As I held Alice within my arms, her rapidly beating pulse and heavy breathing felt oddly comforting. Maybe it felt comforting only because, despite being panicked after I had just pulled her out of the frigid water, it meant I hadn’t been too late. She was alive. All of the extra warmth I felt from her body was just further proof that she was still alive.
After checking to see that there was nothing physically amiss with her, I turned my attention towards the man in front of us.
“How?” Kenneth stumbled a few steps back. “How are you still alive?”
I felt around where my wound should have been. Alice’s eyes widened in surprise as she watched me do so. There was no longer any bleeding or hole to speak of.
“Its completely healed,” she said. “There isn’t even a scar.”
The only evidence of my encounter with a blade being thrusted through my chest were leftover flecks of blood as well as the hole in middle of my shirt.
“Answer my question,” Kenneth demanded. His eyes had a mix of fury and nervous tenseness to them. “How are you alive?” he repeated.
“Here’s a better question, why should I let you live?” I hoped that the confident tone in my voice would make Kenneth hesitate from committing any further acts of violence, instead he countered my words with a single word of his own.
“Flador.” Kenneth conjured dozens of flame arrows, keeping them hovered around himself. He continued to manifest more of them, morphing his flame into their deadly arrow form before taking aim with all of the arrows.
I separated myself from Alice, tenderly pulling her behind me as I stepped forward to face Kenneth.
It was then, as I felt my desire to protect Alice from harm overtaking all my feelings, that I began to feel something else flow within me. It was a feeling I had never known before yet it felt very natural, almost second nature. My concentration got pulled toward the basin of water behind me. It was calling out to me.
No sooner had I reached a new state of calmness when Kenneth yelled at the top of his lungs, sending all of his flame arrows at me simultaneously.
I closed my fingers into a grasp as I pictured myself pulling the water from the basin towards me, like it was just a huge tangible cloak of water I could drape around myself. The water from the basin shot out like a fountain, spraying in all directions, resulting in the basin being entirely drained. Every single drop of water that filled our surroundings felt like they had become a part of me, falling under my influence.
The sound of sizzling reverberated throughout the cavern, resulting from his arrows crashing into my wall of water and losing all their power before they could even get close to me.
Kenneth clicked his tongue as he raised his arm once more towards me, a single giant flame arrow appeared as he shouted “Flador.”
However, before he could send his arrow, I threw all of the water, the same water that I had used to build my defensive wall, towards him in the form of a raging river.
His arrow was immediately extinguished as he himself got drenched and carried away by my attack. I continued to push the water forward until my attack reached the cave’s entrance.
As my water crashed against the exit, I forced the water to change its form once more, changing its very nature. No longer was the water in its liquid state, instead it was in its frozen and sharp state, ice.
Where there had once been a giant hole that served as the cave’s entrance, I had filled with endless sheets of ice.
“What?” Kenneth croaked as he struggled to get back on his feet after my attack. “What have you done?”
“I’m just making sure you don’t get away this time.” I gave a flick of my wrist, the water beneath me turned into small waves that helped me with gliding my feet forward. As I got closer, I conjured another wave towards my hand and had it separate itself from the rest of the water, turning the secluded body of water into a spear of ice. “Take this.” I arched my arm with the ice spear as far back as I could before throwing it forward with all my might.
“Damn you.” Kenneth brought forth a wall of fire to intercept my ice attack.
Though my ice spear had been melted away, it no longer mattered when it came achieving victory. That was because Kenneth had no way to halt my advance.
Kenneth was well within reach and he knew it, I could see his eyes darting around in search of a counter but there just wasn't one. His eyes then landed on the unconscious bodies of his allies, widening as he looked at them.
He must have feared ending up like them, it almost made me pity him. Yet, instead of fear being reflected on his face, Kenneth smirked.
As I conjured more ice towards the palm of my hand and formed a two handed sword, Kenneth laughed madly before chanting a spell I didn’t recognize.
“Exilgilus,” Kenneth screamed as I raised my ice sword above my head and brought it crashing down towards his chest. Instead of hearing the revolting sound of flesh being pierced by my blade, a pair of loud explosions rang out and my ice blade, just like my ice spears from earlier, melted in an instant.
Standing between me and Kenneth were two blue flames in the shape of humans. They hissed and growled as their blue flames grew bigger and hotter, forcing me to jump back. Though I tried retreating, the two entities of flame gave chase, following me with inhuman movements at impossible speeds.
Kenneth laughed as he saw me trying to get away from them. “Zaria, Raina, teach that bastard a lesson just like you did to those knights,” Kenneth said before turning to look at Alice with a smile. “Just like you did to Sir Liam.”
As I struggled in dodging and countering Zaria’s and Raina’s flame strikes with my water and ice manipulation, I was able to catch glimpses of Alice as she conjured icicles of her own. She marched towards Kenneth with an icicle in each hand, throwing them at Kenneth.
Kenneth continued laughing, raising his hand to intercept the icicles only for a silver and purple blur to rush past him, taking the rapier he held in his possession with them as they stepped forward and shattered the icicles into hundreds of pieces.
“So, you’re still alive too, Isabella? I didn’t even have to use that on you to wake you up. Guess that just shows your worth as my first wife.”
“My lord, we should focus on escaping. Any further bloodshed will just make things worse.”
“I’m not leaving without my new pawn, deal with Alice and help the others in dealing with the hero, kill them without hesitation.”
Isabella? Isn’t that the same girl that was lingering around Mira’s room back at the castle? Considering she seemed proficient with that blade, I’m guessing she’s the one that almost sent me to my death…
Though I had been able to take a moment to recall where I recognized her from, there were far more pressing issues at the moment. Namely, the fact that there were two superpowered girls endlessly sending flames towards me all the while Alice would have to face a powerful opponent all on her own.
Kenneth left Alice and Isabella to themselves as he began using all of his flame magic to blast the ice barricade I had created at the cave’s entrance.
Isabella, for her part, had Alice locked in an endless state of creating blocks of ice and retreating. It was the only way for Alice to slow her advance as she closed in on Alice with her rapier.
I just needed to deal with my opponents first, and quickly, if I wanted to go help Alice and stop Kenneth’s escape. Keeping up with Zaria and Raina’s attacks, however, was the only thing I was managing to do. Their hotblooded temper and furious attacks were a force to be reckoned with. The heat and intensity behind their moves were far too high and far too much for my water to handle. The two of them lunged at me, forcing me to encase myself with water and ice as they pinned me to the ground.
I could feel myself being burned by the resulting steam that was being created by the clash of our two opposing elements. As it became too unbearable for me to handle, all I could do was scream as I started to lose feeling and consciousness due to the pain. My eyes became heavy with the world getting darker as my struggle was coming to an end.
How pathetic, I finally got powers and yet I can’t do anything. I hoped that being called a hero meant I could be one when it truly mattered. Guess this is what happens when you put your faith in fantasies.
Despite my pessimistic thoughts of the end, the end never came. The pain I had felt just moments ago left my body, followed by the sound of steam and sizzling coming to a complete silence with the only sound remaining being the sound of two girls collapsing and sighing in relief.
I slowly opened my eyes, expecting death to greet me, only to be met by a pair of pummels with red crystals hovering above me.
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Standing behind the unconscious Zaria and Raina, while holding a pair of cleaver-like blades awkwardly, was none other than Father Zander. A smile formed on his face as he lowered the blades to the side and offered me his hand.
“Looks like that worked. I wasn’t completely sure it would but, alas.”
“Father Zander? You weren’t knocked out?”
Father Zander brought a finger to his lips. “Keep it down, son. Look, unlike the knights, I never trained my magic for combat. I’m a priest for gods’ sake.”
“So you’ve just been playing dead this whole time?”
“And slowly crawling around fixing up everyone’s bangs and bruises, removing the arrow and healing Sir Caleb’s leg took some time, mind you. Oh, as well as getting these,” Father Zander said, showing me the crystals attached to the swords in his hands. “I noticed that the fake knights used them to absorb Sir Luke’s flames and thought they could do the same to them, giving them a taste of their own medicine. Like I said earlier, it looks like they worked.”
The sound of ice shattering with the sound of metal strikes made Father Zander and I cut our conversation short. Alice was still managing to put up shields of ice but they were becoming smaller and smaller as Isabella continued to chip away at a leisurely pace, not a hint of exhaustion in her movements.
“Go help Lady Alice, I’ll deal with Sir Kenneth,” Father Zandar said.
“You just said that you can’t fight well.”
Father Zander shook his head. “I don’t need to do any fighting myself, these will be doing all the work for me,” he said as he plucked both crystals out of the swords’ hilts.
I nodded. “Be careful.” The two of us split up and headed towards our different objectives.
Isabella chipped away once more at what was, seemingly, Alice’s final ice wall. Alice herself had begun to lower her arms as complete exhaustion visibly kicked in.
Isabella frowned. She hesitated in lifting her blade. She could have easily plunged it one final time, straight into Alice as a massive opening in Alice’s, virtually, destroyed defenses showed itself.
I took that moment of hesitation as an opportunity to send myself gliding on another wave of water, crashing into Isabella with my whole body.
After tumbling around together, the two of us began struggling for the rapier. I had managed to land on top of her, pushing down on the arm that held onto the rapier and slamming it repeatedly against the ground. As her grip weakened, Isabella bawled her free hand into a fist and decked me across the chin, knocking me off her and causing me to wince in pain.
She crouched down next to me and raised her rapier’s pummel over my head only to be stopped by a dagger made of ice being held against her own throat. “That’s enough,” said Alice. She was panting heavily, the hand that she used to hold the ice dagger was shaking uncontrollably. “Drop it.”
Isabella lowered her blade but kept hold of it tightly in her hand. “For a Lady, you are quite tenacious,” Isabella laughed bitterly. She turned her gaze from me and towards Alice’s hand, focusing on Alice’s glowing blue gemstone. “I suppose when you have someone to protect as well as others wanting to protect you, it makes putting your life on the line easier.”
Kenneth’s cries of exasperation caught our attention. He was shooting continuous flames towards Father Zander only for Father Zander to absorb all of his flames with a mischievous smile on his face. It seems things were wrapping up on both sides.
“Why would you even risk your life for the likes of him?” Alice asked.
Isabella shook her head. “I had no choice, we had no choice. Our lives were never our own.” Isabella turned her gaze towards Zaria and Raina. “We do as we’re told, fight when ordered to, and cease to exist when told to die. Despite us being nobility of the Empire, we have no power.” Isabella turned her gaze once more to Alice’s hand, specifically her ring finger. “Well, it's not like I’m telling you anything you don’t already know. After all, you would have ended up just like us if the heroes hadn’t appeared.”
“... I suppose that's true. But even so, despite not having much of a choice in the past, you do have a choice you can choose for yourself now. The choice to decide your future. Let go of your blade and surrender.”
“You honestly think we have a future after this? Your kingdom will have our heads for this.”
Alice lowered her head, solemnly looking down at Isabella as the girl finally dropped her rapier.
“But you know,” I said as I slowly sat up to meet Isabella’s face with my own, “even if you have to face punishment, I’m sure the words of four heroes and a high ranking noble could help ease the severity.”
“Why would you do that? Why would you do any of that for me?”
Alice smiled. “Because, you went easy on us, I’ve seen your skill back in the academy. You also tried getting Kenneth to leave instead of having him join you in the fight, that way you could face me alone and go easy on me.”
“But I-”
“You didn’t use a single flame attack, despite having a crystal attached to your blade, you held back on using your magic against me.”
“And you hesitated once you had broken through Alice’s defenses. It's the only reason why I was able to reach and tackle you,” I said as I rubbed my chin softly.
“I’m sorry about your chin.”
I waved off Isabella’s apology. “Don’t worry about it, compared to my brothers or Luke and Chris, it was…”
“Nothing?” Alice said.
“No, it was still painful actually.” My response caused Alice to laugh softly which in turn caused me to laugh as well.
Isabella smiled bitterly once again. “I’m thankful for both of you forgiving me, but I’m afraid it's too late for me, for all of us.”
“What do you mean?” Alice asked.
“We don’t just follow his orders because we want to or because we’re duty bound to the Empire.” Isabella removed the knight’s armor from her chest and unbuttoned the top three buttons from her shirt. I instinctively tried to look away but was distracted by a the glow of purple crystal implanted in the middle of her chest. “I wasn’t kidding about our death clause, after all, Kenneth tends to be quite the sore loser. You need to kill me before its too-”
At that moment, Kenneth, who was being pinned to the ground by Father Zander, yelled a single word towards us. Towards Isabella. “Exilgilus.”
Isabella grabbed me and pushed me towards Alice as she began screaming and throbbing in pain. She yelled at us to cast water and ice magic immediately as her voice became a series of incoherent shrieks while her body erupted into a violent purple flame. She rushed over to Kenneth’s side, knocking Father Zander off Kenneth before waiting for further orders.
Having been sent crashing against the wall, Father Zander dropped one of the crystals he used to subdue Kenneth. Kenneth scrambled over to the crystal and held it towards Isabella, casting a magical shield that glowed a vibrant orange. “Do it, Isabella, finish them.”
The purple flame entity, that had previously been Isabella, growled in acknowledgment. The core of her body glowed violently as the cave grew dangerously hot.
“Noel, hurry and help me cast Torious,” Alice yelled. Alice summoned multiple ice walls around the bodies of all those unconscious in the cave as I summoned a huge pillar of water and sent it hurling towards Isabella. The sound of a large explosion was accompanied by a blinding light as a huge shockwave hit us all.
When I finally came to, the only person left standing was Kenneth. He had smoke coming out of the palm of his hand as pieces of the crystal he had held up crumbled into dust. Though his clothes were full of scorch marks and his body was layered with small burns, he still managed to stumble his way towards me, picking up the rapier Isabella had left behind as he got close. Eventually he reached me, flashing me a smirk as he stood over me and caressed the blade in his hands.
“You all certainly were a challenge, I’ll give you that. Almost to the point that I might have respected you all if things had been different. In fact, if you yourself had been a woman, I might have even chosen you to become another one of my wives.” Kenneth ended his tender handling of the rapier. “But in the end, you will forever be a thorn in my side, never a rose.” As Kenneth was about to bring down the rapier and end my life, the sudden coughing of a girl stopped him.
Laying just a few feet behind him was the charred body of Isabella. Though shallow, Isabella was still breathing.
Kenneth laughed as he turned toward her. “Even after all that, you still live.” Kenneth let out a soft moan. “You truly were my best experiment.”
“Don’t kill… him,” Isabella pleaded with baited breath. “Killing him… or any… of the others… will be used against House Thornewell.”
Kenneth chuckled before fully bursting into laughter. “I’m glad that even in your final moments you worry for me, like a dutiful wife should. Sadly, I cannot let the poor bastard live.” Kenneth tapped the rapier before clearing his throat. “You see, the official story will be that I, Kenneth Thornewell, after having been struck with grief due to the annulment of my engagement with Lady Alice, divorced my wives who in turn sought out Lady Alice in order to kill her in an act of revenge fueled by jealousy. The fact of the matter is, my wives had become full of resentment as a result of the engagement even being created in the first place. I mean, a proper noble of the Empire being forced to marry a noble from the backwater Kingdom of Sultra, it was just unthinkable to them. Thus, they sought revenge of their own accord, killing Lady Alice, her sister, and most of the heroes, with the ‘remains’ of the hero Mirasol never being found.”
“Divorce? What are you talking about?” Isabella asked in between fits of coughs.
Kenneth plunged the rapier into Isabella’s chest, giving the blade a good twist before pulling it out.
Isabella cried out in pain.
“I’ve had divorce documents prepared since the moment we gave each other our vows, just in case I ever had to use you, any of you really, to save myself.”
Isabella clutched her hands around her wound with her bloodied and burned arms.
Kenneth shook his head while chuckling. “As much as I would love to see how much your enhancements improved your vigor and endurance, I’m not so cruel as to receive increased pleasure from increased suffering.” Kenneth raised his blade once more, aiming the tip towards Isabella’s neck. “I will grant you one act of true kindness, as a reward for your service and engraved loyalty towards me after all these years. I’ll end your life with a single strike.”
Despite having been submerged in water for so long, and actively surrounded myself with endless ice, all I could feel was the burning rage inside me begin to overflow, burning until it burned away far too much inside me and for far too long.
I found myself subconsciously pulling all the remaining drops of water towards me. As I came into contact with the water, I could feel my wounds and burns begin to go close up and heal. My exhaustion was being washed away as all of my pain disappeared, leaving behind only my rage as it continued to burn until I felt nothing but numbness, a series of different types of numbnesses.
There was the numbness I felt in my brain as I began to ignore all rationale.
Then their was the numbness I felt in my magic as I summoned more water into existence and used it to carry me over to Kenneth.
The numbness that inserted itself into my right arm as Kenneth pierced it with his blade.
The numbness in my left hand as I pinned Kenneth to the ground and pummelled his face repeatedly with my fist.
With the passing of time came the numbness in my heart as I watched Kenneth’s face turn into an unrecognizable bloody mess.
Then there was the numbness in my soul as I pulled the rapier out of my flesh and held it against Kenneth’s chest.
The final numbness should have come from my hand slamming the rapier into Kenneth, instead, the numbness came from my wrist as a familiar man held onto it tightly, stopping me from taking further action. He stopped me from taking the one final action I would have never been able to come back from.
Sir Nathan held onto me as I felt tears of frustration pouring out of my eyes. He got me to drop the blade before comforting me with soft pats on the backs as I allowed a different type of numbness take over, the numbness that comes with relief.
As Sir Nathan held me in his arms and as I bawled like a newborn, dozens of knights came pouring into the cave. The knights went around checking on everyone’s conditions while also disarming Kenneth and his now ex-wives of their gear.
Finally, I saw a pair of knights checking on Alice which allowed me to fully give into my wave of relief.
As I slowly closed my eyes, I watched as one of my tears fell onto the shallow pool of water. The cave started to glow a magnificent silver color before returning to its original, equally shimmering, crystal colors.
