“Things just got a lot more interesting,” Jack mused as he twisted a bottle cap in his hand. The sounds of a popping release quickly followed his words. “Bandits backstabbing one another for the fun of it? I’d say that’s about as great as any situation can get.”

He reached over his chair, grabbing the remote next to him. He greedily drank the soda in his other hand. He licked his lips as he lowered the bottle, enjoying the sweet taste of the carbonated beverage running down his throat.

“This is the kind of entertainment surround sound was invented for!” His thumb pressed a button on the remote, causing unseen gears to churn behind the metallic wall.

Around the massive television set, the walls began to retract. The painted metal slid into itself, folding to reveal what was hidden beyond the steel walls. But not just the wall siding moved; the metal flooring surrounding the masked man began to retract, large sections of the floor sliding away to reveal an open space beneath. It was open only momentarily.

Quickly and effectively, speakers began to emerge from the new openings. They slid out from the walls on grates, hung by wires and hooks. They ascended from the floor, attached to thick metal poles. By no measure of size were any of speakers to be considered small. Each one was the size of the man that sat in the chair, surrounded now by the no less than a dozen heavy instruments.

Jack’s mask smirked proudly as his heterochromatic eyes stared the screen ahead of him. The dueling alicorn and statue were still going at it, their ferocity a thing he could never shy away from watching. Aiming his remote again, he held the volume control until the sound threatened to rupture his hearing.

Every clang of their blades shook the chair he sat in. Every cry the dark princess gave made his seat rumble. And every cheer the statue spoke made Jack smile with joy.

“Can’t say the lizard man holds back on quality.” Jack gripped his chair as he mused the words, drowned out by the blaring cacophony of battle. His smile grew twisted as an idea popped into his mind, likely jostled by the vibration the speakers were creating.

“Let’s get some fighting music in here!”

The shout of excitement was muffled under the battle noises that roared from the speakers. The scuffle shown on the screen nearly encompassed his vision. His hand pressed another button on the remote, aimed this time at a speaker off to his side.

BEGIN

Instantly, music began to blare from the mighty speakers. His hand roughly adjusted the volume setting, eyes glued to the television as he did so. Then, with a satisfied smirk, he tossed the control behind him, leaving it to bang and clatter to a stop.

“Now this is what a real fight is like!” His cheers were drowned out by the dark alicorn’s shouting and the stone man’s laughing.

“Is this the best you can do?” Karl asked as he batted away a spectral sword, nimbly twisting as he did so as to dodge another. “I’ve had harder fights against statues that couldn’t move!”

Luna gave another shout of rage as she swung her head harshly from side to the other, batting her wings to keep her balance steady. Three of her astral swords flew through the air, diving at the stone man with murderous intent. Karl smiled with delight.

Without losing a step, and with an agility the alicorn could hardly follow, the stone man beat the tip of one of the swords, diverting its path away from him. His free hand deftly reached upwards quickly enough to land on the flat of the next blade approaching him. With a quick jump, he spun over the blade, letting it pass through where he once stood. The third blade flew through his spinning form, impacting only air.

As Karl landed, his eyes locked onto Luna, his sharp grin almost glowing.

His feet pushed off the ground once again, pushing him forward at an impressive speed. Luna, however, was not foreign to creatures of speed, and her keen eyes were able to follow his movements across the red stone. Her horn buzzed as she brought another blade up to her, holding the flat towards the charging statue.

Karl gave one last great push with his feet as he swung his dark blade forward, fully intending to cut the mare in two. Luna leaned her head away from the approaching weapon as she simultaneously directed her spectral blade to meet the statue’s dark one.

The resounding crack they made shook her ear drums, forcing the alicorn to grimace as her ears folded. Her stance, however, remained bent-- focused and determined. Karl was little different.

He had a mad king’s smile. Luna had a warrior’s glare.

“How disappointing,” Karl spoke as he continued to push his blade against the ethereal sword of the alicorn, gaining ground bit by bit. “I expected something with the power of magic to be more of a challenge. But in the end, you’re just as predictable and easy to read as any other sorry excuse for a life.”

With a harsh push, Karl slid his sword off of the alicorn’s, forcing Luna to retreat a few steps backwards. However, instead of charging to gain his ground, Karl leapt into the air, performing a deft flip backwards as he did so.

Five of Luna’s six blades met with a harsh clang where he had only just stood. The princess snarled in anger.

“Diversions only work if you can keep me in place.” The statue landed with a hard pound, his weight cracking portions of the red rock beneath him. His gaze focused on the alicorn, he held his arm outwards, the black blade in his hand pointing in the same direction. His hand twisted, giving an unknown direction to the morphing bird.

Luna watched as she summoned her six blades back to her, focusing the magic in her horn. As the blade in Karl’s hand shortened, its edge dulling into a large mass on a handle, Luna prepared her banishing spell.

When Karl’s sword finished its transformation into a hammer, Luna’s spell was ready to be cast.

She did not hesitate.

The dark princess jutted her head forward as she sent the spectral spell outwards, having every intention of sending the statue to Tartarus for all eternity. Karl, however, never dropped his smile.

He swung his hammer downwards, shaking the ground and shattering the stone far more than before. In another quick motion he raised his arm upwards, bringing with it a greater section of the room’s floor. It completely concealed him from the alicorn’s vision. Luna’s spell impacted the red rock, encompassing the hard material in an instant.

In the next second, it was gone in a flash of white.

As the flash died away, Karl was charging her once again.

Luna beat her wings as she backed away from the menace, swinging her head as her horn hummed under her command.

The blades spun in her grasp, three of them breaking apart from the group. Their hilts joined together, making a chakram of blue spectral swords. The more energy that flowed from the alicorn’s long horn, the faster it spun. It took little time for it to turn into a saw of deadly intent. Karl giggled at the display.

“You’re original, I’ll give you that.” He raised his hammer as he spoke, giving his hand a light twist. The hammer quickly thinned, its mass extending into a long rod. Karl quickly let it drop in an arc, holding both ends in his hands. Easily matching his height, he held the dark staff with expert form.

“But originality without precision is no different than a fool playing hero.” Karl’s lips sharpened as he spoke on. “Just like Riku, am I right princess?”

Luna’s blue eyes sparked in rage.

Her head lifted and fell with a harsh swing, sending the spinning vortex towards the statue man. Karl bent low against its approach, lowering the staff until one of its ends was sitting against the ground. The whirling blades were quickly upon the living stone, but his smile never fell. However, instead of falling to the ground, as Luna suspected he would do, he did what he had shown himself to be adept at.

Karl jumped.

His staff pushed against the ground as he gave a mighty leap from the red rock, causing another web of fissures to form over the bedrock. The chakram spun straight past him, turning onto its side as the dark alicorn had directed it to do. She had hoped Karl would have ducked low, allowing her blades to cut into him. Instead, he sailed into the air, where he now hung with his momentum at zero.

Luna’s eyes flicked upwards as her wings extended, her legs bent and prepared to jump. The statue’s form started to descend, and his spinning body made tracking his weapon near impossible. The bow staff he had just created was gone already, the black bird Arma clearly having changed sometime in his flight.

As the statue man began to descend towards Luna’s current position, spinning like a cog as he did so, the alicorn jumped forwards with all the force her legs could summon, beating her wings for extra effort. It flung her forwards with great speed, easily escaping the deadly path of Karl.

She extended her wings outwards just as quickly as she had flexed them, slowing her momentum as best she could. Her horn summoned the six swords back to her side as her velocity decreased, one of her hooves grabbing at the ground to allow her to spin and face the foe.

One of her wings rose upwards, catching the air that flowed past her like a sail, stopping her movement harshly. It was her intention to fling all the swords forwards once more, to attempt to impale the statue the moment he landed, robbing him of the chance to defend himself.

But a searing pain erupted from her wing.

“Agh!” Her voice cried out against her will, her magic dying on the tip of her horn.

The blades that were poised to attack vanished from existence, dissipating into the same air they had come from. The alicorn felt her stance shake and fall, landing on the harsh rock against her side. Breath left and entered her in hisses, pain alternating from sharp stabs to throbbing agony.

Her eyes turned to her wing, hoping to see what had caused her such pain, what had managed to harm her so severely.

She saw the black sword of Karl imbedded into the appendage, the hilt sitting on one side and the blade jutting from the other.

Luna fought the urge to vomit.

PAUSE

“He fights with the apathy of a demon, but the grace of an angel.” Azula lightly mused as she watched the alicorn stumble under the clipping of her wing, legs swaying under the pain. It was impossible to miss, even with the display focused on the injured princess, the gleeful smile on Karl’s lips.

Azula had one of her own, though far more tame than the manic grin of the living statue.

“He is every bit the warrior I imagined him to be. Intelligent, cunning, careful, but most importantly, merciless.” Her fingers drummed together as she watched him extended his hand, summoning the black bird to his side.

Arma rose from the red rock she was imbedded into, flying swiftly through the air and back onto the pale stone hand of the statue. As he flexed his fingers around the raven, it turned back into the dark cutlass he so proficiently wielded.

Luna screamed through the whole ordeal, having the weapon that had harmed her changing form within her own appendage.

Azula licked her lips at the sound. However, just by glance alone, she could see the ideas forming in Karl’s mind, his emotionless eyes conjuring an idea from beyond the large screen of the monolith structure.

“What will you do now?” Karl slowly stalked towards the princess on the screen as the fire princess mused the question.

“Continue to impress, messenger of fate.”

“My, that wound does look deep.” Karl spoke with a giggle as he observed the blood pooling at the alicorn’s hooves, her wing instinctively extended outwards in agony. It dragged on the floor as the princess attempted to straighten her balance. “You know, humans have about as many ways to heal a wound as they do to create one. Some of them are actually just as fun to use as making the wound itself.”

Luna’s horn flashed with a blinding light, summoning the blades back to her side.

Karl didn’t even flinch as they formed a wall between her and the statue, their blade flats all aimed towards the deadly warrior. He spoke on as if nothing had changed.

“They can burn the wound shut, searing the flesh until the melted skin and muscle seal the blood.” Luna did all that she could to ignore him as she focused her magic on a quick and dirty spell. “Other times they sew it shut, pulling the skin tight against itself, and often tying a piece of cloth over the exposed flesh as well.” The chuckle that accompanied the comment was matched in perversion only by the comment that followed.

“But my favorite method for helping a wound is by making another. How, you may ask?” Luna did not care. She did her best to block the poisoned words of the statue as she focused her magic into the wing, hoping the wall of blades she had set between her and the foe would disguise the healing she was performing.

“Why, they cut off the injured limb. Please, allow me to demonstrate.” Luna didn’t hesitate.

The princess bit her tongue to hide a scream of pain as she summoned the magic to her horn. Three things happened at once.

The blades that had blocked Karl’s view of her began to dance randomly, scattering in various directions towards the living statue. Her wing began to mend harshly under her command, the hole the living rock’s sword had formed closing with an almost barbaric force. And, finally, she jumped back as far as she could manage, one wing immobile, the other gripping her side.

The sound of metal impacting metal echoed across the stone as Karl beat off her blades, battling them with his Cheshire grin remaining present all the while. Luna bade it as minimal attention as she could manage, keeping her focus on the wound she so desperately fought to close.

Every reach and pull the magic forced of her exposed muscle and skin was no different than having her flesh wounded again and again. It took all of her willpower to not scream at the agony she was forcing on herself, an effort required for the deeds of that… monster...that fought to kill her… that had already killed.

Her teeth grit with rage as her wound finished sewing itself shut, her blue aura vanishing from the spot.

Just in time, too, as Karl was already charging at her once more.

PLAY

Luna raised her head with a hum of her magic, pulling back the blades he had so easily fought off. Just as before, they formed a wall in front of her, one that Karl hit for the first time.

“Healed yourself already?” The stone man mockingly asked from behind the wall of blades. “A pity. Guess that just means I’ll have to strike twice as hard.”

His words were not a jest.

The alicorn held her spectral weapons strong as she felt his blade hitting the wall again and again, doubtlessly trying to weaken her hold on them. Each blow felt stronger than the last. She felt the weight of her magic pushing on her mind, taking its toll on her already tired form.

However, she saw a way to turn the tables on the statue man.

It would not be easy, as she very much doubted any part of his mortal combat would be. Her mind was already growing hazy.

The magic, the pain and the effort she was putting forth, it was all beginning to wear on her quickly, and not just from this duel. The encounter with the flame demons was not so far behind her that she had recovered, and the journey through the caverns was not without its need for magic as well.

In the end, that left her starting this fight with less than her best, and she was quickly using what remained. She was fighting a foe of tactical knowledge. She had to do the same. That meant taking some risks.

Luna took a step forward with both of her hooves, pushing with her rear limbs to spin herself. At the same moment, she spread out the wall of blades she had made, just at the same moment Karl hit the wall with his own blade.

It left him pulling his arm back as Luna bucked her legs forwards.

Never before had the alicorn been so satisfied with the feeling of hitting something.

Karl sailed across the room, his body skidding and flailing over the stone with all the grace of a thrown doll. Red dust rose and billowed over each area his impacted; small fissures forming as he did so. Luna couldn’t hide her grin of satisfaction, not that she wanted to.

The statue finally settled some distance away, his body stopping only by gripping the open patch of rock he had been freed from before.

Luna was even more satisfied to see his face free of any grin.

However, she bit back the desire to throw a quip at her enemy. This was still very much a battle, no matter how minor or major an advantage she had gained. There wasn’t even a guarantee that she had achieved one at all.

Karl recovered quickly, much to the alicorn’s dismay. His hand pulling over the hole he had created earlier, allowing his form to straighten as he grabbed at the loose rock. It fell beneath his clearly strong grasp, the red rock little more than paper beneath the force the living statue summoned.

But in the midst of his rise, he stopped, hunched over the hole. His vision was hidden from Luna as he did so, appearing for all her gaze could tell to be turned back into a lifeless shell of stone. Such hopes were dashed as his head lightly twisted over the hole.

It was as if… he was examining something. Whether he was or not, it was a foreign action, and, from a man who played more alien traits than the alicorn cared to remember, it was not pleasing to her.

Even less so when he began to laugh again.

It was not the usual quick chuckle or high giggle. It was continuous, constant, like the laughter of fillies in the midst of a game. It was hard for the alicorn to imagine the statute thought of this as anything but just that.

The giggling also did little to help Luna’s growing confidence, but it did much to solidify her resolve against the monster.

“Are you still amused with your antics?” Luna asked harshly as Karl stood to his tallest again, head lobbed to his side as Arma became the infamously-familiar bladed shape in his palm. “Or dost thee enjoy thine own pain?” The words only split Karl’s already wide grin.

“Oh dear princess,” he began waving his free hand dismissively. “You must remember that I can’t feel pain. I’m as hard as a rock.” The knuckles of his free hand lightly beat at the top of his head, letting the hollow knock echo through the chamber. Luna snorted at the action. “But you’ve been a good sport so far, so I’ll let you know that I’m just so cheery about being able to fight for this long.”

The words caused a very obvious, and important, question to form in the alicorn’s mind.

“And what had forbidden thee from these duels before?” Her voice snarled as she spoke, which only made Karl chuckle all the more.

“Oh, have you already forgotten? I run on magic!” He spread his arms as he declared the fact for the second time, spinning on his heel as he did so. “So naturally, when I run out of magic, I run out of steam. It’s a rather troubling state to be quite honest. But here, in the room…” His fingers flexed one by one, as if grabbing at threads in the air. “Here the air is soaked in magic, no different than the Castle of Nations. I very well think I could live here without a single problem! But!”

His blade pointed at Luna, singing in the air as it did so.

“I hate to leave jobs unfinished, and I’m going to need to clip more than just your wing.” The calmness and serene joy he had in his voice as he spoke only continued to irk Luna’s conscious. “And this is fight is only getting better with every passing second!”

Karl jumped at the alicorn, Arma brandished in both of his hands as he did so. Luna summoned one of her blades, knocking the tip of the statue’s sword away from her, making the living rock spin in mid air.

Luna realized too late, however that it was exactly what he had planned.

The momentum of the hit gave Karl the force he needed to spin in a half circle, his leg extended outwards as he did so.

It connected with Luna’s side with a sickening crack.

PAUSE

“A jester he may be, but an agile one at that.” The words were spoken darkly from a deep voice. “To think of such tactics in the midst of a fight is not simple feat, but to do it with such accuracy and effect is even more impressive.”

Ganondorf smiled darkly at that.

“I may have underestimated the princess’s choice in warrior.” He admitted to himself, watching as the dark alicorn rolled over the ground following the statue man’s blow as he did so. He could not hear the laughter, but he could feel the joy. “They are so far as capable as they are odd.”

Luna fought for breath to return to her lungs, the air having being beaten from her by a single kick from Karl.

Her eyes watered painfully, forcing her to blink them away to clear her vision. Her legs scrambled at the rock, trying to find a solid piece of the floor to push against. The actions forced cuts, harsh scratches and painful bruises, to form beneath her coat. It also drew laughter from the madman.

“Dearie me, did I really hit you that hard?” Luna finally pushed herself to her hooves, chest throbbing as she fought to draw breath. Her gaze burned, much like her lungs. “Maybe you should relax for a bit. It’ll make both of our jobs easier.”

PLAY

Luna responded with a harsh grunt, pulling her blades back to her side. They adjusted around her, shifting until all the tips faced the living statute, who only continued to smile at the dark alicorn.  With no hesitation, Luna swung her head forward, throwing three of the blades at Karl. The rest continued to swirl around her.

“Tell me,” Karl spoke blissfully as he nimbly dodged a sword from the angered alicorn. “Are you a pianist?” His arm deftly knocked another spectral blade away from him, his body flipping over another before crouching beneath the swipe of a third.

Luna’s lips snarled as she flared her horn again, drawing the six blades back to her person and slowly circling around as she let her hooves move slowly across the stone floor. She was sure of very little concerning the stone man, but what little she did know she was willing to risk her life on.

He would try and distract her, so she had to stay focused. He was nimble and agile, so she had to stay moving. His offense could shatter her defense, so she couldn’t give him even a moment to strike.

Her head flicked sideways, sending one of the blades towards Karl. The man smiled crookedly as he lifted his black sword to eye level. With a well-timed flick of his wrist, the blade’s path diverged and was sent into a far wall, settling into the stone with a dull screech of metal.

“You know, it’s very rude to ignore someone who’s trying to talk to you.” Karl continued to speak, his smile ever present and tone still calm. “I’m the one trying to be civilized here, the least you could do is answer my question.”

“We do not converse with mad beings or murderers!” Luna gave a yell of defiance as she raised her head. As her neck flexed, sending her head towards the floor, the five remaining swords around her flew forwards simultaneously.

Karl grinned nervously at the approaching blades.

“Oh dearie me.”

With a crouch, Karl jumped higher than the lunar princess would have initially given him credit for without the aid of his bird. His stone form easily escaped the path of the blades, continuing to rise until he reached the ceiling high above. Luna heard him make contact with the stone, the dull thud of rock against rock reaching her ears.

Her horn buzzed once more, taking reign of the six swords. A sideways flick of her head yanked the first blade from the wall. She drew the blade back to herself as the other five hung dangerously in the air beneath where Karl resided, ever-present grin plastered on his face. When the first spectral blade had settled beside her, the alicorn princess lowered her head again. The blades followed suit, their hilts aiming towards the ground as their ethereal steel aimed upwards.

With another lift of her head, the blades flew like arrows to the ceiling above.

Luna watched with a meticulous eye as a shadow form fell from the stone ceiling high above. There was no doubt in her mind who it was. Her horn flared in sparks, buzzing and humming with power as the swords she had sent upwards began to sail and spin towards the target.

She did not hide the smile of satisfaction as she saw her blades pierce the falling object, the cloth of Karl’s garb swaying under the force of her swords. Its descent continued, but with much less terror than moments before.

That was until the object left the shadows and became clear to her.

Her form backpedaled as the boulder smashed into the ground, the yellow cloak of the living statue hung around it. Her spectral blades were imbedded into the hard material, cutting the cloth and piercing the rock. All six of her blades were before her, but Karl was nowhere in her sight.

Luna reacted instantaneously.

She had no idea where he was, but he was not a being that would casually wait for her to be prepared. He struck without warning and distracted before attacking. If she was not prepared, he would surely cut her down.

With a buzz from her horn, she drew into the pools of her magic, summoning up a shield around her form. The result was dotted with the stars as it had been when she had battled the fiery dancers.

Not a moment after she had done so did Karl land atop the shield, earning a harsh cry from the alicorn within.

“Hiding from a fight in plain sight,” the statue mused above her, his sharp smile the only thing the alicorn could see from within the safety of her magical dome. “Does this make you a coward?”

Instead of jumping off the dome, as the alicorn had expected him to do, he instead raised his dark blade, twisting his arm as he did so. Luna’s eyes constricted as she saw the sharp dark bird flatten into the heavy shape of a hammer.

“Or does this make you a fool?”

He swung his hammer down against the spectral dome, shaking the ground and air within it. Luna grunted at the force, barely able to keep up the shield under the blow.

Karl only laughed as he raised the dark hammer again.

PAUSE

“Huh, where am I?”

The words echoed around him, reflecting off nothing and vanishing into the void that encompassed him.

He tried to open his eyes, but he saw nothing. He tried to move his hands, but he felt nothing. He tried to listen with his ears, but her heard nothing, nothing but the sound of his own breath.

Those were all the clues he needed to know where he was.

“So I’m back here,” he breathed to himself, sighing as the words left his lips. “Back in the darkness. Gone again.” Gone like he had been the day his island vanished, like the day he sealed the door to Kingdom Hearts, like so many other times in his life where he had given up.

But now, he had come here while he had the will to fight.

“Guess this is it then.” It was a depressing conclusion, even by his own standards, but he was never one to dismiss facts-- only intuition and blind optimism. Here, he was without warmth, without light, without sight, and without a friend.

“You’re really thinking like that again, huh?”

That wasn’t his voice.

“Wha?” He whirled in the darkness, twisting what he thought was his body with all the force he could muster. He continued to see nothing, to feel nothing. Nothing was different. “Was that…”

“C’mon, you used to brag about how strong you were.”

He knew that voice as well as he knew his own.

“Where are you?” The words and their echo were all he heard. He would have begged for even an empty ocean. At least then he would know he wasn’t staring into nothing. He wasn’t even sure if he was blinking or not.

“You can’t give up now. You wouldn’t let me.”

He felt something.

It wasn’t wind through his hair, grass on his feet, or the tingling in his hands. It was the one feeling he never thought he would have. Hope.

It felt warm and inviting, beautiful and alluring. Suddenly, there was spot in his chest that he wanted to curl around. It was when he began to curl that he noticed there was a sight that came with the feeling.

Light.

“You’re not lost, not as long as you know where you have to go.”

Did he know where he had to go? He was nowhere, in a void that was barren of sight. Still, he could follow the small dot of life among the endless valley of shadows coming from his chest. That meant something.

There was somewhere he had to be. There was someone who needed his help. He remembered.

He asked to be sent here, to allow the abyss to swallow him. It was when he was here the first time that he was able to find his power, and now he was able to find his path. He just needed a nudge.

He just had to find his light in the darkness.

“C’mon Riku, you know what to do.”

And just like that, he did.

Riku knew exactly what he had to do.

PLAY

“If you were a pianist, I might never have had a chance.” Karl spoke with a bit of joy as he swung down the large hammer again. Luna grunted with pain even as the shield around her absorbed the blow.

Her eyes searched the far walls desperately, casting out for her blades to summon back to her side. But every time she began to search, her concentration was shattered by another hammering blow from the marble man.

“A pianist, like a violinist, can control their fingers individually, working them across a board to create music like no other.” Another blow from the black hammer earned a cry of anguish from the alicorn. The man seemed to appreciate the noise.

“But you’re no pianist, or even a violinist, so you have no idea how to use six swords the right way. I’d wager you’d be confused on how to even use one.” The princess fell to her knees as another blow rocked her shield. It wouldn’t hold for much longer. Her mind was scattered and her magic waning.

“But I am a violinist, and quite good at it, too.” Another blow, another cry of pain. But now, there was something else to show for the stone man’s efforts. A line, a crack, a small portion of empty space, began to show along the dome’s outer layer.

Karl didn’t hesitate for even a moment.

“And I know the most important part to any song!”

His hammer raised above his one more time, vibrating under the strength he held it with. Luna felt her eyes widen as the stone man grinned manichically.

“And that is the finale!”

WHAM!

The magical dome around Luna shattered.

She cried in pain as if a sword was sent into her skull, ripping through her without even the smallest amount of mercy. She fell to her side, hissing and moaning and screaming in agony, back writhing and neck twisting.

Karl stood over her, motionless as stone, smiling like a jester who had just given his final joke. He felt equally as pleased watching the alicorn cry in pain.

He raised his hammer above his head, twisting it until the black thing straightened itself out into a sharp and deadly sword. Luna was motionless and weak beneath him, helpless even as he continued to gaze down at her with a sadistic kind of joy.

The sword thinned itself out as if given a command, stopping only when the black material was thin as paper and, doubtlessly, harder than steel. Luna, panting with exhaustion and pain, stared up at it.

“Care to say any last words?” The words didn’t need to come from his mouth for the diarch to know they were mocking. “I’ll be sure to deliver them to your next of kin, before I kill them as well.”

Luna stared at the dark blade carefully, breath shaking as it entered and left her form. Her wing was still sore from her injury, her body weak from magical exhaustion, and her mind nearly spent on focus.

But she still had one more card.

“Yes,” Luna spoke quickly, swallowing on a pool of blood collecting in her mouth. She watched as one of the stone man’s eyebrows lifted in curiosity. “A princess does not fall so easily.”

Luna forced the magic to return to her horn. It made her horn shine like a star, blinding even her well-adjusted eyes to its light. But she could not waste time. Her mind focused the power gathered in her horn, pushing it forward as she would command her legs to kick.

A laser of light flew from her.

Karl took the brunt of the force.

The statue man flew over the ground, slamming into the far wall with a sickening crack. Dust fell and billowed around him, stone falling from the wall as well. Silence followed soon afterwards. Were Karl made of flesh, Luna may have winced. Were he an ally, she might have cried. But he was neither, so Luna only breathed in relief.

END

Her breaths were labored, taking a toll on her magically-exhausted mind and body. She bit her lip as she forced herself to rise from the ground, one hoof before the other. Her weight slowly began to lift, a groan unintentionally falling from her lips as she did so. It was painful to stand, but she could not rest. She could not relax until she knew it was safe.

Luna tested her wings, unfurrowing and curling them against her sides. She felt the water fly off of her feathers; no doubt sweat that had collected during the hectic battle. Her vision turned towards the door of the mausoleum, still faintly outlined to her eyes. She trotted towards it, determined to exit this room that death had so freely entered. There was nothing left for her here.

“That was a bit foolish, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Luna’s eyes darted towards the voice, seeing a figure standing through the slowly settling dust. The pit in her stomach deepened the longer she looked.

Karl stood proudly before her, one arm missing and a fine crack down his face.

The smile he wore was more horrific than any single sight Luna had witnessed. Breath hardly entered her as the statue man stood still, empty eyes staring at her with a lust the princess never wished to feel. What she did feel was what she hoped to never experience again.

Being trapped.

“I must admit, you did a real bang up job on me.” The maniac joyfully spoke, much to the princess’s growing terror. “I really thought I had you there when I was standing over, but I guess you were just planning to make yourself look vulnerable. We are all weakest in the moment just before victory is claimed after all.” He raised his single arm in a shrug, as if he was unaware of his missing limb.

Luna, however, stared at the empty space at his side, a hole where his shoulder used to be. It was both mesmerizing and frightening to look at. But as the statue man began to speak again, her focus was returned.

“Course, that just leaves me with two options now, doesn’t it?” With a closed eyes smile, he lifted the arm holding his dark blade. “On one hand, I can quickly jump over there and rip off your head. Maybe laugh a little, or a lot.” Luna couldn’t shut her wide eyes. “But, on the other hand…”

His head turned to look at his empty side, barren of even an arm.

“Oh, I guess there is no other hand, is there?”

Karl’s broken form jumped across the distance between the two in a single bound, his arm raised with his blade poised to strike. The smile over his shattered features was sharper than ever, the gaze in his eyes thirsty for gore.

And Luna had not even a string of magic left to spin. She only stared, mind slowly leaving, as the dark blade began to descend upon her. Time seemed to slow, the moments passing in a haze. All but one thought leaving her mind. The one thought that remained was one she never thought she’d be force to think.

‘This is my end.’

Determined to rob the madman of at least one thing, Luna let her last breath leave her lungs as she shut her eyes for the final time. Karl would not get to see the fear in her eyes. Nor would he hear any final cry.

Her end would be swift, just as his joy would.

KLANG!

Luna’s eyes remained shut, sure that the statue was waiting for her resolve to shake, for her eyes to open long enough for him to gaze into them during her final moments. That would be a satisfaction she would not give.

That was until she heard another voice.

“There may not be another hand,”

The familiar tone spoke above the princess. Luna never imagined she’d hear the voice again.

Her eyes shot open as she stared at the figure standing above her, tall and powerful in his stance. He had a mane of white and no coat on his skin, but a dark suit that covered his entire form, clinging to him tighter than any garment Luna had dared to even think of before.

But as she saw the face over the figure, the determined gaze he gave, Luna’s eyes lit up with hope. A light sensation took hold in her chest.

“But there is still my blade.”

Next Chapter: From Water To Dust Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 26 Minutes