When Ruby woke up, yesterday's storm had subsided and the sun was rising. Her muscles continued to ache from the electricity coursing through them. She sat up and looked around. Komoth was nowhere to be found, which meant this was a good time to get as far away as possible.

She crept to the entrance of the cave and scanned the area for any movement. When she saw nothing across the snow, she stepped out slowly. The snow crunched under her boots and a gust of wind tore across the tundra sending a shiver through the teenager. Ruby wrapped her cloak around herself.

Without a fully charged aura she couldn't make it very far, and who knows what Komoth would do when he found her, but she had to try. This time he had left her unguarded, and she was going to take advantage of it. She was a good distance away from the cave when she stepped into a hole in the snow shaped like a giant boot.

He had been here since last night, or at least after the storm had passed. She followed where they went with her eyes and saw them lead off to one end of the valley he had taken her too. No doubt he was running from something, meaning that if she went the opposite direction he was going, she could find a way back to Mantle. Better start walking.

With her cloak wrapped around her and a half charged aura, she set out into the frozen wasteland. The snow came up to her knees and almost into her boots. It might give her plenty of room to cover herself in case he found her. As she moved, Ruby felt the cold bite at her body, sapping her strength and slowing her down with each step. The sun may have been shining, but it doesn't matter in the north.

She was almost a mile from the cave before she lost feeling in her arms and legs and collapsed into the icy powder. The small crystals stung her face and she felt the moisture in her pores begin to freeze. "I have to keep moving. I'll get frostbite otherwise."

She began to use her numb arms to pull herself through the snow like a seal. After not getting very far for quite a while, she felt a heat on the back of her neck. "Oh no." Her eyes constricted with fear and tried to crawl faster. As the seconds progressed, the heat intensified and began to melt the snow around her, making her sweat like crazy. Ruby tried to move her numb limbs across the slippery rock but couldn't get away as a very strong hand wrapped around the back of her head.

Komoth lifted the girl from the ground, drawing a yelp from her when her neck was the only thing supporting her body. She threw her hands up and started pounding on his fingers to make him let go, but she couldn't get through his armor. His grip tightened around her skull and she felt her brain begin to compress. Ruby screamed as he crushed her head and felt her skull crack. "IT HURTS!" The pain was unbearable and she felt blood run down her face from her eyes and out her ears.

"I told you to stay put, now you lose." A one-handed sword appeared behind his left shoulder. He took hold of it and slashed diagonally, cutting off her right hand half-way up the forearm, severing her right leg directly above her knee and removing her left foot half-way up the shin with one smooth motion. He then dropped her on the ground in front of him. She screamed as she bled all over the ground, tears streaming from her now broken eyes, her voice mute to her deaf ears. Blood seeped from her scalp and through her hair, turning it into matted lumps.

Komoth knelt down and held out his hand, a red glow emanating from his palm. He pushed it out and it spread over Ruby's body, healing all the damage just done to her. Her severed limbs stretched out and knit themselves back together. Ruby pulled herself to her feet and tried to run but felt an arrow pierce her thigh and fell to the ground once more. She looked down at it and saw the three foot wooden shaft through her limb, blood streaming from the wound.

"You can't stop me from escaping you." She tried to sound fierce but sounded as terrified as she was.

"I think I can because you have yet to succeed." He stepped forward and grabbed the arrow before twisting it. Ruby flinched from the movement.

"Why? Why are you doing this? What do you have to gain?" She screamed at him.

"You really want to know?" He sheathed his sword and turned around. "I want all the knowledge in the universe, so I can gain enough power to put an end to all lies everywhere. Lies, were the basis of all conflict in the world I come from. It killed my father and mother, and led me to killing my own sister." His fists tightened around themselves, the sound of his joints cracking under the pressure louder then Ruby's heartbeat in her head. "Because of the lies of the guild master and my teacher, everything I ever cared about was flipped upside down and destroyed. From the knowledge I've gained by absorbing Salem's soul, I know she put you through very similar circumstances that I have."

Ruby looked at him from the ground. "What do you mean?"

"We were the same when we were children, but the decisions we made when presented with the same choices were very different." The red smoke surrounding him dissipated and was replaced with a golden glow. His black armor also changed to something very similar that was as bright as the sun. "I don't want to kill people anymore but anybody who tries to resist is going to die. I would however like to fight your friends again." He smiled and his appearance changed back to what it was before.

"What happened to them?" she asked, voice tense and eyes wide with shock. "What did you do to my friends?"

"Another time, but I need to find you shelter in a place you can't escape from, and you still need to tell me everything you know. We have a week before I return to that city, which for the record is in the opposite direction."

Her heart rate increased. I was going the wrong way? Komoth stepped to her side. "Yes you were. I don't run from anything for very long." He picked her up by the hood of her cloak and threw her over his shoulder again.

"Let me go!" She grabbed the sword on his back that hadn't been switched yet and swung it around his head, hitting him the chest and causing him to stagger. He dropped her and she tried to limp away, only to get an arrow in her other leg too.

"What did I tell you?" He picked up his sword and switched it for the first one he had when he arrived. "There's no way for you to escape me." He placed his gigantic foot on her back and pressed down just a little bit. "There is nowhere you can go where I cannot find you."

She felt her lungs compressing under the force. "I will not be your willing hostage." She squeezed out the words with what air she had left.

"Yes you will. I have a spell specifically for the job." He held out his hand and purple light filled her vision and her body stood on it's own. The pain shooting through her legs made her wince. "Follow," he commanded, and she followed him across the wasteland.