Triminiv’s attack unches the beast into the sky.

  The Elf knows that she can’t let up.

  She has to end this fight before it starts, and the best way to do that is to get the creature out of the city.

  “Split!” She shouts again. The word knocks the beast further back.

  Triminiv whistles, becoming a soundwave that unches at the beast. She drives the creature up as far as sound can carry.

  That very limitation of physics proves to be her weakness. She’s forced to take physical form again as she pierces the atmosphere.

  It is then that the beast stabs a spike into her. Triminiv cries out in pain that is only heard when the beast falls back to the pnet below.

  She dissipates back into a soundwave and swirls the beast, striking it however she can.

  “Die,” She harshly mutters once she takes shape on solid ground again before the beast can nd.

  The creature’s jagged spikes are broken, yet they simply growl above Triminiv’s head.

  The huff of hot breath blows the Elf’s short hair over her eyes.

  The beast has not yet fallen. It hovers above her head like a halo of doom.

  Triminiv can’t even form a proper tone for her disbelief. “How, did-”

  The words shoot into the beast.

  It snarls as its wings fp over the ground. The city quakes at its nding. The sheer impact of the creature’s weight settling onto the pavement is enough to lift Triminiv into the air.

  She fils helplessly for only a second before seeing the beast’s jagged mess of teeth contort upward on its mouth. The horrific, sharpened thorns of bone stretch further than any other lip can. The expression feels awkward, strained, almost mocking.

  Triminiv is confused by it for only a fraction of a second before she comes to the realization.

  It’s smiling at her.

  Triminiv sms her arms and legs into her chest, bracing for the inevitable strike. It comes in the form of the beast charging forward in an uncanny burst of destructive speed.

  Three shockwaves rupture the air in rapid succession as the beast rams Triminiv through a series of buildings. The structures topple the instant the beast bsts into them.

  The fire cradles itself around the hurtling missile of a creature. The fmes aren’t extinguished; they are simply unknowingly captured by the beast. Simirly, the rubble and debris are caught in the shockwaves and seem to hang in the empty air as if suspended by wire. It is only when sound catches up to the beast's incomprehensible speed that the fmes are snuffed out and the rubble is finally allowed to drop.

  Triminiv crashes through the st building left standing. Her limp body hovers idly in the falling debris as the beast strikes its cws out at her.

  Triminiv can only gasp, but thankfully, the meek sound is enough to send her flying. Much to her luck, her physical body manifests directly behind the beast's back. Much to her dismay, she’s also now plummeting down to the ruins below.

  Nevertheless, she acts quickly. Pcing a palm to her lips, she stretches out two fingers and, pointing them at the beast, shouts as loud as she can, “DECIMATE!”

  The word is carried by the brutal cry. It splits across the air and turns to destructive bdes of hard light that travel as fast as sound can carry. The bdes encircle the beast and slice at its bone from all sides.

  The creature wails in agony as its wings and jagged spikes are severed from its body.

  However, just like the beast’s charge through the buildings, Triminiv’s attack only sts for a second at most.

  The beast’s spikes regenerate. It roars again, the cry cracks into Triminiv’s ears as she whistles her way to safety.

  Yet even in the form of an intangible soundwave, the beast is on her in an instant. Its massive cw grows to four times her size, and the arm extends an equal length to snatch her out of the air.

  Triminiv is forced to take tangible shape again as the beast draws its cw into a fist. The intense pressure of the bone on her body squeezes Triminiv until her bones begin to crack.

  Had she not screamed out in pain, she would have become nothing more than a fine paste on the creature's palm that has now been obliterated by her screeching tone.

  The cw shatters into a million pieces that encircle Triminiv as she whistles to keep herself afloat.

  She can’t put herself in a situation like that again. She simply can’t allow herself to relent or freeze against an opponent such as this.

  She’s the Elf of Death. The very one that the first humans and Martians to reach the stars called the Grim Reaper.

  Triminiv has to live up to that name today. She needs to become death itself to win this battle, and if her voice destroys this whole pnet, so be it.

  The beast grips the wide stump where its cw was severed as Triminiv shouts in the harshest, cruelst tone of brutality she has ever spoken, “DIE!”

  The creature’s skeletal armor breaks off and is captured by the wave of devastating sound brought on by Triminiv’s apocalyptic scream of death.

  The very soil that was long ago sealed beneath endless masses of concrete is exposed to the elements by the bst. What little structures once stood atop the ground are all obliterated instantaneously. Every single fiery bze on the entire pnet is put out by the sweep of destructive air.

  The pnet itself even cracks and shudders under the force of what has just been unleashed upon it.

  The attack is enough to kill anything and everything in its path, and it does exactly that with one very major exception.

  The beast is still standing.

  Triminiv curses herself and turns those very curses into a rapid succession of violent sshes, all of which the beast simply shrugs off.

  Not even the twisted spikes of bone protruding from it seem to be damaged by Triminiv's cries. The beast remains unafflicted by her every attack, and it's only just begun to reach its true potential.

  What follows next is something that future scribes would only describe as two fshes of light screaming out into the very heart of the universe.

  The beast’s strikes against Triminiv are an endless onsught of contorted bdes of bone, rger and longer than the tallest known towers, moving at a pace so incredibly fast that not even the Gods themselves can see.

  Triminiv moves as fast as sound can carry, but sound itself is made irrelevant in that moment. For with every blow the beast strikes, the following one is faster and the one after even faster than the previous.

  The blows increase in speed until time itself struggles to keep up with them.

  The very concept of calcuting the passage of mere seconds seems to become nothing more than a childish idea dreamt up by a delusional drunk.

  Infinity and eternity gain new meanings to the immortal Triminiv. The beast has two arms, but two thousand seem to hit her all at once.

  The beast is no longer just acting out against reality; it is bending it.

  The ws of space and time need not apply to such a creature that is so motivated as to accomplish its task that it defies what is possible to accomplish it.

  The beast’s attacks don’t just hit Triminiv; the utter strength behind each motion sends rifts rupturing through the city and, to an extent, the pnet.

  When the barrage is over, nothing is left standing but Triminiv, the beast, and the Division Pza in the distance.

  Triminiv should be dead.

  She’s near death herself.

  Her body has become a bleeding sack of disheveled flesh and torn organs.

  Yet as long as Triminiv can speak, she will live. And speak she does.

  In a low huff with her jaw knocked loose, she mumbles in annoyance. “Fuck this…”

  With those two words, the beast and Triminiv hurl back into the sky.

  Triminiv’s body heals in an instant as she yells at the beast. “Split!”

  The beast is only knocked slightly back. Wings sprout from its spine once more.

  “Split!” Triminiv yells again, only to find the beast unharmed.

  She grits her teeth. The wind kicks her short hair and disfigured ears. The beast’s mouth is wide open in front of her as it hurries to meet the ground.

  Triminiv only has one option left now. One thing to do to end all of this.

  She whistles and darts inside the beast’s mouth, screaming “SPLIT!”

  The skeleton is still at first, but then, amidst the echo of her own shocking voice, Triminiv hears the faint crack of bone. She screams again with all her might, “DIE!”

  The creature’s skeleton begins to shatter.

  Slowly but surely, it crumbles with Triminiv inside it.

  The Elf can’t help but find herself proud of her work. She does not want to revel in what she has done, but she is sure that she has saved countless lives with her actions today.

  As the bones scatter and surround her on her descent, the beast breathes one st breath.

  It is a breath of satisfaction.

  This was the fight it had been craving.

  Triminiv rushes out of the beast’s mouth, but those still alive on the ground below will not be so lucky.

  The beast dies as it crashes into Rome.

  It leaves nothing but dust and echoes behind.

  Adamus Atheneum does not know where he is.

  All he knows is that he is alone.

  Perfectly and completely alone.

  He blinks.

  His eyelids flutter over his green pupils, lying in the sea of white as he lies alone in the sea of darkness.

  The action seems to repeat itself an infinite number of times in an infinite void of nothingness.

  Adamus Atheneum feels trapped.

  No.

  Not trapped.

  Stuck.

  Yes.

  Yes, he’s stuck.

  But stuck where?

  Space?

  No, that’s ridiculous. If he was in space, he wouldn’t be breathing…

  Is he breathing?

  Oh, Gods, what has he gotten himself into?

  He feels like he’s gone delirious.

  He stands.

  The action repeats and fractures in the same odd and eternal way that the blink did.

  Adamus Atheneum blinks again as he takes his first step.

  The actions repeat, again and again and again and again, forever and ever in this void that Adamus Atheneum finds himself in.

  A faint blue glow sparks in the distance.

  The rays of light shine on everything and nothing all at once.

  Adamus Atheneum walks toward the light, now enraptured by it.

  He calls out to the light that is speeding toward him now, “Hello? Is someone there?”

  The light greets him.

  It encircles him.

  Captures him. Holds him. Warms him.

  Adamus doesn’t know what to say, but the light does.

  It says one word and one word only.

  The voice itself is undefinable and yet somehow, to Adamus, it is the most comforting thing in all the universe.

  “One.”

  Adamus blinks and opens his eyes to view a fractured wall with an abandoned stone bde leaning against it.

  The bde is broken. Republic standard issue. A guard or officer likely left it behind.

  Adamus rises from the ash sprinkled on him. He coughs up the dust that has entered his lungs before noticing that his entire naked body is marked in soot.

  A question enters his mind: What happened here?

  Adamus picks up the bde and walks through a long, winding path of what he assumes to be gravel.

  He doesn’t stop walking until something slices at his foot.

  Adamus raises his leg to see what has cut into him. A rough, scorched object marked in soot and stained with blood lies at Adamus’s feet.

  He picks it up. He is sure to do so slowly.

  He keeps the bde gripped in his other hand as his fingers tighten around the bone.

  A thousand possibilities run through Adamus’s mind.

  None of them are good.

  He breaks into a sprint across the field of ash, going as fast as his legs can take him until he is tired and gasping for breath.

  Tears are running down his dirtied face now. He quickly wipes them and turns his head to the only thing he can see out of the corner of his eye.

  “Adamus?”

  What happens next is pure instinct. Without even thinking, Adamus swings the bde at the Elf. He remembered what Tendo had told him about her escape.

  He does not remember Triminiv from anywhere else. He doesn’t even recognize her head as it falls to the mess of dust that Adamus finds himself trapped in.

  Killing her was a fatal mistake, but Adamus does not know that.

  He only cares that he killed the woman Tendo said was responsible for Davon’s death.

  He doesn’t even know that she helped him make the crater he’s standing in.

  Smith crawls from the wreckage of the coliseum.

  They heard people shouting and running just moments ago. Then they heard an explosion, a loud one. Then several followed it before everything grew quiet.

  The coliseum shook during all of this, but Smith expected the shaking.

  They did not expect the silence. They also didn't expect that the second the light reached their eyes, they would be greeted by nothing but a massive gaping hole where a city used to be.

  Where streets used to be. Where concrete towers used to be. Where people used to be.

  All the humans with their own lives, their own hopes and dreams, who called this city home for years, are now simply gone.

  No feet will ever step through Rome again. No hands will ever reach out to its sky. No voices will cry out in ughter or in fear.

  Rome has burned, and it took its people with it.

  Smith kneels in the heap of warm ash that was once a street. They dig their hands into the clumps and clutch the dust with their fingers.

  There are no words for the feeling that is running through them right now. Simply comparing it to what they felt on the Forge is pointless.

  They expected the Forge to be safe, sure, but there was doubt in their mind then. They hadn’t just been there minutes ago. They were just in Rome.

  They were walking through its streets, running through them. They were trying to save people. To help people.

  They never thought that something like this would happen. They hardly even know what this is.

  Everything is simply gone now. Just like how Granix is gone now. Just like how all their siblings on the Forge are gone now.

  Rome is gone now. Reduced to nothing but ashes.

  Smith’s heart aches. It bleeds for all the lost souls that they just know are drifting aimlessly now.

  They want to say something. They want to do something. They need to do something. They need to scream or cry or simply do anything to push this horrible, inescapable feeling within them.

  Are they simply numb now? Empty of all but sadness and despair?

  All they can manage to do is vomit out the bile that has built up in their mouth in a grotesque spsh.

  Their fingers continue to dig into the ashes as they gaze out into the crater.

  Someone is walking in it.

  Someone has survived.

  Has anyone else survived?

  Did Nadeden survive? Did Cassandra survive? Did Anvil and Mystic survive?

  Smith hopes so.

  The ashes fall from their hands as they stand and run to the person they’ve spotted.

  Adamus is pcing on a pair of torn, baggy pants when Smith runs down to them.

  They stumble at the sight of him.

  Adamus, however, lunges forward with the broken bde in hand.

  Smith falls while trying to dodge the thrust and colpses onto the ground. Blood is still leaking from their back. They cough as Adamus lowers the bde.

  “Is everyone…” Adamus can’t even finish asking Smith the question. He doesn’t want to know the answer.

  “I need to get to the Pza,” He states, holding a hand out toward Smith. “I have my own questions for you, but they can wait until I know the people I care about are safe.”

  Smith is taken aback by the sudden courtesy.

  Yet they take Adamus’s hand anyway.