep it pinned down." He said.

"Oh, you tease! What about you, what are you going to do?" Replied Victoria.

"The head will be mine. If I really am the greatest swordsman alive, it should be easy work for me." Scoffed Thomas as he relished the challenge ahead of him.

"Be careful my love." Said Victoria.

"You as well - over there! It comes now!" Shouted Thomas.

Fast, bleeding with energy and breathing breaths of fiery wrath, the dragon came pummelling down with a vile rage to its purple eyes. It had a ferocious pair of black wings, which flung down wide towards Thomas. This mighty beast had been focused on the blooming aura of Thomas' blade. The blade that blotted the thick, scaly skin of the beast with a wound of blistering pain. The sight of his damage actually being more gruesome than first thought, triggered a level of confidence that became stupidly gross within Thomas. Instead of staring at the flying monster with his sword, the confident crusader had pulsed his fist with a handful of thunder, which he pounded into the face of the beast. This echoed the dragon deep into the ground, where Victoria was able to commence her magic. But before such a bitter send-off, the dragon managed to briefly blow a breath of fire towards Thomas, who had gone eerily dormant.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"My love come here! I am almost done. You can cut its tail off." Victoria called out to him, but no reply had touched her lover's lips.

Thomas' eyes were not possessed by this strange silence though, and they quickly spotted the danger in which Victoria had so finely found herself. Her back was turned to the beast, a disastrous error which would amount to surely the same fate he had already slightly felt. A thundering leap managed to bolster him into her, pushing her to the ground with desperation. Within seconds, he had become a burning shield to her. With his sword sheathed against his back, it partly blocked a fresh wave of warmth coming from the mouth of the Dragon of Wrath.

"Victoria, move!" Thomas yelled with struggle.

"No, Thomas! I can't! I won't let go of you!" Victoria clung to him so dearly, with a childish pull.

"My sweet love. I am sorry." The cold reply came from Thomas with an electric stomp to the ground, which flung Victoria a safe distance away from him and the dragon.

Thomas turned to face the beast with a bigger mentality now. An idea that resulted in sacrifice. Up until now, a thin lining of his lightning magic concealed the fire of the dragon, but in seconds it became nimble. He shivered at the sight of the wide-open mouth of the beast, but finally, he released his blade once again. He moved the sword away from the fire, and aimed diagonally, instantly slicing the dragon’s mouth with a deep wound. Despite being such an easy action for him, the cost was far more than easy to deal with. Thomas had not died, nor did he fall, but he became submerged in a sinister black. A shade of black that breathed the power of Wrath within his blood. He reached a state where he was in association with silence, becoming unreachable. He became idle, with an anger building within him for no apparent reason.

"No..." Whimpered out Victoria. "The rage of Wrath. The fire of the dragon has given it to him." She thought.

"Hmm?" Thomas began to walk over to her, his sword scraping across the ground slowly.

"Thomas, Thomas, my love. I can undo this. I need the spell...the damned spell...what was it!?" Victoria muttered to herself frantically.

"Victoria." Thomas sighed. "Look what you have done to me. You. You are the reason, I have become so angry right now." He said with a wicked grin.

"Come now, me? How can I be the one to make you feel so angry? Deep down you still love me, no? Beneath the wrath, my love, I am in your heart, no?" Victoria had strung along a set of thought-provoking questions, as she began to cast a spell behind her back, whilst closing in on him.

"Argh! Just stop talking Victoria! You seem to be making my blood boil." Cruelly shouted Thomas.

"No, it is not me. It is the fire of the dragon, it is inside you now. I can change that though, come here!" Victoria exclaimed loudly, as her hand lunged for his forehead.

It met for a brief second, and in this moment her hand collapsed like a cold corpse. It had been cut cold by the wicked blade Thomas had been carrying. His reflexes had heightened unbelievably, and they cleanly rid her of a hand. In the sacrifice of such an instrument of her magic, Victoria managed to reach Thomas. Thomas' rage began to soothe into calmness as Victoria's spell sought out all the sinister streams of Wrath that wept within Thomas.

"Argh! What did you do?" Exclaimed Thomas in anguish, but his heart felt a deeper pain upon seeing Victoria before him. "Victoria? What has happened to you? Why the watery eyes, my love?" He frantically asked.

"My hand." Victoria shuddered. "My hand." She repeated.

"No." Thomas shook his head. "No. No. No." He shook and shook his head until finally, his sword rattled to the ground. "My sword, Victoria! Was it my very own sword?" Asked Thomas, his hands clutched her, shaking her faint soul back and forth.

"I'm sorry, Thomas. This will probably be for your own good." Victoria gulped with guilt as she blinded Thomas' eyes with a brightness that flustered even the observing spectator.

"I suppose this was where I lost my past." The phantom-like Thomas said to himself, as the light brought him back to Astrea.

He returned to the dark and dingy room he was originally in with new knowledge. With his eyes awakening, they streamed a tear of sorrow down the hardened face he had gathered throughout the years, not knowing of this past.

"Victoria. I remember everything. I remember so, so much now. I remember you. You, my love, I remember you!" He cheered in happiness as he clutched the light with a firm grip on his chest. "Now, I've got to find her, and help her." He thought, his eyes caught to the wooden door that imprisoned him.

Before it had been an unbeatable barrier but now, he had regained his strength so easily, it became a task of no difficulty to beat the door down with a single kick. He had aimed for the door until a tremendous echo shook the walls of the manor several times. Something had gone afoot above him.