The courtyard was enveloped in fire. Leaving the fresh and dark hallways behind, just to enter what looked like the gates of hell, I halted momentarily, covering my eyes and coughing due to the dry air. My eyes watered and sweat rolled down my face and neck. I felt Mathias a few steps in front of me, recovering faster and running somewhere. Not wanting to lose sight of him, I followed him, in the meantime separating from Domenic and the others.

“Mathias!” I called after him. To my surprise, he stopped, turning to look at me with his brow furrowed.

“What do you think you’re doing following me? You should stay with the others!” then he looked around and clicked his tongue, not finding them. He advanced towards me and grabbed my hand, covering me with his body so I could avoid the worst of the flames. “Just what are you thinking?”

“I want to make sure Lucas' fine as well. The others can take care of themselves, but…”

“I get it, ok! Damn…”

As we walked carefully, I saw the broken tiles and stone, dried soil and dirt scattered everywhere, signs that an intense battle had taken place. My heart was beating faster and harder. Where was Lucas? And Adela? What about Gale and August and…?

“Mathias?” I asked, worried when he suddenly stopped. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips, before shaking his head and continuing forward.

“Nothing. Do you see Lucas anywhere?”

“What happened? Did you sense something weird?”

He frowned, obviously annoyed that I didn’t drop it, but I didn’t care. We were together in this now, might as well tell me whatever he happened to sense.

“It’s nothing, really, just… from the fire, I thought I felt…”

“Mathias! Elaine!”

And thus, he was saved by the timely voice of Lucas. The two of us turned immediately towards the direction we heard him calling us from, and saw his redhead sticking out from behind a wall enclosing another hallway, a floor above us. I blinked.

“Lucas, what are you doing…?”

“Excuse me.”

Before I could ask Lucas what the hell he was doing up there, Mathias hoisted me up in his arms and jumped, landing perfectly on the second floor right next to his little brother. He put me down while I blinked in bemusement. Magic enhancement, perhaps? Medic mages did have a naturally greater mana reserve than other types of mages.

However, I wasn’t given time to ponder on it, as a familiar figure caught my attention.

“Adela! What…?” I knelt, placing a hand on her forehead. She was lying down, her head on Lucas’ lap, her face flushed and her breathing agitated. Her skin felt hot.

“What happened to her? What happened here?” Mathias asked what I was also wondering. Lucas bit his lip, lifting his head slightly to look over the wall towards the courtyard, before sighing and slumping against it. He closed his eyes.

“When we arrived father was alone, trying to put down the fire. Gale and the others attacked him and I heard a sound coming from underground. I thought Mathias was trapped, but…” then he looked down at Adela, his eyes softening with worry. “She passed out from lack of oxygen and hasn’t woken up since then…”

“Fuck!” Mathias shouted, his hands tightening to fists at his side. He knelt too and touched Adela’s cheek. “Come on, you were supposed to take down father after I cut the mana supply of the castle. Wake up already!”

“What happened after that?” I asked, seeing Mathias shaking Adela, to no avail. “We heard a horrible sound from the other side. Was that your father?”

Lucas closed his eyes, shuddering as if he remembered something unpleasant. “After the mana was cut, Gale and the others managed to drive father to a corner… everything was going well, however, when August pierced his abdomen with his sword, father…” he took a breath, opening his eyes. Mathias stopped shaking Adela, looking at Lucas with rapt attention. “Father screamed. It… it didn’t sound like anything I've ever heard before. Then, the fire enveloped him, and everyone had to step back. It trapped him until the rest of the courtyard was free from the fire and it only surrounded him but then… then it exploded.”

“It exploded?” Mathias asked, frowning. Lucas nodded.

“The fire erupted everywhere. There wasn’t a single place left unscathed. I don’t know what happened to the others, because before we were burned I took Adela and ran as far as I could… despite that, I didn’t want to leave completely without knowing if the others were fine, so I hid here…”

“But… how could that happen? There’s no flowing mana, father's mana reserves shouldn't be enough for something like this and, as far as I know, he can’t use spirit magic…” Mathias murmured, astounded. I was the same. With fear, I looked out towards the courtyard. Every single corner was alight with fire, and the heat was unbearable. This place was safe for now, but if it continued growing, then we would have to move before the stone melt. I bit my lip, remembering all the people that were sleeping throughout the castle. We would need to evacuate them all…

Then something clicked inside my head. I turned sharply to Lucas. “Wait, you mean your father is still down there… inside the fire?”

Lucas nodded. At my side, I felt Mathias stiffening.

“Do you know anything about this?” I asked him. He bit his lower lip, before shaking his head.

“Like I said, he shouldn’t be able to do any magic with the mana flow cut. I have no idea… I’ve never heard of anything like this…” he frowned. Then, as if he had been struck, his eyes opened wide and he gasped, his expression showing disbelief. “No, it couldn’t be that… he didn’t perform the ritual…”

I frowned, watching him get lost in his own world. “Are you talking about the ritual to revive your mother?” I probbed him when he kept murmuring intelligible things. He shook his head.

“No, the other one, that is…” he closed his mouth, as if remembering he was saying something he shouldn’t. Both I and Lucas frowned.

“Mathias, if you know something…” Lucas started.

He was interrupted when the ground beneath us, and the castle itself, began to shake. The seismic movements of the earth were strong enough they almost prevented me from seeing what was going on in the courtyard. The fire that had been growing by the second, wild and unrestrained, seemed to be shrinking. Little by little it receded, like an ocean wave going back to the deepness of the sea, leaving behind ash and molten rock, the entire courtyard disfigured by its previous force. Like that, it was absorbed until it concentrated in a single point, a flame as tall as a person that shone blue, red, and yellow as it lowered its heat. What was left behind took my breath away.

It was the viscount, but he was unlike I’ve ever seen him. His hair was no longer copper, but ashen, his skin paper white. His eyes were completely black, as if the pupils had been blow until they covered the entirety of his eyeballs. He was naked, from head to toe, but far from feeling self-conscious or embarrassed, I was horrified. That’s because, the thing that stood out the most were the long, serpentine black forms running all over his body. As if they had a life of their own, they moved along his body, never covering him completely, sometimes on his chest, others on his face. He didn’t look human anymore, even his aura was different. And that wasn’t even the scariest part.

The scariest part was that I recognized that appearance.