Arden had hoped that by swallowing the Godstone he would be stronger. Faster. That hope was dashed pretty quickly when he barely felt a difference in his constitution. There was one difference though.

  He felt a strange energy deep inside of him. It was warm, and it soothed the soul. There was a hint of familiarity in it, but Arden didn’t have time to focus on that now.

  Nocturne and Nux Valtorin moved in unison towards Arden. Their faces were full of hatred, while Arden merely smiled as they suddenly appeared in front of him brandishing their weapons.

  Arden’s arm moved on instinct aiming to block Nux’s sword. The sound of clashing steel resounded on the mountain as the fight began in earnest.

  Nocturne dove into the shadows and tried to attack Arden with his own shadow. However, as soon as he entered the thief's shadow he felt scorching pain consume him.

  “Ah!” Nocturne gasped.

  He exited the shadow and reappeared in front of Arden with black scorch marks blackening his body and his attire. There was something powerful coming from Arden’s shadow, something that would not allow any unwanted entry.

  No, it was like it was blasphemy to even make the attempt.

  Nocturne scowled at Arden but still continued to attack.

  Conjured spears of blackness manifested from Nocturne’s shadows and flew towards Arden.

  As Arden was already fighting back against Nux, he was unable to dodge the shadow spears as they pierced his abdomen, like so many weapons had already.

  Arden yelled in pain as he was again impaled.

  Nux pressed the advantage, and brought his sword down against Arden’s. The two swords shook as they fought against each other for dominance.

  Nux took the lead. He had much more strength than the walking corpse. If he continued, he would have handily beaten the slum rat in a sword fight. He had been taught since birth how to fight honorably with a sword.

  So, Arden took away that advantage. While the prince was trained to take over the Valtorin family, Arden had been trained to survive in the slums. So he did what was expected of those from the slums.

  He fought dirty.

  Arden’s broken hand let go of the sword's hilt and shoved it into his pouch to grab the shortsword he had stolen from one of the assassins.

  The entire moment had only taken a second. The silver glint of the moonlight flashed across the blade's edge as it flashed through the air across Nux’s stomach.

  Crimson blood poured from his chest and the weight of his sword against Arden’s decreased.

  Arden pressed on. He couldn't fall now. Not when he came so far. All he needed to do was survive a little bit longer. So long as he bought enough time, his enemies would wipe each other out.

  Arden stabbed the chest of the prince and left the wakizashi in him. Now, they were both handicapped with having weapons inside of them.

  Arden’s second hand returned to his sword he continued making slashes in between avoiding sword strikes and blocking them.

  More shadow spears flew his way, and once again, Arden was hit by them. This time though, they were only glancing blows.

  Arden and Nux continued their dance of death. Arden’s sword came from every direction he could direct it from. Anytime he repositioned himself, his sword would swipe at Nux, aiming to reap his life.

  But Nux managed to block all of them.

  Arden gritted his teeth.

  A flash of pure black came from Nux’s sword, and Arden had no way to defend in time. The most he could do was throw his head out of the way. He felt the attack from his right temple down to his cheek. If he hadn't managed that simple dodge, he'd be fighting without an eye.

  A sticky pressure weighed down on both Arden and Nux. It was like an amorphous mass was on their shoulders. They both instantly knew it was the aura of the shadow master, but their fight didn’t stop.

  Nocturne entered the fray with a pair of twin daggers, both curved, and both giving off a dark light. As soon as he approached Arden and Nux physically, he stopped and turned to his subordinates who had started advancing.

  “Don’t follow!” he ordered. “Block the area and prevent them from escaping!”

  “Yes, lord!” a cacophony of voices responded in unison.

  Arden dodged to the side to avoid a slash from Nux. He glanced towards Nocturne and spoke in between attacks.

  “You actually care for your people.”

  Nocturne responded in kind as he pursued Arden.

  “They are my brothers. The only thing worse than learning of their deaths would be watching it happen in front of me.”

  Arden moved desperately around the ledge of the cliff as he was beset by the two experts. He hadn’t got in a single noticeable attack since the stab on Nux. They had much more experience than he did.

  Every attack was a gamble. Almost no attacks landed cleanly, and every failed strike would leave another scar on his undying body. The body was the only reason he had come this far, and the only reason he could still continue despite being hopelessly outmatched.

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  Arden’s eyes went wide as Nocturne suddenly disappeared again. This time, he had an idea of where he went, though it wouldn't do him any good.

  Arden turned his full attention to Nux and prepared to block an attack coming from his shadow. Nux’s sword was once again coming down.

  Arden raised his sword to meet it, and saw that he had been tricked. Nux’s sword stopped coming down, and Arden felt two more knives enter his body, one in his left shoulder, and the other in his right.

  Arden chastised himself. He believed that Nocturne’s attack would come from Nux’s shadow again, but it had instead come from a completely separate shadow.

  Arden glanced around the area and saw the upper body of Nocturne sticking out from the shadow of one of the numerous stones that dotted the cliff.

  “You tricked me pretty good, shadow man.” Arden said as his arms locked up. “You have a name? And don’t give me the cliche ‘assassins don't need names’ bit.”

  “Nocturne.”

  “Nocturne,” Arden repeated softly. The sword fell from his grip and off the edge of the cliff behind him. “How fitting for a treacherous shadow. Respect.”

  Arden yelled as Nux’s sword ran him through again. Arden and Nux stared at each other with hatred in their eyes.

  “You are not worthy of respect, though, prince. A self righteous scumbag who sees himself as the hero, and anyone who opposes him as a villain.”

  “I'm sorry for what I did. I really am,” said Nux, his voice low. “I understand that I’m the reason you’re doing all of this, but please, give up. Die, so the world can be saved.”

  “You’re pretty stupid Nux. You’ve seen my wounds. My lack of blood. Hell, this isn’t even the first time you ran me through like this. It’s not even the second time. If history repeats itself, all that will happen is me killing more people.”

  “Silence!”

  Arden arched his back in pain as the sword was twisted inside of him. He felt it grind against the dagger still embedded in him. Funny enough, the dagger being touched by the sword caused more pain than any of Nux’s attacks.

  Arden gave Nocturne a sidelong glance as and forced out some more words.

  “Hey Nocturne. If I’m unable to kill the prince, do it for me will you? Make it slow.”

  Nocturne sighed.

  “While I’m under no obligation to help you get revenge considering what you’ve done to my people, I will nonetheless accept it for the simple reason that the prince is deserving of such a fate.”

  Arden laughed and turned his attention back to the man in question.

  “Hey. What happens next? Since you’re the savior of the world and everything. What happens after this fight ends and the Blight comes to your world? How will you fight against the StarFall now that I've swallowed the Godstone? Will you become a hero even without any power? Will you hide away because you're afraid?”

  Another twist of the sword sent painful jolts throughout Arden’s body.

  “Sheesh, learn to take a joke.”

  Nocturne spoke up.

  “You like hearing yourself talk.”

  “Yes, I do. It feels good to insult people to their faces again after a vow of silence. It's intoxicating.”

  “Then while we’re talking, why don't you tell me what happens next? What happens when I rip the Godstone out of your body and leave your body staked to a tree out here? Or when I take you back with me to experiment on your body?”

  Arden smiled.

  “That's not what happens next though.”

  Nocturne twisted his knives.

  “Then what is?”

  Arden looked past Nocturne and Nux, into the woods where the silhouette of a massive creature quickly approached.

  The creature was even taller than Arden thought. It towered above them at around seven meters in height. It was humanoid, but its proportions were completely off.

  Its body was barely thicker than the average human, but its limbs were incredibly thin and looked like they could be shattered with a love tap. Its arms dragged along the ground beside it without any hands. The arms ended in a curved hook more ferocious looking than any other weapon that Arden had seen.

  Atop its shoulders rested its head that looked like a deer skull flattened and upturned at the ends to look vaguely shark-like.

  Arden nodded his head towards the Stonelord clad in stone plates that fit together to look like a suit of armor. His backup had arrived.

  “That's what comes next.”

  As soon as he said those words the Stonelord threw itself forward on all fours. It arched its back and roared. The many stones along its body flared outwards creating the appearance of wicked spiked scales.

  “The Stonelord!” Nux yelled.

  The Stonelord launched itself forward with its arm raised above its head.

  Nocturne conjured shadow spears to send towards the beast, but it was worthless. The spears didn't even crack the stone. All The attack did was make Nocturne a target.

  Arden and Nux had the same reaction as each other and quickly threw themselves away from Nocturne.

  Arden was glad he did, because his next sight of Nocturne was of a headless corpse.

  “Oh shit.”

  The Stonelord was way stronger than Arden thought. Arden thought that the prince and Nocturne would be able to hold it back long enough for him to escape.

  Only after seeing how effortlessly it killed Nocturne did he realize how screwed he was.

  The Stonelord turned its ire to Arden, the one who killed its child. There was only one way out of this, and even that way had little chance for success.

  Nux tried to pull his sword out of Arden, but Arden wouldn't let that happen. He mustered all of the strength in his arms and wrapped them around the prince. The power of the Stonelord must have gotten to Nux, because he didn't start resisting until Arden brought both of them to the edge of the cliff in a sprint.

  Arden remembered something his sister said before he entered this godforsaken trial. Something about how he needed a calming influence to prevent him from doing anything stupid.

  Like jumping off cliffs.

  The Stonelord roared as it threw itself towards the pair, destroying the stone it was standing on.

  Arden glanced back at the Stonelord less than a second from him. He realized that he wouldn't be able to move fast enough.

  The impact of the Stonelord’s arm against his back shattered every vertebrae in his spine, and Arden and Nux were cast off the edge.

  Everything became slow for Arden. It felt like he was watching a slideshow in time with his heartbeat.

  The Stonelord reaching out for them, but only grabbing air.

  The screaming face of the prince.

  The ground far, far beneath them.

  Then all of a sudden, the ground was very close.

  The last thing Arden saw before his skull shattered was the rocky ground rapidly approaching to greet him.