Rage. Overwhelming rage. An insurmountable tower of flames engulfed my very mind, and my body felt like a dam that was about to burst. Every vein in my body bulged as I stood up and looked at the ground. I was hyperventilating, staring at my bloodstained hands, as not even the rain would wash her blood away.

  “This is your fault!” I heard a pained voice cry out in the distance. I turned to see a barrier of thorns fading away, and Zagra staring at me with tears in her eyes. “The spark….the spark that could have saved her life! The spark that we both have, she gave to you! She awakened it for you! My daughter…..!” He cried, falling to his knees.

  Upon seeing his face, I attempted to move, but my legs were stuck in place; I was too heavily injured.

  “INTERLOPER!” I roared aloud. You should see into my mind! If you wish to live, you’ll give me your assistance. For if you don’t, we will both die today!”

  Zagra looked at me in confusion as I felt a presence in my head.

  “What do you need me to do?” It said, realizing the sincerity of my statement.

  “I can feel it…. I can feel the power surging in my body. The gift you sealed has awakened at full force. When I release it, control it, and form it into a substance outside my body that powers me. I don’t have enough experience to control it!

  “That still won’t counter the risks! It’s suicide! The only thing it will do is increase the amount of time you can use it…”

  “That’s why you’re going to tell me my limits while fighting, so I know when to turn it off! If I don’t hit my limit while using my power, it’s only logical to assume that the aftereffects won’t be as severe. You will tell me while I’m fighting how much I can do!

  “And you’re sure this is the choice you want to make?”

  “I will fulfill my promise to her and live! I will get out of here and put down this tumor that constantly plagues my life! To do that, I need your strength. Please….” I pleaded, not knowing what else to do.

  “I will help you, if only to prevent both of our deaths. But only on one condition. You must calm down. If your emotions run too rampant, I won’t be able to control them. I’m aware that it’s hard, but in the raging sea, focus on the eye of the storm! Let your rage burn where you need it, not where you want it!”

  I slowly calmed my breathing as Zagra stood up and walked forward. Each step sends heat waves past me. I closed my eyes, struggling to contain myself. In the maelstrom of anger, I focused on what she would have wanted me to do. She would have wanted me to survive, and I cannot survive in this state. Repeating this in my brain over and over, I slowly opened my eyes and stared at him.

  “For what you did to her, I’ll kill you!” I started, gritting my teeth. But I'm not going to burn my life away. I’ll defeat you and live on to change this world!” I roared defiantly as lightning streaked across the sky, the light casting a shadow on both of us.

  “You speak as if I’m the villain, yet all I wanted to do was protect her! He shouted as he glared at me with unbound fury. “If it weren’t for you, it never would have gotten this far! She lost control of herself after awakening, overusing her thorns while focusing on reviving you and blocking me off! Continuously battering me with thorns and trapping me with flames, I couldn’t burn out, all to protect you! Because you filled her with dumb delusions of grandeur and exploring the world, when I would have given that to her in the future anyway!”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “You’re right. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t helped her escape. I, as a human, made the conscious choice to help her gain freedom. If I had never bonded with her in the first place….if I had continued to ignore her, she wouldn't have protected me. It’s my fault completely.”

  He stared at me in silence as I looked up into the sky.

  “However, even if she used her life to restore mine, it wouldn’t have gotten this far in the first place if you had just listened to your daughter for once. You made the conscious choice to escalate this to violence in fear of your daughter leaving you. All we both wanted was to escape and explore the world. We just wanted out of this facility that turned children into monsters. Did you even have any idea? The guilt she felt knowing all of those kids were dying for her sake?”

  “I didn’t…..that’s not what….I did this for–!”

  “You do all of this for your daughter, right? Yet instead of hearing her out, you attacked her full force with your flames earlier, did you not?! I could feel the explosion from the forest! You made that choice! Just like back then on Laeva, when you made the conscious choice to kill my parents because you believed it would save your daughter. Yet her death was not due to her illness, but due to the very man who committed all of those atrocities for her sake. She pushed herself too hard because of your actions! You say that it wouldn’t have gotten this far if we weren’t trying to escape?! But what of you?! It wouldn’t have gotten this far if you had just let her leave!” I shouted, purple lightning crackling from my veins.

  “You…..your Aelius’s brat!! You and your family keep getting in my way, strife after strife! You understand nothing of our family! I couldn’t just let her leave! If I did, she would have died! She needed treatment! I only used that much power because—!”

  “You could afford to? Right? Because she’s not your only daughter, is it?” I said as I turned my attention back to him with an intense glare. “If one dies, you can just get the other one from the tank. Right next to a rift just like the one you supposedly ‘sealed ‘ all of those years ago.”

  His eyes widened in horror. “You….how did you…?!” He started, but stopped as his expression changed to one of confusion. “Rift….? There’s another one?! What are you talking about?!” He asked with worry all over his face.

  I walked past Dawn’s body and picked up her katana. Despite everything, it remained pure in its prismatic silver. The only thing different was the thorns that were still wrapped around the blade, as if she were holding on after death.

  “I suppose the doctor didn’t tell you. He really wasn’t to be trusted, it seems. It’s in a containment cell of his own creation. I could tell you more, but that should be the least of your worries right now.” I started as I raised the katana and pointed it at him.

  “You make me sick. Just looking at you fills me with overwhelming rage that I can’t even put into words. I will make sure that your last moments on this Earth are in complete and utter agony.” I snarled, the wind blowing my hair fiercely to the side.

  “So what then?! You’ll kill me?! A mere child! You talk as if you are above me, but was it not you who killed countless others in this facility?! You speak of my humanity, from atop your perceived throne, yet you are nothing more than a–!”

  “Monster, right?” I said, cutting him off. “Of course I am. You and I both.”

  With no more restrictions, I released my full power, and a purple pillar of light enveloped me and touched the very heavens. I was releasing so much raw power that it felt like my body was exploding from the inside.

  Do it now!

  I felt something inside me guide the energy out of my body and condense it. A small ball formed over my head that had countless rings around it, spinning in different directions. It was supplying a near limitless amount of energy to me, as all of my wounds healed in an instant. When I looked at myself, I couldn’t even see my skin; my entire being was made of particles.

  By releasing my full power and linking it to an external energy source, I had transformed into a being of raw energy.

  “You have 3 minutes before your lifespan starts decreasing; 5 minutes is your upper limit. During this time, you are no longer a human, but a mass of raw energy. Until you run out, you are essentially immortal!”

  I bit my thumb, radiant sparks flying from my mouth.

  Dawn….I’ll show you the choice I made wasn’t the wrong one.