Seth leaped back and shot a wave of ice shards that harmlessly passed through the green specter as she streaked toward him. He took a moment to open his qi sight. Her body was primarily spirit and partly polarized. Claws swiped past his left arm, missing him by a hair's breadth. He fired shards of ice. Forced to dodge, the specter slowed, giving Seth some space to breathe.

  Time to try this out, then.

  He grabbed a bound spirit and charged a ritual he had been playing with for the last two weeks. He hummed a tune that would attune his attack to her spiritual body. Icy blue energy coalesced in the middle of the ritual, humming with power. She launched herself at him, and he sent the orb streaking her way. Her eyes shot up in panic, and she threw herself to the left. Not fast enough. He sent power through a small strand of qi still connecting him to the ritual, and the orb exploded in an icy inferno.

  A shrill scream filled the chamber as the inferno seared the left side of the specter. Not willing to relent, he charged up another barrage of ice shards and launched them at the specter. They danced across her skin, carving bright blue lines into her ethereal green skin. She glared at him, playfulness long gone.

  A scream so high-pitched it was almost inaudible shook the chamber, ripping into Seth's body. He slammed a shield into place. Blood trickled down the sides of his neck, and his head throbbed. He started to prepare an attack.

  The specter had its hands in the air, holding a car-sized gray orb. Seth threw himself backward to get distance, but she lobbed it at him. Qi sight didn't show any weaknesses in the spell. Desperately, he threw up another ice ritual he had come up with, and a wall of ice formed in front of him. It wouldn't hold. He threw himself to the right as hard as he could, just before the wall of ice exploded out along with gray wisps. His shield stopped the ice, but a wisp of gray flew through his shield as if it weren't there and slammed into his soul.

  Every muscle in Seth's body clenched from the agony coursing through his veins. He retreated into his mind-space to start healing the damage, but he had no injuries other than his ears. Well, none except the micro-injuries piling up from tensing every muscle as hard as he could all at once for several seconds. A clawed hand slashed down at him. The specter was almost on top of him.

  Somehow he got his left leg working in time to throw himself out of the way of that swipe. It carved into his right shoulder, and cold flooded his body. He held his position, charging qi as she approached. Running hasn't worked out so well for him, so maybe he'd try something different.

  She was in front of him again, and the qi he was channeling exploded into shards of ice. Some slammed into him, but most slammed into the specter, tearing more azure streaks across her body. A rumbling shook the room that he could feel rather than hear. My ears must be truly fucked. The gray orb started forming, and he started forming his ice orb. He'd be playing a game of chicken with the spirit.

  They both launched their orbs, and both orbs passed through each other. He threw up whatever defenses he could, knowing they wouldn't be enough. Before the gray orb slammed into him, he moved to detonate the orb of ice. But it detonated before he could get to it. Before he could see the results, pain became his world.

  "Seth... God, don't do this bullshit right now." Anna was standing beside her boy-toy Max. They were at their house. Correction: her house.

  Seth's head spun around. How was he back in this living room? He had just been...

  Had just been what, exactly? Lightheaded, Seth tottered on his feet. Was the cancer already in his brain?

  Anna stared at him with a mix of annoyance and worry. Ted just stared at him with annoyance, as if he were a pest to dispose of as quickly as possible. He didn't know what Anna saw in this asshole, but regardless, he was here. Now, what was he here to do again?

  "You ok?"

  "Yeah, sorry. Got a bit lightheaded. Anyway, we needed to talk about the kids, right?"

  "Right..." Anna said, worry spreading over her features. Wait, hadn't she said that yet? Then how do I know?

  "Well, that makes things easy, then," said Ted. His face broke out into a smile.

  "How so?" Seth asked.

  "Well, you agree it's for the best that you don't see the kids anymore, right?"

  "Y—"

  He stopped himself. The past reply was just about to slip out, but was it really for the best? Back then, he gave in to the pressure...

  Back then? What is wrong with me?

  He tried to shake his head to clear his thoughts. It did nothing to quell his white-hot rage. Is this what the kids wanted? If so, why couldn't they tell him themselves? Or at the very least, record a video for him to watch.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "Is it really for the best?" Seth tried to keep his voice level.

  "Yes, of course it is," Anna said. "You've been slowly fading from their lives anyway, with your treatments and all. Maybe now would be the best time to make your exit."

  "Is that what they want, Anna?"

  "Of cour—" Ted said.

  "I wasn't asking you," Seth snapped. "Anna, is that what the kids really want?"

  "It is..." Tears started forming in the corners of her eyes. She had always been a bad liar.

  "Why don't I believe you?"

  "Don't come into my house—"

  "Your house? Did Anna sell it to you? Because if I remember it right, it's Anna's."

  "Y-yes, but I live here." God, he hated how whiny this man got when arguing. He took a step forward toward Max, who flinched back. He turned to Anna.

  "If they truly don't want to see me, they can record a video and tell me themselves. Otherwise, I'll see you in court."

  "Now, Seth, be reasonable." Hot anger flashed through him, and his face heated. Reasonable?! She runs away with this dickbag, takes our house, and now wants to take our kids.

  "I will not abandon my children, Anna. Not until my body stops working for good."

  "But you're dying and stuck..."

  "Then I'll find my way back to them!!!" Seth roared. The world shattered around them, and the jade room returned along with Seth's memories. He dodged backward, and claws thrust through where his head had just been.

  "Why...do. You. Persist!?" The spirit sounded even more distant and ethereal than normal. Her form was flickering in and out, as if she were running out of energy to keep herself firmly rooted in reality. The missing arm and leg, in comparison, seemed like a minor inconvenience.

  Seth fired another wave of ice shards at the spirit. He followed that up by activating his iron arms and using ice crystals to form punch daggers at the end of his fists. He rushed in and punched. And punched. And punched. Chips of stone flew up as he punched the...

  Where did these stone chips come from? He looked down, and there was no specter there. There was him, straddling a small crater in the jade flooring. His vision blurred, and he wiped his eyes. It blurred again soon after, and the cycle of blurring and wiping continued for a couple of minutes.

  Eventually, his vision cleared enough for him to take stock of the room. Other than the pillars and the throne, there wasn't much here. As he approached the throne, the tiny flowing depictions of the sun, moon, and stars carved along the edges became clearer. The seat was covered with padding that looked like solid jade. It was soft as silk to the touch and was as comfortable as a down pillow.

  On the throne was a black sphere the size of a golf ball. After placing it in his inventory, Seth looped once around the throne room to make sure he hadn't missed anything. He even tried feeling along the walls to see if anything felt out of place. There was nothing here except for a vicious specter and a black orb.

  With one last look around, he stepped back out into the hallway. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he could see his children waving goodbye. When he turned his head, however, nobody was there.

  After some travel, Seth made it back to the central area. The black brick corridor was just ahead. He summoned a small sphere of light. Unlike the other corridors, there were no lights on the walls. The hall muffled his footsteps, as if he were standing on stone-patterned carpet instead of stone. He drew his flying sword, mounted it, and started flying down the hall.

  The hall narrowed about a hundred steps in to barely more than shoulder-width. The ceiling also sloped downward, forcing Seth to fly the sword lower to the ground. The slope stopped at about six feet off the ground. Seth's hair stood on end. The idea of dealing with traps in a narrow tunnel where there were no lights...at least I'm—

  Pain lanced through Seth's leg, followed by a whoosh from the spear that stabbed him from the wall. He cried out, grabbing for the spear, but it was already gone. Fortunately, the wound wasn't too deep, and it only took a minute to completely heal. One last check. The floor looked clear. On the walls... nothing. Even the ceiling seemed devoid of meaningful features. With a deep breath, Seth crept forward.

  Another flash of pain lanced through his other leg, followed by the telltale whoosh that came too late. He healed himself, eyes still wide. There had been no indication of any traps. He had even activated qi sight, which only showed ambient qi. He looked around, but found no obvious triggers. Nor were there any holes for spears, spikes, or darts to fly out of.

  Abandoning all caution, Seth raced down the perfectly straight hallway. As he moved, he heard whooshing sounds behind him from missed spear thrusts. The ceiling was closing in again; five feet high. Four feet.

  Another spear got him in the arm, and he healed that. In his mind-space, however, he saw the flitting of a shadow that shouldn't have been there. He focused on the shadow, and it was driven away to show... a crack? The emerald and gray energy in it looked familiar. He reached out, and his hand sank into the crack.

  Once he got a firm grip, he started pulling. A crack resounded before the facade shattered, showing the true state of his soul. He had numerous wounds on his legs and one on his left arm. He was losing blood fast, but he could still fix the damage.

  His legs protested, but Seth threw himself backward before opening his eyes. There the specter woman stood, spectral claws wet with blood. She was crawling on the ground. No, it would be more accurate to say she was still floating. She was simply lower because the bottom half of her body was missing.

  No time for healing now. First, he had to check his mind-space. Nothing was out of place there. Back to reality, he stared at the spectral woman and fired a wave of ice shards at her.

  She tried to dodge, but couldn't move well. The polarized ice shards shredded what remained of her spectral body. She let loose a dying wail before disappearing. Seth collapsed to the ground and started healing the worst of his wounds.

  Once he had healed the worst of his wounds, he stood up and analyzed the chamber. Once more, there wasn't much in the room, save for the pillars and the throne. This time, as opposed to the vision, there wasn't even an orb on the throne. The throne, however, looked slightly...off. He went up to it and pushed. It slid surprisingly easily, revealing a square hole just wide enough for him to crawl down.

  Seth cast a light into the hole, and ten feet down there was a black box. He slid down and secured the box in his ring. Making his way back out proved more challenging, as there was no ladder, and shimmying himself up the walls was more difficult than the movies make it look. All in all, it took him about ten minutes to get back out of the hole.

  When he opened the box, he saw the familiar black orb. There was also a small cache of gems, as well as some ritual chalk. Smiling, he emptied the box's contents into the bag, and put them into his ring along with the box. Then, after pinching himself for good measure, he left. It was time to see what really was at the end of the black hallway.