Zen braced himself for whatever was beginning to rise from the darkness of the floor. His grip on his sword's hilt tightened as he withdrew his weapon again, his eyes locked onto the unknown figure before him. He'd thought that it would be another mythical beast made out of spiritual energy, but when the figure appeared to be a person, and a familiar one at that, his blood began to run cold.

No...

Lee Shaan moved closer to him, holding his own weapon up as the dark energy began to dissipate from around the other man. They had celebrated too early. Mingsu might have weakened somewhat, but that no longer mattered. Not nearly as much as who he'd just pulled up out of the lair beneath their feet.

Yuen Shui...

The man slowly lifted his head as the last of his father's energy slipped from his form. He then immediately turned his attention toward their small group. Zen felt his body coil like a taut spring as the man took a step toward them, but then paused mid-stride. When Shui looked down and behind himself, everyone else's attention followed his gaze.

A hand?

Someone had a hold of his left ankle, but whoever it was clearly struggled to surface as their hand began to slip downward.

Zen expected the ice general to quickly shake the hand from his leg and return his attention to his new task, but instead, he stared down at that hand, clearly unsure of what he wished to do about it.

It was the perfect chance to attack since he was clearly distracted, but for some reason, when Zen chanced a step closer his master immediately grabbed his sleeve, holding him back.

"Something seems off. Let us see what lord Shui intends to do," Qi said, making Zen frown but relent without a word.

Thus, they watched in tense silence as Shui considered his own situation. The fingers grasping at his ankle slid downward slightly, then again a few moments later. Whoever was trying to keep hold of him was struggling greatly. Zen was just about to look back at his master, honestly concerned that they were missing their one chance to catch the man off-guard while he wasn't paying them much mind, when he noticed a second hand break free of the dark energy upon the floor, clearly struggling to escape the tar-like substance.

To everyone's surprise, it managed to grab hold of Shui's leg just above where the other hand still hung on.

"Shui, I'm afraid that your brother has betrayed us and our kingdom," Mingsu said, making Zen's face pale as he realized who was trying to climb out of the false emperor's lair.

Huang...

Lord Shui slowly lifted his calm eyes to his father's. He said nothing as the two simply watched each other, but Zen could see the gears turning in the general's mind. He was, after all, a master tactician and war-hardened man. He had ensured victory after victory over the years in which his father reigned, but something didn't seem to be sitting well with him at that moment.

When the fingers around his leg began to slip again, Shui jerked his attention away from his father and reached downward, grabbing one of his brother's wrists right as his grip fell away completely.

After a brief struggle with his father's remaining energy trying to pull his brother back beneath the floor, Shui managed to pull him upward and completely free of the lair beneath them. He even went as far as to hold him gently by the upper arms so that he could regain his footing, then, once Huang was steady, Shui released him, then to everyone's surprise, stepped between his younger brother and their father.

What is going on?

"What are you doing, general Shui?" Mingsu asked in a tone dripping with venom.

It was clear that the older brother was conflicted with his current situation, but he still refused to move and held his head high as he met his father's narrowed glare.

"Father, I apologize for my ignorance, but to my knowledge, Huang has not yet been to court for any misdeeds. Thus, whatever it is that he has been accused of doing is not yet proven to have happened," he said, making Zen tilt his head in confusion.

He's not just going to do as his father tells him to?

Shui was one of, if not currently the most highly-regarded general in the Han army, yet he was blatantly refusing to do as told without just cause right in front of them. Even though his father, the current emperor, was commanding it.

Zen noticed Lee Shaan turn his sword downward within his hand and reach forward to grasp his right hand in his left one, then bow.

"I thank you for your careful consideration of this situation, lord Shui," he said respectfully, drawing the man's attention for a moment.

He did not look happy, and Zen couldn't blame him. Lee Shaan and Huang had been the ones to drag him underground, but he didn't seem to let that frustration cloud his judgement.

"Lord Lee Shaan of the Didui tribe... what brings you here, and why are you assisting the former prince? Were you not assigned to kill him and his guard?" he asked, not bothering to sugar-coat his words in the least.

Lee Shaan nodded as he straightened back up.

"Yes, I was promised quite a large sum of money to end Han Qi and Zen's lives, but his false-highness missed one little detail that would have immediately disqualified me from being a logical candidate for that task," Lee Shaan said, making Shui raise an eyebrow the slightest amount.

"Before I met your brother and truly got to speak with him, Qi was the only person that I regarded higher than myself. I intended to rescue him and keep him with me at my tribe," Lee Shaan said, drawing a frown to Shui's face as he spared the man more of his attention.

"Before you met my brother?" he asked, suspicion in his tone.

Lee Shaan read the man's warning loud and clear, but he wasn't one to mince words.

"I would have killed Yuen Huang back at Qi's palace, but to my surprise, he had torn out so much of his soul for his highness's little guard, that his body refused to die. One thing ended up leading to another, and if I may say, or even if I may not... I would like your blessing to allow me to look after your brother for the remainder of our days," he said, his words making a wretch of disgust slip from the emperor's mouth.

He immediately turned his attention back to his sons, and more specifically, to the elder general.

"You see the twisted path that your brother has decided to follow? He cannot be allowed to tarnish our name and our empire!" Mingsu screamed, his words slurring with anger, but also, it seemed, exhaustion.

Zen inched a little closer, but Qi still refused to release him.

Shui seemed slightly disturbed by the situation, but he didn't appear nearly as aggravated as his father. In fact, he was quite calm as he partially turned to look at his little brother, who was standing silently at his side.

"Little brother Huang, have you nothing to say for yourself concerning this situation?" he asked, clearly interested in hearing the story from the person who was directly involved.

Huang calmly took a step to the side, then faced his brother and bowed respectfully before straightening with a serious expression on his dirty face.

"Brother knows that I have always held a special place in my heart for prince Qi," he said, earning a nod from Shui.

"You have always taken good care of him, right up until he was forced to leave," Shui said, his tone understanding of what his brother must have gone through during that time.

Huang gave a tired sigh of relief, clearly glad that his brother was at least willing to listen to him. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to really understand.

"I apologize, but Han Qi was not simply someone I wished to take care of."

The words were stated sternly, and without any specific emphasis, but the meaning was still very clear. Judging by the look on his elder brother's face, the man hadn't needed much more of a nudge to come to the correct conclusion.

He remained silent for several long moments as the false emperor seethed. When his son had finally decided what he wished to do with the situation, everyone was practically holding their breath as his attention returned to his father.

"While I disagree with his decision, I see no reason why it would dishonor anyone but himself. If it bothers you so much, disowning him is a simple yet-effective action you can take without the need to end his life," Shui said as he stepped in front of his little brother more firmly.

The irrevocable rage that now burned within Mingsu's eyes had the ice general slowly drawing his own sword, though he did not take up a fighting stance yet.

"Father, let us end this. I have followed your every command for my entire life, as has my little brother, but we are not blind. You took this country by force and by lies, and while I believed them for many years, I know that they are far from the truth of what had happened long ago," he said, then sighed before continuing, "but I am my father's son, and my loyalty should not falter from his wishes."

There was another stressed sigh before a stretch of silence. Mingsu's eyes seemed to brighten slightly, possibly hoping that his eldest still held him in higher regard than any other. Unfortunately for him, his hopes were frozen and shattered when Shui finally narrowed his eyes and lifted an arm, summoning a wave of ice shards to erupt from the floor around the older man.

Mingsu tried to snuff out his son's ability with his dark energy, forcing it to crawl like a tar monster up over the other man's ice magic. Unfortunately for him, though, Shui was not tired, nor was he injured in any way. His abilities were at their peak and he easily overpowered his father's struggling spell to encircle the man in a frigid tomb of ice!

When the sludge-like darkness began to retreat, disappearing into the floor, Shui slowly lowered his arm with an unreadable expression on his face.

Is that it? Did he actually kill him?

He definitely hadn't expected the eldest son and star general of his father's army to actually betray him, but that tomb of ice definitely didn't look friendly...

"Be on your guard," Shui said after a long stretch of silence.

Zen immediately tightened his grip on his sword as his eyes darted around the massive room. He wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but when a heavy weight suddenly pressed down on his body, it took every ounce of his focus not to drop to the floor.

Qi fell to one knee at that moment while Lee Shaan grunted and lowered his sword to the ground, not willing to waste energy holding up the large blade.

Shui seemed completely unaffected by his father's ability but Huang struggled to remain standing.

"This is why I should have extinguished you years ago," Mingsu's voice echoed around the massive hall, seemingly coming from everywhere at once.

The giant ice owl shrieked and took off, becoming slightly translucent as it appeared to completely ignore the sudden shift in gravity. It began soaring high above their heads while the false emperor continued to speak.

"I gave you a chance to redeem yourself for ruining my curse, yet the moment Han Qi walks back into my clutches, you do everything within your power to save him again!"

Since the swirling dark energy upon the floor had mostly been dispersed, Zen darted forward, fighting against the invisible weight trying to force his body to the floor. He had been momentarily surprised that Qi had let him move this time, but when he glanced backwards, he noticed that the man wasn't far behind him.

Lee Shaan, however, still stood where he was, his attention fully focused on Huang. He also seemed to be whispering something, but Zen didn't bother trying to decipher his intentions.

He stopped at Huang's right side while Qi settled to his left. The weight upon their shoulders continued to grow exponentially. but neither allowed themselves to fall.

"It is time to fix my mistake from all those years ago," Mingsu said as he began to speak what sounded like a curse of some sort.

Huang gasped abruptly as he dropped to his knees, his hair drifting downward like a curtain to fall upon his shoulders as the group surrounding him whirled around to face him.

"Prince Yuen?" Qi questioned as he lowered himself to one knee and settled a hand on the man's shoulder, feeding him some light energy to try and heal whatever it was his father's spell was trying to do to him.

Shui turned back to face the outside of their little circle and lifted his arm again, creating a sea of ice across the floor several inches thick.

He must be inside his lair, but it doesn't seem like sealing off the floor is going to stop his spell from being cast.

As if to prove him right, Mingsu's voice continued to envelop them, his words as clear as a bell, and soon, Huang was struggling to breath as purplish-black veins began to climb from the tips of his fingers, up along his arms and toward his heart.

Zen looked over to Lee Shaan, hoping that the curse master would be able to help. To his relief, Lee Shaan was, somehow, now running overtop Shui's sheet of solid ice, arriving at their group a few moments later.

He wasted no time in dropping to his knees and hurriedly leaning over so that he could whisper something quickly into Huang's right ear. The moment he leaned away, Huang's body began to relax and his eyes, which had begun to cloud over, started to clear.

"What did you do?" Shui asked, his voice a mix of suspicion and relief.

The dark veins that had been just about to start clawing at Huang's face suddenly began to recede, allowing everyone to give a wary sigh of relief.

At the same time, the air around them began to crackle as Mingsu's fury rose.

"What did you do?" he roared, shaking the entire building with his rage.

Lee Shaan grinned as he slowly helped Huang back to his unsteady feet. Once he was sure that the man was okay again, he straightened to his full height with a smirk on his face.

"I'm sure that you already know this, your highness, but one cannot curse someone who is already afflicted with the same spell as long as it is activated soon after the intruding curse tries to take affect," Lee Shaan said as he gently took Huang's hand and lifted it to grasp between his other one.

His rough fingers ran over the other man's, drawing their attention to the black veins that still remained there.

So he had cast that spell before in anticipation of Huang's father trying to use it against him?

It was clear that Lee Shaan's spell was simply drifting about within Huang's fingertips, causing minimal damage, if any. It was still good enough, though. It was active and that allowed it to easily beat back Mingsu's attempt on his son's life.

Zen glanced up at lord Shui as he turned his attention to his brother's fingertips, eyeing the curse that swam within them like thin fish within a translucent, shallow pond. A dark shadow flitted across the man's eyes as he stared, the world silent around them for a few simple seconds.

Shui only moved when the floor beneath his layer of ice began to turn black again. This time, however, it was obvious that Mingsu was struggling. Since he was in his own lair, he was likely trying to recuperate, but his own hostility wouldn't let him rest long enough to take in as much energy as he clearly needed.

The serpent-like creature that had attacked them previously began to appear beneath the layer of ice coating the floor, its back brushing against the frigid barrier a few meters away. Zen, Qi, and Lee Shaan all prepared themselves to attack, but they hesitated when Shui simply, slowly, lifted his gaze to watch the figure move through the floor.

"Father, please cease your hostilities. This situation has gone on long enough."

When the serpent simply began swimming around them in a circle, Shui sighed and slowly unsheathed his crystalline sword, a wave of frosty mist drifting behind it as it moved.

Zen expected him to attack the creature before them, but to his surprise, the man flipped his sword downward, then plunged it into the frozen floor beneath their feet! He expected ice to immediately shoot from where the blade had punctured the floor, but when the only thing that happened was a steady decrease in the air temperature around them, Zen tilted his head, confused but curious.

Little bits of frost began to coat Shui's hair, tinting it a faint blue at the tips as the man focused on something none of them could see. Zen watched him for several moments before he noticed Huang step forward and settle a hand upon his kneeling brother's shoulder. Three seconds later and Lee Shaan was beside him, his own hand reaching down to rest beside Huang's.

It became obvious what they were doing as dark energy swam into the ice general. Zen hurried forward at that point, setting his hand on the man's opposite shoulder as he funneled what energy he had left into him. When his master's arm gently wrapped around his free one as he leaned forward, too, Zen grinned and turned his head, looking up at the man just enough for Qi to lean in for a quick kiss as he, too, began sharing his energy.

The temperature continued to drop, making their breath quickly become visible in the air as the four of them continued to support the eldest prince. Whatever he was doing was draining his energy so quickly that he was beginning to pull theirs out of them faster than they could offer it!

"Hold on, my Zen," Qi whispered, sounding utterly exhausted even as he refused to remove his hand from Shui's shoulder.

Zen wanted him to let go, but he knew that his master would refuse in their current situation. Of course, he could always force him to do so, for his safety, but before that thought even began to take root in his mind as a possibility, the palace in which they stood began to shake harshly, as if it, too, was beginning to shiver from the terrible cold within its walls.

The sound of a droning roar started to reverberate up through the floor from the serpent circling beneath them. Zen questioned redrawing his sheathed sword, but when the creature finally managed to break through the surface of Shui's thick ice, it was simply to flail about atop it, then collapse into a twitching mass.

What's going on?

The creature began to dissolve into its spiritual energy base almost immediately, but before it could dissipate and return to its master, Shui lifted his left hand and reached out, making a thousand glittering ice shards quickly encircle the dying beast. It took less than one minute to encase the creature's energy, and only a few moments more to retract the now-solid ball of ice back to himself. The moment the orb settled in the palm of his hand it immediately began to be absorbed.

His father's dark energy swam through his veins and darkened his left arm as it fed his abilities, amplifying them substantially. It was at that point that a fracture appeared in the man's ice floor near the far corner of the room. All eyes turned to it besides Shui's, who seemed completely focused on maintaining his abilities.