The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Fiore's Castle, Emily's bedroom]

"So, how are you holding up?" Elizabeth asked as she was about to finish healing Beck.

"...I'm fine." Emily replied mentally, even though she felt extremely drained.

"You're doing pretty well, if this is your first time." The fairy praised, "I'm almost done, just stay awake for a littl--."

"This is not my first time doing this." Emily corrected, "Erica did this to me once."

"Erica... used you as a medium?" Elizabeth said it so quietly, as if she talking to herself.

"...Yeah. Is there something wrong?"

Elizabeth immediately changed the tone of her voice, into a much cheery one, "It's nothing! I'm just asking."

In the next half an hour, the two were in silence with none of them saying anything to one another.

Emily could bȧrėly keep herself awake. She just felt like sleeping. However, she knew she shouldn't.

Thankfully, just when her eyes were about to clamp shut, Elizabeth announced, "I'm done."

Emily couldn't be any happier to hear those two words.

"...Thank goodness." She mumbled before giving into her exhaustion.

"Emily?" Elizabeth called out, but there was no response. "Oh, I guess she is asleep... Well, you did well, Miss princess."

Elizabeth, who was still in Emily's body, then made Emily walked to the other side of the bed so she could sleep on it, before she emerged out of her body.

"Hmm, now, what should I do now?" Elizabeth asked herself as she hovered above Emily's body. She rubbed her chin as she gave her question some thought.

...

"Ah! Let's just take a quick look at the castle. That will be fun!"

After deciding that, she flew out of the Emily's room and to the other parts of the castle.

*****

[Fiore's Castle, Infirmary]

"So, why is that guy so important?" Ben asked as he stood by the door, making sure that Erik would not go out.

Erik remained silent, refusing to answer.

Noting his silence, Ben continued, "Knowing Phantom, you guys are not usually so desperate to keep a member so badly."

Again, Erik didn't say a thing.

Pulling out the sword that was stuck in the middle of the wooden door, Ben then mumbled to himself, "You refuse to speak, huh."

Erik broke into a cold sweat, he could not react to Ben at all... He was just way too fast.

"This guy is... ridiculously strong." Erik thought as he eyed down on the shiny metal, which shined back at him, blinding him slightly.

Knowing that he could not let himself be shaken by Ben, Erik regained his composure and manifested his black spikes beneath Ben. Ben noticed them instantly and jumped away from that phantom member, "Hmm, that's a pretty cool move you got there."

Erik ignored his comment and manifested a sword with his ability before he surged forward and towards Ben.

Ben lifted his sword to block his attack, leading the two to cross their swords.

Erik pushed his sword towards Ben, hoping that he would give in. However, he did not.

"You use shadow, huh." Ben whispered.

...Those few words from Ben sent chills down Erik's spine.

"That's pretty rare, you know that right?" He continued as he pushed back with more pressure, so as to be on par with Erik. "Well, you don't seem to know mine, but I can let you guess."

"Any guesses?" Ben asked with a somewhat devilish grin.

Erik withdrew his blade and jumped away from him out of pure instinct. There was something about Ben that indubitably frightening to him, "...I don't like him."

"Why aren't you saying anything? You were pretty talkative just now, when Damian was still here. Come on, just make a guess. I've already given you a clue." Ben sighed ever-so-casually.

Erik still refused to speak to him and instead remained silent.

"No guesses? Fine, I'll give you the next clue."

Ben lifted his sword and with a swift movement, he stabbed his sword into the ground. Once he did, a huge gust of wind forced its way through the broken windows, forming into something tornado-like.

That storm was so overwhelming that Erik could bȧrėly keep his eyes open. He squinted as he looked over to culprit to see if he moved.

He didn't and the only thing he did was to grin, "I hope you have you guess now. Well, keep your eyes open."

Ben pulled out his sword from the ground and lunged toward Erik, with the intention to do nothing more, but to kill him.

"Ooh, you're pretty good." Ben complimented momentarily before warning him, "...But, be prepared."

Just as he said that, Erik could no longer feel Ben's presence. It was as if he had completely disappeared, which was not true, he is just great at concealing himself and as of now, he had completely concealed his presence.

In the one second, Erik felt a sharp pain on his back. However, in the next, he felt another blow to his right leg.

Then another attack and another.

He didn't do anything to stop him, more like he couldn't.

He was just too strong of an opponent for Erik, but then again, Erik was not the type to give up just like that. He just needed to think of something to at least slow Ben down, anything was fine.

"...There's no way his shadow will be gone. As long as there is light, a shadow will be cast. So if I concentrate, I should be able to find his shadow."

Erik then suddenly sat down and closed his eyes.

Ben noticed Erik's behaviour and decided to paused for a second, "What is he doing? Trying to find me? Hmm, interesting. Let's just see how good he is." Afterwards, Ben still decided to continue his course of attack as a way to 'test' that phantom member.

He felt it.

"...In front."

He manifested his spikes in front of him to protect him from that attack.

Unfortunately, just as Ben was about to land, he saw those spikes. So, using his element, he manifested a gust of wind that gave him a push, away from the spikes, before jumping to and attack Erik from above.

This time, Erik could tell.

"...Above, huh."

He abruptly manifested more spikes, which caught Ben off guard. However, his fast reflexes allowed him to avoid that attack... Well, partially. Sadly, his left arm were punctured by those spikes. But, that doesn't stop him, he pulled his injured arm out and jumped away from Erik.

"...Not bad." Ben said as a corner of his lips quirked up slightly to form a grin. He then dismissed his insane 'storm' and looked up at the phantom member, "You have an interesting element, don't you? No wo--"

Before, he could even finish his sentence, Erik manifested more spikes beneath the place that Ben was standing.

As he landed, he noticed that those spikes automatically disappeared, from its previous spot. "Hmm, I see..."

Ben looked at Erik and said, "I wondering why you could summon your spikes that quickly, but now I think I got it."

Erik manifested his sword once more and began to launch himself toward Ben. He landed a heavy blow, but Ben blocked it with his sword, using one hand.

"...Your spikes appeared because of me, right?"

Erik's heart sank to the pit of stomach when he heard Ben. He knew that that ex-phantom was good, but he didn't know that he will be THIS good.

Noting Erik's hesitation, Ben then continued, "Since your element is shadow, you can make use of others' shadow to manifest your spikes. Since this place is lit, my shadow will be here with me, so you can easily land your attacks close to me or even directly at me. Am I right?"

Gritting his teeth, Erik jumped away from him. "How... did he figure that out so quickly...?"

"Well, I guess that's a 'yes'." Ben answered, before accelerating towards Erik, landing a huge gash across his ċhėst, "...That's for Beck."

Erik could hardly react, he was just too shocked to do anything. Everything just seemed to slow down as blood splattered across the room, staining everything in its way.

As the pain finally settled in, his knees buckled and he gave in to them. Every inch of his body was burning from the cuts and bruises that he sustained, which, obviously, was not a good feeling. As seconds passed, his vision blurred and his eyes clamped shut as he started hoping.

He was not hoping to be let off.

...He was hoping for death.

Ben withdrew his sword and kept it back into its scabbard where it belonged. Stretching his arms, he fell into a bed, that was in a relatively good condition, to rest for a while, "Man... I want to kill him so badly, but I can't, huh... This sucks."