[WARNING: There are vivid scenes of death and torture in this part]

This one's not as bad as the last... I promise...

My feet push me forward and when I reach the spiral staircase, I realize where it is I am going. I push up the stairs and a purple wall created with magic flies up in my face, forcing me to fall back down the stairs slightly. Slamming into that wall forced the wind out of me. I breathe heavily as I try to stand up as fast as I can, but it feels like forever.

Faint sounds of heavy laughter fill the air. The inside of the castle is unharmed for now, but I am sure I just caused many knights and the demon to follow me in here. I look up at the top of the stairs, but the purple magic wall is still standing there.

How am I going to get around it? Is there another way?

I spin around and find the doorway I just ran through is already blocked off by black armored knights. But the evil sorcerer is nowhere to be seen just yet. I know he is no far from me at all. I will probably never get away from him. Images of Ma and even my little brother Lance fill my mind, and something clicks within me. A type of instinct or something. I push myself down the staircase and find myself face to face with those soulless red eyes once again. That feeling I once felt rises within me again but I quickly push it away as a wave of anger fills the space instead.

"No! You will not reach my mother or get through me to my brother!"

Something within me told me not to stand for this. I glance down towards my blade, and it shimmers brightly in my grasp.

Could it have possibly been you, Falchion?

Like the blade heard me, it flashes with a quick purple glow and responds to my connection to it that I sent without even realizing it. I narrow my gaze and nod towards the shimmering blade in my right hand.

Then, let's do it, Falchion. We must protect Ma.

Maybe I can stand up to the evil one. I just don't know what to do when he controls me with his spells though. And his speed. He is so fast. But so am I. If I cannot defeat him, then I will use my skills to keep him away from Ma and myself. At least keep him away from Ma. If she is the only way to defeat this demon, then I have to do something. But what if I can't...

Maybe it would be better if I just take her place.

I shake my thoughts out of my head and allow my magic to finally flow freely through me once again, a feeling I almost forgot how it feels. Falchion slips out of my fingers and bursts with shimmering energy and obeys my commands. I look behind me towards the knights and with a simple flick of my hand, I make my own splash of mischief and stop them in their tracks as well with my own wall of magic.

I smirk slightly and sprint away towards the doorway on the side of the large open room, while gripping Ragnell with my left hand. Maybe I can use you as well.

As I run through the short hallway, purple mist transforms the wall next to me as I run. The demon is trying to catch me. But he is only toying with me of course. I find the next room to be the bottom of a type of tower structure with more stairs. Without second thoughts, I take the staircase up, and it connected to a hallway with knights coming at me from either side. One of them swing their lance down near me and I swipe my right hand up between me and their lance with my magic encompassing it. I force my emotion through my arm and their lance clanks against my magic shield I just tossed there. My shield shows no sign of giving as they attempt to attack the shield once again.

I smirk once more, enjoying the creative ways I too can toy with my enemies, buying time for myself as I spin around to another lance coming my way. I swiftly use Ragnell as a wide shield and I block the lance from reaching me. I push the lance down so it's pointing to the ground and use that as leverage as I push myself over the armored knight, grasping Ragnell with both of my hands to do so.

I flip around and land on the floor behind the knight as they spin around trying to follow my movements. My smirk appears on my lips once again as I spin around as well to continue running down the hall towards the main part of the Castle where Ma's room is.

I'm glad these knights are slower than me.

I turn the corner and her room is right there. I run through the doorway causing a large gust of wind to swirl around the room mixing in with the dull air that was already there. Smells from the battlefield outside has filled the Castle walls now and Ma's bedroom reeks of death like it was right in the center of everything. I force myself not to look outside as my gaze finds Ma right on the bed right where I left her this morning. It feels like it has been ages since I was last in this room.

Ma looks as though she is getting weaker and weaker as time goes on. Has that thing been absorbing her energy this entire time? Is that how he has gotten to fast and powerful? He has been planning this from the very start and the beginning of today was the day that everything turned upside down. Everything was lost before the war even started.

Including me.

I look behind me, expecting to see nothing but enemy knights.

But nothing is there.

The room is empty, calm and silent. Buy why? Wasn't he just chasing me? Where is he? Seeing nothing at all behind me forces shivers down my spine and the room feels as though it has just dropped 10 degrees. After listening carefully for a few moments, I faintly hear footsteps slowly approaching the room door. My breath catches in my throat and my body tenses up as the footsteps get louder and closer. My heart slams against my chest, harder and faster.

Purple mist slowly covers the walls, floors and ceiling, slowly making its way to Ma's room. What is happening? What is he doing? He's going to make this as slow and painful as possible. I just know it. There is nowhere for me to run to. And he's almost here.

As the purple mist reaches the door, a dark figure reaches the door as well. The purple mist has caused the Castle to become dark inside, surrounded with dark purple energy blocking out any light from getting through. The dark figure morphs into the red slit eyes even brighter than the last time I saw them as the rest of the figure slowly enters view, as the purple mist gives off a faint glow.

Somehow. If dark energy could give off any form of light.

When the face of the corrupted Vladimir reaches view, the red eyes dim, and his facial expression becomes clear to me. He looks down at me with disappointment in his eye, "Aw, that ended quickly,"

It takes a step closer, its gaze focused on mine, "Is that the best you can do, boy?"

It grows closer to me, pushing me further away from the door and my only form of escape, "You were even starting to give me a good fight,"

It steps even closer, raising its claws into the air before him and purple magic starts to swirl around it. Ma behind me starts to squirm more than she just was, but her movements seem to be weak like she hardly has the energy left to struggle any further. Purple energy starts to flow from her towards the evil one's claws just like Boyd, the spell he told me he was going to use on her.

I dash forward, commanding Falchion to attack him immediately. But it just swipes me away, slamming me against the back wall as Falchion flies away from me across the room. Ragnell falls away as well, sliding to the other side of the room.

A chuckle erupts from deep within the evil one's throat as he continues sucking the life out of her, "Such amazing power... I have been waiting a very long time for this day,"

Its red slits slide over to me, and it narrows them at me, raises its other claw and flicks it to the side. My gaze is forced away from it and towards my squirming mother on the bed, her hair, dress and bed sheets are flapping everywhere like the spell is causing a hurricane.

"You will watch your mother's death too, boy,"

Ma's screams get louder and weaker as they echo through the halls of the Castle. With each passing moment, the connection between Falchion grows weaker. It has put that spell on me again. With each passing moment, Ma's energy gets less and less as the evil one's power gets more and more. The purple river-like flow of energy flowing from Ma's body gets smaller over time and the body of the evil one gets more and more encompasses with energy.

The constant wind swirling around in the room keeps obscuring my view as objects and my hair enter and leave my vision. The laughter of the evil one becomes more sinister as it gets closer to absorbing every last bit of Ma's life energy. Nothing I try does anything and it forces me to watch Ma become weaker and weaker...

Until, she stops screaming and moving altogether.

She's gone.

Just like before, the hold on me dissolves and I can suddenly move again. The tears falling down my face is the only thing obscuring my vision now as I rush around the room to retrieve both blades that fell away from my grasp just a few moments ago.

I have to go find my brother and run far away from here.

I glance over to the door and see an opening to escape. The evil one is too occupied now with his victory to stop me from escaping as I slip through the door, running across the deep purple energy flowing over the floor and down the walls like a moving river of energy towards Ma's room. The howling wind gets softer and softer as I escape the Castle, running as fast as I can away, towards the keep where Lance has been waiting.

Mmm... your mother's energy is delicious to my soul, boy. I hope you enjoyed the show. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this brilliant spell.

I ignore his sharp words as they cause another migraine throbbing through my mind. The tears will not stop as I run through the battlefield of death surrounding the Castle and force my way through the knights. None of them attempt to attack me as they must be too occupied with their leader defeating the one they were after the entire time.

Too bad, boy. You chose for her to die this way.

Its laughter echoes throughout the Kingdom and I can hear it no matter how far away I run, like it is following me, taunting me, always reminding me of my defeat, my cowardice to run away when everyone else fell right in front of me.

I felt like I had no choice.

D'aww, don't feel like that boy. You may run away as much as you like... but... you can never hide from me.

I will find you.

I continue running as my mind races between Ma's words from those many years ago and that tome she was holding flashes in my mind.

That tome.

That spell.

I have to find that tome. That may be my only choice. That may be the way to win.

After a moment of running, the keep slowly enters my view as the sky has slowly emptied of the dark purple energy that is currently surrounding the Castle. The sky is calm here and the atmosphere is quiet.

Too quiet. I hate it.

Lance peeks his head out from the keep entranceway and our eyes meet. I stop in my tracks and we stare at each other for a long time. My mind stops racing and every thought I was just thinking fades away. Time feels like it stops as I study my brother's face staring back at mine. The longer he stares at me, the more terrified and scared he looks. The look he gives me when he looks back up into my gaze slices my heart into two.

Uhm, hey. The horrible stuff is over now. I promise...

So uhm, I have a little scene to show you before we continue. I hope you like it!

Ma said to put it in. She knows best I guess, heh.

~Merric