The Only Difference between Martyrdom and Suicide.....

Velma clenched her fist, air bending to her will spiralling below Rhennmar blasting her upward. She screamed, lightning sparking down her fists.

Shekha fired lightning towards Velma who slid down, compressing the air under Shekha's feet, blasting her upward to an awaiting Rhennmar, who punched her down.

KKKRAKAOOOM!

The impact shook the entire chamber, slamming Shekha into the far wall hard enough to shatter it into pieces. Velma pulled wind into a barrier, diverting the sharpest fragments.

Before she could recover, Kryxx was already there, his vines wrapping around her legs and arms.

I charged swinging for her neck — but Shekha compressed the air around her throat, throwing me back in a gust. Then flames erupted from her free hand, burning the vines in an explosion.

Kryxx slammed his staff down, raising a wall of stone. The flames struck it until the rock turned red-hot and cracked. Kryxx gritted his teeth, reformed the wall into a sphere and collapsed it around Shekha.

“Contain!” he shouted, coughing blood. “That should hold her…”

BOOM!

The sphere exploded outward, shards of rock whirling like shrapnel.

From the smoke she stood, her blade glowing red with heat.

I tightened my grip.

Velma gathered every ounce of air she had left, spinning it into a cutting vortex. Rhennmar crackled like a thunderstorm. Kryxx’s vines rose again, thicker, sharper, lashing at Shekha from all sides.

The three of them attacked at once — wind, lightning, and earth converging.

Shekha roared, her aura flaring black and red, cutting through the vines, parrying the wind blades, taking lightning strikes head-on.

Each hit slowed her, but not enough.

Rhennmar did a couple of hand signs, breathing slowly. Lightning flowed to her whole body, surging into a huge ball of lightning around her.

Velma blurred forward, punching gusts of wind. I lunged, angling the sword below. But she deflected all of them.

The earth yawned beneath Shekha's foot just as she was about to move. That momentarily pause, gave Rhennmar the breathing room to charge her lightning across her fingers straight into Shekha's chest.

Her shadow form rippled outward, struggling to stay solid. Velma followed instantly, compressing air into the chest adding on to the lightning charge.

“This is it Ash!”

I woke, wiping the blood forming over my eye, gathering every ounce of strength, every drop of fear, every spark of rage.

 I lunged swinging horizontally in one swift movement, the sword cutting straight through her, severing her head cleanly.

And my sword split down the middle, clattering across the floor.

I dropped to one knee. 

It was over.

“You did it, Ash.” 

Callen said his last words to me.

For the first time, all I could hear was silence.

Then Shekha’s shadow peeled away from her, the rune burning out violently. The ground hummed under

Then —

Arisu teleported in front of me, smiling. 

“Really?” he said softly, voice like silk. “My shadows were defeated… by a grave-digger?”

I barely had time to glance up before his boot slammed into my face.

“Know your place, you worthless piece of shit.”

I could hear Keiji roaring somewhere and see the flames lashing but I couldn’t even move. Arisu caught the whip, let it burn across his palm then crushed it until the flames died.

“Pathetic,” he murmured. “Haven’t you learned anything?”

Arisu still had his boot under my rib squeezing with every movement until they popped like twigs. I tried to scream but it came out as a wet gasp.

Sid staggered forward, shield raised, planting it like a wall between me and Arisu. 

“Step away from him,” Sid said, his voice almost a growl.

Arisu tilted his head. “Siddarth. I was hoping you’d survive long enough for me to have fun.”

“Great,” Sid growled, lifting the shield high. “Then let’s really have fun.”

Arisu struck first, a lance of purple lightning tearing toward us like a spear. Sid’s shield met it but the force still threw him back, his heels carving trenches through the ground.

“Go!” Sid barked over his shoulder. “Get Ash clear!”

Keiji grabbed me under the arms, dragging me back. Even though he was gentle my ribs still screamed. Verra came beside me, trying to knit my ribs back together even as the battle raged.

The ground split open under Arisu’s feet, stone jaws snapping shut around his legs. Keiji rushed in with a flaming punch — but Arisu dissolved into shadow, reappearing high above, wings unfurling.

“You cannot,” Arisu said, spreading his arms, “defeat a god.”

Then he vanished.

Sid barely had time to raise his shield before Arisu reappeared above him, bringing a boot down hard. The impact sent Sid crashing into the ground, stone splintering outward like a crater.

“Water Art….Seven-Tide Walz.”

Thomlin raised his staff, seven- water spears launching all at once. Arisu flew between them like he was a breeze in the wind, untouched, then appeared behind Thomlin and slammed his palm into his back, sending him flying.

“Flare Infernum!”

Kryxx’s staff glowed white-hot as he spun a vortex of fire. Arisu simply inhaled, the flames bending toward him — then exhaled, sending the fire back like a roaring wall that nearly swept all of them away.

Kryxx fell on one knee, his bleeding arm painting the floor in red. He tried another spell, his lips moving in a whisper. “One more…” The vines erupted, not from the ground but from his own blood spilling on the stone — then he collapsed, staff slipping from his fingers.

Velma darted to him, hands cutting through the air to split another fireburst Arisu had sent his way. Verra moved away from me to attend to Kryxx. Her hands were shaking as she forced Kryxx’s blood to clot.

Arisu flew above him. “Try as much as you will. I am absolute.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Thomlin said grinning. “We’re not done yet.”

“Are you not?”

“Hell no,” Keiji said igniting his hands with flames.

“Ash!”

I could hear Lira, maybe Ariyanna’s voice calling me. I couldn’t tell. I crawled another foot, zeroing on their voice like a blood hound, then my hand hit something soft and familiar.

My pack.

I almost laughed.

The absurdity of it — lying there in the middle of a warzone, opened and fate just dropped it in my lap like some cosmic joke.

Resonance was no longer an option but maybe there was something else.  I dragged the pack toward me, fumbling through it with bloodied fingers until I felt its face. 

My old friend.

My shovel.

“Alright,” I whispered, forcing myself upright. My knees nearly buckled — but I stood anyway. Guess I wasn’t done just yet.

Thomlin’s voice broke, chanting too fast, staff glowing until it cracked. “....Seven-Tide Waltz...Final Verse!” 

A hurricane of water spears struck from every direction.

Arisu flew past most but one pierced his torse freezing into ice on impact. He staggered but only for a bit.

“Cute,” he said, breaking the spear.

Then he moved, faster than I could follow. Thomlin went flying, slamming into the far wall with a sickening crunch. Keiji yelled and answered with fire, hurling two burning orbs that exploded against Arisu’s back. The blast lit up the room — and did nothing.

Arisu turned his head, bored.

“Pathetic.”

He swept his arm and Keiji was gone — not even a scream, just a body tumbling across the floor.

I tried to move but my legs wouldn’t.

Verra’s hands were still shaking, Kryxx groaning on the ground.

“Sit down Ash,” she whispered. “You can’t fight in your condition…”

I had to. Verra had managed to repair a rib or two, just enough to try out a couple of strikes. I focused on the shovel, my fingers closing around it.

The weight was the same as it had always been. The edge was still chipped, the handle still splintered near the top — but it felt right in my hands, like it had been waiting for me.

Velma staggered but still sent another cutting wave of air to keep the pressure on. Even Sid, half-buried in rubble, lifted his shield again in a moment of defiance. Thomlin and Keiji still pressed on.

I took a step forward, feeling the weight on my knee.

Arisu turned, finally looking at me again. 

He flew closer to me. “What is it with you? Just stay down."

I wish I could have replied with something cool, but my mouth was full of blood. Instead, I swung, not reaching him.

He laughed, staring me down before chains circled around him into a makeshift cage.

"Crimson Spiral!" Thomlin yelled.

But Arisu vanished, reappearing out of the cage.

Then quickly, Thomlin twirled the staff, activating his water rune. 

“….Final Verse….Second Stanza!”

Water coiled up his arm, striking like whips slicing through the air and this time it left a mark across Arisu’s shoulder.

He turned frowning.

I was already running.

Sid noticed me and created a platform of earth, catapulting me forward. I was in front of Arisu in an instant. I swung and connected.

Arisu flew after me in a fit of rage, spewing flames but Sid planted his shield, redirecting the blast back at Arisu. While he was distracted blocking, I threw the shovel like a boomerang, landing another hit across his face, sending him to the ground.