Tread Lightly

Fury swarms my veins with heat, and I open my mouth to scream in rage. Yet, the air never leaves my throat as bone covers my mouth. Ether roars, as if alive, in my stead, and that rage turns cold. Ice swims in my marrow and my eyes as I steady my focus upon the Mother Below.

But it is not just her.

It is Vincent Harvey.

The two of them...

Aniwye...

I never... I never called you Ma.

I only ever called the Persona Ma. Not her. The ripple of pain in my heart feeds the core of the Sirza that is Painsforge, and the blood inside my body pumps with a strength I've never felt before.

My feet move on their own, and the distance between me and the two Gods quickly disappears. But as I accelerate, time only seems to slow. With each lengthened second, a memory of my mother washes past my vision.

From the earliest moments with Ma, of her teaching me carefully to even the hardened ones, where I was beaten and forced to do difficult tasks. Once upon a time, I hated the hidden memories, but now I simply treasure them. It was a mother doing her best. She knew no other way.

Aniwye didn't know how to love back then, and as such, neither did her Personas.

But she learned. As she always did.

The last hug we shared burns its way into my nerves as the Sirza formed within me finalizes mid-step. But it is not yet entirely over. A Concept slips from my soul and into the bone, as I never want it to be over.

Limitlessness hardens the bones, lengthens the terror, and deepens the blood. I begin the final step of Ether, of Concepts, and of power. To place one's Concept wholly within their Sirza. It is the final frontier of strength, where the only way forward is perfecting that very thing.

Blodwyn speaks within my head as the artifact still possesses some measure of rationality. But I cannot hear him. All I hear is the sloshing of blood in my ears, and all I see is two beings that I want dead.

"She might not be dead! It could have just been a Persona! Hey! Calm down! Relax! Don't rush into this!"

Lily joins in, too, despite her own hurting. The little girl grabs onto my elongated arm, but she cannot hold on against my momentum.

"Stop! Please!"

I answer them shortly before my concentration vanishes to that of a needle's bite. It is something that... I...

"Ma did it on purpose. If she wanted me angry. I'll be angry."

Ma is a manipulator. One of the finest. She has just never done it to me, but I've seen it. I've seen the way she's made Johnny like her, someone who previously loathed all demons. I've seen the way she got Bonfire laughing, Abraham smiling, and even Elizabeth relaxed. She weaseled her way into the upper echelons of humanity with little no no complaint.

She knows the minds of everyone she comes across.

And who could she possibly know better than me? The son she raised? The one who adores her?

If she, or her Persona, died intentionally... then... I'm just as mad. But not at her. I'm furious that she has to go that far to get me out of my rut. I'm...

I'm... livid with myself. And that only makes the heart beat faster, with more frenetic energy. Time, however, stays slowed, and for a good reason.

These two are too fast for the eyes to perceive. Only with such an altered view can I watch them. The legs of the spider tap thunderously while Vincent shifts into his very sands before reappearing at a moment's notice.

Lennon swings his Claymore at Usen, but it only cleaves off fragments of her chitinous flesh. It doesn't dig deep, nor does it draw ichor. He isn't good enough to damage her severely. As such... the God of Gods ignores him.

And it ignores me, focused entirely on Desolation. That is a mistake. A fatal one.

With every strike, Lennon's blade sharpens, and with every step toward them, the weight of my heart increases. She is underestimating us. How foolish. The ground beneath me sinks as I grow a little more. Soon, I'm at the height of a Councilmember, far taller than any average human.

The bones borne of Blodwyn are nigh-indestructible, unaffected by the two warring supreme Gods. Finally, finally, I reach them both.

Vincent warps away, turning into the sands again to counterattack Usen, but the spider comes closer, her twelve legs slamming down into the earth beside me. Each limb of hers sinks tens of feet deep, making me realize she's even bigger than I imagined.

I look up at her for a moment, feeling only the chill within.

Dashing forward, I throw a knuckled fist at one of her legs, several breaths entering my lungs through my flesh. The strike possesses all the emotion I can feel, and it holds all the strength I have ever held.

But the chitin of only one of Usen's twelve legs only cracks. The God stumbles slightly, yet she doesn't raise her leg in panic. She simply swings it right at me with all the same force I exert.

Lifting my arms to protect myself, I feel the chitinous flesh slam into me, and my vision turns black. Unable to see, I toss out Limitless Manacles to catch myself from the impact, and when color returns, I'm in the air, suspended by those chains. Feeling the pain and the wind knocked out of me, the anger hardens, allowing me to think properly. And to listen how I should have before.

My Sirza absorbed much of the damage, which only increases my physical strength, but Blodwyn has a warning for me.

"That leg is too durable. We can't break it anytime soon. Better we attack somewhere else. Why not try and use your Dominion to slow her Darklight? The Dominion this close does more than just corrupt. It heals her, strengthens her, and weakens us. If you slow it, we'll all be better off for it."

Ah. I see. I drop from the air, landing on my feet as I Soultrek before Usen once more. There, I'm quickly joined by another. I'll neeed to be close to Usen to use my Dominion. Way closer than just at the bottom of her legs. Someone conjures themselves, hoping to solve my woe.

"Lemme try!"

Lily stands beside me, no longer trying to stop me. She only draws her Colt from my holster and aims it upward at the God. Nodding at her, I give her my blessing.

The little girl pulls the trigger. Once. Then twice. Thrice. And she doesn't stop until all six rounds within the cylinder have sublimated into a dense river of darkness. Origin meets Love as the River Cardinal attempts to bring all into its clutches.

Abyssal waters wash over the chitin, dyeing them an eerie pitch, but the effect is magnitudes lower than all others I've seen from Lily. The Mother Below only stumbles, her Darklight faltering for a second. Lennon gets in a larger-than-normal slash while Vincent dives in toward Usen's maw with a cloud of yellow.

Abnormally pale doesn't even begin to describe Lily's condition, but she steadies herself and points at the river of black.

"Climb it!"

The look on my mask of bone must be incredulous as she shakes her fingers, trembling to hold the mass of Ether and Concept in the air.

"Hurry! I can't hold her for long! Big Sis Cardinal is crying!"

Shaking my head, I leap off the ground and onto the river, somehow finding purchase as it was solid ground, the waters of the Cardinal on my left giving me such a feeling. Without testing my footing, I kick below me, heading straight for the body of the twelve-legged spider.

Usen reacts swiftly and strongly to Lily's attack, flicking around with her whole body. The little girl is almost crushed before she shifts back into abyssal water that streams into my left hand. The movement throws me into the air, and I meet Usen's many eyes face to face.

I stare at her, equal in height, for a moment before she howls in anger, diving forward to bite me in twain with her countless rows of teeth. I welcome the challenge and open my arms wide as her jaws come down.

My feet find purchase on the bottom row of teeth while my raised arms catch the fangs above. Immediately, the pressure descends and rises to the levels that would shatter diamonds. But my bones only bend. They do not cave or break.

I hold the Mother Below's jaw in place as I feel the strength in my body continue to rise. Second over second, the blood pumps faster and faster. Steam flows from the tiny segments of interlocking bone plates, clouding my form.

This close, there is more that I can do than just hold her teeth, however. I needed to get close like this. It's perfect.

My soul expands as I pressure my Dominion against hers. One Dominion meets another, and I feel wave after wave of pressure beat against my soul. Still, I manage to weaken her very spreading soul, damaging it and slowing it.

This does not make her happy—not one bit. The might hidden within her jaws doubles and triples, with sections of bone on my body breaking off and shattering. Limitless flows within my body as I use it to augment both my strength and my soul.

The Darklight stagnates in the air, with no more coming from Usen at all. Only this close can I do it. Only within her very jaws can I halt the power of her soul.

I can feel frantic vibrations on the outside, and I know that Vincent is taking advantage of my actions to the highest degree. Lennon, too. Without the Darklight to weaken his sword, I'm sure he's doing some severe damage.

But I cannot hold this forever. Even as my strength rises, so does the Mother Below's. And... I soon discover why she appears to have no limit, just like me.

Through the war of the Endless and the Darklight, streaming clouds of blackened smoke fly toward Usen. These clouds dive into her flesh as the spider howls into the air. The sound scrapes at my eardrums, ripping out my ability to hear entirely.

"You made me do this! All of you! I just want peace! Love! And... you all want war! SO YOU'll HAVE IT!"

The smoke in the air vibrates with Ether as I sense several Divinities within them. But more than that. I feel Dominions, Virtues, Powers, and more. There are... thousands of beings within the many swirling clouds.

My bones begin to crumple, and I have to close my eyes, forcing a Soultrek to bounce me backward and out of harm's way. Slamming into the dirt when I gain form again, I land just feet to Vincent's left. The human nods to me, his right arm made entirely of sand.

"Good work. Now, the real battle starts."

I don't hear him. I only can tell the words by what my eyes see.

Ether swarms Usen as those clouds sink into her chitinous flesh. Lennon retreats in surprise while slashing open the smoke. His blade ends with blood and guts as corpses fall from the miasma in the air. I whip at one with a Twisted Edge, but the same does not occur for me.

Vincent merely shakes his head as his arms go to the sky, and his own Ether surges to impossible levels. I always thought that I could handle the most Ether for any Sigil or level that I was at. That is the main bonus of the soul's enhancement from the Philosopher, after all.

But that was just naivete.

At once, two Sirzas are born, intertwined with Concepts and the Gods who control them. I hear not spoken words but the Ether themselves.

The Endless Devours All.

Love Returns Its Heart.

Right. My Sirza is not yet completed. I can use it with Limitless, but it is just not the same as being one and the same. Lennon stands beside me as the indignation in his gaze is evident. He hates being the weaker one, being the one who simply oversees the battle.

But there is nothing for us to do. Not right now.

I've done my part. And Lennon's is still to come.

Vincent Harvey transforms every inch of his flesh into the Endless as they devour everything. Everything.

The God of the Endless dissolves entirely, his form disintegrating into the very fine motes of dust that make up his infinite swarm. The Endless Devours All. The insects, tinier than the naked eye can see, spread out, consuming everything in their path. The gas in the air, the stone beneath our feet—everything turns to more insects. The crimson streaming from the many deaths and the flowing waters from uprooted rivers vanish. The Endless is so consuming that even segments of light evaporate.

It all is devoured, absorbed into the ever-growing swarm. I step back further, trying not to touch even a single insect.

Meanwhile, the Mother Below calls upon her own strength. Love Returns Its Heart. All the beings she had possessed in the past are returned to her, their power becoming hers. Whether they are mighty Gods or powerless mortals, all surrender to her. Swathes of black clouds, filled with the essence of countless souls, enter her figure. Her twelve-legged form swells, growing larger and more terrifying with each passing moment.

The ground beneath me is stripped away, turning to dust before my eyes. The air becomes thick with the buzzing of countless maws, and the reborn light of the sun fades, swallowed by the swarm. Yet, amidst this consuming darkness, the Mother Below's presence grows even more imposing. Her massive form towers over everything, her eyes glowing with an unholy light.

My Dominion has been stripped away, unable to latch onto her magnificence at all.

The two... ultimate powers collide, the Endless devouring all in its path while the Mother Below absorbs the essence of countless souls. The very fabric of reality strains under the pressure of their Concepts, and I damn near fall to my knees.

The earth quakes violently, and the sky, already fractured, begins to crumble. Beams of light pierce through the darkness, only to be devoured by the Endless or absorbed by the Mother Below.

It seems to me as if the world is ending. This is...

I can only stare at the apocalyptic sight before me, awed by the two monsters.

I cling to the last remnants of solid ground nearby with Limitless Manacles, with the shared heart within pounding. The sheer scale of their power is beyond comprehension, even for me, a God.

Vincent Harvey, now a swirling vortex of consuming insects, presses onward, seeking to put an end to Usen's domination. The Mother Below, her form grotesquely enlarged and pulsing with absorbed power, stands her ground. The silvery fog pushes back against the swarm while legs appear to bulge out of Usen's chitin, and she gains six more limbs to end at eighteen, although none of them reach the ground. They just hand there dangerously with their glowing lights.

I don't know who is more deadly right now. Both are...

I can feel the pull of the Endless, the very air around me being drawn into the swarm. My vision blurs as the insects come ominously close. Lennon and I hold them off together, our Concepts keeping them at bay on their own. At the same time, the oppressive presence of the Mother Below weighs down on me, her dark aura suffocating.

This... this is a place where even the strongest in the world could be reduced to nothingness and they wouldn't even know why.

The two beings meet again, but I don't sit idly by. I creep forward, pulling Lennon with me. We might be weaker than them two, but we can still win this.

A flickering shadow at the corner of my vision thinks the same. I can see Virgil's silhouette only barely, the edges of his body acting as if he's being blown away by the wind, but the man advances just as I do. The God he was against must have been pulled away. Good. I'm glad he's here.

The Endless and the Darklight, in their war, spill outward onto us like horizontal rain, if only that rain was devouring and corrupting, eating away at anything it touches. Nonetheless, I press onward, the coldness within granting me strength from my heart.

I close my eyes, letting my body dodge on its own while I remember Marshall's teachings. Painsforge is the core of our Sirza. It is its everything.

My mind flashes to Marshall's final raised fist, the knuckle that was pitted against the heavens themselves. And it is that image that provokes the thought I've never had.

Marshall held Limitlessness in his hands at that very moment. Not literally of course, but he held the spirit of it. That is what I've been missing. I've been using the Concept, imbuing it into the bones and blood of my body, but never the core. Marshall's withered, aged, and broken form held a truth that I am only now realizing.

I feel something within my very nature connect to the beating organ, and Limitless enters the Dzil, then the Sirza that it supports. It flows throughout my whole body and my soul at once, instead of just being passively bound. Opening my eyes once more, I see a world utterly unlike what existed before.