Crimson Ascension

You are the Last Archon, Draven. Those questions, for which no one has the answers, you will solve. I trust you with all that I have become, for I know that despite your power, you possess what Sovrans have lost: compassion.

–Nerovian Orenn, Virien of the fallen House of Amethyst Dragons

The flow of time was not a constant in the world. In the Haven, it assumed a predetermined rate while in the Sixfold Corridor, it oscillated to the whims of dead gods. Draven looked up as the Haven fell, and time seemed to have stopped entirely. For a split second, he became lost in thought, the memories of when he first heard the prophecy about the Haven's doom fresh on his mind.

If he was being honest, he had believed it—Abyss, there was no argument against the words of a known Dreamer—but part of himself wanted to deny it. The Haven was the entire world. It sheltered his people and the Sovrans alike. It had stood for thousands of years against the forces of the Beyond. It should have stood for many more.

Draven stood frozen for half a second as the Sovrans he had saved fell to their knees, hope departing their bodies, then Pyre Heart ignited like an inferno that turned his hesitation to ashes. He unfolded his Presence as far as it would go, covering Ethernatus like a veil. The Amplification circuit inscribed on his astra revolved faster, becoming stronger. Elevenfold. Twelvefold. Fifteenfold.

Cracks spread on the surface of his astra, before disappearing to his mending will.

Morph's will was indestructible like Ekron as he healed the damage the berserker hexion did to his soul. Careful, Aiden! More than this, and it gets dangerous. There are limits to this kind of power—

"To the Abyss with limits, Morph!" Draven shouted, spreading his arms wide. "The Maker left us to die. His Perfected is not here. No one is here."

The three Sovran looked up at him, despair in their eyes. Their hearts beat like a child mourning the death of a father. Even when the world crumbled around them, the flickering flame that kept terror at bay refused to wink out. Hope. They looked at Draven, tears streaming, a plea unuttered.

"If the Maker won't protect them, I will." Draven opened his soul to the world and unleashed his Domain. "Blood Field!"

Two droplets of blood fell from the tips of his fingers, splashing on the broken pavement, each minute enough not to cause any disturbance, yet the blood spilled on Ethernatus answered. The city roared as a defiant beast, the blood of its citizens streaming into the air and forming pillars of crimson that towered any spire. Draven gritted his teeth, as the Amplification circuit reached the limits which his body was capable of handling—Eighteenfold.

Then he went beyond it.

Roaring from the top of his lungs, struggling not to drown in the currents of anguish that shattered his flesh and remade it anew, Draven lifted his hands into the air as if to hold the sky. The pillars of blood shot into the air, hexion streamed from his astra, augmenting, strengthening, amplifying it.

Many would die; Draven could only reach so far. Even with Twentyfold amplification, on the verge of shattering his soul beyond repair, his Presence only reached into the forests beyond Ethernatus. It broke his heart to think about the lives of those who lived in Varn'Kess and Anaverith, many of which were innocent—common folk thrown to whims of the tides of fates.

The tides of fates. The word lit a ray of hope inside his soul, for Draven now knew what he must do. I'm sorry, Dan. You were the light to me and Mom, even when the darkness got difficult to endure. Draven reached into the thin air and summoned the sword that slumbered inside his soul.

Goodbye, brother.

The moment his grip wrapped around the sword's red hilt, Draven's Presence changed. While Amplified, he could hear the hearts of all those who set foot in Ethernatus. Now, the Haven's heart beat, and Draven listened to it, commanded its power. From Overseer Towers in the edges of Elysium, past Varn'Kess and Ethernatus, all the way to the nomadic villages in the distant north, Draven felt them all.

The blood spilled by those who lost their lives now joined his effort to save those who still lived. Mustering every shred of his will, every drop of hexion Morph imbued as his reserves were depleted, Draven reached into his Az'Tenri Circlet and formed Crimson Aegis around the entirety of the Haven.

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The sky in the Haven became red. The ceiling turned into crimson crystal. The world fell into darkness.

In the blink of an eye, all the Beyondra that prowled inside his domain exploded into spikes of blood. The few Sha'Vitri heralds he found died just as easily, their destruction contained in shields powered by the Severer and Amplification.

This power… Was this what the Fallen wielded? Was this what the Maker had to defeat? It seemed hard to grasp, even now. The Severer gave him strength beyond what he ever thought possible, but it also robbed him of everything. Every second Draven held it, the less he could remember about his life in the mines—the precious memories that made him who he was.

Draven listened to pleas being uttered across the Haven; it was as if he could feel it like a part of his body. So few left, he thought, hearing the hearts of those who had survived the Beyondra until now. The thrum of runes echoed from many places in Elysium—transportation circuits on the verge of activation.

Many would not make it to the transportation remnants. Holding the sword close to his heart, Draven closed his eyes, focusing on the distant lives. Crimson shields formed around those who would never reach the remnants in time, and tendrils of blood pulled them across the Haven, toward him.

The three Sovrans close to him clung to his clothes. Draven couldn't remember who they were, what they were doing there, but he would protect them.

Hundreds of orbs cut through the sky, arriving to hover above him. The Sovrans inside quivered in fear, some wounded on the verge of death. Draven mended them as an afterthought, allowing the shield to dissipate and the people to congregate in the clearing where he stood.

The ceiling hit the Crimson Aegis, and the impact sent earthquakes that reshaped Elysium by the second. Plains became Mountains. Rivers drained into chasms. The earth roared, protested, while the red shield that was all that stood between the Haven and destruction cracked.

Draven fell to his knees, the Hemomorph's Mantle dissipating from his body. He gripped Severer tighter, the skin on his arms breaking, blood boiling underneath. He wasn't strong enough.

Abyss, not again! His brother and mother had died because he had lacked strength. They always die because I'm too weak. His first master in the Empyrean Arts—her name and face now forgotten—had died to protect him. Even Corvanis… It struck him as ironic, in the fleeting second as he contemplated what the Severer had taken from him, that he still remembered who that man had been.

"It is alright now, son," Korvax said, manifesting beside Draven in a swirl of white light. He looked unlike the Sovran Finn had captured as a Dream Echo, his appearance resembling Will's. "El, Finn, and the others are safe."

Draven groaned against the weight on the Crimson Aegis. He tried to stand up, but not even his Twentyfold Amplification was enough to shake off the pressure of holding the sky on his shoulders. Still, he could feel no more lives remained in Elysium safe for those huddled in the ruins on Ethernatus, those who huddled around him as if worshipping a god—salvation incarnate.

"That's…" Even speaking was hard, but his father's reassurance gave him the strength to push through pain. "I… didn't fail again."

"No, son. You never have." Korvax patted him on the shoulder. "The love you feel for those you hold dear is your strength. Even those whom you should hate, you now protect. Aiden, my son, never think of yourself as a failure—never again—for those who stand underneath your haven do not. And they will need you for the times to come."

Draven looked around. It was dark for the normal eyes, but his sight pierced through the veil of obscurity effortlessly. The Torches were gone. No light illuminated Elysium anymore. Nothing but the crimson radiance that emanated from this broken and beaten body. Sovrans looked at him, and for the first time, their hearts beat not with fear but with relief.

They trusted him. Relied on him. He was their last hope. He was the last Archon.

Draven stood up, pushing through the insurmountable weight that pressed him down and spoke, "Elysium has fallen. I cannot hold my domain for much longer." Cracks spread through his Aegis. Sovrans murmured, uncertain. "But we will survive. I will protect you!"

"Archon protect us…" A few Sovrans uttered, rewording the prayer every citizen of Haven once spoke. "Archon protect us!" Others joined, their voices fervent, hearts desperate to believe.

"Even if the ceiling falls, even when the Haven is no more, as long as your hearts are not broken, we can forge a new home." Draven thrust the sword in the air, and a Crimson Aegis formed around himself and those gathered. "I am Draven von Astrais, Archon of Blood, the Warden of the Sixfold Corridor, and Protector of the Haven. Hear my words and be at ease, for what is broken shall mend!"

"What is broken shall mend!" Sovrans shouted, falling to their knees.

"I'm sorry, father." Draven looked at his father, at the Echo of the man he knew and loved, the man he had learned to hate, then forgive. "But for them to live… I'll have to let my memory of you… go."

"Can only change things if you take risks, son." Will smiled back at him.

Draven reached into the Severer and let the memory of his father—of Will—burn into ashes. His Presence grew further, the hexion flowing from his astra changed, augmented. The Crimson Aegis surrounding him and the surviving Sovrans became stronger, new layers of the Art superimposing themselves until it surpassed the durability of Ekron.

With a last glance at the ceiling, Draven allowed the shield that held the Haven's collapse to rescind, allowing only the one that sheltered the survivors to remain. The world shook. The earth trembled.

The Haven fell.