“NOOOOOOO!” Maddison cried out as Alejandra dropped to the floor, her sword cttering to the side and her blood soaking the dirt beneath her. Maddison gres at Hughie with unbridled rage. “I’LL KILL YOU!”

  “Jeez.” He shrugged. Walking over to the witch and kicking her in the face. “Shut up will you. I thought you’d be far more refined than that.”

  Maddison rolled over coughing blood. She grit her teeth. If only she wasn't restricted by these chains, if only she could've prevented herself from getting caught in them in the first pce.

  Suddenly a rge fre shot up above the pace and exploded in a fiery spsh of light and sparkle. “It seems our job here is done.” He gnces towards the Red Witch. “I should probably dispose of you as well, while I’m at it.” He gnced down at the bde the Lady had been using earlier.

  He had intended to take it after all. It was a powerful and beautiful sword. There was no swordsman in the world who could resist holding such a weapon.

  He walked over and leaned down to pick it up. As soon as his hand held the handle a violent vision appeared in his head.

  “Decrepit.” A bone chilling voice or more like a multitude of voices whispered directly to his mind. “Thou Spirit is far too weak.”

  It was a small figure, no more than the size of his palm, but like a nightmarish hallucination, it freaked the ever living hell out of him. It was like a cold brewing darkness enveloped his entire body. His eyes could not perceive this creature in front of him.

  “Mine rightful master still lives.” The creature spoke in an echo. “Thou life bears no power.” The creature raised its hand and a dreadful feeling cut into the Captain's stomach.

  He dropped the bde immediately to the ground and stared at it with caution.

  “LOOK AT ME!” Maddison’s voice called from the back. “YOU BASTARD!” Her cries of anguish and anger were ignored from the tense cold atmosphere that radiated from the bde.

  Hughie stepped away.

  The sword shook on its own. The ground below it is freezing over and turning completely frozen. It levitated a few inches above the ground and rushed to the Lady’s corpse, perching within her palms.

  Then, like a wave of terror. His instinct told him to run. Run as fast as he could from there as fast as possible. He didn't listen to these instincts, instead, he was excited. What could come of this dread he was feeling?

  The Lady’s loose hand gripped the sword’s hilt in a second. “Thou shall not leave this pce unharmed.” She spoke. Not in her own voice, but in the voice of the creature earlier.

  Then Hughie blinked. The environment around the Lady began to warp and bend, it was obvious what was happening.

  Alejandra Ramirez’s body had awoken its Spirit.

  Hughie smirked, his blood rushing to his finger tips. He hurriedly drew his bde and pointed it towards the creature in front of him. “Have at it!” He boasted… but that came at a cost.

  A wave of energy sent gusts of wind snapping in all directions. A pressure he has never felt before engrained itself into his body. An aura, a white aura of Spirit so rge it couldn't fit in his view.

  A white aura so massive the likes of which he didn't even think was possible. It almost sent him down to his knees.

  What was this power? This Spirit?

  The Lady—The Monster in front of him. Its eyes all white, its skin pale as snow, and its hair shining like silver. This wasn't human, it was like facing an Ice deity itself.

  “Foolish mortal.” The creature spoke with the Lady's lips. “Thine stupidity knows no bounds. Be cast frozen upon my master’s will.” It swung its bde and a wave of icy frost sliced through the thin air and crashed into Hughie, who barely blocked the attack with his own sword.

  “This Spirit.” Hughie gnces up, the view of the aura still amazes him. “I’ve seen this before.”

  “My Lady!” Maddison calls from the side. It seems Alejandra had lost herself to the bde again after she had been stabbed. “TAYLOR PLEASE!” She tried to call the Lady's name again but it proved to be of no use.

  The creature gnced at Maddison. “Useless cmor.” It spoke and shot a blizzard that sent the chained leader of the underworld flying to the edge of the garden and into a wall

  “Gack!”

  Maddison's ears perked up. As from the secret pathway out of the garden, she had heard hurried footsteps. It seemed as though the Emperor and Empress had decided to return as well.

  Maddison clenched her fists. She could not be seen by them. She had lost her disguise and because of the chains, she couldn't put it back on. There was no way to escape the situation; should she be incidentally seen by the two people she’d rather not see her true self the most.

  “My Lady…” Maddison gazed longfully at Alejandra, possessed by a being she could not begin to understand. She still felt guilty, calling her nothing more than a mere tool…

  No she shouldn't be guilty about that.

  It was the truth.

  There was no sugarcoating it.

  It would have been said sooner or ter.

  With a heavy heart, Maddison scrambles behind some debris to hide herself from the Imperials that would soon arrive.

  Meanwhile, The Captain struggles to avoid the incessant amount of spikes that rocketed towards his direction.

  “Piety.” The creature in the Lady’s face uttered and the ice shard she’d summoned earlier turned like homing missiles that chased him until they were destroyed.

  Hughie grimaced, a memory of a distant past echoed in his head.

  “BROTHER!” A younger version of him called. His surroundings covered in burning fmes and a lone knight stood in front of him, protecting him.

  The knight, his brother, turned around and knelt to face the young Hughie. “Hughie, I want you to run. Our vilge is no longer safe, the Empire has unched its attack.”

  “What about Mom? Dad?”

  His brother winced and patted his head. “They're okay. So you must get as far away as possible, okay? We’ll find you…I promise.” His brother wiped away the tears in his cheek.

  Hughie could see behind his brother, a wall of white aura that bore through the town like a natural disaster.

  The Man who destroyed his old vilge.

  The man who killed his family while he was running away.

  The Late Duke of Azarol.

  “So you're his descendant, huh?” Hughie felt a bitter taste in his mouth. “Leaving you alive is a risk that the Kingdom can not afford to take.”

  From the Garden’s side emerged the Emperor and Empress who blocked their faces as soon they returned to cover their eyes from the freezing cold and ice that bnketed the entire Garden.

  “Is that…Alejandra?”, The Emperor gawked, gazing at the white haired woman standing in the center of it all.

  “It can't be?” The Empress covered her mouth as she felt the power radiating from her.

  “That sword is…” The Emperor clenched his fists. “I didn't know it had that inside it.”

  “Jacob I—” She squeezed her husband's arm. “She’ll be fine right?”

  “She's Alejandra Ramirez, like her father, I believe her soul is far more stubborn than a normal persons.” He squeezed her shoulder back. “Let's stay under cover. We’ll only interfere if we try to do anything.”

  The Empress felt the Spirit of the Lady all the way from behind the cover. “Roselia… It seems your worst fears have come to reality.” She csped her hands and prayed. “Let the Goddess guide us.”

  …

  “OVER HERE!” Teresa looked at her ring as they dashed through hallway after hallway. They were close. She was about to see her Lady again.

  “Alright!” Ben responded behind her. He stared at the maid in front of him. A quiver in her back and a bow strapped to her shoulder. She had been the reason they could defeat Baron Hemming earlier.

  He was constantly impressed by Teresa the more he uncovered about her.

  “Are you sure you're okay, You're Highness?” Teresa’s voice was concerned. “The staff said you were stabbed directly in the heart.”

  “Don't worry, I’ve never felt better, Lady Teresa.” He smiled and she looked relieved as he said that.

  “We are close. Whatever awaits ahead is bound to be deadly.” She turned to face him. “Please, take care of, My Lady.”

  Ben paused. His hands felt nervous and his knees shook for a second. Their eyes met and there was an understanding between them. He sighed, smiled, and bowed his head. “Of course, She is the Future Empress after all.” He announced.

  “I would humbly ask you to stop that.” Teresa’s voice was venomous.

  “It was a joke.”

  “I take offense to your quips.”

  “There's no making you ugh is there?”

  “I do ugh.” She rolled her eyes. “Simply doing so to your clownery would be tantamount to ughing at an ape held at an enclosure.”

  “Are you fine with speaking such things to the Crown Prince?” He jested.

  “It was merely a tease, Your Highness.” She grinned, a genuine one. “Plus, I saved your life. I should be granted some enjoyment or two.”

  “You give a valid point.”

  …

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Hughie could only ugh as an ice shard the size of an elephant loomed over him.”

  “Your arrogance irritates me.” The Creature spoke, levitating high in the air. “Repose.”

  The giant ice shard shook and it came crashing down like a meteor.

  “AHAHAHA!” The Captain ughed as he grinded his feet on the earth below him. He created a dozen illusions of himself and ran to the side of the giant ice spike.

  He leaped upward and began running on top of it like a madman. He drew his sword as the ice spike crashed and began cracking from the bottom as it nded on the ground, reverberating the surrounding area like an earthquake.

  He reached the tip of the iceberg and then jumped to strike the flying Lady above him. He smmed his sword down and it defended itself with a frozen wall. “Peace.” She muttered to cast the defense.

  “What are you?” Hughie grit his teeth as his sword struggles to break through the ice wall. “You are not that woman from before?”

  “I am master’s malevolence. I am her benevolence. I am her will but also her doubt. I am her power yet also her fragility.” Its voices spoke in a haunting tone. “Her immense Spirit had awoken thee and now our contract has been made.”

  “What?” Hughie felt confused at her words. What did she mean?

  Hughie tried to turn invisible but Alejandra's excessive aura dispelled it in an instant. He tried to summon illusory clones but all of them were taken down before they could get close.

  This was a battle beyond him.

  This creature… was too strong.

  “Reticence.” It grabbed him and a bst of cold air emitted from her back. The Captain could feel his blood freezing over. The blizzard was too strong and he was sent crashing down towards the piles of ice that came from the giant spike earlier.

  The creature levitated downwards. It lifted its bde high-up and a collection of wind, ice, and snow began to coalesce at the tip of the bde. Hughie knew that if that struck him… he’d be dead.

  He had to come up with a pn to take her down. Even if it meant his own death. This power was far too strong for him. This creature that possessed the Lady…. Whatever it was, it was no mere monster.

  It was time to use his Adjudicator Magic to its maximum ability. Magic that breaks his limits.

  He raised his sword and twisted it. He breathed in and out and remembered his past.

  “Run.” His Brother told him as the monstrous figure behind them got ever closer. “You must live, Hughie.”

  He recalled his vilge being burned by Empire soldiers. The men, children, and women in his town syed indiscriminately for the sake of war.

  His neighbors, they used to treat him to free candy every time he passed by in exchange for a few errands. Then he’d go running to his mom telling her all about it. His brother would ugh and pat his head as his dad came from scouting the outskirts of the vilge.

  He’d run off to py with his friends and he'd tease this one girl who he always found to be cute.

  Hughie lived in such a small insignificant town.

  It all went downhill the moment his father was unable to return home. His brother and the other knights were in a daze as his Mother told him to stay inside the house.

  It didn't take long for the scream of the other vilgers to erupt. Mounted men from the Empire dressed in their armor, bearing the fgs of their country, rampaged the town.

  They killed.

  And killed.

  And killed.

  “Hughie!” His Mother shook his shoulder. “Go outside! Find your brother and get out of here!”

  “Mom? What about you?” He asked. She gnced up towards the window.

  “I’ll follow soon, okay?” She led him out through the window and he dropped behind his house.

  He walked out the alleyway and what faced him was the trampled body of that girl… the girl he liked.