Raven and Forir faced off in Nine Star Courtyard, an empty colosseum to accommodate their conflict. The normally pleasant chimes of the nine towers felt hollow now, ringing only for their ears in the great expanse. The sky-high buildings served as solemn witness now to the fate of Fallowreyk. Panka’s chime worked overtime in its chaotic composition against the other finely timed gongs, heightened significance for only a few listeners. For several moments, the two enemies faced each other in silence, coats drifting on the strong northern breeze. Heavy snowfall produced a thick cone this day, siphoned quietly to the rooftop of Panka’s well.

  “Are you truly my brother’s killer?” Forir finally asked. “The truth… once and for all.”

  The mouths of the other masters gaped as their focus turned to Raven.

  Raven’s eye narrowed cruelly. “Still focused on that useless thug? This duel will be short work if you can’t even concentrate.”

  Forir glared and his cardinal shrilled at him. “Flee for now,” he said to the bird on his shoulder. The cardinal gave Raven one last angry stare before flying off. “Fanny, the challenge,” he ordered.

  She lifted the golden sphere. A slip of paper drifted out of the orb, but instead of igniting on fire, only a portion burned away. Words of flame then appeared in the space between them.

  “A pandora duel”

  “Select five pandora with which to battle”

  Raven sniffed and quickly produced his pandora. Along with Rue, he held Glass Blower, Wind Ruby, Free Regions, and his pandora pen.

  “Wait,” Rue said. “Something is wrong.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know. I just… something doesn’t feel right. I don’t think you should use me in this fight.”

  He looked up at the floating piece of paper with Forir’s challenge written on the other side. It was indeed strange the paper burned, but not completely like the two before it. Did Forir have a trick up his sleeve?

  “I need you, Rue,” he finally said. “You will ensure our victory.”

  “Okay,” she said shakily. “Please be careful.”

  Raven released his grip, leaving his five pandora to float in the air before him.

  Forir also produced four pandora along with a pandora pen. The Class of each of them paled in comparison to the might of the weapons he’d selected. He was about to say something when suddenly more words of fire appeared – a third instruction. Raven’s eye widened in shock at the sight.

  “The duelists shall switch pandora”

  A chill ran through him as Forir lowered his head so Raven could see his ominous smile, the first time he’d ever seen his full face. A deep, terrible scar ran across his chin.

  “When you so cavalierly boasted about your Class Eight pandora,” he said, “and paraded its power about town all year, I knew I had sealed your defeat from the very first day. But I could not have imagined I would have the opportunity to avenge my brother with it. Or… will you give up and flee like a coward now?”

  “Raven, what do we do?” Rue asked fearfully.

  Raven folded his arms, glaring and wishing he had listened to her premonition. The creeping warning of doom crawled up his neck, cautioning disaster. The task at hand, previously an impediment, now felt like a razor’s edge upon his own neck.

  He tsked. “We endure it,” he replied quietly. “Remember our training, Rue.”

  With a wave of his hand, his pandora drifted toward his foe. Likewise, Forir sent off his own pandora. When they arrived, Forir snatched Rue out of the air, holding her up for Raven to see.

  For the first time in years, Raven did not have Rue with him. His glare at Forir grew fiercer, anger further welling up within, but he turned his attention to his new unknown weapons. A Class One pandora pen, three Class Two pandora, and one Class Five. He sat on the ground, cross-legged, and the floating pandora lowered to his eye level.

  The duel had now begun.

  Raven tapped the Class Five card. It slowly rotated once before shining. The picture featured a humanoid shape, but nothing more specific. However, upon touching the pandora, he gained insight into its abilities. This soul could produce a pandora entity for specific tasks, like Bartón, but seemingly much less complex.

  As he studied his new pandora, Forir did likewise. Raven’s gaze flickered to his former teacher every now and again. Fleeting thoughts came to him, wondering what it would have been like to know him and learn from him under different circumstances. But there was no use focusing on what might have been.

  Upon completion of analyzing the assets at his disposal, he placed his hands in Grand Harmony, closing his eye. The other pandora were common: an earthen pandora, an electricity pandora, and an armory pandora. Forir had given him real tools to use in battle, which spoke further of his character. He wanted to win, to avenge his brother, but he desired a righteous victory. Even so, these pandora did not contend with the clout of his own weapons now at the bidding of his foe. On pure force, Raven could not compete with Selim Forir.

  Attaining victory now required the greatest scheme.

  He slowly got back up, collecting four of the pandora with his left hand and the pandora pen with his right. Forir faced him at the ready, mirroring his actions in collecting the pandora before lifting a hand to shoo the witnesses back. The masters along with Van and Valentine obliged, retreating to the edge of the courtyard.

  “Attack at your whim,” Forir said. “Your death will be painful.”

  “We shall let Panka decide the start,” he replied.

  They stood poised at the ready, twenty spans apart. But it didn’t take long for Raven to realize asking Panka to decide the start of the duel may have been a mistake, because the silence drew long. If the tension of the moment wasn’t so great, he would have sighed.

  Always the trickster.

  Van called out after the moment dragged out even further: “You want me to just say ‘go?’”

  Panka’s gong immediately clashed into the winter air.

  Raven whipped his hands forward, spreading out the pandora. Forir did the same.

  “Raven, watch out!” Rue screamed.

  Her pandora burst with light, igniting in gravitational burst crashing into his body and launching him through the air. He tumbled across the courtyard in crashing bounces before skidding to a stop.

  Forir held up Rue like a shield, approaching, but stopped short in surprise. Raven quickly recovered from the assault, jumping to his feet. His entire body was coated in thick armor of mud, like brown mail. He raised his pandora pen. At his command, a seal was instantly drawn onto the ground, jetting ink pulsing into the stone with precision – the Seal of Waves. The earth pandora streaked to the center and Raven snapped his fingers.

  A wall of earth and mud exploded from the pandora, enhanced by the seal. The earth formed a wall ten spans high. He pushed his hand through the air. The mud wall rushed toward Forir, threatening to consume him. Forir raised Rue, and the wall exploded into bits, flecking him in the slimy mixture but otherwise causing no harm.

  Again and again, Raven snapped his fingers, sending furious earthen waves at him. Rue protected Forir in totality. As Raven attacked, Forir flicked his own pandora pen, drawing up a flotation seal near the ground. He then expertly formed three enhancement seals within, a seal within a seal. Wind Ruby ignited, and three red cords emerged from the surface of the pandora, whizzing around in tight circles underneath the seal and blasting mighty gales. Forir stepped on it, and the red cords erupted with boosted power, launching him into the air and out of range from Raven’s relentless attack.

  Raven looked up, frowning as his foe stared down at him while floating on the makeshift flying apparatus. He’s perceived my pandora’s strengths. Coupled with his skill in seals, he’s already proving to be a monster.

  He touched the armory pandora. A silver sword emerged from the surface, which he snatched and drove into the ground. Three more swords emerged from the pandora, which he tossed into the air. They drove into the ground at some distance to form a square area. He tapped the Class Five entity pandora. An ashen, globular being emerged from the pandora with a flash, standing upright. It took on a human form, but just barely, with bulbous, fingerless hands, and a fluid body.

  Forir was drawing up a seal of his own in midair. Raven moved swiftly. He drew up a seal on the back of the pandora entity, the Seal of Mind’s Eye. He directed his earthen pandora to lay in the middle of the seal. He then drew a seal around the sword embedded into the ground. The Seal of Solidification with a Seal of Growth inlay. He dashed to the other four swords, drawing up identical seals.

  Forir completed his seal and burst forward, soaring speedily on his floating apparatus.

  “Too slow!” Raven shouted with a smile, grasping the handle of the last sword.

  The ground rumbled as the stonework around the four swords exploded. Dirt and stone cascaded from the opening to form massive pillars. More and more earth towered high into the air, forming a mighty castle to enclose the pandora entity inside. The top spires reached so high, they broached Panka’s cone of snow. A makeshift door slammed shut, and a lock clicked.

  Forir opened his hand, zooming past Raven.

  “I’m attacking!” Rue screamed.

  Pulses exploded from her card. The attack launched Raven though the air again. The close encounter blasted his dirt armor to dust, and he landed with a skidding thud some fifty spans away. He felt his shoulder and several ribs crack, but he managed to roll onto his feet and dash away.

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  Raven grunted from the fresh pain. Damn. He’s only using a Seal of Minor Enhancement in conjunction with Rue. Anything stronger and he’d just kill himself. He knew that immediately. He truly is a master of war. To already understand the limitations of using seals in pairing with Rue is impressive.

  Forir chose not to give chase. He instead directed Rue toward the vast castle. She blasted immense power into the newly constructed citadel, but the earth walls held strong, despite creaking and groaning against her pressure. While he remained distracted, Raven drew up a Seal of Restoration on the ground and stepped inside. Blue sparkles surrounded him, followed by a soft green aura. In exchange for Hydra, his more serious wounds healed within the seal, but he left the superficial wounds alone.

  Forir was looking at Rue’s pandora strangely. A decision seemed to come over the man, as her pandora began to rotate around him instead of float in front of him. He abandoned his attempt to destroy Raven’s mysterious castle, instead flying over to Panka’s well and collecting water from the rainfall to drink from cupped hands.

  Raven frowned before exhaling mightily. As a citizen of Roespeye, Forir could refresh his Hydra whenever he wanted. Within the haven of his home city, no limit existed to the number of seals he could utilize.

  Meanwhile I’ve already used about half my Hydra, he thought, huffing. Using so many seals at one time was never the original plan. I have to get this to the final act as quickly as possible. It seems he’s already figured out Rue can warn me when she’s about to attack. If not for our dedication to training for this exact scenario, I’d probably be dead by now. I’ve been able to escape her worst damage. Comprehending the liability, he will use her as an absolute defensive blockade, instead of for direct attacks. It’s what I would do.

  Forir approached, steadily floating mid-air on his platform. He folded his arms imperiously as Rue revolved around him.

  “You look a little tired,” he said.

  “And you look a little disappointed. Is Rue not what you were hoping for?”

  “After I’ve defeated you and buried your corpse in an unmarked grave,” he said. “I think I will sell this useful little pandora I’ve gained. That’s all she’s good for after all.”

  Raven smirked. “Is this your attempt to hurt me, Master Forir? As if I haven’t traveled through hell already. But your efforts are cruel and malicious. Not exactly something you ever taught us in class. I approve. It seems I’ve woken something dark within you. I wonder if you know what that is.”

  His thick eyebrows furrowed in wrath. Glass Blower’s pandora ignited. The wind whistling from the red cords whizzing underneath him caught fire, blasting wreaths of flame in all directions.

  Raven huffed, shaking his head ruefully. This man is definitely a problem.

  He drew up a seal on the ground, but Forir surged forward, forcing Raven to flee. The professor paused over Raven’s drawn seal, allowing the wind and fire to blast the drawn lines away. Raven attempted the process again, but Forir pursued relentlessly, refusing to let him draw any more seals. Steadily, he drew closer, erasing all his seal attempts while using Wind Ruby and Glass Blower in conjunction to blast ropes of fire at him.

  There was no choice but to buy some time. Tapping his earth pandora, Raven spread his hands wide. Walls of dirt and stone erupted from the pandora to surround him in a small dome. Forir approached, blasting it with fire, but the protection held firm. He snapped his fingers and Rue took front and center. A bomb of force exploded from her card, blasting the dome to bits.

  But Raven wasn’t there. Instead, the parts of a shattered pandora entity lay inside, partially covering up a drawn seal.

  Forir tsked. “Seal of Substitution,” he said.

  He looked around, quickly spotting Raven now standing on the other side of the courtyard with his hand placed on a seal drawn onto a wall of the immense castle he had earlier constructed. Forir burst toward him in pursuit.

  Raven heaved for breath, sweating and exhausted. The emerald color of his lone eye became drab. The Seal of Substitution required an incredible amount of Hydra. But he smiled triumphantly as Forir careened toward him. Before he could attack, the castle’s foundations burst, and the walls of hardened earth exploded all around them. A roar preceded a monster emerging from the sanctuary. The pandora entity Raven originally produced at the start of their duel now towered hundreds of spans high, enhanced by his special seals. A new mouth lined with jagged teeth opened in another barbaric howl.

  Forir’s eyes widened in shock at the giant. He quickly fled, but the clay monster roared, pursuing him like a rabid beast. Forir brought Rue up before him, but the entity swung its mighty arm, striking him and knocking him through the air. Raven observed with interest as the professor expertly corrected his disorientation, restoring himself upright. But the beast pursued him relentlessly, chasing him around the courtyard with great crashing footsteps.

  Raven was given mere seconds to reassess. The other masters along with Van and Valentine had retreated inside the Ilias Drome, leaving him without a potential source for fresh Hydra. Luckily, it seemed his foe had not perceived the strengths of his other pandora, Free Regions. Given what was available, Raven had one shot to defeat Forir.

  He quickly drew up three seals to float in midair. Seals of Major Enhancement. He flicked his hand and they twisted to face each other in a tringle formation. He then drew up another seal to serve as a base underneath them. He directed the electrical pandora and armory pandora to sit in the middle of the formation. Electrical clout ignited from within, churning with ear-splitting energy. As his seals activated, his eye lost all trace of green, now fully gray. He pointed to Master Forir.

  The cage of blinding clout moved on its own, veering behind the colossus still recklessly pursuing Forir. The professor zoomed this way and that on his apparatus, fire and wind blasting away as he attempted to escape, but the giant entity stayed on his trail, flailing arms wildly, crashing into the ground with each miss, and roaring like a sick animal. Forir used Rue effectively, blasting swinging arms to smithereens before they could land hits, but the pandora entity’s limbs would only regenerate.

  Finally, it seemed Forir had gained advantageous positioning, zooming behind the beast and bringing Rue to point at the creature’s head. A thundering crack suddenly split the air, and a bolt of searing electricity caught Forir in the shoulder. He yelled in pain, zooming away. A silver knife was embedded into his arm. He wrenched it out with a grunt.

  The luminescent box of Raven’s design pursued, followed by his giant. Together, they attacked him from every angle. Lightning cracked every few seconds, guided in straight shots by shooting knives from the armory pandora. The precise strikes scorched the stone of the courtyard with every miss, and drew shouts of pain from Forir with every hit. Against such energy-charged strikes, Rue was useless.

  In desperation, Forir launching himself high into the air, through the cone of snow. The cage of lightning pursued him on its own. Lightning crashed over and over, searing the ground with scorch marks in all directions. The giant huffed and puffed, waiting impatiently for its target to return.

  Finally, Forir crashed back through the cone of Panka’s snow, still heavily pursued by the cage of lightning. Littered with snow, burns and trickling blood, he desperately veered through the courtyard as he grasped his arm, struggling to gain separation. Wind Ruby blasted away with its greatest power, but not fast enough. Raven’s giant finally caught him with a swing of its arm, pummeling Forir to the ground.

  The man gasped. With a grunt, he fell unconscious.

  The new silence was deafening. Raven exhaled. Having watched from afar, he slowly limped forward. His Hydra was utterly spent. The seal cage holding the electrical and armory pandora returned to him, hovering near his head. The earth colossus remained docile, standing watchful over Forir and growling.

  Raven came beside his former teacher, still heaving in exhaustion. He waited for Panka’s victory gong to sound, but none issued forth. A chill ran up his spine, and his head snapped up.

  “RAVEN, WATCH OUT!”

  Forir suddenly charged through the cone of snow above, roaring in rage. Rue exploded with force, and bursts of fire ignited around Raven’s colossus. The giant being exploded to bits, and Raven hurtled through the air. Pure agony enveloped him as he bounced and skidded over and over. With every impact, new bones snapped, skin seared, and blood drained.

  Finally, he rolled to a stop, landing hard on his back. He groaned, turning his head painfully to watch Forir calmly step off his apparatus and stand next to the fallen clone of himself. The image of the broken professor on the ground faded, and Forir smiled, holding up Free Regions.

  “For all your creativity, and all your intelligence… you still managed to convince yourself I planned for nothing,” the master said. “I believe I heard you call this ‘Free Regions’, yes?”

  Raven issued a weak cough, disoriented and shaky. He couldn’t move. His gray eye was nearly white now.

  “Allows for projections,” Forir continued. “Out of sight above the snow, it was quite easy to create a projection of myself and hide away in safety from your attacks. A truly valuable and unique pandora. I think I will keep all these pandora I’ve taken from you. Spoils of war. You should remember that from my lessons.”

  He hobbled to Panka’s well. With an almost salacious smile of satisfaction, Forir drank deeply of the falling water. Hydra restored, he took a long breath and turned back to his fallen quarry. He limped toward Raven, arms folded behind his back. Rue still rotated around him in silent protection.

  “And now… my final lesson. Revenge,” Forir said. The normal calm abandoned him as he looked down at his broken foe with emphatic triumph. “I will treat you the same as you treated my little brother. Your wickedness ends here. Let the annals of Roespeye record my victory.”

  Raven coughed again, wincing.

  Forir took Rue into his hand, pointing her at his prey. Powerful pressure built as Forir’s wrath poured into her, ready to annihilate.

  Raven frowned. “Any time now, Panka,” he managed to say.

  A voice whispered in his hearing. You had better deliver.

  Panka’s well exploded. The wooden roof blasted away, and a massive pillar of water surged from the pool. Forir turned in shock as the water arched and crashed onto Raven. The professor backed away in shock as Raven’s body was completely consumed in the pillar.

  “This can’t be!” he shouted in anger and fear. “Panka would give Hydra to him? An outsider? WHY?”

  The waters finally ceased, and Raven emerged standing, eye alight with vivid green rage. Snow cascaded all around them, no longer siphoned to the well. Forir backed away in fear, bringing Rue up to protect him. But Raven raised his arm high, and the lightning pandora flew up into the air above them.

  “That won’t be enough to defeat me!” Forir yelled.

  “For all your creativity, and all your intelligence, you still managed to convince yourself I planned for nothing. Look around you, Selim.”

  Master Forir scanned his surroundings, and when he realized what Raven had done, he fell to his knees in shock. The many scorch marks all around the courtyard from Raven’s previous lightning attacks were not scattered and random.

  They formed a perfect new seal. And he stood right in the middle of it.

  “Seal of Great Enhancement,” he whispered in disbelief.

  Raven stepped on the outer edge of the seal and snapped his fingers. The seal ignited in blinding blue light. A searing bolt of lightning struck Forir, blasting an ear-splitting shriek, followed by a boom. Dust and earth plumed into the air as stone shattered. The earth rumbled, and the gongs of the towers all rang in scattered disarray from the quake.

  It felt an eternity when all finally settled. The snowfall steadily reigned in the smoke and debris. And when quiet ultimately returned, Raven approached his battered foe in timid, painful steps. His entire body felt broken.

  Forir lay spread eagle on the ground, gasping for air. Smoke and ember wisped from his burnt figure. Flames consuming his robes slowly died in the falling snow, reduced to embers. As Raven stood over his mangled form, Panka’s victory bell rang out into the cold heavens.

  Rue and the rest of Raven’s pandora quickly returned to him. Forir’s pandora fell to the ground.

  “You think sparing my life changes anything?” Forir rasped defiantly. “You will never have the Star Tome. Never. Kill me now or I will have my revenge one day. I swear it.”

  “I didn’t kill your brother,” Raven replied.

  Forir’s eyes widened in shock, but he said nothing.

  “Of course, you knew this… didn’t you, Master Forir?” he continued.

  Forir remained silent, choosing to look up into the gray skies. His anger faded to exhaustion.

  “You knew from the moment I said it that I didn’t murder him. It was a ridiculous claim to begin with. So then, what is the truth?” He held up a fist. “You desperately desired an outlet for the bubbling rage tucked away in your heart. The vengeance you deserted, yet still harbored somewhere deep inside. I simply returned to you a noble wrath. What made you abandon it? Perhaps fear of the Titan? Concern for your reputation? I don’t know… and I don’t care. But vengeance is never truly forgotten, is it?”

  The master breathed deep. “Know your enemy,” he managed to whisper. “It seems you paid attention in my class.”

  “Now you understand your true desire. It was the only way I could communicate with you in this dark hour. You and I are not so unalike, Master Forir. I seek vengeance against the one who murdered my loved ones. So many loved ones. And I will have that vengeance.”

  He produced a folded slip of paper from his pocket and held it up. “The identity of your brother’s true killer, whom I did discover after many pains. This is my ability. This is the truth. I now offer you a chance for genuine retribution, in exchange to the path for mine. What is your answer?”

  He waited with bated breath, heart pounding. Absolutely everything hinged on Forir’s decision. The Battle and War Tactics master continued to look up into the drab sky tiredly. Finally, with all the energy he could muster, he raised his hand. He held it there for several moments in silence. Then, his cardinal came flying to land on his outstretched finger.

  Raven watched in concern and then amazement as the bird chirped once before transfiguring. The bird’s body stiffened and then melted. A small golden rod appeared from within, with a pandora tightly wrapped around it. It fell into Forir’s hand. He unwrapped the Class Four pandora, which featured a cardinal on its surface.

  “Well done, my friend,” he whispered. He looked at Raven. “Tell me… is revenge really worth anything?”

  Raven folded his arms. “If it’s just for yourself? No. But…” He looked up into the sky. “If the pursuit exists for others… suddenly my soul can sing.”

  “You truly are the strangest student Nine Star has ever known.”

  He held up the golden key. Raven took the cylinder, shaking his head with a smirk.

  “No… I’m the greatest student Nine Star has ever known. Keep your eyes open, Master Forir, because I’m about to prove it.”