"I don't like this at all."
Guinevere said, wrapping her arms around herself.
And it wasn't because she felt cold.
"Unfortunately, this was necessary," Gawain said, his gaze narrowing.
He looked at Guinevere. "Did Mordred just pierce through Elaine's barrier?"
"That seems to be the case," Iris said, glancing back at him. "Your brother's quite intuitive."
Morgan's gaze hardened. "He's hurt her."
"Something that none of you had the gall to do," Iris replied calmly, her glittering azure eyes regarding the three royals.
"That sounded rather harsh," she admitted with a shrug. "But it's the truth."
Morgan glared at her before closing her eyes with a sigh. "You're right. We were cowards."
"But this way is too dangerous." Guinevere shook her head. "I worry for them both. Especially Mordred."
Her gaze softened with concern. "He's been through a lot. The last thing I want is for him to sink back into a pit of violence."
"That will never work, Your Majesty," Iris said, glancing at her. "You tried it with me, and you failed. Even with a fresh start, I somehow found my way back to violence."
She paused, her expression turning contemplative.
"I have no memories of my time as a Deathwalker. Not a single one. And yet, deep down, I still feel like one."
Her glittering azure eyes settled on the High Queen.
"I never did the things I do now before losing my memories. I chose that path myself. But even without remembering who I used to be, I somehow found my way back to violence. My memories were gone, but something in me remained."
Her expression grew solemn.
"I don't know how to explain it, Your Majesty. I only know that a fresh start doesn't necessarily change who we are at our core. And Mordred and I will always remain Deathwalkers, no matter how far we stray from that life."
Her gaze pierced into the High Queen.
"You, of all people, should understand this. A Deathwalker never knows peace, even if they start anew."
Guinevere's expression tightened. She gripped her forearm, where the Deathwalker mark was intricately intertwined with her Phoenix tattoo.
"I know, Iris." Her voice softened. "I still have nightmares, and I find myself falling into that violent bloodlust at times."
"At least you remember it, Your Majesty." Iris gave a melancholic smile. "I envy that."
As Iris turned her attention back to the duel, Morgan spoke up.
"Is it possible that Elaine had been planning this duel for a long time?"
Guinevere looked at her, a horrifying realization dawning on her face. "Could that be possible?"
"It is," Iris answered, glancing back at them. "Elaine had been planning this duel for a long time."
She tilted her head, observing the arena now flooded with water, its surface disturbed by the lingering flames and stained with blood.
"Mordred's return only made things more convenient."
Gawain frowned. "Mordred wasn't part of her original plan. If he hadn't returned from the Tear, who would Elaine have turned to?"
His green eyes widened as he looked at Iris.
Guinevere and Morgan seemed to reach the same conclusion, both turning their gazes towards the Fairy of Tenebris.
Iris smirked, twirling a finger in the air.
"I would've been the one fighting her down there. No wonder she was trying so hard to rile me up with those nasty comments."
*******
Elaine pressed a hand against her wound and winced.
Lowering it, she glanced at the blood smeared across her fingertips.
The pain was sharp and throbbing. The crimson beam had passed cleanly through her shoulder, piercing flesh and bone with ease.
She had been hurt before, but this pain was different. It burned and lingered, gradually intensifying until it began to eat away at her concentration.
"First time getting your barrier breached?"
Mordred's voice snapped her out of her daze, and she looked up.
He approached her, water splashing around his ankles with each step. His crimson wings folded behind him before dissipating into a cloud of crimson mist.
Casually, he brought his two daggers together. Their forms merged and smoothed into a pure white sword, its edge coated in poisonous green.
Elaine clenched her jaw and streamed water and fire over her wound, cleaning it and accelerating its healing.
Straightening up, she faced her brother.
"First time since I created this barrier," she replied, narrowing her gaze.
She activated two codes simultaneously.
{Ignis: Flare Ring}
{Aqua: Rejuvenating Loop}
Loops of fire and water formed behind her, spinning rapidly as they absorbed the surrounding Ardor.
The pain and fatigue began to fade, and her focus sharpened.
However, Mordred didn't give her time to recover.
Like a ghost, he glided over the water towards her.
Elaine reacted quickly, trapping his feet in the water as soon as he came within reach.
But Mordred was undeterred.
Numerous needles of crystallized blood formed around him, all aimed at Elaine from point-blank range.
{Haema: Needle Rush}
The needles hurtled towards her. At such close range, she had no time to evade them.
Elaine braced herself as the needles struck her barrier, bouncing off in a flurry of sparks. The impacts rippled across its surface as the barrage continued.
Gritting her teeth, she thrust her hand upwards.
The water between them surged into a towering wave and roared towards Mordred.
He clicked his tongue and braced himself to take the wave head-on, but then the air above him lit up.
"Ah, fuck."
He looked up at multiple golden fireballs, each the size of a bowling ball, hovering overhead like a constellation of stars.
They plunged into the approaching wave.
A deafening hiss filled the sparring court as the collision triggered an explosion of scalding steam, engulfing Mordred.
He winced as the steam seared his skin, burning through even the protection afforded by his Ardor reinforcement.
Immediately channeling Haema to heal himself, Mordred went on high alert, scanning the sparring court, which had become more like a sauna.
Blood converged on his back, spreading into crimson wings. With a mighty flap, he dispersed the steam surrounding him.
As his surroundings cleared, he realized that Elaine was nowhere to be seen.
Then he heard the roar of flames above him, previously masked by the hiss of steam.
Looking up, he had to blink twice to register what he was seeing.
Elaine was skipping around in the air.
More specifically, she was using tiny, powerful bursts of fire beneath her feet to propel herself through the air, much like how Aeris users used bursts of wind to leap through the sky.
She must have done it to locate him from a higher vantage point.
"You could've used wings instead," he called out to her. "This seems rather excessive and more difficult."
Elaine smirked. "This is more fun!"
She raised her hand, and fiery vortices swirled to life behind her. From each vortex emerged a weapon made of pure flame, all aimed at Mordred.
{Ignis: Infernal Arsenal}
She swung her arm down, sending a barrage of fiery weapons raining towards him.
Swords, spears, axes, and daggers of pure golden flame fell like hail.
Mordred's wings split into blood tendrils and lashed out, deflecting the weapons. Some were caught midair and hurled straight back at Elaine.
Not that they did her much harm. Elaine deftly avoided her own weapons as she skipped through the air.
Then she switched tactics. The orbs of flame unleashed numerous golden beams, forcing Mordred to dash across the sparring court, its floor now devoid of water after the steam explosion.
As he ran, multiple crimson vortices formed in his wake, each releasing a Vortex Bloodlance at Elaine.
When he neared a wall, his blood tendrils plunged their crystalline tips deep into its surface and pulled him upwards.
Like a many-legged spider, he scuttled along the walls, narrowly avoiding Elaine's golden beams while counterattacking with his Bloodlances.
Everyone in the observation deck watched as the siblings' exchange tore into the heavily reinforced interior of the sparring court.
Immense waves of Ardor washed over them as two S-rankers unleashed destruction upon each other. The damage to the arena grew with every exchange, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to imagine the duel continuing much longer.
And they were right.
One of Elaine's beams tore through a blood tendril and struck Mordred in the leg, piercing flesh and bone.
He stumbled, losing his grip on the wall. But as he fell, he swept a finger through the air, dragging Scarlet Ray across a wide arc.
The beam struck Elaine's barrier and tore through it, cutting into her right ankle. However, the sweeping motion had robbed it of much of its concentrated force.
Elaine screamed in pain as the beam carved a deep gash into her ankle, nearly severing her foot.
She lost her balance and, more importantly, her focus. Her orbs dissipated, and she fell like a rock alongside her brother.
"No!" Guinevere's panicked voice echoed through the slightly ruined court as the two siblings plummeted towards the floor.
Mordred hit the ground first. The instant Elaine landed, he formed a powerful Blood Grenade and hurled it at her.
Her eyes widened as the crimson grenade landed mere inches from her face.
For the first time, fear filled her, and she froze.
The grenade exploded into a crimson fireball.
Her weakened barrier flared as it struggled to withstand the blast, but the force proved too much.
Elaine gasped as the barrier shattered. The explosion hurled her into the wall, which crumbled around her.
*******
Up in the observation deck, Guinevere stared in horror as a section of the wall collapsed, burying her child beneath the rubble.
"Elaine!"
She moved to break through the observation glass, only to be stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder.
"She's alive."
Uriel's voice stopped the High Queen in her tracks. She turned to see the Incarni of Ignis and Lux standing behind her, their gazes glowing with certainty.
"Mordred asked me to make sure she wouldn't die," Phoebe said plainly. "Elaine will be injured, but she will not die."
"That doesn't make things better," Morgan snapped, her fists clenched tightly.
"Trust Mordred." Phoebe turned to face her. "He knows what he is doing."
*******
Mordred didn't know what he was doing.
"Dammit!" he swore as he limped towards Elaine's position.
In the chaos, he had infused too much Ardor into the Blood Grenade and severely underestimated Elaine's barrier.
"Mother's going to kill me," he muttered.
His limp gradually eased as his strand healed the hole in his leg.
"Elaine?" he called out as he reached the rubble.
Mordred frowned. Phoebe had assured him that Elaine wouldn't die, but the silence from beneath the pile of concrete and dracium panels concerned him.
Then the silence was broken by a faint, smouldering hiss.
The temperature spiked, and water began seeping through the gaps in the rubble.
A powerful aura suddenly pressed down on his shoulders, making the air tremble and the rubble shudder.
Instinctively, Mordred jumped back just as the pile exploded in a whirlwind of fire and steam.
Squinting, he made out two tall, humanoid forms emerging from the flames.
One was made of water, the other of pure fire. The fiery figure cradled Elaine's limp, battered body in its arms.
Its head turned towards him, and his instincts immediately screamed a warning.
A distorted voice boomed throughout the sparring court.
"WHO DARED TO HARM MY MASTER?"
Mordred couldn't help but chuckle at this unexpected turn of events.
Turns out he wasn't the only one with a Familiar.