Ravens

"You two are the biggest fools in the palace. A lowly servant who doesn't know their place and the infamous waste. In a way, you fit together." The voice continued to taunt aloud.

"Who are you?" Braxis shouted back aloud. He then looked around him and noticed that the busy halls were now barren.

"Me?" The voice asked.

"I'm just a lone raven." The voice answered as a woman in a mask appeared directly in front of Braxis's face, only a few inches apart. A beautiful swirl of ravens that seemed to be an illusion that was alive was painted on to her mask.

Braxis jumped back but the moment he did so, the woman was already gone.

"So, you managed to defeat Fox's vessel while he was off guard and now you're cocky. That's humorous." Raven laughed aloud in a crazed tone.

"What do you know about Master Braxis!" Julianne shouted back as she began to feel angry about the incessant insults.

"Don't fall into her taunts, Julianne." Braxis said as he patted her head and she smiled and calmed herself down.

"Disgusting," Raven said, barely holding back her gagging as a vortex of ravens appeared in front of the two and then began to swirl around them, effectively creating a cocoon-like shape around them that soon just appeared to be pitch black.

Braxis looked around him in a panic as everything was now pitch black, Julianne who was beside him moments ago was now missing as well. There was just nothingness.

"Julianne! Are you alright?!" Braxis shouted in worry but there was no reply. The next thing that Braxis noticed was that the space now seemed to be different as well.

As far as Braxis walked forward, there was no end, nothing to stop him.

'This coward doesn't show themself and then traps me in this place that is almost like a separate dimension.. I need to do something! Wait..' Braxis thought as he immediately gained an idea.

"Summon!" Braxis shouted as he summoned his shadow knight.

The shadow knight formed and was completely invisible, the only way Braxis was able to see that the summon worked was its strange eyes that seemed to glow and look into his soul.

"I command you to devour the darkness within this place!" Braxis yelled at his knight.

The shadow knight then began to sit still and slowly made progress. The shadows began to seep into it's body like a black hole. The fabric of space around them seemed to be consumed endlessly.

"It's working!" Braxis shouted as he witnessed the spectacle. The shadow knight then finished absorbing the darkness completely.

"Julianne!" Braxis screamed, but as soon as he was freed from the dark prison, he realized that Julianne was already pulled out from the space he was in as he laid her eyes upon her.

She was beaten and bloodied with bruises and cuts littered across her body. She struggled to stand as she was spilling blood across the floor, breathing ruggedly. Still, she managed to somehow hold onto her sword in a defensive stance, albeit with a forced slouch and sloppy guard.

Julianne looked at Braxis and let out a slight smile, it was difficult for her to do much more.

"Julianne! What happened!?" Braxis shouted with shock.

"Oh, you've finally come out? I expected better from the Lord's successor. Seems like you're all talk." Raven taunted as she was now in full view of the two of them, slightly levitating off the ground.

"I'll grant you an interesting sight as a reward." Raven said with a twisted grin as she held two of her fingers into the air. Mana began to form around them and then formed into a black substance that danced in between her fingers.

Braxis immediately ran towards Julianne in an attempt to help her avoid the oncoming attack.

Julianne's eyes dimmed as she met face-to-face with the attack, realizing that if this hit her, she'd be dead.

All Julianne could do is turn her head and look at Braxis with a blank expression which shifted into a forced smile. "Thank you, for caring Master Bra-"

Her words were cut off abruptly by Raven's surge of darkness, a torrent of shadowy shapes resembling a flock of ravens in the night sky, all converging upon Julianne's head which entered and then exited through her as if she wasn't a solid object.

With a quick self-assessment, Julianne found no wounds, and a glimmer of hope colored her words. "Braxis, am I okay?"

Raven's voice, icy and detached, broke the silence. "You're already doomed, Julianne. Death's mark has been set." From the point of impact, an ominous mark crept outward, reminiscent of encroaching nightfall.

In an instant, a cacophony overwhelmed Julianne's senses, a dissonant blend of tortured wails that reverberated painfully. Her own voice joined the chorus in fear and agony, her shrieks echoing the torment she experienced.

Then, as if a portal to the abyss had opened beneath her, a vortex of darkness expanded, spectral arms emerging to drag Julianne downward.

"Help! Stop it!" Julianne's cries were stifled by an eerie appendage that protruded from her forehead, silencing her pleas.

Braxis's anguished cry joined Julianne's, his hand stretched out in futility as tears streamed down his cheeks. But he could only watch as the relentless pull of the darkness consumed her, the void swallowing her form whole.

Braxis couldn't help but drop to his knees in agony as he punched the ground in anger, his tears dropping and wetting the floor.

Raven's laughter rang out, a sharp and malevolent sound that seemed to relish the unfolding tragedy. "Did you truly care for that worthless girl? I assumed she was just your amusement!"