"Come on, come on–" Working as fast as he could, Belen was preparing to cast the spell. Glyphs began to shimmer around him as he kept tabs on the other two. A few more seconds, and he'd have to give the knight a heads up. Once it went off, anything that didn't take cover would get a face full of arcane artillery. Collateral damage came with the package, but as long as it didn't include them he had no problems with it. Sending a strong telepathic message to Sir Bart and his brother, Belen's mental voice was broadcast at full volume. 'Take cover, quick! On the count of three, we're gonna make it rain! Three, two, one…' Aloud on his end, the boy yelled: "Bombs away!" The glyphs flared, and high-pitched whistling sounds began overlapping as a shower of meteorites began descending from the heavens. A massive release of magical energy was sent through the immediate area as burning chunks pummeled the Gashadokuro and everything in its vicinity. 

Belen himself ducked into a building that was still standing, holding his breath while watching devastation rain down from on high. He wasn't going to be able do another one of these again at least until tomorrow. The meteor shower mowed down any undead still under the Gashadokuro's call and left the ground pockmarked like a slice of Swiss cheese. It'd take hundreds of catapults to reproduce the same effect. Like some sort of karmic retribution, this time it was the big skeleton getting hit by flying debris instead of the other way around. The onslaught lasted for a few minutes, plenty of time for something this destructive. Despite the undead colossus' resilience, the enchanted meteors delivered a severe blow to the unholy energies it was made from with sheer brute force.

It was still intact, but the terrible ringing that everybody was suffering from since their arrival was starting to fade. Looks like his brother might've been right after all. Staying where he was, he telepathically messaged the others to check on their status. 'You guys alright? If you can hear me, say yes!' His brother responded back, congratulating him on a direct hit. That was a relief, now he had to hear from Mister Moustache-man and they'd be all set.

With a mighty holy blow, Sir Isaac slices through the inner ankle-foot tendon of the Gashadokuro. It screams in pain and anger, but doesn't fall. It no longer had the means of staying upright if enough force were to push it to the right, but it could still stand. Sir Isaac looks at the behemoth, still trying to grab the brother that was inside of his chest while also preparing to smite at Sir Isaac with his mighty bone club. It was not succeeding in either, but in between the boy's limited maneuvrability up there and Sir Julian getting tired, neither would last forever.

"Take cover, quick!" A mental message suddenly reaches Sir Isaac, counting down. On the one, red lights appeared in the sky and fell down towards them at a rapid pace. A magical meteor shower, one of the most powerful and destructive spells known to man.

"Are they mad? One of them is still inside the Gashadokuro! He's sure to be struck by that destruction, and if it's strong enough to harm this thing it will completely vapourise the boy! He has no chance of getting out of the blast zone either. What were they thinking?"

Sir Isaac turns Sir Julian around and rushes back towards the Gashadokuro, who still looks at him with murderous intend without any concern for the meteors above. It raised its club for another strike, and Sir Isaac prepares for more light to blast this vile creature with. He knew he had to, it was the boy's only chance. There was only one place within the blast zone that might be safe from the meteors, and that was underneath the Gashadokuro. But in order to ensure that, the behemoth would have to shield the area with their body. In order to do that, the monster would have to kneel.

"On my mark, fire! Now!" Sir Isaac shouts. He sends a flare of light into the Gashadokuro's face, causing it to reel back again. As he does so, Sir Julian prepares another light lance and fires it. The lance flies forth and strikes the Gashadokuro in the knee, causing it to topple and fall sideways. With as much reflex as active thought as the creature had through, the Gashadokuro moves forwards and the other side to break their fall. If there was some force behind the push, it wouldn't have been able to do so.

But without that force, he could kneel. Only being able to set one foot forwards as he was falling, the Gashadokuro falls into the position of a kneeling knight and breaks his complete fall into a prone position. And by kneeling, he creating a safe zone just underneath his ribcage. Sir Julian quickly rushes for it and their only chance of safety left, while Sir Isaac looks upwards. "Drop down, boy! Jump to safety!"

Sir Julian rears to a halt and whinnies nervously as they reach the centre of the hopefully safe area, and Sir Isaac looks up at the Gashadokuro with even more nervosity. If it would get up too quickly, they were done for. And if it would grab at them while they were stuck here, then they'd be squashed or squeezed out before the meteors would do their thing. And all the while, Sir Isaac couldn't lay eyes on the boy.

"Gracious gods in the heavens above, wise and kind as we mortals shall never be. Grant us protection, that only evil shall be smitten by this unaligned destruction while the good will remain unscathed. Give us mercy, that the souls of the young ones won't join you before it's their time. Bestow your kindness, for-"

Sir Isaac's prayer is interrupted as the first of the meteors strikes, turning the world into pandemonium.

"It's working!" He exclaimed. Clearly unconcerned about his own physical well-being, Cyril looked up to see a fleet of shooting stars heading down to earth. Belen had pulled through, and this would help give them an edge for now. Until daybreak, the Gashadokuro would still linger, depending on how strong the malice allowing it to manifest was. Being inside the skeletal monster itself, when the meteors made impact he was confident that he wouldn't be hit. To his surprise, Sir Bartholomew and his unicorn came dashing in, barely escaping the first impact. "Drop down, boy! Jump to safety!" He shouted. Cyril did so, and fell stomach down from where he had been chipping away at the spine. "Did Bel tell you to take cover?" He didn't expect the knight to be so close.

Right away the knight began praying to any higher being with benevolence in its conscience. "I think we're going to be ok!" Cyril shouted over the crashing meteors pounding the ground around them. "There's no where for it to run away from the meteors, and it's not getting past its bones!" After the longest few minutes, the aerial assault ceased. The overwhelming malice of the Gashadokuro was weakened, as the ringing was fading noticeably. However, now would be a good time to get out of its grasping range. The malignant force was still strong enough to keep the apparition corporeal, and resurrecting in the same place after being crushed was not ideal. "We can try to deal more damage to its limbs now–I'll climb back into its ribs." He said, planning to resume his efforts at weakening the Gashadokuro's spine. If Sir Bartholomew had any objections, they'd likely stop him before he was on his way to scale its femur again.

The meteors struck, exploding in big balls of fire that sent forth shockwaves that would knock the air out of the lungs of anyone nearby and render them unconscious from the mere shock through their body. It didn't seem like any of the meteors made it into the ribcage to ricochet around there and turn the whole area into a certain death, as was the worst-case scenario that Sir Isaac had foreseen happen to the kid. But with all the near-impact destruction that these meteors caused, such a maxxed out devastation wasn't necessary to get someone killed.

Speaking of the kid, Sir Isaac sees a head of white hair fall down. With a featherfall spell [safe passage], Sir Isaac breaks the boy's fall and prevents him from dying from sheer falling damage. The boy doesn't seem too concerned about it, being just as unaffected by it as the whole being vaporised by meteors while standing on a giant skeleton thing. Instead he just calmly asked Sir Isaac if he had received the message to take cover. Then another meteor strikes, and another.

The meteors strike the Gashadokuro again and again, the wailing of the monster soon too incoherent and drowned out by the explosions to be heard. Large explosions of fire sprouted out from every hit, completely engulfing the bones around the impact zone and turning the skeleton into a large red midwinter tree.

"I think we're going to be ok!" The ever-optimistic bleached lad shouts over the explosions, while Sir Isaac was trying to block out the destruction around him with prayers. The chaos continued for what felt like hours, eventually being followed by a silent so absolute that it almost hurt the ears. Sir Isaac wasn't even sure whether the ringing that he was hearing was still the Gashadokuro, or hearing damage from the explosions. He'd find out the answer on that one in a few days.

The Gashadokuro seemed to be far from its prestine state too, its bones wriggling and screaming as the hold on the undead that they were comprised of was getting weaker. They were struggling to break free from their massive super-skeleton form, and some seemed to manage to do just that. Skeletons and zombies began to rain down upon them, once again with their prime directive of killing all living beings as their first priority.

"You guys alright? If you can hear me, say yes!" The brownheaded boy asks telepathically.

"Yes, we're fine. Don't worry, I've got your brother with me right here. I'll bring him back to-" Sir Isaac thinks, only to no longer find Cybil where he had last seen the kid.

"We can try to deal more damage to its limbs now- I'll climb back into its ribs." The bleached boy shouts, already running to the nearest skeleton foot to climb back up.

"From all the suicidal youth…" Sir Isaac whispers to himself, before steering Sir Julian to rush after the kid. Cutting Cyril off by stopping in front of him, Sir Isaac reaches out a hand to help the lad up his steed. "Are you daft, boy? Even if the wriggling mass of hands and faces doesn't concern you, the massive amount of malign miasma of escaping spirit energy seeping out of this thing should tell you why touching it would be a bad idea! We have to get out of here before the undead can swarm us and before the Gashadokuro regains enough control to attack!"

"Not to mention, there's no telling when one or more of the liches in there regains enough control and self-awareness to start controlling this thing. Or at least, part of it. We should retreat for now and plan how to use that against them, instead of being caught unaware by the possible fallout." Sir Isaac says, looking up at the massive frame above them. A zombie falls down just ten meters away, immediately tries to get back up to attack them, and flops down when its broken legs immediately give out on them. "The internal struggle will keep it occupied for a while, we should figure out a way to take it down more permanently while that happens. For all we know, physical destruction will just slow it down until it can reform its frame from new corpses."

Sir Isaac nods wisely at his own wisdom, which was definately based on fact and keen insight, and looks at the boy. "So, first things first. Get on, so we can get out of here!"

"What's taking them so long?" He muttered nervously. It had gone quiet after blasting the area with celestial projectiles. Sir Bart answered back saying they were fine, but he had no idea where the knight was. He should be at the Gashadokuro then, if Cyril was there. Knowing his twin, Cyril would probably try to sneak in a few more attacks during the meteor shower. One had to give him credit for his enthusiasm for getting something done. They should be fine, he could just contact his brother and see how they were doing. He was worrying too much, yeah. Meanwhile back at the blast zone, Cyril was fortunately stopped by the paladin. Had the older brother known his sibling was going to continue stabbing away at the monster in those circumstances, he'd be hopping. 

Cyril looked back at the Gashadokuro's spinal column, still thinking about going. But Sir Bartholomew was worried, and even though he thought he would be alright now wasn't the time to be selfish. It occurred to him that he hadn't communicated with his brother back after their successful assault. Reluctantly the silver-haired boy went up onto the unicorn to leave before they were unable to escape. Belen sat up when his brother replied back to his mental message. As he suspected, they both were at the Gashadokuro and were just leaving. The big lug wasn't dead, or more dead–but at least it would take some time for it to pull itself together. He'd give it five minutes, more or less. 'I'm in one of the buildings just out of the monster's immediate range. Direct the mustache-man this way so we can regroup.'  He told Cyril. Poking his head out, he checked that the coast was clear.

Climbing to the top, he waved his arms hoping they were close enough to spot him. This was a good vantage point to survey the situation. "Sheesh, how much damage can this guy take? He's still got all of his legs and arms!" Belen said to himself. "Can we really beat this thing?" Come to think of it, what happened to the rest of the people who left the ship to search the island? Sure they were far away, but he realized just how bad it would look if some of them kicked the bucket thanks to being a smidge too close to the site of bombardment. He totally forgot they weren't the only ones here with a pulse.

Sir Isaac steers Sir Julian according to Cyril's directions of where Belen was, letting the unicorn walk in a relaxed pace that wouldn't wear it out any further. Now that the battle was over and the adrenaline started to fade, they were both feeling the exhaustion of the battle. Sir Isaac soon saw the other boy, Belen, in a building up ahead. And it seemed like he had company. Perhaps one of the other groups, who had rallied with the boy and helped him during the spell? Yes, it was rather farfetched that a single boy of such a young age could've mustered the energy and expertise to cast such a powerful spell alone. It was a fortunate thing that their comrades had come to help them.

Sir Isaac looks back at the still kneeling frame of the Gashadokuro. It seemed to be in a serious state of repair and recovery. There were undead escaping it and liches trying to take over control, and the Gashadokuro was reabsorbing the undead and regaining control just as fast. The creature's automatic processes and instinctive reactions seemed to keep it in a constant circle of losing control and regaining it, with hundreds of those circles happening at the same time. At least for the time being. For all they knew, the Gashadokuro could be slowly falling apart, slowly rebuilding themselves, or remain stuck in this state until daybreak.

Well, it didn't matter. Sir Isaac and Sir Julian both needed a rest to recover their energy, and they'd have to figure out a new strategy to take this creature down more permanently. They'd discuss it with Belen and the others once they arrived at the house.

___

The acolyte swallows nervously and looks at the back of the brown-haired boy. The lad was very powerful, as the freaking meteor spell had already suggested. But he was still unaware of her presence, and probably worn out significantly from the powerful magic that he just casted. Her wrinkled fingers clamp around the sacrifical blade of her cult.

They had to kill him. If he was truly so powerful, he would make a very worthy lich or other kind of undead for their master. But it also meant that he was too powerful to take alive, as much as pre-death torture and corruption would increase his value. She had to kill him and trap his soul in the pommel of her blade, so that they could offer both his physical and spiritual remains to their dark master.

She looks around to the other cultists. They too have their blades out and ready, but look just as nervous as her. They weren't powerful necromancers, but doing things themselves instead of delegating the undead to do it was a new and unfamiliar thing. Even the non-magical cultists had chains and items that allowed them to use a couple of undead like vicious hounds or command a handful of skeletons. But with all the undead and even their dark master absorbed by the giant, they stood alone. They only had their basic necrotic magic tricks of life leeching touches and sickening blasts for the time being, and what necromancer really focussed on those?

But without any undead servants and cannonfodder, they had to. Only they of living remained to do the bidding of the master. And the master would reward them greatly for their loyalty in his darkest hours. Perhaps he'd even look at her with desire again, touch her again. He hadn't done that ever since her skin began to wrinkle, he hadn't even considered her anything more than another lacky after her beauty faded. But with the boy as a gift, perhaps…

___

The agent looks at the smoke that was still coming from the area of devastation. The giant skeleton monster was still taken out, and seemed to be slowly falling apart. This wouldn't do, his Lord had told him that the skeleton had to live. He had ensured that all the dead dissappeared for some reason, and there was no telling how fast they would return once he was dead. Psk, at this rate the undying might swarm the island again before the forces of Railoch could even reach shore.

"Alright men, we cannot undo what has already been done. But we can make sure that things don't get worse. We can make sure that those three don't do anything else we don't want to happen." He tells his fellow Railochian agents. "Don't worry, there's no way that our Lords can blame us for this, how were we supposed to know that those three could do something like this? And this might actually present an opportunity for… something. We can make this turn to our advantage somehow, as long as they don't deal a fatal strike to this thing."

Seriously though, what were the odds of those three fools doing something like this? The two boys were so young that he had disregarded them completely, and the knight was a buffoon of such proportions that he had considered the idiot as no threat at all. He had instead focussed on the group of agents from Komiteia, until their entire party had been squashed by a single strike from the Gashadokuro's club. 

The agent looks at the brown-headed boy, standing openly on top of the building on the other side of the street. He didn't seem to notice their presence at all, and was completely open to an arrow to the heart. He didn't seem to consider there to be any danger, just because there were no undead about. Good. That would make this easy.

The agent places an arrow on his bow and aims it, ready to kill the boy with a single arrow through his unarmoured chest. One kill closer to the baronhood that he was promised by his lord, once Tyr would be conquered and in need of new nobility to rule over it. Yes, he would get his comfortable life, no matter the costs. His party members watch breathlessly, longing for the same rewards. Well, their title would be lower than his, but that spoke for itself. He was the leader, after all.

___

Sir Isaac returns his gaze to Belen, confident that the Gashadokuro wasn't getting up and attacking them again. And as long as that monster didn't attack, they had nothing to worry about. This was a matter of life vs dead, and the living would surely all work together to see to the end of evil. Yes, times like these brought the living together and resolved all issues of the past. Sir Isaac smiles, having complete faith in humanity and the good of man.

They were almost back together again. The plan had gone well, and everybody was alright. Sir Bartholomew and his mount carried him to where they found his twin waiting. Bel waved, and he waved back when something hit his brother causing him to stagger. The smile faded from his face as Cyril's eyes went wide at the sight of something seeping through Belen's shirt. "…Bel? BEL!" Shouting, he threw himself off the unicorn's back and scrambled to his feet to dash at full speed. He kept screaming his brother's name, everything else becoming a blur. For someone normally so sedate, the speed at which he ran hinted that something was clearly wrong. His brother–something had hurt his brother!

Belen stumbled to duck down, cursing under his breath. It had been a dumb move, a real dumb move. He'd forgotten they weren't the only people here, but he couldn't be sure if the shot was from somebody with or without a pulse. His head was swimming as he was trying to slow his blood loss. Somebody had the nerve to shoot him, and in a bad place too. Applying a touch of ice in hopes of slowing the bleeding, he heard his brother yelling. Gods no, not like this. He couldn't die, not in front of his own little brother.

There was something that most people didn't know about them that only their parents knew. From appearances alone, everybody thought the older twin was the one they had to keep an eye on–the troublemaker, and more dangerous of the two. That was a partial lie. If there was one thing that Belen didn't want, it was to have anything make Cyril upset. Normally this wasn't a problem since his little brother was rarely bothered by anything. But when he did become upset… Sometimes the kindest people can become the most terrifying when it comes to the safety of their loved ones. Ironic as it was, Belen almost pitied whoever shot him. It was a good thing he never saw who did it, or else they'd soon face a taste of the Infernos in the mortal realm. When Cyril gave something his full attention, he never stopped until it was finished. Most thought Cyril took after their father due to his silver white hair; in reality he had a lot more of their mother in him out of the both of them. He hoped that he'd pull through this, and they'd both be able to go back like nothing happened. If Cyril when mad was awful, their mother was much, much worse.

Cyril didn't remember how he managed to get up the tower, or how much time had passed since he saw his brother take an arrow to the chest. Breathless and still panicking, he dropped beside his twin, who was lying against some cover holding the spot with a hand. The stain was bigger than the first time he saw it, the arrow still in. It was a good thing he didn't try to take it out, or he'd bleed out faster. "Sorry Cyril…I was being dumb. I forgot to check if there was anything hanging around. I didn't think they'd hit me. Maybe one of the skeletons had some arrows or something." Cyril was crying, choking on his words. "You're going to be ok Bel, it's going to be ok. I'll take the arrow out, so you're going to be fine…" His brother grabbed one of his hands and looked him in the eye. "Hey, hey. Calm down…I'm going to be ok just like you said. I'm not made of paper, so don't worry." 

"…Yeah." Cyril wiped his face, hurrying to take out a mask from his things. Lying his brother down, he placed the mask over Belen's face gently. His breathing slowed, all of his body's processes went to a standstill. He was in a suspended state and out of consciousness. Cyril didn't have anything to dull the pain, so this was all he could do. The last thing he did was to put a string of prayer beads around his brother's neck. With deep breaths, his fingers curled around the arrow shaft and closed his eyes before he pulled. The metallic smell of blood was in his nose, but he had stopped crying. With steady breaths, he used his magic on his brother's body. The wound began to close, sealing up and mending. Soon only the blood staining Bel's shirt was left. Washing his hands, he wiped his forehead. He took the mask off his brother's face and hugged him. "Let's not split up again…ok?"

Sir Isaac sees the boy take an arrow to the chest, and the bleached boy immediately jumps off to run to his brother. Sir Julian immediately understands the severity of the situation too, and rushes forward. Sir Isaac runs into the building after Cyril, while Sir Julian turns to chase after the people in the other building. Sir Isaac leaves him to it, instead prioritising Belen's life for now. He spots the people that he saw before, and upon closer inspection they seem more hostile and malignant than he first thought. Cultists? Problems for later.

Sir Isaac watches as the two brothers reunite. Belen still seemed to be conscious, until Cyril placed the mask over his face. Then the boy seemed to complete stop, both physically and mentally. Before Sir Isaac could step in, Cyril was already pulling out the arrow.

"Ah, uhum, well. Good field medic skills and items you have there, lad." Sir Isaac said. "I could've healed him too, if needed, and I do know resurrection if it needs to be used. As long as his soul can return to his body, all can be fixed. So unless Dalanesca or another powerful being who deals in souls has some personal claim on his', we have plenty of time to revive him if need be. You know, if the healing didn't work. And you seem to have done a good job in that regard, kid."

Sir Isaac looks down to the street, where Sir Julian was dragging a man towards them. The unicorn had the guy by the back of his collar, pulling him along with his teeth. He mentally messages to Sir Isaac that there were more men, but that they had fled the moment that he rushed in. But that was fine, they had one person to interrogate. Some lacky, but even a lacky knew some things.

Completely confident that Belen was all fine again, Sir Isaac walks downstairs to see what this guy knew and what his intentions were.

Stars above, he'd never do that again. When he was conscious again he wasn't feeling the stabbing pain of the arrow in his chest, but he still felt like it hurt. Cyril then hugged him and was starting to cry again. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Man am I lucky to have a brother like you." Another good thing was that he didn't get upset. Sniffing, he noticed the dark red stain on his shirt that was drying. "…Oh great. There goes another good shirt. Well, I guess I'll have to burn it and buy another one before we go back home. Better not risk trying to wash it–blood's one of the top three worst things to get out." He joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Thanks Mustache-man. I'll be counting on you if my brother isn't around." Belen said to Sir Bart.  He'd already started tacking nicknames to people, now that they'd gotten to know each other for a while.

While trying to assure his twin that yes, he was ok, he noticed the sound of a horse's trot. They peered over the side and saw the unicorn dragging some guy by its teeth like a dog hauling a sack. Squinting, he sure looked like the shifty type. He wondered if he was related to that arrow shot, but didn't say anything. Letting Cyril think it came from a skeleton was the best choice at the moment. He was being pretty considerate of the guy down there; think of it as treating him innocent before proven guilty. Yawning, he covered his mouth with a hand. Right, they woke up halfway through the night and started this whole fiasco. When daylight came, he'd take the time to pass out and catch up on his sleep. Maybe they could go back to the ship just for safety's sake.

The two brothers listened in on whatever the knight and what the unicorn dragged in had to say about the stuff that was going on here. The skies were slowly approaching daybreak, and with the morning's arrival the Gashadokuro's power would wane until the next night. "Hey Cyril, see that guy down there? Totally suspicious, am I right? Anybody who goes skulking around with a get-up like that can't be up to anything good."

"M-Mustache man?" Sir Isaac says, indignified. "Mister Belen, I'm a good sport when it comes to the youth referring to me, but I have to insist that you remember to use proper titles. I have been knighted, and are thus a Sir rather than a Mister. As such I should be referred to as Moustache Knight, not Moustache Man. It's basic etiquette, really. Moustache man just sounds like some commoner's name."

"That said, I think I shall go down to speak with that fine gentlemen there. Sir Julian can only speak to me after all, so he can't do it for us." Sir Isaac says, laughing as if he just told a good joke. "Don't you guys worry, we have nothing to worry about. Not even from the mighty Gashadokuro. For you see, the disbalance between our realm and that of the spirits seems to have been restored."

Sir Isaac takes hold of the holy symbol around his neck and holds it up. He had already felt it to some degree before, but as he communes with the gods he knew for sure. "Yes, it is as I've felt. The tears between our two realms have been mended by the gods. In case you don't know, we paladins can speak to the gods or hear their will. And they have called us to rally against these foul spirits. And all paladins were summoned to battle at the same time that these posters began to appear everywhere."

"I believe it was the Thundering Tempest specifically who called for me to come here. Oh, right. You lads might not know who I'm referring to." Sir Isaac says, realising how often people of their age could be unaware of the gods these days. "Shiloh Kyrie is a storm god; the Ruler of Onslaught and the Thundering Tempest, the Overseer of Luck and Misfortune. She is also one of the two gods who personally intervened to prevent this whole ordeal from escalating into a full-fledged apocalypse. She and Naota, the deity of light and dreams, have been preventing the veil between our two worlds from tearing completely and ending the difference between life and death. Or something like that. Anyway, she's quite an impressive goddess and a very gracious one. I'd be quite honoured if I'd ever meet her in person, as should you two lads. So if you two get those boons that she promised you, be sure to be respectful. The gods aren't to be spoken to in an informal way like you would with me." Sir Isaac looks at Belen as he says that last part.

"Anyway, I've been told that the barrier between our worlds has been restored. Gashadokuro and the other monster spirits can no longer enter our world at will, and will therefore remain banished once dealt with. I think that the Gashadokuro's miasma has also been slowly been draining back into the spirit world these last few minutes, quickly weakening it. All that remains is to put the monster down once and for all."

"Feel free to ask me if you'd like to know more about her or another god, I'm always happy to educate the new generation about our divine pantheon. Not to brag, but as a paladin I am the closest link to the gods around here. But for now I'll just go talk with the gentleman downstairs real quick, and I'll be back in a jiffy." Sir Isaac says, disappearing down the staircase. "Oh, and Cyril, be sure to keep a close eye on your brother. You wouldn't be the first nor the last to accidentally leave a splintered shard of arrowhead in the patient when removing the projectile and mending the flesh back together. Just keep an eye on his chest for any purple spots forming."

Sir Isaac leaves the boys to it and focusses on their captive. His gaze darkens and Sir Julian begins to drag the man back inside as Sir Isaac cracks his knuckles. Kids shouldn't see what comes next.