Aphelios, The Weapon of the Faithful, Part 2.

Lanius slammed his weapon onto the Lunari assassin's Calibrum. Aphelios reacted by jumping back and falling on one knee to aim and then fire at the Winter.

Lanius dove down and simultaneously hurled yet another set of ice shards at him.

Aphelios rolled to the side and aimed yet again. Another bolt of raw energy parted the Lunari's weapon travelled towards the Winter, collided with his weapon and changed course to ricochet on the walls and out of the cave.

Lanius saw the bolt and remembered that there was an opening. With a few more ice shards, he moved towards the exit and rushed out of the cave, with the Lunari assassin's footsteps sounding behind him.

As he bolted put, he looked below him to see a pitch black void. The Winter turned his head upwards to find some sort of opening to place his hands. As he did so, he heard more footsteps. The young man loweted his head to and raised his weapon.

Aphelios rushed towards him, with his Severum raised.

The young man reeled his weapon back and awaited the strike.

Then the next move caught him off guard, aa the Lunari assassin bended forward, followed by him stretching his body outwards and releasing a big bolt of moonlight. The move was so quick that the young man wasn't even able to react.

As the shot came down on him, it burned him on the chest, stunning him. Aphelios wasted no time and charged straight at him with his weapon in hand.

Lanius felt every inch of his body burn. His senses were completely disoriented.

Aphelios grabbed his Severum and raised it diagonally. Lanius raised his Krigsoks at the last moment in then sliced forward. Lanius felt the sharp moonlight cut him right as it cut the ice ploeaxe.

The young man blinked and then looked down as the ice weapon split in half and fell from his hands, dissolving on the ground.

"NO!" Freida's scream echoed in the young man's head as he looked at his thorax, where the black bandages had been sliced in half.

The young man's eyes rolled back into his skull. Lanius stumbled back and fell into the void,with the last image he saw being Aphelios looking at him with an expressionless, emotionless face.

"Patience, Freida. Yet, I alas hear your voice."

.

.

.

Sett's body lied on the snow. His shoulders and chest still rose and small clouds parted his mouth. His whole body and coat was filled with cuts. All ten of his fingers, despite the fingerless gloves he wore, were frostbitten. He had a big wound above his forehead that bled onto his right eye. One of his legs was twisted in an unnatural angle, with the kneecap being soaked in blood.

Suddenly, a figure dressed in an orange cloak stopped and knelt in front of the Beast-Man. A light purple hand emerged from the cloak and lightly brushed against Sett's face. Then the figure's hand moved towards his left hand, that held the Solari locket the Rakkor priest gave to him. It was cracked in one place, with a faint yellow glow being seen from within it.

.

.

.

Aphelios moved towards the end of the ledge where he saw the Solari intruder fall from.

"Well done, brother." Alune sounded again. "You eradicated the intruder."

Aphelios took a look at the void below. The intruder seemed to be dangling in the air by a chain that was wrapped around his waist. He seemed to be lifeless. Aphelios summoned his Calibrum and aimed at the chain in order to break it and send the body down the mountain.

That's when the intruder's head darted up. Two luminescent light blue eyes stared directly into his soul.

Aphelios fired and the bolt travelled downwards, towards him. The intruder then raised his hand and deflected the bolt with an ice gauntlet, then began to rock back and forth to gain momentum.

Aphelios fired another shot. Then another and another, to no avail, as the intruder collided with the wall. At that instant, a tremendously large ice spice formed from the position that he was.

Aphelios heard the sound that his boots made on the ice. The Lunari assassi switched to his Severum, then braced himself.

The intruder jumped in with a glide and landed on the edge of the cave. His face was expressionless, just being an empty, concentrated mask.

Then the figure struck. He flashed forward, leaving a small trail of ice behind with his ice gauntlets already raised. Aphelios raised his Severum to block his attacks. Each punch pounded on the Lunari assassin's weapon with extreme strength, making it lean closer and closer to him.

Aphelios grunted and began to counterattack. Each slice seemed to chirp off a layer, yet it was immediately replaced with more ice, in addition to ice also forming on Severum's tip.

The Lunari assassin's strength seemed to give up on him as the intruder laid one punch after the other...and then...

The Severum broke with one punch, and the other was send straight to his guts, sending him crashing on a wall.

Aphelios fell on the ground as the back of his head felt as it it had exploded. He instinctively tapped it with his right hand, and said hand came back bloody.

He felt so dizzy,yet the intruder didn't finish him off. He just stood there with his head tilted to the side, then turned around to leave him bleed there.

"Aphelios! No!" Alune called out for him. The Lunari assassin stuck his hand out for her.

.

.

.

Lanius turned around to leave.

"I was supposed to help you!" a voice sounded behind him, prompting the young man to turn.

A projection of a woman, perhaps about the age of Aphelios, stuck her hand towards him in agony. Aphelios crawled towards her with his hand also raised and sheer panic in his eyes.

Then he collapsed on the ground. The projection faded.

Lanius turned around once more to walk off. Then, with a grunt he stopped and made his way to the boy. He place his hand on the back of his head and sealed the wound with a tjin layer of ice.

It would gradually melt as the wound healed.

Lanius took off his Solari necklace and placed it on Aphelios' hand.

He then finally walked out of the cave, and resumed The Climb.

"Your present, unlocked. Your future now remains. Your travelling is almost done, son of Zefarin." the male disembodied voice spoke yet again. "Your spirit temporarily connected with you, yet it will not happen again. Not until you reach the summit."

Lanius placed a hand on the rocks in front of him...and pulled himself up.