I felt a brief moment of peace as I watched the battle rage, completely detached from my own body and mind. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to win this one, though. Maybe I’ll just burn up before it’s finished. I’ll disappear into a cloud of ash and blow away, just like all of those people I killed. The thought entertained me for a moment, and a small smile crossed my face. That would be nice. I’m so tired. I don’t want to keep going anymore. Not without you, and Amaya, and Alda. I can’t keep losing like that.
Amaya’s voice had changed to a choir composed of every voice I had ever heard, shrieking with a fury that matched the raging dark presence that hungered for death in every cell of my body. Their screams were whispers against my singular focus on Lia’s mana. I raced ahead of the wave of death to the center of her reserves and held my final bastion, prepared for the end. The world began to disappear into blinding light, and I held Lia’s body tighter against my chest.
I love you, Lia. I should have said it more while I had the chance. I should have said it every second of every day. I should have kept you safe. But here we are...at the end of things, I guess. It seemed as though the air around me had begun to vibrate, and I could feel my bones shaking inside my body. Death crashed against me from all sides, and I accepted it without reservations, doing everything in my power to keep it away from the final uncorrupted pool of amber mana I defended. I offered up every aspect of my being in defense of her light, and the darkness obliged me with insatiable cruelty. My body seemed to dissolve around me, and Lia’s eyes disappeared from view behind a blinding light. I’m sorry, Lia. I tried.
***
A gentle pattering in my ears woke me to a world of darkness. My eyes were open but unseeing, and I couldn’t feel my body, which induced a terrible sense of vertigo. As my head tumbled end over end through the void, a smell joined the noise around me and filled me with a sudden burst of nostalgia. Petrichor.
My remaining senses returned one by one as I waited in the rain: first was the sensation of water trickling down my face and neck, followed soon after by the familiar weight of Lia’s body in my arms. The acrid taste of smoke layered over iron-rich blood coated my tongue, and I coughed up a lungful of ash. My sight returned last, though what I found before my eyes was an empty landscape entirely unfamiliar to me. The world was barren as far as I could see in every direction, barely visible beneath the dark storm clouds overhead.
A bolt of lightning cracked across the sky and lit the world in a dazzling flash of light. The strange earth that spread out around me was perfectly flat and appeared to be made of reflective black glass, with flecks of gray and white peppered throughout. I ran a hand along its surface in wonder, marveling at its alien smoothness. What is this place?
My wits suddenly returned to me, and I looked down frantically at Lia’s face. Her eyes were closed against the falling rain, and her face looked as if she were simply resting peacefully, held tight against my chest. Did I...? With an abundance of caution, I looked into her core, terrified of the ocean of darkness I expected to find. Instead, I found almost nothing at all; the vast stores of mana she had once held were gone, save for a single droplet of pure, glittering amber energy. The death...it’s gone. I stopped it.
I raised a trembling hand to her face and rested my finger beneath her nose. An eternity passed in the second that I waited, but in a moment, I felt a gentle puff of warm air across my skin. “You’re alive,” I whispered breathlessly, unable to believe the words. “You’re alive. You’re actually—”
You never fail to entertain, Elden.The hair on the back of my neck stood straight as Amaya’s voice echoed in my head, casual and condescending. Though I have to say, you’ve really outdone yourself this time. Bravo.
I clenched my jaw and held Lia closer to my chest, shielding her from the invisible threat. I don’t want your congratulations. This is all just some game to you, and I’m not playing anymore. Whatever help you think you’re giving me, I don’t want it, so just fuck off.
Oh, Elden,she sighed,if only you knew what—
Maybe you didn’t hear me. FUCK. OFF.
If that’s what you really want,she answered sarcastically.I’ll warn you, though: You’ll regret refusing my help soon enough.There was a long pause as I sneered at the empty air. Until next time, love.
A growl rumbled out from my chest as the voice imitated Amaya’s speech, but true to its word, I felt the presence withdraw from my mind. Another bolt of lightning brought me back to my senses, and I scanned the strange landscape around us for a second time. “Where are we, Lia?” I wondered out loud. Taking care to find secure footing on the wet obsidian ground, I stood and looked out to the horizon. Though it had grown continually darker since I had awoken, I could make out dark trees at the edge of the glass expanse, miles away in every direction.
I sent an instinctual pulse of mana down my legs to fully survey the area, but the energy stopped suddenly at my feet and refused
