“Where did you get that?!” Kyrik shouted. “It's impossible!”

“You know what it is, then?” Kali took to the skies to avoid another attack.

“The Spellbreaker!” He sounded almost giddy with curiosity. Coming from a skeletal serpent, it was quite surreal. “Aura's personal shield.”

Aura's shield, huh? Kali looked at it, eyes narrowed. Not only was Aurgal's blade here, but the shield of his twin? Something more was hiding in the background. Somehow, she got the impression that this castle being alive and assisting Kali wasn't a freak coincidence.

“Kyrik,” Kali spoke after watching it recharge. Kyrik was far too busy staring at it to attack. “I want you to think about something.” When he tilted his head at her, she continued. “Why would the castle be assisting me by giving me a demi-god's apparel?”

He didn't have an immediate answer. “I...” Kyrik stopped. “I don't know.”

“If the castle itself is siding with me, maybe it thinks its master is in the wrong?” Kali tried to speak some sense into him.

This proved to be a mistake. At first, he seemed like he saw wisdom in her words. However, instead of weakening the control of the enchantment, it caused him to lash out with spectral chains. The Spellbreaker deflected the attack, dimming slightly.

“How dare you accuse her of being wrong!” His voice boomed through the night. She flinched from the intensity. “She's not wrong! She can't be wrong! You are wrong!”

Avoiding another beam, Kali resigned herself to her task. If he wouldn't listen to reason, then she had to beat it into him. Tough love, as they say.

The only good thing – something she thought was kind of a weakness previously – was that Kyrik's reaper form itself was corporeal. Meaning that when she rammed her horns into his side, it hurt. At least, she assumed it would.

He floated backward, eyes igniting. Scythe claws extended, he swooped in on her, never giving her a moment's rest. Coupled with the freezing air, it allowed zero room for a counter attack. Mental projections wouldn't work against a reaper from what Jirmen told her.

But Kyrik was a special case, so maybe...?

Reaching out mentally, she was met by a spiked whip that slapped her away. Stunned, she was unable to avoid a ram from Kyrik, the spikes on his head damaging her wards. Rectifying herself, Kali held her head from the attack. Azulia's hold on him was far too strong to produce illusions, and now she was disoriented.

Well, back to the old plan, she supposed. Breathing wispy flame, she engulfed him long enough to fly around the clock tower. Glancing down at the Spellbreaker, which floated around her the entire time, she began to wonder if it had rebound capabilities. If she could deflect, say, one of those beams, she might be able to knock him out of this state.

Provided it didn't kill him.

A dark thought crossed her mind. She knew he wouldn't die, seeing him save his 'soul', so to speak, earlier in the day. If he was struck down, he'd come back. It would be a way of freeing him from Azulia's thrall, but she quickly vetoed it. No matter the situation, she could never bring herself to cause serious harm to him.

A flying, pale skull broke her from her trance. Large as Kali, maw opened wide to consume her. Diving down, she narrowly avoided being snapped up. As the bone-shattering jaw closed, it vanished. Two more raced toward her, what sounded like screams piercing the silent night.

Eluding them was simple enough. What wasn't was the pillars of dark light that chased after her. Her only warning was a faint shimmering in the air where they would strike. Just being around them was enough to nearly blind Kali. Bells began to chime in her head, a signal that Kyrik was very close.

From below, a green streak shot up and rammed her chest. A bony scythe came down on her head. Reacting quickly, she swallowed and tried something she didn't want to. It was a work in progress, but it was the only way she would be able to knock him away.

She swiped with her claw, not hitting the scythe. Less than a second later, an echo of her attack battered the weapon away. Kali stared in amazement; it worked! Now it was just a matter of was it a fluke or not.

Slapping him away with her tail, she saw the echo work again. It wasn't something she could ever do back home, but the strange magic of this world warped her abilities. Attacking again and again, it was like she had a second version of herself. Kyrik was on the defensive for once, backing away to avoid the swipes and bashes.

That's when she realized that Kyrik was holding back.

Kali slipped up not once but twice but overextending her reach. Something that could have been easily exploited, but Kyrik did not take this chance. His eyes shifted to it, so he wasn't oblivious. So why was he holding back?

Unless...

Unless Kyrik still had some semblance of control under her spell.

Knocking him away with a powerful swipe of her tail, she noted that he kept staring at the Spellbreaker. It was glowing brightly, especially when Kali was so close to him. An idea began to form in her head. Spellbreaker...how did it not hit her sooner?!

Launching the offensive again, Kali this time held the shield before her. He reeled away with a rattling hiss. Before she knew it, a spinning scythe was thrown at her. The shield deflected the attack but couldn’t save against a gust of powerful winds that threw her back into the clock tower.

Pulling herself back up, she saw Kyrik right behind, floating in the air as sharp claws burst from the wood. When she dodged, pillars joined in the attack. Again, the way he was attacking seemed to leave open areas.

A long, dark shadow elongated around her. Jumping out of the way, she narrowly avoided Kyrik as he dove down into the wood, growing incorporeal before resurfacing. This went on for what felt like an eternity.

Before her eyes, the Spellbreaker acted on its own accord by flying over to Kyrik. Puzzled, Kali didn't avoid a pillar that ripped her cloak and sent what felt like fire through her blood. Something tore away inside her before righting itself.

Weakened, she watched as the Spellbreaker formed what looked like a ghost. The shape of it was bipedal, but otherwise undefinable. If she had to guess, Kali would say that the Spellbreaker was forming a memory of its former owner.

Something that Kyrik also concluded from the way that he reacted. He began to glow and pulse, a ball of unknown power forming in his maw. It was like the way he charged up the death beam, but it was not dissimilar to the pillars he fired before. He was aiming right at the Spellbreaker, which was slowly approaching as the figure began to take more shape.

Kali knew what she had to do.

Without hesitation, she brought her tail down on his head. The spikes broke scales this time, but she had succeeded in stopping the attack. Falling off, she allowed the ghost to approach and slam the Shieldbreaker into Kyrik's chest.

A shriek that shattered nearby windows rang out into the night as crimson energy enveloped the necklace, hidden behind Kyrik's shroud. He fought to protect it, lashing out at anyone and anything. Kali was forced to fly out through the window, hovering to avoid the attacks.

Slowly, Kyrik reverted into his normal self, the necklace falling off in two. Chaotic energies melted into the ground as the Spellbreaker vanished.

Landing beside her friend, she saw that he was holding his head in pain. At her approach, he opened an eye. She let out a breath of relief at seeing the normal glow in his eyes had returned. That same, wide-eyed innocence that she had grown to find so endearing.

CRACK!

Something shot by Kali's head. Whatever it was, it was small and fast. Her first reaction was to look back, seeing a shape dart across the rooftops. Shrikian, from the looks of it. Yet, something seemed off about it. Off and familiar.

Horror dawned on her as she whirled back to Kyrik to find him face down on the ground.

Blood pooled around him, his eyes shut. His body was still outside of small twitches. Kali's eyes widened, all sounds muted. She trembled, unable to process the image before her. Suddenly, she was darting to him.

Only to have him vanish into green mist. She knew what that meant; Kyrik was struck down. Kali knew he would come back, but it didn't make it any more pleasant to watch. Tears flowed down her face, guilt and sadness crippling her. She should have protected him!

Searching for the projectile, Kali looked down at the puddle of dissolving blood. Every part of her wanted to scream in terror, to flee. She felt like she were in a waking nightmare.

Stained with Kyrik's blood, a fragment of sharpened bone lay.