Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 206: Transcendence

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Toren Daen

I felt Aurora's pain as if it were my own, her scream–more of surprise than of the agony she truly felt–tearing across my mind.

It only cemented my resolve further. I ground my teeth, my head feeling as if it had been dunked inside a vat of acid as I struggled to maintain control of the building mana of the Stake of the Morning. My hands clenched around the hasta of solid plasma as I felt my thoughts center on one, single thought.

He hurt my bond, I thought, my eyes dilating as they focused on Dawn's Ballad. The sword–which had torn a clean cut through Aurora's Relic exterior–was glowing. I could feel the reaction of heartfire within it as it began to morph and change, the blade seeming to almost melt as it streamed into Arthur's palm. He hurt Aurora.

"I am fine, Toren!" Aurora yelled as she pedaled away limply, though her voice was strained. "Just do what you need to do!" she added, her mind fuzzy.

As the spear of solid plasma settled into my palm and the guiding stream of telekinesis flashed like lights along an airway, my addled mind focused on one thing.

Images of all those I'd met in this world flashed before my eyes. Naereni, with her devious smirk and darting eyes. Wade's inherent desire for knowledge. Sevren's severe stare and burning passion for those he loved. Caera's nonchalant confidence. Seris' careful smile, something hopeful and terrible churning beneath like ever-shifting energies of yin and yang.

And like the shadow cast by a looming mountain, the grave reflections filtered through next. The man I'd failed to save so long ago in the Clarwood Forest, his abdomen melted through as I failed to reach him in time. The broken eyes of Alun as he saw his zombified wife in the Undead Zone, moments before he was ripped from life. And the hundreds–no, thousands–who had died in the Plaguefire Incursion.

And finally, Hornfels Earthborn's broken stare as he saw the corpse of his brother. The brother I had slain.

I can stop it all, I thought, a thread of resolve worming through my mind like underlying rot. I won't need to kill anymore. To take away any more brothers. To ruin any more innocent lives.

And all I needed to do... All it would take...

Arthur was stumbling to his feet, the runic tattoos on his arms churning and seeming to swell as he swayed drunkenly. The hope of this world–the only being who would stand between Kezess Indrath and Agrona Vritra–shifted weakly as his exhaustion was made manifest.

I hurled the Stake of the Morning, not allowing myself to think.

And Arthur appeared suddenly to the side as if he'd teleported, my attack searing through everything in its path as it continued unerringly through this city–which I knew was an abandoned djinni sanctuary.

Static Void, I thought angrily, Aurora's exhaustion and weariness from whatever Dawn's Ballad had done to her bleeding through our connection. Of course it couldn't be that simple, could it?

"I'm fucking done," I said at last, my fevered mind settling onto that one, certain truth. "Done holding back. Done hiding away and biding my time. Done trying and trying and trying to stay myself!" I yelled, the mana around me flexing and warping with my intent. Hornfels' rabid fury burned itself into my retinas as if by a brand, the haunting memory scraping at my sanity. Arthur was so happy to just try and attack me. And I'd restrained myself so far. But if what he wanted was to die? "You want to fight me, Arthur Leywin? You want to face me, Lance of Dicathen?" I snarled, calling on my Phoenix Will.