I shook my head and relaxed.

At the very least, he didn’t attack us when we were the most vulnerable, so I could rest for a moment. I gathered up my remaining energy and walked forward with Madriel in tow.

“What do you think is waiting for us on the other side?” I asked her, looking at the large, iron door.

She attempted to speak, but paused for a moment as if collecting her thoughts.

“I don’t think he’s hostile... yet.”

“Well, yeah, that’s obvious.”

“Look, I can’t gather my thoughts.”

I sighed and placed my palm over the rusted iron.

“Are you okay?” I asked while moving my palm over the texture.

“Exhausted... but I can pull my weight should the need arise.” She smiled.

“Ditto here. Still, that fight against the Dreviout is not filling me with confidence.” I said and turned behind to the corpse of the beast. It wasn’t bloody, but only a heap of rotting meat over the cold stone.

I hung my head, thinking of the fight that might come.

Bastroll... he wasn’t a boss in the game, or at all really. The Dreviout was meant to be the final boss, and was wholly optional so long as the players used stealth the nab Bastroll’s bag of wonders.

That meant that this was a fight where I was going in effectively blind.

Nothing fills me with more dread than this.

Still, Bastroll is considered the ‘Sleeping Lich’, so he might have a similar moveset to that of a generic lich boss. Problem is, he isn’t such a simple entity. Not to mention that this isn’t the game anymore.

I held my head in pain.

“Drink this, just don’t speak of it to anyone.” I told her and took out a two ampules from my pouch. I passed out one to her.

“Break the top portion and drink the contents, it’s medicine.” I said and broke mine, then drank the contents with a swig.

A wave of comfort soon assaulted me, the feeling of exhaustion and pain gradually lifting by the seconds that pass.

Jesus christ, the taste is awful. It reminded me slightly of the longevity medicine that fixed up broken cells back on earth, but it had the nasty side-effect of cancerous growths.

Thankfully, the taste didn’t drag on my tongue for long and I was back in form, or at least, half.

I looked to my side to see her sporting the same expression. I smirked.

“Tastes awful, yeah?”

Madriel spat out. “It does, but I’m quite thankful for it.”

She threw the ampule behind her and almost started to retch. That was when a familiar voice reached us once again.

“Don’t keep me waiting.”

A voice we didn’t want to hear reminded us, and now the dread was seeping in even more. I could only wearily sigh and shrugged. Madriel seemed all the more shaken, but her eyes had a resoluteness that I can admire.

“Guess we can’t rest longer.” I said and pushed the iron doors open.

What greeted me was the very same room in the game, with the same pillars that supported the ceiling, and the same layout. What was different this time was the crystal prison at the opposite end of the room.

It should have been a full, crystalline red that encased a decrepit corpse of a man. Now though, that crystal seal was shattered and broken, no longer the smooth surface I was used to seeing.

Instead, just by the front of it that crystal prison was a throne made of molded ruby. Sitting on that very throne was less of a man, and more of a corpse given life. Where the eyes should have been in his sunken face was a deep bluish flame that flickered at each second.

His frail arms spread out, and his bellowing voice very unlike his malnourished frame boomed into the room.

“Welcome! Welcome indeed, interlopers.” This ‘man’ seemed to grin, but between the rotted flesh and lack of working muscles, this grin seemed more horrific than it should have been.

“Well, you, young man. Not Madriel. It has been quite a while, my love. How are you?” Bastroll’s fiery eyes seemed to burn even brighter as he looked at Madriel’s figure.

Madriel’s features begin to sour.

And, cut. Okay, I guess I’m beginning to piece things together now. Ooh boy, I don’t want to be between a lover’s quarrel in the final battle. It would be quite comedic... if it wasn’t so tragic, if Madriel’s expression is anything to go by.

I wanted to meet my face with my palm, but removing my line of sight with the baddie was a recipe for disaster, even if he isn’t hostile... yet.

Ah, what’s this all about? I wanted to cry out.

“How?”

As if to cut the atmosphere, the cold voice of Madriel split through her clenched teeth. She glared at Bastroll, her muscles tensed to move at a moment’s notice.

“Are you asking how I escaped, my lovely Madriel?” Bastroll snickered and crossed his emaciated legs.

“It’s quite simple, anam. Accumulated anam, I broke it down through sheer concentration. It took me eons to do so, but here I am.” He laughed.

“Which leads me to part that interests me the most.” He added and pointed at me. “You. You truly are an existence beyond the norm. These eyes of mine, they pierce through the veil of Materius.” Bastroll’s eyes glowed a shade brighter.

“What are you?” Bastroll held his chin and he looked at me, his interest apparent.

“Funny, I remember someone asking the same thing.”

Bastroll exclaimed. “Really? Who?”

“No clue.” I’m lying, of course. I have an idea of who that was, but I prefer not to acknowledge that idea, at least not yet. “Although, that person did have an answer. A walking contradiction.”

Bastroll laughed and relaxed on his red throne.

“That really might be the case! An anamistic body, but a manafic soul. I envy you, you know... Had I that kind of body, I would not have needed to turn myself into this abomination of a creature.” Bastroll raised one of his arms to see his eyes, and then balled his hand into a fist. He sighed and looked at me.

“Young man, do you know of anam, the energy that you call foul mana, miasma, the ilkin plague, the likes?”

“First time I’ve heard of it. Care to explain, Bastroll?”

“Oh, I would. I haven't talked to people in ages, give me a moment.”

Bastroll stood from his throne and waved his hands. Several old books started to fly out from everywhere, and they all opened all around us, pages flipping.

“Careful Sed, Bastroll is a necromancer by profession, though he is what we call black necromancers.” She spoke softly, tensely looking at the flying books in the air.

“Mana is the lifeblood of many things living in this world, it is the basest of components for life. Many organics are composed of mana, and they all live in one ecosystem in Materius. It is the basest of energies that rule, and yet conform, to the world. You might call it the binder of Materius.” He then snapped his fingers and brought up a book to him.

“Then, what about anam? It is the corruption of mana. The very destruction of the rules that imposed it. They sow the chaos and relish at it. Most of the common folk see monsters as beings from different dimensions, spawned in at haphazard and erratic times, but that is simply not true. You see, they were spawned by anam. Have you ever wondered how and why they are so aggressive towards the living? It is simply because they wish to gain the mana that they lack. Foul mana truly is an apt way to describe it, but it is so much more than that.”

“And you, young man, your body is anamistic beyond a human degree. It is quite normal for most humans to gain some anam into their body, but it so very inconceivable and impossible to have a body made of 100% anam. Yet, that is not the most outrageous thing about you, it is that the anam of your body can coexist with the mana of your soul. Two energies that are known to tear each other apart just by close proximity. Can you understand the bafflement I am experiencing right now?!”

At the rise of his excitement, all the books floating in the air dropped to the ground, kicking up dust and strewn-out paper.

“You are an existence that bends the rules of the world to your benefit, yet still you gain from it. I am envious, very much envious of your body. Lichdom is a mere imitation compared to yours. And so... I shall have it.”

His voice chilled as I heard the last of his words. I immediately jumped back, as did Madriel, and brought out my spear to bear against him.

“Madriel, my love. I ask you to stand aside. I only wish to have this child’s body... and when I do, we can finally be together once more. As man and woman.”

Madriel shook her head, and her body was bathed in a radiant light that swallowed the entire room.

“And so, you are set to face me once more...” Bastroll said, his voice tinged with sadness. “Do you forget, Madriel? That I did this for us.” He said and looked at his emaciated form. “I had wished for us be together for eternity, but no human can live long with an elf.” He looked at Madriel. “Do you know how much I’ve sacrificed? Please, Madriel, don’t do this to me.”

Madriel shook her head and stared at Bastroll. Her vision was clouded and teary, and she bit her lip before speaking. “Bastroll... I loved you, and I so wished to live my golden years with you, but that would never happen, you know it to be true. You are man... no, you were man.” At these words, she took on a strange stance. “I had intended to love you until your death, but your desperation caused you destruction. I could never be with a lich, much less a man that committed so much for it. I am sorry, but I will end this here, just like how I set out all those years ago with Adantel.”

Then, a stream of black smoke emanated from Bastroll, the very same one that I used before. This seemed to be the anam he spoke of. This anam fought against the radiant light, causing a divide between white and black in the room.

“Adantel... that name again.” Bastroll moved his hands, weaving the anam into his hands. He grasped at the strands of energy and enclosed it within his fists. His fists glowed with an encompassing darkness very alike of that of Madriel’s.

“Is that how it is, Madriel? You chose an elf over me, your husband.” His grave tone, he looked at her, his fiery eyes now blazing a notch higher.

“Even after I sapped him of his vitality, you would still choose him over me!” He roared, the room quaked.

Madriel took in a deep breath and spoke to him with a gentle voice, the polar opposite of Bastroll’s.

“Bastroll, I loved you, but the you of now is not the Bastroll I remember. I refuse to call you my husband when you’re like this. Please, just fall asleep, let me hold dear the memories we had of each other. Please, I ask that you not taint those old memories with the new.”

Bastroll slammed his foot on the ground and broke the stone floor, causing a tremor strong enough to break one of the pillars in half.

“Madriel, if I can’t have you, then I’ll make sure Adantel can’t.”

“It’s never simple...” I shook my head and grit my teeth. This was the final battle, and lord do I regret coming between a lover’s spat. I looked at Madriel, her shining figure that seemed to radiate confidence.

“Do you have a plan?” I ask her in a whisper.

She chuckled. “I’ve prepared for this eventuality for years, even so far as crippling myself. Follow my lead.” She spoke with confidence, but her shoulders trembled at the thought.

I suppose it isn’t easy, to have decide to kill her love for the good of others.

I sighed. I had well over half of my combat capabilities, so I could still put up a fight. I’ll just have to rely on Madriel for this.