Grey Vivium 4

‘Arthur!’ Regis screamed again in my head. He was inside me, I realized. I could feel his debilitated presence, his mind, his wild panic. And I could feel the Destruction rune raging like a wildfire, begging to be unleashed and burning away the last of my confusion and uncertainty.

Before me, Mythelias casually reached down toward Haedrig, who tried to throw himself backwards but slipped in blood and hit the ground with a grunt. To his credit, the veteran ascender seemed calm even in the face of certain death.

As the bloated, puffy white fingers reached toward my friend, I raised my own hand and summoned the violet flame. Mythelias’s head snapped around as he sensed my power, and with astonishing speed he cocked the spear back and launched it like a missile aimed straight at my throat.

The spear seemed to slow until it looked as if it were hanging suspended in the air. Riah’s dead face was twisted into a hateful snarl, as still as a painting. Haedrig lay on his back at Mythelias’s feet, one arm up to ward off the blow that had been diverted toward me.

Without meaning to look for them, I saw the network of aetheric vibrations between Mythelias and me; all I had to do was focus on them and activate my rune, and I was able to pass through the vibrations with God Step, appearing between Haedrig and Mythelias, the power of Destruction still held in my hand.

The world lurched into motion again, and I watched as the spear flew into the distance. Mythelias’s eyes widened in surprise, still focused on where I had been just a moment ago, before twisting around with the speed of a razor grimalkin, his hand thrusting toward me like the tip of a poisoned dagger.

But it wasn’t fast enough.

“Burn,” I commanded, and the hungry flames leapt from my fist in a fan of pure violet destruction fueled by my aether.

Destruction engulfed Riah’s body, flinging Mythelias screaming onto his back. He rolled and beat at the flames, and his power caused a hard, black shell to start forming all around the body.

Even as he burned, he screamed out, “I am the Mythelias Dresdium—son of the Sovereigns—and I—refuse—to—”

“Die,” I said coldly.

The purple fire consumed the scabrous black lumps and the pale dead flesh alike, destroying the body faster than Mythelias’s ability could regenerate it.

As I watched the body of the kind girl—the girl who brought sweets on an ascent instead of rations—disintegrate, I felt only the flush of power, the knowledge that, with Destruction at my command, I could defeat anything. Even Agrona wouldn’t be able to fight back against this kind of raw destructive force.

Destruction fed until not even ash remained, but when Riah’s body was gone, Destruction remained. I felt the power pull at me, eager for more.

I clenched my fists and ground my teeth as I tried to snuff out the remaining flames, which had spread to the stone floor and were quickly eating through it, along with most of my aether reserves.

A gout of the violet fire erupted from my right hand, boiling away the water within the fountain and setting two of the broken benches aflame. All around me, purple embers floated through the air, and anything they touched caught fire.

It was beautiful.

Then a spark landed on Haedrig’s leg.

He would burn, I knew, like everything else. Kalon, Ezra, Riah, Ada…Haedrig. They were all collateral damage, but their lives had been the price I had to pay to make it this far.

No! That was wrong, I knew. That’s Destruction talking, not me!

I saw again the future I’d witnessed in the dodecahedron: the hall of mirrors destroyed, nothing but ash remaining of my companions. That was what would happen if I couldn’t control Destruction. In the end, it would consume everything. Even me.

Feeling control slipping away from me, knowing that Haedrig would be incinerated in moments if I didn’t do something, I shouted for Regis.