"Wait! Ash! WAIT!"
The scream echoed off the damp stone walls, bouncing down the corridor of the third dungeon level. It was a desperate, primal sound—the sound of a man realizing that his reality was about to be forcibly rewritten.
Ash stopped.
His hand hovered over the heavy iron handle of the cell door. He didn't turn around immediately. He simply stood there, his black coat still, contrasting against the grey gloom of the dungeon.
Behind him, inside the cell, Lucas was hyperventilating. The young Paladin pulled at his anti-magic chains until his wrists bled, his eyes darting frantically between Ash's back and the floating, giggling form of Echidna.
"You… you can't do this," Lucas stammered, his voice losing its righteous thunder, replaced by the trembling whimper of a child. "To rewrite a man's mind… that is a sin against the Gods! It is forbidden magic!"
Ash slowly turned his head. His expression wasn't angry. It was bored.
