"You're the younger one?" I thought with surprise.

"I receive that reaction a lot," Leinard replied stoically in thought.

"You have a candle, don't you?" Possessed Death grinned at Leinard.

"Don't know why you would think that." Leinard bravely answered.

He coughed from the ghostly hand that squeezed his neck, making his face go blue.

"There are two things that will make you see your end faster, boy! Lying and bad sarcasm," Possessed Death dramatically scolded Leinard.

"In Trash's case. Add bad fas.h.i.+on to the list." He cast a funny look my way. "Honestly. Didn't anyone tell you that a red bow tie makes you stand out like one big Tomato? This isn't fox-bot hunting season too, yanno!"

I growled in response and received a tighter hold around my neck. Allowing only enough windpipe to breathe.

"Now." Possessed Death sucked in a depth breath.

He plunged his hand into Leinard's pockets to search for the candle, and slowly exhaled with a cheesy grin.

"Oops. I guess I should be careful not to damage these." He giggled when his hand had felt up a bit of Leinard's groin. Based on the queasy reaction from Leinard's face.

"Here it is!" He triumphantly declared when he pulled out the remaining piece of the church candle.

"Normally one would need a mirror to perform a dimension slip." Possessed Death had put on a professor's voice.

"Not to be mistaken for an arima trap that's only good for containing. I bet you boys cleverly thought you were in one."

"Alas, no mirrors." He faked his disappointment.

"Sheesh, you're annoying." I hissed through my weakened breath.

"You know. This piece of trash is really starting to bug me." Possessed Death frowned.

I yelped when the ghostly hand around my neck swung my body with brute force. It sent me flying across the other side of the platform.

I landed near a stationary opening of a black tunnel, which was previously out of my view.

My arm felt broken. I was barely able to sit up from the pain, but I could breathe properly again. I thanked my lucky stars that the toss hadn't left me with a broken neck.

Leinard soon followed. Falling to the floor with a heavy thump and his hand rubbing at this head.

"Fortunately, this body was well cared for. It's br.i.m.m.i.n.g with an alchemist's wet dream of knowledge from Gat s.h.i.+em. Knowledge not known anywhere else in Sol," Possessed Death said as he approached us.

I noticed Leinard's body tense when Possessed Death pointed out a large amount of gold spinning about the center that made up the olive tree. His eyes darted to the big clear quartz shard lying on the ground, not too far from where we both were thrown.

Leinard noted, in my mind, that the quartz would have been the hiruda's prison. It had somehow managed to escape it.

"So, let's get this little chemistry experiment underway, shall we?" Possessed Death cackled madly as he grabbed a handful of the gold coins.

He laid them to the ground next to Leinard, whose head and limbs were bound tightly by many hands from hollowed eye ghosts.

The platform tremored with a threat of tipping us over the edge.

I sighed when the floor eased. And gulped down a nervous knot when the Hiruda called upon a fire spell to burn the gold down to liquid.

He pressed the flat end of the large clear quartz shard firmly to the gold puddle, so the other flat part of the shard was facing up and a reflection could be seen.

A mirror was made.

"Now look into the mirror my lovely and call out your brother's true name," said Possessed Death as he lit the candle.

He forced blood from Leinard's finger by cutting it against a sharp edge of the shard.

Leinard cried out as he desperately fought against the hollowed eye ghosts that were keeping his face fixed to the mirror. He closed his eyes and had cold fingers burn his lids, so they reflectively opened.

"Don't look away, lest you want this body to be grieving over the loss of his younger, dumb, brother." Possessed Death warned him.

He repeated the ritual we had performed earlier, by smearing Leinard's blood and the melted wax to the quartz mirror.

"Call out his name."

"No." Leinard spat out.

"I'll kill Famine."

My face was going hot and blue from the hands that were strangling me.

The pain I felt to my eyes was making my thoughts scramble into a panic. It hurt. I could barely see. My ears rang loudly. A burning feeling was threatening to make my head explode.

"Do it!" Possessed Death shouted with seriousness.

"Don't" I hissed pitifully, and almost choked on my breath that wasn't able to come out of my throat.

I felt the corners of my lips and my jaw soaked with spittle.

I closed my eyes when I heard Leinard call out Trix's name three times. And opened them when I felt my neck released. I could catch my breath.

"Ha! He comes!" Possessed Death gloated with a madman's laugh when Trix's image swam into focus on the mirror.

He pressed his hand to the surface and muttered a spell. As he gradually retracted his hand, he had successfully sucked Trix into our dimension through a s.h.i.+mmering mirror portal, which had been rebounded off the quartz's surface. As a prism would bounce rays of rainbow light into the air.

He moved the shard to one side to close the portal upon Trix's entry.

He didn't realize the knight wasn't alone until he saw his hand was gripping the arm of another man, who wore the navy-blue garb of an Evadale Knight.

Both men dropped, unconscious, to the ground near us.

"G.o.ddammit! Why can't you people ever be alone?! Why wasn't he with War?!" Possessed Death ranted.

He childishly stamped his feet to the ground.

"Colin Treinaton," Leinard said in my mind.

My attention went back to Possessed Death's rant. It was louder and more annoying.

"I WANT WAR! Is it too much to ask?" He finished his rant with a deep sigh, and flashed me a snarky look. "Well, I don't need you anymore, so BE GONE!"