Aetheral Space

Atoy Muzazi's severed arm flew through the air in a majestic arc… and splatted down onto the ground like a lump of roadkill.

"Zoar -- Seal of Regeneration."

A dome of purple Aether surrounded the Abyssal Knight -- and as it did, it plucked the severed arm from the floor. A simple squeeze was enough to reduce the limb to mere meat, and the Knight stuffed that meat into the wreckage of its own shredded hand. The assimilation was quick, Muzazi's flesh becoming the Knight's flesh, and in the blink of an eye it was as if the gruesome injury had never happened at all.

The Abyssal Knight tested its new hand with one strike at empty air, two more to gauge speed and durability, before it clenched that hand into a fist.

"It will s-serve."

Muzazi could barely hear it over the sound of his own screaming. He fell to his knees, clutching his bleeding stump, pain like he'd dipped the limb in fire carving its way through his body. Nausea and horror and agony warred within him.

It was like the arm was still there. It was like the arm was made of pain itself.

"Unchained!"

Blood still poured from Mereloco's mouth after that ghastly blow he'd taken, but that didn't stop him from getting right back into the fight. Using gravity itself like the barrel of a cannon, he launched himself towards the Knight, repulsive forces already rippling around his fists to bolster his blows. It wouldn't be enough.

After all, the Abyssal Knight was awake and present now.

At the last moment, the Knight twisted its body like a contortionist, bending back to such a degree that its head nearly touched the floor next to its feet. Mereloco's blows sailed through empty air -- but he still wasn't done. Roaring with exertion, he rotated himself on the spot with another Unchained, aiming an almighty punch at the back of the Knight's head.

Crack.

The flexibility was inhuman without a doubt. The Knight turned its head nearly all the way around -- like an owl -- and clamped its jaws down on Mereloco's incoming fist.

As the Knight pulled its head back, fingers and bones clattered on the floor, the prize for the exchange. Mereloco, for his part, didn't even look down at the loss he'd taken. His pain nullified by his Aether tic, he simply prepared for his next attack…

…but his momentum had already been lost.

"Zeboim -- Seal of Intensification."

The Abyssal Knight's punch slammed into Mereloco's chest, launching him off into the darkness. With the force of that blow, it would be a wonder if Mereloco's ribs hadn't shattered on impact. Anyone else would surely have been killed instantly.

Maneuvering itself back into a standing position with a series of gruesome cracks, the Abyssal Knight let out a long and rattling sigh.

It was interrupted.

"Die!" Muzazi screamed desperately, igniting a blade of light from his one remaining hand. "Radiant Almighty! Radiant Almighty! Radiant Almighty!"

"Pathetic."

The Knight spoke true. Each swing of Muzazi's sword was bolstered only by the light of a few stray blades remaining on the ground from the start of the battle. These so-called 'Almighties' were barely any stronger than a regular attack. All it took were lazy swings of the Abyssal Knight's greatsword to bat the feeble flashes away.

Flash.

"You spoke so b-bravely before."

Flash.

"And this is all you have to show for it?"

Flash.

"Pathetic. T-Truly pathetic."

The Abyssal Knight's voice had changed. Before, it had spoken with the barely sapient cadence of a beast -- forcing out stray words between growls and snarls -- but that wasn't the case any longer. The voice it let out now was unmistakably human, albeit dripping with bitterness and resentment.

"Radiant --"

"Enough," the Knight sneered.

With contemptuous ease, it flipped its sword around -- grabbing it by the blade -- and struck Muzazi in the head with the hilt, sending him down to the ground. It stepped forward as it flipped the sword again, clearly intending to deal a coup de grace -- only to pause. Each and every pupil floating in the air around it from the Seal of Observation shrank as one.

"Still…?" the Knight seethed, letting the blade slip out of its grip and thump onto the ground.

Mereloco launched himself right out of the dark, back towards his enemy, his entire body converted into a projectile by Unchained. Even as blood gushed from his mangled right hand, he clenched it along with his left, dual fists ready to be driven right though the chest of his enemy. Only… it was not to be.

The Abyssal Knight caught those arms out of the air.

The shockwave of pressure that resulted from Mereloco's sudden stop was enough to send Muzazi flying away like confetti, leaving a trail of blood behind him as he rolled painfully across the floor. The sound of his scream was lost, though, swallowed by the furious crackling of Mereloco and the Knight's clashing purple Aether. With tight hold of both of Mereloco's wrists, the Knight pushed back, slowly but surely forcing Mereloco down to his knees.

"Are these the v-vile hands that struck me?" the Abyssal Knight noted, mockingly quizzical.

Crunch.

It was only once it had squeezed enough to snap both of Mereloco's wrists that the Knight relented, throwing its prey down to the floor. Pain or no pain, Mereloco's body was a wreck. It would be difficult even just to stand up. Satisfied with its work, the Knight turned away, looking back towards Muzazi…

Unworthy…!

…only for a weak projectile to ping off the back of its helmet.

The Knight looked back down, at the man who had just fired a bullet of gravity right out of his forehead. Casually, it stepped back -- and drove its boot right into the back of Mereloco's knee, grinding it into the ground. Mereloco didn't even blink as yet another limb was broken.

"I see," the Knight noted. "I s-see. You don't feel pain, do you? That was foolish all the same. You could have s-survived this if you abandoned him."

Mereloco sniffed. "I'm that man's shadow," he rasped. "I can't just run away from him."

His single intact leg shaking, he began to push himself to his feet -- but the effort didn't last long. The Abyssal Knight delivered a swift kick to Mereloco's head, flipping him onto his back as teeth flew from his mouth. They clattered across the floor like dice.

"You, too, are p-pathetic," the Knight spat. "You are strong. I can tell this. You could have fought with much more destructive means. Why didn't you?" It cocked its head, a feverish note entering its voice. "Why? W-Why? For the sake of that boy? Why? Why is he so important?"

"He's the man…" Mereloco wheezed, cheek pressed against the freezing floor. "...who's gonna fix the shape of this world…"

The Abyssal Knight paused.

"Oh…?"

Radiant Lustrous!

As the Knight turned around, it snatched the spear of light out of the air with one hand, holding it in place even as steam rose from its gauntlet. That bulging purple eye gleamed as it flicked from the Radiant to Muzazi, regarding him carefully. Bleeding, burnt, broken… and yet still standing, hunched over, light still shining out of the one hand he had left. Even in this meagre state, he had summoned his resolve and launched an attack against his enemy.

Muscles writhed in agitation beneath the Abyssal Knight's skin.

"A dreamer," the Knight muttered. "D-Dreamer. You said before, didn't you? D-Didn't you. I heard you. 'Honour'. You b-believe in such a thing. You believe in the golden p-path of how things should be, don't you? D-Don't you."

"Someone has to…" Muzazi growled. A white-hot thruster blazed from his stump, roughly cauterizing the wound. "There has to be a way…"

That purple eye narrowed to a slit. "A way…? A way w-where?"

Muzazi steeled himself, and straightened up with dignity. "...to a kinder world than this."

The Abyssal Knight stopped. The crawling beneath its skin, the twitching of its limbs, the shining of its eye… all of it stopped in an instant. It was like a videograph had been put on pause.

And then, with the malice of a vengeful ghost, it spoke.

"Pathetic."

The Abyssal Knight squeezed the hilt of its sword with monstrous strength.

"Truly… pathetic."

Long, cruel cracks began to spread across the surface of that huge warped blade.

"Truly… truly… pathetic."

Wisps of dark smoke, like living shadows, began to crawl out through the gaps in the metal.

Oh, Atoy Muzazi realized, a cold weight settling in his chest. That isn't a sword.

It's a sheath.

The 'blade' finally shattered, sending shards of metal flying in every direction… and like an insect reborn from a cocoon, the weapon within was finally exposed to the open air. At first glance, it was difficult to see. It was tempting to think it wasn't there at all. A rectangular blade, so dark in colour that it seemed more like a hole in the world than anything else. It was only truly visible through the halo of purple Aether that surrounded it.

The Abyssal Knight raised its sword on high and spoke its name.

"Void's Proof."

Breath caught in Muzazi's mouth as he witnessed the dread Armament. He'd heard tales of the shining blade that Samson Rhodes, the Gilded Knight, had once wielded -- the golden Lion's Proof, a masterpiece of the Maker-Guild's Swordsmith. It seemed the blade had fallen along with its master.

Muzazi raised a feeble light to oppose it.

"B-Behold the shape of this world," the Abyssal Knight hissed, its blade leaving a trail of aftershadows as it drifted through the air. "A miserable death following a pitiful struggle. As a fellow wretch, I shall personally demonstrate this to you."

It closed its eye and spoke, its voice soft.

"Die."

The Void's Proof screamed -- and as it did, it began to pull the shadows towards it. As if they were being peeled off of the world, patches of darkness were sucked up into the screeching blade, leaving the massive chamber void of void. The three of them remained there in that bizarre liminal space, with neither light nor darkness, for a single breath.

Until the blade came back down.

"Void's Proof."

"Radiant Almighty!"

Two swords were swung, releasing waves of light and darkness into the world. They clashed, ripples of force flowing out in every direction -- but the light was meek, and the dark hungry. The tsunami of shadows broke through Muzazi's Almighty within a few seconds, washing over him and sending him flying -- leaving vicious bloody marks all over his body, as if he'd been gnawed at by countless insects.

He landed in an undignified pile, staring uncomprehendingly at the distant ceiling, his body trembling and bleeding. The corona of shade began to dissipate from around the Abyssal Knight, and it lowered its blade distastefully.

"Like so," it said, beginning to turn away.

But…

There was the quietest whisper, nearly silent.

"Radiant…"

"What?"

"ALMIGHTY!"

As the boy pushed himself off the ground, he swept his Radiant upwards -- and this time, the light that poured forth was far more balanced with the darkness that met it. The two elemental forces clashed, great bolts of silver and purple Aether writhing through the air at the border as they pushed and pushed and pushed against one another. The Abyssal Knight narrowed its eye.

The light was sturdier this time, true, but all the same it was destined to go out. The only conclusion was --

"Radiant Almighty!"

The boy swung his sword again, bolstering the first blast with a second -- and that was enough to break the stalemate. Void Proof's shadows were swept away by the oncoming light, the force of the wave pouring over the Abyssal Knight. At the last moment, it raised its sword and its shadows to block -- but the force was still enough to scorch at its armour and send it skidding back across the floor.

What was this? Half-dreaming as it was, the Abyssal Knight had been observing carefully. The boy's attack -- this Radiant Almighty -- depended on him absorbing the force generated by external thrusters and releasing it. There weren't any thrusters for him to be using…

Ah.

The boy's speed was considerable, beyond what could be achieved by mere infusion and training. There were thrusters within his body… and now he was using the force of those internal thrusters as the fuel for his own strikes. Ingenious, but reckless all the same. His body surely would not hold up.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

This was but frenzy, then. The Abyssal Knight understood that. An animal was most dangerous right before it died.

"Very well," it growled. "V-Very well. Show me your last."

The boy kicked off the ground, becoming a ribbon of light that surged around the perimeter of the chamber -- firing off a new blast every few seconds. Void's Proof flared into shadows as the Abyssal Knight swung it again and again, each time deflecting the boy's mighty blows with strikes of its own. The room shook from the intensity of the repeated clashes. Chunks of concrete began to fall from the ceiling like boulders down a mountain.

Foolishness, the Knight thought, as it deflected the radiance with crashing waves of darkness. In terms of capacity, there is no contest. You must always continue to create new light, whereas the dark is --

Radiant Ablaze!

The dark vanished.

"Hm?"

A forest of light had erupted all across the chamber, countless shining blades bursting out of the floor, the walls, the ceiling -- their glow covering all available space. Bolstered by power that could only have come from an Aether burn, they turned the chamber into a shadowless realm in an instant. Even the gravity-user, kneeling between the bright lights, could only look up in awe.

This was not just fuel for Radiant Almighty, the Knight realized -- it was also a way for the boy to rob his enemy of its defense.

The boy appeared near the ceiling, already clutching a spear of light, already screaming:

"RADIANT ALMIGHTY!"

This time the attack came down as a mighty thrust, a precise stab, rather than a slash covering a wide area. No doubt the boy thought this was the final blow. No, no. His preparations had been wise, but insufficient.

No matter how much this light shone over the world, it could never reach inside people.

Void's Proof!

The shadows within the Abyssal Knight's own body were stripped out through its gaping mouth, coating its blade and allowing it -- with a mighty slash -- to deflect the incoming spear. It sailed off to the side of the room and let loose an explosion that surely could have vaporised a normal human body. Even for the Abyssal Knight, taking a direct hit at this point would be costly… and these attacks weren't going to just stop.

Then it simply would not allow itself to be hit.

Sodom -- Seal of Observation!

Zoar -- Seal of Regeneration!

Admah -- Seal of Acceleration!

Zeboim -- Seal of Intensification!

The four base Seals, reduced to an area directly around the Abyssal Knight's own body. That way, it would maximise their effects while denying their benefits to the enemy. If the Knight was to defend against this, it needed to be in the best possible condition.

Light burst. Shadows flowed.

The ribbon of light fired off Almighties again and again as it zipped through the chamber, and the Abyssal Knight met each one with a last-second deflection. Through Observation, it determined the exact angle of attack, and then met it with an Accelerated and Intensified blow of its own. The swings were such that the Abyssal Knight was damaging its own body in the process of unleashing them -- but Regeneration took care of that.

This battle would now be incomprehensible to any onlooker. The Knight had become a flickering dark mass, darting in and out of clarity as it parried the constant barrage of godblows. The boy, the ribbon of light, was increasing his speed even now -- the only traces of his existence being the constant flashes of light and the catastrophic blasts he unleashed one after another.

Purple Aether surged as a purple eye searched, flicking this way and that as it watched for the boy. Even as it deflected the Almighties without fail, the Abyssal Knight understood this was not the end. The boy was no fool. He had something else up his sleeve.

There.

The Abyssal Knight's eye -- and all the others surrounding it -- flicked up as one as they registered the boy's location. He had finally come to the briefest of halts high above, just below the hole through which they'd first entered this chamber. Once more, he was clutching a spear of light on his hand. Once more, his lips were already forming the words.

"Radiant Almighty!"

The trick will come after this.

The Abyssal Knight swung its sword faster than the speed of sound to meet the incoming line of light…

…but it had misjudged things.

Quantum King!

What the boy did could barely even be called a trick. It was the equivalent of throwing sand in your enemy's eye and calling it a technique. The moment the spear of light entered the Seal of Observation, it emitted a terrific flash of light.

It was not an additional attack. It did not power up the force of the blow, or make it any faster. All it did was blind each and every eye around it, for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second.

But it served.

The Abyssal Knight's swing was strong. The Abyssal Knight's swing was fast.

However, in terms of aim, it was just slightly off.

The focused heat and light and force slipped through the Knight's guard and slammed it into its chestplate, sending it down to the ground -- and then up into the air, its body ricocheting like a pinball. This was not a finishing blow, though. This was simply an opportunity.

An opportunity the enemy intended to make full use of.

"Radiant Almighty!"

A follow-up strike, a slash of godlight, sent the Abyssal Knight hurtling towards the far wall.

"Radiant Ablaze!"

A bed of light-blades surged up from the wall to meet it, appearing and disappearing to strike at its body again and again, like a barrage of shining fists.

"Radiant Almighty!"

From below, into the ceiling. Snarling, the Abyssal Knight pulled itself free --

"Radiant Lustrous!"

-- only to be impaled in place by a spear of light --

"Quantum King!"

-- that exploded within it, scorching its flesh --

"Radiant Almighty!"

-- as successive blasts drove it deeper --

"Radiant Almighty!"

-- and deeper --

"Radiant Almighty!"

-- and deeper.

Radiant Almighty… Radiant Almighty… Radiant Almighty… as waves of that light crashed into the Abyssal Knight over and over again, the words themselves seemed to lose all meaning. The boy was leaving no gap between his furious attacks. He understood that, if he wished to defeat the Abyssal Knight, he couldn't give it even a moment to react.

But the preparations for counter-attack had already been made.

This boy wasn't the only one who could stall for time. It took about a second after Void's Proof absorbed a shadow for said shadow to regenerate and be usable again. Right now, the only shadows in this room existed inside the Abyssal Knight's body itself. The fact that it wasn't being given the chance to use those shadows to defend itself meant that all it could do was gather them continually.

Not for an attack, though. An attack now would be fruitless. With his speed, the boy would just dodge.

"Radiant Almighty!"

It just needed…

"Radiant Almighty!"

…the right…

"Radiant Almighty!"

…moment.

There.

In the tiniest gap between one swing and the next, Void's Proof flared into dread life, darkness exploding out of it -- but this tidal wave was not aimed at the boy in front of the Abyssal Knight. Instead, it raged backwards towards the ceiling, launching the Knight's body out of it like a cannonball and towards its opponent. The boy wasn't the only one who could use thrusters.

They clashed just before the boy could finish swinging. As the two of them spun through the air, the Knight seized hold of the boy's arm, digging the claws of the gauntlet in deep in an attempt to rip it off just like the other one. Even through the pain, though, the boy continued to move. His eyes full of furious resolve, he snarled, tearing his arm away -- leaving vicious gashes in his flesh -- and then ramming it right into the Abyssal Knight's mouth.

The Knight had thought that the light couldn't reach inside people.

It seemed the boy was going to test that.

"Radiant…" he growled. "... Almighty."

The Knight screamed in agony as blazing heat and force erupted within it, sending thin cracks spreading out all across its warped armour. The things that lived within it -- the foul spawn of Niain -- squirmed and screeched too, writhing beneath its skin like runaway veins, playing the song of pain upon long-dormant nerve endings. Intolerable. Intolerable!

Make it stop!

The Knight contorted itself in mid-air, slamming its leg into the boy's side and sending the two of them flying towards the ground in opposite directions. Twin plumes of freezing smoke marked their rough landings.

Even as bloody smog poured out of the Knight's mouth, it pulled itself to its feet, ready to continue fighting. That was its only function. The sole purpose that remained within its desecrated flesh.

A final blow was needed. Speed, and nothing else, was required to match this boy. All else was unnecessary now.

Admah -- Seal of Acceleration!

Admah -- Seal of Acceleration!

Admah -- Seal of Acceleration!

Admah -- Seal of Acceleration!

The Seal was stacked, the effect multiplied as dome after dark dome was erected around the Abyssal Knight's form. One strike. With the speed granted by this technique, it would be able to launch forth and deliver a single unavoidable strike with Void's Proof before its enemy could react.

With a screech from hell, the Abyssal Knight went to move --

-- but it did not.

It managed to tremble, of course -- and that trembling was incredibly fast, turning it into a blur, but that was all. Right before it could attack, something had suddenly seized hold of it, keeping it in place. It was as if an invisible hand was trying to crush the Knight in its fist.

A single purple pupil, shrunk in utter fury, swivelled around to stare at the object of its ire.

You…

Unchained!

Unchained!

Unchained!

Unchained!

Mereloco's leg was broken. That was fine.

Mereloco's arms were broken. That, too, was fine.

Mereloco's ribs were broken. That was just as fine.

He didn't need any of them. Aether was the light of the mind, after all. So long as he could think, the pain would flutter away, and he could keep fighting. With a fist made from his thoughts, he stopped the unstoppable.

For just a single vital moment.

The attacks up until now had not been the true Radiant Almighty. They had not been the slash of god that had sliced the man called King apart along with the landscape behind him. They were powerful, to be sure, these attacks charged by Redline and Ablaze… but they were just powerful.

Their true role, the true reason for the continuous and unending attacks, had been to stop the Abyssal Knight interfering with the true coup de grace.

Six great pillars of blazing heat and force, generated around the perimeter of the great chamber. They'd have stood out normally, been immediately visible… but the shining world around them had acted as blinding camouflage. Whose eyes could distinguish Radiance from Radiance, after all?

Atoy Muzazi had seen better days. One arm was missing. The skin from his face had started to peel away and harden into some kind of crystal. Every bone screamed in pain, their cries reverberating through his flesh. That was fine.

After all, Atoy Muzazi was used to pain.

He raised his arm high, hand open, and the light of hope quickly gathered in his grip. It was funny. For so long now, Muzazi had felt like a walking corpse, like his purpose in this world had vanished and left him all alone. But, with just one word from the man called Mereloco, he'd been brought back to life.

So?

Atoy Muzazi could not call himself Supreme. Atoy Muzazi could not sit on a throne of gold and command an unchanging empire to change. Atoy Muzazi could not take the blood the Supremacy had spilt into his hands and will it to be something else.

So?

He had to make it a kinder world than this… and that was something a Supreme would never be able to do.

There was little need to shout anymore, and Muzazi had little voice to do it with. So, this time, he parted his lips just slightly and whispered:

"Radiant Almighty."

The divine blade swung.

The Abyssal Knight flew through the air, the entire world around it consumed by an aurora of silver. It had missed the moment the attack had landed -- or, perhaps, it had lost consciousness from the impact for that moment. It could not say. All it knew was the pain that raced against it. The pain from without, the burning light that spared no darkness -- and the pain from within, the writhing bugs that brooked no failure.

Shards of armour flew away from the Knight's form like shrapnel. The heat and the light poured in deeper, burnt hotter, turned flesh to smoke. Was this it, then? Release from the long dark dream?

No.

The things within would never allow that. Niain would never allow that. The Abyssal Knight could already feel it, an alien impulse deep within its mind, a command presented as an instinct.

Live, it said. Live. Live. Kill. Kill!

It would not disobey. After all… a knight was nothing but a slave. Lips that could barely still be called lips parted. For a moment, it looked like it too was about to whisper into the light.

But this was the wrath of a beast.

The Abyssal Knight's jaws snapped apart with such speed and force that its cheeks ripped open, and it let loose a wordless howl.

In the midst of the supernova, a globe of purple Aether erupted from the Knight's body -- stretching out until it covered the chamber entirely. More than that, though, the aftershocks of that Aether continued on, thin but unignorable, crawling all the way through the complex.

Dragan twitched.

Ruth took in a sharp breath.

Bruno reflexively jumped back.

Serena tightened her grip on her sword.

Muzazi glared up at the broiling maelstrom.

All throughout the Seat of Man, each and every Aether-user felt the wrath of a devil writhing deep beneath them.

GOMORRAH -- SEAL OF EXTERMINATION

The Abyssal Knight's final and most destructive ability was simple. The Seal it had erected would be the target area. With the exception of a miniscule safe zone around the Knight itself, everything inside the dome would fall victim without discrimination…

…as endless attacks rained down upon every inch of space.

Slashes, claws, punches, stomps -- every form of damage the Abyssal Knight was capable of inflicting flowed forth like a tsunami without end. The lingering light of Radiant Almighty scattered as the Seal of Extermination was unleashed, the blast zone rushing towards Muzazi as a wave of death. His eyes widened as he saw the sourceless doom approaching.

At that moment, Atoy Muzazi accepted his death completely. There was no despair, no regret. He had done everything he could and it simply hadn't been enough. Fight or flight didn't even apply here. There was nothing else to be said.

Only…

Someone else wasn't quite ready to accept that.

UNTHRONED!

Death did not reach Atoy Muzazi.

He looked up in awe at the singularity above him, like a miniature black hole, warping gravity beneath it to form a barrier around Muzazi's form and protect him from the Seal. Light itself was being pulled in, the remnants of Almighty forming a halo around the black point as they were devoured. The light and the gravity and the endless attacks… the three forces were clashing in this place, turning everything into chaos. The places occupied by Muzazi and the Knight respectively were probably the only ones untouched.

Yes… only the places occupied by those two.

Slowly, Atoy Muzazi turned his head. Tears were already flowing from his eyes, although he didn't quite know why yet. But the second he caught sight of the black hole's master, he knew without a doubt.

Mereloco was outside of the barrier.

"Mereloco!" Muzazi screamed. It seemed he had voice left after all.

Mereloco kneeled, but he did not submit.

This was not what he'd created Unthroned for. He'd designed his ultimate ability to be an arbiter of annihilation -- something he could throw at the enemy and be certain it would result in their death. Something made to destroy and destroy and destroy… just like him.

Who would have ever thought that it could shield someone else?

It was rough work, manipulating Unthroned's gravity well to create an unrivaled repulsive force around Muzazi. Even with his Aether tic of pain nullification, Mereloco could feel a dull ache from his head as his brain overheated from the exertion. Creating a barrier around himself as well was out of the question. Dividing his attention would mean both their deaths.

But that was fine. This was purpose, the reason he had reappeared two-hundred years in the future. As that man's shadow, it was his duty to stretch out before him.

Surely that was why he could hear them now… those distant wedding bells, from that long-passed day.

Ah… why didn't I just do this… back then?

He looked back at Atoy Muzazi, at the shade of Damon who could surely take that old dream further, and spoke words he knew the boy could not hear.

"Keep going. You're unchained."

And in that moment, the chaos overtook him.

As the Seal came to an end, a single severed arm floated in the air, drifting up into the maw of Unthroned and vanishing into nothing.

That was all that remained of the man called Mereloco.

Atoy Muzazi watched in muted shock as the dust settled, the shredded remnants of destruction falling all around him. The tiny section of floor Muzazi had been standing on had been spared -- and so it was now elevated, the rest of the room having sunk down several feet from sheer blunt trauma. Muzazi blinked, desperately trying to shake himself out of the unshakeable.

Thump.

He still wasn't safe. This still wasn't over. Only… he hadn't noticed.

Thunk.

Atoy Muzazi hadn't noticed the sparks of Aether Mereloco had sent downwards, right as he'd sent Unthroned upwards.

Atoy Muzazi hadn't noticed the trembling from the ground beneath him, or the fact that the room was getting colder and colder and colder still.

Atoy Muzazi hadn't noticed that the cold harvest reactor before them had finally been pushed beyond its limit.

Mereloco's final counterattack.

Atoy Muzazi blinked one last time behind the still-standing barrier -- and as he did, there was a blinding light and a deafening explosion…

…as the world was swallowed up by jaws of ice.