For a mont, they were locked.
Ben’s teeth clenched.
Dark aether fought against golden fla, neither side giving way.
Behind them, the altar pulsed again.
Cracks of light climbed higher up the stone pillars.
The chained fla surged and slamd into its bindings.
The whole plaza shook.
"Ben!" Elvira shouted.
She saw where he was looking.
"The altar is going to break!" she yelled.
"Do you have a plan?"
Ben narrowed his gaze.
A war was raging outside. He knew his strength was still far below those monsters.
"If I consu it..."
He did not finish the sentence.
Elvira understood anyway.
Draeven stared at him.
"That thing will kill you," he said.
Ben shook his head once.
"Maybe," he said. "But so far, my consu has taken everything."
The Ash King heard them.
His aura flared.
"You dare," he growled. "You dare lay hands on my fla."
He shoved Ben back with a burst of power.
Golden pillars of fire erupted around the altar.
His body rose into the air, floating in front of it like a guardian statue.
"This is my power!" he shouted.
Draeven’s voice cut in, rough and angry.
"Then die first."
He shot up again.
Flas wrapped around him like armor, purple mist mixed with gold.
Ben followed.
Dark wings spread from his back, made from pure aether.
He kicked off the ground and chased after Draeven.
Elvira raised her hand, circles spinning at high speed.
She aid at the inner bindings around the altar.
If she loosened them at the right ti, Ben might be able to consu the fla first.
Priests tried to interfere, but she erased their spells one by one.
The air above the altar turned into a storm.
The Ash King moved first.
Golden fire gathered in his palm and stretched forward.
It hardened into a spear.
The spear was not just fla.
It felt like a rule that had decided it would pierce anything in its way.
Ben’s instincts scread.
The Ash King thrust.
BOOM!!!
The spear crossed the plaza in a blink, tearing the air open behind it.
Ben twisted, but it was too fast.
Draeven appeared in front of him.
He slamd his shovel sideways.
CLANG!!!
The spear hit the shovel and exploded.
The impact threw Draeven backward.
His armor cracked.
Golden fla burned into his chest and shoulder like molten tal.
He slamd into the ground and rolled, leaving a trail of scorched stone.
"Draeven!" Ben shouted.
Draeven coughed blood.
But he forced his head up.
His eyes locked on Ben.
"Go!" he roared. "Now!"
Ben did not hesitate.
He shot forward straight toward the altar.
The Ash King turned, ready to move again.
But Draeven already moved blocking his path.
Elvira seeing the opportunity, snap her finer.
"Break."
A sharp wave hit the already damaged seal.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK!!!
The altar’s outer pillars shattered.
The black stone that had held the Primordial Fla split apart like rotten wood.
For a heartbeat, everything went silent.
Then the Primordial Fla exploded.
BOOM!!!
A pillar of red and gold light surged upward.
It punched through the ceiling of the altar hall and tore into the sky.
Heat rolled out in rings.
lting stone and tal in the way.
The priests were thrown back like dolls.
Elvira’s circles shattered one after another, her face turning pale as she forced her body to stay steady.
The Ash King roared.
"No!"
He lunged toward the fla, trying to pull it back.
But it was already too late.
Ben was already there.
He stood directly in front of the exposed Primordial Fla.
His right arm begin to transform.
Dark aether hardened into a massive jaw-like shape that opened wide.
Ben’s eyes were bloodshot.
He reached forward.
The jaw closed.
CHOMP.
He swallowed the Primordial Fla.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then pain ripped through him.
It was not pain in his skin.
It was pain in his soul.
Ben’s body locked in place.
His veins turned bright gold.
Dark aether surged to protect his body, but the fla burned through it like a sun burning through fog.
Ben’s mouth opened, but no sound ca out.
His vision went white.
He fell into darkness.
Then a spark appeared.
It’s a rainbow colored fla.
The fla than ignited releasing a huge wave of power.
Then space stretched out. It expanded far beyond Ben understanding.
The flicker of the leftover fla turned into a weird symbol.
Ben couldn’t understand it, but sohow he know this symbol is the base law of the plane.
The fla began to cool down and break into smaller pieces.
Tiny particles ford and crashed into each other in endless collisions, and over ti the simplest matter began to appear, spreading across the expanding plane like a thin fog.
So places pulled that matter harder than others, and the pull kept growing until huge masses ford, then ignited into stars.
Those stars burned with violent light, then they died and exploded, throwing out heavier material that could not exist at the start.
tal, stone, and strange dense fragnts spread across the plane, and more stars ford after that, more explosions followed, and the plane slowly filled with the building blocks for worlds.
Ti jumped forward in rough bursts.
Systems ford, as planet appears.
So planets stayed dead rock, so turned into storms, and so cooled down until oceans and skies appeared.
Life began in small ugly shapes, then grew and changed, climbing upward across different worlds as ti kept pushing forward.
Then the vision grabbed him and dragged him to one place.
Ben saw a creature evolve into a giant that looked like a man.
He watched them hunt the beasts that ruled the plains. One giant rushed in and tore a kill open with bare hands, but another got trampled when the herd fought back.
After enough deaths, they learned to kill from a distance, first with stones, then with chipped stone, then they tied it to wood and made spears.
Then they noticed the air contained power.
They learned to pull it into their palms, compress it, and ignite it.
They created fla, then found ways to create other elents.
Water appeared from nothing, and plants grew with a move of their hand.
With fla, they learned to cook at.
Work beca faster, and stored food beca normal.
Fields appeared, herds were kept, and storehouses were built behind walls.
Cities began to rise as civilization flourished. Magic beca a major part of their life.
Those with talent gained privilege, and those without got ignored.
War beca routine as the strong sought more territory.
Then they grew greedy. They tried to control nature itself.
Volcanoes erupted. Earthquakes were triggered.
Thunderstorms destroyed their enemies and carved scars into the ground.
Cities collapsed into ruins. Dead bodies littered the water and turned it into poison.
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