"You really think I'm gonna die?" Tempest asked, crossing her arms.

The man in front of her shrugged, "Yes. It doesn't matter what you tell yourself, you're still going to die here."

"Good luck with that."

The man grinned, which looked odd on his pale, misshapen face. "I should say the same to you."

Tempest watched as the room slowly grew dark, as if ink was running down the walls and covering the floor. The throne behind the Lord of the Night became eerily white, as if the darkness had bleached it, along with the man upon it. In the dark, his pale skin was almost the color of freshly fallen snow, and his white hair almost seemed blinding.

"You know," the man started as the last of the color in the room faded to black, "At first I was afraid that you really could beat me. " He laughed slightly, grinning at Tempest like a hunter looks at an oblivious stag, "But after your incident with that freak of an elf, I saw that you were just like everyone else."

"Val? She isn't as freaky as you can be. Like, trying to suffocate me to death with shadows, or whatever you did there, that's creepy. She's just an elf who's afraid of her ability. I can relate to her. And as for me being 'different'," Tempest shrugged, "I've never been extremely fond of standing out. But I'm even less fond of you." She tensed and stood as still as she could, watching every move the man made, "I think death is ready for both of us."

"Let's just see who he likes more." the man before her agreed, and he snapped his fingers. Immediately, the dark figure who always attacked Tempest in her dreams formed out of the shadows. "You beat this guy, you can kill me. He beats you, well, I'm sure you know what'll happen."

Tempest swallowed the lump rising in her throat and tried to stay calm. Don't worry. She thought, this'll be just like when you fought him in your dreams. Except that, whoever is killed will be actually dead. For good. The small voice in her mind countered.

She didn't have time to tell the voice off, however, as the dark figure stalked towards her. Quickly, she grabbed a knife out of a pocket in her tunic. After the incident with the Chimera, Tempest never wanted to use it to kill a monster, and instead tried to run from the fights, or stun them, just not kill them the same way the Chimera had died. But the monster in front of her... she wasn't afraid to kill him.

Holding tightly onto the handle, she swung the knife at the arm of the dark figure coming towards her. It went straight through it, cutting the shadows in half. She smiled proudly for a moment before watching in shock as the shadows mended themself together. "Are you kidding me?!?" She yelled at the man sitting on the starch white chair, "You're cheating!"

He shrugged, "Did you ever say they have to be able to be killed?"

"You said that!"

"No, I said that whoever wins the fight doesn't die. When did we come to the conclusion that this was a fight to the death?"

"Um, maybe when you said, 'I'm sure you'll know what'll happen if he beats you'." She pointed out as she dodged a clumsy swing by the figure, "I mean, kinda self explanatory."

The man grinned, "Well, would you like it to be a fight to the death?"

He's distracting me, she thought as her knife went through the figure's leg, Just ignore him.

The fight went like that for a while, Tempest cutting straight through shadow, her attacker throwing easy to dodge attacks, and the Lord of the Night yelling random comments from his throne in a vain attempt to distract her. After a while - when Tempest attempted to slice through the figure's neck for the fourth time, to no avail - the Lord of the Night fake yawned.

"I was hoping this would turn out better." He sighed.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have made your soldier so slow." Tempest told him, "Or maybe made him less out of shadow and more of flesh and bone."

The man grinned, "That would be something, wouldn't it? He could die, but he'd also be hard to dodge. Maybe I'll do that next time."

"So, is this a draw?" Tempest asked as the man waved his shadow soldier away from her. This can't be a draw. There must be some kind of catch. He doesn't give up that easily.

As she suspected, the Lord of the Night just laughed, "A draw? Why would you think that?" He waved a hand in the air until it was surrounded by shadows. Tempest took a few steps backward as she realized what he was doing.

"You said the fight was between me and your soldier!" She protested as he pulled the shadows into what looked like a spear. The shadows slowly dripped onto the dark floor and combined with the shadows below their feet.

He shrugged, "Who plays fair anymore?" He grinned and threw the spear at her. It moved slowly, and she stepped away from it easily. She almost laughed before the shocking chill of another one burst in her arm. Staring at her arm, she watched it basically melt into her arm, right where the Neverseen symbol had been drawn into her arm. Tempest turned her gaze to the man who now stood in front of his throne, grinning like a psychopath.

"How does it feel?" He asked, "Usually the people I use the shadows on die before they can tell me."

Tempest could see why. The shadows felt like touching dry ice, except, instead of automatically giving you frostbite, it spread slowly, keeping you from feeling anything it touched. Fighting off the chill, she stumbled towards the man. When she was right in front of him, she grinned. "What do you think death by electrocution feels like?" She asked, "Usually my victims die before they can tell me."

Before the man could say anything, Tempest pressed her hand against his shoulder and summoned as much electricity as she could. A lightning bolt shot down from the black ceiling and hit the man. The lightning touched her as well, but she didn't mind it nearly as much as the man did, as his knees gave out and he collapsed on the floor. "Next time think about your actions before going through with them." she told him, and he stared at her for a moment before she summoned another bolt and he stopped moving.

As the shadows in the room started fading, the adrenaline faded and she collapsed on the floor. The cold was spreading faster, and now she was too tired to fight against it. At least I completed my part of the prophecy. She thought as her vision went black, I don't really need to worry anymore. And she fell into the darkness.

Hey guys! Sorry about not updating yesterday, it was my great grandpa's 87th birthday, and he's been having some health problems so we decided to visit him, in case it was the last time we saw him. But, I've already started the next chapter, so I'll try to publish it later. If I don't, I'll probably post it tomorrow, since my cross country season is over and I have some time before basketball starts. So, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see y'all later! Bye!