The Prince's Death

An emotion flittered across Nathaniel's face, but it was too fast to catch on. His hand pressed against the wounded leg, and holding the sword in the other, he forced himself to stand up. Though this position was hard on his body, he never planned to die while kneeling.

"Oh, are you angry?", his opponent asked, enjoying to torture the fallen foe. "Scared, maybe? Such a pitiful life you must have led, and you didn't even know why."

Following Nathaniel's movements with his dark eyes, the grin slowly vanished from his face and hiding behind it, a piercing stare got visible. Compared to the smile, this gaze felt much more matching for his appearance. People were inevitable formed by what they did their whole life, and Kadir, who was a master of weapons, had eyes as sharp and slicing as a sword. Only after he took the mask of cheerfulness off, did one notice how badly it matched him.

"You know, I would love to punish you for all that my sister had to go through", Kadir said, and carefully cleaned his weapon with a cloth a soldier prepared for him. "He broke her. Her backbone, her pride, and finally her mind. From one visit to the other, she was a different woman. Because of him, she is completely useless now. And after he was dead, there was still you."

When there was not a stain left on the sword, he let the dirty fabric fall into the mud. Then he raised his cold eyes to pierce through Nathaniel. "My father didn't care, and normally I would do the same. Women only exist to be beautiful, nobody cares about their emotions. However, she is still my sister."

Nathaniel gazed back just as coldly. "If you want revenge, you are coming for the wrong person."

Kadir laughed without joy. "So what? He isn't here. You look so much like him that it would be fun to torture you even if you got nothing to do with it. And there is nobody to stop me."

With a movement that spoke of strength and determination, he dismounted. Nathaniel's eyes narrowed, while Aston's lips formed silent words, like a prayer. Slowly, the dark-skinned man neared the pale one.

In his mind, Nathaniel was deliberating. From the beginning, he knew that he could use the dark magic to solve this, to kill all his enemies. However, Aston, Sam, and his soldiers were also in the radius. The darkness didn't know the difference between friend and foe. And in the battle, it was impossible for Nathaniel to spare his friends. It should only be used as last resort, and even then, he wasn't sure what it would destroy. If it could still be reigned back in. His mind was filled with the images of screaming soldiers, of the white bones breaking through their skin. He remembered the every second of it, the darkening flesh, much like rotting away, the helplessness and inhuman terror it had brought. He remembered something that was half human, half skeleton wailing in the sea of darkness before it lost all life.

Nathaniel's breath picked up. He didn't want to use that power again, had sworn to himself that he wouldn't. Even now he wondered if it had been worth it. For people and king that were bound to die when the Falumors invaded them.

But exactly because of that, he had to stop them. Else the deaths would have been without reason.

"You are lucky", Kadir said with a sneer, as he stopped three steps away from him. Nathaniel prepared himself to act. Maybe killing just the Prince would suffice to let them flee in fright. Maybe he could control it, if the Prince was close enough. Who would want to fight a power like his?

Unknowing that his fate had been decided, Kadir continued talking. "I don't have much time to play with you, since I need to kill a king. But my sword is only for the worthy, so..."

Nathaniel didn't wait for him to finish. A cloud of darkness burst out of his chest, like an arrow shooting at Kadir's face.

With a mocking laugh, Kadir parted it with his sword. The remains hit his body without an inkling of pain. "What crap is this? Your last resort? Such a damn weak - "

Nathaniel turned away as the weapon fell out of the skeleton hand, even though the man didn't realize it yet. The Falumor soldiers, however, did realize it and stared in horror at their leader. Their mouths were wide open, and one even ran over and tried to slice off the hand of the Prince. However, the hungry darkness instead extended over his sword to attack him too. That was when the screams began.

Nathaniel had though that Aston would use the opportunity to free himself, but he forgot that his brother also had never seen the darkness' power with his own eyes. Staring at the terror with an eagerness that didn't match his jovial personality, Aston made no attempts to break free.

The sword of the person above him trembled. In a state of shock, he hadn't reacted to the events yet, but Nathaniel was sure it wouldn't remain this way. Limping over would take too much time, and some attackers were also coming his way, so he bellowed: "Aston! Wake up!"

The soldiers didn't give him the time to see if he succeeded. He had hoped they would flee, but they seemed to be more loyal than they looked. They will regret that soon, Nathaniel thought, and lifted his sword. Inwardly, he called out for the darkness. He knew very well that he would not survive this without his magic.

The darkness obeyed and attacked the two soldiers before him. He could feel its joy. As long as it was able to eat, the darkness would happily follow his commands. He gritted his teeth. This joy was something he had come to abhor, an abnormal, childish happiness while eating up everything it saw.

He remembered a woman's face, her sorrowful expression while her eyes were already dead. If the darkness had felt the same quiet joy when it was eating his aunt? It didn't talk to him back then, but maybe it just didn't want to. Who knew? A thinking, feeling magic ability was unprecedented.

Nausea made him close his lids. Better end this before it gets too strong, Nathaniel thought, and stretched out his hand, preparing for the pain.

"Come back here."

It was the same as the first time, the same as always when it ate enough living things. The darkness rejected. Contrary to the event with the Renat army, however, his will was stronger. Slowly the darkness seeped back under his skin. He could feel it, even though he didn't see it.

Suddenly, a scream. It was different than all the screams of horror around him. "Nathan!"

He turned, seeing a blade just in front of him, and a cruelly distorted face. The Falumor Prince was still alive!

Just in time, he parried the strike, and noticed that it was much weaker than before, led with the wrong hand. Still, his leg gave in from the force.

"I underestimated you", the Prince spat out with a splatter of blood. "It won't happen... again..."

With these last words he fell to the side. Wiping the blood from his face, Nathaniel muttered: "Because you won't get another chance."

Then he concentrated fully on the black force again.