Lazne and Elande were not the type of people to go down without a fight, but that far from mattered. The once smug and mighty Elande would get thrown around by shadows that emerged from the ground. This of course infuriating Lazne who was now having his son turned into a ragdoll. Thrown so hard against the wall that he coughed up blood.

Due to his attacks, Lazne would attempt to strike him with pure mana, but would instead keep missing. A good thing too, since while Elande was weak compared to how Kazius was now, even Kazius would not go unscathed if hit by an attack from Lazne. Mana was good, but when thrown around and concentrated like that to charge up spells… It was more corrosive than acid. Sadly, for Lazne though, Kazius was just too fast for him. Lazne could do very little other than watch his son be smacked around.

“That one if for Alice.” Kazius mused in delight. He felt only blood thirst towards the two. “I did promise not to kill you before she got here… But you don’t need both eyes, do you? I bet you would love to match my friend, Damon… I will help you with that.”

His fun with Elande would be interrupted though.

The whole building seemed to shake; a loud buzzing was audible as mana drained even faster into Lazne. Kazius’ actions had truly pissed off the Wizard. The shaking was violent, to the point the ceiling threatened to cave in, but somehow it held.

“You have a lot of nerve coming in here and harassing my son, vermin!” Lazne roared with rage.

“That is rich, coming from you. How much did Remus’ family suffer because of you? You will stand there and obediently wait for your turn to die.” Kazius responded mockingly at the rage with quite the sneer.

Just when Kazius had been enjoying himself, toying with the two, Alice had arrived into the room. She rose from a Shadow in the room, allowed to do so with the Shadow Fiend Kazius had attached to her.

The former Princess had a good amount of blood on her, a wide smile on her face. She looked like she had returned from a peaceful walk on a nice day out. Clearly todays events had lifted some sort of weight off her shoulders.

“Seems like I made it right in time.” Alice mused, having to dodge a sudden attack from Lazne. Thankfully Alice managed to dodge, but she lacked the speed that Kazius had, so it was just barely.

“Now even the Princess is here…” Elande mocked despite being in the worse condition out of the group. Despite the beating he had taken from Kazius, he was still standing.

“You look pathetic.” Alice snapped back. It was clear when dealing with Elande she was quite emotional. She changed due to the pain and experiences the group had faced… Yet that did not mean her inner demons went away.

“Not as pathetic as your parents looked the day they were executed… I think I remember your mother crying out for help… And that Lich… Remus… Oh you should have seen his face-” Elande mocked, clearly trying to get a rise out of her.

Kazius was angry, but before he could say anything, Alice had rushed at him, her sword changing into several daggers, but even now Elande could fight back against her… Except now it was on even ground. “Leave him to me!” Alice exclaimed, determined to be the one that kills Elande.

Kazius understood why she felt the way she did… And it looked like something she could handle, so he would focus on Lazne. Still, something about this didn’t sit right with him… Then again, what she lacked in speed, she made up with in raw power when it came to her abilities. She would be fine.

He would go to fight Lazne, going straight for him, intending on finally cutting off Lazne’s source of energy… Lazne seemed to only use this as a chance to charge up further while he could, getting an attack ready.

Of course, Kazius expected the Wizard to attack him, since he was the one attacking him… But instead, rather than at Kazius, the beam was aimed at Alice. Lazne had waited for her to be in a position where reacting to the attack would not be possible for her… After piecing together her response time with his initial attack when she first got here.

As realization hit Kazius, he felt a cold chill wash over him.

Kazius had inherited a lot of traits from Seselis, so much so that it was surprisingly he still insisted on going by the name Kazius. There was still the main thing that made him Kazius though, not his personality or cruelty, but rather how much he cared about his friends… And above all, Alice.

So while his cold and wicked side yelled to not do it, before Kazius could know what he was doing, he was standing in the way between the blast and her. By then Alice had realized what was happening, turning to see the looming blue light and Kazius standing there in front of her. She could do nothing though, not with Elande attacking her.

Kazius would face the strike head on, the corrosive light almost encasing him fully despite using Shadows to try and cushion himself. Most of his power was used to shield Alice though, so there was little he could do to defend himself.

Smoke filled the room along with an odd smell. Almost like burning flesh.

Lazne would grin at this, laughing maniacally as if he had lost his mind. “So much for no future! Who has no future now! You monsters are nothing but filth! When we are done, you and the Demons will be serving-” he exclaimed only to soon freeze.

The smoke cleared, revealing the silhouette of Kazius, he was still standing.

Kazius did not have his typical composure. Livid did not begin to even describe how he looked. It was not just his facial expression that was unnerving though…

Kazius stood with a slouch, staggered. Surprisingly enough, there was no blood. Rather than burn or corrode normally, his skin had cracked in some areas on his body. His face alone was having half of it crack and chip away like pottery. Beneath the skin was revealed to be another layer of skin made of shadow like that of a shadow fiend. Very few parts of his skin actually somewhat looked like they had burned, looking red. Where the cracks had formed, black shadow smoke would come out like a boiling kettle.

Horrified that he was still standing, Lazne and Elande appeared to be taken aback.

“You knew… I was going to protect her… That was almost clever… Almost…” Kazius would stated in Shadow Fiend, sounding surprisingly calm despite his rage accenting his words.

Refusing to let what happened go.

Kazius would have more darkness envelop him, turning into a Shadow Fiend not too unlike Seselis in appearance before distorting in appearance. He resembled something that truly did crawl out of the darkness.

The agonizing screams from Lazne were worse than anything the Knights upstairs released. Alice was stunned at the sight, a cruel crunching sound being audible… It was too dark to see what Kazius was doing thanks to the shadows… And perhaps that was for the best.

Alice seemed to have the situation sink back in for her, realizing she was in the middle of a fight… But Sadly, the distraction had been enough… It was clear after witnessing this… Elande was gone.