A mighty tremor forms great fissures along the ceiling and walls. Olere and I narrowly made it to the steps prior to the ceiling collapsing. Gusts of dirt fill my lungs and blurs my vision. We hurry to reach safety, barely escaping the crumbling of the stairs. The ground continues shaking. I grasp Olere's arm to prevent him from stumbling. He leans his weight against me, coughing violently. I almost don't hear someone approaching us. Their steps quicken, hidden behind the cloud of dirt. Clutching Olere's sword, I wield the blade in time to defend against Holland's hammer. The metal rings out louder than a train bell.

As the dust settles, Holland's wicked grin comes into view. His dark green eye peers at me, the other a milky white and long since lost its ability to see, and yet I feel as if that is the eye peering through me. Olere did manage to get a few good hits in. Gauze peeks out of the top of Holland's shirt, informing me that there's a chest injury of some kind. He battles with his right hand rather than his left; the left has swelled, bruised and was probably much worse prior to a healing session. He appears to be favoring his right leg as well, but that doesn't mean this will be any easier.

"Seren," Holland says, his voice a guttural growl. "I've heard that you left the church. It's a shame that you've taken one as great as Olere down with you too."

"We've chosen to see the truth, Holland. You would be smart to do the same," I reply.

He scowls, deepening the long scars across his face. "As warped as you have become, I am glad to say that I can at least let you die together."

Holland slams his full weight forward. My heels dig into the dirt. He shoves me aside anyway. I stumble. My sword swings up to catch the handle of the hammer before it smashes Olere's chest. Olere swings the dagger I gave him. Holland retreats, slamming his hammer against the ground. That's what causes the earth to shake again, trembling as if a meteor hit. The surface shatters. My hand slips off Olere and his off of me. Broken pieces of earth trip me until I stumble through the debris and fog.

"Damn it," I hiss, having lost sight of Olere.

Holland managed to separate us in an instant, completely altering the battlefield with a swing of his hammer. This is exactly why I didn't want to run into him. I couldn't take him on my own, especially not now with Olere's injuries. Though I've yet to see anyone with Holland, there's a chance he hurried ahead and a small militia isn't far behind. My priority is to find Olere as soon as possible and run.

Casting aside the debris, I search through the rubble while keeping my head low. Holland could be anywhere. The moment I call out, he'll be on me, but that's when Olere's anguished cry echoes around me.

I skid around an upturned boulder to find Olere shielding himself from Holland's relentless strikes. When the shield doesn't break, Holland launches himself into the air. I conjure a wave of fire. The flames dance over Holland's shield, glimmering gold. Olere narrowly has time to evade. Holland's hammer strikes the ground so hard that the earth shatters again. The blowback sends Olere tumbling. My heels dig into the ground, keeping me relatively stable.

Holland rushes towards Olere. I throw my full weight at Holland before he gets any further. Our bodies collide in a mess of curses and spells. His fist meets my cheek, cold as ice. The cold slithers up to my eye, blurring my sight. I grab his wrist, burning the skin to burst with blisters. Holland swings his hammer at my head. I release him, swinging my sword to meet the strike. The shrill ring of metal makes me flinch.

Holland doesn't hesitate, beating against the sword over and over. Every hit makes my very bones sing. The pure power reminds me why Holland is number one, why I'm terrified of him, and why I can't let him get his hands on Olere. He doesn't stand a chance like this, but it seems neither do I. The sword shatters. Holland's hammer hits my chest so hard that my ribs crack. The breath is knocked from my lungs. My eyes water. I can't even scream. He sends me soaring through the air, plummeting to the ground where I heave desperate breaths. I can't breathe for a long moment, then the air rushes in and it feels like too much. I cough and hack and grasp at the ground, desperate to steady myself.

"If you tell me where the documents are, the Prophet may let you live, Olere," Holland says. He looms over Olere, wielding his hammer to strike him down.

"We both know that she won't, that you won't," Olere replies, kneeling and breathless.

Holland smirks. The air has grown stale, as if this side of the world has never felt a breeze. Time moves in slow motion. Holland's knuckles whiten against the handle of his hammer that glows brilliant gold.

"Stop," I groan, remembering feeling this powerless when my mother died. I couldn't do anything then and I can't do anything now. My body won't move no matter how much I plead. "Don't. Leave Olere alone."

My pleas fall upon deaf ears. Olere closes his eyes. Holland brings the hammer down... and I catch the block in my trembling fists. Holland and Olere stare in shock and disbelief. Groaning, Holland tries to rip the hammer from me but my fingers pierce the metal as if it were soft as butter. I don't know how. I couldn't move a second ago. Now there's so much power that it sings like a soft song, massaging my aching muscles and broken bones.

I rip the hammer from Holland's grasp and slam the handle into his gut. He buckles over, heaving. The ground shakes when I bring the hammer down, narrowly missing busting Holland's kneecaps. He curses, continuously stumbling over his own feet. For the briefest moment, fear rests in his eyes prior to the hammer shattering his jaw. He's sent into the air, rolling through the debris.

"Over here!" someone shouts, likely reinforcements.

"Seren." Olere grabs my shoulder, expression still shocked. "We have to go. Come on."

"Right." I drop the hammer. It's too noticeable a weapon to lug around. We break into a run, moving through the trees towards town.

"We'll steal a car," I say, making Olere groan, though that may be due to the pain. "We have to. We'll switch it out a few towns over. We can't risk taking a train."

"Back there," Olere says, stumbling forward. I take hold of the back of his shirt, tugging him onto his feet. "Back there, Seren, your divinity."

"I don't know what happened either. I just felt better."

"Yes, the color of your divinity, it was gold and silver."

I laugh off his words. "We almost died, Olere. You were seeing things."

We've made it to town, but Olere stops us from going further. He holds tight to my arm, speaking sternly, "I was not seeing things. Holland was surprised too, didn't you notice?"

"Because he knew he broke my ribs."

"Yes and they healed because of that divinity. Seren, only the Prophet uses gold and silver."

"It was a trick of the light then," I say, pushing Olere's hand aside, and those ridiculous claims. I don't have the power of a Prophet. I never made it to the level of a champion. "We need to find a car. Now."

Scowling, Olere waits in an alley while I search the street for something inconspicuous. Sucks for the owner of the car, but we need to get out of here as fast as possible. It takes all of a second to steal the vehicle, peeling up next to Olere. He stumbles in, breathing heavily and bleeding. Either Holland hit him while we were separated or he got injured during the eruption. Olere offers me a lopsided smile, claiming that he'll be alright. I floor it out of town, taking back roads and keeping my eye on the world around us.

"Maybe we shouldn't return to the estate," I say. "Holland may follow us."

"Or he'll go there expecting to see us and when we aren't there, Lore will suffer the consequences," Olere whispers, making me hold painfully tight to the steering wheel. I can't risk going there and I can't risk staying away. We have to accept that, no matter what route we take, there's danger ahead and I rather face that danger by Lore's side.

We grab a different car in another town in hopes to keep Holland off our scent long enough to escape. Almost a day of traveling and two stops to tend to Olere's wounds and we finally make it to Seymour Manor. Olere senses the same thing I do; spells upon spells that prevent us from breaking the treeline, let alone seeing the estate.

"I had no idea the boy Lore fostered was capable of all this," Olere says, limping out of the vehicle.

He rests a hand against an invisible shield that hums with soft blue light. I recognize the spell, a basic shield against an offensive assault. Though behind that shield, Olere and I make out multiple runes warning attacks of their own. I imagine even more are hidden. Cyan couldn't have done this on his own. Lore certainly helped, meaning he revealed what he's capable of to even more people.

Olere nods down the road at the vehicle heading our way, coming from the direction of the mansion. The car stops a few feet away. Draven steps out first, followed by Lore. I breathe a sigh of relief. He's healed, wearing a wrist brace that's likely more a precaution than anything else.

"If you were gone a day longer, I was going to search for you myself," Lore says, approaching the shield.

"Why? Did you miss me that much?" I ask, smiling at his eye roll.

"I was worried." He glances at Olere, hesitating to raise his hand to open the shield. Olere gapes, as do I. Even now, I hadn't expected Lore to show Olere that he could use magic, though I'm glad. In a weird way. Wish it was under better circumstances though.

Lore reaches for me, pulling me in for a kiss that I eagerly lean into. "Though I also missed you," he whispers against my lips, breathing in my presence as I do him.

"I missed you too."

Olere steps through the shield that reappears behind him. He casts Lore a confused stare that has him barely explaining, "Yes, I'm capable of using magic. You're more than welcome to say how impressed you are."

"Let's keep the teasing to a minimum. We have important news to discuss and Olere needs to rest," I say, holding tight to Lore's shoulder. "Holland came after us and we worry he'll come here next."

- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -

Olere and Seren managed to escape Holland, but was Olere seeing things? Seren seems to have used more powerful magic. And Lore has revealed that he can use magic to Olere. Quite a lot going on and things are winding up, oh boy lol