Classy, Controlled Chaos - The STEAM Team Adventures

⚔️ Swords Dance [8/12] ⚔️

Sir Blackthorne's POV:

I can feel her power radiating through the earth.

A strong, penetrating force that cannot be stopped by physical boundaries alone.

Even magic could not contain such power.

However, physical bonds like iron chains can restrain mine.

Permafrost would have called me pathetic.

Deep where I reside in the Silverstorm Stronghold's darkest underground dungeons, I know she's out there, fighting and thriving in our world.

Captain Tia Aquaticlaw is out there in Lunarift, prepared to fight Heaven or die trying.

After what I've seen from her, I have a feeling that she's invincible or something.

For some odd reason, she never seems to die.

Burns that would normally incinerate the flesh off of one's body in contact end up doing barely anything to stop her on the battlefield.

Marshall Valkyrie, who I assumed to be one of her battle partners, picked me up and practically roasted me alive.

She gets the same treatment (or at least, close to the same treatment) and manages to shake it off like it was simply an insignificant scratch.

I'm pretty sure even the strongest Darkness user couldn't replicate such power.

Power that should have been in my possession, of course.

If she hadn't resisted trusting me all those years ago, I'd probably have an untouchable weapon all to myself... And maybe a wife.

Sometimes I wish I didn't mess up and let her turn me in to the dungeons of a kingdom I once called home.

I miss my freedom...

"Sir Blackthorne?" A familiar, husky voice called to me through the oppressive darkness of the cell I was imprisoned in. "You better be awake."

"Can't sleep anyways." I huffed, leaning against the cold, mossy stone wall. "Who is it?"

I heard metal armor plates grinding against one another; I knew it was another knight.

"Sir Blizzard," the voice replied, his tone dangerously low. "We need to talk."

Once I turned around to face the bars of my cell, I saw him standing just out of my field of vision, his arms crossed against his armored chest.

His visor was lifted, revealing a tuft of his cloud-white hair and piercing, cobalt eyes.

He was strikingly similar to Tia, with the intimidating glare and everything.

"You and I have a lot in common, y'know that?" Sir Blizzard smiled, his teeth an unsettlingly bright white. "Betrayal, jealousy, maybe even... Desire?"

I kept my guard up, taking note of his persuading look. "Let's not beat around the bush, old friend. Get straight to the point."

"Hmm, I like you." The cloud-white knight grinned, coolly striding over to the bars of my cell. "Maybe I'll make a deal with you... Maybe."

I frowned at him, watching as he tinkered with what I realized was a lock on the wall beside him. "What do you propose, then?"

"It's simple, really." He smirked, effortlessly pushing open a door disguised as a set of steel bars. "You and me. We team up and take down Northwynd and have it all to ourselves."

"At what cost?" I asked, unconvinced.

Sir Blizzard's icy blue eyes glinted in the darkness as he spoke, his boots clicking against the cold stone as he quietly approached me.

"You don't seem to have anything left to lose." He countered, lifting a hand up and lowering his helmet visor. "However, you do have something you can gain from this."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Are you lying to me?"

"Ah, so the deal seems too good to be true, eh?" The cloud-white knight chuckled, reaching over to pat me on the back. "It'd be best for you to accept, because otherwise..."

I flinched as he traced a cold finger along the back of my neck, stopping just at where the iron collar clamped around my flesh.

"You'd have to rot down here for the rest of eternity." He finished, prodding at the metal. "Now that doesn't sound so fun, does it?"

I squinted at him through the darkness, trying to read his facial expression through his helmet.

He was either being surprisingly genuine with me or putting up a sweet facade to trick me into falling for some trap.

Then again, he was once under my control as the former leader of the Northwynd royal guard.

I don't think he'll betray me, even though I no longer have power over him.

"We suffer together or suffer alone," I sighed, inching away from his hand. "Right?"

"Precisely," Sir Blizzard replied bluntly. "That's the best way to put it."

He dropped his hand from where it was perched by my neck, offering it for me to shake.

After a couple moments of hesitation, I took his hand in mine, giving it a firm squeeze. "Deal."

The cloud-white knight simply nodded at me, turning around and stepping out of the cell. "Great. Now, first things first, come out here. I've got a little something for you to see."

I followed him in his footsteps until we reached the spiral staircase leading up to the exit of the dungeons. "What is it?"

He gave me a mischievous grin. "Let's just say that Tia entrusted this weapon in the wrong hands."

A glint of something shiny caught my eye, and I looked down into his hands to see a shadowy, obsidian scythe.

The aura of Darkness radiating from it was all too familiar for me not to recognize my Daybreak Scythe.

"How?!" I gasped, watching him fondle with the handle.

Sir Blizzard lifted the curved blade, gently tapping the sharp tip of it against the collar around my neck. "Asked me to polish it for her. Hopefully Arthur doesn't find out I stole it."

Although the tight metal had finally crumbled from my neck and I could finally breathe properly, I frowned upon the news. "You know exactly how brutal she can get, right?"

"I'm aware of her power," he replied simply, stepping into the velvet carpet of the hallway. "However, we can stop her."

A cunning smile spread across my face as I comprehended the mentality of my former trainee and my new partner in crime.

"It will be a pleasure working with you."