Keiser felt the blade sing, its shrill hum clashing against the thrum of Muzio's mana. Only now did he understand why the little flame had called them the screaming blades. Aisha's mana carries a sound that wasn't just in the air, it tore through his hand, through his bones, vibrating with that familiar agony that made his teeth clench.

The hilt of the knife stopped it from cutting any deeper, but it was close enough that he felt the whisper of steel graze his cheek. The force behind it drove him a step backward.

Lenko's trembling hands were still wrapped around the weapon's grip, shaking but unrelenting, possessed with a strength that shouldn't have been there. Keiser's stomach turned when he looked at the boy's face.

Slack and empty. Half-lidded eyes staring at nothing.

His own dagger trembled in his hold, its edge resting at Lenko's neck. He tightened his grip until his knuckles went white, the arrow still lodged in his hand twisting painfully as he tried to steady the blade.

"…Damn it---Did she... get you, Muzio?" Yona's voice rang out behind him, strained and breathless, the grating of steel and the scrape of heels filling the pauses between each word.

"…Yeah," he grunted, breath ragged.

Smoke coiled from his wounded hand now, a faint blue haze that hissed where blood met steel. The corruption spread fast. Aisha's laughter followed, a low, breathless chuckle that crawled up his spine.

From the corner of his eye, he saw her rise. Blond hair wild, blood matting her temple, her cloak torn. And yet, she walked toward him, slow, deliberate.

A sharp twinge flared through his wrist. Keiser hissed under his breath and glanced down, but the faint glow of the countdown etched into his wrist was hidden, his hand was turned toward Lenko. He couldn't see how much time he had left.

Then, from above, a voice cut through the ringing air.

"Fifty seconds!"

The sixth princess' shout echoed from above the rim.

That was all he needed.

Without hesitation, Keiser moved. His muscles burned as the sigils from his calves flared, along with the back of his legs in molten lines of crimson. He pivoted and kicked, the air cracking from the force as his boot struck Lenko square in the side.

The impact sent the boy flying. Aisha barely blinked, she simply shifted her footing, letting the ground carry her aside. The floor rolled under her like a wave, stone sliding smoothly at her command. Right now, the entire undercroft was in her grasp, trembling to her will.

Keiser's wasn't much steadier. His own hand shook uncontrollably, not just from strain, but from the raw pain that tore through it as the embedded knife was suddenly wrenched free when Lenko's body flew. Blood sprayed, warm and bright, spattering his arm and the floor.

Lenko tumbled across, rolling until he hit the center. He lay still for a moment, then began to move again, slow and staggering, just a puppet forced to rise.

Keiser winced. The force he'd used should've broken ribs. He clenched his jaw. 'He can deal with the bones later, if we even get that far.'

Aisha was gliding toward him now, her every step smooth, deliberate, the ground itself carrying her forward like a tide of stone and dust.

Meanwhile, Yona, gritting her teeth, finally broke through the man's strength pressing the knife toward the girl behind her. Without hesitation, she twisted her wrists, flipping her twin blades, sharp edges reversed so their flat sides caught the man's weapon instead.

With a fierce upward shove, she deflected the knife, sparks bursting between steel. In the same motion, she surged to her feet and drove her boot straight into his chest.

The impact was brutal. The man flew backward, crashing into a stack of crates that splintered on impact, wood and metal scattering across the floor.

Yona turned immediately, her breath ragged. The child behind her was still, unmoving, unblinking. Then she finally got a good look of... the dark green tail curled limply across the floor, the faint gleam of emerald scales tracing up the girl's cheek to the sharp, fin-like edges of her ears.

A sacred dragon child.

Yona froze for a moment, the sight catching her off guard, then she shook her head off, 'not the time'. She scooped the girl into her arms, holding her tight against her chest.

When she lifted her head, her eyes caught motion, Lenko's body flying across from Keiser's own kick, and the blonde mage, gliding effortlessly along the ground.

Yona didn't think. She spun on her heel, pivoting her body as her hands moved on reflex. Both her short blades flashed as she prepared to throw.

Keiser skidded his foot across the floor, his boot sliding in a slick trail of blood that gushed freely from his foot. Yona hissed sharply, the memory flashing back, the tenth prince driving her own short blade straight through his foot without a moment's hesitation, the purple fire still licking along its edge. The blade hadn't just cut, it should had burned.

Now, seeing how much blood had already poured out, she realized it had been far worse than being reckless, it was deliberate. It was always deliberate with him.

And yet, that same blood was always the key to his madness, the way he twisted his mana through pain and will alone, turning every drop into a conduit. She simply shake her head.

Instead of running after him, Yona forced herself to move elsewhere, to the staggering boy instead. Lenko was stumbling, his gait uneven, one leg dragging limply as he leaned heavily to one side. In his hand glinted a knife, its blade slick and dripping red. Each step he took left faint splatters behind him as he lurched forward, toward Muzio.

***

Forty seconds.

The countdown echoed in his head. Muzio's blood was dripping again, no, gushing, from both palms, from the cuts on his foot, from the shallow nicks that had already been there since earlier. The ground beneath him glistened dark and wet, his own blood pooling and spreading in uneven rivulets.

When his gaze met Yona's as she sprinted toward Lenko, he only nodded once. No words, just understanding.

The blood slick on the floor wasn't just spilling, it was shifting, moving to his will. Even before this, he had already begun rewriting the ground beneath his side, overwriting Aisha's sigils with his own.

Aisha, of course, didn't stumble when her gliding floor abruptly halted like before. She leapt from it instead, trying to reach him, her hand outstretched and glowing as she attempted to brand her runes over his skin again.

But before she could touch him, the slick, blood-soaked ground began to shift, sliding out. It moved like a tide, gliding sideways beneath his feet, steady, deliberate, while he stood firm, eyes locked on her.

She shot past him, catching herself with a sharp hiss as she skidded to a stop, heels scraping. When she turned back, her expression had hardened. A flick of her wrist, and suddenly a set of knives was in her fingers, their edges shimmering with her mana.

Thirty seconds.

He caught Aisha's hand just as it reached for him, but what she saw made her freeze. The loose bandages on his arm had come undone, revealing the welted, red sigils deep into his skin. Her eyes widened. No wonder his body reacted so violently to her runes.

Her moment of hesitation was all Keiser needed. With a sharp pull, he dragged Aisha toward him, their heels sliding over the slick, blood-stained floor as the ground beneath them began to move, circling, rolling under his command.

He leaned close, his breath ragged, his voice hoarse with anger.

"Tell Gideon," he hissed, "I'll fucking make him pay."

Then, twisting his body with the momentum of the gliding floor, he wrenched his arm free and flung her forward. The slick ground beneath her caught the motion, spinning her out and slamming her face first into the floor.

The crack of impact echoed through the undercroft.

She grunted, the sound sharp and wet, and for a moment she didn't move, just groaned and pushed weakly against the trembling ground.

Keiser staggered back, panting, staring down at her. His whole body screamed. The open wounds, the torn muscles, the sigils burning along his skin, it was all too much. Maybe his body was, but now he wasn't.

He forced himself to look at his wrist.

Twenty seconds.

His hand instinctively went to his waist, where the small pouch hung beside his dagger's sheath. His fingers found nothing but the empty strap.

"…Well shit."

A rough, coughing laugh drew his eyes back down. Aisha lifted her head just enough for him to see her face, blonde hair matted with blood, one eye gleaming with pain and something close to exhilaration. Her smirk was a bloody crescent.

"I know you made a deal with an elf…" she rasped, her voice broken but mocking. "A cursed of time…"

Her grin widened even as blood dripped from her nose.

"Tick-tock."

Fifteen seconds.

Keiser's eyes widened, just in time to see Lenko thrash violently against Yona's grip. She was trying to hold him back, but his body moved with strength, staggering forward in Keiser's direction...

Aisha wasn't finished.

She struggled upright, her whole frame trembling, blood dripping down her chin. The pouch, with the dragon's heart, was clutched tight in her shaking hand. When their eyes met, she smirked through the pain, the expression cruel and knowing.

Keiser lunged. His hand stretched out, almost brushing the pouch, but Aisha with a flick of her wrist, she threw it. The moment the pouch left her fingers, Lenko's staggering stopped.

His body snapped upright like a marionette yanked by the mana strings, his knife now twisted to aim at the pouch itself.

Keiser's gaze darted from Aisha to Lenko, too late to stop it.

Ten seconds.

He didn't even feel Aisha's hand until it was already pressed against his. The contact burned cold. His breath hitched, and his vision blurred for half a second as the chill of her mana spread through him like frost biting through his veins.

Their eyes locked. Her lips curved in that same smirk.

"You can say your hello's to Gideon yourself."

The world tilted. Keiser felt his body seize, his muscles locking, his breath leaving him in a shudder. The flare of her mana froze him in place.

But then, Muzio's blood answered.

The crimson sigils flared searing against her touch. The warmth came rushing back, violent and molten. Aisha's eyes widened, her hiss of pain was sharp and guttural as the blood from his palm burned through her's.

"I will."

And then his arm ignited, runic scars lighting in sequence as he tugged on that thread of mana, once again with a snap, it answered.

Five seconds.

Keiser was already over Lenko's body when the pouch was just above the knife in Lenko's trembling hands. Without thinking, Keiser push Lenko's wrists down, getting him to let go of the knife.

They crashed hard against the ground, the impact jolting through both their bodies. The pouch rolled free, bouncing once across the stone.

"Yona!" he shouted.

She didn't hesitate. From where she was just running after them, her boot struck the pouch in a clean arc. Keiser reached up, catching it with his hand slick with blood. His dagger already slipped from his grip, while his other hand took the arrow from Lenko's chest, right where the boy's heart once beat.

The wish. The wish. The wish.

He keep repeating it inside his head, a fevered chant pounding in rhythm with his pulse. His palm pressed over the pouch, feeling the faint thrum of the dragon's heart within.

Then came the pain.

It started in his wrist, a sharp, searing bite that crawled upward through his veins. It struck his chest next, and his breath hitched. His whole body convulsed, the same agony blooming as when his own blade had skewered him.

"Ah… fuck, the blood..." he gasped.

His eyes shot toward Yona. She followed his gaze instantly, to the dragon child. Her trance had broken, her pupils dilated, her breathing ragged, hands trembling as if awakening from a nightmare.

And then it happened.

A pulse, violent, rippled through him. Keiser's heart clenched, the pain lancing through him. His chest burned as if something inside him.

He felt his strength fail. His body slumped forward over Lenko's. Shouts erupted around him, voices blending into a chorus, there was a clash of metal, someone's scream, someone's mana shaking the ground.

There was no darkness this time either.

It flared red, just as it had before.

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