A stone corridor. Torchlight flickered. Two figures entered through a groaning metal door — a young lord accompanied by his old servant.
In the cell ahead, a ragged man was chained, sitting on sand. Not typical sand however, this shimmered with Giantbone dust mixed in: the substance which nullified this prisoner's Runes.
"My lord, if you must see him please keep your distance. They say he practiced Human enchantment on women and children." The young lord's servant warned.
The young lord ignored, stepping closer. His gaze fixed on the prisoner — a bony man in rags, head bowed, chained wrists scarred. "Open the cell." The boy ordered. So stern, the servant knew not to argue but complied unwillingly.
"I heard you were once a prodigy," the young lord stood over the prisoner, "before you murdered your wife and child with forbidden runes."
The prisoner didn't react. His breath was faint. Eyes stayed low.
The young lord stooped down, meeting the man's level. "That is not what truly happened, is it?" He continued, voice gentle but steady. "In your enthused study of Runecraft, you performed Human enchantment on yourself. But nothing happened. You failed. Or so you thought. Two years after your self-experimentation, your wife died giving birth to a child that cut her from inside out. The very Rune you had casted upon yourself didn't manifest on your own body but instead on your child, claiming both the lives of your wife and infant. Broken by the consequences, you confessed to practicing Human enchantment and claimed you murdered them both so you would be punished."
The Enchanter began to sob, tears leaking from pinched eyes.
The young lord rested a hand on his head, stroking the unkempt hair gently. "You seek penance but I offer you redemption. Swear loyalty to Kaine Sect — to me, Frederich Kaine. I shall teach you to live with yourself once again."
The Enchanter slowly looked up. His face was the same one the Kaine party knew as Caelis the Enchanter.
The same eyes — much older now, dimmed by pain inside the Black Batch hideout.
Caelis now lay slumped against the wall, clothes wet with his own blood, a deep stab wound in his gut.
Footsteps echoed. Faint, then louder.
Brimmah appeared. He stopped before the dying man, then stooped, just as Frederich once did those years ago.
Caelis blinked weakly, as if recognizing him only now. "You… broke the rune?" he rasped, astonished.
Brimmah looked Caelis's wound, looked the amount of blood he'd lost, then looked his paled face. "Where are the others?" he asked, voice low but resolved.
Caelis managed a strained, painful laugh. "Even after breaking the Mindbinder Rune, you still advanced where other rookies would have fled. Wish I could report this to lord Kaine."
A moment passed. Caelis's gaze drifted, unfocused. His voice grew weak, half-bitter, half-resigned. "I'm headed to Hel when I die… considering my unforgivable sins."
Brimmah's tone was grim but steady. "Don't worry. I'll send you plenty of company soon enough."
Caelis chuckled through blood and pain. "Hold out your arms."
Brimmah obeyed. The Enchanter raised weak hands. Runestrings wisped from his fingertips. He moved his fingers deliberately, which weaved the Runestrings like knitting threads. Then they slithered under Brimmah's fingernails.
While casting, Caelis muttered, "The enemy's Human enchantment leaves no fairness in battle. Though I once swore never to use this Rune again… it seems I'll break that promise at the very end."
Light seeped under Brimmah's skin, veins igniting briefly. His arms hummed with power.
Caelis's voice now barely audible. "The enchantment will fade when I die… but I'll hold out as long as I can."
Brimmah nodded once, silent.
Caelis slumped back, breath slowing.
That was how Brimmah ended up in the wide cavern chamber how he did.
He collided with the elephant-bear Runeborn beast, slid beneath it, and tore its underbelly open from throat to gut with only his bare arm.
It collapsed in a gush of blood and entrails.
Silence fell.
Then — a finger snap.
An arrow froze mid-flight before Brimmah's head.
Brimmah lifted a finger towards the still arrow — almost curious.
As the Sealbearer's Light Conjuration broke, the arrow continued, tore against his finger and cleaved apart in halves.
One half struck a Back batch fighter along its path; the other half hit stone.
Brimmah charged.
The remaining Black Batch fighters attacked. They had numbers, while Brimmah raged berserk.
He cleaved the crossbowman in diagonal, unequal halves along with his crossbow raised to block Brimmah's deadly arm.
He rushed between some enemies faster than they could react to his swiftness, leaving heads and limbs dropping.
Trail of blood followed him like an evil aura.
Someone charged at him from side with a spear. He blocked with open hand while the spear crumbled and shattered like a feeble straw against his bloody palm.
Before he could attack the spearman, a swordsman seized that window to sneak a slash.
Brimmah's sharper instinct moved him.
He twisted. The blade missed by a hair's breadth, and actually trimmed an inch of his hair in that slowed moment.
He spun while the disarmed spearman pulled out a dagger now.
He slung the man a backhand slap across the face — which shaved away his entire jaw off his skull then.
A crossbow bolt struck his back — but didn't stop him for a moment.
He whirled his arm in an overhead arc dropped upon the swordsman's head, cleaving him in vertical halves.
Blood sprayed over stone. Sprayed over Brimmah's eyes.
Still he didn't pause. He roared over enemy screams, and raged on even though blind in that brief moment.
Wiping blood off his eyes, the moment his vision returned, he was before a man paralyzed with fear. He drove his fingers through that fighter's chest. Ribs cracked and parted as if they were paper. The body dropped like a sack.
Another screamed and tried to run. Brimmah caught him by his braided hair with one hand. Dicapitated him with the other. Swung the severed head to bash another man's teeth out. Then hurled the head hard across the air to knock the crossbowman, breaking his nose on impact.
The Black Batch broke. Panic spread like fire through dry grass. The last few survivors abandoned their weapons and fled toward a wall, screaming in fear of Brimmah.
Brimmah didn't pursue yet. He stood among the broken bodies, chest heaving, breath visible, his whole body soaked with blood that was not his own — exuding a dark aura in his enemy's eyes.
The Sealbearer — still locked with brainwashed Drunn and Vey — gritted his teeth against the pain. He exhaled sharply. Shadow Conjuration poured from his mouth like black smoke, swallowing Vey and Drunn whole. They vanished from existence.
He staggered to a wall, clutching his bleeding wound, meanwhile Brimmah now tracked the leftover Black Batch fighters, slaying them one after another.
The last two Black Batch survivors banged against the cavern wall.
The stone shuddered, then rose, revealing an opening.
From the secret tunnel, two figures appeared accompanied by that very stray dog from earlier.
One was the Black Batch lieutenant, recognized as the 2 survivors fell before him. They called him Korak. A tall man with a clouded eye and boar fleece rested over his shoulder. With him was another wearing a wooden mask — hair shaven low and body clothed in men's leather but her curvy figure betrayed her gender.
Across the chamber, the Sealbearer tried to rise. He failed.
The Lieutenant looked towards Brimmah. "Pitiful serf." He called. "How did you break my Rune?"
Brimmah walked to Benii's corpse, removed his shield, and strapped it across his back. He didn't speak.
The masked woman stooped, stroking the dog. "Kaine Runecasters are dangerous. Let me help." She asked Korak.
The Lieutenant declined with a grunt. He stepped forward. Runes ignited across his fingers — thin, white wisps of Runestrings.
The dog's ears perked. It growled, ran toward the carcass of the fallen elephant-bear Runeborn beast, and crawled inside its torn belly.
A sound like splitting bone and tearing flesh filled the chamber.
The corpse twitched. Fur rippled. Flesh reformed, closing its wound. Life and heartbeat pulsed within it once again.
Brimmah braced, eyes narrowing.
The Runeborn beast rose again, warped beyond form, a fusion of dog, bear, and elephant. Its roar broke into a mangled growl-bark-trumpeting that shook the walls.