Theo's Levia seared in alarm. Just as he snapped his head up, Victor unleashed a bestial roar. Engulfed in purple flames, his sword sliced through Zenith's arm.
Numb, Theo watched the arm clatter to the floor. There was no blood; it was as if a piece had fallen off a suit of armor. Except – except – the suit of armor was a living, moving person, now with a gaping hole where his right arm should be.
A scream clawed up Theo's throat, but it couldn't escape. Not through the white-hot lightning wracking his entire body, a raging storm unlike anything he'd ever felt from Zenith's Levia.
Zenith dove for the sword still clutched within his fallen hand, but Victor cut in his way. At last the scream broke through.
Victor drew his sword back, only to slam the flat of the blade into Zenith's chest.
The impact knocked Zenith to the floor, yet his surprise echoed inside Theo's heart. Why hadn't Victor cut him down that instant? No time to wonder, not before Victor loomed above the fallen Zenith and stomped on his chest.
Zenith's entire body convulsed. He let out a choked cry.
Victor didn't give him any reprieve. He stomped once, twice, three times more, each harder than the last. When the armor cracked beneath his boot, panic stole Theo's breath.
One final stomp shattered Zenith's breastplate entirely, scattering twisted hunks of metal across the floor. The gems still glowed, but too weakly to penetrate the darkness.
Then Victor seized a fistful of Zenith's hair and yanked his head up. Zenith groaned, his remaining arm clanking against the floor. Victor didn't let up; Theo could see the tendons straining in Zenith's throat, the taut hair pulling against Victor's knuckles.
'Do something! Do something! DO SOMETHING!'
Victor's fist flashed. The force of the blow knocked Zenith's head to the side, but Victor didn't loosen his grip on his hair. He kicked Zenith next, right in the unprotected chest.
"Pathetic," he sneered, his voice shuddering with so much hate Theo no longer recognized it. But it was Victor's all the same. He could no longer close his eyes to his brother's true self.
"Pathetic," Victor said again. A yank on Zenith's hair, then he slammed the knight to the floor hard enough to crack the marble. "You're depending on this to protect you, Theo? How completely fucking stupid. This thing – " He kicked Zenith's fallen arm, sending it spinning across the floor "- is just a machine. A metal toy. It's as useful as the action figures you used to play with as a kid."
Theo could only watch as Victor punched Zenith again. His head snapped back, but there was no blood.
"This is a doll without a heart or emotions. All it knows is its directive to fight for its liege. Sure, that includes protecting you. But only because it's programmed to. Don't delude yourself into believing it cares."
He tossed Zenith aside. The knight hit the floor with a clatter of metal and didn't get up. As the breaths whistled in Theo's throat, Victor began to approach. Each slow, deliberate step echoed like a gunshot.
Now nothing shielded Theo from his glare, scorching like the desert sun. But Theo had the strangest, uncanny sense that the fury twisting Victor's face wasn't aimed at him, or even at Zenith.
"A weak little kid who plays with toys. That's all you are. I'll break it into pieces and set you free."
The raw hate in his voice stung like poison. This was a Victor who'd lost any sense of limits, who'd thrown away every last pretense of rationality. Who knew what he was capable of?
He whirled around, ponytail whipping behind him, and marched back toward Zenith. As he raised his flaming blade, sense finally slammed back into Theo.
What was he doing? Just sitting here shuddering, as useless as Victor said he was. No. He couldn't think about it now, his reasons for fighting, how he intended to save Victor.
What mattered the most was right in front of him. His familiar, broken, battered. About to meet his end.
Because of him. Because he'd been dumb enough to fall for such an obvious trap, and then get shaken by some stupid trick of Captain Mirage's. Selfish, the illusion had called him. Well, he really would be selfish if got Zenith killed trying to save him from his own mess.
He climbed to his feet. His Levia exploded within him, surging through every vein and washing away all doubts.
Buoyed in warm dawn light, Theo felt like he was floating. Or maybe flying, like in his dreams....
He could see the light glowing from his skin, as if his blood and bones and organs had transformed into pure Levia. Pure power.
The power to turn this situation around. To save Zenith, to correct his mistakes.
A spell emerged from the depths of his mind. He traced it with his Levia, following lines so familiar it felt like he was finding his way home.
The diagram burst beneath his feet, and didn't stop there. Wider and wider it spread, engulfing the entire floor and banishing every trace of darkness and shadow. The chamber seemed smaller now, no longer as oppressive.
The instant the diagram touched the fallen Zenith, Theo felt something snap in place between them. A connection. All of the Levia he had gathered was pouring from the lines of the diagram into Zenith's body – not just his body, but the shining crystal core of his being.
The dawn glow met the harsh white light, soothing and softening it, shoring it up in the places where it flickered and sputtered. Their two Levias combined until Theo could no longer tell who was who. Theo or Zenith, human or homunculus, wizard or familiar. None of it mattered.
In a single fluid motion, Zenith stood upright. He gestured, and the sword snapped out of his fallen right arm and flew into his left hand.
The blade was aglow. Not with Theo's dawn light, but his own harsh white power. As he swung it, an arc of brilliant blades followed, fashioned from light but each as deadly as the original.
Zenith snapped his sword forward. The light-blades shot across the room.
They ricocheted back and forth, a storm of razor-sharp light. Slicing gouges across the floor and walls, shattering the crystal sconces, even slashing the throne into pieces and scattering withered roses everywhere.
"Captain!" Victor yelled, leaping in front of Mirage with his sword raised.
In a flash of light, Zenith charged.
His glowing sword sliced Victor's blade in half as if it was made of paper. Light surged in its wake, cutting a massive gash across Victor's chest armor.
Victor stumbled, gasping for breath. Zenith dove in for another attack –
But the Levia pumping through Theo was weakening; the diagram began to flicker like a TV with bad reception. As the light receded, physical sensations rushed back in. A throbbing ache in his skull. A heaviness in his limbs. The taste of metal in his mouth.
His vision blurred. Desperate, he tried to keep his eyes open, but no matter how hard he fought he couldn't stop them from sliding shut. The light dissolved into nothing, and darkness swallowed his world.