[Well, fuck. I seem to be bound here until I fulfill my obligation. I… for the sake of my spirit, I’ll try my best. This may be pushing the bounds of what I have the power to influence, but I’ll try to make this the best story I can, beyond just correcting typos and continuity errors.]

I watched as Alto and his human thrall ascended the stark stone steps to the next floor of the castle[’s main tower. Like the rest of the castle, they were shaped from a dull black stone, somehow unmarred by any seams or joins, but veined with blood-red cracks.

I hurried after them, fearful of what monstrosity might lie in wait for the Fated Hero. Although, truly, what could be more monstrous than the hero’s own black soul, a yawning void long since emptied of all empathy and human consideration?

As I ascended the narrow spiral stairs, I sent off a brief prayer to the Goddess. Please, Goddess, protect me in this time of peril and trial.

As I arrived at the tower’s sixth floor, I saw a chamber wreathed in flames. The center of the large circular room blazed with a ring of fiery braziers, and in their center floated an imposing jinn.

Starting from a thin wisp of blue smoke rising from the chamber’s floor, his body rapidly became thicker and more solid as the eye progressed upwards. His two muscular arms, clad in an array of golden armlets, were crossed over his stout, pillar-like torso. Above, the ends of a well-groomed beard and mustache twisted once again into mere wisps, below the blazing fire of his deep-set eyes.

In a booming voice that filled the whole chamber, seeming to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once, he spoke. “Foolish human. Your arrogance and the Goddess’s gifts have brought you far, yet you have little true understanding of the ways of this world. I take it upon myself to teach you these lessons so long overdue.”

“Mere words!” Alto spat back at him. “Your flames will be quenched as quickly as those of your compatriots!”

I shuddered at the vitriol that suffused the hero’s words, all too accustomed to that tone of hate being targeted at myself. At least when he was busy destroying his enemies I was spared the hurt of his cruel words.

The flames of the braziers flickered once, twice, before going out completely. The room was plunged into darkness, lit only by the burning of the jinn’s eyes as he surged upwards, suddenly massive, chanting incantations in a strange tongue.

Alto lept back, his monstrous arrogance briefly shaken. But then, as always, a smirk crept back across his face, distorting his superficially attractive features to reveal his true self.

With a flick of his wrist, Master Alto summoned a cold wind[ that blew through the room, carrying the damp chill of an early winter storm. The jinn was rent apart, violently. Like all others in this world, unable to stand against the hero’s perverse might, in the end] the jinn was easily defeated.

With a tone of cruel command, he ordered his thrall and] I follow him to the tower’s next floor. [We each meekly obeyed, my spirit as broken and obedient as hers. Though I did not know if his dark magic had twisted my mind and deeds as it had hers, I knew I had not the strength to stand against him. My soul cried out for freedom, but as always my body was his to command, a gormless smile forever pasted across my face like a rictus of death. Even these inner thoughts were a struggle to maintain as a great force strove to bend my every desire to match his cruel whims.