The blood rain covered the bodies of all the Dominators except for the Melusine and Lyosos who were covered by an invisible force field.

Unexpectedly, a loud crash occurred like the sound of a massive wood being snapped in two and as it did, the suction force from the six expanding craters increased drastically. All the Rift State Dominators were abruptly sucked down from the flying raft as they were too weak to ignore the attractive force coming from the expanding holes any longer, their yells could not even be heard in the growing cacophony as it seemed as if six black holes had been spawned below the ground.

With the growing commotion below them, Lyosos acted quickly, and he manifested his territory around their flying vessel and a green done covered them, and it began fighting against the suction force in order to escape the growing radius of destruction.

Outside the green force field the world had turned into a scene of fire and desolation as the structure of the world was being torn to pieces and there was a loud howling as if the planet was screaming in pain.

The strain of pushing themselves through the devastation was beginning to tell on Lyosos but he gritted his teeth and continued, his eyes were wide and filled with incredulity, an event such as this one was not supposed to happen inside an Empire controlled planet, did a third circle creature attack Jarkarr?

The world outside turned to one of fire and darkness, as below them was a deep darkness was spreading far beyond their eyesights and perception, and a growing vortex filled with debris, fire, and blood was being sucked into that darkness and Lyosos began to scream as he sent everything he had to barely escape the pull of the void below them.

Melusine was frozen in terror for she understood that the darkness she was seeing was the world fading away before their eyes, and inside that expanding void was the presence she felt on the battlefield that day. The terror had not left her, and even though her spirit was healing, the fresh new presence was increasingly getting stronger and whatever scab had covered her healing soul had been torn open and widened, her eyes, nose, and ears began to bleed.

She could not move, not even to breathe, as her eyes were as wide as a bird who had been frozen by the gaze of the serpent, only the panicked cry of Lyosos called her from the depth of fear, but she was still frozen and could not even scream.

Lyosos called out in a low voice that sounded like he was weeping, “Something is wrong. This flame, the blood… it’s… by the holy name of Bacchus, this is Ruin Fire! This world is ending!”

Lyosos acted fast, tightening his Territory around his body and Melusine, he discarded the rest of the mercenaries to their death, as their screams cut out the moment they left his Territory’s Domain.

He began burning his Incarnation, using it for fuel so that he could light a Tinder, and his Territory caught aflame, that act dragged Melusine out of her stupor, and he whispered into her ears, “I love you. My happiness.”

Her screams were lost to him as his Territory wrapped around her body and sent her hurtling through space before tearing apart the fragile facade of reality and slipping into a green gate that snapped shut.

Lyosos fell into the darkness, and his last sight was a gigantic maw of darkness and above it, eyes that glowed with endless apathy.

“Heaven help us all.”

®

The orders from his creator to Suriel was absolute, “Be my eyes.” Although the weight of that order burned his mind, as he wanted nothing more than to battle the foes of his creator, he performed his duty.

Then a new order entered the mind of Suriel and he acknowledged it.

Platinum wings spread wide open, and he looked towards the slowly spreading darkness on the surface of this world, and he began to fly towards it.

©

“Why won’t you just die?” Rico’s face was twisted with a deep grimace, as pain and loathing warped his features. He had pumped enough energy into Rowan’s body to power the entire planet, and he was not letting up.

Rowan would be impressed if not for the face of Dorian grinning behind Rico, and apparently Rico was also aware of him because he said.

“Don’t move, bastard, I will kill you next. You shall both pay for what you did to my family, and you especially would die screaming!”

Then Rico revealed his big guns.

From his chest a silver opening emerged, like a ripple in space, but lightning streamed forth from it like flowing water. This was the first time Rowan was seeing a gateway to a Territory this close to him before. He had seen a previous sight in his visions inside the Nexus, but by then he did not understand that what he was looking at was a Territory.

Rico began channeling energy from his Territory, and as his hands were still on Rowan, his Empyrean senses went alight, and Rowan perception slipped into Rico’s Territory, and it explained some of his thoughts about what the next realms might hold for him.

He saw a vast land, almost the size of a moon but without any curvature. On the edge of the land was a vast wall made of ice and lightning, and he saw that although it was very slow, the land was still expanding and pushing against that wall.

His perception returned to the land itself, and on it were metallic pillars so tall he could not see their tips, as they vanished into the blackness of the sky.

A spark jumped from one of the pillars, and as it fell, it ignited as hundreds of lightning bolts slammed into the spark, then a thousand, then millions of lightning bolts, and the entire world filled with the pillars came alight with the bolts if lightning traveling around, and all those power converged into the opening in Rico’s chest who spat at Rowan took a step back. “Die you monster!”

Rowan could not move with the volts running through his body, and he suddenly smiled, “funny, I should experience what Dorian had been feeling for the last two hours.”

Then he was consumed by a pillar of lightning so thick it was like liquid, his skin lasted for a fraction of a second, his muscles and bones a few seconds, and the lightning poured inside his Palace of Ice.

The destruction was massive and total, the force field was barely able to hold it back before the lightning turned his Palace of Ice to nothingness, his Mental Space began to crack and implode against itself as a growing void began swallowing all that he was.

The Lady of Shadow held on the longest, she stood in the growing void even as pieces of her body were beginning to shatter and vanish, and she created mystical spell formations in large numbers that burned in the void, she shone so bright almost like a purple star, for a time that seemed longer than was possible she held against the flood of lightning and defended his throne for as long as she could before she crumbled, and his throne followed.

Her screams were terrifying and Rowan felt such fury from her, he nearly passed out from the sheer scope of it. He had never felt something like this before.

Rowan suddenly knew the reason for her loss against the lightning was her lack of Aether, she had powered the formations with his Aether and with the destruction of his Mental Space and the death of all the Angels of Char, she had none to work with.

When the last of his Throne faded into the void. Rowan died.