My sword is in front of me, raised to block myself from any brute force of attacks that could be thrown at me. I question what attack will be used as we defensively circle each other. I will not let him win this battle, for what he did to Markus, I will make sure he is ripped apart into pieces by my bare hands.

"You are at a disadvantage; I would recommend you stand down," I demand, to which he holds his hands out. "No, I don't think I'll follow that request."

A wave of blue magic goes flying out, as blue as the diamonds that shine on his crown. I realize what exactly is giving him that magic as I use my sword to deflect his ball of spell right back at him. He ducks as quickly as he can, and it barely grazes him. The magic being used resembles a fire in how it burns.

He goes for a close combat attack and runs towards me, swinging his claw-like hands to strike me across the face. I feel my cheek getting scratched slightly, but I can use my sword to push it against his body and shove him back. He tries to grab my sword, but I raise my leg and kick him hard. He falls back as he loses balance, focusing more on me than his movements.

As he falls back, he holds his hands up to try to throw more magic at me, but I quickly grab the crown on his head before he can do that. In fear, he quickly bites my arm. I wince, pulling my arm back as I drop the crown. "What are you, a child?" I shout; he laughs as he sends a wave of magic toward me, "I just prefer to play unjustly."

I dodge the spell as I watch him attempt to grab the now-dropped crown. Before he can, I plunge my sword into his hand, shoving it down so it goes through. He screeches as I pull it out. I grab the crown from the ground as he practically flies off the handle.

"I need that crown! I am nothing without that crown!" He screams like a child as he shoots small balls of magic; they weaken the farther I walk away from his weakened body.

I throw the crown to the ground, searching for the closest rock I can find. He cries out in dread as I finally find the perfect rock. I look down at this metal crown with diamonds upon it, and with all the anger I have built up in my body; I bring it down onto the crown.

I repeatedly bash the rock against the crown until it cracks in half. Blue magic rushes out of the thing into the sky, and he screams towards the magic like it would return to him and help him again. He is incredibly pathetic as he lifts himself up halfway, trying to shoot magic at me, only for nothing to come out of his hands.

"You don't even have your own spells; you can barely fight alone." I'm walking towards him, he is trying to back away, but I rush and step upon his wounded hand. He now looks upon me in fear, and I am glad to have made him scared. "You only care about yourself," I say, raising my sword above his chest.

"Betrayal is common; sometimes that is all you need. When power is put into your hands, wouldn't you want to control the world?" He asks me, hoping he will convince me of his twisted logic. I look at him with disdain. "No, because I have people who love me, not that are scared of me."

The sword is now through his body as he cries out. The way he looks at me scares me, and I realize that I might have taken the life of a human. I think more about this as I realize that he might be a human, but he lost his humanity the day he became this monster. He looks at me regretfully as he coughs up blood, trying to wrench the now-plunged sword from his body.

"Charlotte, I'm sorry." He says, looking at me with delusion. I realize he isn't seeing things right from how much blood he has lost. He reaches into his cloak with his unharmed hand and tosses out a book, and my eyes widen as I look at the importance of this book. This is a book full of spells that are granted by the wisdom of Ether.

He pleads with me as I stand over him, still pressing in the blade as I cannot seem to get myself to let go. "Charlotte, go save the children." He begs of me, and I realize he is referring to the last queen of Etheria. I play to his delusions since that is the last thing I can grant a man on his deathbed. He might be a monster, but he was once a man himself.

"The children have been saved," I say quietly, moving his hand to the side of his body. He doesn't fight with me on this as a small smile plastered on his face. "Thank you, your mother will surely be proud of you."

I watch his life fade away from his eyes as he drifts away. I wish what he said was true. I wish Mother would have been proud of me, but she would not be proud of me for the many murders that have been done; I would not be proud of myself either.

I pull my sword out and bend down to his face. The haunted look in his eyes terrifies me. I force his eyelids closed and step away from him, grabbing the book he tossed and carrying it back to Lucifer. I look around and see the destruction caused by the dragon. The dragon has caused a chain reaction of fires; many buildings have been burnt except for the tavern and a few carts.

Lucifer is holding Markus close to him; he seems despondent as he holds Markus' body close to him, petting his hair. I look at the state of Markus' body and feel any anger that could have been left altogether drop as I move close to him again.

I tap Lucifer's leg as I crouch down in front of him. Lucifer sits and slowly looks at me. He doesn't say a single word as he hands me Markus.

I place Markus's cold and limp body onto my lap, now going through this book and hoping to find anything to save or revive him. I know there must be at least a single spell in that book that could awaken him again, and I won't stop until it has been found.

I'm flipping past any love or strength spells, especially going past the awakened dead spell. I want an alive Markus, not a zombie. I would never put him through the misery of being a rotting corpse that can move around. I finally stop upon a spell called resurrection.

I have never cast a spell before, so I pray to Ether to help me through the spell as I start chanting the words. The words spill out of me in a rushed pattern. I can feel the spell resonating inside of me as everything spins in my eyesight. I feel everything start fading to black as I feel myself fall back as Lucifer shouts my name in worry. Everything is submerged into darkness as I continue falling.