Aerion tore the shadows off his chest with a scream that wasn't for battle.
It was of pain.
The older prince raised both hands and a barrier of Paladin Light condensed in front of him, to contain, not to destroy.
"I'm not going to attack you," Aerion said, his voice broken. "Listen to me, what they did to you has a cure."
Ayres tilted his head and the black veins on his neck pulsed like worms under the skin.
"Cure?"
Ayres raised his left hand and a spear of darkness pierced the barrier.
CRACK!
Aerion rolled to the right.
The spear stuck into the wall behind him and the stone rotted on contact, crumbling into gray dust.
"I don't need your cure," Ayres said. "I don't need your pity."
He moved forward and every step left a footprint of black frost on the ground.
Raziel watched from the floor, his knees dug into the stone amd his mind calculated at full speed looking for an opening, a pattern, something he could exploit.
[Activating: ECHO OF THE SHADOW]
