Grek’s feet blurred and he took off. I chased after him using mana to strengthen my strides.

  My feet thudded down. Each step propelling me faster than the last one. Still, I was being left behind.

  Grek was just that much faster. That was the power of internal magic.

  Grek couldn’t cast spells, but he could dodge them and get in close with mages to stab them.

  And in this situation, he could run away faster than even a manaborn Truechild like me.

  Grek took a sharp right and waved to me. “Your Highness, this way.”

  I ran after the punisher and looked back. The specter rushed after us.

  It raised a hand and a ball of fire came at me.

  I ran harder and threw myself right into the new passageway.

  I rolled and came up to my feet to see Grek opening a shut gate.

  He waited for me to get in and began locking the gate behind him.

  “Don’t bother. It is not going to stop him.” I tried to stop the punisher.

  Grek took a few seconds to lock the gate nonetheless. “The bars have sigils on them. They create a mana barrier.”

  I grabbed Grek’s shoulder and pulled him after me. “Just run.”

  Grek looked back at the closed gate and the specter chasing them.

  I glanced back, just in time to see the specter reach the gate and rip it off its hinges.

  Grek muttered, “Blight and curses. Can nothing stop that thing?”

  I pushed Grek down and ducked. A second later the gate flew over our head and hit something far ahead of us with a metallic creak and clatter.

  “Which way?” I asked.

  “Uh… Straight five paces and then left,” Grek answered.

  “You don’t sound convinced, Grek.”

  “Well, we did have to go straight. But the specter will cook us with its fire if we do.”

  I nodded urgently. “Yes, let’s go left.”

  We ran on. And took a left turn. Grek took out a plate and stuck it on the opening.

  I looked at him for an answer.

  “Repulsion trap. Anything that comes near it will get slammed into the opposite wall.”

  I shook my head. “It won’t hold.”

  Grek looked at me with a frown and looked back. The specter floated in after us.

  The trap plate activated and pushed the specter sideways. Before the specter could hit the wall, its fire blazed bright and it slashed the plate into two.

  “WAAA…” The specter screeched in anger.

  Grek pumped his feet and caught up to me and asked, “How do we destroy that thing?”

  “You find the place or an item it is bound to. And you burn it to cinders,” I explained.

  Grek looked at me with a thoughtful expression.

  Before he could ask the question on his mind, I shook my head and explained, “It is not bound to an item. It is bound to the keep.”

  “Curses!” Grek hissed and threw down caltrops behind us.

  I ran ahead and saw a door. “Grek?”

  Grek ran ahead and slotted a key into the door. “Faster, Your Highness.”

  “Do you have something in that belt pouch that can help us jump higher?”

  Grek turned the key and looked at me. “Jump? How high?”

  “Twenty feet.”

  Grek opened the door and his hand went into his pouch. “How about fifteen feet? But why?”

  The punisher took out a circular medallion and I took it from his fingers. “You’ll see soon enough.”

  Grek looked behind us and his eyes widened. I followed his gaze and saw the specter start collecting blue soul fire in its mouth.

  I ran past Grek into the hall ahead. The specter gave Grek an annoyed look and swallowed its fire.

  It floated two more steps inwards and the caltrops activated.

  They shot upwards and tried to dig into the dark rags the specter was wearing.

  The specter ignored them and kept floating inwards unfazed.

  Grek’s shoulders slumped. “Oh, come on. Is there no way to stop you?”

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  I pulled Grek by the back of his jacket and pulled him into the hall.

  Before he could say anything, I covered his mouth with my palm.

  I shut the steel gate slowly with my steel toes.

  Grek looked at me, asking me his question with just his eyes.

  I pointed at the empty hall ahead. Grek stiffened and leaned back.

  I wrapped my hand around the punisher and with soft steps took a running start.

  I fed mana to my legs and pumped them. I pressed my palm into Grek’s medallion and jumped.

  The mana in my legs shot me up. Higher than Grek could have expected.

  So high that my head almost touched the chandelier above.

  Unseen by the small crowd below, I counted the number of foes below. One, two… and seven.

  There were seven damned and two doom-touched foes below us.

  I couldn’t say that I had planned this. Not completely.

  I didn’t even have the time to delve into dark waters to verify my findings.

  But when I felt the chill running from the specter, I decided to act.

  The cold sensation that announced the presence of the damned.

  Along with the acrid smell of doom bringer poison compelled me.

  And to find our enemies all gathered in a spot relaxing was a pleasant surprise.

  I landed with a thud past most of them.

  There were two, though, that were sitting on cushioned benches and sleepily drowsing. Their eyes shot open.

  I dropped Grek and rushed at them.

  The damned were sluggish. They had fed on so much essence that they couldn’t even move in time.

  Still, I didn’t want to get into a fight with them with so many enemies around.

  Not to mention the fact that the turbulent dark waters in this zone would hamper my strikes to their soul.

  So, instead, I picked them up and threw them at the others gathered in the hall.

  “What the…”

  “How?”

  “Who is that?”

  The damned started to speak over each other. Until a large man with bony growths under his eyebrows shouted.

  “Silence!”

  Another man, this one with one ear and growths at the back of his neck, joined the first man out of the crowd.

  “Who the blight is this?” One Ear asked.

  “A manaborn,” the eye-growth man answered.

  “A Truechild,” a damned from the back lines corrected the two men.

  “A Truechild? Like in Starbright’s leashed dogs?” One Ear asked the damned behind him.

  “Hello.” I waved at the two men and took a seat on the cushioned bench. “I am Voss Truechild.”

  Grek looked at me in shock and drew his sword in a smooth motion.

  He pointed it at the two men and took a fighting stance. I waved the punisher down.

  Bony Eyes looked at me reclining on the bench with my legs crossed and hand on the cushioned armrest and laughed. “Comfortable, Truechild?”

  “Yes.” I nodded and asked, “Do you mind if we rest here for a few minutes? We’ve been running all day. And my feet hurt.”

  “Do we mind? Did you hear him? He asks if we mind.” One Ear grinned dangerously.

  “What if we do?” Bony Eyes asked.

  “Hmm… Then I suppose I have to leave,” I answered.

  The whole hall erupted in laughter.

  “Leave? You think we will let you leave?” a damned asked from the back.

  I raised my hand to stop the laughter with a smile. “I don’t want to, mind you. It will interrupt the show. But I don’t want to impose on your hospitality either.”

  “The show?” One Ear asked. “Do you mean you want to see how I gut your man here? Or do you want to see how I tear your flesh off your bones?”

  I wasn’t just talking for the sake of talking. I hated talking but I needed to keep them focused on me.

  Before they could comprehend what I had brought with me.

  So, I took out a mana crystal from my pocket and put it in my mouth.

  I sucked on it with a thoughtful expression.

  “What? Out of thoughts?” One Ear asked.

  “No. Not really. I mean, if you want to fight me, I will. But I believe you have bigger concerns than me right now.”

  “Enough of this.” Bony Eyes cracked his neck. “Let’s just eat him.”

  I raised my finger. “Wait.”

  “Wait? For what?” One Ear snarled.

  “Waaa…” The specter slammed the door to the hall behind the damned with a scream.

  Everyone spun and looked at the battered door.

  Bang! Another strike ripped a hole into the door.

  Two fire-covered hands grabbed the torn steel and wrenched the door from its hinges.

  The specter screamed again. “Waaa…”

  The damned took a collective step backwards. The thorgs stiffened.

  And from somewhere in the distance another specter responded with a cry of its own.

  “Wahaaa…”

  And then another one responded to the second one’s cry with a wobbling cry of its own. “Wahahaha…”

  “What in the world…” A damned began to say.

  Bony Eyes pointed at me and snarled, “It’s him. He brought a specter here.”

  The one-eared thorg spun back to face me. He snarled, “Bastard!”

  I sucked on my mana crystal noisily. “Grek, do you know what specters really hate?” I asked the punisher.

  “No, Your Highness.”

  “People who steal their essence. And guess what these creatures have been feasting on? Spirits who were granted the essence from the specters of the keep.”

  “Don’t ignore me, you dog.” One Ear shouted.

  I ignored the thorg and took out a piece of dried jerky from my pocket.

  “Ah… I am going to kill you, you leashed weakling.”

  One Ear took an intimidating step towards me while unhooking a mace from his belt.

  “Is that before or after you are done battling the specter?” I asked in a calm voice.

  One Ear didn’t answer. He rushed me. I raised my finger at the large man.

  He wound his arm back to strike me down with a mace. I shot a death bolt at him.

  He tried to spin and dodge. He was good and almost succeeded.

  The dark bolt hit him in his free arm. It got stuck in his bicep. The thorg staggered in pain.

  With a pained shout he stumbled.

  I shot out of the bench with mana rushing through my veins. My muscles thrummed with power.

  I rammed into the thorg’s midsection and lifted the doom-touched off the floor.

  Breath whooshed out of the thorg in an explosive breath. And yet One Ear tried to hit me with the hilt of his mace.

  I spun using his own momentum against him. With a grunt of effort, I threw him.

  He flew through the air. Landing painfully on the floor next to the other door of the empty hall.

  Everyone looked from me to the specter wrenching the door behind him.

  I popped the mana crystal back in my mouth and raised my hands. “I am done,” I announced.

  I walked back to my bench slowly. I didn’t want them to lose all sense and attack me.

  We were going to fight but not just yet. But they kept looking at me with their weapons raised.

  I sat back down on the bench and looked at Grek. “Grek, they look surprised. Why do they look so surprised?”

  Grek, who had taken a spot behind the bench, smiled smugly. “I don’t know, Your Highness. Maybe they didn’t expect you to be so fast? Or maybe they didn’t expect you to fight back.”

  “You are a death caster.” Bony Eyes snarled.

  “Oh.” I nodded. “Yes, I am.”

  My words sent a ripple of fear through the gathered crowd.

  The damned began to summon their magics and prepare their attacks.

  “Stop!” One Ear stood up from where I had thrown him.

  He pointed the tip of his mace at me. “He is mine.”

  I shook my head. “No. You are that one’s.” I pointed my chin at the specter entering the hall behind the one-eared thorg.

  One Ear looked behind him and his eyes widened. Everyone took in a sharp breath at the sight of a fire-faced specter floating in. As if that wasn’t enough, just at that moment, the first specter finished wrenching the steel door off its hinges and spouted a glob of flame into the hall.

  The flaming ball hit one of the damned. The damned shrieked in pain and tried to bat it out with his hands.

  That was a mistake. The fire stuck to his palms and spread all over his body.

  With a crackle and a loud whoosh, the damned went up in flames.

  In seconds, the damned stopped screaming and shriveled up into blackened charcoal.

  Chaos erupted all around the room and suddenly I was the least of the enemies' problems.

  Bony Eyes looked at me and snarled, “When I am done with them, I am going to come for you, Truechild.”

  I nodded. “Don’t worry. I am not going anywhere. I will be sitting right here, doomed.”

  The thorg flinched at the use of the word doomed.

  He unhooked his mace and pointed at me with a snarl. “I am going to bite your head off and piss down your throat when I am done.”