Livy is visibly shaken, she thought Titus couldn’t possibly survive a spell that was specifically made to deter evil. The dark prince’s arm is still pierced through the shield but Livy maintains his composure.
Garth, Hearth, and Adi exchanged worried glances. They are all at their limit, if only Hearth could release her grasp on the platform, she could’ve done something else. Garth feels useless without a weapon and hasn’t trained any other spells besides barrier casting and Divine Smite.
Adi, on the other hand, is desperate to put an end to this. But his regeneration is slow and it is taking its sweet time.
As Titus tries to wiggle his arm out, Livy frantically stabs Titus with the dagger she’s wielding. The dark prince shouted in pain and annoyance at the hysterical attempt at him.
Adi stood up, “Hearth,” he said, “I’ll take care of the platform,” he continued, Hearth seemed in disbelief, “Run. Go to the capital, alert the queen, and tell them our initial plan has failed! Titus couldn’t be contained anymore.”
“But Master Adi,”
Adi shakes his head, “We don’t have time, think about your brothers!”
Garth clenched his fist, “Hearth…”
Hearth turns to her older brother, concerned, “Brother,” she turns her attention back to the old master and nods hesitantly.
Adi inhaled some air and raised his hands slightly, taking control of the floating platform, saying, “You must go!”
“Master Adi, you couldn’t possibly think I’ll just run away,” Hearth recast her staff. Upon closer look, its enchanted oak base is adorned by carvings of the whole Everkind family. In its crown nests a blue crystal that releases a pulsating glow.
Garth puts his hand on Hearth’s shoulder, “I’ll go find our brothers, make sure they are safe,” he nods, “I’ll go find another weapon,”
“Be safe,”
“You too,”
Adi grunts, “Hearth, you couldn’t possibly defeat Titus! Didn’t you see, he just ate whatever we threw at him!”
“I haven’t even done anything, yet!” Hearth then rushes to the edge of the platform.
“No!” Adi shouted, he tried to let go of the platform but its small descent made him refocus.
Garth steps aside onto the other edge of the platform, he looks around but only sees the battle between the Circle and the Cult. He jumps down to continue his task and maybe help the fight on the ground. Dusts forms from where he landed and when it settled, he was nowhere to be found.
Adi contemplated whether he should let go of the floating platform, frustrated at the fact that he now had the role of support. He could do two things at once but he is at his limit after throwing every powerful spell he can wield at Titus. In his mind, he knew, there was one more move he could do.
Meanwhile, Livy exhausted herself, she couldn’t pull the dagger out of Titus's beaten flesh. The dark prince took this moment to retaliate by completely shattering the shield and grabbing Livy by the neck as soon as he had freed his arm.
“Pathetic,” Titus leans closer, “In the glory days, we have no use of shields. When injuries find us on the battlefield we celebrate it, glorious men seek honor in facing death!”
Livy chokes, “But you are no glorious nor honorable!”
Titus chuckles, “Yes,” he forces Livy to open her mouth, “I take it from them!”
Titus begins to siphon Livy’s life force. Ethereal images of dark tendrils reach inside Livy’s agape mouth, pulling her defenseless placid soul. The dark prince’s eyes glow as her skin grows pale and her hair starts to bleach.
Titus deliciously savors the stolen vitality, “My favorite,” his siphon instantly regenerated the mangled flesh of Titus that suffered heavily from Livy’s repeated stabbing.
As soon as Titus felt that his whole body would start regenerating, Hearth interrupted his process yet again by throwing a basic energy blast at him. Prompting the dark prince to abruptly let go of his hostage.
Livy’s unconscious body dives but fortunately, Adi is quick enough to make a piece of the platform fly and catch her mid-air. Her body hovers only a few feet above where the ceremony’s stage was built.
“You?” Titus enrages, “Were you not the one who interrupted me last time?”
“I don’t remember,” Hearth whisked her staff, it vibrates, “Possibly!”
Another burst of energy shoots out from her staff. Hearth’s energy blast narrowly collided with Titus. But she immediately follows with another energy burst that finally hits the dark prince who staggers back.
Hearth seizes Titus’ temporary disorientation, she manipulates sharp pieces of the floating platform and shoots it at Titus. He continues to lose his composure, much to Hearth’s delight who releases a concentrated energy beam at Titus once more, this time, with twice the power.
Titus sneered when the attacks halted, little did he know, Hearth was just preparing another set of attacks. She swirls and swings her staff, the blue crystal on it emits a bright piercing light that makes the dark prince stumble.
The piercing lights surrounded Titus, blinding him in the process. Finally, it detonated, exploding like a dozen colorful fireworks contained in one place.
When the lights disperse and Titus' vision begins to recover, what welcomes him is another onslaught of energy projectiles unleashed by Hearth. The dark prince couldn’t dodge them all.
Adi watched his former student toy with the fact that she has been only using basic offensive spells that don’t need vocal incantations. But the old master worries, that Titus will soon find out the simplicity of her attacks.
But Hearth knows this as well. Her rapid barrage of normal energy beams may be weaker than average, but her mana capacity enables her to let loose a multitude of energy projectiles. To the dark prince’s chagrin, all he could do was cover his face.
The recoil from Hearth’s staff, made her slide backward in every release. After ceasing the barrage of beams, she sighed, taking an ample moment to rest, before leaping forward to dismantle the floating platform piece by piece once again.
Hearth flings small detached pieces toward Titus, who grows tired of cheap magic tricks and persistent projectiles hitting his face.
Starting to grow weary from her effort, when the platform became significantly smaller, she unleashed one final spell that she knew and muster.
Hearth points the end of her staff at Titus, “Bomba!” a build-up of energy forms at the tip of the blue crystal.
A powerful energy blast combusted, sending shockwaves that reverberated through the platform’s floor beneath her feet, causing it to recoil and slightly move in reverse.
Smoke envelopes the proximity of the blast. Adi coughs and waves his hands to clear his vision. A worn-out Hearth, fell onto her knees, supported by her staff which slowly faded away and disappeared.
But tenaciously, the enduring Titus blows the smoke away. His eyes locked on Hearth who was gasping for air, the dark prince arcs a brow at the whole performance.
“That’s it?” his voice sounded a bit dismayed, “What happened to mages, what is wrong with the mages of this time?”
Titus, after maintaining his distance away from the platform, finally hovers over to put his foot on it. He looks down at the knelt-down Hearth, while Adi is gritting his teeth, still trying to make the platform afloat.
“What happened after the last war, why do I feel like mages of this era are a bunch of soft pansies?”
“Unlike you,” Adi scoffs, “Mages of today are much more educated, they are not taught to abuse magic!”
“Please don’t tell me that you’ve stopped teaching the important spells, old man. This weakling over here,” Titus points at Hearth, “Was just hurling basic spells at me! Does she even know who I am!?”
“She knows,” Adi said, “She just doesn’t care,”
“Ah,” Titus clicks his tongue, “Apathy,”
The dark prince glances at Hearth who is staring back at him defiantly, “From the moment you built a floating structure in the sky to stand on,” Suddenly, Titus strangles Adi, "You were already doomed."
Titus took control of the floating platform, and he began to ascend slowly, “I believe Adonis here has been keeping his secrets,”
“A-Adonis?”
“You don’t even know his name?” Titus chuckles maniacally, “From what I can see, he didn’t even teach you everything. He didn’t bother to teach you the advanced spells he just did?!”
“N-no…”
The platform has now reached an unimaginable height, “Allow me to teach you then,” the dark prince suddenly initiates a rapid descent. He seizes Hearth, preventing her from plummeting.
The velocity of their free fall prompts Hearth to scream in terror, Adi desperately tries to free himself from Titus’ strangulation and take control of the platform once more.
But as the speed of descent grows, everything becomes futile, “Titus, stop this madness now!” Adi cries desperately, sinking his fingers at the dark prince, “Titus!”
“Just like old times,” Titus finds himself smiling, “Master?!”
