The altar.

  It was a large square, roughly fifty meters both length and width wise, and made of light brown stone. It was encircled with stone fences, leaving only a staircase and path of the same material to ascend it.

  On top of it was a large bowl-like stone offering altar, the perfect size for a teenager slightly older than him, Regius noticed. Around it were several unlit braziers. Several more braziers dotted the path from the stair to the altar itself.

  “Do I just... go?” Regius questioned slowly after Deina stood in silence for almost a minute. The young girl shook her head, but thankfully she didn’t stay silent. “I have my own responsibility in this ritual as well. I’m supposed to light the braziers along the way and recite an ancient spell, to light your path to the altar where the speed of burning will increase and you will... combust.”

  Combust. What a nice way of saying ‘you’re going to burn into nothingness’.

  “Lead the way, sis,” Regius replied, trying to keep his tone upbeat for the last minutes of his life. Deina wasn’t trying to keep positive at all, just giving the brown-haired boy a grim nod, before lighting her torch with a few words and walking towards the altar.

  Unfortunately, things simply couldn’t be easy. Nooo, Regius might be sacrificing his life, but he has to be miserable while doing that.

  A familiar cackle echoed through the giant cavern, and a giant concentration of shadows seeped in through the entrance.

  “Already?!” Deina complained, the flame on her torch blazing to larger sizes as she faced Skia. However, what seemed to be Skia split into the Queen of Shadelings herself as well as an entire army of weaker Shadelings. Deina’s scowl deepened. “More of them? Is this a... joke?”

  Regius sighed, as annoyed as his sister was at the situation. “We can’t leave now, can we? Let’s hurry and get to the altar.”

  “I will light the way,” Deina agreed with a nod, stepping in front of her older brother and burning away several Shadelings. The two walked forward slowly, Deina clearing the path while Regius followed.

  The black-haired girl halted, turning left to light one of the braziers by reaching her arm over the crowd of shadow monsters. However, a shadeling attached itself to her shoulder, the same one that was injured by another a few days ago.

  “Agh!” She winced in pain, blood starting to seep through her brown cape. Regius looked around for something, anything to free them from certain doom.

  Now that they were closer to the altar, Regius was burning faster than ever. He could see his flesh crumbling away bit by bit. In just the few minutes since the ritual had begun, he had lost five centimeters of his arm.

  Regius was feeling desperate. Deina had shaken off the first shadeling, but they were literally in a sea of shadow monsters. What could he do?

  He could burn.

  Some part of his mind must have been fried, because he felt like he knew exactly what to do. Deina had to light the braziers, but Regius had to blaze his own path, he had to be his own kindling.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  A bright flame seared through the elevated area, scorching away a circle of the shadelings surrounding Regius and Deina. The girl whipped around, evidently shocked. “Regius? How did you do that?”

  “I don’t know!” he replied. His awe faded when he noticed his arm now burnt away up to the elbow. “...but I don’t want to do it again.”

  Why was he so afraid? He’d die from the very same reason soon anyways.

  “Wise choice, be careful,” Deina decided, raising her torch again and waving it at several Shadelings leaping forward to attack.

  For a moment, things seemed to be going well, before Skia summoned more of her shadowy servants, while lunging in for her own attacks. Regius was grazed by an attack, blood beginning to seep out from his shoulder.

  “Blazing Lance!” Deina cleared a circle around them with her technique, but the shadelings were crowding in quickly. No way she would be able to handle the enemies herself.

  “Deina, focus on lighting the braziers,” the brown-haired boy commanded, igniting a flame on his remaining hand. He stared down the shadelings, if only just to avert his gaze from his rapidly disintegrating shoulder.

  The fire grew until it engulfed his remaining arm. Somehow, his wound seemed to close on its own as well.

  “Go forth,” Deina said with a nod, using Blazing Lance to clear a path to the next brazier. Regius fought to defend himself by chucking fireballs at any shadelings approaching him. He had even developed a quick scoring system to see how many he could destroy. Hey, if he was going to die, might as well go having fun.

  “It’s ready!” Deina’s voice interrupted his fireball-throwing spree. The boy glanced at his other shoulder, or rather where it should have been. From fighting for a few minutes, the burning had advanced past his armpit and was reaching his neck.

  The two siblings reconverged at the center of the crowd, Deina releasing multiple Blazing Lances and Regius continuing his fireball throwing. This time they aimed to get to the altar.

  “Stay back, humans! You will not heal Caleo!” Skia screeched, lunging down and covering the room in a veil of darkness. Regius found the fire on his arm glowing- that seemed normal, except the darkness seemed to tone down the other fires.

  “Lord Caleo’s own flame shines brightest,” Deina declared, waving her now dim torch around.

  The altar couldn’t be more than a few meters away. The stone altar stood still, two more braziers beside it.

  Regius fought his way towards the stone altar, as Deina retrieved a piece of paper from her pocket- did the unfashionable brown capes have pockets?

  “I’m ready,” the boy announced, desperation in his voice as he pressed himself against the base of the altar, waving away shadelings. Deina ignored several shadelings latching onto her arms and legs, lighting the final two braziers. Her amber eyes were glued to the paper in her other hand, desperate to not look at Regius.

  The black-haired girl took a deep breath, as she spoke the ritual incantation. Screeching in fury, Skia lunged down, and the room grew darker. Still, the braziers glowed brighter, the orange flames growing larger and the shadelings shrinking away.

  Blood could be seen seeping through several parts of Deina’s cape, and her legs were trembling from the injuries, but she had to stay standing for a bit longer.

  “As darkness encroaches, the flames shall fade. As divine blaze returns, the shades shall falter. Free from the chains of wounded divinity, burn away a mortal shell. O, we offer, in sacred blaze, the life and spirit and form of insert name he- R-regius Adusta.” Deina took a breath, her brown eyes clouded with pain and sadness. Regius refused to look at himself- he could no longer feel his right leg, and he was pretty sure he only had one lung left. How he was still alive, he didn’t know.

  By this point, fire from the braziers were surrounding him, eerie and gentle orange embers in the pitch dark room.

  Regius was about to die.

  But at least he was dying for a good reason.

  “Hear our prayers, hear our summons. Rise from ashes and scorch at the darkness. Illuminate our world and our hearts and souls. O, Lord Caleo, accept our sacrifice.” Deina’s eyes flickered upwards at Regius one more time. “O, Lord Caleo, return in a blaze of fire!”