After mentally preparing myself, I stepped into the darkness. Looking immediately ahead of me there was only more darkness. Same for the left, but to the right, I thought I could see a faint glimmer of light up ahead. I walked towards the faint light and suddenly tripped over something. I let out a very manly cry of surprise.

“W-what happened, dad?! What was that scream about?”

“I tripped on something!” I felt around the ground and felt my hands go through something wet and sticky before hitting something solid. I felt it and realized that it was leather. I continued to feel the object and then I felt something softer like fabric. Very slowly I continued to feel it and felt leather again. Nervously, I continued to feel it and when I reached the end of the object, I pulled back and let out another cry of surprise.

“What?!”

“T-Tasha! Uh…don’t come in here!” She rushed inside anyway.

“Ah! What did I just trip over?!”

“Tasha, just get up and lean against the wall!”

“Uh…okay!” I got up as well and tried to make my way over to the wall without tripping over anything else.

“Are you at the wall yet?!” I yelled out.

“Yes!”

“Okay! Uh…head on back outside and keep watch!”

“What?! Why?!”

“Just do it!” Wait, why are we yelling again?

“No, I want to come with you!”

“Tasha, I can handle this!” Personally, I didn’t want to go further inside by myself, but that’s a separate matter.

“Handle what?! What is going on?!”

“Nothing! Just keep watch!”

“No!” I heard Tasha making her way over to me along the wall. I was going to tell her to stay back again but I heard her let a sudden gasp.

“What is it?!”

“I almost tripped over something again!”

“J-just go back outside!” Tasha did not reply and after a moment, I felt something grab my hand.

“I already said, ‘no’. I’m coming with you.” I felt relieved and ashamed at the same time.

“O- Okay…stay close…” We inched along the wall for about another thirty feet before we reached the corner of the hallway. The new path was illuminated by blue light. When I looked for the source of the light, I saw glowing, square blocks spaced apart along either side of the hallway.

“What are those?” Tasha asked.

“I don’t know. They’re kind of like light bulbs, though.”

“What?” Tasha looked at me with confusion.

“Nothing. Let’s just keep going forward.” We walked down the path and when I thought she wasn’t looking at me, I quickly looked at my fingers. The glove was lightly stained in red.

“Where do you think this hallway leads?” Tasha suddenly asked. I pulled my hand far out of her view. “Dad?”

“Uh…no idea. Let’s just keep going.”

The hallway went on for about thirty yards before turning another corner. Past that corner, Tasha screamed and I gasped. There was a guard lying face-down on the floor, blood coming out of his back. Tasha stood stock-still, hands covering her mouth. I knelt next to him and tried to check his pulse when he suddenly groaned.

“Ah!” I fell back onto my butt. “Y-you! You’re still alive?!”

“Is that…you…Braith…?” It was Bradley’s voice.

“Bradley! Yes, it’s me, Braith!” I went back over to him and turned him over so I could look at him. There was a wound in his chest and his face was completely pale. “What happened?!” At first, he tried to swallow, but ended up choking on something and he coughed up a bit of blood. A few drops splattered on my chest.

“S-sorry…what happened…? It was…Jack…he attacked me…and…the others too…” I knew he was trouble, but I didn’t think he would do something like this.

“How?! Why?!” Bradley took in a few slow breaths.

“Jack…when we found…the entrance…he and I went in…first…he attacked me here…then he led the others in…and…I don’t know…”

“The others? Where are they?!” Tasha asked.

“I don’t know…but I know…he went back for them…” Bradley coughed up more blood. “He went on ahead…alone…” Bradley’s eyes started to close.

“No, Bradley! Stay with me!” Bradley drew in long, slow breaths before suddenly clenching his teeth and grasping at his sheathed shortsword.

“Braith…” He began pulling out his sword. “Get that bastard!” He pulled his sword all the way out and raised it up next to me. He let out his breath and his arm immediately fell back down. Bradley’s jaw relaxed and his eyes remained closed for good. I checked his pulse and then shook my head. I turned around to look at Tasha. She was braced against the wall with one hand while the other one covered her mouth. Her eyes were wide and watery. I think she also figured out the entrance now. I gently laid Bradley’s body back onto the ground and slowly stood up, bracing one arm against the wall.

“Tasha…” I closed my eyes and slumped against the wall. What the heck am I supposed to say next? I heard something scrape against the floor and then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw Tasha staring hard at me, tears gone. I looked to her hand and saw that she was holding Bradley’s sword.

“Dad.” We stared at each other for another moment before I started to stand straight up again. I looked back down where we came and then I looked ahead. Far, near the end of the hallway, there was white light coming out of one wall. I looked back at Bradley one last time.

“Let’s keep going.” Tasha nodded and we continued along the hallway. As we neared the end, we saw the white light more clearly. It looked like it was coming out of another doorway. As we approached this doorway, we could hear something like static coming from inside. When we reached the doorway, I saw something very unexpected.

There was one straight stone path that led straight to the other end of the massive chamber. On either side of the path, there was a massive pool of…electricity? It looked like it and sounded like it, but just how is that possible? The pools looked like they were filled with water with massive amounts of electricity being conducted through it. At the end of the path, I saw Jack Free standing with his back to us. From that end, there was a continuing stone pathway that sloped upwards and snaked all around the round chamber. I looked all the way up and saw that the stone pathway still stopped at least thirty feet shy of the stone ceiling. The circular ceiling had four straight lines going across its diameter, resembling a cut-up pizza.

“Why?! Why?!” I looked back at Jack when I heard his shouting, but saw that his back was still turned to us. “I’ve made it all the way here, but it won’t open!”

“Jack Free!” Tasha suddenly yelled out. He turned around, but I could not make out his expression from this distance.

“You two?! Oh…that must be it!” Tasha started making her way across the stone bridge, Bradley’s sword in hand.

“How could you just kill them all?!”

“It was necessary!” Jack said, almost happily. “How else can I prove that I am most worthy? A direct display is best!”

“That is a terrible reason!”

“You just don’t understand!” Jack angrily shouted back. “An eternally weak and powerless person such as yourself could never understand!”

“What’s wrong with being unable to understand a crazy person like you?!”

“Me? Crazy?! Ha! Don’t speak like that just because you are too dense to understand power! Ah, but you can still be of use! I killed those fools in the hallways, so they must not have counted! Now, here in the Spirit Altar, I will be sure to prove my worth!”

“What is all this talk about power?!” I shouted out. “Aren’t you a Reaper?! The most powerful mercenary?!”

“Shut up! Just shut up and die for me! Ahahahahaha! Now, I can finally be just like him!”

“I will carry out Bradley’s vengeance!” Tasha shouted out, raising his sword.

“Oh? Ha! Come on, make this a challenge! The Spirit won’t be too impressed if I just beat you like this!” Jack took his sheathed shortsword off his belt and then held it out in front of him with one hand. He suddenly thrust his other hand forward at the sheath and it came flying towards Tasha with a massive gust of wind. She struck it down onto the ground as it came at her.

“What are you doing?!” Tasha shouted at him.

“Use that blade! I need you to be better equipped to make this a worthy display!” Tasha snarled at him.

“No! I will defeat you using this!” Tasha slashed Bradley's blade in the air. She then stepped on Jack’s sword and kicked it back towards me.

“So be it! Come! Let’s see what a mere human can do against a Farseer like me!” Tasha started running across the bridge while Jack spread his arms out to his sides. Suddenly, he started moving his arms as if he were throwing baseballs. I couldn’t see them, but I definitely felt them. Jack launched powerful gusts of winds towards Tasha. More amazing than that though was how Tasha was weaving through the invisible attacks. However, she could not keep it up.

Halfway across the bridge, Jack launched simultaneous attacks that forced Tasha to move to her far left, but with another movement of his arms, the gust must have curved as I saw the sword suddenly knocked out of Tasha’s hand. She lost her balance trying to reclaim it and another gust knocked her right over the edge. The instant she fell into the pool, I could hear her scream in pain. I immediately leapt into action and ran across the bridge myself, but Jack was not going to be idle. I could only guess where the wind would strike judging by his hand movements, but I could dodge a few of them, if only barely. However, this was mostly luck, and having only gotten a third of the way to Tasha, I was finally knocked over the edge myself.

The intense shock that went through my body immobilized me. Added on to that, the water was very hot. When I tried to even breathe to scream out in pain, it flowed into my mouth and I coughed in even more pain. However, I could break through and get my head over the water’s surface. This did little to ease my pain in any way though. Looking ahead, past the sparks flying above the surface, I could see Tasha struggling as well, too far from the bridge to reach it. At that moment, I remembered that Tasha didn’t know how to swim.

I clenched my teeth and at first tried to get back onto the bridge but Jack even blasted wind at me in the water, knocking me back under the surface. There was only one way I was going to do this. I began to swim through the electric water towards Tasha. Every stroke, the powerful shock made my muscles feel like seizing, but fortunately they did not and I willed myself to continue. The distance was probably less than twenty yards, but every foot was very hard-won. It was not long before my mind started to go blank from all the pain, but at the very least, I knew this wasn’t real lightning. That would have killed both of us a long time ago. This thought alone made me believe that as long as I persevered, it could be done.

However, as I continued, I noticed that my body was beginning to sink; I was losing the energy to keep myself afloat. I was also clearly slowing. Just barely, though, I could see Tasha trying to tread water and struggle to keep her head above water despite the pain that she must have been feeling as well. I continued my slow, arduous pace when Tasha suddenly sank. Her legs were no longer moving, but her arms were still thrashing about. With a sudden burst of energy, I accelerated the pace towards my drowning daughter. I launched myself towards her and grabbed onto her. Then, I broke the surface of the water, screaming in both pain and accomplishment. Tasha was too busy coughing up water to be screaming with me. I swam the last couple of yards to the bridge and pushed Tasha onto it. I then climbed onto the bridge myself and collapsed, now exhausted and still in excruciating pain. I was drenched in a mixture of the water and my own sweat. I was almost too tired to even continue to cry in agony…almost. I stared ahead of me with blurred vision. Just as I was wondering why Jack didn’t knock us off while coming back onto the bridge, I could finally distinguish the sound of grinding stone and saw the ceiling opening up.

“Yes! Yes! The Spirit acknowledges me! Do you see that, you half-dead fools?! I am about to ascend into greatness!” As the pain continued to course through my body, I forced myself to turn my body to look at Jack. He had his two arms to the side, palms facing the ground. Slowly, his body started to float up into the air. “Ahahahahahahaha! You humans are so worthless! Even if I wasn’t here, you would never have gotten the power of the Spirit! Do you think a powerless human like yourself could reach the ceiling?!” He continued to float upwards as he continued to laugh in triumph. I smashed my fist against the bridge in anger. Is this how this world is?! A man kills off a bunch of innocent people who trusted him, and then that man is rewarded with power?! I smashed my other fist against the bridge and cried out with rage.

“JACK!”

“Oh, you can still speak human?! Well, let me be merciful since I could not have gained this power without you. In fact, you should feel honoured; the attainment of a Spirit’s power is not something someone as low as you should ever expect to witness!”

Angrily, I pushed myself off of the ground. The pain had barely subsided, but suddenly, I could move with ease despite my body feeling feverish. I looked up at Jack floating towards the now-opened ceiling. In the center of it, I could see a downward-facing stone needle.

“So, you can still stand? Commendable, but futile.” I looked at the snaking pathway and immediately began to run. Every step made my legs and lungs burn but I would not stop. I ran down the bridge and started to run up the pathway along the walls of the chamber. This might have worried Jack, or made him laugh even more. I don’t know. I don’t care. My entire body was throbbing and my intense breathing drowned out most of the noise around me anyways. As I continued to run along the path, although the pain did not subside to any degree, I thought I could feel myself getting faster. I sprinted to the very end of the path and then jumped off towards the ceiling. I drew my sword in mid-air and slashed at Jack. I had somehow managed to launch myself further up than I thought humanly possible, but still fell short of him. As my body began to fall, I stared at Jack and saw his face quickly flash from panic to smugness. As my fall began to accelerate, he looked back up towards the ceiling and laughed. The speed of my fall quickened, but then I suddenly felt myself slightly lift up. I looked down and saw that Tasha was underneath me, in mid-air, bracing my feet against her shoulders. Before I could even begin to ponder how she could jump up this high or ask anything else, Tasha fiercely shouted at me, her face red, and tears in her eyes.

“Jump!” I looked back up and felt the both of us begin to fall again. Jack looked down as well with a slightly nervous expression. Yeah, you should be. I bent my knees and brought my blade right in front of me. I felt a jolt surge through both my legs as I jumped off and soared higher than should have been possible. I thrust through the air and finally reached Jack, my sword piercing right through his chest. The wind beneath Jack suddenly stopped, but the impact of my attack still pushed us upwards. Jack gasped at me with a completely shocked expression. My blade was stuck in Jack’s chest all the way up to its hilt. I let go of the sword as the two of us were about to start falling back down. I instinctively grabbed above me and I grasped onto the tip of the stone needle. I kept hold of the needle for dear life as I watched Jack’s body fall. Drops of blood flew upwards out of his wound as he plummeted. The drops of blood soon fell back down as well to catch up to their former vessel. Jack’s body crashed through the surface of the electric pool below, but it had little effect on the water’s raging currents. Nearby, I saw Tasha lying on the bridge, immobile.

“T-Tasha!” I cried out to her, but instead of her voice, I heard a deep, reverberating voice coming from all around me. I was in a dome in the opened ceiling, and patterned across the walls of it were what appeared to be eyes carved into stone. They glowed with a white light.

“That was a most spectacular display. You have done more than enough to prove your worth, human.” Normally, I would ask for the voice to introduce itself, but I was much more concerned with how to get back down to Tasha. “Hmmm, this is interesting, though. Although you are human, you are not human at the same time.” I felt my grip start to weaken. “Ah, but I have no time for questions, now, do I?”

“Whoever the heck you are, just tell me how I can get down from here and help my daughter!”

“Your daughter? I sense no blood shared between the two of you…”

“I don’t have time to debate! You are some powerful Spirit, right? Well, I beat that guy so hurry up and help her!”

“Yes, I am the Spirit of the Thousand Bolts and I do plan to help. Indirectly speaking. Both of you have been exposed to that pool of lightning, which is sure to induce immense amounts of pain.”

“Yeah, no kidding!” The sweat from my hands was making me start to lose traction.

“With my power, you will have the ability to control that lightning, and to use it for yourself.”

“Will that make the pain go away and all that?!”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“Then, hurry up and give that power to Tasha!” One hand came off of the needle but I quickly grabbed onto it again before falling completely.

“But you are the one that I have selected to be most worthy.”

“Then you suck at choosing! Tasha is like five times stronger than me!”

“I do not choose based on strength alone.” I slipped more on the needle; I was now just barely hanging on.

“Just do something already!”

“Very well, I shall now bestow my powers unto you. Now, this process will take-”

“Dude, just hurry up! Do it now!”

“That would be incredibly painful.”

“Go!”

“Very well.” The stone needle glowed with a white light, and then each of the eyes on the walls suddenly shot a bolt of lightning at me. For a few seconds, I went blind and then I felt myself let go of the needle. As I fell, I slowly regained some of my vision and I saw the ground quickly approaching. I braced my hands in front of me and I hit the ground hard. I expected my head to hit the ground, or at the very least, my arms to snap, but neither happened. In fact, I didn’t feel anything aside from the coursing pain from earlier. My vision still blurred, I crawled over to Tasha. My body didn’t really feel damaged, but I could barely move my arms and legs at all. Everything felt hot, painful, and numb at the same time.

When I reached Tasha, I wasn’t even sure what to do next. I would have asked the Spirit directly but my jaw was sealed shut from the coursing current, I guess. I just placed both hands on my daughter and tried to think of something. I tried to concentrate, but I didn’t know what to concentrate on. I tried to focus on lightning in my head, and I felt a more powerful surge start to go through my body. My vision had not cleared up any more, but I could see electricity coming out of the pool and pouring into my body. Not exactly what I wanted, but it was a good enough hint. I focused on Tasha, and electricity started to flow out of her body and into me. The pain increased, and my body felt ready to collapse. I grimaced and continued on until the electricity stopped flowing out of Tasha’s body. The very instant that happened I began to breathe a sigh of relief as I fell unconscious.