Julian stood there looking directly at Falco, he had an impatient look on his face and was tapping his finger on the hilt of his sword, “Are you gonna fight or not Falco?

  Their intruders into our territory, they tried to steal our crystal! Don't you want them dead? You know that going against the Knights of Flame for any reason results in an execution, right?”

  Falco looked at Julian with fear in his eyes and hesitantly said, “Y-y-yes sir. I do, but I-”

  “No excuses Falco. Are you trying to disobey my orders? Would you like to be treated how a traitor is treated? Just look at your little friend there, look what happened to him because he tried to stand up to my authority. That will be you in a second if you don’t comply and kill these intruders!”

  “Sir, I’ve already decided to not kill them. And even if I tried… I would be no match, I'm only a healer sir.”

  Julian’s face was full of rage at this point, his gaze piercing Falco’s body, and his aura causing the corridor to rumble slightly, “Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. Give me a reason, why did you decide not to kill these two imbeciles? Why, give me a reason damn it!”

  Falco was so overwhelmed with fear that he was trembling and couldn’t even speak a single word. He tried and tried, but in the end, all that came out was a quiet jumble of gibberish.

  Just then, Demon chimed in and said with a nervous yet confident voice, “You want a reason? Okay, the reason why he won’t kill us is because he is one of us now. That's just how it is when a bad leader makes even worse decisions, you lose the only people who found it in them to even try to trust you.”

  Demon let Falco out of her confinement and stepped forward almost as if she was challenging the lunatic knight to a battle. She was sweating bullets and almost trembling, but you could see the confidence in her actions and in her mind.

  Gale walked over to her while looking Julian in the eyes the entire time. He stood next to her while Falco was still behind them. Gale and Demon both drew their weapons and got into a battle ready position. The final straw was when Gale arrogantly raised his hand towards Julian and waved him over, as if he was challenging him directly.

  Julian lost it, “You think you can beat me, huh? Really? That's comical.” He looked into Gale’s eyes with murderous bloodlust and said in a dark tone, “I'm gonna torture each of you, you’re gonna wish that I killed you faster, but I won’t. I’ll make you suffer for as long as I want. I’ll make you suffer until you beg me to just end it. It's what scum like you deserve, it's what you get for testing my authority!”

  Instantly, Julian was upon them. When he activated his crystal, its raw power made the air heavy with its aura which caused all the allied fighters to fall to their knees. Unable to stand, the three were helpless to the torture that Julian was sure to put them through. They didn’t even have enough strength to wield their weapons, let alone activate their enchantments.

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  Julian stood above them while laughing maniacally, “Get ready to feel the eternal torture of hell’s flames.”

  Julian's great sword soon became enveloped in an orange flaming aura. When Julian slammed his sword into the ground, a domain of orange and white flames enveloped the entire floor of the corridor.

  Immediately the party members began to feel the searing pain of the flames which scorched their skin little by little. Simultaneously they all fell from their knees and landed face first against the hard steel floor as they wreathed in agony from being slowly cooked alive.

  Julian stood above them in the middle of the field of flames with a dark smile across his face, “Burn, burn, burn by my flame. I could incinerate you all right now, but watching you slowly suffer is so much more satisfying. Scream more, cry more, call out to anyone… even god won’t save you now.”

  ~~~

  As the time went by it felt like hours, when really it had only been minutes. The three party members were now completely silent, they’d given up at this point while waiting for death to take them. The clothes and armor which had previously been covering the three had either been completely burned or melted off. This revealed their bodies which were covered in burns and blisters, but it also revealed something else about the three of them that Julian instantly noticed.

  On Gale’s back there was a large black tattoo with the symbol of a lightning bolt in the center. Similarly on Demons back there was a tattoo with the symbol of a scythe. And finally on Falco’s back there was a tattoo with the symbol of a leaf. Julian seemingly recognized these symbols and took a step forward to investigate them.

  With disbelief he said, “You… you… monsters! Those seals on your backs… you're not human. You escaped, you must have escaped! How did you escape… who told you to do it!? I can’t let you live any longer, you all must die… this instant! The plague of those demonic races must not be spread across the world, they must all be expunged!”

  Julian deactivated his crystal and stood above Gale’s almost lifeless body, he slashed his sword down while aiming to decapitate Gale. Gale could only barely move his head to look up at Julian as the sword came down. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

  Suddenly there was a sound of clashing metal and the blade stopped before it reached Gale’s neck. Gale opened his eyes to see another sword intercepting the huge crimson greatsword that Julian wielded.

  The mysterious user of the sword had enough strength to overwhelm Julian and push him back a considerable distance. As Gale looked at the mysterious swordsman, he felt a sense of awe, but he also sensed an ominous energy.

  The swordsman was clad in heavy plate armor which was dark purple, almost black, and was emanating an ominous dark smog. The man held a long katana in his hands which was made out of a dark metal and had a purple crystal forged into its hilt. The crystal was emanating a light that was so piercingly bright, that it almost lit up the entire corridor with a purple hue.

  Gale looked closer at the crystal and realized that it was in the shape of a hexagon, a tier four enchantment crystal. Gale felt an innate sense of fear, but a slight glimmer of hope at the same time. Maybe they would be saved by this mysterious warrior.

  The dark warrior turned around to face Gale revealing that his helmet had two long compartments on it that seemingly covered two long curved horns protruding from the man’s head.

  As the warrior’s dark eyes looked directly into Gale’s soul, the dark knight said in an ominous but reassuring voice, “Hold on for a little longer, I’ll handle this.”

  Just as he said this, Gale’s mind suddenly shut off. His body was finally tired of the pain and decided to pass out. As Gale and the others lay there unconscious, a fierce battle took place around them. The battle between the unidentified dark knight and the vice captain of the Knights of Flame.