Till's breathing was loud and rough, he was shaking all over his body, dried tears lingered on his cheeks, down to his chin.
He felt cold and was filled with fear; he looked around himself, on edge, looking out for something, like an injured animal trying to hide from its hunter.
All around him was dark purple mist, drastically decreasing the range of how far he could see, making him feel like he was backed into a corner at all times, even though he had been walking for an inexplicable duration, which just served to show how big this space was.
His left hand was forced shut, wrapped around the object of his party's desire, not of his own volition... he frequently glanced at it, and each time he shuddered... Till could not let go of the multi-elemental staff, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he attempted to pry his hand open, to pull his fingers off.
Fire, earth, and air were orbiting around it... but the newest addition was the blue tear-shaped artefact he had been carrying in his pocket.
The tear was floating a short distance next to the staff, yet they were inseparable... Till could pull and push as much as he liked, it was impossible to remove the tear.
With just one exception... when he pushed the tear closer.
There was little resistance whenever he tried to get the tear closer to the staff, at first at least, because the closer the tear got, the greater the reverberations in the air became, and it was clear that he was missing some crucial understanding on how to properly harmonize them, and keep the staff from producing sparks, that made it seem like it would burst apart at any moment.
He shuddered, imagining what would happen to him if he got caught up in that resulting explosion, especially since he had no way of removing the staff.
His gaze shot to the right, a tremor travelled through his body, his breathing came to a halt as one of those shadow creatures entered the range of his vision.
Till's arm rose into the air, pulled up by the staff that was acting on its own, the orbiting trail of fire sped up, then a singular fireball was unleashed and hurled at the creature, leaving behind nothing but the regular purple smoke.
The boy looked at the artefact in his hands, as terrifying as its power was, it was carrying out his will, to protect himself...
His gaze shifted again, shooting to more shadows... there they were again, the five shadows that had been plaguing him, following him, yet only watching from a distance.
The staff buzzed once more, pieces of rock flung themselves at the shadows, and then they disappeared into the smoke...
"Damnit Till! Open your eyes!" Matilda cursed, Agnes and the rest of her party, except for Miser, stood next to her, Sarah was holding her back, making sure she couldn't run into his range and get herself killed.
They were still within the Land of Fog, only a short distance from the location of their previous fight, surrounded by a shield of ice, small, sharp rocks were stuck inside of it.
Till appeared to be sleep-walking, the staff tightly within his grasp, warding off approaching foes, the shadows, and even his former friends.
"Agnes, what is happening to him? What can we do? How can we help?" Matilda turned her focus to the rank two ice mage.
Agnes shook her head, "I don't know. I have never seen this before. It is like he is possessed, the same as how the shadow was controlling the corpse, that was holding onto the staff during our fight. Three elements in one artefact... I still can't believe that it is real... I suddenly feel like I know nothing."
"What about Miser?" a deep voice rang out, everyone turned their heads to look at Tomalta, who lowered his own while averting his gaze.
Matilda took a sharp breath, "Sinnah, Tomalta, can you please go look for him-"
"Look for the healing artefact first, the one we handed to Fraten, it could come in handy if... you know..." Agnes interjected.
The two nodded at them, then headed out, to look for the artefact and their remaining party member.
Matilda frowned, she gnashed her teeth, then exhaled loudly and grabbed onto Agnes' cloak, "What now...?" she barely whispered.
Agnes looked her in the eyes, "He is only reacting to when we enter a certain range, as I said, I don't know what is causing it, and I also don't have a surefire way to get him out of whatever trance he is in, but I can gather as many particles as I need and prepare them to maybe overwhelm him, and try and separate him from the staff."
"Maybe? Try?" Sarah spoke up, those words were a far cry from anything that inspired confidence.
"Look, I am not specialised in defence, those few spells I do know are only because there happened to be some in my master's inheritance, and not because they are a vital part of my style. I don't know any spells that don't kill aside from them, so I don't have any more confidence in pulling this off than you all, especially since I would be getting bombarded by deadly spells in the meantime." Agnes explained somewhat irritated.
Matilda tightened her grip, "Please Agnes... please save Till... I knew the risks of entering this place, but I don't want to pay the price... Miser, Till..." she shuddered.
"I won't promise anything, I will do what I can, and no more than that." Agnes answered, she pulled her cloak out of Matilda's hand, then walked towards the unconscious and staff-wielding Till.
She stopped outside of the invisible area that the boy was reacting to, dark blue cold particles gathered around that zone in huge quantities, surrounding Till from all sides.
Agnes didn't stop there, she had seen what the staff was capable of, and gathered more and more particles in preparation, an act that would be unthinkable in a real battle, as no one would give her that much time and risk getting assaulted relentlessly afterwards.
She took her time and observed the boy throughout it all, but it was clear that he wouldn't react to any changes, as long as they were happening on the outside of this fictious barrier he seemed to be controlling.
Agnes closed her eyes, she began to feel the particles around her, watched them clump together and then split up again, just taking in their natural behaviour for a moment, she kept repeating the same words over and over in her head, reminding herself of her goal, of keeping Till alive...
She inhaled, held her breath for several seconds, then slowly exhaled as she opened her eyes.
Almost one third of the total particles she gathered acted in unison, they merged, fused into one big dome, spreading ice and cold wind all around itself.
This was one of Agnes' primary spells, next she would usually combine it with her frost warriors, however this time she didn't.
She allowed the dome to continue its work from outside of Till's range, snow fell into it, ice also spread across the ground, and drew closer towards the young boy, yet there was no reaction from him or the staff.
The air turned frigid, with each of his breaths white mist would also escape Till's mouth, the ice that travelled across the ground encircled him, then began to move up his boots, and legs.
He reacted for the first time, noticing the cold and how it was hindering his movement.
Till raised the staff, the fire that was orbiting the artefact spread out to create a bigger circle, warmth radiated onto the boy from all sides and eased his shivering, which caused Agnes to frown, as her spell, her efforts, were being counteracted.
"Is he fighting back?" Matilda tried to peek over Agnes' shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of how her friend was faring against a rank two mage's spell.
"Shh!" Agnes shushed her out, sweat beads were gathering atop her forehead as another third of the particles she prepared were flowing into her dome, strengthening it, and overpowering the staff's flame.
The ice continued to spread, travelling up Till's ankles, up to his knees; he was shaking harder and harder, his remaining hand was rubbing against his arm and along the side of his stomach, in an attempt to ease the cold.
It climbed up to his stomach, where he began to throw a fit, twisting his upper body and throwing his arms around wildly, in hopes of freeing himself.
His staff reacted, and the flame that surrounded him began to burn brighter; Agnes squinted her eyes, she managed to glimpse upon one of the staff's secrets, that it was absorbing the particles around it from the two other elements, earth and air, and somehow altering them to fuel the fire.
Agnes concentrated, the final third of the particles she prepared poured into her spell, the temperature plummeted, freezing even the wind, and forcing it to come to a standstill.
Till's movement got slower and more sluggish, until the ice covered most of his upper body, even his fingers refused to move, and it was down to just his head that was still free.
As much as the staff's flame fought back, it was on the losing side, unable to convert the particles quick enough to keep up with the sudden change that Agnes had caused.
Agnes took another big breath, then took a step forward, and then another, her foot crossing into Till's range, stepping onto the ice, that was as firm as any other surface to her.
Then the other followed, pulling in her entire body along with it, with her connection to her spell she could feel Till's movement, or at least that he tried to move, to raise the staff, to attack her, but he was mostly a frozen statue, not just his body, but also his mind was getting affected too, his desire to put up a fight was dwindling.
Parts of the flames that surrounded him turned into fireballs that hurled themselves at the Agnes, but they were extinguished before coming close enough, as the staff was divide between its tasks.
She took one careful step after the other, observing the boy and his instrument of death closely for any changes, any spot that looked like it was cracking was swiftly covered by another layer of frost.
"No, no please, s-stay back!" Till croaked out as his eyes fell onto Agnes, his tears freezing just as they began to stream down his cheeks, "M-Matilda-" he choked.
Agnes placed one hand onto the staff, wrapping her fingers around it firmly, her second wrapped around the boy's wrist, tightly holding it, she looked into his eyes, and all she could see was terror.
She bit her lower lip, then eased her magic around the staff and his hand, the fire did its job and melted away at the icy coating.
The moment Till was able to wriggle his fingers was when Agnes ripped the staff out of his hand, a task that was achieved effortlessly.
He gasped loudly as his eyes adjusted, taking in his surroundings in an entirely new way.
The oppressive purple mist was receding, and his hand was finally free!
His surroundings became clearer, and the first face he saw was- "Agnes!" he called out her name, fighting to hold back his tears; he wanted to sling his arms around her, but found himself unable to do so.
He looked down to his feet, then back at Agnes, he realised that she was now holding the staff... and when he met her eyes again, it dawned on him that her eyes were unfocused, that what he had experienced until now had befallen her...
The dome around them started to melt and crack, as the flame of the staff continued to heat the area, and Agnes no longer focused on keeping her spell going.
As the dome fell apart, Matilda and Sarah both ran towards the two, knowing that Agnes could start hurling spells at them at any moment, like Till had been doing, but nevertheless they at least needed to attempt getting the young boy out of there!
They tried to pull him free along with the ice that spread up from the ground, but they lacked the strength to do so, "Step back!" Matilda boomed as she lifted her hammer intending to strike the ice and free their party-member, "Are you crazy?!" but Sarah stepped in between her and Till, "What if you shatter his limbs while he is frozen?!" she fervently objected her leader's judgement, an event that happened close to never, but she clearly wasn't in her right mind after everything that had transpired today.
"Wait- wait! What do you mean? What is going on?" Till exclaimed from behind Sarah.
"There is no time! Move!" Matilda urged, but a chill spread down her spine as she could feel something brush against the back of her head-
She slowly turned her head sideways, the corner of her eye spotting Agnes, who looked like she was glaring at her, then she tilted her head a bit further, and glimpsed upon the staff that was threatening to blow her, along with Sarah and Till, to pieces...
"Get out of here Sarah." Matilda mumbled, aside from her lips she no longer dared to move any of her muscles.
"Not a chance!" Sarah protested while looking at Matilda with determination; if this was the end of their journey, so be it, but she wasn't about to leave her friends behind and become the lone survivor, not to mention that there was no amount of distance she could cover, that would make her feel safe from a mage like Agnes.
Matilda looked at Sarah, then Till.
She inhaled and closed her eyes, thinking of the others, of Sinnah, of Tomalta... of Miser.
She felt ready for what came next... but there was no next.
Matilda reopened her eyes and fully turned to face Agnes, she was still aiming the staff at her head, but as she stepped out of the way, her hand did not follow... it was like she was frozen in time.
Agnes blinked in rapid succession, her heart rate was through the roof, she had gambled on her intuition, on what she managed to glean from the way Till had acted, that those shadows around her within the purple mist were nothing to fear... that they were in fact Matilda and the others.
At first it seemed that they were sprinting at her, looking to sever her limbs and drink her blood, but through her conviction, through her firm believe, the creatures stopped in motion and kept their distance, and it wasn't just the three in front of her, but also those others that suddenly appeared around her.
She pulled the staff closer to inspect it, "All of this is your doing then?" her remaining hand trailed along the inscriptions on the strange branch, her intuition told her those were supposed to be runes, but not a single one of those gave her a familiar feeling, "Fire, air, and earth... huh?" her gaze trailed off, then fell onto the floating blue tear, "...Water?"
Agnes attempted to move the tear, just like Till had, and she came to the same conclusion, that when it got closer to the staff, that there was some sort of reaction, however unlike Till, she could feel an intense tingling sensation at the top of her head.
It felt like when she was thinking of a word, when it was at the tip of her tongue, but she was missing that one crucial push to get it out.
"Four elements..." she nearly choked on her spit, "That's... insane." she pressed her second hand against her forehead, "But I am looking directly at it, am I not? What's there not to believe?" she continued pressing the blue tear artefact against the staff, hoping that the sparks between the two would help her figure out what was missing.
"Only a god could possibly create such a thing, no? I am starting to understand why the members of the church are such zealots... and why they would come to this godforsaken place at all. But why would such a powerful artefact end up here? Not to mention that there is no one around protecting it... if the stories are true, and this used to be a battlefield... then what could kill someone that wielded such logic-defying artefacts?" she chuckled, though it wasn't amusement, but unease that elicited this reaction from her.
Agnes looked past the staff, at the purple mist, but in her mind, she saw something else, a tall and unmovable figure that radiated like gold under the sunlight, "If only you were here in my stead... I am sure that you could solve this in an instant, Cykrus." her lips quivered.
She gripped the staff with both of her hands, her arms were lightly trembling, and there was a dangerous glint within the depths of her eyes.
The figure in her mind faded as she focused onto the artefact, taking it in fully for the first time, every curve, every line of inscription, the three elements that were orbiting the staff, and the blue tear, "…I can do this- I will do this." her eyes narrowed, "And then I will come to save you from the Ironhoofs! Wait for me Cykrus!"