"I am a lightless creature, like you, my apprentice."
Silence followed immediately afterward, the words echoing in everyone's mind, shaking their very souls. What was left to say? What could anyone say upon hearing such words?
"No," the bishop said, his voice no longer a confident and unrelenting one, bringing out what he suppressed most; what greatest weakness of human he severed from his very being: emotions.
Maleagant struggled against his urge to cough, letting out more muffled ones that only grew in intensity and quantity as he stared at the bishop with his bloodshot eyes, though they harboured no anger or unnecessary emotions.
"I have seen things," continued the bishop. "Things that even the darkness, the furthest recesses of our souls cannot begin to fathom. Things that have let me shed my weakness, sprout wings that let me soar unto greater heights, transcending mere mortal minds..." He paused, slowly shaking his head as he looked at the ground. "And after all of this," he looked back at Maleagant, "you stand before me, claiming to be my... master? Did you think this would change anything?"
"I told you before," said Maleagant, his voice raspy and soft, "that you are not my enemy. Nefandyr is my—"
"No!"
Again, silence blanketed the room, leaving everyone with a fleeting sense of dread. What was it? What suddenly compelled everyone to drop their notions of friends and foes? Was it the revelation?
"Answer me!" continued the bishop, yelling at the top of his lungs, a cry to the gods, wishing to receive the one answer that would guide him along the path he wished to walk. "What did you think this would change!?"
Maleagant shuddered at the bishop's harsh and monstrous voice. "Nefandyr is my enemy, my apprentice," he replied.
"Again... Again... Again..." Each time he repeated the word felt like a curse unshackled. "Again, you do this to me, my master. You neglect and dismiss my words."
"I will not leave you in darkness again, my apprentice. I will correct what I have... regretted all this time."
The bishop sighed, then began quietly chuckling, revealing his malevolent nature once again. "Then," his voice returned to its stoic and cold tone, "correct it with your life... You too shall face the reckoning."
Green lightning flashed once again from the bishop's staff, lashing out at Maleagant, whose staff deflected the lightning, splintering into several bolts that latched onto the other nefandites, frying the occultists, deacons, guards, assassins, and militiamen.
Kane and Bauer watched as they dropped to the ground, their souls shepherded to death as their bodies slowly stopped struggling against the pain that tore them apart from within.
Bauer slowly stood up, again ready to strike the bishop, seeing his one chance to make great start towards amends.
Maleagant, noticing Bauer, used all in his wisdom to channel the lightning back at the bishop, sending him flying across the room, crashing into the wall. He quickly waved his staff as he looked at Bauer, pinning the young swordsman to the wall with an invisible force.
Maleagant sighed, feeling his lungs burn as he let out the deep breath he held onto so dearly. "Kane," he called out, grabbing the boy's attention, "the bag in your shirt's pocket, give it to me."
Kane's eyes darted to Maleagant, who patiently held out an open hand, before he reached into his breast pocket. He pulled out a small pouch, one that he'd forgotten he was holding onto, one that he took from the first time he stumbled about the nefandite hideout.
It was the bag of beans, but what confused him most was how Maleagant knew he was holding onto it, rather than why he wanted it.
"Quickly!" yelled Maleagant, watching as the bishop slowly began picking himself off the ground.
With a shaky hand, Kane dropped the bag into Maleagant's hand, watching as the old man unravelled a thin knot and scattered the beans onto the ground.
"No!" the bishop yelled, flicking his wrist, sending a red comet hurling straight for Kane.
Kane watched as the comet flew straight for him, unable to move as everything played out in slow motion. Am I dead?
But just as the petrifaction took over his body, the beans on the ground exploded into massive stalks that coiled around each other and pierced the ceiling above, shattering it as it continued to sprout. The surroundings shook as though a severe earthquake had suddenly found its way over, followed by a low and deafening rumble.
The stalks shielded Kane from imminent death, though the bishop was more than determined to seize victory, quickly getting an angle to fire more blood red comets at him and Bauer.
Maleagant quickly intercepted, firing purple comets of equal magnitude, destroying both evocations as they collided with each other.
"Go! Go!" yelled Maleagant, coughing more and more. "Kane and Bauer, escape while you can!"
"Sage, we can defeat him together!" protested Kane, quickly standing up as he stared at Maleagant, his body still quaking as he struggled to stand from the commotion the stalks caused. "We won't leave—"
"I said go!" yelled Maleagant, waving his staff to shoot Kane up towards the stalk that kept climbing up. He quickly defended against more magic the bishop fired, exerting himself to do all in his power to keep Bauer safe, who stood in silence, unsure of what to do as he held his sword.
"Bauer," continued Maleagant, "take Kane back to my sanctuary. When you get there, tell him to open the chest and take everything inside, he will know what I mean."
"I cannot leave you here," said Bauer, gripping his sword as he watched the bishop quickly maneuver around the stalk, creating a starlight explosion from the tips of his staff that directed small pellets right at him. He quickly defended with his blade. "We must get out together!"
"You cannot win," said the bishop, his voice piercing through the deafening rumbling, as did the sounds of the powerful magic he cast, revealing the true arcane nature of the world as they knew it. "Now die," he added, casting a raging, orange fireball, much larger than himself, that lit up the room.
"Bauer!" said Maleagant, grabbing the young man's attention immediately as he stood between him and the bishop, fighting the battle on two fronts: one side with someone who wanted to kill him, and the other side with one who didn't want to listen.
Maleagant held his staff out, letting the fireball collide with an invisible wall, which exploded and splintered with its own miniature fireballs that landed on the beanstalk, setting a small part of it on fire.
"Listen to me!" he continued. "Regret is an opportunity missed. Remember these words, for God's sake, Bauer, remember them! Now go! Help Kane! Help him survive! He's now your companion for life. You are brothers now! Go, and whatever it is you choose to do with your lives, live it without regrets!"
Bauer wanted to protest, though his opened mouth quickly stopped itself, as he nodded and hitched a ride on the bean stalks, looking down to see the floor collapse, plunging both the bishop and Maleagant out of vision.
He wanted to yell. He wanted to express his apologies for thinking poorly of the old man, but it was then that he remembered that he need to live his life without regrets. Let bygones be bygones. He looked up, watching as the blinding light of day shone through cracks in the layered ceilings above. The light at the end of the tunnel was encroaching, and maybe, just maybe, he and Kane would see to it that they would not let the old man's sacrifice go to waste.