Marin surfed out of the castle on created ice as he made way for the Woods to catch up to Rocko. Sure enough, the freshly made footsteps left a reliable track for him to follow. The steps in the track were far apart, indicating that those who made them had been on the run.

  Marin was sure to catch up to them soon, but on his mind the most was how Rocko might act upon seeing him. Would he still try to play dumb? Or would a whole new personality and vocabulary present the undercover spy that he truly was.

  He wasn't sure, but there was one outcome the King wanted more than anything. Even more than capturing Rocko and stopping him from fleeing, though that was a high priority. He wanted answers. He wanted to know who 'R' was in the letter, what his motives were and why Rocko was listening to him. Marin yearned for this information, he desired to understand why this hidden figure cared so much about the Kingdom.

  He had to care much about the Kingdom – he knew about the vault. Immediately Marin knew that this 'R' fellow had insider knowledge about the castle, and that concerned him greatly.

  The King's robes rippled in the freezing wind as he pursued them. In the distance he spotted the collection of old dormant trees, the location he had spent more time at lately from training Gus to be an elemental. As he predicted, the footsteps continued on right through the heart of the woods.

  He continued on, and eventually he reached the center of the woods. He began to worry about not catching them yet, but that was promptly dropped when he finally spotted them both in the far distance. Their run had slowed to a brisk movement, but both Phil and Rocko were traveling forward at a rapid pace without looking back.

  They were so far out from the Kingdom at this point, there was no feigning a casual walk or day of exploration. They were actively fleeing, it was fairly obvious. Marin grew closer to them, yet they were still oblivious that he was behind them. When he finally got in range, Marin erected an ice wall in front of them, blocking their path.

  Phil was dumbfounded as he stared at the wall, but Rocko immediately turned around, knowing exactly what had happened. He had been caught.

  Both of them were wearing their outdoor attire, and in Rocko's sweater and red beanie, his determined gaze pierced Marin's soul through his mask. Seeing Rocko's facial expression, he knew this was no longer the Rocko he knew – a passive and forcefully ignorant person. This was one with a focused look and goals that he would see completed by whatever means necessary.

  Marin approached Rocko with great speed on his kinetic ice. Rocko pushed Phil behind him and gripped his fists, anticipating a fight.

  Marin halted himself when he reached thirty feet in distance from him. He was quick to speak before Rocko could do something dangerous.

  "Now listen Rocko. We can be reasonable about this," Marin immediately stated, trying his best to keep the culprit calm and avoid a fight.

  "You want to be reasonable, huh?" Rocko shot back. "Then turn around and leave us. We'll forget each other, and that will be it."

  "I can't do that," Marin replied.

  "I figured." Rocko gripped his fist tighter, and the ground around him began shaking. Marin could feel it even at the distance he was at.

  The earth below was in sync with Rocko's feelings as it rumbled in anger. This instantly confirmed to Marin that Rocko was indeed the earth elemental.

  "Now hold on! We don't need to break out into a fight! I'd rather avoid that if I could," Marin quickly exclaimed.

  "Because you know I'd win. You're not the same Sullivan Marin you once were. Your powers have dwindled substantially."

  Rocko's accusations made Marin's skin crawl. He was well informed, likely from a large amount of snooping and eavesdropping he had done behind the scenes. His vocabulary had also increased by an order of magnitude. Rocko was not the village idiot everyone thought he had been. How ill he must have felt putting on such a humbling ruse for so long. It must be so relieving for him to finally be his plain self again.

  Rocko spoke with confidence. He seemed sure he was a stronger elemental than Marin. What Marin knew though, was that Rocko likely hadn't exercised his skills in years either, and Marin predicted that he would be rusty.

  "...Yes, that is true. But do you really want to risk fighting me? If I over power you, I will kill you. And I'll lock Phil up in the dungeon until he rots," Marin bluffed.

  Rocko began laughing. "You think I believe that for one second?! You're too kind of a person to do any of that! You're a pushover, Marin. You let Oscar run away. You left those bandits alive in Tresdor to later attack and nearly kill Gus in Tarenfall.

  In fact, you discovered who I really was weeks ago when you returned to the castle, yet you let me carry on with my business like nothing was wrong."

  Marin was beside himself. He was appalled by Rocko's piercing words. They hurt even more because deep down, he knew a lot of it was true. He never would've imagined Rocko had been mulling over his actions to this extent, silently judging him all this time.

  Marin went out of his way to be a kind and nice person, especially so to help remove fear and suspicion about him being mysteriously masked. It was never his goal though, to have it come across as weakness or being a so-called pushover.

  Perhaps Marin needed to let Rocko know that.

  "No, you're not going to hurt me. Or Phil, especially since you know he's innocent. I'll give you one last chance to turn around and let us go," Rocko added.

  Anger welled in the King. He had bluffed earlier, but Rocko's little speech changed Marin's mind very quickly.

  "I brought you into my castle. Into my Kingdom. I gave you exceptional living quarters, better than others because I felt bad about that shack you called a home in Heroca. Allowed you to eat the best food.

  You dare stand before me and mock my good willed nature? You think me a pushover, then?

  We will fight. And after I defeat you, you'll beg me not to kill you."

  Rocko gritted his teeth and braced himself.

  "You might want to advise Phil to step away. Lest you accidentally kill him in the furious elemental attacks you're about to try."

  Rocko blinked. Marin was right.

  He turned his head to his friend who was still hiding behind him.

  "Phil, run. Get a good distance away from me. It's gonna get dangerous," Rocko uttered to him in a caring tone.

  Phil rapidly nodded his head. He ran off to the left into the woods.

  He didn't get very far, though. After Phil managed to distance himself several tens of feet, Marin pointed at him, and encased Phil in ice entirely.

  "No, I don't think I'm going to let him wander off. That's as far as he goes," Marin said cruelly.

  The King was suddenly displaying quite a ruthless attitude, one that Rocko wasn't used to.

  Marin had frozen Phil in place, but secretly, he had altered the properties of the ice to not be overly cold, and also made it porous so it was breathable. He didn't want to hurt Phil. He still cared for him.

  Rocko wasn't able to take notice of any of it, though. He was starting to regret taunting Marin the way he did, and that was making him furious.

  "Curse you Marin!" He suddenly shouted.

  A large chunk of snow covered earth broke free in front of Rocko. It quickly levitated into the air, and hurled itself directly at Marin.

  The fight had begun.

  As it flew toward him, Marin covered the boulder in ice, and with the grip of his fist, it shattered into smaller pieces, flying in different directions away from the King.

  Rocko had anticipated Marin stopping the attack. He would have to do more. He bent over, placing both hands on the ground, contacting the earth around him.

  The ground began vibrating. More chunks ripped themselves free from the earth, levitating, and shooting forward, trying to squash Marin where he stood.

  Marin didn't bother moving. He fabricated chunks of ice equal in size to the dirt lobs flying at him, and sent them forward to meet each one. A war between the ice and earth commenced as the pieces collided into each other, canceling their advance forward and falling back down to the ground.

  Whatever boulder or chunk of dirt was sent Marin's way, he had created ice to counter each one.

  Marin's nullification skill would have been a useful tool in a battle like this. Rocko had not a link to the power plane strong enough to overcome the aura, but Nullification only severed the creation of elemental material from the power plane.

  Not manipulation of currently existing material. Rocko had plenty of earth all around him to use, and nullification would be useless in this situation. Therefore, Marin had to fight him in a most usual manner.

  In an expected move, Rocko tried a new attack using the ground beneath Marin's feet. The earth below the King quaked as it woke up.

  Marin wouldn't stick around to see it come alive and swallow him up. He created ice pillars to launch himself into the air. They catapulted him forward, and in the air, new ice pillars grew to catch him and move him around.

  While Rocko tried to keep his focus on his rapidly moving target, spears of icicles began flying towards him.

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  Cursing the attack, Rocko was forced to bring the earth up around him to protect himself from the sharp, piercing objects targeting him.

  The ice lances met a hard, rocky shell of earth around Rocko, and shattered in the collision.

  The fight progressed, both of them exchanging attacks and countering each other. At one point, Marin did try freezing Rocko in place. He only half expected it to work. Rocko was likely to be hiding the Enhancement skill to break himself free.

  At the formation of ice crawling up his legs, the earth around him simply bashed into the ice, shattering it from his appendages.

  Well, it was worth a shot.

  "You were supposed to stay dead, Marin. Everything became so much harder when you woke up!" Rocko yelled as he hurled another stony boulder at Marin who was still moving around rapidly.

  "What do you know about that?! TELL ME!" Marin shouted in response.

  Rocko didn't say another word. The statement was more to himself in frustration, but it confirmed to Marin that Rocko knew information he direly sought after.

  Marin was relentless in the homing icicles. Rocko was not versed enough in his element to affect enough of the earth to cause Marin a problem. The initial display of flying boulders was intimidating at first, but as Marin kept Rocko distracted with his own attacks, Rocko began spending more time defending rather than attacking.

  Rocko had indeed eavesdropped and heard Marin say he was weak, but this was more strength than he thought he would have. If this was Marin in a weakened state, Rocko could only imagine what power the King once held with his ice element.

  Marin subtly guided his icicle offense to not allow one to land a fatal blow. It was missed on Rocko though, who swore each shard was intent on ending him. Due to this, he was now spending all his time commanding the earth to shield him.

  As time went on though, it was becoming clear that Marin was gaining the upper hand in the fight. Since being alive again, his skills were slowly sharpening. He was much more comfortable attacking now than even with dueling Oscar months ago.

  Rocko's mind began fogging as he continued demanding the earth around him to assist him in the battle. Eventually, an icicle finally reached Rocko before the rising ground could smack it away.

  Just as Marin intended, the icicle stabbed Rocko in a non-threatening location. The pain Rocko felt in his bleeding shoulder from having an ice lance wedged into it was blindingly painful, but it wasn't going to kill him.

  However, the sensation was distracting his mind's connection to the power plane, and he was unable to fight off the forming ice suddenly encasing his body.

  Rocko fell to his knees, his left arm grasping his right shoulder in pain. The cold ice forming over his back weighed him down, and before he could ask the earth for any more assistance, he spotted Marin's shoes entering his field of vision.

  Rocko looked up to see that black mask with crystal blue eyes glaring at him.

  Rocko gasped, sucking air, trying to fight off the pain.

  "If that… damn… Golem was still here…" He said between labored breaths.

  "I knew that was you. Yes, Loid and I destroyed it a few days ago."

  Rocko had created the stony monster to help him in a situation like this. How unfortunate it was to him that it was taken care of just days before this event.

  "I want answers, Rocko. You will explain yourself," Marin demanded.

  Rocko spat to the side. "I'm not telling you anything."

  "You will explain everything, or I'm going to kill you." Marin created a new ice lance, and had it shoot into Rocko's other exposed shoulder.

  Rocko wailed out in pain. "Then kill me! I'd rather die than tell you everything and be locked up forever!" His other arm wasn't even in a state to grab the new wound. "You actually are a monster... Reech was right about you," Rocko uttered to himself.

  "Reech…" Marin repeated. That name of utmost familiarity. First spoken to him by Director Hegris when he inspected the castle.

  "John Reech!" Marin declared.

  Rocko was still grunting from the pain.

  "Rocko, please! I need to know it all!"

  "No." His voice was quivering.

  Marin waved his hand, and both the impaled icicles in Rocko's shoulders dissolved. He shouted in pain at the sensation, but the agony of the wounds began to lessen.

  "I think we need to strike a deal," Marin spoke.

  Rocko huffed as he broke an arm free from the ice to nurse his shoulder wound.

  "You answer my questions, and I will let you go," Marin shockingly proposed.

  "Yeah right!"

  "I mean it."

  "I have no way to believe you! You'll either kill me or lock me up anyways. Why bother?!"

  "Then you have nothing to lose."

  Rocko looked down. His breathing was rapid. Blood was trickling down his sweater from both shoulders. He didn't have many options left.

  Rocko then turned his head and gazed at Phil. He was still frozen in a block of ice. Despite the suffering Rocko was going through, he cared more about Phil even now.

  Marin was right. Rocko was at the King's mercy, and if there was even a small chance he could get himself free, it wouldn't hurt to reach for it.

  "I want Phil too. He leaves with me," Rocko suddenly demanded.

  Marin didn't like that. He didn't believe Phil's best interests were with Rocko. Initially Marin's plan was to return Phil safely to the castle and deal with Rocko in some form.

  However, Marin's desire for information was so great, it was a demand he was willing to meet.

  "...Fine." Marin snapped his fingers, and the ice that Phil was encapsulated in broke away.

  Phil fell to the ground in the distance, confused and wondering what to do.

  "Who is John Reech?" Marin immediately asked.

  "He's my boss. I was sent here to watch over the castle while you slept in it," Rocko answered.

  "WHY?"

  "I don't know! He hardly shares his reasoning with anyone! I needed to pay off a debt to him, so I took the job."

  "What debt did you have?" Marin inquired.

  "Man, he killed someone who was trying to kill me! Is that part necessary? Do you want an entire backstory of my life?!"

  Phil suddenly ran up to Rocko and crouched beside him. "Rocko! You're hurt!" He exclaimed.

  "Don't… Don't worry about me," he told Phil. "We're gonna be leaving soon."

  "You're going to need to elaborate much more to purchase your freedom, Rocko. I'll let you go when I'm satisfied," Marin explained.

  Rocko sighed. He lowered his head in thought, thinking about where to start.

  "...I was part of a group when I was young called the Stone Riders. It wasn't a good group. We were thieves, rowdy, and caused trouble anywhere we went. We were all given nicknames akin to the earth below, since we were all elementals of that.

  I was given Rocko. I barely recall my true name. Eventually I had a… a disagreement… with the leader. And I ran. They hunted me. They were going to kill me.

  I met the man John Reech shortly after."

  Rocko winced in pain and tried catching his breath. It was hard telling the story while fighting the injuries.

  "Keep going!" Marin demanded.

  "Reech killed the leader of the Stone Riders. He's an ice elemental. Just like you. He shot an icicle through his chest… In the exact same way you did to that thug who raided Heroca Town."

  Rocko chuckled through his grunts. "Matter of fact, you two are quite alike in many ways. Maybe that's why he's so focused on you. He's fond of fancy robes too. Though his are maroon, instead of dark blue."

  Marin was fighting the feeling of fainting. The stories Rocko told brought such horrific familiarity to him, he was beginning to swear he knew who this man was.

  "So I began to serve him. I needed to pay off my debt, so he sent me to 'look over' Nocturne Castle for seven years. As I traveled to your castle, I met Phil along the way. I brought him along since he was homeless and begging for food.

  We arrived in Heroca Town, just a couple miles south of the castle. I've been here for five years now, Marin. And then one day, you suddenly decide to somehow wake up.

  Reech made me into a spy rather than a guardian. I never wanted that, but I needed to get my debt squared away."

  Rocko took a pause to see if Marin would ask a follow up question.

  Marin didn't. He stood there stunned, speechless. He hung onto every word Rocko spoke. Analyzing each bit of it in his head.

  When enough time passed, Rocko continued.

  "I don't know his history, who he is, or why he does what he does. I just listened to him and followed his orders. He runs a secret organization. He collaborates with the world governments and factions, often illegally."

  Well, that explains why Hegris would know about Reech. As far as why the Director brought Reech's name to Marin's attention, he was not sure. Perhaps even Hegris knew that Reech had been closely watching Nocturne Kingdom for some time now. Marin had been slowly rocking back and forth in complex contemplation.

  "...Where does he live?"

  Rocko sighed. "He has a hidden base deep within Sunset Forest on the west side of Grandom."

  Rocko begged in his thoughts that Marin wouldn't push more. Rocko was unable to elaborate on the exact location of the base, but even trying to do so would spell death for him. He already would incur wrath from Reech if he ever found out how much information he was giving to Marin.

  Marin turned around, and faced his back to Rocko. He could see both of Marin's hands grasped behind.

  It was quiet for a moment. Marin believed Rocko knew nothing more about Reech. If the man was half as cunning as he seemed, he was quite likely to only give his followers just enough information to complete their tasks, and nothing more. Rocko had given Marin everything he wanted. There was nothing more he needed to know.

  "...Leave. Leave, Rocko. And never come back. I never want to see your face again. You played us all. I feel especially most for Loid, who took extra good care of you in the village."

  "YOU THINK IT DOESN'T HURT?!" Rocko yelled out loud enough for it to echo in the trees. "I know what I did! I have to live with that for the rest of my life!"

  "Get out of here now. Before he shows up in his shadowy form. If he catches you, I won't stop him from killing you."

  Rocko gritted his teeth as he stared at the back of Marin's hood. Finally, he conceded.

  "Phil, help me up," Rocko said.

  Phil had been speechless this entire time. He had not enough brain cells to interject anything into the discussion. He could scarcely comprehend the conversations both of them were having.

  Phil grabbed Rocko and helped him to his feet. Together, they hobbled away, not another word to be said.

  After Marin heard their snow crunching footsteps fade into the distance, he finally turned back around, and saw nothing left of them besides their snow tracks.

  Marin sighed. That was the end of it. Slowly, he began to move, and walked back up towards the castle. So much was on his mind over what happened. Incredible discoveries were made though, and even more impressive, was the memory he suddenly recovered.

  The name John Reech was so familiar to him, especially the fact the man wore maroon robes and was an ice elemental like himself.

  Marin was certain he knew John Reech from his former life. If that was the case, though, how could he still be alive to this day?

  The immortality potion.

  Could he possibly be the close friend who betrayed him? Marin wasn't sure, but if it was the case, he couldn't just stroll over to Sunset Forest to meet him.

  No, this would have to play out in a more careful manner. Marin just wasn't sure yet how to go about dealing with the situation.