Part 1

I could almost see the blood flowing out of my brother's crushed throat. His eyes exploding out of their sockets as his mouth filled with the remnants of lifely blood and foam before exhaling his last, choked breath.

My heart began beating uncontrollably. It was painful. Each furious beating knocked urgently on my ribs, threatening of ripping out of my chest and running to my brother's aid. I could feel my breath cutting short. My diaphragm burning with fatigue. If not for me forcefully blinking my blood-stained eyes, I would have fallen on my knees.

Reality unfolded back to me. Lucas was not dead. He was alive, struggling to escape from the firm grip of the stone-faced skeleton. The relief on my face must have been so easy to read that the skeleton laughed.

He laughed.

In the face of my despair, he laughed.

He swung his arm around again, effortlessly throwing my brother right into my arms. The force of it pushed me back, almost touching an invisible barrier. I buckled, falling on one knee to support the sudden added weight. Panic rushed through me as I could barely hear Lucas faintly breathing. I shouted as I filled my brother's lungs with air, causing him to spasm awake. The skeleton simply looked. He looked with what I judged to be mild interest, perhaps curiosity. My blood began to boil as my eyes set on the marks around my brother's neck. The same fiery, hot rage that I felt in the past began swelling, it's fury directed at the figure standing in front of me.

I was just about to launch myself at him, mindlessly, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I looked down and saw my brother shaking his head. The hot rage turned warm, then shriveled away, becoming a silent source of energy.

"A noteworthy attempt-" The skeleton repeated as he slowly clapped his gauntleted hands, filling the room with an ominous sound of metal against metal "- Noteworthy for ones as young as you, barely of age and yet powerful enough to go toe to toe with warriors much experienced than you...Unfortunately, I'm beyond that. Is this really all you have to show? I struggle to believe you could survive against Black with this meager power. Your lives are hanging by a thread...and I'm starting to bore of you"

"What do y-*cough* you want?" Lucas asked.

His tone wasn't as decisive and solid as usual. Even when beaten and tired, Lucas had always kept his pride. The look in his eyes, the strength in his voice. I could feel nothing of it. At that moment he was just scared.

"What do I want?-" replied the skeleton "- Right now to understand you, and I'm sure your brother knows, the most complete way to understand something is to destroy it first"

I shivered at the thought, then understood. The looks of curiosity, the feeling of being put under a microscope...we weren't "people" in his eyes but "subjects". Subjects to study, to understand, to dissect, and to learn from. I cursed internally.

"Can you still fight, Lucas?" I asked in a hushed voice as my brother struggled to stand on his own legs by my side.

"Just a bit short on breath-" He replied, cocking an unconvincing smile "- Just tell me where to strike...Raph, we can't beat him, right?"

"...We can't" I answered coldly, knowing better than to spur false hope into someone who could so easily read me.

"Yet we haven't surrendered. Is surviving still an option?"

"Possibly"

We looked at each other, deep into our eyes. The time we spent together, growing under the same roof, fighting, training, bickering, then the years at the academy, the various attempts on our lives, the risks of adventuring, the nights spent tending to his drunk self...In the span of a split second, all those memories came rushing me, as I'm sure did to him. We nodded wordlessly, knowing what we had to do. Yet an ominous feeling, a foreboding of misfortune of some sort, danced annoyingly at the back of my head. It irked me. Nonetheless, I stood up, side by side with my brother as I, once again, empowered my body with boosts.

"That look in your eyes!-" Growled the skeleton, anticipation and eagerness in his voice "- Show me what you are capable of! Show me how you reached so far down! Show me how eager you are to escape your hell! SHOW ME YOUR FATES!"

A war cry escaped our throats at once. A rude, free and animalistic war cry. My legs rushed forward. The sprint an echo of my past profession still impressed deep in my core. In the next second, I had already closed half the distance. Then, I was upon him. My fist cocked, ready to strike where his stomach should have been.

The skeleton was now smiling. A wide, creepy smile full of the cockiness of those who knew defeat would not come no matter the opponent. His eyes were fixed on me, studying my movements. His arms opened. A sign inviting us to strike. I took the bait. I had to. No matter what, I had to learn more about that skeleton. His magic, his weakness, his range, his most efficient element. Anything was a tiny sliver of hope added to my and my brother's survival. It was my role. Ironically, the commonly known as physically weak mage, was the sturdier one in our duo.

My fist landed, just not on him. Not directly. Something stood between my fist and the robe. Something malleable, yet solid and incorporeal. An amalgamation of mana unlike any I had come across. I had little to no doubt that simple physical hits were powerless against it. Thus, I tried to switch strategy as I dodged by the side, slipping to the skeleton side as I dodge his lazy attempt to grab my neck. I, then, moved my palm as close as I could to the supposed barrier and shouted "shock". Tendrils of blue energy, much similar to finger-sized thunders, ran across the opponent's figure, barely a few centimeters away. "Shock" was a spell supposed to disrupt barriers and shields alike. Even high-tiers would feel some slivers of recoil if "shock" was cast as closely as I did. Yet the barrier remained unchanged. That's when I noticed how its form seemed fluid like a wave. A multitude of smaller shields entangled like the rings of a chainmail to form a barrier. Stupor overtook me.

"Pridwen?!" I announced rather than asked incredulously.

"Outstanding judgment-" The skeleton replied. His eyes lit with intense curiosity as he looked at me while swatting away with the back of his hand one of my brother's sword strikes and letting the subsequent punch land on his barrier "- To be able to unveil the nature of my defense so easily. Your insight is marvelous!"

"How can it be?!-" I shouted, hopping back two meters before taking advantage of the floor to launch a barrage of small stone projectiles "- How can you know of it?! Pridwen is supposed to be a spell created by Arcturus himself!"

"Ah, yes-" Mused the skeleton, swatting the air with one hand causing the floor to raise in a wall-like manner, thus parrying all my shots whilst simultaneously using his staff to parry and counter my brother's relentless strikes "- Arcturus, the God of absolute defense. Previously known as the "Shield Bear" now one of the six Gods ruling the heavens. Indeed, Pridwen is one of his, if not greatest, creations...You think of me as a common litch but you stand wrong. I was once a mage, flesh and blood just like you!"

"LUCAS, OUT!-" I shouted before joining my hands, with my palms facing the litch, in front of me and sending wave after wave of mana "- INFERNO!"

Gouts of flames exploded from my hands, burning my palms in the process. A spell too high for me to fully control but not enough to fully incur in repercussions. Blood-red flames hotter than a forge's and fiercer than a forest fire, and as destructive as a volcano's. "Inferno" was that kind of spell. The kind that is rarely used due to his immense weight in mana. Even as I reduced its cost, I could still feel my mana draining every instant the fire burned.

Everything was caught in it. The statues rapidly melt, turning into puddles of orangish fluid, the columns followed suit as the pale white light of the torches suffocated into the spell. The tiles on the floor became of liquid matter and subsequently caught fire. From the walls and ceiling, the same fluid started to drip. It was hell brought to earth. A true spectacle for the eyes. Enticing...mesmerizing. However, ineffective.

In the very middle of the raging flames, a dark shadow formed. A black silhouette whose only motion was the slow clap of its hands. Regardless of the flames, the skeleton strode forward. The demeanor of an emperor, the pressure of an unfathomable being, and the physical resistance of an undefeatable knight. I bit my lip, tasting my own blood, as I realized my spell had no effect on him, yet refusing to let go of it.

"Marvelous!-" Yelled the skeleton with a hint of cheer in his voice "- Incredibly marvelous! This much firepower at such a young age! Gods! You'd make such a great pawn!"

A scream, half out of fear half out of anger, escaped my bloodied lips as the skeleton's crowned head appeared out of the fire, closer and closer to me. In his eyes, a malevolent glint was the prelude of something nasty, something evil. His undivided attention, once again, focused on something beyond me. Something that was me but at the same time wasn't. Something I wasn't aware of. I felt a pull. Not physical but rather deeper, more meaningful.

I doubled my efforts, burning holes into my palms, spewing fresh blood into the fire. I screamed my lungs out, feeling my mana draining furiously and the effects of the boosts weakening. Ineffective. He was upon me.

At just arm's length, he stood motionless. Looking me in the eyes deep and deeper. A victorious smile curving the ivory bones of his cheeks. Deathly fear clamped down on my throat as the skeleton extended an arm towards my head, not aiming for my throat but my forehead. Instinctively, I could feel magic swelling ominously within his palm. Feeling my strength drained, I let go my hold of Inferno.

At that moment, that precise moment when the fire shrieked out of existence, the skeleton's victorious grin turned into a grimace of pain and anger. I stood baffled as I watched a blade suddenly appear from the skeleton's shoulder. A red-hot blade on the very brink of melting from the heat. Red liquid was rapidly evaporating from the blade, it's metallic smell gave out its nature: blood.

Without a second thought, I channeled my mana through my arm, took a step back and instantly jumped forth toward the, hopefully, injured opponent. My hand, spewing blood and clad in electricity, was raised over my head, ready to strike down like a hammer. The blue tendrils rapidly shaped into a lance, shorter this time and much more sharp. It took a second before the skeleton's stupor for being injured disappeared, but it was enough. My spell hit the target, this time penetrating just enough into the barrier.

I smirked internally. That was all I needed. Blood gained weight behind my temples as I fired my brain to move all the electric mana accumulated into the lance toward the tiny, small and insignificant tip of the lance that was able to overcome the barrier. Lightning exploded within the barrier. Something the skeleton did not predict, perhaps. He was shocked. Both literally and metaphorically.

The shockwave of the lightning explosion sent all three of us hurling in all directions. Lucas towards the gate, me and the skeleton to opposite walls. My back slammed across the stone as my lungs emptied completely of air. But I had no time. I ignored the pain, I ignored my fatigue, I ignored the blood dripping furiously from my hands and the back of my head. My only focus was the door. I only had a handful of seconds, at best, before the skeleton would regain control.

It was now or death.

"Lucas!-" I shouted as I ran with all my might "-To the door! NOW!"

He understood instantly and like me, ignored everything and ran. He was bleeding all over. A gash on the side of his face, another on his shoulder, and burn marks all over his torso and legs. He was pale from fatigue and pain. Sweating buckets as he ran almost animalisticly towards the door.

"Look!-" He shouted as he laughed maniacally whilst showing me his left hand "-I learned from you!"

A deep and still-bleeding cut had opened his hand, showing the bright red flesh under the skin. Even in that fatigued state, it was easy to connect the dots. The seemingly sword-made cut on his hand, the blood staining the sword, the power to break through Pridwen. He had coated his sword with his own blood and heated it with his magic. I laughed with pride and copied his movement, smearing my hands with the flowing blood, getting ready to cast the spell that would, hopefully, break a hole through the gate.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH!"

Was the phrase that resounded through the hallway before I found myself slammed to the wall on my left. Lucas suffered the same fate on his right. In front of us, where before was the gate, now stood a wall, black as the darkness and heavy with corrupted mana. I dreaded its presence and the effects it would have upon touch.

The force crushing me to the wall disappeared and I tumbled to the floor, clutching at my hurting shoulder. Lucas was doing the same.

Suddenly, as if a hand was grabbing my throat, I was lifted. But no hand was grabbing me, instead I saw the skeleton, many meters away from us, holding both his arms up as if to mimic the gesture of strangling. Then, both me and my brother were dragged across the hallway, halfway through us and the skeleton, thrown to the ground and forced on our knees. An invisible force pushing our forehead onto the still-hot stone.

"I've had enough-" The skeleton repeated, this time calmly but with palpable threat still lingering in his voice "-You human's boldness knows no limits, does it? I wanted to see you struggle, despair, and reach the very height of your abilities. Yet you had the gal to run a sword through me and stun me?!" He shouted, forcing our heads even further down.

"But, I can't blame you to strive for survival...and what it to be complimented must be complimented. Congratulations! You can proudly say to be part of the few people who were able to break through Pridwen. Though mine was a weaker and incomplete version of the true spell, as I am still in the process of learning. Nonetheless, a great achievement. Something worthy of a prize"

That said, the skeleton paced himself from one side of the hallway to the other. He examined the state of the ruined hallway, the melted statues, his pierced robe, and the various marks left by the furious fight. When his expression lit up in accomplishment, he came to an alt and summoned a decently defined stone throne.

"At first I wanted to kill you both once I was done studying you...I changed my mind-" He announced proudly as he sat down on the throne "-As an accomplishment for being able to torn my robe and break through Pridwen, I'll grant you freedom...to one of you that is"

"W-what?" Asked distraught Lucas.

"The one who survives will be free to leave this place, unscathed-" He announced "- Now, kill each other"