One of my shoulders cracked as I writhed under the shell of snow and stone. After several seconds, my arm ripped from the rock, then another, and yet another still. A set of scalding chains dug around my shoulders, locking my arms in place, but without stopping, I tore one leg from the rock before cracking the stone around my neck.

With a bone breaking clap, I clamped my teeth into the chains. As I strained, the interlocked links shrieked like a swarm of dying vultures. After a few seconds, the chains severed with a thunderclap of teeth against teeth as my jaws clamped together. As the chains fell onto the floor, I snapped from the ice and earth.

I fell forward before lifting myself with my spine coiling in an arch. As I rose up, I spread my arms and a chuckle escaped my lips. The laugh loudened until the sound resounded off the walls. Tears fell from the eyes of Ara as I lowered my face beside her. Placing a clawed fingertip against her forehead, I said,

“Why are you crying then?”

A snarl snapped onto her face as she said, “Because it’s all over. Bastion is dead. The palisade is dead. Now I am. We lost. Evil won.”

I roared, “And if you defeated me, then would you have achieved victory? No. Your city is in shambles, your people in panic, and all you care for is killing me. Aren’t you just the very embodiment of a saint, hungry for blood as your people spill it.”

I tapped her forehead as I said in a whisper, “I could repay the torture of earlier with my own if I carried grudges.” I leaned closer as I said, “I could invade your flesh and ravage your mind...There’d be nothing left of you.”

Cold sweat fell from her cheek. I lifted up as I said, “But hatred is heavy. It presses harder with time, and I already carry quite enough.” I turn to Krakowah, “Try to shake the madness of your people from your shoulders, would you? It would allow your king to progress without relying on Gaia’s mutations.”

I walked past them while pulling in the nutrients of several corpses around me. Razor followed as she said,

“That was a quick recovery...You seem so...enticing.”

I rolled my eyes as I said, “I’ve no idea how Jack accomplished the feat of keeping souls dispersed throughout our flesh, but that is the enticement you taste. It mimics the energy dispersal of Gaia.”

We reached into the palisade’s primary building as she said, “And it taste’s delicious, like the blood of a god.”

We reached outside, the sun beaming through the crystal plate. I inhaled through my nose, smelling for hints of Aether’s before I said, “Aether’s towards the entrance of Nelastra. Let’s go.”

With endless vitality pumping through my limbs, I jolted towards the edge of Nelastra. As I passed through winding walkways, golem guards rallied citizens into stone fortresses. Nobles with panic stricken faces murmured amongst themselves, their words wobbling with uncertainty. The barrier’s subtle glow ended, casting the city in a gray overcast.

My abominable form created shrill screams and frenzy where I passed. They’d run and hide behind a barrel or doorway as if a thin plank of wood could protect them from me. Foolish. Soon enough, they’d need more than the courage to run away. They’d need mountains of mercy, and I doubted the tribe’s willingness to give them the much needed resource.

Razor and I reached a pathway of powdered marble with thick drops of dark blood dotting the rubble. The 50 foot wide path of decimation carved through the city like a shovel through dirt, leaving crushed corpses spread across the ground. The sound of the two colossi fighting reverberated even here, miles from their destruction.

Following the noise, Razor and I followed the noise until the collisions crashed like cataclysm. The earth shook with each eruption of force. Waves of dirt, rock, and wood flew into the air. Splintered planks and folded metal and crumbled cobblestone acted as bullets that stabbed inches into rooftops. My skin rippled as waves of sound, solid as earth and pulsing as a heart, permeated through and across the ground. My skin bristled as we reached over a hill, exposing the two behemoths.

Beaten and bloody, Solomon continued his onslaught, ineffective as it was. He had already beaten his fists to bony stubs against Aether’s armor. Even with the inevitable outcome looming, Solomon slung his body against Aether without any indication of stopping. Aether’s balance interrupted with each of Solomon’s charges as the road crumbled like a liquid under their feet. In effect, they fought on a sea of powdered stone.

Once Aether saw me, he lifted an arm before slapping the side of Solomon’s shoulder. Like a puppet being jerked on strings, Solomon flipped through the air before embedding himself six inches into a stone wall. His eardrums burst at the impact, blood dripping from his ears. His muscles twitched and pulsed as he attempted moving, but the damage dealt had built on him. He could no longer move.

As I walked forward, he heaved for breath, inhaling the grit around him. As I approached, his new, clear eyes set on me. In each oculus, he held a hard, terrible, hatred. In response, I grinned wide as I said, “Come now Solomon. Why so angry?”

He choked, “You killed the palisade. You killed my companions. You even destroyed Nelastra. There’s nothing else left for me here. No god to serve or cause to follow...Just kill me already.”

I stepped close before lunging onto one knee. With a wicked grimace, I said, “Are you so blinded by Gaia’s light that you cannot look around you?”

Solomon spit, “All I can see is the end.”

I sliced my words like a rusty knife through flesh, “Then open your eyes for a few moments, worm.”

Solomon’s face lit with sudden understanding as I said, “Did I tear apart a quarter of the city in a futile battle? Did I ignore my citizen’s safety to fight against the Darkened One? Did I allow the palisade to be decimated so that I could have a chance at glory, for a chance at killing the Darkened One?”

I continued, my voice biting, “Did I let my brothers and sisters wallow in suffering for self satisfaction? Did I choose blissful ignorance instead of scathing truth? Did I allow the palisade to kill and experiment freely? No. I did none of those things...Did I?”

One of Solomon’s hands clasped as he whimpered, “I was so close to god. I...I couldn’t-”

I roared, “I am closer than you have ever been, yet I never let her lies infect the eye of my mind or the sight of my soul. I retained who I am, but you...you gave yourself away.”

Solomon’s shoulders slumped, and his will withered. I said, “We will leave this place soon. There will be chaos and destruction unless someone rises and leads the divided factions. The tribes gave me leadership, but I passed the right to Kade. He had enough spine to stand against his oppressors.”

Solomon said, “I wanted to feel full...to be less empty and hollowed. My family died. I was alone, living like a rotten stump. Imprisoned. Alone. I wanted to feel purpose. I wanted to live again.”

As hot as burning brimstone, I said, “And so you disregarded reality for your own greed. You let Gaia deform your mind and body for false promise. You are a betrayer of truths, and now I act as your arbiter.”

I slammed my palm across his cheek before I spit, “I judge your life as . Decide your purpose, mongrel. Protect this pathetic city instead of chasing a shadow’s dream. Live a life that is your own, not as a puppet for some false god.”

As Solomon winced, his fists unclasped, and his heavy breathing grew steady. I walked away as I said to Aether and Razor, “Leave him alive. He will act as the representative of Nelastra.”

I walked over to Aether before wiping swaths of congealing red from his body. Razor scraped bits of phlegm and fingernail while Aether said, “What a confusing man. I don’t understand why he accepted Gaia instead of you.”

I frowned as I finished taking in the last bit of blood. I said, “Some people cannot change. Others change slowly. Solomon is the latter, and he paid his price with pain.”

Aether nodded before saying, “I believe losing his new family was enough.”

I hissed, “His new family paid the same price whenever they lost him, I assure you. That is no payment. That is dispersal.”

With a slicing sarcasm, Razor said, “Well then, we killed the palisade. We got the remnants. What now, Darkened One?”

I turned towards her and said, “We stop a genocide with revolution.”