We never heard from him ever since. I even heard that he'd changed his name, refusing to live under my drunken father's name. Seeing him in Bodrick's house took me aback.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, clenching my sword's pommel even harder.

"Grandpa sent me here to get you," Adwerald said with a wide grin. "He knew you'd come for Bodrick. So he sent me here to intercept you."

He proceeded to tell me about how much he waited for this moment to exact revenge on me while I contacted Raiya through the psionic link we shared. I had to warn her about this sudden development and urge her to change plans.

"Good luck doing that," I said after I spoke to the witch. "Don't think I've ever forgiven you for abandoning us."

Adwerald scoffed. "You're one to talk," he said. "Thanks to you, we're orphans. If it weren't for grandpa's orders, I would kill you here and now."

"You're not taking me alive, if that's what you're hoping for." I dashed toward Franz then, ignoring my brother. If I was to bring my brother down, I couldn't be bothered with facing two enemies at once.

Franz immediately jumped aside as my sword almost cut his left arm off. Then Adwerald jumped in, sword thrust toward my open right side. I immediately activated my third eye and looked for the time energy surrounding his sword arm. I then willed it to slow down. The arm indeed slowed its rapid advance, but the rest of Adwerald's body didn't.

I dashed forward just when his body, carried by the thrust momentum, hurled itself beyond the suspended arm. I released the spell then, only to hear something crack in his shoulder. Then I turned to face Franz who was one step away from me. He swung his sword toward my chest, and I jumped backward to avoid it.

He followed the swing with a thrust. When the latter missed, he followed it with a well-timed uppercut with his left hand. I have to admit, I did not see that one coming. I toppled backwards as the world spun around me. It felt as though I was trying to keep my balance on an uneven ground.

Franz didn't give me time to catch my breath though. He followed his surprise uppercut with a kick at the nape of my knees. It was enough to get me to the ground and knock the wind out of me. I quickly recovered then tried to crawl away from his reach. I was still dizzy, but I managed to avoid his follow up kick. I saw him and Adwerald advancing toward me, looking smug and triumphant.

Adwerald aimed his sword toward me. "One false move and I gouge out the other eye," he said. "I know grandfather would be p.i.s.sed if I killed you, but there are worse things than death, believe me little brother."

Adwerald had always been kind of a bully to me. I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but I couldn't make my move just yet. Things had changed the moment my big brother showed up. Perhaps grandpa had really prepared against everything, but I had one last trick up my sleeve. It was a backup plan Eva helped me come up with.

I immediately surrounded myself with an area of effect to slow time and rolled backwards. Adwerald and Franz didn't follow me this time around.

"You can't always fool us with your powers, little brother," Adwerald said. "We can't get close to you, but we can still surprise you."

"Be my guest," I said, grinning.

Another thing about Adwerald, he always tended to overestimate himself. I could feel my brother's essence with my senses. He had ample reserves, but he was nothing compared to Wanda, or Raiya for that matter. No matter what type of spells he knew, I was ready to face them. Besides, I knew how to anger him. That would ultimately lead him to make a big mistake.

I didn't have time to think up a plan though. Franz reached for his belt. He took something out then flung his hand toward me with astounding speed. I immediately created an area of effect around me. – It had become my new s.h.i.+eld. – A few paces away, I could clearly see the throwing knife he sent my way. That second of inattention, however, made me lose sight of my brother.

Then I felt something sc.r.a.pe against my left knee; Thank my stars for the time s.h.i.+eld. I reached for whatever had sc.r.a.ped my knee, avoiding the knife in the process. When I put my hand on the thing, I realized it was some kind of orb.

'It's a Crux!' Eva immediately warned me.

'What's that?' I asked.

'It's a technology we were developing back when I was empress,' she said. 'They're orbs which we can infuse with spells. It was unstable at my time, so we never went past the experimental phases.'

"What would happen if you deactivated that powers of yours brother?" Adwerald said. "I'm sure that whatever you do is holding that sphere's spell from activating." He had just appeared out of my left flank, my blind side.

Both Franz and Adwerald started backing away.

'It will explode,' Eva said. 'Even if you throw it out now, the moment it leaves the area of effect, the explosion radius would affect you.'

'Adwerald can't kill me,' I said. 'This means that this thing is meant to capture me or incapacitate me.'

My brother wasn't the brightest of minds. He shouldn't have thrown this thing at me without knowing the full extent of my powers. I willed the time s.h.i.+eld to shrink and then surrounded the crux with it. The spell was still trapped. So I hurled it at my brother.

I saw him dash forward, past the crux. Then I willed the time s.h.i.+eld to deactivate. The crux shone bright for a second. Then the sphere broke. My brother kept das.h.i.+ng toward me, while the sphere's content, a purple oozy liquid, splashed on the ground.

Adwerald directed his sword toward my knee and his sword connected. At first I didn't feel anything. So I punched my brother in the face so hard I sent him tumbling aside. That alone filled me with enough adrenaline to ignore the recent injury I'd just sustained.

Franz arrived next. He thought he could surprise me from my left flank as my brother did. He found a sword's vertical cut awaiting him instead. He tried to block it with his iron bracers. In case you've forgotten, Nag had gifted me this sword. Nag's family heirloom, could cut through steel, let alone iron. So Franz's piercing screams joined the crackling of fire that devoured Bodrick's house that night as his sword arm fell to the ground.

I turned to him, and just as I was about to thrust my sword into his throat, I felt a piercing sensation in my knee. I guess moving around had done it for me. It began with a light spasm in my knee region. I looked down to inspect what had caused it. Then I saw Adwerald's sword, still lodged deep within my thigh, slightly above the knee.

The upper half of my leg had followed my body, while the lower remained in its previous position. Needless to say, the gross sight of my knee, bending to an unnatural angle, made me panic. Then pain came like flood water bursting through a used dam. Before I could scream though, I saw Adwerald approach me.

He kicked my injured knee then his sword came out with a pop. A loud snap followed, and I felt my bones detach. Then more pain ensued. I fell on my back. At that moment, I couldn't feel anything but the searing sensation in my knee. It felt like somebody had ripped the lower part of my leg off, then put a hot knife against the wound.

So much pain had flooded my entire being that I thought I'd pa.s.s out at any moment. With all my remaining willpower, I begged my Fragment to rewind time. I had to get back to the moment before Adwerald fooled me with that sphere.

Alas, my body wouldn't respond at that moment. Adwerald stood above me while Franz held his limp arm and whimpered like an injured dog. I was no better. I tried to look calm. While in truth, I was breathing in and out at rapid intervals. It felt like I couldn't even breathe properly. Not to mention my inability to concentrate long enough to cast a spell that would get me out of this situation.

"It looks like this is your last stop, little brother," Adwerald said, grinning. "Grandpa will be so glad we got you before time."

Then he stomped on my injured leg. Just when I thought that my situation couldn't get any worse, I felt his boots crush my dangling knee. I felt him twisting his foot and I lost it. I screamed so loud I couldn't hear my brother's taunts. I screamed and screamed until my voice broke and my throat hurt.

"Why aren't you screaming louder?" Adwer asked. He stomped on my leg one more time. I screamed once more until I felt that my throat was about to bleed.

"Grandpa won't mind if you've lost a leg," he went on, smirking. "After all, he has no plans for you, other than punis.h.i.+ng you for what you've done to our family of course."

Just when I thought that I couldn't take any more of this. I heard Raiya's voice echo in my mind.

'We got him!' she said. 'Just hold on a little while longer. I'm coming for you.'

I was in no shape to argue. I couldn't even speak let alone hold a psionic conversation. Instead, I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline seep through my veins. My backup plan had worked. I managed to keep these two occupied long enough for Raiya to rescue Beatrix then help capture Bodrick.

The rush of adrenaline didn't result in a miracle come back from my end though. Instead, I felt some form of euphoria creep up on me. I was so sudden, so unexpected, but I felt an urgent need to laugh. So I threw my head backwards and roared in laughter. My throat hurt, but I didn't care. I managed to thwart my grandfather's plan.