Ahri Arete
The smell of burnt flesh suffocated me like a shroud. Angry flames were still ravaging the charred remains of nobles and soldiers alike, while petrified elves watched in silent fear as I slowly ascended the dais, my eyes aglow with the wrath of eternity. Never before in my life had I lost control like this. Cassandra had a knack of bringing out the worst in me, but I had never before snapped. Not really. This… this was new and I had to admit, I didn't detest this side of me.
"Fate turns a blind eye twice, but never thrice," I stated coldly over pained whimpers, suppressed tears and the torment of the wounded. "First you've allowed my friends," I raised my flame wreathed hand and pointed at Aspera and Astra, "to become the Guinea pigs for your boring bid for power, then you've spat at the mercy I've shown before and now you've raised your hand against my ward. Tell me, king, how would you reply, if you were in my shoes?"
The cowering, blackened heap of singed flesh and charred skin was still quivering on the floor, but somewhere along the line I might have burned his eyes and broken his ears. Or maybe he was simply much too terrified to think straight. Either way he couldn't answer, but I wasn't really looking for a reply. I was simply trying to rally up my courage to put an end to what I had started. Lashing out when you're angry is pretty easy, but once you're starting to calm down… taking a life in cold blood is much harder than it sounds on paper. Not that I had much of a choice left.
I clenched my jaws and tried my best to silence the pointless questions, stirring at the back of my mind: would I have acted the same way, if I had been in his shoes? Wasn't he justified, if not even obligated, to avenge his son? Could I even weigh the lives of mortals against each other? I didn't know, but it was a tiny bit late to have second thoughts. I brought my hands together and an angry, crimson spark ignited between my palms, but I didn't send it forth. I hesitated when my ears twitched and I heard the soft rustling of silk and skin over marble, followed by a panicked warning cry from Zara and then a lance of white hot pain ravaged my back.
I whirled around, wings spread wide, and with an agonising jerk the crystalline dagger was torn from my flesh. Maya Crownfury, the supposed long lost princess of the elves, hadn't been as unconscious as I had thought. She stood before me, her parched lips and swollen eyes contorted into an ugly smile, and in her burned, right hand she held a knife, dripping with my boiling blood. The stone underneath her feet glowed a warm orange when it began to melt and deform under my heat, but with an exhilarated, deranged chuckle the white haired girl plunged the weapon deep into her own chest.
Her lithe body made barely a sound when it collapsed to the floor and the acrid plumes of smoke, bellowing from wherever her skin touched the heated stones, obscured my vision. "Stand back," I screamed immediately, but to my surprise there was no strength behind my words and my voice came out in a raspy whisper. The wound in my back hadn't closed and whenever I tried to move, or even breath, tendrils of agony shot through my veins like liquid fire.
My blood gushed down my legs in a searing hot stream, the air around me began to burn as my power poured from my core to quench the crimson tide and a single, muted scream thundered through the fog, rising at the edge of my perception. "I'm hurt… how can I get hurt," I wondered, while my body was moving on its own. As if another presence had gripped the wheel, I felt like a passenger in my own mind, my thoughts spinning round and round. A part of me watched Lyra unleash her magic, the ethereal stream a raging torrent to my arcane sight. Golden shields blossomed around every still breathing creature in the hall, flickering lights sealed the entrance and a flood of energy cascaded towards the unmoving, ruby eyed elf on the floor. The other part, meanwhile, couldn't have cared less for the chaos in the hall.
With ice cold determination I pushed through the veil of pain and my senses cleared immediately. The dagger hadn't just pierced my skin, the blade had cut deep into my essence, a feat no mortal weapon should have been able to accomplish. I was losing much more than just blood and it wasn't going to take long until the strain would impede my ability to act. A minute, at most, and I'd be struggling to stand up straight, never mind doing anything useful.
"She's wou…," I heard, but then the temperature around me crossed the threshold and with the howl of an engraved giant the very air bursted into flames. I became a silhouette of dancing, crimson heat, the remaining oxygen in the hall rushed towards me to fill the vacuum my flames had caused and silence swallowed the scene. My tails and tresses shimmered in the hellish light, I was wreathed in a corona of eternal power and with a languid, final gesture I pointed at the collapsed girl, whose fingers still clutched the dark black hilt, protruding from her unmoving chest. With a twist of my awareness I tore the blade from her wound, but as soon as it left her flesh, the shimmering crystal disintegrated into a cloud of dust. It sparkled in the air for the fraction of a second before most of it was sucked back into her and her body simply vanished.
I was still trying to puzzle out how a mortal with a dagger had been able to harm me and how I might be able to plug the hole I felt devouring my energy, when my head jerked around on its own accord. "Don't resist," I heard Aurora's voice. Luckily telepathy was a wee bit quicker than normal conversations, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten a word out. "I don't know what kind of weapon she used, but I can tell you that it is more potent than any primordial blade I've come across. You're dying, Ahri. You have to ascend, otherwise you're going to bleed out."
My vision changed again and the remaining motes of light, the knife had turned into, seemed to expand until I could see their structure. There was a burning intent there, unfathomable and eternal, that somehow reminded me of Cassy, but before I could do more than wonder how her power could be here, the angel in my mind began to curse like a drunken sailor. Amidst the vulgarities I heard her rising panic and a sense of dread, the likes of which I had never felt before, spread through me like ice. My heart thundered like a drum in my chest and I swallowed dryly. Aurora had finally recognised the magic.
The weapon hadn't been crafted by an immortal, the weapon had been crafted from the bones of an immortal. Amazeroth's, to be precise, which also explained why the energy mirrored Cassandra's. They were one and the same after all. Dread turned into acceptance and my heartbeat immediately slowed down. I was already dead and there wasn't much anyone could do about it. Fully grown immortals had succumbed to lesser wounds inflicted by Lucifer before.
I casted my gaze upwards, the tiny portion of my mind I still controlled eager to reach out to Cassandra one last time, but before I could even touch our connection the world around me froze. Aspera and Astra stilled, there arms outstretched and reaching, just behind the wall of flames I had conjured. Lyra and Zara were standing back to back, their petrified magic pushing outwards like ripples on a frozen pond and the survivors of the elven court remained unmoving, nursing injuries or playing dead. Only the constant drain of power from my core remained the same, as if the puny limitations of the immanent world held no sway over its deadly purpose.
"There is a chance," my guardian angel explained gravely, while I felt her thoughts rush through a series of calculations I couldn't make the least bit of sense of. "In contrast to a fully grown immortal you can still change your core. Once. When you bind it fully, it'll alter its structure. Not in a meaningful way, but it should be enough to allow you to heal." Unfortunately there was a tiny problem she didn't mention. I wasn't there, yet. Not even close. I still had two transformations ahead of me, before I'd be able to grow into my own.
"I said there is a chance. I didn't say it'd be a good one. You can make it… if you're lucky." She didn't explain herself using words, but I still understood her intention. Purpose and intent were much more important when it came to immortal magic than mere actions. And despite everything, the spark of power that was currently trying to devour my core had come from someone who loved me, one way or the other.
If given the chance, it might just as well serve as a catalyst to help me grow instead of hurting me and with Aurora there, there was a way. If she vanished, if she unleashed all the memories, all the magic she had been protecting me from in an instant, I'd usually have burned up on the spot. As it stood, I'd still most likely end up as a smoking smear on the floor, but with a boatload of luck the power, that was trying to kill me, might just allow me to survive.
"Even if I survive, won't I break Gaya's wards," I asked dully. By now I was starting to feel dizzy and nauseous, as if I had lost too much blood.
"If you stay here, you'll do much more than break the wards. Chances are you'll incinerate the whole goddamn planet, but tearing down the walls I've erected will grant me some leeway. When you ascend, time won't flow linearly and I think I can use your full power for a short while. I can use it to transport you somewhere else. The Void to be precise. Anywhere else… You'll have to figure out how to get back on your own… in case you survive. Also, as soon as you open your eyes again, run. You'll light up like a Christmas tree for every immortal in existence to see. There'll be no keeping it quiet. Be careful not to lead them back to Gaya." She wasn't really waiting for a decision. She'd try, whether I wanted her to or not. She simply used the few moments, she needed to prepare, to inform me of what was to come.
"Have I ever thanked you," I mumbled instead and closed my eyes. If this'd turn out to actually be the end of the line, I wanted to see someone else and not the chaos all around. Unfortunately I couldn't call out to her. The stupid vixen would come running when there was nothing left for her to do and she'd never let me go. Luckily imagining her wasn't difficult. For a moment I even thought I felt the warmth of her silky tails around my waist and her cool skin pressed against my cheek. No… I'd see her again. One way or the other.
"There's no need. I'm just a memory. I won't die for as long as you live. If you make it through, I'll be with you for the rest of your life. Don't get attached to a spell. That's a really stupid idea. Ready?"
"No…" again, she hadn't been waiting for a decision as I was about to find out.
A sensation like slipping into a cold bath came over me and my vision blurred. The hall, the elves, even the distant patch of murky sky I could see through the colonnade ran and smeared like a Dali painting and then a deadly cold, as if the fimbulwinter at the end of time had come knocking early, gripped me in a vice like embrace. A flickering greenish light made me blind to anything else, my core resonated with a melody I had almost forgotten and I felt my presence flicker like a candle in the wind. I blinked and then an explosion of colours disoriented me until I felt myself hovering all alone in the middle of nowhere. Literally. I had finally returned home. I had finally returned to the Void. A place somewhere in between, where everything and nothing existed at the same time. Then came the pain.
Under the eternal light of stars long extinguished, amongst the meandering paths of unrealised possibilities my existence changed. I saw bits and pieces of the future and the past, all mangled together into one indescribable whole, I heard the drums of war from ages past and the cacophony of battles yet to be fought and I felt existence shrink until it seemed like I could hold the entire universe in the palm of my hand. My existence, a far cry away from bearing the pressure, crumbled and dissolved as tiny pieces of who I was wetted the Void with the blood of eternity. Memories and promises, hopes and dreams turned to ash and burned in the fire of creation until there was nothing left. Nothing, but a beautiful face with mocking, silver eyes that seemed to taunt me.
It felt like I was slowly being eroded, as if I had been dropped into a vat of acid, but I still couldn't tear my gaze away from Cassy's face and somehow I even found the strength to reciprocate her smile. "I'll never let you live it down, if you falter here," she said, or maybe it was just my imagination, but the result was the same, either way. Somewhere deep within my pride stirred. Cassandra had survived more of this shit than I could remember and if I wanted any chance at all to spend more than a few measly decades with her, this wasn't going to be the last time I'd have to challenge the few rules even immortals were bound by. Skipping two steps of my natural growth? Compared to killing an immortal without proper access to a core it was just a nuisance.
So much for my determination. Unfortunately there was a wide chasm between aspirations and success called reality.
I clenched my jaws, even though I wasn't sure if I still had jaws to clench, and stopped struggling. Instead of trying in vain to keep the ravenous spark at bay, I invited it in, I tore down every last wall around myself, around my core until the silver flood poured into me like a deluge of agony and hope. A thunderclap shook the Void, my silhouette vanished behind fire and flame as I turned into a raging sun several times as large as a galaxy and a storm of silver and crimson tore the Void asunder. I tasted the breaking laws of nature, I smelled the unimaginable torment I had to go through as the last traces of my mortality were reduced to ashes and I felt words long forgotten thunder through the realm: "by fire and light, Michael, I have returned and I will never forget, nor forgive, what you made me do. From this day onward, Guardian, your ambition is safe no longer."
Eyes, filled with disgust and loathing, hope and awe in equal measure, turned to me, but it was far too late. I was alive, my weakness had burned and the gargantuan star I had become imploded into a stunning, nine tailed creature. Just like Cassandra, I as well had had another form slumbering in the depths of my core, a form I had acquired ages ago, but now the vixen had woken up and for the first time in this life of mine I saw existence through the eyes of a true immortal.
I saw my siblings stare, I smelled their powers stir as they marshalled their will to cut through the Void and reach me and I heard Michael's insidious voice reply: "fool."
Forces that could have ended existence, that could have annihilated the cosmos, wreathed themselves around me like a beautiful gown, but now I didn't have to cower, nor flee. I could weather the storm and I did so with a smile. My feline snout split into a cruel grin and pure, silver fangs sparkled in the light of reality gone mad. My crimson fur, streaked with white, ignited with flames of red and silver and blue, primordial light, Cassandra's light, shone from my multicoloured eyes in an open challenge, my tails shimmered and flowed like water before they covered me in a soft, but eternal armour and then chaos claimed the Void.
Transcendent forces obliterated everything in their path, even the Void trembled as the shockwave of my ascendance collided with the will of my siblings. I'm sure the sight would have been magnificent, a memorial to the prowess of our race, but unfortunately I wasn't there to witness it. I had long since slipped away, shielded by the unleashed madness, like a fox in the dead of night.