"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Directly following him, Duban, Faqir, and everyone else attacked, screaming their lungs out.
The scene fractured into a million shards, each person's strike carrying a private, painful reason.
In those short seconds, the hall was filled with walls of fla, ice, and water.
Construct after construct of many tens of elents, a literal bombardnt.
They lded into one another, all holding the sa intention.
Blades of all types had joined them as well, each a strike of clashing Aether.
Many of them took the shape of animals and went forth.
The Holy Palace couldn't handle it all.
What once crumbled now flickered out of existence.
After many thousands of snaps, only the Golden Throne, its dais, and stairs remained.
Everything else around them had literally ceased to exist, Aether snuffing them out much like an Anomaly, a Law that was broken from the sheer magnitude and relentlessness on display.
Items such as Holy Relics began to scatter all around them, springing from the vaults that once safeguarded them, as a Moonlit night claid them all.
Yet, none of them even noticed that, too focused on Malik...
On the chaos that was unfolding.
Their attacks had worked.
Adding to what their leaders did, the first mont split a few chains; the second started to fray the Holy Relic's Will to nd itself; the third broke a few off from their tears of reality; the fourth—
Thump!
It began to heal.
Their montum was stopped in its tracks.
Even as their attacks reached the chains, they...
'Violet Maw.'
They... resud cracking them?
Snap!
A large purple skull had crashed into it.
It ca from a girl smaller but stronger than most.
Dunya, and she had no great spells; she was barely a Jinn.
Yet, she too held death, for her blood was as foreign as her Lady.
Her attack further sucked up what Aether the Ten Commandnt held.
So, losing all that Aether had paused its healing further, allowing the rest of their attacks to continue doing visible damage to its chains.
"HEEE!"
She scread Malik's na, the only way a mute could.
There was not a lot she could say about jim that she didn't before.
He'd pulled her out of the pits of Hell and sewn her torn soul with his gentleness.
He was her savior, her big brother, the one she most loved in this world.
The world long since owed him a chance to breathe.
And damn would he be given one.
"BREAK."
Though invisible, Sinbad's attack ca right after hers.
There was no way in Hell they could give it a mont of rest!
He controlled the very air between the particles within the chains.
They tried to knit themselves, yet he pulled at their seams, cracking them further.
Each thread he loosened humd under his claws, an attack most destructive.
Nothing around the chains remained in existence, broken by his attack's gravity.
This... this wouldn't go against their promise...
Finally, Sinbad could keep his brother alive!
HE WOULD NOT LOSE THIS CHANCE.
THUMP!
As if in response to his need, the chains brightened, pushing back.
It was using all its power, trying to hold itself together and keep healing the damage.
But, not giving it a chance, Scheherazade revealed a palm to the night sky and flicked it up.
"Yggdrasil's Thorns."
Sothing of a light left it, as the rocky ground beneath them trembled even further.
Sprouting from it, directly around the stairs, was a massive and lush tree. A tree that had all its thousands of roots go forth and instantly attack the chains.
And what an attack it was, roots intertwining one after another, creating many wooden spears of certain death, easily piercing through every chain, and squashing its attempt at 'pushing back.'
Scheherazade quite liked Malik...
He was the only one she found interesting in this boring world.
If he could live, if that was ever possible, then she certainly wanted it to be true.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
As did everyone else, continuing their screams, their bombardnt of it.
And yet, such a beautiful truth didn't seem like it'd co to pass.
Yes, many chains were near breaking, barely holding together.
Divine sounds were made, speaking of incredible struggle...
But still, still...
It did not break.
They had reached a stalemate: healing and tearing matched.
Two old enemies who rembered each other's rhythms.
Their attacks had—
"FALL!"
A spell circle appeared above and below the chains.
Incredible gravity fell upon them, squashing them in.
It was Noor who ca in falling from the sky, her face veiled no longer.
The chains pushed back, but she further tightened her spell, unrelenting.
The weight pressed at their seams until the divine material scread.
Noor... she had railed at him, cursed him, wanted the kingdom to rip him apart.
But when the mont ca, when she realized how he only wanted to teach her.
That everything wrong originated from her and her inferiority...
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
She bent toward his rescue.
Yes, she still hated the man.
That wouldn't change, never.
But he was a great man.
He deserved to live.
Noor had passed Malik's test.
Even her guards did, joining her in their final attack.
"FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!"
The last push ca with an earth-shattering roar from them all.
All their lives were on the line; its Flaw threatening to break them.
Yet, it could not; all remaining chains hissing, light leaving them.
One by one, they broke, until eventually...
Not a single chain was left.
They had all returned to Aether.
The throne stood alone.
Malik was freed.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
...They did it.
***
'...'
'...'
'...'
'...Rember, you must die.'
Those words rippled in my mind… huh?
In 'my' mind? Mine?
This thought...
I did not expect it to belong to , Yet it did.
It settled into my chest... yes, my 'chest.'
For a long mont, I only watched it.
I watched the way it moved through .
This... this thought... it moved 'through' .
There was a space between heartbeat and breath.
Ah... I was no longer a drifting soul.
I was in my body again.
My weight was my own.
I could feel my breath pressing against my ribs.
Yes... this 'breath,' I could feel it clearly.
'I'm alive.'
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