Vilenka took a step back, flourished the naginata, and looked at Owin with lifeless eyes. He tried to speak, but instead of words, a spurt of blood fell from his throat. Vilenka nodded once, then swung the naginata with intent to decapitate.

Dark gray appeared in a bubble around Owin. The sound of the naginata hitting the shield echoed inside like metal striking metal. When the shield crumbled to dust, he spotted Vilenka a step back after recovering from the attack.

Behind her was the sun.

"Don't touch my friend."

Vilenka slid to the side as a flaming Isotelus chopped where she had been standing. Shade stood, covered in luminous flames, with his other arm outstretched. He held a jagged wooden stake, which he had stabbed into Vilenka's chest.

Shade winked, closing one eye socket all the way. He tore the stake free and slashed with Isotelus. The frozen, flaming sword cut directly through the vampire lord's neck. Black blood immediately dripped down and soaked into her jacket.

Shade fell to his knees in front of Owin after discarding Isotelus. "You gotta stop getting hurt like this."

Owin felt himself slump to the side.

Shade slapped him and splashed a health potion on his face. He grabbed another, uncorked it, and made the move to do it again.

Owin felt his throat close. He finally gasped in a breath. The second potion splashed against his skin.

He needed it. Owin put his head against the wall and touched the raw scar across his throat with his flesh hand. "You saved me," he said, his voice hoarse.

"That's what I'm here for." Shade grabbed Isotelus, which had gone limp, and flopped it back and forth. "Time to gather our shard?"

Owin's eyes widened. He should've known better.

Vilenka picked up her head and fit it atop her neck. The skin stitched immediately, but the collar of her jacket remained dark, stained with her black blood.

"Shade."

He stood, turned, and slapped her with Isotelus. "Ah!"

A bare foot swept his legs out.

Owin rolled to the side and felt the ground shake as the naginata chopped into the stone floor. He snatched Isotelus from Shade, hurdled the skeleton, hit the ground, and rolled again as the naginata passed just overhead. He cast Luminous Surge, covering Isotelus in luminous light, then activated Shuriken, sending out spinning sections of the sword.

Vilenka swung the naginata diagonally, aiming for his neck.

He hoped Althowin was as good as she said. Owin caught it with his prosthetic hand. A shockwave launched debris around them as his knees nearly buckled. The metal hand creaked.

The blade slowly dug into his palm, sending incoherent flares of pain, not all from the same spot. He clenched his jaw, squeezed his hand, and sent the luminous shurikens flying. Vilenka held firmly onto her weapon even as every shuriken tore into her body.

Owin's metal hand closed, snapping the blade off the end of the naginata. He stumbled from the sudden release of pressure, and immediately took a blow of the staff to the side of his head. He rolled with it and landed somewhat unsteadily.

Vilenka flared out her wings and squared up to Owin. She flourished the broken naginata as if it had always been a quarterstaff. Yellow flashed in her eyes, then a red, bubbling cloak like fire formed around her body.

"That's Blood Authority," Shade shouted. "Careful!"

He had thought Velinka was fast before. She appeared before him like she had teleported. His hands were already up, so he managed to block the staff with his metal hand. Her strength was so intense that even blocking the hit caused him to strike his own face just by blocking.

White flashed in his eyes as a bell rang inside his head. Even then, Owin refused to move his feet.

"What's this do?" Shade asked. He held the handle of Isotelus. The glowing shurikens pushed their way through Vilenka's body and ripped out the back in a brilliant shining spray of black blood. Isotelus reconstructed itself as the luminous sections returned.

Vilenka blurred as she swung the staff again. It hit with enough force to shatter against Owin's metal hand. He crashed into the wall, but never broke his eye contact with the vampire. She blurred as her wings beat and dove straight for him.

Shade sent out another flurry of luminous shurikens that embedded themselves in Velinka's wings and back. One hit deep in her calf, nearly tearing through her lower leg.

Owin met her punch with his own, hitting his metal knuckles against her pale hand. Blood from both of them was pushed away in a blast of energy. Velinka was silent when she met his eyes. She blurred again as she threw a flurry of punches. He matched as many as he could, hitting fist to fist. A few of hers snuck through, shattering chitin and breaking skin. In a matter of seconds, his hand had a flap of loose skin and bones near shattering, but Velinka also dripped a steady stream of blood from both of her mutilated hands.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Alright," Shade said. "Enough of this."

The handle of Isotelus flew overhead. Owin took a punch directly to the nose to catch the weapon. The back of his head smashed against the wall, breaking stone. He immediately recalled the shurikens, which forced them through Velinka, back to the handle. A glowing section of Isotelus hacked its way through her shin, cutting off Velinka's right ankle and foot.

With all the holes in her wings, she fell onto her hands and knees. As soon as her damaged hands tried to take her weight, they fell apart.

Shade stood on the other side with the wooden stake. He tossed it over.

Owin caught it in his metal hand.

"Forceful Mend," Shade said.

Owin gasped as his left hand stitched back together. It was somewhat malformed, but he was able to move it again.

Shade pointed at him. "Ethereal Armament."

Luminous fire formed over the stake. Owin looked at Shade, who gestured with both hands toward the vampire. Velinka was quickly healing and working back to her feet. She was on her knees, at Owin's eye level.

"Good fight," he said with a smile as he stabbed the luminous stake directly into her heart.

The yellow light immediately vanished from her eyes. Velinka gave him a small, subtle nod before she dropped lifeless to the ground.

Owin dropped to his knees, set his left hand palm down, and punched it with his metal hand. He whimpered as his hand shattered worse than before.

"What are you doing?" Shade asked. He ran over and squatted at Owin's side. "Why?"

"Health potion," Owin said quietly.

"Ah, oh. I get it." Shade opened the bag, grabbed a potion, and poured it directly on Owin's hand. "You know, this isn't how potions are meant to work."

Owin let out a breath as his hand healed better than before. It still had some deformities, but it was less horrible than it had been after the Forceful Mend.

"I thought it would help," Shade said.

Owin held up his hand. "It stopped the bleeding. It was a good choice." He sucked in a breath as he squeezed his hand into a fist. It didn't hurt. "I'll be fine until we get back."

Diphinadra walked over calmly while holding the Incandescent Blade. He pointed at the smoky door, which darkened into a void nexus. "An amusing battle."

Owin stood and took the sword, which Shade promptly sheathed. "Thank you."

Velinka's corpse vanished.

"Truly," Diphinadra said. He held out a hairy hand with a shard hovering above it.

Owin grabbed the shard, which he let settle into his shoulder right away.

Diphinadra tapped a claw on Owin's forehead. The chitin armor immediately regrew. "Cursed are a stain on Verdantallis." He slowly turned his bulging eyes to Shade. "You are, perhaps, proving you are worth something." After a beat of staring at Shade, the god turned back to Owin. He stood tall, but never broke his uncomfortable eye contact. "Artivan Morro has become the current Doomed Harbinger. The Sovereign One is, and always will be, Cynan Owain."

Too many questions were flowing into his mind. "Artivan is alive?"

"A lich is not alive."

"Could I save him?"

Diphinadra finally broke eye contact for the slightest moment of hesitation. "Perhaps."

"Thank you," Owin said.

Diphinadra nodded and gestured to the void nexus.

Shade ran over, grabbed the Thunderstrike Maul, and sprinted right through the doorway. Owin checked all of his weapons, gave the god one more nod, then followed Shade out of the Fortress Dungeon.

Owin took a great, deep breath like he had upon stepping out of the Ocean. They had exited out a door on the side of the Fortress, which earned them a few curious looks from those camping outside.

Shade grabbed Owin's shoulders and shook him. "We did it."

Owin immediately opened his list of shard heroes and scanned through the ninety something 1 Shard Heroes. Myrsvai was still there. His eyes jumped to the other lines. Everyone he knew was still on the list.

His eyes moved back to 1 Shard, and he smiled widely as he saw Potilia, Cixilo, Ernie, and Katalin had been added. Vondaire was still on the list, which meant he hadn't yet gotten a second, wherever he was.

Shade opened his index as well and leaned on Owin's head as he looked through.

"Siora," he said.

Owin grunted. "Look at 2 Shard Heroes."

"Owin." Shade poked him. "That's you."

"Keep looking."

"Ah. Nikoletta. Are you . . ."

"No. If they leave me alone, I'll leave them alone."

"Forever?"

Owin started forward, causing Shade to nearly collapse as his support vanished. "I don't know," Owin said. "I'll see what Kat and Ernie think."

"You can make your own decisions, you know. If you want."

Owin stopped short of an unoccupied fire pit. "Last time I did that you yelled at me."

"No, no. You misunderstand." Shade hurried to an empty log and plopped himself down. He hit a log with luminous magic, causing it to barely catch fire. "You were doing that for the wrong reasons. You wanted to feel in control. You wanted to hurt them."

Owin sat across. "Okay?"

"If they try to hurt you, you don't let them. But we will not hurt people just to hurt them. Right?"

Owin nodded slowly.

"You're not a villain. Don't let them control you."

Owin shot a Bolt into the fire pit, which wasn't any more successful at starting a fire.

"Excuse me." A thin man approached, head bowed. "Can I help you?"

"Oh, please do. We're useless," Shade said.

The man pointed a finger, forming the Fire Arrow spell, which shot into the fire pit and immediately ignited the half-burned wood inside. "I wouldn't call you useless. Owin is famous. You have two shards now?"

Owin smiled and let both shards rise from his shoulder.

The man's eyes widened. "Congratulations."

"Thanks."

The man nodded and scurried away.

"Hear that?" Shade asked. "You're famous."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Oh, I doubt it. That's probably what got me Cursed." Shade shrugged.

"Great."

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