Ted stood at the Grand Arena’s barrier edge and double checked his preparations. There was too much riding on this to overlook any vital details. A single mistake, and…

  No. He gritted his teeth and imagined the corridor below. There’d be no errors this time. He pulled on his mana and cast his vision down with a Farsight into the dark, damned corridor below.

  Granite filled his vision, lit by the daylight glow. Turning around, the Emperor came into shot and stared straight at the Farsight. His lips moved in silence, his words lost without sound.

  Ted focused his attention on the Emperor and cast the high-potency Message spell that he’d prepared. Face me in the Grand Arena. If I win, you return Cara to me. If you win, I will be your dutiful Crown Prince. You have my word.

  The Emperor’s lips pressed together. Seconds dragged by, then he clicked his fingers and a Communicate spell hammered into Ted’s head. You are a fool to persist in your delusions.

  Never give up, never surrender.

  A smile cracked through on Dad’s face, and for an instant, he chuckled like he once did. You’re doubly a fool if you think I’ll walk into such an obvious trap.

  I don’t see any mines, Ted messaged. But if you’re too scared to face me, I understand.

  The telepathic link severed.

  A tightness clenched at Ted’s gut. Had it worked?

  Yes. He had to believe that the Emperor wouldn’t back down from a direct challenge like that. Why would he? He had all the power in the world at his fingertips.

  Ted paced the barrier circle, staying just inside its arc. Above, set into the marble ceiling in a wide pentagon, five blazing orbs of light beat down upon the arena floor, and the many runes that protected the floor and kept it clean.

  How many deaths had this place seen? How many souls had begged for mercy, trapped inside a self-cleaning arena from which only one combatant could leave alive?

  No teams. Ted kicked the floor and shook his head. Orcs. The Destroyer. The gang with their grisly tokens of murder draped around their necks. And Gramok…

  How long had he been preparing to kill his brother? And then he just… did it, like it was nothing. Like it wasn’t killing his own brother. An enemy, true, and a servant of the Emperor, but still. His own brother.

  A different way of thinking. At least they were more direct about their violence. The Destroyer had never shied away from his plans to conquer the world.

  Ted continued around the circle, again and again, biting at his lip as Cara’s corpse lingering in his mind, his father’s “tick-tock” echoing again and again.

  What the hell was taking the Emperor so damned long?

  Would the plan work? Ted gritted his teeth. Too many unknowns to be sure, and if this failed…

  An Alarm spell triggered on the other side of the arena floor.

  Ted stopped and turned, his quivering legs threatening to buckle. This was it.

  “You know,” boomed Father’s voice, “I could just kill you.” He swaggered onto the Arena floor, blazing with teal and octarine magic.

  Ted walked toward him, trying and failing to focus upon the octarine magic. What did it do? If he could copy it, he could steal its power, turn it towards good. And yet, every time, his gaze rolled off it, as if the System itself sought to deny him its power.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  A perk of the Emperor? A cheated magic?

  Ted pulled back his shoulders. It didn’t matter. Not now. “Was starting to think you’d chickened out.”

  “I’m glad to see you have teeth after all,” the Emperor said, clicking his fingers and teleporting directly in front of Ted. “Won’t do you any good, of course.”

  Ted forced out a smile. “We’ll see about that.”

  “What’s your game, Ted? You know you can’t beat me.”

  “I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

  “Tricks won’t save you against the power of the divine.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “Still wearing those Battlemage robes, boy, despite their allegiance?”

  Ted’s stomach twisted. What did he know? “They saved Valbort, when their emperor abandoned them.”

  “I’ve had other priorities here, boy. I take it, then, that you haven’t heard about the Destroyer’s new general marshaling an army against your dear friends down south?”

  “No.” Ted shook his head. “They wouldn’t.”

  The Emperor clicked his fingers, and an image forced itself into Ted’s mind of a hulking orc in flowing black robes. Battlemage robes. The orc waved about a long staff adorned with emeralds, directing goblins and wolves and giant snakes to gather in a grassy plain just outside the Great Forest.

  A chill ran down Ted’s spine. “You lie.”

  “They’re dungeon spawn, boy. They’ll all serve him in the end, just as you do.”

  Ted clenched his fists. “I’m here to free this world. To complete the quest you abandoned.”

  “And there it is.” The Emperor shook his head and placed his hand on Ted’s shoulder. He even smiled, feigned that warmth that Ted’s father had once shown his son. “The real reason you’re upset.”

  Flutters filled Ted’s chest. How many times had he longed for that smile? Damn the System. Damn this entire world. “Did you come here to talk, or to fight?”

  The Emperor’s smile vanished and his shoulders stiffened. “Very well. You remember our deal?”

  “I will honor it.” Ted smirked. “At least, I would if I wasn’t about to rip you to shreds and pick my sword and staff from a smoking crater.”

  “That’s the spirit, boy,” the Emperor said, chuckling. “I hope you’re not expecting to take me down with a simple mana vortex. You’ll find my protections more than adequate—yours, less so..”

  Ted clenched his jaw together and swallowed hard.

  “You always were too willing to sacrifice yourself, boy.”

  “You’re lying,” Ted whispered through clenched teeth while trembling his hands.

  “Make the challenge, then,” his father said, flaunting that smile-perverting sneer perverting once again. “And remember: if you break the deal, I will bring Cara back, and I will torture her until ‘the end of time’ as those things love to say.”

  Ted pressed his hands against his thighs, stilling them. “You do the honors, Emperor.”

  “How gracious of you. Glad to see you’re finally learning your place, Crown Prince.”

  A challenge has been called in the Grand Arena! Battle commences in twenty one point six five seconds!

  “One question,” Ted said, with his heart in his throat. “Why did you never come home?”

  Father said nothing, did nothing but stare out into the distance.

  “Answer me!”

  “Come home to what?” The Emperor spat on the ground. “A spoiled brat, an alcoholic, and a nine to five that made me want to hang myself?”

  “She wasn’t an alcoholic.” Ted shook his head at the obvious, impossible lie. “Not then. You drove her to it!”

  “Did I?” Father’s shoulders slumped, and he looked at Ted with eyes drowning in sorrow. “Welcome to the real world, Edwin.”

  Ted stared into his father’s eyes, at the pain buried behind them.

  Five!

  At regret crushed a thousand times over.

  Four!

  At the truth.

  Three!

  Truth that didn’t matter.

  Two!

  Not anymore.

  One!

  Ted tapped his thigh. The world lurched. His father jerked away, and the teal circle around the arena popped into view.

  Engage!

  Teal magic shot from floor to ceiling, and an octarine glow glazed the barrier that now stood between Ted and the Emperor.

  Father’s eyes widened. He clicked his fingers, and nothing happened.

  Air rushed out of Ted’s lungs. Heat flushed through him, and his Constant Invisibility and Deafen spells upon Alenia were cut short, ending their mana drain. The trap was sprung.

  The Emperor’s voice boomed out into the arena hall, coming from everywhere at once. “You think this will hold me? With only one combatant left, the barrier will fall.”

  “Yes,” Ted yelled, resenting the satisfaction rising within him at what he’d done. “The barrier will fall when only one of you is left alive.”

  His father’s face fell. He looked around frantically, finding nothing. He clicked his fingers and rose into the air, shooting sideways and then up, searching for his Companion.

  The Companion Ted had left gagged and bound. The Companion’s life now stood between the Emperor and his release.

  Ted turned and ran. The control room awaited.