Mona opened his eyes. Moments ago he was back in that gray landscape, when the motes of light transported him back to his flesh. He felt his body realize his return, his nerves firing as he tried to open his eyes. His senses returned. He could feel an ache in his knees, his back slumped in this awkward position. Finally, his body returned to him, and he steadily got up, dusting the layers of dust off his clothes.

  Dust?

  He turned his palm to his face. Dust. A decent bit of it too. Then it hit him. The smells. The lights. The hurried shouts and whimpers in the air.

  The mural right above him, showing the great glory of his forefathers, was crumbling, the dust land on him and all the guests.

  THUNK.

  He could hear something coming from the roof. Something big and heavy was pounding on the roof of the great hall. The candles were jittering in their chandeliers, bits of wax dribbling down with it. The smell of age and rust filled the air.

  Mona turned around. He could see his father again, a heavy look to his face. The man was looking at the roof, his aura blazing bright. Many of the other attendants were doing the same, the thick smell of steel coating the tension in the air. In between, the less capable and commoners were running about, the screams and panic only starting. The limited servants and maids were doing all they could to try and calm the guests down, but nothing seemed to work.

  He couldn't get a word in. Mona couldn't get the attention of his father. He knew that. Whenever the duke had this appearance, nothing good was bound to happen. His questions would have to wait. He turned back to the ceiling.

  THUNK.

  THUNK.

  THOOONK!

  And a chunk of the roof fell, rushing towards the floor. Before it could hit the guests, the father of that shy child, the count leaped into the air.

  Steel Second Slash.

  In a whir, his swords took on his Expert ranked aura, and sliced the falling rock into four smaller chunks, the pieces breaking further from the sudden change in form. Before he fell, he used another technique of some name, leaping mid air on those chunks to cut a few more falling rocks.

  The thumping grew louder, each time came with more rocks falling. These were quickly taken care of by the others gathered as well, but Mona's father simply stood there, staring at the roof. His gaze seemed to sharpen.

  Mona had lived here all his life, and he didn't understand what was going on. He tried to find someone he could talk to, but between the yells, the collapsing ceiling, and the worry in his head he couldn't find anyone who could tell him a thing. He could feel his heart beating faster, the unhealthy excitement getting to him.

  THOMP.

  What remained of the ceiling gave way, the sudden rush of air poured in with a smattering of dust and smoke. Mona coughed, using his other arm to shield away whatever rocks could fall on him. This fog of dust made it difficult to see, but somewhere up there he could see it, two glowing eyes. Purple like his pupils, staring down at him.

  The sounds of something dropping came later. Bodies. Several people began to land in the new opening, their own motley auras firing off. He could smell the bitterness of earth and the scent of ash as they descended. The people running around took on a new pitch. These people started flying at the members who were shattering rocks not long before, and the din of steel hitting steel soon filled the air.

  Even Mona knew what was going on at this point. People had broken into the great hall. They shattered the ceiling, using some device with two eyes, and after they broke a hole in, they jumped down, and started attacking the guests gathered. More kept falling in, and once the armed guests couldn't keep up with the numbers, these intruders started targeting the less capable and the commoners who had came. Mona could see the horror on their faces as Death chased after them one person at a time.

  He stood behind the Mediver now, hiding. He didn't know what else to do. What was a young noble, who couldn't even tell what his abilities were, supposed to do and help. All he could do was watch, as the intruders swelled in numbers, their shouts of enthusiasm pounding on what little morale the guests had.

  It wasn't long until he started to see blood. A stabbed leg here, a ribcage there. Guests began to die, their bodies like sand bags hitting the floor. Kids were quick, adults seemed to slump down on the blades stealing their lives. The floor filled up with the reddish liquid, the metallic taste making him nauseated. Body after body kept falling, and the men, women, children all struggled to survive the onslaught. There was no where to hide, and against trained combatants, they could only die in agony.

  Mona could see his father, battling away at four men. His face was grim, his Master aura flaring in rage. He could see the family's blade arts, the Aurum Clash, zipping at each foe. His enemies were no less capable, Expert auras just on the cusp of entering Master themselves. They had no problem fighting against the Duke of Aurum, parrying his attacks. Luckily his father wasn't taking any blows to his body, so Mona was spared the scene of his father bleeding. But with the guests dying as fast as they were, it was only a matter of time until these enemies regrouped. A Master in aura could only do so much alone.

  "WHO ARE YOU!"

  Mona heard his father shout at the men, but all he got back was snickers and laughter. The duke was getting frustrated of these flies, keeping him occupied while the guests were dying before his eyes. Today was a day of celebration, now it would be a catastrophe. Because these men were dressed ambiguously, neither of the Aurums could identify who they were.

  The dust was cleared forcefully, as another aura began to descend. This one was slower, but Mona could feel its influence even from behind the Mediver. It was hot, making his head sweat a bit, as the dust of the room was blown out, replaced with a steamy heat. The cool night felt like a desert, and even the few fighting could feel their throats being parched.

  "Move away from him and clear the room, I'll take care of this one."

  The man landing spoke as he took his first steps, a grace in each as he twirled out twin blades, each a few feet in length. The glint on them carried the essence of wind aura, the blades coated in wisps of air.

  "Riaken! Why are you here! We had a pact!"

  Lord Aurum shouted in anger, launching his sword at the newcomer. His Master aura clashed with that of the newcomer, it's strength roughly matched.

  Steel slamming against steel, the two traded a few strikes before Riaken took a small leap back.

  "Don't you understand? The emperor has changed his mind about this pact. Why should the mighty Faulkner Empire be forced to share space with so many middling kingdoms? He gave me the honor of clearing out this land."

  "This dukedom has nothing, Riaken! Everyone knows it!"

  Riaken chuckled.

  "It has a hive of pests that would get in his way. He's the emperor. You're a duke of a backwater countryside. How can a moth understand the sun?"

  Riaken began to charge his aura. Wind made itself visible, the hazy turbulence coating his blade in a denser set of his inherent strength.

  "Now, stand there, and die. The Steel Kingdom is no more. Save me the time of reducing you to a corpse."

  He leapt back into the action. He threw in a cross technique, the wind slashing fiercely at the Lord of Aurum. Mona's fighter held his on blade carefully, pinpointing the weaknesses of the attack to minimize his aura loss. He'd been fighting so many for so long, and if he wanted to stand a chance, he had to conserve to endure what was coming.

  And what was coming made Mona pale. The numbers of arrivals was never ending, blots of black figures kept surging into the building. In the distance, he could hear the doors of the great hall being slammed against, the nearby servants doing their best to keep it shut. But the hinges wouldn't last long enough to matter; there weren't enough hands to gather and guide the few living guests out secondary passageways. Their fate was fairly sealed, Mona knew that for sure.

  He then felt a tug, a yank really, as his arm was pulled on. Turning around in fright, he felt his tension reduce a bit. A maid, one the many that had been with the family for years, was looking at him with pleading eyes.

  "Young noble, please follow me. We need to get out of here."

  Mona looked at his father, watching him try his hardest to keep up with his windswept equal. Riaken was clearly in good spirits, taking time to mock and antagonize his father whenever the lord's attacks barely missed his frame. The attacker dodged and weaved, his slices now beginning to leave cuts on the duke's clothes.

  "Please, young lord, we need to leave."

  He felt the tug again. The maid's hair was unkempt, her dress a mess. There wasn't time to worry about these little details. But all Mona could do was keep watching his father. He'd already lost his mother. The least he could do is watch his father's last moments.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  But the maid wasn't having it. She began tugging on Mona more forcefully, pulling his body into an upright position. Then she began to drag him in a direction towards a pathway not that far. Even the maids of the house had aura, albeit stuck at the Fighter level, and this was more than enough to get Mona to start taking steps.

  Last Mona saw were the few remaining guests being dragged, carried off, or running with whatever staff there was alive. Corpses covered the floor, many of his fellow attendees. They didn't have a Mediver to hide behind, and could never see the limits of their potential. The door leading to the hall had long been busted off its links, and a handful of the prevailing guards and servants were surviving the best they can. In the periphery he could see his father, swarmed by enemies, getting chipped and cut little by little. Riaken was playing with him, having his subordinates tear his father down piece by piece.

  He didn't get the chance to see his father's end. He knew his father died. It was a given in this situation. Now both his parents were dead, and no one could assure him at this point if his father would get a casket to sleep his final rest. He absentmindedly followed the maid from before. He didn't want to be too much of a burden, not now, and began to walk along with the maid on his own.

  The pathway through the inner workings of the great hall could get a sweeping. While none of the cobwebs were too much to handle, they did get rather close to Mona's head. He could see the shapes in them, the trapezoids glimmering in the candlelight the maid took from the wall. He wasn't sure, but it seemed that the maid had a slight shudder each time they passed a web, taking care to avoid it. Spiders still seemed to bother her, although with her aura she couldn't be bitten anymore by such tiny creatures.

  At first Mona was able to keep up fairly well. The crisscrosses however began to way down on him. This time his armor piece didn't give him the stamina he needed to move. Instead, it held him down, slowing him bit by bit as they tried to hurry down the passage. He began to pant, and the maid didn't miss it.

  She turned around, her face still filled with fear from the scenes before, but a new layer of worry.

  "Young noble, are you alright?"

  She looked at Mona, biting a sliver of her lower lip.

  "I'm...fine..."

  Mona couldn't even convince himself. This armor piece was easy to carry on a walk, but given the distance they had covered, and his lack of physical ability, the metal became a prison for his muscles. Soreness filled his legs as he steadied against a wall, not minding the light layer of dust that coated it.

  "What should I do, what should I do..."

  The maid began to nervously chant, looking down the passageway, then back from the direction they came. It was quiet, thankfully.

  "Young noble, please, use your aura to support your steps."

  "Use my aura? How?"

  The question was obvious, and the maid nearly hit her face. She forgot the young lord was still being evaluated when the attack began. He didn't get the chance to figure out how to release his strength.

  "Well... you see... imagine your chest contains a flower, and its petals are stretching open, reaching across your body."

  "Flower? Petals?"

  Mona gave a decent try, but he must have lacked the comprehension, because all he felt was the shift of his joints. His aura, if he had any, was dull and still.

  Smack!

  The maid facepalmed. Of course the techniques wouldn't be the same for everyone. It depended on school, physique, element, and more. He didn't have a technique yet.

  "Forgive me, young lord. You don't use our Steely Rose technique, so of course your understanding didn't work. My apologies."

  "You didn't have the chance to receive instruction from the duke ...yet. Please use the basic flow of aura instead."

  "Feel, instead, the sensation of your heart beating blood all over your body. You should feel a trickle of aura with it. In your chest should be your Aura heart, the core of your energy. It should be feeding aura to every inch of your being. If you sense the aura, you will find it, and focusing on it should give you the Aura you need to keep moving."

  The maid tried her best to give a simplified version of what was going on. The candle wasn't getting any taller, and she almost thought she heard a sound. Way back from where they came, she thought she heard steps in their direction.

  Mona wasn't aware of this however, his eyes glazed over as he tried to sense out his aura. He couldn't feel a thing at first, only the weak trickle of his bloodflow through his body. The very thing that kept him from training much all this time, his weak circulatory system, didn't seem to contain any aura.

  As his attention maintained on his body, his focus grew. And for a second, there it was. Something, something was there.

  Mona didn't know how to describe it, there was a fullness in his hand. Like his blood contained something thrumming in his veins. It had no beat to it, but felt solid. With more effort, he could feel the thin lines snake up his arm, past his elbow, up his shoulder, passing his collarbone, crossing into his chest. Right below his flesh and sternum, he felt a solid object that wasn't there before. Or at least, it felt occupied by something.

  A small spheroid shape was there, with wisps of pure energy floating within. They danced to some divine harmony, as they entered and exited from his veins. The slivers of energy danced quietly in his Aura heart, a misshapen sphere that needed a proper technique to solidify and shape what was there.

  As the maid instructed, he focused on his fragile Aura heart, trying to sense every bit of that space. After a small moment, the Aura in his heart stirred, the previous dancing wisps travelled back into the bloodstream. They traveled to his sore muscles like they were reading his intentions, greatly alleviating the pain Mona felt.

  He let out a sigh of relief, and opened his eyes once more, focusing back on the maid. Seeing his condition improving, a slight smile came and went on her face. The young lord was able to use Aura. If only the times were better, they could have shared it with joy.

  The maid beckoned the heir once more.

  "I'm glad you've activated your Aura, young lord. Please, let us move faster through the passage. I can't be certain, but I think I heard steps in the back, coming our way."

  "They may have noticed you were missing, and are looking for you. You must live, young lord. Please."

  She began to run back along the passageway, a tad faster this time. Mona didn't need time to think what to do. The aura of his Aura heart helped him process faster, and soon enough he too took faster steps with the maid, following her in this labyrinthine passage.

  *****

  The great hall was an old building, built long ago by a more industrious duke of the Aurum family long past. When times were good, they put down brick and mortar, casting the stories of their grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's great grandfather on the walls, hoping that his descendants could find value in what he surely knew each Aurum wished they could witness. With the frequent renovations over the years, the multiple undertakings left a convoluted passageway beneath the hall, connecting discreetly with the rest of the estate.

  With the lord's blessing, the servants used this pathway to cross around unseen, moving personnel as needed. The maid in front of Mona had long learned these paths. And was doing her best to take her charge down the safest route possible. She knew which path led to the outer city, and from there the number of earthen tunnels it would take. The knowledge gave her a confidence she sorely needed, and it was clear in her steps. The dull sound was muffled by the path, only Mona able to hear them as they made haste past these murky stones and ancient webbings.

  From time to time they would stop, the maid gesturing the young lord to silence as she used her aura to improve her hearing. She could hear the sounds of steps in nearby passageways. She knew who they were; other servants, doing their best to get guests to leave the estate in safety. This brought a sense of relief to her. Perhaps she too could save her young lord the same.

  Sadly, as soon as the relief began to return to her mind, it was quickly robbed away. The fifth time they stopped, she could hear something else. The familiar steps of another maid. The guest, likely a child. At first those two were running just like her, but then they must have seen something, as their steps grew frantic. Four seconds later, one of the two, either the child or the maid, let out a gasp, their body hitting the floor. Heavier, more sturdy steps soon came down the passage, and the wail of a victim barely entered her ears. The sturdy steps seemed to mull over the two, likely dead victims, before running along the path just a few feet to the maid's right.

  She couldn't stop the tears wetting her eyes. They were dead. Those men had killed her and the child, ransacked the bodies, and kept going forward, the monster.

  The maid did her best to dry her eyes away from Mona, before letting out a few words. Her tone was somber.

  "Let us continue, young lord. They've cleared the passage."

  She turned around, and begin running once again, Mona keeping behind her. He didn't need to know who they was. The tears flying past him told him what happened even if he couldn't hear it.

  The maid didn't stop anymore. Her hearing was still being amplified by her aura, but she stopped hearing the safe running of guests and servants. Instead her mind was filled with the death wails of many she remembered, including plenty of guests to what should have been a momentous occasion. She did her best to keep the grief crawling up her throat from freezing her steps. She wanted to cry, but had to keep going.

  Mona could guess what was going on. While his ability with Aura wasn't there yet, he could think of what was all around him. His fellow escapees were trapped in these corridors, also trying to get out. Some were fortunate, others were not. He thought of his father for a moment, wondering if he was even still alive.

  Drowning that thought, he sped up a little faster, now only a few steps behind the maid. He couldn't let himself dwell on those thoughts either. Not right now.

  The bleak walls of dusty brick and mortar gave way to stone. The dull noise was replaced with a thump from each step they took, as the pair dashed down the hall.

  "We're close, young lord. Past these next passageway should be a set of stairs, leading to the outer garden. From there, we can quietly exit the estate walls, and make our way into the city below. We'll need to keep hurrying; the hidden tunnels are a bit away, but if we can keep going, we may be able to get away safely."

  Mona heard the words from the maid's lips, giving his affirmative in return. His focus on the task at hand, he made sure each of his steps were true, his stride leaving behind the chaos that unfolded earlier.

  As the maid had spoken before, there was the stairwell, carved from stone. The two carefully made their way up a set of spiral stairs, torches affixed to each wall, finding their path blocked by a door.

  The maid revealed a set of keys, held together by a bit of rope, hanging from a hidden pocket. With a great deal of caution, the maid quietly turned the key, hoping the sound of the lock would lessen with her reduced speed. She sighed, as the lock gave barely a sound, and soon she and her young lord were in the outer corridor of the estate.

  This was connected to the servants quarters, to the west of the main estate. Not far from here were the small gardens the younger maids kept, then the inner walls. She had the keys needed to go through all the doors and passageways following, and as luck would have it no one seemed to be around.

  Gesturing for Mona to follow, the two took silent steps through the quarters, doing their best to not make a sound. They didn't know who or what could be here, and so did their best to keep quiet.

  Through a window, Mona could see the giant contraption peering over the great hall, its purplish grey eyes gleaming downward. The two moons stood watch in the sky, the glimmer of stars hidden by a set of clouds.

  "This way young lord."

  The maid called to Mona quietly, standing before another door. With a deep breath, she changed to a new key in her hands, inserting it carefully into the lock. Twisting the key, she waited to hear the mechanism within. Satisfied, she began to push open the door.

  Across the way, a row of flowers bloomed under the moonlight. The petals glimmered with the evening, in a mix of red and blue hues. A single, wizened Axonal tree stood not far away, its branches casting a heavy shadow on the ground below, perfect for hiding underneath.

  Closing the door behind them, the pair of escapees made their way to the tree, entering its shadow with as much silence as they can. Before them a ways away was the last set of doors leading to the outer city. This pathway was largely kept for repairing the inner walls, and from what Mona could remember, would take only a few minutes to cross over.

  Seeing the last stretch before them, the maid began to look about her, making sure the coast was clear. As she saw nothing, she was just about to dash over to the door in her sight when she heard a tug, and a voice.

  Mona felt his shoulder pulled back.

  "Hey, Malcolm. Get over here! He's here with a maid, and they have keys!"