The black eyes of the skillful insectid assassin stared piercingly into the room, the red cross markings of its iris the only sign that they were eyes and not gleaming black beads.

The Duke drew his sword and raised it to shoulder height, only stopping when Gladly softly touched the side of his leg.

“Wait…”

“Like hell, you have it in your spell we should kill it now while we have the chance”

“My spell has him in a trance, but the spell does not divorce a creature’s mind from the world entirely. If you were to attack him directly, he might reflexively respond and it will break the spell”

“Are you sure, what if I just cleave through him really fast”

Gladly crossed his head, “I have heard tales of this creature’s reflexes, even if a dozen men struck at him all at once, it might not be enough, and we would be back where we started. Having to face it at its full force”

The spider’s eyes pulsed, contracting and expanding as if to light within its dreamlike state.

“God it’s ugly” the Duke said as he sheathed his sword and stepped closer to gaze into its eyes.

Skin like stretched out leather over a hardened carapace looked human and inhuman at the same time. Its mouth was retracted in a tight bundle, a mass of bristles and wadded muscles surrounding hidden fangs. The bottom of its jaw was nested together so tightly that only a faint line remained as evidence that it was designed to open wide.

Small glistening hairs ran up along its face, shifting and flowing with changes of air in the room, and resonating to the Duke’s breath.

“Alright, then we will get the princess to the lock room. Dasha, you lead the way”

Dasha stood with her sword ready emblazoned with spikes of ice along its blade. She nodded wearily her eyes transfixed on the creature.

“Dasha”

“I’m fine, okay, princess follow me”

As Dasha and the princess exited the room the Duke turned to Gladly, “How long can you hold this spell for?”

“Don’t rightly know, but just to be safe, you should hurry”

“Right, hold on until the mages arrive to assist”

“Why are they taking so long again?”

“This guy here isn’t the only assassin on the loose, they got caught up”

Gladly nodded sternly as a bead of sweat dripped down his temple, “Please just hurry”

The creature’s eyes twisted and turned as if it was figuring out pieces of a puzzle. Gladly watched on uneasily, hoping that his spell would hold.

…

The elevator clanked as it locked into place at the top floor. Mirio’s magical armor let off a dull glow in the dark hall.

The spark of magic lit like a small fire as he flicked his fingers in the pattern of a light sigil.

Dozens of bodies lay strewn across the hall, fresh blood still pooling towards the middle of the passage. Mirio stepped over the oozing limbs of the palace guard, chamber hands, and mages. His boots picked up the stick of blood as he made his way through the carnage.

At the end of the hall lay a man clutching tight onto his sword at the doorway of a lighted room, propped up against the door frame he collapsed into a pool of blood seeping down the inside of his armour. Mirio tightened his grip on Ember, and pointed the tip of his sword down at his feet to avoid giving away his position from anyone that might see him around the corner. With a flick of his fingers the light from his spell faded, and he carefully stepped around the palace guard’s body into the room beyond.

The world tipped and swayed at first as though Mirio were standing on the deck of a ship in a storm, before suddenly everything twisted and overturned. The floor became the ceiling, and the ceiling the side wall. Reality bent and twisted, as a jungle of staircases grew from the ceiling wall and floors. Mirio turned back to see the hallway behind him had vanished, and had been replaced by a kaleidoscope of moving stairways.

Standing just ahead of him was a shadowed figure, transfixed by a shining purple light in the distance.

“What the hell is this?” Mirio said as he took a step towards the shadowed figure and flicked the tip of his sword towards it, “Some kind of spell?”.

The walls shifted and moved, each staircase changing its orientation, and switching to another location. The shadowed figure was now pulled away from Mirio and at the centre of a churning set of stairways. Mirio gazed off to a stairway off to his right hand side and saw the figure standing at the end of it.

He turned towards it and carefully tested each step before placing his weight upon it.

*Weird, it feels real, almost like it isn’t a spell at all*

Mirio zig zagged his fingers and welled magic into them. A mist magical energy built up like a small cloud around his hand and then drifted away.

*Shit, I guess there isn’t an easy way out of this*

He stepped out from the bottom of the staircase to find himself high up on the ceiling looking down at the shadowy figure.

*Is that figure the assassin?*

Mirio stepped back up through the staircase he had just gone through and came out the other side of the left wall, far in the distance.

*You have to be kidding me*

Mirio looked around the room as it morphed and shifted once more, paying careful attention to each staircase as it moved and locked into a new position. He raised one eyebrow and stroked his chin.

*Maybe it works like a dream. And if I want something, but doubt I can reach it, I get the opposite. How about if I step through each stairwell randomly and just test to see where I end up as I change my intent!*

Mirio hurriedly rushed down the steps off to his right, and found himself off at an angle across a large bridging staircase between each wall. He scurried up the next staircase and found himself coming up from the floor. Next he turned to back into the floor and ran out of the side wall.

Placing his hands on his hips he blew out a puff of breath.

“Well fuck me”

He stared at the shadow at the centre of the room.

“What the hell are you looking at?”

The shadowed figure stared ahead at a pin prick of violet light. It stood as though ready to move at any moment, waiting for the light to reveal reality once more.

*Wait, maybe the light is the source of the spell? Damn it, how is this thing ahead of me even in figuring it out?*

Mirio jostled through stairway after stairway until he stood on a staircase just above the creature, able to look into the pin prick of light, but unable to reach the shadow at the center of the spell.

Mirio’s eyes lit up as an idea struck him, “Wait, why am I trying to figure out this spell? Wouldn’t it just be faster to figure out what is happening in reality by inference? For example, a mage has cast illusion magic in the hallway to stop the carnage of the creature, and they are holding it off in a mind maze. I must have just got swept into the spell by chance”

Mirio wrestled through his pouch, and gripped onto a tiny rolled up scroll. He peeled off the wax cap and peeled the parchment open.

“Whispers and words, to send a message of note, call forth this scroll and let your thoughts be known”

The scroll’s magic circle lit up in traces of blue and purple fire as Mirio cast his thoughts towards the caster beyond the light.

“Hey there, I’m here to help, but I’m caught in your mind maze spell. Can you control it enough to let me through”

“I can’t risk it, I’m sorry, I have to hold this thing off until they make it to safety. There isn’t anything you can do, just wait, I have this under control”

“Hmmm, okay, just concentrate then, I’ll figure it out on my side”

Mirio looked up at the creature as it stood inverted above him. Taking in a breath he pooled his mana into his core and gently closed his eyes, allowing his thought speed to rush forwards like the torrents of a river amidst a storm. The world winds whipped and lashed all around him, as he closed his eyes he could sense the shadow standing before him half a dozen paces.

He pushed his awareness into his body, and saw that his hands were pushed down at either side.

*Now… I just need to move out of the area of effect*

Tiny magical circles spun within his blood as his thought speed increased further, the remnants of the dagger’s curse causing his blood to grow hot and uncomfortable as his fingertip twitched. Mirio felt a surge of elation as he could tell his real body had moved, yet if he was to go on, he would need to move far more than a finger.

He plunged his consciousness into an ever deeper trance, allowing the world winds to flow around him, and the silver streams to carve their form into the room around him. While he himself could not move, he could cause the silver threads to swell and to wrap around his body, binding him up in a cocoon and digging into his flesh to grip onto the gates that controlled his mana.

Delicately he worked with each thread to pull loose the tightened gates around his mana core, and with an uncontrollable rush of force, his body shot forward in a whooshing motion.

He spilled forwards onto the marble floor.

“What the hell!?”

The halfling said as he shifted uneasily on his feet, backing away from him.

Mirio pulled himself to his feet and rubbed his eyes, “Ah finally, those stupid staircases are gone. That spell is a trip”

“How, how the hell did you get out of it?” Gladly spat back at him in shock.

“I think your spell only goes so deep, so I kind of tried to sleep walk my way out”

“Sleep walk?”

“Yeah, you know, I couldn’t consciously walk, so I let my body follow a routine it has done a thousand times before”

“Are you a magician yourself? You don’t look it” Gladly said as looking at Mirio out of the side of his eye.

“I don’t look like a lot of things, but whatever I look like, I’m here to help”

“The magicians should arrive to offer me backup any moment now, and so long as this spell holds, I won’t need it”

Mirio turned away from gladly and stared at the spider’s black and red eyes, “So I wasn’t just imagining it, that thing really is a hybrid”

“Yeah, they call him the spider, looks like he’s in the employ of Rainal for now”

“I thought the insectids were still holding back their political stance on the war, does this mean they are just about ready to jump in and support the south?”

“Not if I can help it”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that the operation is likely clandestine, the kind of thing that happens behind the scenes. Not official support, at least not yet. The four rulers of the hive are likely holding out support of Rainal until the princess is dead”

“So it is true then? While the kingdoms have staved off war for over a thousand years, there have been struggles behind the scenes. Spycraft and the like?”

“Yes, there just isn’t any other way to keep the peace, than for at least some blood to be shed”

“Why is the princess so important?”

“If Rainal dies his commands will live on. His generals will take up his cause, and a new leader will take control of his forces. The only hope of stopping the war is to have influence over the command of the army, and the princess will have that kind of power when her brother is dead”

“So Rainal wants her dead, so that assassinating him won’t stop the war?”

“Yes”

“And so you guys are keeping her alive, so you can kill him to end it?”

“Yes”

“Nice spell by the way”

“Thanks”

“I have a question though, why don’t you just kill him while he is standing there?”

“He is trapped in the maze, but his reflexes will still trigger if we were to attack”

“So… we wait until your spell ends and let him loose?”

“Or until the mage’s from the tower arrive for support”

“Right… The tower mages, and where are they?”

“Other assassins are keeping them occupied”

“Of course they are”

Mirio watched on intently as Gladly’s muscles clenched from the strain of the spell.

“Your plan is kind of shit” Mirio said as he stared back at the spider.

“You got a better idea?”

“Hrmm… All I know is that thing is absurdly fast, and if we are standing in this room, flat footed, and without a plan when the spell breaks, we will be like those guards in the hall out there”

“Yeah, so… As long as the princess is safe, it doesn’t matter. And you can leave anyhow, nothing stopping you from making your own way to help the mages. Who knows, you just might do it in time to help them get back to me”

“No, I can see you are already fatigued by holding the spell, if I leave you are definitely fucked”

Sweat dripped down Gladly’s brow and rolled over the bridge of his nose.

“There is only one solution” Mirio said as he grit his teeth and pulled himself into a fighting stance, “I will have to match his mental state, and prepare myself to react the instant the spell breaks”

“Are you crazy, there is no way you can react as fast as the spider”

“Maybe I can’t react as fast, but I can out think it”

“What are you talking about”

“You ever learn any of the fundamentals of sorcery?”

“Of course, illusion magic combines a bit of sorcery with the mechanics of the arcane”

“I’ll raise my thought speed to out speed his, and while my reactions might be slower, I’ll out manoeuvre him”

“Don’t be an idiot, its impossible to think that fast without the chaos taking over, you’ll go mad before you can match that creature!”

“Maybe I’ve gone mad already”

Mirio wedged his feet into a solid stance and gazed deep into the bleeding red crosses in the spider’s black eyes, visualising the violet dot the creature was staring at in the mind maze. The world all around him faded away, as darkness surrounded him along every wall. World winds swept around him like the blasts of a sand storm. Silver threads pierced through the veil dividing the material realm from the divine and the shadows cast on Mirio’s body shifted and moved. The tone of his muscles deepening and echoing mysterious power as black wisps of magic bled from his immaculate form.

Sparks of colour sizzled off the simmering black flame that now covered his body. Red, yellow, blue, and emerald green, all fluttered at its edges. The muscles on Mirio’s face relaxed to leave his features sharp and dangerous. As Gladly looked on, he felt a chill run up his spine, as if a force as dreadful as any he had ever known ran through the mysterious stranger’s blood. Just who had he been talking to, and what kind of monster had now replaced him?

Mirio took in a short sharp breath and exhaled sharply. The air rumbled under his breath like the growl of a wyvern. His eyes were locked onto the spider as he shared the deep hatred and pain of the creature’s killing intent.

*God damn this hurts*

Mirio adjusted the balance of magic within himself with a careful precision as he tuned into the pain and fear of the insectid in front of him. He knew that only by sharing its fear, pain, and desperation would he ever be able to match its killing intent, and so he dug deep into himself, mutilating his own sense of peace and well being as he went.

The world winds became cold as they swept around him, filling him with a chill that sunk deep into the furthest caverns of his soul. He felt naked like a child, and filled with an ache that had no soothing balm.

“Come on…” he whispered under his breath as his eyes dug deeper into the spider’s mind.

“Ah ah… Oh no… Ah” Gladly sputtered as he grasped as his forearm with his other hand, desperately trying to keep the spell alive.

“Don’t worry… I’ve got this” Mirio whispered back as he steadied the tip of his sword between the spider’s eyes.

TINK

A bead of sweat dripped off Gladly’s brow and hovered in the air for a moment as the ground rushed up to meet it.

WHOOSH

As the bead of water erupted in all directions, the shadows in the room came alive, spinning and darting in all directions as dread flooded into Gladly’s veins. He dropped to his knees as the scratch of footsteps echoed all around him. The thud of his hand as it hit the marble floor was painless, until the crack of his shoulder followed against the stone. His eyes blinked as a blast of light shone out from Mirio and filled the room with a blinding white glow.

THUNK

He could barely make out the movements in front of his eyes, as a blur of light shifted and repositioned, clashing against the flood of shadows that sought to consume it.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Mirio held on with the grit of his teeth as the world winds spun around him in the form of silver flames. They shuddered and smashed at him as though they were sheets of steel within a hurricane. Between the slits of the silver flames, he could make out the motion of the creature’s eyes, and he could follow the silver thread that connected to them and the next direction the creature would move.

His sword moved in a blur, as he waded through a jungle of blades. Twisting and turning his toes in a perfect melody, he felt as if his body was glowing a brilliant gold, and within that feeling his movements followed a calling.

There were spaces where the creature could not move without slowing down, and spaces where the creature could move at its fastest. He waded through the stream of attacks and carved directly through the fast zones with a whoosh of magical energy. A spinning world or rainbow colored energy flowed from his blade, and shook the air of the room as it clashed with where the spider wished to move.

Inch by inch, step by step, Mirio forced the creature to move into the void spots, the areas in which it’s movement had to slow. He slashed and deflected in a wild synergy as his eyes saw through the veil and traced the spider’s every movement.

CLUNK

The spider stared down in shock as its hand was tossed aside by the force of Mirio’s blow, his now silver tinted eyes raging with dark fire around them.

CHINK

The spider twisted in the air and sent a deadly pierce towards Mirio’s throat.

CHINK

With a twist of his wrist Mirio tossed off the blow and spun out to the side, sweeping his blade in a wide arc around his back.

SWIP SWIP

Two fast scything strikes lunged out from the spider’s shadowed form.

WHOOSH

Mirio’s blade slipped just under the spider’s legs as it tucked them up just high enough to avoid the blow.

The creature’s eyes widened as Mirio’s back hand swelled with dark energy.

FWOMP!

Dropping its blades it clutched with all its might onto Mirio’s arm as it plunged for its neck with a black dagger.

REEEEEEEEEEEK

Gladly’s eyes opened to an other worldly shriek.

SPLAT

Orange blood splattered against the side wall as Mirio tore his blade through the creature’s flesh.

FWOOSH

The shadow darted through the room like a bolt of lightning, and left the curtain to bluster in the wind. Mirio stepped forward with a coldness in his eyes, and stared out the window as orange blood dripped from an ominous looking dagger in his grip.

Gladly pushed himself up into the corner, his eyes quivering as he looked on at the figure before him in blazing light.

Mirio let out a sigh, and let the world winds settle around him. The glow of his skin, the silver flames in the immaterial world, and the black flames in the material world all faded, as he returned to reality.

As gladly watched on it was as though a mirror had shattered, and from between its fractured shards, the Mirio he had known before the battle bled through, until it was as though the light had never been there at all. He stared down at the dark dagger in his hands, the only clue remaining of the horrible transformation that had occurred just moments before.

Mirio turned with a relieved and warm gaze toward Gladly. The dagger in his hand vanished discretely as he turned and knelt down to help the halfling to his feet.

“You owe me one, damn it was fast, we live to tell the tale at least, but it got away”

“What the hell was that?” Gladly said as wobbling up to his feet.

“What?”

“The room lit up with light and dark, and you changed”

“Nah, I just upped the thought speed is all, to match that thing. It was trippy like you said, but no different than fighting in weird lighting. Ended up tricking him with a feint to his legs, and caught him in the air”

“Didn’t you hear me! You changed!”

“What do you mean?”

“I… I don’t know… I can’t seem to remember it anymore… But I swear something happened”

“Are you okay?” Mirio said as looking down at Gladly’s frail complexion.

“Maybe I hit my head…”

Gladly rubbed a hand through his hair and looked up with a smile at Mirio.

“Ha, well you did great, you held that spell long enough for me to prepare, no wonder you were tired enough to collapse after it”

“Yeah” he replied warmly.

“The spider won’t be trying anything again tonight, I almost tore his damn arm off. So should we go help the mages? Or check on the princess?”

“Ah… Perhaps both?”

“What do you mean?”

“The mage tower is on the way, come on!”