Tread Lightly

Ether runs rampant through me, controlled by three souls and minds at once. With more people at work, so much more Ether can be harnessed, allowing the Sirza Blodwyn and I once held to grow when there should otherwise be no more room for growth.

The white bone darkens as it expands from my heart, wrapping every tiny inch of my body with slick, abyssal black armor. My eyes glow crimson, all three souls in our shared body staring out of them simultaneously in tandem.

Ojibwe's tentacles slither and contort in the air, gradually coming for me again but nervously this time. The God is careful. That means I must be doing damage, and it's scared of more. Foot by foot, it encroaches on the three of us.

I watch it, feeling the heart within my chest pump a lethal amount of Ether. After this fight... No, I can't think about after. All that should be in my mind is now. Lily appears without the gun firing, seated upon my elevated shoulders as she points ahead, like a commander of an army.

"Sic' 'em!"

A clawed footprint is left behind in the dirt, pressed a dozen inches into the earth before bony nails seek Ojibwe's many eyes. The sharpened edges don't reach the God. Instead, a tentacle slams me to the side, sending me rolling. Bones crack all over, including those internally guarded by the armor around me. Cardinal waters leak from the shattered pieces, evaporating under the eclipse's glare.

I don't stop for a second, though, instantly turning the backward momentum into forward speed. I lunge at the God of Reflections, my body transformed by the beings within me. The raw power from Blodwyn and Lily flows through me, but exhaustion clings to every movement, slowing me down.

My claws, sharp and relentless, tear at the God like a beast, each strike driven by sheer willpower as my Dominion keeps me up. Lily holds her own Colt above my head, waiting for an opportunity to strike, though I am unsure if she will get one.

The tentacles of Ojibwe retaliate with brutal lethality, striking me over and over. Pain explodes through my body with every hit, but I refuse to stay down. I push myself up just like all the other times, even when it is my own attack that puts me in the dirt.

My vision loses colors, turning simple shades of black and white, and my limbs grow heavy, but I keep going. I slash at the God, gouging out one of its many eyes. As I do, a blinding pain sears through my vision and everything goes dark. I can't see... and it makes me worried for my future instincively. I think of Johnny and how often he blinded himself for us, for our lives. I can't afford to stop. If I falter, if I let the exhaustion win, the lights will go out forever.

The fury of losing him bolsters my will another time, but I end face-first into the rocks again.

The battle is... it is what keeps me alive. The adrenaline and the emotions swirling within me—rage, hate, and grief—fuel my battered body long past its breaking point. The feelings are what makes my soul so strong, so dense, so... limitless.

I can see it. I have already died. This heart beats without life. There is an impossible task before me, for a dead man to kill a God.

A smile graces my mouth as I've finally found it. Nothing, no one, will take this from me.

I claw and scratch at Ojibwe with my hands and feet, going so far as even to try to bite him with the sealed mouth of bone, only to fail. The God’s tentacles lash out, each whip a crushing blow against my armor, but I absorb the pain through it, transforming it into fuel.

I can feel the Cardinal's waters fighting to heal me, the abyssal armor protecting me from the worst of the damage. But it's not enough to turn the tide. I'm running on nothing but willpower and Cardinal waters, my body screaming for respite, yet I push forward. The rush of the fight, the sheer need to keep moving, keeps me alive.

The God of Reflections looms over me, a grotesque amalgamation of endless eyes and writhing limbs. No matter how many I cut off or destroy, there always seems to be more. The only indication of damage that Ojibwe gives me is yipes of pain that warble in the air and its caution.

But even in the darkness, even with my vision gone, I can sense its presence, feel its malevolent gaze. I strike unthinkingly, my claws raking through the air. No matter how many times I find purchase, Ojibwe finds it even more within my flesh.

I punch, scratching at the God with my sharpened nails of with Honed Ether, but it simply is mirrored back to me. Were it not for the unbelievable durability of Earl's creation, I'd have already lost an arm.

I stumble, my legs giving way for a moment before I force myself upright again with a drunken wobble. At this point, I might as well be hammered, intoxicated by the adrenaline. During my moment of sluggishness, I feel a tightness wrap around me as Ojibwe's tentacles finally grab me.

It squeezes, crunching the bone that has endured Divinhood before bit by bit. My heart, Blodwyn, cries out in pain before Lily makes a move. She leaps off my shoulders, crashing into the God with a wild howl.

Her crimson fangs find the God's eyes as they grow out of her mouth, something I didn't know she could do. Then, those dark waters from the Cardinal emerge from her in a deluge, overwhelming both Ojibwe and me.

Lily manages to injure Ojibwe, but the God doesn't buckle. Its eye glows brighter as the water abruptly turns to flame, turning into its complete opposite, its reflection.

The Colt's agonized scream brings my vision back, the tidbits of light forced into visibility by my soul. At this point, my pain has long since vanished; all the nerves in my body have been ground away into no longer being able to send misery.

Seeing Lily roll across the dirt and clutching her stomach closely as I feel her groans within my head, my nails tear through the tentacled flesh. The dense and shadowed meat rips away mine in turn, but I emerge in moments, diving for the girl.

I wrap her up in my arms, falling to the floor with her below me, and my back now turned to Ojibwe. Another tentacle bashes into my outer spine, but I don't buckle, gazing down at Lily while her face is locked into a grimace.

My concern for her isn't lessened in the slightest by the fact she's a God. No, if anything, it's only amplified. Because that means she's that much more dangerous, both to herself and others. Lily hasn't even been hurt before.

Today is the first time I've ever heard her genuinely in pain. She's been hit, but all those previous times did next to nothing in actuality. Not this one, though.

And that anger rises back up.

Each of her cries pierces my heart. I watch Darklight worm its way into her hands, snaking up her pale veins. Cardinal water leaks from both her gashes and her eyes, fueling a rage that I had previously pushed away. I've embraced anger before, only to reject it again. But now, as the God of Reflections beats me into the earth without a hint of letting up, I look toward the emotion again.

I’ve never been prone to anger. I’ve been rash, irresponsible, and quick to fight, but it’s never been out of anger. It’s been for survival, for my desire to save others. Emotions are power. Edmund taught me that as a final lesson. But he's not the only one who has shown such things.

Sacate, with his last wishes and fiery ambitions, slowed a force of Angels when he had no right to.

Marshall, with a lifelong dedication to others, showcased the brilliant heart within. He turned his pain and his feelings into the most splendid punch ever concocted.

Bonfire, with the death of his closest friends, burned brightly enough to hold off all of the Mother Below's attempts at his soul. He refused Her love with his hate.

Remington, with his eternal devotion to his king, the man who raised him and gave him a place to sleep, food to eat, and a warm house, locked the strongest God in the cosmos into stasis for millennia.

Johnny... I do not know how my friend died. What I do know, however, is that he... he did not go quietly. He went out with a bang, either that of his Colt or the bomb in his hand.

That is certain.

The death of Johnny, the dependable older man, and countless others flash through my mind. I can just imagine his final bullet.

The outstretched arm, both eyes open but with his focus on only the target, and the calm clench of the trigger linger past the flash. His death, the passing of the others, and now the pain of my little sister, push me to the edge of something profound. A scream of frustration and pain rips from my throat as I curl around the girl, my body absorbing the relentless blows meant to break me.

Blodwyn screams, too, his Adaptation rushing to slow the breaking of our Sirza. The bones of our Sirza are formed with so few nutrients and strength that the Sirza is hardly able to show a tenth of its power.

Every strike, every lash of the tentacles, deepens my wounds. My bones ache, the flesh underneath tearing, but something shifts inside me. The anger surges, boiling over, transforming into a white-hot resolve. My very soul, the Dominion that I possess, overflows my form as the formless nature of my soul covers my broken body.

Again and again, I'm hit; this time, the pain is far worse as it goes deeper, more profoundly, into my vitals. It breaks through the edge of something... Limitlessness. It returns, and this time, I control it instead of the other way around.

I take my emotion and harness it, feeling an overwhelming sensation well within my Ether. It surges, damaging my connection with the Sirza and Blodwyn, but I push against the Concept while forcing it in the right direction.

It's featureless, something impossible to describe, simply attracted by my defiance, anger, grief, and collection of aligned Sigils. Limitless itself attaches to me as I am broken again and again. Then, that cradle of chains, that tiny little limitation within me that dictates my weakness, my Ether saturation and injuries, wobbles.

Every time I am hit, it sways a little more, just as my vision does, and Lily's agony rises.

I've found it—the way to imbibe Limitlessness. I must do something impossible. But I already have. Many times. Yet... none of them is what it has asked for. It needs something both never done before and something that is beyond imagination.

I've imbibed two Gods and lived. But it's not enough. We're not truly put together yet. They are still weakening me, their powers hardly enough to make up for the damages within my soul and frame. Yet, it is my anger, my emotions, and the overflowing Dominion within me that forces our connections closer, bringing me toward that Concept. There must be a thousand ways to be delivered unto a Concept. And I believe I've found mine.

Ojibwe has given me the way forward. It's Reflections are the answer.

Earlier, the Concept allowed my weaker skills to catch up to have an effect on Divinity. I can tell it is unique in that. Only Limitlessness can raise up all in the way it does.

But if it can raise the weak ones... then it can also raise the strong. I just need to control it enough.

I divert all the Ether touched with the Concept, which is every single stream in my body, toward my shared heart. Blodwyn shouts in surprise, but I calm him, telling him what to do.

"Adapt to withstand it. Once you are, join."

The instructions are simple, for I cannot waste any more time. I am instants away from death, the clarity of such so clear. And Blodwyn does it, stopping the usage of his Concept for the outer attacks and focusing on the inner.

Limitless meets Adaptation within our heart, and the latter moves aside. The very core of our Sirza, Painsforge, beats with Limitless Ether, and the whole skill changes from that simple node.

Another tentacle slams into my back, but the force is wholly absorbed, the Ether, Darklight, damage, and pain shifted directly into physical strength. Pushing myself up from the floor, I feel more strikes land on me, but with each heartbeat, the attack is directly converted into all kinds of things for me.

My injuries secede as the damage to my soul on the outside of my body is transformed into nourishing health. My Ether saturation, which had gone past its limit so long ago, vanishes from my worries because the Ether absorbed pulls the saturated Ether directly from my soul and bones. I even feel the incompatibility between Blodwyn, Lily, and me weaken, turning into a strength as Limitlessness takes the Sirza far beyond its purpose.

Just as Limitlessness transformed a mere Arbalest into a hundred times the speed of sound, it alters One Heart Beats For Three. Not enough to change the name, as it's still the same at the core, powered by Painsforge and our blood, but it is enough that I stare directly at Ojibwe without an ounce of hesitation. There is still room to grow with this merge, but the distance covered already is vast.

Then, I walk toward the God. One step after another. It attacks me, again and again, with those tentacles, only for its strength to become mine. The first line of defense is my soul, then the bony armor, and finally, our innards. And with each line, a little more of the attack is transmuted with the beating of our heart.

I raise a clenched fist, feeling comfortable in my flesh for the first day in many. Ever since Blodwyn touched upon Adaptation, I haven't felt right. I can only imagine how I would feel if Lily could properly use her Concept.

The knuckles in my hand stretch outward as I let Limitless flow into another skill, an old and outgrown one. Reach. The bones in my arm and my whole body stretch with miniature explosions of Ether within, shooting out waves of Cardinal water and accelerating my fist beyond my body.

Despite its distance, Ojibwe is struck directly in his most significant and most prominent eye. A wail fills the sky as the God's momentum sends him away, but I don't let him fly from the punch.

Even as my own punch hits me, I take it in stride, shifting the Ether, physical force, and Concept of Reflection into my heart for more power.

Limitless Manacles pull the God right back to me as I raise my fist again. Ojibwe doesn't say a word. The knowledge of its coming doom doesn't matter to it enough to plead for mercy. It simply fights back, just as I did before.

Lily cheers me on from behind us as the Darklight is extracted from her with my help. In her hand, the Colt rests, waiting for the ideal moment. And I quickly give it to her.

Taking Ojibwe in hand, I raise the giant creature into the air as if it were weightless. The ground beneath me cracks and gives way, but I don't care. Hundreds, no thousands, of chains, wrap around the God as I use Limitless once more.

I contract Ojibwe's chains, taking away the God's Concept temporarily as I press onto its soul with my own. With my Dominion alone, I can only negate Dominions and below. But with the Concept and my manacles...

So much more is possible.

Then, I hear the sound of a lily tapping upon a river's surface—not just once, but six times in a row. A smile spreads across my face as the largest river of darkness I've ever seen, equal in size to the Cardinal itself, appears behind me, devouring the God of Reflections in its entirety. The waves wash over the surface of the earth before me, turning the eclipse even darker, yet I embrace this gloaming. My arms outstretch out to my sides as the waters continue to rise, bathing me in their entirety and revitalizing that which was doomed to die.

Closing my eyes, I feel something change. Something shifts within me as we all finally work together as one. But more importantly, my body stops rejecting the others, and my life restarts anew. The Concepts live together in the same body. Without killing each other. And that... that is... My spine trembles as my very soul merges into my Sigils.

The nine become one.