A genuine smile crossed Tymo's face. “Then perhaps you are the one we’ve searched for.”
I pushed the Demure Rebirth into the harness and slid the Sundered Heart from its sheath. Nydarth moaned as I settled her against the Depthless Dream and took up an unsteady fighting stance.
Silver fire flickered around Tymo, and he opened his palm. Blistering heat roared from his skin, turned the slate around him into slag, and a consuming wall of silver fire howled across the slope toward me. I hauled up a Flame Shield and activated Fire Immunity in the blink of an eye, but it still wasn’t enough. My sandals burned away as the ground under my feet turned into a river of lava. I hauled myself up into the air, activated Flight, and met Tymo in mid-air. He slapped the Sundered Heart aside with ease, and his hand closed around my throat. I gurgled a curse and bounced the Depthless Dream off his shoulder.
His Physical Augmentation was too strong. I couldn’t puncture his flesh.
“I could kill you. Here and now,” Tymo said quietly.
An idea flitted through my mind.
I let the Vigor retract into the source within me and hung in the air from his grip. My hands dropped to my sides, as if I was powerless to stop him. Tymo tilted his head, and I raised my head to meet his conflicted gaze.
“Then do it,” I challenged him breathlessly.
“Ethan, you can’t,” Nydarth urged. “Fight!”
Tymo's fingers tightened around my neck, and I just stared into his eyes.
“You won’t,” I said. “Not if you really believe in everything you say you stand for.”
He hesitated for a long second. “I will not simply lay down and die. My oath forbids it.”
“So, you have a choice to make,” I gasped. “Kill me, or let me live. Because I won’t stop coming. Not until you give me what you know about what Jiven’s planning.”
“I believe you,” Tymo said softly.
His fingers vanished from my throat, and I caught myself with Flight before I could fall into the lava slide below. Indecision and guilt warred in Tymo's eyes as I rose to meet him again and reached deep within my Vigor channels. Our eyes met through the pouring rain, and the Archpriest’s shoulders sagged in a gesture of defeat.
“Unbind me from my oath, Swordslinger,” Tymo whispered.
A single tear slipped from his eye and coursed down his cheek.
“Just tell me,” I managed to say. “Where is Jiven, and what is he planning?”
“I cannot,” Tymo murmured, as if in a trance. “I must honor my oath. And you must honor your mantle. To seek out justice within the Seven Realms. To mete out your wrath upon the wicked and bring order to this plane.”
He turned a pleading set of eyes to me. In that moment, they could have been Ultin’s. Begging for death but not without closure. Not without forgiveness from those whom he had wronged. I fought off the surge of sympathy and shook my head.
“I won’t kill you, Tymo. Not until you give me what I need.”
“Then I won’t give you a choice,” Tymo said quietly.
Silver flame burst from his skin as he blazed toward me. But he’d adjusted his speed. It was slower, and his punch was sloppy. I ducked under the blow, kicked him in the gut, and propelled him up into the air. Tymo caught himself with ease, turned, and paused for just a second.
“The Hierophant possesses the knowledge you seek!” Tymo shouted.
The Archpriest hurtled down toward me like a comet of silver fire. I hurled myself sideways, through the air, but Tymo didn’t readjust. He plunged into the lava flow on the mountainside. I spun to find him, but his aura of silver fire had disappeared. Molten rock bubbled menacingly as it slid down toward the rivers at the base of the mountains. It would reach the water in seconds and destroy the foothills below it. If the lava compromised the river, then the farmers of Flametongue Valley would take years to recover.
As much as I didn’t want to kill Tymo by closing off his exit from the lava, he had left me no choice. I couldn’t allow the lava to destroy the land.
I leveled the Depthless Dream at the flow of lava and unleashed the full power of the Crashing Wave technique. The Zone’s Vigor bled into the attack as I fed my technique with the rain around me, and I turned a tidal wave into a gout of water so enormous that my whole body trembled at the force of channeling it. Steam boiled off the lava as I rapidly cooled the molten rock over the mountain, but I didn’t stop until the cherry-red glow of liquid stone vanished entirely.
Rain rolled off the brand-new obsidian in rivulets.
I’d just managed to terraform half a mountain and bury Tymo in its depths. There wasn’t a single way that he could have survived something like that. Even with his insane defenses against fire and heat, I’d encased whatever was left of his body in brand-new stone. Tymo's guilt had brought about his end. I knew he could have readjusted his flight path before he hit the flow of lava he had created.
“It’s done,” Yono whispered.
“You did it, Master!” Choshi shouted excitedly. “It’s finished!”
“Not yet,” I said. “We have to find the Hierophant.”
I flew through the Vigorous Zone and landed on the stairs to the monastery. The sound of my footsteps echoed through the hall, but I could barely hear it from the mix of voices in the back of my head.
“Did you see the way Choshi triggered the landslide?” Yono asked, impressed.
“I didn’t think you had it in you, little one,” Nydarth admitted. “But you are maturing rapidly in our Master’s hands. Your raw power is impressive, but you could still serve to improve in some areas.”
I limped across the main hall and
