Lysandus' pale eyes shone with pride as he watched his blade sink into Ethan's thorn-encrusted chest. He watched his opponent spasm, twitch, and seem to fall before him while his anger simply ebbed and burned ever bright. Now, he'd deal with the other ones outside.

But confusion swept over the icy features of the Frostbound King as he looked into the face of his prey and saw a vicious smile sitting there.

"I know more than most how pure anger can blind you," Ethan told him within the icy prism on the ocean. "By this point, you're probably too far gone down that path to come back, aren't you?"

Lysandus' bestial roar caused cracks to form in his ice-prison. But Ethan never even flinched.

"I know, because I've been walking the same damn path. And it took one person to show me that it's not the path I want to walk. You never had that, did you? I'm betting all you ever had were yes men who told you how right you were. You've never questioned a single thing in your life."

Ethan didn't need to possess this man to know any of this. The truth was written in his face, in every wrinkle and line of anger that told of unimaginable cruelties committed across his rule – that told of actions Ethan had only heard spoken of in hushed whispers in the corners of Sanctum, and by his party members.

And yet those eyes were human eyes. The very same eyes Ethan still had, in a sense. And the very same eyes that had been filled with more and more desire to destroy ever since he'd seen Argwyll's surface.

And only now, in the reflection of another who wished to cause only more pain and suffering, did he see that completely.

The Frost Knight twisted. He tried to turn his blade – which surely should have pierced whatever black heart beat within the chest of the demon lord's Host.

Instead, he watched his blade as it shook under him, and realized what skill was keeping him locked in place.

[Barkskin: Activated]

In the second when Lysandus had pierced his chest, Ethan had snapped his armored hide on and stiffened, managing to stop the sword through the sheer thickness of his Drychtling coating. The blade still exuded its deadly aura of ice, but he tanked it and kept Lysandus held down. The Kind flailed, flopped, and growled in fury. But he held firm.

"I wonder if there would have been a time when a man like you could have been changed," Ethan said, readying his blade as Lysandus desperately tried to pull himself away. "As I hear it, you're the man responsible for the purges that have killed thousands over the last century. People's homes were destroyed all because you were afraid of them, weren't you? All because you knew the next Archon would rise, because that's Kaedmon's decree, isn't it?"

If Lysandus could hear him, he showed no visible signs of understanding. His eyes flared, watching Ethan flex his claws.

"You don't get the luxury of forgiveness, king," he said. "You might even think you've been punished enough – becoming the plaything of that sadistic freak living in that castle."

Lysandus saw his opponent's attack coming. And he screamed through frost-encrusted lungs.

"But you're not done yet," Ethan said. "After all, we might just have some use for you."

Ethan's left claw pierced clean through the armored neck of the King, enhanced with Poison Coating to drain away his HP while Ethan brought up Greybane and followed up with a vertical slash that cut the icy tendons from the neck of the monarch. Lysandus fell upon the icy plane he'd carved into the sea, and with a gargle of black, viscous blood, he choked and let his greatsword fall. It dissolved away from Ethan's chest just in time for Barkskin to relent, and Ethan allowed himself to drop to his knees and breathe again.

"Ethan!"

Tara's arms were the first he felt round his neck, followed by Klax who was still dripping wet from the recently dispelled Water Elementals. It seemed that as each one fell, they'd only added to Ethan's Spirit Core Count:

Current Spirit Cores: 2000

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Fauna kept her distance, clutching her staff in trepidation as she slowly made her way up to the team. Lamphrey, meanwhile, simply stood and observed.

"We – we tried breakin' through but…those little bastards just kept coming!" Tara yelped in his ear. "When we saw you get trapped we – well – we –"

"Never doubted you for a second," Klax finished, offering a hand to Ethan to help him rise.

Ethan, however, refused his hand. Instead, he locked gazes with Fauna.

"Ethan?"

He rose and walked up to her, shaking off the excess blood from Lysandus' innards and coming to stand before the shaking rabbit-girl.

"You've got something on your hair," he told her.

With a wet sniffle, she fumbled with her forehead hairs and brushed off a stray jellyfish that had attached itself to her during the melee – possibly hidden inside the body of one Elemental as it attacked.

"I – yeah," she mumbled.

He flashed her a smile – one she thought she'd never see again.

"I've been blind for a while, Faun," he said. "But I'm done looking into hateful eyes and feeling only fear and rage. I'm not that. I'm not him," he said, pointing to the still gargling Lysandus on the icy ground. "But sometimes I need help seeing that."

The Hopla sniffled. But she nodded, understanding.

"That's what I'm here for," she said quietly.

"Promise me you'll keep being here," Ethan said, bending down to pet her gently. "I'd be an idiot to lose you, Faun."

She beamed up at him with a face that told him all transgressions were forgiven. She didn't need to say anything else.

And yet she did: "I'm not going anywhere."

Tara stared blankly at the whole spectacle while Klax smiled under his great nose.

"Uh, did I miss somethin' here?"

"You are watching reconciliation between our teammates, Tara. It seems it is possible for us to understand eachother after all."

The Minxit rolled her eyes, but there was no malice in the expression.

"…anyway, we got bigger fish that still needs frying."

She stepped towards the broken body of Lysandus – what was left of him, anyway.

Lysandus the Frostbound King

HP: 5/1600

WILL: 50/2650

"Not so tough without your servants, eh?" Tara scoffed as she gave the broken king a little kick in his side. "Look at you now. Just another puppet like the hundreds we've killed. Bet you wanna burn us up bad right now, don'tcha? Go on, just try it."

She unsheathed a dagger and brought it close to his cheek, watching in glee as he recoiled, even as his eyes still flared with fury.

"Tara."

The voice was Ethan's, and she turned. Where before there would be defiance in her eyes, now there was loyalty to the Archon who had brought her through more than just combat encounters.

"We need him alive," Ethan said. "He's more use to us that way."

The Minxit grinned, savoring the idea of the King being their pawn.

"Indeed," Lamphrey broke in from behind the group. "With the ship destroyed, we need a new form of transport. The old King's ice powers will prove exceptionally useful in that regard."

"Not just that," Ethan added.

The team looked towards him.

"This guy – this Haylock – all he's done is throw his little experiments at us. Toy after toy, like a kid playing with us. He doesn't care how many die. In fact, I'm betting he wants us to know that. Maybe to shake us up. I'm almost sure he's betting on us killing Lysandus as retribution for the crimes the old man's committed against hybridkind."

The Frostbound knight snarled beneath them at the Archon's words, like a buzzsaw ready to clip their limbs. But his willpower was spent. He was theirs, now.

"So you wish to use him," Klax said. "As a Host."

"It'll work, I guess," Tara agreed. "After all, your Host right now was once human, right? Seems like once a human's gone through enough of a transformation, you can hop on 'em and take them over just like any monster."

The party looked down at Lysandus' crippled form, seeing only the smallest hints of his humanity left.

"All…hybrid…scum…di-eugh!"

"Yeah, yeah," Tara said as she gave him another stout kick in his frozen ribcage. "Shut it now. The adults are talking."

"Taking his power would add elemental strength to your arsenal," Lamphrey nodded. "You would be wise to take it for your own."

Fauna bristled as Ethan listened.

"Faun?" he asked. "Go ahead. Speak your mind."

"It's just – look what happened when you took on the memories of Malak's wife. All the rage, all the hate…"

"Ethan can handle it," Tara said. "He's always been able to, right?"

Klax and Fauna locked eyes. This time, Lamphrey stayed silent.

But Ethan was totally cool as he laid a warm claw on Fauna's shoulder, ruffling the rim of his hatty form.

"I know who I am," he said. "And I'll never lose that. Not while I have all of you here with me. But if you're concerned, don't worry. I've got a better idea."

Without warning, Ethan's entire body glowed with power as he unshackled a new skill – something that he'd seen was a possible upgrade back at the Sentinel lighthouse, but had been waiting for the right time to employ it.

Fauna's eyes widened as she realized what this skill meant.

"You think I'd wanna spend my time rummaging around in the headspace of someone like this?" he asked with a smile, indicating Lysandus's frozen body. "Nah. From now on, I'm going to be the one in control. And I'm going to use this ability to hit that bastard doctor where it hurts."

Tara smirked down at Lysandus as she chuckled. "There's no way he could know you could do this…He'll never know what hit him."

Even Lamphrey smiled as Ethan raised his hand, and made ready to show the old King Lysandus the true power of the Archon.

"You were nothing but a bane on this world in life, Lysandus," Ethan said. "But now, just before your time is up, you're going to do something right. We're going to assault that castle and take the good doctor down. And you're going to be our little vanguard."

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