After running having run for almost three days straight, with minimal sign of the dragon, and only enough time to briefly rest every night Arthur finally reached the base of the mountain range, where he discovered a cave. “This must be the labyrinth,” he thought, catching his breath, and knowing that the dragon was not too far behind him. Never the less he still looked back to see how far away it was. It wasn't close, but it wasn't far either, he could see it casually walking towards him, he could hear it laughing, it probably never expected him to get this far. Arthur retreated into the caves, knowing that this would be his only chance. He rushed through the cave until he came upon a more developed part of the cave. It was strange, the outside of the cave looked young, around 100-200 years old, but, this area seemed way older. Almost as if the area Arthur was in was never meant to be seen, or even discovered, but a cave-in or something else made opened it up. He stood there in amazement, shocked at what he had found. Then Arthur heard the dragon's laugh from behind him.

“Now you won't be able to escape me, Human.” The dragon growled in excitement.

Arthur kept running through this seemingly endless maze. He ran, and ran, taking turns at random, no longer was he trying to lose the dragon, now he was just trying to survive. Yet despite all the luck, he had, Arthur eventually ran into a dead end. Yet this room was strange, even though he barely had a chance to look into the other rooms, he was able to briefly see into them thanks to his Aura, but this room was very different. The walls were still made of stone but there was the lever of a portcullis on the side, and in the center was an altar, with the fragments of a magnificent sword sitting on it, and a rolled-up piece of paper. Arthur didn't know what to do when he heard a voice in his head.

“Do you want to live?”

Arthur looked around, he was alone, but the dragon was too close to run out.

“Use the portcullis lever, I have unlocked it for you.” The voice spoke again.

“Who are you?” Arthur asked, he could sense was alone, but where was the voice coming from? 

“Who I am matters not, only that you answer me one question.” The voice responded, “DO. YOU. WANT. TO. LIVE”

“Yes,” Arthur said, “I want to live, I want to see that bastard Narfad face his crimes.”

“Time is very short, grab the hilt on the table.”

Arthur grabbed the hilt of the blade as it began to glow and change form. The fragments, no matter how small, the fragments came back together as the sword changed shape to a longsword. It was beautiful if not a bit frightening. The blade was red, as red as blood, the guard was more than simple and looked like it had two daggers within it. In the center was a core. The core of an ancient dragon, Arthur had never seen one before in person only in writing. The hilt was made out of a magical metal then wrapped in a type of cloth. Whatever this sword was made out of it was powerful. Arthur then grabbed the paper and began to read it. At first, he couldn't understand it until he felt a burning sensation in his mind as if whatever this was engraving itself into his own memory.  He dropped the paper back onto the table and dropped the sword as well, but no clanging sound was made, instead, it glowed briefly before vanishing. An intense burning sensation engulfed his right arm, just as the dragon's thunderous footsteps could be heard. It was close, very close, close enough in fact that its breathing could even be heard.

“Come on out human” she growled softly, “and I might give you a swift death. You have entered into a place no mortal should ever enter, your death is inevitable.” Hearing this, Arthur quickly moved to the lever, and despite the pain, grasped it in his right hand, ready to pull when the dragon enters.

“There you are,” the dragon said, almost happy that this game was over. “Are you done running now? You have no way out, say your final goodbyes.” The dragon lunged herself at Arthur before he could even react, and grabbed him by his left arm, tearing him away from the lever. Arthur began struggling, hitting the dragon with his bare fists, but to no avail, he could not damage the dragon, let alone harm her.

The dragon thrashed and threw Arthur across the room, tearing his left arm off in the process, and causing him to slam into the alter. Arthur was strong, but the pain from having his arm torn off was excruciating. The dragon uttered a low growl as she made her way towards him, Arthur sat himself up, he had nowhere to go, he was trapped. As he moved his right arm to support him, it sank, as if it was on a trap. He looked down and saw he had put his weight on a pressure plate and the sound of moving parts could be heard echoing in the room. The dragon looked around to see if she could find the source, but as she looked up and slightly behind her head, she saw a portcullis come crashing down. She roared in pain as it pierced her neck, and collapsed. She was bleeding, a lot more than Arthur was.

“Human,” she growled softly, “what is your name?”

“Arthur,” he responded, “Arthur Shepherd.” Arthur stood up and slowly made his way to the dragon. “I'm sorry we couldn't kill that man.”

“It is not your fault human, I have lived a long enough life, but could I request something of you?”

“I don't know what I could do, seeing as how I'm going to die here, just like you, but sure.”

“Kill him, make him suffer for what he did. To ensure this I shall give you my blessing.” She said, coughing up blood. She then muttered something underneath her breath as Arthur began to glow, and a dragon-like tattoo appeared on his chest and back as they both began to burn, yet that pain could not compare to the pain of losing his arm.

“I have two questions,  what is your name and what even is a blessing?” Arthur said, sitting down in front of her.

“Cadissar,” she responded, “Cadissar, the guardian of the blade, and I am surprised you were not taught what a blessing is. How should I explain it, a blessing is when a being of incredible magic power spends at least a quarter of its mana and uses it to increase the abilities and magical capabilities of an individual. In my case, I used all of my mana, as soon I won't have any need for it.“ She finished as Arthur laid down and closed his eyes to rest, having already lost a lot of blood. "Might I ask you something... Arthur”

“What do you want to know?”

“Why didn't you use magic at all? Was it out of honor, pride?”

“No, I can't use magic, I'm a null, the only reason why I was able to run for three days straight is that I have built up my endurance to fight low to low-mid level mages in addition to my null abilities.”

Cadissar's eyes grew big, “A Null? Well, no wonder you survived this long and got here as fast as you did. Now that you have my blessing you might even become more powerful than she was. I bet you are quite popular in your homeland.”

“No, I don't know where you got the idea that nulls could be powerful, Nulls are lucky enough to survive infanthood as, in my experience are abandoned in woods like the Varenshaw woods.”

“Oh, how they have fallen it seems. Would you like to hear a story Arthur?”

“About what, anything to do with that woman you mentioned?”

“Yes, she was a null from a long time ago, it is a story I lived through. It might help shed some light on the true capabilities of a null.”

“Sure, not like I'm going anywhere.”