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TWENTY THREE

She needed to think, she had one sword and one mark left to destroy, what was she to do?

Helpless, she looked down and saw that Gracyn had left Felix, who was now the least of the King's worries, and was now passed out against the wall, and Bex could see he had been injured.

"Bex!" He heard someone scream, and looked down to see Gracyn and Conner standing just a few feet away from here on the ground. She looked at them for assistance, and saw that they already had a plan.

Conner's finger was lit like a match and Gracyn was holding out an arrow, aimed for the final mark on the King's forehead.

The tip of the arrow lit ablaze, and Gracyn immediately let the it fly into the forehead of the lizard like monster.

Another, another, and another, and finally the King's mark dimmed, its blood soaking the arrows before they burned and turned to ash, and finally it fell to it's knees, and Bex let go of the handle of her blade, rolling into the floor, onto her back, and was quickly dragged away by Gracyn and Conner as the King screeched out, gripping its forehead before it combusted into small black and jade particles.

~

Conner inhaled sharply before putting his sword away, walking through the particles and towards Bex's swords, which were impaled into the ground. He pulled them out and used the shirt underneath his armor to wipe away the blood, before handing it back to Bex, who was just behind him, while Gracyn when to Felix.

"Felix, hey, can you hear me?" Conner heard Gracyn whisper as they walked to the man, who was just seeming to wake up.

"Gracyn?" He groaned, "wha - ?"

"Hey," Gracyn smiled, breathlessly, happy to see that Felix was alive, awake, and seemingly well. "Felix, everything's okay, we sealed another king." He said happily, though Conner couldn't help to feel like it was forced. "Can you get up?" He asked once Felix seemed to get his bearings, and he nodded, mumbling a faint 'mhm.'

Gracyn nodded, giving him an encouraging smile as he took his hand and helped him up, handing him his sword as he rubbed the back of his head, "thanks," he groaned, looking at Bex who was still covered in blood, "you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry." She smiled, placing a firm hand on his shoulder, looking him up and down with a grin, "not bad."

"Thanks." He smiled with a soft laugh, "shall we continue?"

They all nodded and started forward, and Conner got the bright idea to pass around their canister of water, and watched as all his friend's hydrated themselves, smiling with glee as he realized that they were all okay, all safe. All alive.

Gracyn handed the canister to Conner as they walked towards a dead tree to rest, they'd seem to enter a new level of Hell.

The previous one was made of weak flames, lava, charcoal, and was inhabited by a lizard like King, with cold, pitch black blood, with jade colored marks. While this area looked like the aftermath of a forest fire, and Conner could help but feel his skin crawl as his back rubbed against the dead tree, and instead of a weight lifting off him, he felt like a few extra pounds had been added, and he took a deep breath, closing his eyes and allowing his head to fall.

"You know that's pretty bad for your neck." He heard Felix say as he sat down across from him, and Conner groaned as he forced his eyes to open. "We need to talk."

"About?" Conner asked, adjusting his posture with a grunt, "really I should be sleeping, we have two more kings to take out, not to mention Celes - "