Achille rushed over to the scene, where the four werewolves had returned to their humanoid state, "You're werewolves!"

"Yeah," Titus replied. "Guess it kinda came as a surprise."

Moving forward through the mass of steel plates scattered on the cave floor, Achille managed to find one of the undead warriors squirming helplessly on the floor. His front chest plate had been torn from the rest of his armour, showing the nearly destroyed soul gem inside. Walking over, Titus inspected the creature in disgust. It spoke in its deep, hollow voice, focusing solely on Titus, "You will die. There is no preventing it."

The soul gem inside flickered out, extinguishing the unnatural energies keeping it alive. Vilkas, Aela and Farkas came to examine the pile of metal alongside Titus and Achille.

"So where is the Order's base?" asked Vilkas.

Achille began to trek further to the exit, "This way, I'll show you."

"There," Achille guided their gaze over to a large island off the coast, "that's the Isle of Balfiera. I believe their base is situated on the other side of the island."

"Good," Titus remarked, grabbing his sword by the hilt, "let's finish this."

Using a small boat positioned at a dingy dock close by, they began their crossing towards the island. The twins had kindly offered to row, letting Titus go through the thoughts in his head. He let his arm go limp, his fingers being gently caressed by the cool water. Looking down at his own reflection, he imagined Serana's reflection next to him. Placing his hand softly on the apparition, he thought to himself, "I wish you were here."

On the other side of his reflection, his mind imagined the face of Quintus, cruelly smirking at him, the unmistakable look of evil on his face. He caused water to splash all over as he punched at it in anger, trying to forget him as best as he could.

"Titus," Achille placed a hand on Titus's shoulder, "what's wrong?"

Titus span around, slowly licking his lips, "Nothing."

"You've got another nosebleed," Aela notified.

Titus swiftly removed the trickle of blood. Aela and Achille appeared completely baffled by what had just happened, both of them looking at Titus with confusion on their faces.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Achille asked again.

"Yes."

Aela and Achille turned away, focusing on the island ahead.

"You're not okay Titus. Don't fool yourself."

Titus scanned the area behind him, searching for the origin of the voice. He knew in his mind he clearly wasn't okay, but he didn't want to demoralise the rest of the group. Letting his face fall into his hands, he wondered in his mind, "What's happening to me?"

Serana yawned deeply as she grudgingly opened her eyes, fidgeting around in bed. She stopped after a few seconds, flopping back down into the furs of the bed.

"You're finally awake," Lydia stated in relief, sitting in a chair by the table in the centre of the room.

"What happened? The last thing I can remember is being hit by that arrow."

"You became unconscious. Titus brought you back here."

Serana leaned up, "Where is he?"

"He's um, in High Rock," Lydia replied, cautious of how Serana might react.

"High Rock!," Serana screamed. "Why is he in High Rock!"

"He's gone after some 'Order of the Black Diamond'. The same group that tried to kill him but hit you instead."

A sharp knock at the door interrupted their conversation. Lydia left the room to answer it, leaving the weakened Serana alone in the room. She moved her hand towards the candle on the bedside table, craving the warmth of life. Titus would usually keep her warm, but without him there, she had to turn to other means.

"She's in here," Lydia informed, opening the bedroom door. The visitor walked in, looking intently at Serana.

"Mother!"

"I'll leave you two alone," Lydia said, leaving the room hastily.

"Hello Serana," Valerica greeted, pulling up a chair and sitting next to her daughter. She leaned over to give her a gentle hug her after not seeing her for so long.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just checking up on you," Valerica brushed a few lone strands of hair out of Serana's eyes. "Am I not allowed to do that now?"

"Well apart from taking an arrow to the shoulder and falling unconscious, I'm fine."

"That's my girl," Valerica gently squeezed Serana's hand, noticing the ring on her finger. "Where did you get that from?"

Serana raised her hand in front of her face to look at the ring herself, "It's from Titus."

"Oh. That man you were with in the Soul Cairn," Valercia took another look at the ring. "It must have cost a fortune."

"Well yeah it's an engagement ring."

Valerica nearly fell off her chair in shock, her eyes flooded with amazement. She started breathing heavily, clearly stunned by the news.

"Mother?" Serana said, trying to gain her attention. "Are you okay?"

After a few more seconds of sucking her lungs back down, Valerica answered, "You're getting married to a mortal!?"

"So."

"How is it even going to work!?" Valerica argued. "You're immortal!"

"We'll make it work."

"It's not as simple as that."

"Look mother," Serana explained, "I love him and he loves me. He's shown me more love, care and compassion than you or father ever did. We'll make it work. Trust me."

Traversing through the island's foliage, the group finally managed to reach the base. A massive rock floated in the air, a strange purple beam descending from it and into the ground. The area surrounding it was devoid of all forms of life. No trees, weeds, plants or animals even remotely existed there. Something stood in front of the beam, guarding it like a bear with her cubs.

"Come on then," Achille commanded, "let's get closer."

Moving in closer, they managed to get a more detailed look at the sentry. It was around three metres tall. Its body mass was a mangled joining of metal and flesh, but was still humanoid in shape. On the right arm was a spiked flail with the base embedded into the skin. A large hammer was attached on the left arm.

The creature sparked into action at the sight of them, preparing to take on the intruders.

"Shit," Titus swore, knowing they'd have to fight the monster.

The monstrosity pounded forward into battle, charging forward, hammer high in the air. Aela pulled back to begin unleashing a storm of arrows while the others did battle up close. Darting around the creatures legs, Titus began to pester it by slashing at any exposed piece of contorted flesh he could. Vilkas and Farkas attacked from the sides, not wanting to run into the creature's mighty weapons. Achille utilised his magic, spawning vines around the monster's legs, causing it to become clumsy and fail in some of its attacks.

Aela release arrow after arrow at the fleshy parts on the creature, but they seemed to only act like a little child poking something as the monster simply took them. She suddenly got an idea, launching an arrow straight into one of the creature's eyes. It struck exactly on target, causing the beast to swing around in anger an pain after losing partially losing its sight.

Despite their enemy now being at a slight disadvantage, it was still a formidable opponent as it swung its weapons violently, even if it was forced to stay stationary by the vines entangling its legs.

"How are we even meant to kill this thing. Anything that hits it it simply just shrugs it off," Aela complained.

Titus smirked in supposed triumph, "I have an idea."

"What is it?" asked Achille.

Titus ran towards the creature, sword held in front of him, "KRII LUN AUS!"

Titus lept onto the creature's torso, grabbing on for dear life as it writhed around, attempting to get him off. Titus dug his sword into the now weakened front armour plate, twisting it and then tearing it off, revealing a black soul gem encased inside, just like the metal warriors. Letting his sword drop onto the ground, he reached inside the cavity, trying to remove the soul gem maintaining the creature. Wrapping his fingers around it, he started to pull it out, but some sort of magical force was making the task incredibly difficult. The monster fighting back didn't make it any easier.

"Come on you bastard! Die!" Using all his strength, Titus finally flung the soul gem out, letting it land on the ground. The now dead creature crashed down onto the corrupted ground, sending a small shockwave through the earth nearby.

Farkas came over, pulling Titus up. They were then joined by the rest of the group, wondering how to get up there.

"Wait," Titus suggested. "Maybe we walk into the beam."

"Are you crazy!" Achille bellowed in sheer disapproval. "Who knows what will happen."

"Well somebody has to try it. And that'll be me." Titus walked into the beam and was levitated up and inside the rock floating high in the sky. The stragglers immediately followed after seeing proof that it was safe.

The rock's interior looked very peculiar. They stood in a small circular room without a roof and with walls made of boulders. There were four possible routes without doors, each leading in a different direction. Only a large, unnatural purple orb above them offered any source of light.

"Are we in a maze?" Titus asked inquisitively.

"Yes you are."

Titus turned around sharply, staring at the people behind him, "Did you say that?"

"Say what?" Farkas replied in confusion.

Titus turned back around, slowly shaking his head in an attempt to clear his mind. Pointing towards one of the routes, he ordered, "This way."

"Okay, we're lost," Vilkas commented.

"Yeah," Achille added, "How are we meant to find and fight Prophet if we can't even get through a maze?"

"Yeah Titus," the voice inside his head mocked, "how are you?"

Titus smashed his fist into one of the rock walls in frustration, "Get out of my head!"

"No."

Titus fell to the floor in agony, clutching his head. He felt drained, enough to just collapse on the floor. His mind was damaged. He doubted his resolve to carry on. He wasn't in any state to fight. The sight before him began to go blurry and fade out. Two arms lifted him up, supporting him when he needed it. Farkas and Vilkas had gone to their Harbinger in his time of need.

"Come on. Whatever's wrong with you, we're not leaving you behind. You can do this," Vilkas motivated.

After wandering around the maze for a lengthy time, they finally stumbled on a pair of arched, wooden doors.

Whatever lay on the other side didn't matter. This was it. Prophet was going down.

Personal Comments:

Hope all you loyal readers and maybe the not so loyal readers enjoyed that. Big fight is in the next chapter. Maybe some questions will be answered. Maybe some more questions will be created. Who knows? Well, I know, but you have to wait. This chapter could have been out yesterday but I decided to watch Terminator 2... what a film. So, if you did enjoy or are have this story fav'd or followed, please leave a review, can we smash... (okay, I won't go youtube gamer on you, but you get the idea) yeah, please leave a little review. So, next chapter should be out tomorrow, but don't worry... I'll be back.

Dragon Language Glossary:

KRII LUN AUS: Kill Leech Suffer (Marked For Death Shout)