Sebastian took a moment to grasp what had just happened. He was a fool to underestimate his uncle.

'Demons are clever nasty species' his grandfather used to say, 'and for their intelligence, I could say I somehow adore them.'

Once again Sebastian felt as though he was standing on no land, as though the land beneath him had disappeared and he was left helpless, supportless. And yet he would not fall in the seamless depthless pit that took shape beneath him. He would not fall into that endless pit of oblivion. For somehow his petrified form kept on lingering before Delroy. It was Delroy who would give the ultimate command, whether to wipe him from existence or make him his toy.

But what would Delroy do with him was the slightest of his worries. What truly destroyed his self confidence and drowned him in an ocean of despair were the two pale lifeless bodies sitting before him - those of Aunt Jane and Laura.

"What have you done to them?" Sebastian said after a lot of efforts. His voice was no longer confident or threatening. Desperation to find out the state his dearest were in and despair filled his voice. Suddenly a wolf's fury was lost from his eyes, replaced by a broken dog's confusion.

"As far as Laura is concerned, she is unhurt. A little drug can do us a great help in avoiding her babyish protests and those tedious cries. I don't like to watch my dear nephew's girlfriend suffer, you see, dear Sebastian." Delroy almost sounded sincere.

"About Aunt Jane, I can't really say. She was wrapped in rags and her breath was shallow when Alzaknoss delivered her here. You should thank Pelussia. She herself brought her here a few hours ago. But though she isn't dead, I'm afraid she's not much alive either. And it is all your fault, Sebastian. It was the greed that possessed you which brought such disaster onto the people you care so much for. And I also can't say a word about Laura's uncle. We had a little trouble retrieving what was rightly ours."

He said while pointing at Laura who fortunately did not look very different from earlier. She still seemed to be asleep, unaware of what was going on and she did not look hurt, as Delroy had promised.

Sebastian's eyes then turned to his aunt. They singed and moistened as soon as the realisation of her plight struck him.

She wore the same black gown she had worn the night Alzaknos had appeared. The gown was torn at many places and the cuts that could be seen through her torn gown were not superficial. They went deep. So deep a part of her bone was visible at her knee. Layers of dried blood had solidified around the cuts and over her garment. Her once black clothes had developed a shade of dark red. Several burn marks destroyed her palms and there was a wide gash on her neck.

Her face was supported against the back of the chair but Sebastian could not have a proper look at it. Her hair, dyed red by dried blood, had stuck to her forehead covering all of her face.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" Delroy said when he saw the horror on Sebastian's face.

This couldn't be true. This couldn't be true. He tried to convince himself. Perhaps Pelussia was some kind of a psychic and had messed up with his mind. Perhaps the person sitting before him was not his aunt but a dummy or a different person altogether.

But Sebastian knew what was before him was true. No amount of soothing lies could drive this cruel truth away.

Delroy walked towards Aunt Jane and stood behind her. A wide grin spread on his fat ugly face.

"Don't you think she's dead now?" Delroy said while lowering his head towards Aunt Jane's. He stopped when his ear almost touched her nose.

"I can hear no breathing, not even pale dying breaths." Delroy said.

"Such a shame. She was a proud woman. In fact I admired her. The way she fought in her time. And the way she sacrificed herself to save a man who wasn't even her true born son...such a kind ferocious woman, I must pay my condolences."

He sighed. Though he seemed truly sympathetic about Aunt Jane's plight, his eyes told a different, a true story of his inner feelings. While his fake sad smile still lingered on his face, his eyes were dancing with joy. Delroy had never seen Sebastian so grieved and every passing second was like heaven to him. To Sebastian, it was worse than hell.

"Still not convinced she's dead? Here, feel her pulse. It's not there!" Delroy mocked him yet again.

"Well, to be honest, I think there is a slight teensy weensy life in her. Should we call an ambulance? Though I don't think it will make it in time." Delroy laughed.

All this time, Sebastian remained silent. He was frozen in shock, in grief. He had never expected his plan to fail so miserably. A tear escaped his eyes. How could he have not known? How could he let Delroy do such a great harm to him?

His mother was dead because of him. His father was dead because of him. His brother was missing because of him. Aunt Jane was on the verge of leaving the world of living because of him.

All because of him. All because of Delroy.

He clenched his fists as another tear escaped his reddened eyes. They singed with so much anger and despair, Sebastian could not take it anymore. At first he felt destroyed. Like he had no energy, no power. He felt like a deflated balloon. He felt helpless, pathetic, miserable.

But now, he felt nothing. No hatred, no anger, no sorrow or no wrath stirred in his heavy heart. He could hear no word Delroy spoke. He could feel no air or water around him. He could see nothing but Delroy's laughing face.

Everything else around him seemed to die. Even Laura remained no concern to him. All he cared about was revenge. All he wanted was to drink Delroy's blood and tear away his guts. All he wanted was to shred every muscle of him until nothing remained and rip his soul apart. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else.

A silence spread all around him. Even Delroy stopped talking when he realised something unnatural was happening around Sebastian.

A soothing serenity washed over his senses. A soft ripple disturbed the silent surface of water that covered every inch of the stony surface. It was no ripple caused by wind. It came from where Sebastian stood.

Another wave rippled and another. A dark aura materialised out of nowhere, shrouding Sebastian. The dark blue aura glowed brighter and for once Delroy realised what was happening.

His surprise suddenly turned into amusement and a smile cracked on his face. He grinned like a stupid child.

"Oh finally, aftet all these efforts finally you decide to show me your true self, your Deathstar. I thought I'll never see it, I'm old you see. Had I known a murder would stir the devil within, I'd have done this a long time ago. Nonetheless, Better late than never." He rubbed his palms against each other and looked at him curiously.

The dark aura thickened and darkened further. Soon Sebastian's eyes were no longer blue. A sinister glow appeared in them. Also the serenity on his face was now lost. His anger resurfaced and a monstrous smile crept on his face.

Layers of water flew around his feet and soon there was no water beneath him. Wind rattled through his hair and ripped his shirt from him. His bare body glistened with sweat.

Sebastian closed his eyes. For a moment everything seemed to dull. The wind grew less fierce and water beagn to retake its earlier place. Even the dark aura dimmed momentarily.

Then he opened his eyes and everything burst into motion.

So much energy radiated through him the stones beneath him started to crack. Wind grew so fierce it forced Delroy to take a defensive stance. He strengthened his feet and took support of the chairs. And yet he could not stand straight. As Sebastian glanced at him more wind went wild and tumbled not only Delroy but also the chairs. Aunt Jane fell face down in the deeper waters while Laura dashed against a heavy stone. A cloudy red colour rose through the water around her. While a few unnoticed bubbles escaped from where Aunt Jane had fallen.

But all that had no effect on Sebastian. Nothing mattered. What only mattered was revenge.

Delroy smiled. He ordered one of his guards to give him his sword, Dark Guris. The sword had no specialty. Its blade however was precious. It was forged of the purest of Black Steel.

Delroy grinned and waved his hand. A column of wind and water went spiralling towards Sebastian. However, before it could reach him, the column broke away clashing against a few earthly pillars which held the cavern upright.

Delroy's guards, after glimpsing the terrible clash of the two demons, fled for dear life.

And then the most unexpected happened.

"Sebastian, stop!" Pamela came running out of nowhere. A man stood beside her who looked at what was happening with the slightest of interests possible; as if he knew exactly how this event was going to turn out and what consequences would it lead to.

He wore a light brown overcoat over a clean white shirt. A navy blue tie adorned his neck. Judging from a Victorian bow and a huge hat, he had to be from the vintage era.

With a strangely serene face that radiated nothing but kindness and innocence, the man almost looked divine. His eyes were a shade of calm ocean, bluish grey and silent. His face was perfectly sculpted, with proper length of nose and proper height of cheekbones. No hair lingered on his face, except for a limited lining of eyebrows. A curtain of dark brown hair shrouded his head. They reached unto his shoulders. He was tall and had a lean build.

With tall stature and vintage dressing, he would have easily been noticed in a crowd of people, but among a group of two fighters, a frantic woman and two fallen ladies, he remained unnoticed.

Pamela looked as though the world was ending. Two streams of endless tears wetted her cheeks and her voice cracked as she shouted over the raging winds and splashes of water.

"Sebastian, you have to stop. You can't do it. It will kill you. It will destroy your soul!" She shouted futilely for yet another time.

No matter how hard she tried, Sebastian paid her no heed. He didn't even look at her. The one standing before her was no Sebastian. It was a beast. A beast whose only purpose was destruction. Destruction of Delroy and all who stood before him.

Frantically, she looked around trying to figure out how to reach him. And then further horror rose on her face when she saw Laura and Aunt Jane in the stagnant waters. She hurried towards them, ignoring the rising winds and the furious waters. A wave clashed against her which set her spiralling until she got her head dashed.

She still rose, ignoring the burning sensation on her forehead. She still fought against the odds and her dizzy mind. Streams of scarlet trickled down her forehead and met with her eyes. Wiping off the blood, she never stopped until she got there.

She let a sob when she realised Aunt Jane had no pulse. Letting out tears of despair, she futilely pressed at her breasts expecting the water to rush out and her to revive. Water did gush out through her system but Aunt Jane showed no sign of life.

She was long gone.

Pamela cleared her eyes of blood and water with her sleeves and crouched through the water until she reached Laura. With the last of her efforts she pulled her out of the water and rested her head on the rock against which she had dashed her haid.

Pamela, the girl who never prayed, prayed hard to make things happen against her expectations. A girl of reason pleaded for unexplainable miracle. She pressed her ears against Laura's breast and let out a sigh. Her pulse was not gone. She was quite alive. Whatever the demons did to Aunt Jane, they did not touch Laura. But she still was in a threat. She had lost a lot of blood.

She tore a piece of her dress and wrapped it around Laura's wound. That was all she could do. And pray, pray for Laurs to gain consciousness, pray for Sebastian to gain control.

Meanwhile, Sebastian and Delroy were engaged in a battle of fury and rage.

The winds had subsided and the water had gone silent with it, though it occasionally stirred with Sebastian's and Delroy's fierce blows.

A dark glow still persisted around Sebastian as he fought with a sword Pamela had seen never before. The silver made sword had a very sharp and wide blade. While it tapered towards the hilt, it had a good curvy sharp edge towards the end. Had Pamela been a warrior, she would certainly have tricked Sebastian into losing that sword to her.

Delroy however wielded no special sword. His was an ugly blade with no proper shape. Several curves branched along its length and yet the sword more or less looked straight. A dark steel skull adorned its hilt. Ugly it was but powerful. It was made of Black Steel, the rarest kind of steel invented centuries ago and mostly lost to demons. What made it even priceless was the fact that Black Steel could never be remade. The process of its making was lost long ago. Even the best of blacksmiths had no clue of its composition.

The two swords clashed against each other fiercely. They sliced at each other so furiously and swiftly Pamela was afraid she would miss the blow she dreaded the most in a blink of an eye. She obviously did not want to witness Sebastian's death but yet she could not close her afraid eyes. What if she does and miss a single opening which would let her save Sebastian before it was too late?

As much as mortal danger loomed over Sebastian, Pamela also feared an unearthly gloom would devour him. He had taken upon one of the forbidden forms of Deathstar - Dance of the Dead Kings.

Since it had been forbidden to practise this art since hundreds of years, little was known about this art. Pamela came to know about it through a great efforts and she wondered how Sebastian could truly master the art. Ever since the forbiddance, the art was more or less destroyed. It was forgotten by masters, it was forgotten by even the most ancient scriptures.

This Deathstar wasn't called the Dance of the Dead Kings for no reason. Kings were the most powerful men of their time. By tradition, each King had to swear his loyalty to Casstelia and pledge for eternal service to the kingdom by offering a part of his soul to Casstelia's sole Guardian, Lady Melissa.

This art, developed by a sorcerer centuries ago, combined one's Deathstar and the fragments of all those souls thus sacrificed to Lady Melissa. Fused with the darkest of black magic, it presented the ultimate art, the one which could destroy any calamity however huge, the one which could obliterate any enemy however strong. But at the cost of an ultimate price - the wielder of the art shall fade from existence once his intentions were met. It was the debt to be paid to harness this limitless amount of energy.

That's why it was called the Dance of the Dead Kings. You could summon the spiritual prowess of the long dead kings, but you could never save yourself truly. Your intentions of revenge would be fulfilled, but you wouldn't be there to taste that divine feeling of satisfaction. You could save others but your life would stay doomed. Not just this life, not the next, but all to come. In satisfying your innermost desires, You would lose yourself.

And then you shall have no past, no present, no future.

You'd be dead, speaking in the simplest truest sense possible.