Janus could have phrased his challenge to this figure better. Almost immediately, the ghastly, faceless warlock dashed at him, wielding a scythe and swinging furiously, relentlessly. Janus tried to block and parry each shot, but the warlock was too fast to make an effective counterattack.

There was no tire, there was no break. He just kept going, slowly wearing Janus down, until he finally opened the boy's guard and drove his knee as hard as he could into Janus's stomach, stunning him long enough to follow up with an elbow directly into his spine, driving him to the ground.

Janus couldn't move... he had to though... had to... think... quickl-

...the warlock brought his foot down, hard, into the prince's back before grabbing him by the neck and throwing him into the abyss. After a few moments of silence, the warlock resumed his chanting.

...only to be met with a sudden ice spike into his back. Janus was hovering in the air over him, ready to strike again. In turn, the warlock snapped his fingers, generating what looked to be an entire iceberg, before hurling it in Janus's direction.

Thinking quickly, Janus immediately cast an explosive fire spell, shattering the projectile and revealing the warlock on the other side, ready to fly through... and punch him in the face. Janus reeled backwards, only to be hit with several more punches and accentuated with a powerful fire blast, knocking him back downward into nothingness.

"Fire and ice... not enough..." he thought to himself as he sailed and sank deeper into the void... "I... I can't do it..."

A voice rang in Janus's mind.

"See with the mind's eye..."

Janus began to think. "My mind. It's all my mind. Something in my mind. My spells... My personal studies... yes... yes, it's in here somewhere!"

The warlock was preparing another iceberg to drop down on Janus.

"What was it I was experimenting with as a child...?"

... ...!

"BARRIER CHANGE!"

The glacier shattered harmlessly around him, and an explosive blast flared up into the warlock's face.

"I... I did it!" Janus smiled. "Only fire attacks can harm me now... is.. is that what he's doing? It must be! Ok..."

Before the warlock could recover, Janus immediately generated a large ice spike of his own and dashed towards him, driving it into his chest as hard as he could before sending it clean through with a kick from the bottom of his sandal. His enemy produced an unearthly growl as a firey sphere of destruction flared out, blasting Janus back momentarily. Janus aimed another ice spike, only to discover that the warlock had barrier-changed also.

"Damn... ice, then fire, then ice, then fire... what do I do?"

Janus and the warlock became like two shadows dancing through the air, constantly clashing at one another in ballet motion until the warlock had overpowered his adversary and grabbed him by the head, kneeing him in the mouth and then the throat. Finally, he grabbed Janus by the head again and began heating up his hands, preparing to incinerate the fool prince's head.

"No... gotta... do something... different..."

Janus tried to think. What could he do against the darkness? If he had just...

...He did. Could he use it?

Janus couldn't explain how, he just thought, and the spells came to him. It must have been the orb he picked up before. In the mind's eye. The mind's eye...

His eyes suddenly glowed a bright white.

"fulgur tristitiae salebra succussum!"

The warlock's hands locked up at his sides as he jolted violently, lighting up like the sun itself and screaming loudly. Janus could briefly see a silhouette of his skeleton as he floated there, completely stunned and open to a finishing blow.

Janus obliged, by pulling out his sword and driving it straight into the convulsing wizard's face, splitting it open and spilling white light out. Janus flew back to watch as the figure's body seemed to shed away, disintegrating into rays of light... its skull appeared again, screaming as light poured out of its eye sockets... mouth... chest... stomach...

..And then he exploded. Janus had to shield his eyes from the intense light, and when it subsided, he opened them again to find that the void had been replaced with an almost heavenly atmosphere, full of sun and clouds again.

He won.

Another orb sat on a pedestal just beyond. Janus sailed to the ground and walked towards it. It was a black orb, a purple malevolence swirling about deep inside it. Placing his hands upon it, Janus felt something else stir within him... encompass him, from deep inside his own soul. He no longer was a shadow-born user. He *was* the shadow. An untold volume of the secrets of dark shadow magic was now at his mind, his mind's eye, and at his fingertips.

Finally, he had acquired the knowledge of all four elements: Fire, Water, Light, and Shadow. A dangerous collection of dark powers was now at his complete command, and only more could follow as he resumed his studies.

Lavos materialized behind him, and, judging from Janus's expression, this was something he willed. Concentrating, Janus began charging up the very darkness within his soul. An endless well of that which remained when the light was gone... this was why shadow was the most powerful magic. It would always be there, even after the light.

Janus unleashed a terrifying ball of dark energy which was swallowed by the parasite. Soon after, the ball exploded, and Lavos burst to shreds, no remains to be found. This made Janus smile.

"Soon," he said, contemplating his current power, as the world around him began to fade away towards the waking world.

"Soon... I'll be ready."