I whipped around, readying my spear, mana—just about every bone in my body prepared to defend against an attack. It never came. Instead, the clapping continued, and I spotted three robed figures standing a few meters away.

Two were covered in blackened robes that were an affront to reality, as they seared through the air with an infinite darkness. One, wearing only a measly brown robe, clutched onto a sword with a single hand.

No, there was only one hand because the man lacked his other arm. But I recognized him, and so did Sereza beside me.

"Why?" she demanded. Her eyes burned with fury as she stared at the canine beastkin. "Why are you still here?"

Lolthis snarled, and a jagged, split tongue rolled out of his mouth. He was different—beyond more than a missing limb. His fur was ragged, patchy. Long, crisscrossing scars still pink and healing adorned his chest. Even his eyes were different. They looked wild, crazy; belonging to a beast more than a person.

He used his jagged blade like a crutch and hobbled forward on shaky steps. "They gave me another chance to prove myself. Heh-he hee he. I've come for you, Sererza!"

The person in the shadows beside him raised her hand. Lolthis flinched, a piece of madness retreating in terror as he started to crouch and lean away.

"This is who you lost to? She's a pretty one, I suppose. Maybe she'd make for a fun toy in the bedroom. What do you say, darling?" came a woman's voice—cold and yet saccharine.

It felt wrong, tasted wrong. Her voice tickled my ears with a worm-like quality. On reflex, the crystals covering my head activated, and they sucked in a whisper of a mote of mana—one that twisted on itself and promised delicious lies bathed in dominance.

The eldest prince ignored her and twisted the blade in his hand. My familiar hissed but stayed, heads looming next to the crystal sword, ready to pull it out. Underneath, the king groaned, his eyes never leaving his son's face.

"Why? Stop this!" the princess screamed.

"Brother! What are you doing!" the younger prince yelled.

"Mynthalla, silence them," the eldest commanded.

The woman with the mental compulsion skill strolled up to the eldest and tilted his chin in her direction. The movement knocked off her hood in deliberate slowness as if she was teasing the world with the reveal.

Beautiful. Dark hair the color of midnight and sapphire, it framed her face down to her shoulder. With glowing purple eyes rimmed with a singular red star in each pupil, she pursed plump lips.

"Was that a command, my sweet?" she asked.

The eldest pulled away, just enough too raise his head. "Just silence them. You know the deal, if they get hurt the marriage is off."

"Hmmph. Fine, but just this once. And only because you're cute." Mynthalla faced the younger royals and she flashed a smile. "Shut up. Do not speak until you're told."

At once, the protesting pair slammed their mouths shut. They panicked, with the princess practically clawing at her face, but despite their efforts no words or sound came out of their mouths.

"Y–you be-betrayed us," the king croaked. "Whyyyyy?"

The eldest shoved the blade deeper, eliciting a sputtering cough from the king. Mynthalla crouched and waved.

"Not how I figured I'd meet the father of my future husband, but here we are. Don't worry, I'll take care of Rudehn. I'll love him more than you ever have."

What was going on?

Why this, why now? What possible reason did the crown prince have for this betrayal? And why…

The barrier was back. The robed figure in the sky continued to hover with Lezka and the pale woman beside him. A quick glance to my right revealed Khrem hanging back behind Sereza while Zog slowly made his way over to me.

"What's the plan?" he whispered.

Everyone here was a superhuman essentially. They heard him and Mynthalla cocked her head, her eyes narrowing.

Rudehn ignored them and he switched grips on his blade while removing something from his robe. A small metallic device of dark brown that glowed like a beacon with inscribed runes.

There wasn't time to think. That device looked and felt insidious. Whatever the prince wanted to do, it wasn't good. But could we run?

Just then, the expression on the eldest prince's eyes widened with surprise. He pushed the blade deeper and sharpened spikes of crystal grew down the length. It didn't stop the king's body from disappearing.

One moment he was a corpse pinned to the ground and my familiar, the next, the eldest prince conjured a barrier that barely intercepted a blow that shattered the skill.

Allaron hovered where the prince had stood. Thick plates of cerulean crystal covered his body, holding him rigged. His arm was extended and the crystal slabs holding his arm straight retracted into his skin. The king's arm dropped, hanging limply at his side.

"You dare, betray everything!" Allaron coughed.

Mynthalla splayed her arms and her cloak stretched into wings as she shot into the air. A swarm of dark blades shot out rapid fire, directly at us.

Zagreus raised his body and intercepted the attacks as he thinned himself like an umbrella.

Allaron wasn't done. He teleported again and Mynthalla screamed. Something blasted one of her wings apart. She crashed for the earth and landed somewhere beyond our sight.

"Seeereeezaaaaa!" Lolthis shouted.

His swiped his blade forward but Sereza ducked under it and lobbed two objects.

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"Block this," she snapped.

The explosion of air and green mist sent Lolthis flying. Khrem tugged on my sleeve and Zagreus reshaped himself.

Too much was happening all at once. The clusterfuck was more chaotic then anything I ever did inside the arena. I readied to move, to run away but I spared a glance upwards at the flying figure.

They hadn't moved and the king turned his gaze upward.

"Are you the one who corrupted… My son?" Allaron asked.

"Corrupted? No. I gave him an opportunity to escape your shadow. It's amazing that you still have the strength to move and fight. With the curse running so deep, most demigods would be laid bare."

"You knew about my tier… So this was all planned."

The robed figure laughed, the vibrations creating literal snaps of air around him. They blanketed Lezka and the woman, but neither reacted, keeping their eyes low, still as statues.

"Did you know that blood has so many uses? Especially those of the familial kind. How else would it create a binding strong enough for someone of your caliber?"

Allaron teleported, and a massive crystal sword formed behind him. It was gigantic, big enough to be wielded by the blood kaiju Teddy's parents were fighting.

The sword swung but the King's skill shattered as it neared the robed figure. Allaron roared as blood sprouted from his shoulder and formed a spike that stabbed deep into his thigh.

The curse, it was still there and the king was on borrowed time. We had to help, but how?

"Cyrus!" I twisted around.

Teddy led the charge as he and the others sprinted toward us. Vincent was with them but not Tyrrion.

"What happened to the plan?" Isaac shouted.

"Ask the king! But then, that happened," I said, gesturing to Allaron. "Ugh, it doesn't matter. What happened to Toogen?"

"The bastard escaped after I took his leg," Igas grunted.

"No time for this now. Secure the prince and princess. We need to retreat before we get caught in the crossfire," Teddy said.

"Too late for that now. Can we even escape?" Isaac asked.

The king continued to fight, but Mynthalla and Rodehn had taken to the skies and were actively keeping the king back. Eodyne had an arrow primed and ready, but she looked to Teddy for orders.

"We have to try. Remember there are other people in the city who can help. And there's the city's defenses. If we can get them to activate it, it'll do more than we can now," Teddy said, shaking his head.

"They won't activate unless the king orders it," Celenae cut in. "Only those of the royal blood have control." I didn't know what defenses they were talking about, but I knew vaguely that all the major cities of Solunaria had something special for last resorts. It required something apocalyptic, as not even Helio had theirs activated.

I jerked my thumb to the prince and princess who looked on with tears in their eyes. "We have them, will they do?"

Teddy frowned but nodded. "I'm sorry Imelia, Allistair. We'll need you to help."

"They can't talk. That crazy woman used some sort of mental command," I said.

"Crazy is an understatement. She's one of the empresses' daughters. She probably has a slew of mental skills and curses," Sereza said. When I stared she shrugged. "Again, you learn a few things."

"Okay, royal coup. I think I can try getting us out of here," I said.

"Good. Let's go."

For the second time, I readied myself next to the barrier. It was hard to concentrate with the sky constantly shifting between muted darkness and then flashes of bright light. Explosions rained, and a turbulent wind tore at the hedge. Nobody was surprised that Zog was around but then again, we had other priorities.

Instead of shoving myself into the barrier, I had another plan. My receptacles were full, and were pushing against the bounds of what I could keep contained. Evolving to tier one had increased the amount I could take as well as reinforcing my insides. Already, a massive portion of the mana had been refined into the thicker energy syrup.

Magnus prodded my thoughts, and I nodded in understanding. My familiar had commanded the process in my stead while I was under the pressure of the barrier. Now I'd use that to try something different.

Everyone pressed together, huddling around Zagreus and Arturous. Without the king's body sprawled to worry about, most of us huddled onto Arturous' back and prepared. Eodyne, Celenae and Igas would push us through.

Alright, here we go. Let's do this.

I tapped the wellspring of energy in my chest and pushed it into my throat. Aine had her hand on the back of my neck, ready to inject me with healing.

The power came, slow as syrup but filled to the brim with electricity. My tongue tasted nothing but blood and steel. It numbed my mouth and I hate to push through the sensation.

"I command you to open." The words echoed into the air and the others covered their ears. I saw, rather than felt the command root in place, knocking against the barrier with the authority of a domineering child. It slammed into the massive barrier and released it's command.

At first, nothing happened. My throat was shredded raw and Aine pulled from my mana pool to heal the damage. The world got quiet, strangely so. Before I could look around, a large bubble formed before us.

The barrier bulged outward and then popped, revealing a hole wide enough for Arturous to squeeze through.

"Now!" Teddy ordered.

Zagreus with Khrem and the royals were the first through. Positioned near the front, one of Celenae's pillars launched them across the divide. My breath was stuck in my chest but once they landed against the grass on the other side I started to relax.

Celenae snapped another barrier around us, and Igas pushed us forward onto a forming platform of amethyst.

Pressure spiked when Arturous' nose neared the hole. Teddy blasted his aura, and Eodyne along with Sturmrorex summoned a torrential wind that pushed us back.

We barely dodged the bear-sized fist of red mana hammering into the earth.

"What do we have here? Curious little rats seeking escape?"

Eodyne released an arrow but Lezka caught it with his tail and crushed the bolt. Igas and Celenae built our defences while we jumped off Arturous and prepared.

I landed next to Teddy and readied my spear, commanding Zagreus to take Khrem and run.

The robed figure watched us underneath the shadow of his hood and snorted. When Zagreus got to his feet and charged down the empty street, he raised a hand.

Allaron appeared, more a floating torso with limp appendages. Red crystals and hardened blood coated his body like a pincushion. He raised his chin and spat a fragment of glass. It morphed and grew into another slab that flattened over the hole, blocking the robed figure's sight.

"Enough of this. Puppet, scatter."

Darkness rose from the ground and walls of shadow loomed over us. The pale woman appeared behind the robed figure. Her arms shoved deep into their earth in a pool of black. A tugging sensations tarted to pull at my sides, but Teddy enveloped his aura around me and Arturous.

"Wraith's Retreat!"

"Die, bitch!" Isaac screamed.

His daggers plunged into the woman's side, but the shadows continued. They wrapped around Eodyne and Zog, Celenae and Igas. In the split second that Sereza was in the corner of my vision, I caught her raising her tail in defence against a rabid, foaming Lolthis. Vincent slammed his shield into his head but the shadows swallowed them whole.

One moment they were next to us, then they were gone. Isaac and the women disappeared as well, with several dark-crimson shadows sprouting from the woman's back to pierce into Isaac's side before they teleported away.

"No!" I yelled.

Power surged and I called to chunk of curse and blood-aspected mana left over. Instead of my throat I funneled the power into my claws and aimed it at the robed figure's back.

Ten slashes howled, pushing through the ground and carving past a segment of the maze.

The figure turned around and slammed a furry palm into the slashes. They halted midair creating a noise akin to glass cutting glass. Lezka appeared and with a punch shattered some of the slash marks.

"Oh? Interesting,"

The figure closed his hand and red light flashed out. In the pulse of light the slashes crumbled away, overpowered.

"Tell me, little fletchling, why do you smell familiar?"

Teddy raised his shield and intercepted a blow that pushed him against me. We slammed into the leafy wall. I coughed and prepared another attack.

The robed figure sniffed the air and froze.

Crimson eyes met mine, along with a furry snout sporting leopard-like spots. It pushed past the darkness of the hood and grinned at me with sharpened feline teeth. That snarl belonged to a memory, a phantom.

A disgusting expression from someone buried deep in my memories but one I could never forget.

"I finally found you, Cyrus."

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