A/N: As usual, I would recommend to put the video on loop.

Running forward, Lucian was about to open a door on the left side of the throne room before you stopped him. Pulling on his black coat, you halted his movement.

"Lucian before we go anywhere, I want you to give me a weapon. I know that you might be against the idea, but I'm merely a burden to you at the moment. If I can defend myself then that burden will be lessened."

"I don't find you to be a burden at all, ____, but do you not trust me to protect you?"

"No, I don't trust you at this moment but let me explain. Right now, I can tell that you're exhausted, and you need to conserve your magic to take out the council members. If you give me a weapon, then you can conserve your energy more. Otherwise, I'll just grab a sword from one of the suits of armor in these halls, which will be most ineffective against a mage."

He looked over at you before sighing and combing his left fingers through his hair. You could tell that he was slightly insulted by your comment, but you knew that he could see the rationality in it; it was just his pride that got in the way. Keeping your hardened gaze on him, you waited for his answer. Glancing away from you, he reluctantly pulled out a flame sword and handed it to you. Such a sword consumed magic to make, but once made it would not take away anymore magic to keep it present. Giving Lucian a small smile and a 'thank you', the two of you headed out of the throne room. Once in the halls Lucian ran his left fingers over one of the nearby walls, causing you to watch with confusion.

"Lucian what are you doing?" you questioned, walking up to him.

"I'm locating the places where the barrier is strongest. Those are the places where the mages are. Surely it wouldn't be wise to run around this castle and hope that we find one before we get ambushed."

"Yes, that would be foolish," you muttered, feeling ridiculous for originally thinking that was the plan.

Another few seconds passed before Lucian exclaimed, "I found them. There are four in total. One is in the ballroom, another in the library, the third in the indoor gardens and the last in the hall of pictures. We'll go to the ballroom first".

In the next moment, Lucian linked his right arm with your left one and took you through another portal. Exiting, the two of you stood in front of the doors that were on the left side of the ballroom. Voices were heard on the other side, meaning that guards were stationed around the member holding up the barrier. Footsteps were approaching from the right of you and Lucian pushed you up against the doors while two male council members came into view. When they turned to guard the doors you were standing at, they were about to yell about your presence, but Lucian quickly maneuvered around them and slit their throats with daggers of ice. Their bodies dropped to the floor, as you two quietly opened the doors to the ballroom. Shutting the doors behind you, you saw Lady Luciel holding up the barrier while one female and one male member stood guarding her.

Looking over her right shoulder, Lady Luciel merely scoffed before her lips curved into a thin-lipped smile. Her brown eyes examined your sword before a laugh escaped her lips. A black dress with gold and red details covered her person while golden head jewelry dangled above her eyes.

"Ah, so you two have made your appearance, how wonderful. I've always wanted to rip out your heart Lucian. Hmm, though I won't kill your little pet. Instead I'll let her suffer in the labs," the woman mused, chuckling to herself.

Before she could continue Lucian already crossed the distance between himself and the female member, stabbing an ice spear through her. He wasn't going to waste any time in conversing with them, he was more concerned with just getting you out of the castle alive. The instance she fell to the ground dead, a silence passed over the ballroom before Lady Luciel sent a vine of thorns towards Lucian. As for the male council member, he threw a bolt of lightning at you, which you dodged rolled. You had to roll again, as he sent another in your direction. Getting to your feet, you watched as he threw another, causing you to jump to your right side. After the lightning struck, you ran forward when he sent a wall of fire towards you. Throwing yourself to the floor, you felt the flames race over your head before vanishing. Returning to your feet once more, you were a few feet from the man and you slashed your sword in a diagonal pattern, hoping to hit him. He blocked with a sword of flame as well, creating clashes of fire against fire.

Across from you, Lucian and Lady Luciel were clashing the elements of flame and earth together. Vines would spring from her hands while flame formed into daggers and flew. Buds of poisonous flowers were cut short in life as fire consumed their weak lives. Lady Luciel tried to overcome Lucian, but she found that she could not. Cursing she turned for a moment to see you fighting the other council member. Your swords were still clashing and when the man went to send a bolt of lightning through your body, you found his mid-section vulnerable and plunged your sword into the area. The man fell to the ground while a pool of blood formed around him, as some splashed against your dress. Seeing this as her chance, she sent some of her vines towards you. Out of the corner of your eyes, you saw green plants hurdling towards you and in your effort to protect yourself you held your sword up in defense. As if she had forgotten that your weapon was of flame as well, the vines wrapped around the sword only to descend to the floor in ashes.

Huffing from exhaustion, you saw a look of horror cross Lady Luciel's face as she realized she had no chance in winning, for her talents were in the element of earth and even then the focus was on plants not on rocks. She turned to look at Lucian before falling to the floor and begging for her life. Lucian's eyes held no mercy and you knew that she would try to kill Lucian if she received another chance to do so. Glancing away, you heard the ice spear plunge into her heart before she descended to the ground dead. The once beautiful ballroom that you danced upon was now stained with blood, but a dark past always covered these halls. It was just now made evident. A burst of light went throughout the room, signaling that the barrier had been weakened, only three more rooms to go. Grabbing your left hand with his right, you both went through a portal and ended up before two large bronze doors with silver handles that had golden flower designs going through them. Before the doors stood a male council member and one of the children, who was female.

Since you had appeared right next to the female, you quickly plunged your sword through her chest before she could act, for now was not the time for mercy. It was either your life or hers. Personally, you would have it another way, but in this situation such an ideal outcome was not possible. Her body turned to ashes, as the flames disappeared. Lucian on the other hand was still fighting with the male member, whose eyes danced with fury once he saw the girl die. There was no doubt that you had just killed his daughter. In rage he turned to fight you, but this was his mistake, as Lucian took the opportunity to send ice shards at the unsuspecting man. In the next second he lost the life in his eyes, as the ice melted in his body. You went to open the doors, but Lucian stopped you and shook his head. Waving his hand over the door, a light color of green made itself apparent.

"Someone has placed a stone barrier over this door. If you were to touch it, you would turn into a stone statue, though that means that we have another guest," Lucian stated just before footsteps could be heard behind you.

Rock shards flew towards you and Lucian, who quickly wrapped his arms around you and pushed you to the ground. They impacted the doors, sending the now broken shards to the floor. Lucian gave you a reassuring smile before pulling you up with him. One of the male children came closer towards the two of you, throwing more rocks in rapid succession. Walls of vines blocked the rocks before they shot out and targeted the young adult unexpectedly. They wrapped around him before the thorns stabbed into his skin and several pierced his heart, leaving the male lifeless. With him dead, the shield became nonexistent, allowing you two into the library.

Rows of bookshelves, which had silver vines going through them, went across the massive room while chandeliers of silver hung up above. Paned windows lined the left wall, allowing light into the space. A sitting area lay up ahead. Red armchairs and gold sofas rested on a red carpet, which had a golden trim. In the far right corner of the room a grandfather clock ticked away, as the pendulum swung back and forth. Standing in the middle of the sitting area was another female council member, who had no guards. She turned towards you two, as her short pink hair went just above her shoulders while her brown eyes scanned the both of you. A white dress with pink rosettes covered her while pink ballet shoes went over her feet.

"You know; I didn't want Rezin to die. He wouldn't have, if you two didn't announce that you were going to overthrow the council. The two of you ruined everything. When Rayna was together with Rezin, I was so jealous, but then he came to me and I was so happy to offer him assistance. Why did you two ruin everything?" the girl rambled on, covering her face with her hands.

Her painted electric blue nails held tiny blue flames at the tips of them as her eyes filled with hatred. "How dare you insult Cadence Garena! I'll burn you both to cinders and laugh as I watched you scream."

Holding up your sword in defense, you prepared yourself while Lucian summoned his own flames. He motioned for you to stand back and before you could protest, he entered battle with her. Flames danced with flames, but somehow none of them managed to scorch the bookshelves. Instead the flames flew around them, though you could feel the heat from the flames quite easily, yet the sword in your hand felt cold to the touch, which you were thankful for. Watching the battle, you saw both fighters fly in opposite directions, as Cadence flew at a bookshelf and Lucian hit a wall by one of the windows. Quickly, they got back up and attacked each other once more. Lucian dodged another burst of blue flames, but got his foot caught on the rug, sending him to collide with the carpet. This allowed Cadence time to run towards him, as she raised a flame sword of her own over Lucian. Having no time to run over and stop her, you grabbed the closest thing to you, which of course was a book, and threw it in her direction. You managed to hit her square in the head, causing her to stop and look over at you. Providing the needed distraction, Lucian regained his composure and sent a flame dagger into her chest. She howled in pain before her ashes fell upon one of the golden sofas.

Now next to Lucian, you helped him up, but you noticed how tired he looked. It was understandable considering the amount of mages he took out in the past forty-five minutes. Assuring him that you two could rest for just a few minutes, you got him to sit in one of the armchairs. There were just two rooms left and then you could break free from the castle, though it seemed that you two couldn't avoid most of the council members after all and in the end it appeared that you would have to fight them without the aid of the mages outside the castle.