Then the nobles and officials thronged before the king of beasts, and said thus to him: “O Almighty Emperor, live forever! All the nobles and officials of the kingdom have consulted together to establish a royal statue and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O Divine Emperor, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O Emperor, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the South, which does not alter.”

But the lion blanched in horror as he emphatically refused, “I’m not that stupid, what if that kitten is thrown in with me again!?”

- Andanian Chronicles

“Can you still move? Chase me more!” Mirror teased playfully as she pranced up to the breathless Emperor of Saadian.

“What the blazes have you done to me…” Xerxes panted weakly as he fell to his knees and continued to bleed profusely from his countless shallow bite wounds. His defensive tattoo flared furiously as it attempted to replenish his vitality, but failed to keep up with the increased drain.

The kitten gestured at the glowing massive spell circle spread over two square kilometers across the pitted battlefield, “You are all rolled out like a big ball of yarn,” she purred as she admired her handiwork.

“What horrid trickery is this? I’m supposed to be immortal! I can’t be defeated!” The lion roared as he gathered up all his remaining strength and leapt at the enchantress, but Mirror neatly sidestepped his clumsy attack. The beleaguered beast stumbled and fell headfirst into the mud and Mirror chortled mockingly as she crouched down next to the prone emperor. “Just kill me…” Xerxes moaned. Then his eyes flickered with a spark of realization, “None of the wounds you have inflicted on me are lethal, in fact, you have gone to extreme lengths just to avoid inflicting a fatal injury. This means that I can negate all this damage by simply dying!”

“Somewhat smart,” Mirror nodded with approval, “have fun killing yourself!” The kitten’s eyes twinkled mischievously as she made no move to stop the desperate emperor.

“Am I mistaken?” Xerxes inquired doubtfully as he examined his surroundings with distrust, “Wait, what does this spell circle even do?”

“Nothing before. But now that I’ve fulfilled the enchantment’s requirement by answering your question, it reverses your time,” Mirror explained gleefully. “I plan to use this higher magic to revive you before you can heal yourself by dying. Any more questions? Little Mirror loves answering questions!” The kitten giggled.

“A stalemate?” Xerxes considered inquiringly as he sat up slowly and glared at the veiled enchantress.

“Another question!” Mirror grinned eagerly, “No it isn’t. There must be some limit to your defensive magic, and when that is finally depleted…” the kitten drooled and licked at her lips with anticipation. “Oh and by the way, now that I’ve informed you, each additional question you ask will increase the amount of time that my time reversing enchantment lasts! What else do you want to know?”

“Damn you! Blasted witch!” Xerxes moaned as he rose weakly to his feet.

“I’m not a witch, I’m the Immortal Hand of god Dagon.” Mirror answered gleefully, “Although, your kind of immortality might be somewhat superior to mine?”

“That counted as a question!?” the aghast emperor spluttered in protest.

Mirror nodded, “This is my spell, and I set the rules here. If I say it counts, it counts! By the way, this is the fourth question I have answered so far!” The impish kitten gloated, “What should I do next to this big bad Aryan hater?” She drooled as her gaze burned into him, “Almost anything eventually becomes edible with enough salt, so I’m sure that you’ll be more palatable if I turn you into a stack of sausages!” She nodded agreeably to herself as she began tracing a sinister looking spell circle on the ground before him.

“Arrgh!” Xerxes shouted desperately as he hobbled up to rub out the kitten’s magic circle.

Mirror giggled as she stepped back to observe his fanatic antics, “Oh Mr. Lion. If you hurt me, or interrupt anything I do here, extra time is added to my reversing enchantment! And this also counts as another answered question.”

“You are evil!” Xerxes groaned, “This is impossible, such a spell should never exist!”

“Good and Evil is all a matter of perspective,” the kitten replied sagely, “I’m sure that many of Dagon’s worshipers will thank me for stopping you here. And if higher magic can grant you an immortality tattoo like that, reversing time by a couple of seconds should be a cinch in comparison! Two more questions answered, any more?”

“You are lying!” Xerxes accused, “There’s no such convenient higher magic, no power can change the past. If there were such a spell, the gods would have already gone back in time to change the flow of history a millennium ago!”

“Truth and Lies are just two sides of the same fish,” she replied teasingly. “What did I lie about? And which parts are true? I never promised to answer any of your questions truthfully, why should I help you escape from my snare?” She yawned as she stretched and pranced slowly away from the stupefied lion.

“You!” Perplexed indecision ate at the emperor’s normally unassailable confidence, as he stared uncertainly at the massive spell Mirror had prepared. Then he shut his eyes to reconsider his options, before roaring with frustration and punching his fist through the chest to crush his own heart.

The kitten turned as the dying emperor gasped and collapsed into the dirt. Then as his glowing defensive runes began restoring his wounds, she drew on her remaining reserves and activated the spell that she had painstakingly crafted. An intense rumbling shook the very earth as the soil blackened from the accumulating force as she raised her hand, pointed to the still immobilized emperor, and chanted,

“I am the one who seals and silences divinities.

I am the one who knows the alpha and omega of genesis.

With the power of the 118 elemental affinities,

Bind the ties woven between life and death.

Now all of creation shall be imprisoned here, within my bloody wreath.”

The ground groaned from the abuse and collapsed beneath them, and a large crater with sheer steep walls, eight hundred meters wide and three kilometers deep opened up to swallow the two combatants. Mirror mustered her magic to slow her fall, but the recovering lion had no such luxury. A dark beam of energy crackled hungrily as it tore through his defenses and ripped his body apart before slamming the few surviving pieces into the solid bedrock with a sickening crack. “Score!” Mirror jested as she snatched up a still intact leg that had detached from his body and flung it outside the hole. “What now?” The kitten taunted, “Immortal, heal thyself!”

Xerxes groaned as he staggered up on one foot and glanced desperately for his missing limb, “I’ll kill you!” He moaned as punched himself in the chest and collapsed, but the exhausted man missed his vitals and escaped instant death by a hairsbreadth. As the kitten snickered and scampered forward mistakenly to assault him, the dying lion capitalized on her fleeting vulnerability. He thrust himself forward by kicking out with his single remaining leg and his palm pierced like a blade through her ribs before exiting her back with a spray of gore. The enchantress’ eyes widened with horror and her mouth opened with wordless shock, then the impaled girl slumped down powerlessly before him. Xerxes clamped his fist tightly within Mirror’s body to prevent her escape, “Got you now…” he gasped as the darkness finally claimed his life, but his runes flared brightly, and the lion began regenerating swiftly from his wounds as the critically injured kitten struggled to tear herself away from the king of beasts.

“Save me Aryan…” Mirror whimpered softly as she squirmed desperately in an attempt to break free, but the lion’s fingers were curled like an ironclad vice around her spine, and the weakened girl continued to bleed out even as the slumbering lion’s power surged back to its peak output.

The lion’s eyes flickered open, and his burning pools of deep green bored into the cowering enchantress in his grasp, “Your death will neither be quick nor merciful,” he gloated vengefully as he rose smoothly to his feet and dangled the helpless kitten in the air before him. “I will certainly enjoy flaying you apart gradually from the inside out,” he shook the frail girl forcefully and painted her innards across the shaft walls.

“Help…” Mirror mewed faintly as the blood she coughed out, weighed down her veil with a deep shade of red. The soaked gauze-like material tore slowly as it ripped from her face to expose her dulled blue eyes and disheveled fiery red hair.

“Whatever should I do next?” Xerxes mused, “They usually scream loudest while I tear off their…” The emperor’s words were choked off with a strangled whine of horror as her face was revealed, “Princess Lily!? No, your power is different… you must be that sister she mentioned. Blasted curses! I… I didn’t know…” He detached his fingers delicately from her mangled body and glanced hurriedly at the small patch of sky above them, “I can still keep my promise!” he muttered desperately as he cradled the semi-conscious girl gently with an arm as he clawed upwards with his remaining limbs. But the countless spell circles lining the walls hummed fiercely, and he stumbled and slid back down into the pit as a forceful magical gravity bore down on him. The lion paled in horror as he was shoved back into the dirt, “It’s a trap!” He moaned, “How do I get out?” he questioned her desperately.

“Forever, and forever, and forever…” Mirror meowed direly, “I’ll never let you hurt him… rot in this hole for eternity…” Then she coughed out another dark mouthful of blood, and the cold ashen girl lay still in his arms.

“Nooo!” The distressed emperor roared with a voice that reached up to the heavens, “Dark Ritual! Give me everything!” he demanded as he pushed past the limits of his already immense Talent to achieve a miracle. His thigh muscles swelled as all his magic was gathered in his legs, then he blasted upwards with a velocity that exceeded the speed of sound and overwhelmed the suppressive capacity of Mirror’s restraining magic. Seven long precious seconds passed as the peerless king of beasts hurtled upwards through the three-kilometer-deep tunnel and returned to the surface. And a massive sonic boom entwined with both sound and magic blasted out in his wake and thundered across the lands. Then the exhausted emperor trembled as his overexerted body steamed with heat, and his eyes glistened as tears of regret threatened to overflow their depths as he cradled the silent enchantress tenderly in his arms.

…

“Now!” Two strained voices cried out simultaneously as they both gathered up all the power they possessed.

The wolf completed her chant as she raised her dark talisman to face the sun, “You can have my life,” she cried out, “three years!” Then she screamed as she concentrated all her remaining Talent into her finger and ran towards the distracted emperor. A dense black fog seeped from the ground beneath Xerxes, and his face scrunched up with disbelief as all of his power and strength was utterly suppressed. In that briefest of moments, the mighty immortal king of beasts was reduced to a vulnerable mortal man.

Methuselah brandished a writhing globe of blood as he sped to intercept his foe, and he shouted triumphantly as he flung his gathered magic at his unprepared target. The princess’ eyes widened in dismay as she finally noticed the approaching rat, and her face was filled with despair as she was forced to raise her finger to deflect the spell the Mage General hurled at her. The very air tremored as the two mighty magics collided, and it was clear that the wolf’s spell possessed the superior penetrating strength. Her magic turned into a great flaming lance that shattered the bloody sphere’s core, before surging into the skies, and bathing the plains with a consuming white brilliance. But the surviving tendrils of the rat’s higher magic continued unabated towards her, and inflicted countless gashes on her already battered body.

“Laura!” Aryan cried out as he charged at the spent archmage and thrust a splintered lance into his side before he could mutter another spell. And Methuselah staggered backwards as blood spurted from his wound.

The wolf shot her prince a silent grateful glance as she closed the distance to the mortal emperor and lashed out with her bloodstained fists. “Die!” she screamed desperately as she slugged him in the chin with an uppercut. But she had exhausted all her power, and her blow only contained all the physical force that a young teenaged girl could muster.

The lion snarled with fury as Laura’s fists glanced off his body, but he did not retaliate and turned desperately to shield the kitten in his arms. For one single moment, all the runes tattooed on his back were utterly exposed before the attacking wolf, and The Witch of Andania dug her gore encrusted fingers into the ancient carvings and etched her blood into his body. Then she rammed her shoulder forcefully into Xerxes and toppled him back towards the hole he had emerged from. Xerxes stumbled off balance as Mirror fell from his embrace, and his arms flopped wildly as he teetered precariously on the brink.

The lion heaved a sigh of relief as he finally managed to stabilize himself, and his eyes were filled with worry as he twisted around to glance at the slumped enchantress. But just as he began to take a step forward, all the runes on his body flared wildly out of control and his dysregulated energy surged up chaotically. Then the already brittle ground crumbled beneath his feet and plunged Xerxes back into the depths.

“Yesss! I managed to off him somehow! I’ve avenged my sister…” Laura exclaimed disbelievingly.

“Xerxes, nooo! It wasn’t supposed to end like this, I hate you wolf!” Lily wailed as she sensed the abrupt disappearance of the emperor’s magical signature. The distressed princess took a single impulsive step forward as her heart overflowed with anger. A Talent that dwarfed all other powers on the battlefield flared into existence on the most distant hilltop over five kilometers away. The raw magical might from her voice alone, materialized like a cone of devastation that raged across the battered landscape and reached out to the furthest rear of the Vaishyan lines. And all the multitudes of normal Talented in its direct path were instantly incapacitated by the immense blast of magic.

“Ugh.” Lily’s eyes widened belatedly with horrified realization as the Talented tasked with escorting her were slammed to the ground by the wild power gushing from her body. The intense agony they experienced prevented them from entering the sweet release of oblivion. And the unfortunate men and women screamed with tortured agony as they wriggled like worms at her feet. Unable to withstand the vast quantity of magic she emitted, their overloaded magical channels burst open, and flooded their bodies with devastating lethalness.

The Talented wrecked untold devastation as they perished throughout the Saadian encampment. The mage on her right gasped with terrified anguish as his skin blistered and cracked, then his entire body was ignited in a raging fireball that incinerated the squad of soldiers around him. The sorceress on her left stretched on her hand in a desperate attempt to crawl away, but a glacier of pink tinted icicles exploded from her mangled fingers and scythed through a cluster of light cavalry before they could bolt away. And countless other screams surrounded the dismayed princess as she witnessed the chaotic wave of death and destruction sweeping though the forces arrayed around her.

“Monster… there was something this much worse waiting in their reserves all this time!?” Laura squeaked out as she was driven to her knees by the immeasurable magical pressure radiating towards her. If her Talent was like a brightly burning torch, and the lion’s power like a roaring bonfire, the force she now experienced resembled the conflagration that had consumed the entire Andanian palace. In that one instant, she understood the vast unbreachable gulf between their innate abilities. An abyss so astronomical that no amount of preparation, no enlightened strategy, and no higher magic she possessed could ever hope to mount a resistance against the still growing menace. The cornered wolf glanced at the dazed prince at her side and realized that she would never be able to flee with him in her weakened condition.

And so, The Witch of Andania cried out defiantly as she unleashed the ring of calamity to protect the one she loved.