The bright, unchanging sunlight reflected off the shallow crimson water, making the flooded courtyard look like a surreal, impossibly beautiful painting.
But Roya couldn't appreciate the beauty. She had fallen to her knees in the bloody water, completely paralyzed.
The Crimson Knight stood over her, an ancient, towering monolith of death. The glowing white slits of its helmet were locked dead onto her. The sheer, suffocating weight of its killing intent crushed the air out of her lungs. Her body was frozen solid.
A few feet away, Sam had completely given up. The young knight was staring down at the bisected remains of his captain, his eyes hollow with absolute despair.
(Come on, body! Move!) Roya screamed inside her own mind, her pupils trembling as she stared up at the blood-red armor. (If I don't run right now, I am dead! Can I even run away from something this fast?!)
The Crimson Knight slowly lowered its massive longsword. The razor-sharp steel scraped against the submerged stone floor beneath the water with a horrific, ear-piercing SKREEECH. It took a slow, deliberate step toward her.
"HEY!"
Lucas's voice roared across the courtyard.
Despite his nearly shattered left shoulder, Lucas forced himself upright, gripping his sword tightly with his right hand.
He was preparing to launch himself in a desperate charge to intercept the Knight, but before he could, a loud splashing sound echoed to his right.
The last remaining Albert knight—the one who hadn't blindly charged with Captain Jigan—had finally snapped.
He dropped his sword and was sprinting away in the opposite direction, frantically trying to reach the hedge maze.
The Crimson Knight stopped. Its featureless helmet snapped away from Roy
a, locking onto the fleeing coward. Completely ignoring Lucas and Roya, the red giant vanished in a blur of motion, charging straight after the runner.
Lucas didn't know exactly why the Knight prioritized the fleeing target, but he wasn't going to let a literal godsend of an opportunity go to waste.
He moved at blinding speed, crossing the courtyard and sliding to a halt right beside Roya.
"Come on! This is no time to freeze!" Lucas barked, hauling her to her feet with his good arm. He pointed his sword toward the towering, dark gray walls of the castle.
"The castle gate is open! Go! There has to be a way inside to break the core of this realm!"
"What do you mean, go?!" Roya panicked, her hands grabbing his intact sleeve. "Let's go together!"
Lucas ignored her, turning his sharp gaze to the sobbing knight beside them. He kicked a splash of red water right into Sam's face.
"Hey, dimwit! There is no time for crying!" Lucas yelled. "Help her get into the castle and find a way to get us out! I will hold off this oversized tin can. Go. Now!"
Sam blinked, the cold water snapping him out of his shock. He looked at Lucas, then at Roya. Survival instinct finally kicked in. He scrambled to his feet, grabbed Roya's wrist, and started dragging her violently toward the open castle gates.
"Roya, let's go!" Sam yelled, his voice cracking. "We won't be of any help to him out here!"
Roya stumbled through the water, being dragged away. She looked back over her shoulder. Lucas was standing alone in the massive bloody courtyard, holding his sword with one hand, his left arm hanging limply at his side.
"Mr. Lucas!" Roya shouted, tears blurring her vision. "Promise me you won't die!"
Lucas slowly turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. A thin trail of blood dripped from his nose, and his clothes were soaked in red water.
But despite the insurmountable odds, that familiar, incredibly smug smile spread across his face.
He rested the flat of his blade casually against his uninjured shoulder.
"Did you forget what my Title is, brat?"
Roya's breath hitched. She aggressively wiped her eyes, hiding her tears as she turned forward, sprinting alongside Sam toward the looming darkness of the castle entrance.
"Don't look back!" Sam yelled as they crossed the threshold into the castle. "We can't slow down! We have to find the realm's core and end this as fast as possible! That's the only way those of us left might survive!"
Outside, the heavy, echoing splash of water made Lucas turn his attention forward.
The Crimson Knight had returned.
In its massive gauntlet, it effortlessly dragged the dead, limp body of the runaway knight by the collar. The Knight stopped thirty feet away from Lucas, casually dropping the corpse.
SPLASH.
The red giant slowly raised its massive longsword, gripping the hilt with both hands, and dropped into a flawless, terrifyingly oppressive combat stance.
Lucas let out a low breath, a wild, dangerous glint igniting in his eyes. He gripped his own hilt with both hands, ignoring the blinding pain screaming from his left shoulder.
"Well then," Lucas smirked, the air around him beginning to violently hum. "This is gonna be fun."
A massive, blinding blast of azure blue aura exploded from Lucas's core, wrapping around his blade like a localized hurricane. The water beneath his feet blasted outward in a perfect circle.
In unison, the Azure Dragon and the Crimson Knight charged.
Inside the castle, Roya and Sam were sprinting at full speed down a massive, echoing corridor.
"This castle is huge!" Sam panted, his armor clanking loudly against the dark gray stone walls. "Where do we even look?!"
Roya scanned their surroundings.
It was completely surreal. The castle walls were a dark, somber gray, yet the interior was inexplicably overgrown with vibrant nature.
Bright, exotic flowers bloomed out of the cracks in the stone. Small, colorful birds chirped loudly as they flew between empty chandeliers. The rooms they passed were filled with dust-covered furniture, but completely devoid of human life.
As the minutes ticked by, the muffled sounds of earth-shattering explosions echoed from outside. Roya's worry for Lucas gnawed fiercely at her chest.
(No,) Roya slapped her own cheeks sharply. (I need to focus! Lucas is counting on me!)
"Stop!" Roya ordered, skidding to a halt in the middle of a massive hallway.
She dropped to her knees, closing her eyes and pressing her hands flat against the cold stone floor.
She completely unleashed her Aether. Dense, dark threads exploded from her body, shooting out in every conceivable direction. They crawled up the walls, slipped under locked doors, and raced down the labyrinth of corridors.
"Keep the beasts off me!" Roya yelled, her brow dripping with sweat as her mind mapped the massive structure.
"Beasts?!" Sam asked wildly.
A low growl answered him. Dropping from the rafters above were several dark, panther-like cats. They had vicious, curving horns on their heads and glowing red eyes.
Sam drew his standard-issue longsword with a terrified battle cry, desperately swinging at the agile, horned beasts to keep them away from the meditating girl.
Roya pushed her Aether further, ignoring the sounds of Sam fighting for his life. She scanned dozens of empty rooms until, deep within the heart of the castle, straight down the grand hall, her threads hit something.
It was a heavy, suffocating pressure. Pure Aether, the exact color of dried blood, was actively oozing out from the cracks of a single set of doors.
Roya's eyes snapped open. She immediately retracted her threads.
Beside her, Sam was on his knees, panting heavily. His armor was covered in deep, jagged scratch marks, and his face was bruised, but the horned cats had retreated into the shadows. He was alive.
"I found it," Roya said, helping him up. "Let's go!"
CLANG! SHRRRRING!
The explosive sound of metal clashing against metal sent a shockwave across the crimson lake.
Lucas was sent skidding backward across the water, his boots throwing up massive waves of red. He gritted his teeth, stabilizing himself. His breath was ragged.
His remaining armor was covered in deep, jagged gouges, and fresh cuts lined his cheeks and arms.
(Damn,) Lucas thought, spitting a wad of blood into the water. (This bastard is one tough cookie.)
Fifty feet away, the Crimson Knight slowly stood up to its full, terrifying height. Despite taking the absolute brunt of Lucas's blindingly fast sword strikes, the blood-red armor didn't have a single scratch on it.
The Knight took a step forward. A heavy, physical wave of pressure rolled through the air, forcing the water to ripple away from its boots.
Lucas felt the weight of the pressure press down on his chest. His eyes narrowed.
(I see. Even after all that, he still hasn't used his full power.)
Lucas slowly stood up straight. He rolled his injured left shoulder, pushing past the agonizing pain, and gripped his sword perfectly with both hands. He raised the blade vertically in front of his face.
"Well," Lucas whispered, his voice dropping into a deadly, echoing register. "Neither have I."
A heavy, incredibly violent, dark blue Aether erupted from his body. It wasn't the clean, controlled aura from before. This was raw, catastrophic power.
A heavy, incredibly violent, azure blue Aether erupted from his core, instantly engulfing his entire body. It wasn't the clean, controlled aura focused only on his blade like before. This was raw, catastrophic power cloaking him from head to toe.
The sheer output of his full-body Aether spun around him like a massive, localized hurricane. The violent pressure of his energy made the ground beneath the lake shake, blasting the crimson water away in heavy waves. The water parted completely, violently pushed back as if it couldn't even touch the blazing azure armor of his aura.
His eyes, normally lazy and relaxed, were now glowing with a piercing, blinding azure blue light.
"Time for Round Two," Lucas smiled.
Huff... Huff...
Roya and Sam stumbled to a halt, their lungs burning.
They stood at the very end of the massive, vaulted grand hall, directly in front of the entrance to the throne room. Before them stood a massive, imposing double door.
Unlike the rest of the dark gray stone, this door was forged from pure, polished silver. Intricate, beautiful engravings of red roses and thorny vines wrapped around the metal.
But what made Roya's heart hammer in her chest was the thick, viscous red Aether literally oozing from the cracks of the silver frame, pooling on the floor like spilled blood.
"This is it," Roya said, her voice trembling slightly.
She stepped forward, placing her hands against the cold silver. Sam stepped up beside her, pressing his hands against the other side.
"Let's go inside," Roya nodded.
Together, they pushed. The heavy silver doors groaned loudly, slowly swinging open to reveal the blinding red light waiting inside.