When the sphere shattered, there was no explosion. Not at first.
Instead, there was a sound like a grand intake of breath. All the air, all the heat, all the sound in the cavern was sucked into the point where Aarav's fists had met the crystal.
Aarav floated in the void for a split second, weightless, suspended over the heart of the world.
Then, the universe exhaled.
BOOM.
A shockwave of pure, blinding white Aether detonated outward. It didn't burn like fire; it erased. The rock of the cavern turned to mist. The magma lake was pushed back, creating a bowl of empty space.
Aarav was thrown backward like a ragdoll. The wind knocked the breath from his lungs, his gauntlets disintegrating from his hands as they were stripped away by the sheer force of the energy.
He tumbled through the air, heading straight for the wall of magma.
"Gotcha!"
Something wrapped around his waist. Not a hand, but a whip of condensed air. Liora, standing on the crumbling remains of the platform, hauled him back with a scream of effort. She dragged him onto the stone just as the shockwave hit the other side of the cavern.
And there stood Elara.
She had just clawed her way out from under the debris. She saw the wave of pure Aether coming. She didn't run. She opened her arms, her shadowed mouth gaping wide.
"MINE!" she shrieked. "INFINITE POWER!"
The wave hit her.
For a moment, she seemed to absorb it. Her form swelled, glowing brighter than a star. She laughed—a sound of ecstatic madness.
"I AM A GO—"
The laugh turned into a gurgle.
Her body began to crack. Not just her skin, but the very fabric of her existence. The energy was too pure, too vast. It was an ocean trying to fit into a cup.
"Too... much..." Elara gasped, clutching her throat.
Beams of light shot out of her eyes, her mouth, the pores of her skin. She began to melt. Her shadow-flesh boiled away, revealing the blackened skeleton underneath. Then the bones turned to ash. Then the ash turned to nothing.
She didn't die; she was unmade.
"NOOOOOO!"
Her final scream was erased as her existence was wiped from the timeline. The "Master" of Antima was gone, vaporized by the very power she sought to enslave.
But the danger wasn't over. The cavern was collapsing. The ceiling, kilometers above, began to fall. Massive chunks of the city of Antima were raining down into the magma.
"We're going to be buried!" Mara yelled, clutching her cannon, huddled over the injured Kael.
"The bridge is gone! The tunnel is blocked!" Kael gritted his teeth, looking at the destruction with a calm acceptance. "This is a good tomb."
"I hate tombs!" Aarav yelled, stumbling to his feet. He grabbed Liora. "We are not dying here!"
But there was nowhere to go. The magma was rising, the ceiling falling.
Suddenly, the light in the center of the room shifted.
The Ancient One—the being that had been trapped inside the sphere—fully emerged.
It wasn't a dragon or a human. It was a shifting shape of geometry and light, beautiful and terrifying to behold. It pulsed with a heartbeat that resonated with the souls of everyone in the room.
It slowly turned its attention to the tiny figures on the platform. To Aarav.
A voice spoke in their minds. It wasn't spoken; it was felt. Like sunlight on a cold day.
<< THE CAGE IS BROKEN. >>
Aarav looked up at the entity. He felt no fear. Only awe.
"Go," Aarav whispered. "Be free."
The entity shifted. A massive "face" formed of light leaned down.
<< THE BREAKER. THE HEALER. THE WARRIOR. THE HUNTER. >>
It acknowledged them.
<< A DEBT IS OWED. >>
The entity extended a limb of pure light. It didn't touch them; it surrounded them. A bubble of protective energy formed around the group.
<< ASCEND. >>
The bubble shot upwards.
It moved faster than sound. They rocketed up through the falling debris of the cavern, up through the shaft of the Warden's Vault, up through the sewers.
They smashed through the stone foundation of Antima.
They burst out into the open air of the Eye of the Storm.
Below them, the city of Antima was dying. The Black Spire crumbled, falling into the hole created by the Entity's escape. The white marble towers cracked and slid into the sea. The entire island was sinking.
The bubble hovered high in the sky.
The Ancient One emerged from the earth like a phoenix. It shot up into the sky, a pillar of light that pierced the Storm-Wall.
The eternal storm that had surrounded Antima for centuries... shattered. The black clouds evaporated. The lightning died.
For the first time in a thousand years, the sun shone clearly on these waters.
The Ancient One hovered for a moment longer, looking at Aarav one last time.
<< LIVE. >>
Then, it shot upwards into the cosmos, becoming a new star in the daylight sky.
The protective bubble gently lowered the group. It didn't take them to the sinking city. It took them to the deck of the Starling Gale, which was bobbing violently in the waves caused by the island's collapse.
The bubble popped, depositing them gently onto the wood.
Silence returned.
They lay on the deck, staring up at the clear, blue sky. The sound of the sinking city was a distant rumble.
Aarav turned his head. Liora was lying next to him, her silver robe tattered, her face covered in soot, but she was smiling. A real, bright smile.
Mara laughed. It started as a chuckle, then turned into a full-blown, hysterical laugh. "We... we killed a city. We literally sank the city."
"We killed a god," Kael corrected, staring at his splinted leg. "And I lived to complain about it."
Aarav sat up. His body felt light. The heavy weight of the Blade Sigil in his palm was gone. He looked at his hand. The golden lines were fading, turning into a simple, faint white scar in the shape of a sword.
The power was gone. The mission was over.
He crawled over to Liora and pulled her into a sitting position. She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder.
"It's over," she sobbed. "It's really over."
"Yeah," Aarav whispered, holding her tight. "It is."
He looked at the horizon. The sea was calm. The air was fresh.
But as he looked at the sinking ruins of Antima, a thought crossed his mind.
Elara was gone. The Syndicate was broken. The Ancient One was free.
But the world... the world had just changed. The balance of power was gone. The Aether that Elara had been hoarding was now free, flowing back into the world.
And where there is power, there will always be those who want to take it.
"Captain," Aarav said, looking at Mara.
"Yeah, kid?" Mara wiped tears of laughter from her eyes.
"Set a course," Aarav said.
"To where?" Mara asked. "We don't have a mission anymore."
Aarav looked at the Tide Compass. It was silent. The golden light was gone. It was just a normal compass now.
He smiled. A free smile.
"Anywhere," Aarav said. "Set a course for anywhere."
Mara grinned. She stood up, winced at her ribs, and limped to the helm. "Course set for 'Anywhere'. Expected arrival time... whenever we feel like it."
The Starling Gale turned its bow away from the ruins of the past, sailing towards the open, endless horizon.
For the first time in his life, Aarav wasn't running from something. He was sailing towards something.
Towards a future he would build with his own hands.