As Izrah raised her dagger, I contemplated just incinerating the two of them. The thought was appealing. However, I was in the middle of the enemy camp and the only thing between me and certain death was her orders. If she died, would they still stand? Maybe, maybe not. That was not a risk I could take.

Now, they did, then I wouldn’t be any better off, and if it didn’t, I was just dead, nothing more to it. However, if I could take them prisoner, I could force them to take me out of here. Risky? Yes, it was. Did I have a better idea at the moment? No, I didn’t.

Another option was to just knock them out then hide in the tent until rescue arrived. But would the elves be enough to defeat that army. Wait, did anyone even know I got abducted? Rubolgs accursed axe. No one did, did they? That was… inconvenient. However, there wasn’t like I was screwed yet.

My distraction with these thoughts almost cost me, as Izrah lunged with a sudden swipe that showed she was far from untrained with the dagger. The only reason my head was still attached to my head was that she was swinging a dagger and not a sword, as I dodged the swipe by an inch.

Alright, no more distractions. If nothing else, I would have to deal with Izrah. As for her Lady, I still didn’t know what to do with her, or how much of a threat she represented. She didn’t look too good though, as her supernatural charisma seemed to have faded away.

With Izrah’s swipe missing, I stepped in behind the swing and delivered a jab with Injury. The strike missed, but Izrah was forced to jump back as I channeled my cold power through Injury, creating an aura around me that caused ice to form on Izrah’s clothes.

I took advantage of the opening and surged in after her, delivering a series of quick jabs, which she dodged, though she didn’t escape the cold unscathed. So far, so good. A sudden jolt of pain in my side forced me back and Izrah took immediate advantage by sending a throwing needle my way. I glanced over to where She was sitting. A bolt of electricity was dancing from her fingers.

It hurt, but it was a spell meant to debilitate not kill. “Did you seriously just hit me with [Jolt]?” The spell was supposed to disable small prey for beginner mages. So, it would have next to no effect on someone with even mediocre combat training, since they would feel pain regularly from sparring.

My only response was a frustrated groan. Something was going on. They should be capable of more than just this, but I would not question good fortune. I advanced on Izrah again and began pushing her back towards the edge of the platform the tent was sitting on.

She was good, no mistake there, but the advantage her bladed weapon gave her was negated by Insult and Injury, and our difference in size negated the daggers’ extra reach. That boiled it all down to training. And from the looks of it, Izrah knew the ins and outs of knife fighting, but lacked actual combat experience.

While I could boast real combat experience from constant sparring with mom, who could use a vast array of weapons, including daggers during those sessions. And compared to mom, Izrah, for all her skill, was a novice. It was a difference that was showing as I ramped up the speed of my attacks.

The worst part was I could guess why she lacked proper experience. They relied heavily on their Void Magic, which seemed to have backfired somehow. I wasn’t certain why the magic wasn’t working, but they relied so heavily on it, they seemed to neglect other skills in favor of it.

That line of thinking came to an abrupt halt as Izrah delivered a sudden counter that scraped my right arm with the dagger. Then moved in with a vicious series of her own kicks and punches. What in the…? I barely got a block up in time. What just happened? One moment she could not even keep up with me, and now she was dismissing my blows left and right.

The duel intensified as I was forced into the defensive, Izrah’s sudden change in combat style and skill throwing me for a loop. Another [Jolt] slammed into my side, causing my guard to falter just enough to eat a right hook to the face. Ugh, that punch was way harder than it should have been. I stumbled back once more, slowly being pushed back towards the edge of the platform and the drop into the camp below.

Hmm, I couldn’t just do something flashy, but how about… Izrah’s next attack missed by a good margin. Not surprising, as I just turned the ground beneath our feet into ice. She recovered with surprising speed, but her foothold was shaky. Meanwhile, the slippery ice didn’t phase me at all. For me, the ice was just as easy to stand on as the wooden planks underneath.

Izrah saw the tide turning, so she fell back beyond the edge of my icy floor. Now we were at an impasse. I tried to extend the field of ice, but no matter how much power I put into it, the ice abruptly faded just before it reached Izrah’s current position. Some last vestiges of Void energies, or maybe She was counter-spelling the effect. For now, I got some precious time to plan.

A part of me wanted to flee, as I saw a clear shot to the ramp leading down, but I didn’t fancy my chances against the army, Her orders or no. Hmm, if there was something there just negating my magic, how did She use magic? As I pondered that, I could hear a distant explosion, and She flinched as if someone just punched her. Just what in the world? I turned towards the fortified camp in the distance. Something was blasting through the front lines with such speed I could see the breach forming.

That couldn’t be the elves, right? While the royal guards seemed skilled, there was no way they would have the sheer physical power to just blast through an army like that. Just then, a strange crack formed in the sky as something, no someone slowly floated into view. Whomever it was, was too far away for me to get a good look at them, but their allegiance was immediately apparent as a torrent of lighting blasted down on the invading army. More backup, nice.

A sense of vertigo and for a moment I could swear I was floating above the army, looking down at them as lightning burst from my hands. It was only a split second, but still left me feeling disoriented. If I didn’t have my ice floor, I doubt I would have been lucky enough to go unscathed.

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“Everyone, get in formation, lock shields and get ready to charge!” I could see Queen Amalin give me a strange look. “You’ll see soon enough.” On cue, they lined up their huge, spiked iron shields, and interlocked them into a giant V-shaped iron wall full of razor sharp, bladed spikes. Anyone hit by it would get torn to shreds.

With the shield wall done, the men wasted little time at all to line-up for the charge. Calix was in the lead, ever eager for first blood. “Alright men, LET THEM HAVE IT!” There was a roar as Calix started the charge, and the rest of the wall followed, building momentum as they approached the sea of men in front of them.

“Your Highness, I have no experience fighting alongside elves, so I suggest we work independently of one another, to not get in each other’s way.” Queen Amalin nodded. “I concur. I would not wish to wind up on the wrong side of that.” She nodded towards the bloody path the first charge had opened in enemy lines. A path now filled with a mass of charging Minotaurs, all eager to wet their horns on enemy blood for the first time in over a century.

Up above, I could sense a dimensional disturbance. Looks like others were getting involved as well. “We seem to have arrived at an opportune moment. Shaluna looked at the blasts of divine lightning slamming into the army below. “You don’t think Lady Labyrinthia? …” Her voice trailed off as she looked up at the aerial attacker. “Planned all of this? It’s likely she gave our orders at a time so that all of us would arrive almost simultaneously. Sounds like something she would do.“

Between my men, the elves, the dragon going berserk in the center of the enemy formation and the Avatar above, I doubted this fight would last much longer. I was tempted to join in, but that would be redundant at this point. Their numbers were dwindling fast. The enemy army was not expecting to deal with heavily armed and armored legions of Minotaur soldiers, a dragon, and divine avatars hammering down at it at once. No army would be. And yet something felt… different about this army. There was no fear or hesitation as they kept fighting.

Void possessed? Hmm, that would make sense, but, I couldn’t feel the cloying, sticky sensation the Void gave off. Not to mention their mages were casting regular, low-to-mid-level spells. Hmm, did Milady do something? Well, it didn’t matter. If they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, use Void Magic, then we would take advantage of it.

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Finally, the last pieces fell into place, and the seal preventing me from dispersing the last of the void vanished. I didn’t hesitate for even a moment, as I tore into the void cloud, absorbing it into my domain and transforming it from void to dream. The island itself was a different matter. Over a century of constant void corruption, the sight was horrifying. I would need to have a serious talk with Grandfather about this.

For now, I should do what I could to undo the damage. I landed on the peak of the mountain at the center of the island. The world below a purple mass of corrupted flora and twisted, barely standing buildings. The place was blighted beyond any hope of recovery, and the inhabitants were long since lost beyond hope of salvation. They would be lucky to even have souls remaining at this point.

As I looked across the island, I contemplated what to do. Purifying the place was possible, but… was there any point? If I purified the place, then the soulless people would just die. However, I couldn’t leave it alone either. The seething corruption was a blight that wouldn’t remain here, if left alone.

There was the third option but… Hmm, that was the best option, wasn’t it? At least it would cause the least issues down the line. I took a deep breath and unfurled my wings. As I did, the ground underneath me glowed with a teal light that slowly spread from where I stood and began traveling down the mountain.

This cursed island could not remain. It and the ones living on it would no longer blight this world. The corrupted beasts glowed as well as the energy reached them. They didn’t even seem to notice, even as they began dissolving into wispy energy. It would take a while, but the island and everything on it would cease to exist in the waking world, and become nothing more than a fast forgotten, distant nightmare.

By the time I would finish this, the battle would be over, and the victors bickering over what to do. And as much as I wanted to be there, this was something I could not leave behind. Not a single piece of corrupted soil or creature could be allowed to remain. After all of this was over, I would need to have a serious talk with Grandfather about the upcoming choices I would have made. He wouldn’t like them. But, given the situation, I wasn’t giving him any choice in the matter.