And here we have it, a part of the story I've been looking forward to writing for a pretty long time.

The Blind Huntsman

Chapter 120

Volume 5, Episode 9

Nemesis To Be

Kai landed on a pool of blood. It smelled terrible. So terrible that he had to pinch his nose at first when he felt the hairs inside it stand up and felt like an electrical current had just attacked him nasally. Grimm never smelt good, but somehow Cinder managed to pull off an even worse scent. Orchid couldn't smell it like he could with his enhanced senses. Smelling was never his strongest sense, but the fact that it was so bad now only went to show how far gone Cinder really was. That Grimm power that Salem gave to her was tearing her apart from the inside, and she probably didn't even know that it was killing her. She isn't immortal like Salem, and at her core she is still just a normal human born into this world far beyond the era Salem was born into. A magically enhanced human, but still mortal nevertheless. Kai touched his hands to the ground in spots that weren't covered by blood, searching for a sign of Cinder within the vault. He was met with a current of constant vibrations, making it difficult for him to decipher what was in the vault. Focusing on his seismic sensing wasn't going to work down there as it did back up in Haven. If he hadn't trained his senses to be sharper after the incident a few years ago, he'd likely be as blind as he was when Pyrrha had to help him out.

"I can't locate her," Kai told Orchid, standing back up and drawing Silver Ebony once again. "She's down here though. I know that for a fact."

"How could she survive something like that…?" Orchid asked. "She was practically cut in half. Even with regeneration, it works only with her Grimm parts."

"She's resilient, I'll give her that," Kai replied. Silently, Kai reached up and removed his blindfold, activating his silver eyes at the same time in doing so. Orchid looked at him, her eyes widening slightly with surprise when she saw that her friend's eyes were glowing silver. Not the white that she remembered from before, but more a gray-ish color. She remembered him doing this before.

"Like this, I can see," Kai explained quickly, blinking his eyes several times as sight was granted to him through his silver eyes. "I won't able to keep it up forever since it still requires me to use energy for it. But my seismic senses are muffled down here. I don't want to rely on them in a place where they could be rendered unreliable."

"Right," Orchid said. "Let's not waste any time then."

She didn't have to say it twice. Kai stomped forward, making his presence known, using his newly acquired sight to look around for Cinder. He hasn't seen her for a long time, but knew what her face looked like regardless. He could never forget it after seeing it once, and now that she was partially Grimmified, he had an inkling that she looked similar to Salem now.

His attention was drawn to the tall, wide, radiant golden wall of light at the end of a large stone bridge set in a mound of carved stone around a small forest of majestic trees dropping glowing blossoms everywhere. Just by looking at it, and then sensing it unconsciously, he could immediately tell that it wasn't normal. Beyond it, he could see nothing that'd bring them to a different room. But then it wasn't a normal wall, it was the entrance to the vault of a relic. Orchid herself felt some connection to it, and a sudden urge to go and touch the wall of light but fought against that urge. The relic of knowledge needed to stay where it was, especially where the likes of Cinder was involved. If they lost that relic, then everything would only get worse from there.

"That's the entrance to the vault," Orchid explained. "Ozpin told me that it leads to a different dimension that he created with magic. That is where the relics are all located."

"Ozpin's here?" Kai asked suddenly, looking at her with widened eyes.

Fire exploded where the stood. That moment of shock and distraction is the only thing Cinder needed to get the jump on them. She knew that they were there the moment that they first landed on the ground, and used her magic to float just above the entrance into the vault itself, looking down at Kai and Orchid, she still was coughing up blood mixed with black essence. Adam's attack got very close to killing her, and she only lived because she turned at the last second, letting her Grimm half take the brunt of the force, and pushed all of her aura into the left side of her body internally to prevent it from being hurt as well. Usually, she would heal much more quickly, but there were flames in Adam's semblance, and it cauterized her Grimm flesh as it cut her through, making the process of regenerating much slower. If she were to go down there and fight Kai and Orchid directly as she was now, they would probably kill her. But she didn't need to go down there, she had the power of the Fall Maiden and Salem's dark magic. She had more than enough armaments to keep them at bay until her body healed.

Kai absorbed most of the blast into his semblance, but the magical properties still blasted him and Orchid away from each other. Orchid closer to the wall of light that was the entrance into the vault and Kai toward the way that they came. He was stunned, seeing stars in his blackened vision as he lost concentration to keep his sight up. That didn't prevent him from knowing what had happened, and where Cinder was. Quickly, he activated his eyes and coursed his power through Silver Ebony, and slashed an arc of white light to where Cinder was last. The arc exploded on impact where she used to be, as Cinder flew up onto a floating stone defying all physics in the air far above the bridge that they were on. Orchid looked up at her, a flash of fire burning around her eyes. She pushed herself back up from the ground and bent her knees in preparing to jump after her.

"No, don't!" A smarter part of her exclaimed. "She's hurt now, if you use magic around her, she'll use it against you and heal!"

Orchid frowned and scowled at the woman above her. Reluctantly, she let the magic of the Spring Maiden subside within her. Why did I even come down here? She asked herself, glancing at Kai as he prepared another attack with his sword. She's so vulnerable now… Kai should be able to handle her on his own as she is now, all I'm doing is giving Cinder a chance to recover.

It frustrated her so much to realize that. No, not realize it, she knew it from the start before Kai even showed up. She could never beat Cinder on her own as long as she had that siphoning ability of hers. Hell, all she did was just make her stronger and put her friends at risk by fighting with them against her. It was so frustrating to be in that moment, against any other opponent she would be perfect to fight against them because of her maiden powers. Cinder is the only one she can't stand against.

She had to try, regardless, even if it meant not allowing herself to use her greatest weapon. If she couldn't attack her with magic, she'd attack her with her sword once she got close to her. Thankfully, Kai had ranged attacks of his own to combat Cinder, and his semblance would be great to absorb her fire and send it right back at her. It was a battle of attrition now, and Kai has been training specifically to take her down. She looked over to Kai, watching him send arc after arc of white light toward Cinder, absorbing what he could and sending back flames as the two engaged in a magnificent battle of fire. Kai had grown so strong, so powerful, his semblance was matching the power of a maiden, and that in itself was incredible. She smiled, despite everything, looking at him. While he held her off, she thought of something that might be insane to consider. She looked at the wall of light, feeling it call to her. Within the dimension, Ozpin created on the other side of that wall was the Relic of Knowledge. Cinder was too weak to chase her, and as far as they all knew the only way out was the way that they came in. Kai could block the way out with his semblance, and she could escape with the Relic of Knowledge and after dealing with the rest of their enemies upstairs, she could come back with reinforcements. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that Kai could handle this, if not at the very least hold his own against a weakened Cinder with no magic of his own for her to siphon.

She was resiting the call before but now she was feeling herself begin to embrace it. Ozpin in Oscar's body warned her of this, when she first asked him why she couldn't just take the relic and fly off to Atlas to General Ironwood, believing that it would be much safer with him than here at Haven where a battle could take place any time. He told her the relics needed to stay apart, at all costs, even if it were just two of them being united, he didn't want to risk any disastrous incidents that could cause a lot of people their lives. She understood that, she really did, but now more than ever with Cinder literally in front of the vault where the relic was locked away she felt that now was the time to take a risk and save an even greater amount of people from losing their lives. Cinder with the power of all knowledge at her fingertips, even if it was just three questions, could and would mean a lot of trouble. Ozpin also told her that one downside of the vaults was that it was connected to the power of the maiden of that choice season. The closer they were to it, the more they'd want to open it and take what was within. He needed the help of the maidens of the past to create the vaults, and it was in a rush since Salem was chasing after them for these relics. There were some flaws that couldn't be fixed, and she was feeling it now. Her body seemed to act on its own, her previous thoughts and all her other selves silent as she approached the entrance to the vault, looking up at it and marveling at its glory. She caught one of the magical blossoms in her hand, watching it dissipate into tiny particles and then into nothingness.

"Agh!" Kai's cry of pain snapped her out of it before she could get within five feet of the entrance. She turned around, feeling a cold breeze hit her in the face like a brick when she saw a formation of ice that seemed to have exploded out of the ground. Kai rolled toward her, his aura flickering as it protected him from the brunt of the assault. Orchid's eyes widened, looking up at Cinder as she descended rapidly, the left side of her body almost completely healed, albeit still mostly a mass of a black goo-like substance instead of solid flesh. It seemed to be enough since she appeared to not feel the pain of what happened before anymore. That didn't stop claws forming at the end of her Grimm arm, and for it to extend, reaching for her as she raised her sword to combat the mass of claw. The shadows of which were shrouding her face as it pushed toward her with fingers ready to grab.

"No!" Kai exclaimed, throwing himself back up. Damn it! He couldn't absorb ice, and Cinder knew that. He never saw her use anything other than fire before, so he thought he could get away with keeping that ranged battle going until Cinder ran out of energy. But now that he was stunned for a few seconds, and Orchid was vulnerable, he felt that he was too far to close the distance in time. His legs were slow and felt like they were ten times heavier. An effect of being struck by that ice from beneath his feet. He didn't expect it, first, it was a blast of fire like any other, and he managed to avoid it, but when it struck the ground it suddenly felt freezing, and it exploded into a formation of ice that almost swallowed him whole. He had underestimated Cinder, he really thought that he'd be able to take her, but she was proving to be a much more trifling foe, and now Orchid was going to pay for it. Cinder's clawed hand wrapped around Orchid's head, and he felt the slam all the way to where he was as Cinder shoved her against the entrance to the vault, laughing happily as colored energy seemed to get sapped through Cinder's arm and into her body.

Thankfully, Orchid didn't let it happen for long and was able to free herself by kicking against Cinder's chest, blasting her away with a mixture of lightning mixed with ice. Although it wouldn't permanently hurt Cinder, it at least got her away. Orchid didn't feel any weaker from nearly having the maiden powers stolen from her, but she also didn't feel as strong. She felt a trickle of blood coming from the back of her head and willed her aura to heal the injury. But was shocked to find that it wasn't working.

"Surprised?" Cinder said, rubbing her chest where lightning was still crackling. She looked at her with a grin, full of herself. "I enhanced my ability to steal maiden's powers ever since Amber and the Sienna incident. A partial absorption wouldn't do the trick no matter how I tried to enhance it, but I found a way to make it stronger in other ways." A flare of amber aura covered Cinder's body, rejuvenating her. "I couldn't steal all of your aura, since it's tied to your soul. But I at least got enough to recover from Adam's little trick."

Orchid felt the exhaustion that naturally came when you run out of aura all at once, she fell to her hands and knees, clutching her chest and out of breath. Her magic was a different source of power and she quickly relied on that, but just as quickly she remembered that that's exactly what Cinder wants from her. She was trapped, and utterly defeated in just one move, all because she didn't pay attention and let the vault entice her into getting close while an enemy was nearby. Cinder would have grabbed her again if it weren't for wind pushing her back sudden, and very nearly into the eager point of Silver Ebony. Cinder dodged left but Silver Ebony followed close by, cutting into her left arm as she backed away. Kai backed up as well, protectively guarding Orchid, and the wall of light that was now making noise and beginning to click and change shape.

The vault was opening now that she had touched it, Orchid felt terrible.

"I somehow knew that you would be the one standing in my way to greater power." Cinder said as she pushed her hanging arm back to where it was supposed to be, and then let her Grimm essence heal it. "Through you lies the Spring Maiden, and then the relic of knowledge."

"You'll have to kill me first if you want any hope of getting to either of those." Kai hissed.

"Oh, I know." Cinder replied, summoning up her usual twin dual swords in either hand. "It's fitting, isn't it? What rivals you and I are. I was getting bored before, you know, everything was just getting too easy, I feel that a small part of me wanted you to come back just so you can stand in my way again. I hate you so very much and there was a time when only your death and your suffering would make me feel like I accomplished anything. But more so I find myself eager to keep throwing myself at you, to fight you, to combat you, to beat each other to near-death like we did before so many years ago. We were robbed of that chance when I convinced Salem to help me invade Vale, now though…" Cinder licked her lip in anticipation. "I hope you haven't shown me the full extent of your strength. I know you have more, in fact, your type isn't likely to just lie around getting weaker or stagnating and becoming complacent."

Kai breathed out through his teeth. He sensed through the floor, feeling Orchid behind him. He turned to look over his shoulder, watching her carefully. The vault was open now, but for now Cinder seemed to be much more interested in him than she was in the relic or Orchid. "Get inside the vault, and do not come out." He ordered her. Before she could protest again like she did before, he continued. "I'm going to use something that would hurt you if you were caught in it."

Orchid gulped nervously at the thought, and then the memory. She nodded her head, and slowly pulled her body into the vault, disappearing behind the light.

"I don't know when you regained your sanity," Kai said louder, looking again at Cinder. "But luckily, I want to settle things with you just as badly as you seem to want to do with me. So let's make this the final time," he pointed his father's sword, Silver Ebony, at her, his silver eyes shining with black light the moment he did. "Only two people are going to leave this vault alive, and it's going to be me and Orchid."

Cinder, far from intimidated, smiled and dashed in to attack.

Kai's mind was a buzz. His body reacted on its own, against every survival tip his muscles were screaming at him to stop, slow down, pull his punches ever so slightly just to give them time to recuperate. He went against those weak notions. Raven didn't teach him to be weak, Malikai his father taught him to never give up, Ozpin taught him the skills he needed to properly take full advantage of the prime strength that he had grown within his body. Across all of his mentors, from Taiyang all the way in the beginning when he first moved to Patch to attend Signal Academy, all the way down to today, he was preparing for this. He knew this battle would be hard, and if he was to be honest with himself, Cinder was still stronger than him. That didn't worry him, though, all it meant was that he was going to have to break through his limits.

His muscles bulged as he clashed through the glass sword Cinder had in her right hand. The glass shattered, as to be expected when you smash glass against tempered metal as strong as Silver Ebony. But just as quickly as he shattered it, Cinder reformed it with the same glass shards that had just been made of it. They traded blows, Kai gritting his teeth against the flare of his aura while Cinder smiled excitedly, enjoying the pain he was causing to her. His eyes shined black, this time the human half of Cinder began to burn and then petrify, but Cinder countered that by striking the ground, causing a plume of rock and dust that had been accumulating on the ground for who knows how many centuries. Forcing Kai's eyes to be shut and begin to tear up. With one hand he wiped at his face while with the other he slashed his sword across his body, pushing Cinder back right as she dashed in to capitalize. Kai stepped back once when his sword arm swung behind his back, pivoted on his right foot, and brought the sword back to parry Cinder's other blade. Sparks flew as shards of glass and sparkling microscopic pieces of metal fell through the air clanking onto the rocky ground. Kai lifted his left foot and stomped down, creating a cone-shaped shockwave that molded the earth beneath Cinder's feet. She fell through with a gasp, but caught herself with magic and began to fly back up.

She was met with a face full of silver light when Kai grabbed her face as soon as she flew out of the hole and smashed her head against his. Both of them were damaged by such a strike, and they both saw stars in their darkened vision, and Kai opened his eyes, releasing a blast of light that scorched Cinder's left half. She let out a scream, but the curve of her mouth never went low to a frown. Slamming the heel of her palm into Kai's chin, she averted his glare up to the ceiling and away from her, giving herself time to recover. White light turned black, and Kai refused to let go of Cinder's head. His fingers gripped her skull like a vice, and he squeezed so hard that Cinder's aura had to flare lest her skull begins to crack. Cinder reached up and grabbed his wrists, squeezing just as tightly trying to force them to let go. The muscles in his wrists were dense and protected by bracers, but his bracers were made of metal. Cinder's manic grin grew as her hands heated up to smoldering heat, not dissimilar to that of a forge. Kai's silver aura began to flare in a desperate act to protect his wrists and by extension his hands, but still, Kai refused to let go. With a pained scream, Kai pulled Cinder up into the air by her head and pivoted to the side, pushing his weight and his strength down to smash Cinder's head against the stone floor. Rock gave way to cracks as he continued to push her head deeper into the stone. Cinder's eyes rolled to the back of her head, stars once again dancing in her vision. But she was far from finished. Her eyes readjusted to see Kai's once again lighting up with a black light, and she flexibly pulled her knee up just high enough to hit him in the groin.

Kai lost the air in his lungs and his grip loosened. Giving Cinder the chance to break free from his vice grip and place a palm in the center of his chest. However, she tilted her head with confusion when the stunned Kai didn't try to dodge or smack her hand away, but instead grabbed it as if they were holding hands. There was nothing romantic about it, since Cinder felt the flames that began to boil up in the center of it begin to fade and get absorbed into Kai's semblance. With a sudden scowl, Cinder retracted her flames and opted to use her fingers to jab Kai away, causing him to skid away across the bridge as he drew his sword again from his scabbard. Kai didn't want to give her another moment of reprieve and lunged back in with a piercing thrust that caught Cinder off guard. She dodged to the left, but more rolled as she was flat-footed and off-balance, away from Kai's desperate thrust. Kai missed, but pointed two fingers at her with his free hand, making Cinder want to laugh. Did he really think that he could match her blasts? She thought she would have proved that to him before. Minor absorption or not, it was nothing compared to her-

Cinder's eyes widened as a beam of flame no thicker than a pencil pierced through her left shoulder, scalding her from the inside and making her let out a not too pleased exclamation of a pain Cinder didn't think she ever felt before. She forced her eyes to look at Kai, watching as a tiny ball of white flame began to brighten in luminosity as another thin piercing beam was being prepared to launch. A sudden rage took hold of Cinder, realizing the lethality of such an attack could actually kill her if she wasn't careful. Just another inch or two to the left and it would have gone straight through her heart. A blow like that was something she wasn't sure she could come back from so easily. Releasing a screech that didn't sound like it could have come from a human woman, she charged forward, her eyes void of any of the precision and intelligence that she once wielded before.

Kai raised his bracer to deflect the extended claws of Cinder's left arm and raised the flat side of Silver Ebony to guard his other flank. His thighs muscles tightened and flexed under the pressure Cinder was pushing onto him, and he nearly found himself soaring off the edge of the bridge. Quickly, he sucked a great heap of air into his lungs and blew it hard into Cinder's face. Using his semblance to blow her away from him and give himself some room to recover his breath. He dropped to one knee, feeling nausea in the back of his throat rise as he almost passed out from the amount of air he had just blown out from his lungs. His eyes shined silver again, opening just in time to light up the left half of Cinder in white light and sending her scampering away off the bridge to escape it.

His hand shot up to clutch the side of his head. One of his eyes blinked and then shut tightly once he let his ability deactivate. He had been exerting his eyes and using them almost too much for his body to be able to handle safely. Thankfully, all that training to control and withstand the power had been carrying him up to this point, preventing him from losing consciousness like he had several times before. In that brief moment of reprieve, Kai noted that he couldn't use both versions of the Silver Eyes powers at the same time. The blackened darker version of them harmed the human side of Cinder, and the more pure white type harmed the Grimm portion of Cinder. During this battle, he had done his best to adapt and try to use them at the same time, but for the life of him, he just couldn't do it. He also didn't know which would be more effective against Cinder. Her human side was bolstered by aura and a lesser regeneration factor while her Grimm side was able to recover from the damage sustained to it. That siphoning ability Orchid told him about seemed to have been suffering from diminishing returns. It had a limit like everything does. She couldn't get infinitely powerful, and her body could still take damage and get exhausted.

Cinder usually finished her fights quickly. A drawn-out battle like this was slowly giving him the advantage with each ticking minute that went by. But Kai had his limits as well, and he couldn't keep this up forever. Not even with the extra strength and power his eyes were granting him.

Cinder blasted her way back up through the bridge almost directly beneath him. Kai rolled away from the rocks and debris that scattered everywhere, gripping his sword in both hands. He tried to activate his eyes, but then second-guessed himself, and decided to save his waning power for later. Instead, he used just enough power to grant him sight again. Cinder roared at him, clutching the side of her head with her Grimm's hand. Her mind was leaving her, although she seemed to have been fighting the Grimm's influence. A symbol tattooed into her skin began to glow from underneath her glows. The symbol of Salem, almost identical to the one that was on the back of Tyrian's new jacket. Whatever it was doing, Cinder was fighting against it, leading to the mess she was now. The flames, ice, lightning, and any other element of nature the maiden could muster up were appearing and then disappearing. Only raw magical energy became her weapon, with no other effect besides kinetic momentum.

Kai clenched his grip around Silver Ebony tightly, and mentally gauged his aura. It was low, definitely in the red. But judging by how Cinder was behaving and the fact that her aura was flickering on and off told him that she was not in much better shape. This could be his chance to finish this before he ran out of strength himself. He spat blood out to the side, and kept his eyes open, letting go of the magic within them and letting darkness fill his vision once more. Kai lunged out, feeling the vibrations in the ground and letting them guide him through to Cinder. Cinder screeched and only had her Grimm claws as her weapon and a shard of what used to be a glass sword in her right. She recognized the threat, and like any Grimm would ruthlessly retaliate in response. Time seemed to slow the closer he got to Cinder, ducking underneath debris and dark energy that flew at him like shrapnel. At the last moment, before his sword could clash with Cinder, one hand let go of Silver Ebony, revealing a small white ball of condensed flame at the tip of his index finger. Silver Ebony wielded with one hand couldn't overpower Cinder's Grimmified left arm, and that left him wide open for punishment as it was wildly parried to the side. Cinder pounded into his chest, her Grimm claws tearing open his clothes and baring his skin. Silver aura flared, cracked, and went out. Right at the same time as Kai shoved his finger into Cinder's rib, the white ball of flame expanded and exploded out into a thin beam that pierced through Cinder's left side and exited up through her collar bone through her right lung. Cinder coughed up blood, but like a Grimm, she didn't seem to even feel the pain of a punctured lung or recognize that her aura went out. Kai on the other hand, had to grit his teeth to stop himself from screaming out in agony as Cinder's shard of glass stabbed through his stomach, just long enough so that the tip of it stabbed out of his back.

Kai spat blood out of his mouth, refusing to fall as he grabbed Cinder's threatening wrist with his free hand and held on, squeezing with everything he had and feeling the bones underneath her skin begin to flex and crack under the pressure. Cinder's Grimm arm reared up to decapitate him, but Silver Ebony returned with a vengeance, cutting through Cinder's arm cleanly. Cinder's animalistic cry ended in a much more human scream as her senses returned momentarily because of the extreme pain of losing a limb. She looked down, seeing that her only remaining arm was grabbed in a death grip by Kai, pulling her closer to him as he pushed one leg back and prepared one last powerful thrust with his offhand wielding his sword.

"YAAAAH!" Kai's voice cracked as he stabbed Silver Ebony all the way down to the hilt through Cinder's chest. Knowing for a fact that he had to at least sever a part of her spin while also breaking several ribs and cutting through muscles, veins, lungs, and probably her heart as well on the way out her back. Cinder spat up a mixture of black and red ichor, feeling her knees buckle underneath her.

Again, like a Grimm, her left side started to evaporate. Black dust flaking off of her, even though her body was desperately trying to heal itself with whatever power it had remaining. Kai pushed, not nearly as hard as he would have been able to a few seconds ago, but more walked Cinder over to the edge of the bridge looking down into the abyss that seemed to linger beneath the vault of Haven. Kai's eyes flickered, neither purity nor chaos able to muster up the power to deal the final blow to confirm Cinder's death. With a frustrated groan, Kai finally fell down to his knees along with Cinder, his body finally failing his will.

Even with his sword through her body and another hole through her side thanks to his fire, Cinder still managed a bloody smile. "My siphon… stopped working."

Kai peered up at her, confused.

"I was never going to… be able to beat you here…" Cinder said, reaching a hand up to her chest, and then over to her back, were both symbols of Salem continued to pulse underneath her clothes. "Of course… how could I have not foreseen it? I can't absorb magic belonging to Salem… nor from her descendants either, it seems. Ah… it makes sense now."

Kai tried to speak, to try and get the last word as a final act of vengeance against Cinder. But all he could do was spit up blood and cough. His grip on Silver Ebony began to loosen, and he more began to subtly nudge Cinder over the ledge instead of shoving her off like he intended. The only thing that ended up keeping Cinder on the bridge was Silver Ebony, which Kai was still gripping tightly as if fearing if he pulled it out Cinder would somehow recover from all the damage she had suffered. He was hesitant to let it go, it was his father's sword, the same sword that he had used for these past few years. He had to admit that he was attached to it, emotionally.

Not so much so that he wouldn't abandon it if it meant destroying Cinder.

I did it… Dad… Kai said as he let go of Silver Ebony. Watching Cinder fall with it still impaled through her chest all the way down into the abyss. I did it…

Kai couldn't tell when she landed but knew it would be a long fall before she made it to the bottom. Still, Cinder was suffering from several fatal injuries. If the fall didn't finish her off, she'd die from the blood loss. Kai held the glass shard in his stomach firmly and forced himself back up to his feet. He kept the shard inside him, knowing that if he pulled it out he'd just bleed out faster. He took two steps before feeling his body begin to fall.

Only he was caught, a hand holding onto his shoulder while another reached down to scoop his legs out from under him. He recognized the scent of the person it belonged to, but he didn't have the energy to stop them.

"I came down at the nick of time, eh?" Tyrian Callows chortled, adjusting Kai so that his wound wouldn't get any worse. "Just managed to jump down here in time to see the final seconds of your right with dear Cinder. She was a rare sort, the only woman of Salem's prior cause, but oh well. You win some, you lose some."

"You, however, I absolutely cannot let die," Tyrian said as he strolled into the vault. He stopped when he saw Orchid, the Spring Maiden, stand in front of him with a determined expression on her face. She had no aura, but Cinder was defeated, meaning that her magic was still available to her. "Be careful where you next throw magic," Tyrian said as he flicked Kai's limp tail with his foot. "You might damage something you don't mean too."

"Let him go." Orchid demanded.

"I will, I will." Tyrian rolled his eyes and stepped right past Orchid. "So, this is what the inside of a vault looks like? Interesting, neat, regrettably forgettable." Acting as if Orchid wasn't even there, he walked up to the altar where the relic of knowledge resided in the form of an ornate golden and blue lantern and picked it up with the end of his stinger. He tied it onto Kai's body, and then picked his body up again. After doing that, he looked over to Orchid and sauntered his way over to her as if he wasn't wounded with had several bruises on his body. Before Orchid could question it, she hurried to catch Kai as Tyrian dropped him into her arms. Confused, she looked up at Tyrian, then back at Kai, before returning her gaze to Tyrian.

"Why are you helping us?" Orchid had to ask before the confusion killed her.

"My Queen demanded me to keep Little Kai here alive and to get him to accept the purpose his Grandmother has planned for him," Tyrian said in a totally different accent, making himself sound much more regal and intelligent. "I have never disobeyed an order before. But sadly, I can't waste time here explaining to you hers and my great wisdom. I have to escape! You see, things - for my side at least - aren't going so well up there. So it'd be in your best interests," his eyes flicked down to Kai. "And his, to stop asking questions you won't understand the answer to, and return to your little Menagerie army up there."

Without letting her respond, Tyrian sprinted off out of the vault and disappeared around the corner. Orchid thought about giving chase but stomped the thought down immediately when she felt Kai stir in her arms. There was no time, and Kai was dying. Her eyes flamed on again, and she flew as safely as she could back up the way they came. A thousand questions on her mind, but with much more pressing matters to attend to first.

I'm so sorry. Orchid thought, holding Kai tightly to her chest.

I really got to step up my game again. Sorry, its been taking so long for these chapters to come out. I kept getting indecisive and was never sure how I wanted to spend my time these past few weeks. Slowly changing that, one step at a time. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed the chapter regardless. Cheers.