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A Phoenix Uprising

Flames in the Dark

Harm squeezed his eyes shut.

I can’t believe this is happening.

So much for making sure everyone lives.

A bitter smile touched his muzzle. “Happy endings are overrated anyway.” He lowered Timekeeper and turned towards Kaiver. “You’re a perverted, lewd, brash ass but you were just starting to grow on me.” He grabbed the Viperion’s wrist and pulled him towards the exit. Together, they slipped forward in time, becoming a golden blur that wove through the waking mutants until he stopped right in front of the devastated door that Hal-Seth had created.

Only then did he release Kaiver’s hand and step across the threshold out of the warehouse.

“If you survive this, I owe you a drink,” he shouted.

Kaiver smiled shakily at him. “I thought you didn’t drink.”

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know.” Golden light surrounded the shards of the broken door, slowly repairing it and, piece by piece, locking Kaiver in with the mutants. At the same time, Kaiver began casting spells , each slab of metal quickly becoming reinforced.

“Then I’ll look forward to that drink,” Kaiver said between spells. “Just so you know, I fucking love Xaosian Vodka.”

Harm grinned at him. “I’ll make sure you drown in it.”

“Just make sure I leave a pretty corpse.”

The last few slabs started to move into place, blocking off the lower half of Kaiver’s body.

“It would be impossible to do otherwise.”

Then Kaiver was gone. The sound of a booming shotgun erupted in the warehouse. With his Ferromancy, the security officer could generate more ammo as needed but even he had his limits. If he was smart, he’d find somewhere to hole up and bunker down but everyone knew that was a death sentence.

Unless I can beat Hal-Seth and get back in time.

There’s still hope!

He turned and shot off towards the main lab. As he was just running and zooming forward in time, he was using his own energy to traverse the distance. Every few seconds, he had to pause even though he had already covered a mile. Cursing the distance, he hurried as much as he could, panting as his Time was being drained from him with each cast of the spell.

By the time he arrived at the lab fifteen minutes later, Aria had torn down the barricade and was ushering people into one of the nearby buildings. She briefly gave him a nod, telling him that she had seen Hal-Seth return to his chamber on the fifth floor. There was an ominous red glow emanating from the named floor and by the time he reached it, he could feel the searing heat radiating from it.

He stopped just on the threshold of crossing into the chamber.

Hal-Seth stood in front of his crystal arms spread out while the Phoenix Egg hovered above him. In front of the Champion lay Solholme.

Harm dashed forward, sliding into a halt next to the slumped body of the professor. Her neck was snapped at an odd angle and her eyes were gazing out into the distance. He pressed two fingers against her neck.

Dead.

Completely dead.

No resurrection.

“What the…?”

“I took away her Fire,” Hal-Seth boomed ominously. “Once before she tried to stop my spell and it was only thanks to her ties to the Fire did she remain my jailer. But I severed that from her.”

He spun towards Hal-Seth furiously. “Why would you do that?”

“Because she would just keep coming back over and over again,” answered the Champion, his eyes shut. “Even were I to succeed, she would make it her mission to undo everything I had achieved. I do not know what happened to the Jubifyre that I loved but that is not her.”

Harm rose, unfurling Timekeeper.

“You realize that you are making the decision for millions to mutate them in the same way that Valdin did while potentially filling them with the same crazy fire that drove Ulerian mad, right? What makes you think that what you’re going to do to the Avios is going to work?”

Hal-Seth let out a soft laugh and opened his eyes, regarding Harm with an almost benevolent look. “I was naive so long ago. So were Valdin and Ulerian. In their own ways, they helped me understand where I went wrong. Ulerian’s actions were driven entirely by selfishness and yet with the power of Crossfire and it’s ability to constantly output more and more power, he was able to transfer some of that power into others that shared some commonality. Valdin proved that my mistake and flaw in causing the Molting Disease can be re-mediated, can be fixed and can be used to evolve the Avios to inherit the Fire and become Adramalech’s chosen with this one, remaining Egg.”

The Champion lowered his arms. Crossfire lifted off his hips and flew into his hands. “The Phoenixes as a race are done. Both my subspecies and the one you call the Avios.” His eyes regarded the corpse of Solholme miserably. “She would never have conceded to my plan. Something gave her a will to live beyond her single-minded goal. But we must all accept death when it calls our name. Mine is fast approaching.” He turned his blazing eyes towards Harm. “I hope that one day, when death comes for you, you will answer it graciously.”

“And if I decide I’m going to stop you from using the embers of an incurable disease as the basis of what is effectively mass, genetic cleansing?” Harm countered.

Hal-Seth lifted one of Crossfires crossbows towards him. “Then I shall be the herald of your death.”

Harm lifted Timekeeper to meet the Champion. “We’ve only fought side by side briefly but even you have to understand where I stand in all this.”

The last remaining Phoenix shook his head with a faint smile on his beak. “Honestly? I had hoped it would be different.” He spread his wings, each feather seething with fire. “Come at me then, Hound of Haamiah! Let us see whose will is stronger.”

Harm thrust his right paw forward, golden lightning cascading out of his fingertips and raking across the floor. Hal-Seth fired Crossfire, the chakram sailing away from his weapon while he lifted the other crossbow and used it to block the Chronomancer’s lightning. Golden lightning danced across the metal but ultimately did little more than tickle the Champion’s nerves. A flash of gold caught his gaze and Harm appeared right in front of him, bringing Timekeeper down. Hal-Seth had to do little more than lift Crossfire to block but those same golden arcs of lightning danced across his forearm. The entire arm was forced back to where it had been positioned just a second ago, leaving him vulnerable.

Timekeeper bit into the Phoenix’s torso. The moment Harm landed, he slipped forward in time, sliding beside Hal-Seth as the Champion tried to swipe at him. Once again vulnerable, Hal-Seth could do nothing as Harm sliced his flanks before disappearing behind him and delivering another slash against his back. Harm jumped into the air, bringing Timekeeper sailing upwards in an uppercut.

Thwunk!

Only for the chakram that Hal-Seth had fired earlier to bite into his chest and send him crashing backwards. Pain exploded from the impact of both the weapon and his torso. The metal circle burned with a divine, white flame but he bit through the pain, grabbed it with his spare paw and tossed it aside. It didn’t even hit the ground before it was possessed by Hal-Seth’s will and flew back to the Champion’s weapon.

“That lightning of yours,” observed the Phoenix. “It can force anything it targets back in time, can’t it?”

“How astute,” Harm grunted, rising to his feet. The blood smeared over his chest sank back into his wound, his clothes and the torn flesh knitting together with agonizing slowness. He had spent far too much Time traversing the distance between the warehouse and the lab. Now he was running on half capacity at most. “And you can literally control anything that’s touched by fire, can’t you?”

“As I told your angelic colleague,” Hal-Seth said. “Mine is the Flames of Purity. With it, I can cleanse everything from this world. Even death. Perhaps I should use it to burn away the unholy condition that plagues you.”

Can he really do that? Can he burn away my Time Locked status?

Hal-Seth once again lifted Crossfire towards him, this time, holding up both halves of the weapon.

Don’t want to stick around to find out!

“Stop right there!” he shouted, holding out his paw. Golden rings encased Hal-Seth, freezing him in time. Harm quickly rushed forward, flashing Timekeeper. It didn’t pass his attention that what wounds he had inflicted upon Hal-Seth had healed. The armor he wore was still damaged but the wounds beneath had closed up. Blood still stained the floor which meant he was vulnerable.

He closed in on the Champion, slipping to the Phoenix’s left flank and angling Timekeeper towards his ribs.

Then Hal-Seth’s eyes switched lock with his.

Shit!

White flames exploded from around the Champion. Harm retreated just a second before being completely consumed, flames licking at his face and arms as he skidded across the ground. Though the pain subsided, it was at a painfully slow rate.

“I told you,” warned Hal-Seth. “I can burn away anything. Even Time.”

“Time can’t be destroyed,” Harm snarled, using Timekeeper to prop himself up. “It can only be displaced. I should know. I’m the Destroyer of Time.”

“Time was the construction of your god, Haamiah. Fire was the creation of mine.” Hal-Seth’s white flames spread from his wings, wrapping around him like a brilliant, ivory aura. “Let us see whose creation is the superior one.”

Pillars of white flame exploded from the ground, one by one charging towards Harm. The Chronomancer rushed forward, dancing between each of the spires. Each step was met with an intensifying heat that radiates from the stationary Hal-Seth. The chakrams flew out from Crossfire, arcing towards Harm in wild and unpredictable ways. Harm had to stop for a second to swing around and swipe at a chakram sailing at him from the right. The moment he landed, he had to duck and roll to avoid the second one taking off his head. Then he rushed forward in time, finally reaching Hal-Seth.

CLANG!

Timekeeper bit into Crossfire.

He pushed Hal-Seth back, leaping into the air and thrusting his free paw forward. Golden flames burst from his palm and washed over Hal-Seth. The Phoenix grimaced, actual pain exploding from the fire that was not true flames. While in mid-air, Harm spun in place and swiped at the two chakrams that slammed into him. He blocked one but the other bit into his left thigh and sent him crashing into the ground. Like before, he flung the projectile aside before it could do more damage.

“That fire,” Hal-Seth snarled, brushing away the gold flames from his face. Those same white flames consumed the burn feathers and flesh, repairing them slowly. “That is not true fire, is it? I could feel the heat coming from it and it did nothing to me but it still burned.”

“Chronomancer’s Fire,” Harm responded with a savage grin. “The flames itself is the byproduct of the spell. I’m actually forcing the atoms in your body to become overstimulated, collide with one another to create friction and explode into flames.”

“I see.” Hal-Seth flapped his enormous wings, rising into the air. “So Haamiah’s Hound has found ways to simulate fire without truly encroaching into the realms of my God. Truly amazing. But it will not be enough.”

Alabaster fire surrounded Hal-Seth with greater intensity. Then he angled himself towards Harm and charged. The Chronomancer slipped through time, sliding away from the range of the dive. Hal-Seth collided with the ground, a ring of white fire exploding from the impact and spreading across the arena. Harm jammed Timekeeper into the ground vertically and then jumped onto the chained sword, avoiding the flames. He jumped off the moment the danger had passed and yanked the blade from the ground. Using the momentum of the landing, he swung the golden sword out in a quick three swing combo. Each swing unleashed a thin golden line of compressed, razor-sharp air. Hal-Seth lifted Crossfire and blocked the impact of the slashes, ethereal golden cogs exploding the moment it hit.

Once the last blow was dispersed, Harm jumped through Time, appearing right behind Hal-Seth and swinging his sword down. Hal-Seth took the blow, gasping as Timekeeper bit through his wings without severing them. The Champion spun around and immediately shoved Crossfire into their holsters.

Why would he…?

That was when Harm realized that Crossfire’s chakrams were missing.

Shit!

Pain exploded from his back as both the projectiles bit into his spine, immediately sending him forward and rendering his legs useless. Hal-Seth caught him, pulling him in to a crushing bear hug.

“Burn and be purified by my flames,” Hal-Seth uttered ominously.

A pillar of white flames erupted from the ground, consuming them both but only burning Harm. The pain was unbearable and though it only lasted for a short, three seconds, Harm Chronos’ fur was completely burned off and his flesh blackened by the fire. Hal-Seth yanked his chakrams out of the charred corpse’s back with a soft sigh.

“None can avoid the flames of Adramalech.”

He attached his chakrams back into Crossfire.

“Wanna bet!?”

The Phoenix started and looked down at the corpse beneath him. It was still unmoving. From the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of gold coming from his left. He just about turned when Timekeeper swung across his beak, biting into his left eye and cutting into through his flesh. Pain rocketed from his face as a fully recovered Chronos spun around and sent him reeling with a spinning kick. Hal-Seth had just started using his flames to recover when there was another flash of gold beside him and Chronos was again to his right, swinging that golden blade and cutting into his wings. At the same time, he could see that first instance helping up the charred corpse, the latter shaking off the soot and ash as his body recovered.

“Decoys!?” he blurted. “No… clones!”

“Replicating myself across Time was one of the first things I learned back at the Academy,” Harm replied with a coy grin.

“Don’t really like using it that much,” added a second instance. “It’s a colossal headache keeping three or more bodies moving under the same consciousness.”

“But when you’ve got three thousand years of experience,” finished the last version, the one just recovering from the flames, “you learn a few tricks.”

All three of them hiked a thumb over their shoulder.

There was a fourth instance standing by the door to the chamber. This one had his paws out, gathering what appeared to be rust-red dust to him. Hal-Seth had only seen this briefly during their battle in this very chamber. Chronos had used it to destroy a flaming projectile and seemed to absorb it into himself. Harm had that sole instance use Final Hour to absorb Time from his surroundings, keeping the other three perpetually powered with Time. It was a slow process but, at the very least, it kept him in the fight.

“Clever,” Hal-Seth hissed as his eyesight recovered. “But such tricks will not work on me twice!”

“I repeat,” came a fifth chilling voice. “Wanna bet?”

The voice came from somewhere behind the Champion and when Hal-Seth turned his eyes widened. A fifth instance of Harm had grabbed the Phoenix Egg, holding the large artifact in both paws.

“No!” Hal-Seth cried. “What are you doing?”

Pain suddenly exploded from his chest. He looked down to find Timekeeper jutting out of his chest. Chronos - at least one of his instances - was pressed up against his back, holding the blade firmly between his ribs.

“The way I figure it,” said the instance. “You need the Egg to finish your crazy plan.”

Sssshink!

Another Timekeeper cut through his gut, another Wulfun holding it there. “But without it, you’re not going to be able to execute your damned spell.”

Ssssshink!

Hal-Seth suddenly found it hard to breathe. A third Timekeeper was jammed right through the back of his throat, exploding out of his neck and barely keeping his head where it stood.

“Game over, Champion.”

The Wulfun holding the egg stared at Hal-Seth directly. Then, the egg itself blackened from where his fingers grasped it. Hal-Seth weakly reached out towards it as blood seeped from the corner of his lips. The moment the entire egg had blackened, it began to dissolve and dissipate into the same rust-red dust that Chronos seemed to absorb.

Hal-Seth’s eyes blazed with fury. He let out a gurgling scream. White flames burst form his body, exploding outwards and sweeping the entire chamber. Each instance of Harm Chronos vanished into the flames while the one standing at the doors immediately ducked behind the remainder of the blast doors and avoided the gush of white flames.

Good thing I recalled my instances before they were burned away.

That would be been extremely traumatic.

“Chronos!”

Harm flicked out Timekeeper once again as the flames died. He casually strode out from around the corner, positioning himself challengingly towards Hal-Seth who was now standing at the center of his chamber, fuming with rage.

The Champion pointed an accusing finger at him. “You killed an innocent child!”

“You were going to do the same just to fulfill your own ambitions,” he responded coolly. “Not to mention you would have killed millions more in your deranged attempt to rewrite everyone’s place in the world.”

“You do not know that!”

“Oh no?” he countered. “Look at what happened to Valdin. Look at what happened to Ulerian. Both of them basically suffered from personality death because of the very same power you were going to use to turn every Avios into your perfect little Adramalech fanatic.”

“I am not like them!” shouted Hal-Seth, pressing a hand against his chest. The wounds there had healed but his torso was still caked in blood. By his breathing, he was still recovering. Scars appeared in place of each wound including the one across his neck. His healing was weakening. “My goals are noble! My abilities are far more sophisticated! I was chosen by Adramalech!”

“You sound exactly like them. Arrogant. Certain of their place in this world. Filled with a sense of self-entitlement because of all that they have suffered or done, they deserve to finish their work.” Harm unhooked the chain of Timekeeper from his waist. He then shifted the golden blade form his left paw to his right, wrapping the chain around his right forearm. “You will fall just like them, Hal-Seth. Sacrificing the few to fuel the advancement of the majority can be seen as noble especially if it is willing but if there are other ways to go about it, even if it takes time, then why should we end the futures of a handful?”

Hal-Seth sneered at him. “We have no time left! And now that you’ve destroyed the Egg, we will never have time!” He lifted Crossfire towards Harm.

Instantly, Harm lifted his left paw and made a crushing motion with it. The golden rings that had wrapped around Hal-Seth’s arms, the rings that stalled the Molting Disease, suddenly constricted. They slammed against Hal-Seth’s forearm, tightening around it like a vice. Hal-Seth had all of a second to gasp before the rings ripped right through his flesh, tearing through feathers and muscles, crushing bone and marrow. Blood exploded from his limb as it fell to the floor in chunks, dropping one half of Crossfire.

Now’s my chance!

Harm raced forward, becoming a blur of gold. He lifted Timekeeper. The Champion saw him and raised Crossfire to block.

CLANG!

Timekeeper collided with the fiery crossbow…

Crrrrrack…!

… and shattered the weapon, slicing through the chakram and biting through the arc of the weapon.

Hal-Seth’s eyes widened in terror as the golden blade came crashing down upon him. Blood burst from his torso and he tumbled back, his legs giving out from beneath him. The Champion fell to his knees in front of Harm, staring up at the Chronomancer in shock. Then, his eyes were filled with a sort of sorrow. Regret and misery stared back at Harm.

“It… It never would have worked, would it?” breathed Hal-Seth slowly.

“No,” Harm responded grimly. “That spell I put on you to stall the Molting Disease would have also stopped your own spell. It slowed down any magical effects coming from you. It would have disrupted your casting. You would’ve lost the Egg entirely before you finished.”

The Champion let out a bitter chuckle, his neck losing weakness and his head falling forward. “It’s almost as if you planned this…”

“I don’t have plans. I just make people think I do.” Harm knelt in front of the Champion, gently resting a paw on Hal-Seth’s intact shoulder. “Rest now, Champion. The Fires of Adramalech don’t burn like they used to anymore. Let the ashes rest where they are.”

Hal-Seth could only chuckle bitterly as his eyelids grew heavy. “The past is the past. My mistakes are my own. At least I died trying to undo them.” A weak smile touched his beak as his voice grew softer. “If only others hadn’t suffered from my mistakes… But it seems that the world moved on… and my faults became their strength…”

“Time finds a way.”

“Indeed… Indeed it does…”

The blood loss was too much and Hal-Seth’s form toppled to the side, a gentle smile on his lips. Harm couldn’t help but wonder if the Champion had fallen anywhere near Solholme. Sadly, Hal-Seth’s burst of rage had incinerated her corpse. It would have been poetic if they had fallen side by side.

Harm rose to his feet, lifting his left paw. A shimmering orb of blue light appeared in between his fingers, golden cogs twisting within. Tucking away Timekeeper, he retrieved the communicator he had pilfered so many hours ago and lifted it to his muzzle.

“Aria, what’s your status?”

“The destroyers have arrived. We’re just about finished evacuating everyone. Valdin’s monsters are attracted by the ships, though. We can keep them back easily enough. What about Hal-Seth? Where’s Kaiver?”

The mutants had broken through and that could only mean that Kaiver was dead.

With a sigh, Harm closed his eyes, allowing a single tear to well up in the corner of his eyes.

“Both dead” he reported. “Get everyone out. I’m bombing the place.”

There was a pause on the other end.

“Alright. Give me a minute.”

“You have thirty seconds,” he responded, the orb in his paw growing larger. “I’m going to wipe this place out of our timeline.”

“And other timelines?”

Harm paused for a moment and glanced off to his right. For a brief moment, he smiled.

“No… I think there’s still a chance others may succeed where I failed. Maybe.” He glanced back at the communicator. “Twenty seconds, Aria.”

He closed his eyes as the orb began to float off his paw.

To all those that were burned by the fire…

… to all those lost in the past…

… may your embers finally die and the future be built on your ashes.

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********

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The Flareclaw Research Facility was no more.

Of the three hundred or so researchers that had been assigned to the facility, about forty had survived. Half of those were detained due to their actions alongside the power-mad Ulerian. The Time Bomb from Harm Chronos destroyed any research within it. Nothing was left and within days, the black sands of the Sunless Lands filled in the gaping hole where the facility had once stood.

The survivors were returned to their families and forced to signs agreements never to speak of the events again. For those that had been tied with Ulerian, a magical geas was placed on them and they were imprisoned. The Sultan of Glasterah was rather annoyed that the Church had abruptly sent two destroyers into his territory without first consulting him but it was nothing Lumire couldn’t charm his way through.

Apparently, having the destroyers do a little bit of a tour in the shining, casino city was enough to please the Sultan. Of course Lumire had negotiated for Harm and Aria to have executive suites in the Crystal Palace, one of the premiere casino/hotels in the city.

Harm perched himself on the edge of the balcony of the Sultan’s Suite, looking at the glimmering city that defied the darkness of the Sunless Lands. It was just as Hal-Seth had said. Despite his mistakes, despite the faults of the gods like Adramalech or Haamiah, people found strength in the darkness. This entire continent was covered in the ashes of a civilization that defied death and was subsequently punished for their own god’s capriciousness. Yet, even though it was cast into utter darkness, this land and its people found some way to recover. Not just recover; thrive.

To rob people of that triumph was criminal.

Even for Chronomancers it was taboo to change the past.

The soft clinking of glass against glass caught his attention. Aria leaned against the marble railings of the balcony next to him, setting down the champagne glasses and subsequently pouring some clear, lightly green liquid into each glass. The moment she finished pouring, each glass began letting out gentle light emanating from the chemically activated liquid.

“They call it the ‘Green Light Champagne’,” Aria explained. “Has a faint green apple taste that sits well with the general effervescence of the liquid. The lighting is just cosmetic but sits with the general theme of Glasterah.”

“You know I can’t drink,” he answered, gently pushing the glass back at her.

“No. You can drink.” She pushed the glass back towards him. “It just so happens that you exhibit the side-effects of alcohol poisoning far quicker than most. You know, the stomach cramps, vomiting and general discomfort. You pass over the inebriation and straight to the sickness.”

Harm gave her a sidelong glance. “You’re not making this exercise any more appealing.”

“Perhaps I am not selling how good the drink is. Is a brief moment of pleasure not worth the suffering afterwards?”

Now he gave her a pointed stare. “When is it ever?”

A gentle smile touched her lips as she turned towards the glistening casinos in front of her, her glass of glowing, green champagne in her hands. “I cannot say for sure but I would like to think that Hal-Seth had a modicum of joy when he was free and fighting for what he believed in. Perhaps Ulerian had that rush as well when he was so close to victory or Valdin had a spark of hope when he threw himself into his experiment.” She paused and glanced towards him. “Perhaps even Kaiver drew a bit of joy when he teased you and saw you flustered.”

“And you think that small spark, that brief instant of hope, is enough to balance out the suffering they endured and caused?”

“I’m saying,” she said, “that the world is far from balanced. It is not a matter of looking at how long they had basking in the euphoria of success or hope as opposed to the length of suffering they endured. It is about hoping that despite the suffering, they chose instead to focus on their achievements and victories, no matter how big or small.”

“Maybe if Solholme had taken that perspective, she wouldn’t kicked off this entire mess,” Harm concluded with a dark chuckle. “But I see what you’re saying Aria.”

Concern flashed over her features. “Do you?”

“I do.” He straightened and took the glass, staring into the green, glowing liquid. “You know, when I fought Hal-Seth, I forgot about the spell I had put around his arm that stalled all magical effects coming out of him by a short delay. If he had cast his disastrous spell, I think my little curse would have delayed its effects to the point where it would have caused a severe backlash and disrupted his casting. In that regard, I did not need to leave Kaiver to die. I could have stuck around, kept him alive, escorted him to you and then defeated Hal-Seth. Solholme would still be dead but at the very least, Kaiver would have been alive. Similarly, if I had just followed Kaiver’s pleas and just left him the moment you did, I could have saved Solholme.”

He sighed softly, swirling the glass and causing it to fizz a little more. “If I let myself get bogged down by the ‘what-ifs’, I will go down the same path as Solholme. So you’re right. I’ll celebrate my victories. Celebrate that we stopped this Phoenix uprising and finally put two, tormented souls to rest.” He lifted his glass. “Kaiver and the rest who died will be remembered. I’ll guarantee it.”

Then he took a drink, downing the entire glass in one swig.

Aria smiled at him as she offered him refill. He rejected the offer.

“Shall I prepare a bucket for your inevitable bowl movements?” she asked.

“Nah. I’ve worked out how to drink and keep it down. A while ago in fact.”

Her eyes widened and she stared at him in shock. “What? How?”

He grinned at her brightly. “Simple. I just use Final Hour as it goes down my throat. I get to taste the drink but it never gets down to my stomach to be rejected.” He scratched his cheek absently. “Haven’t figured out food just yet but I’ll get there.”

She stared at him in shock for a good minute before letting out a laugh. “You still surprise me to this day, Harm Chronos.”

“Growth shouldn’t be surprising, Aria.” He turned back towards the glorious Glasterah and, in his mind, back to where Flareclaw sat. Leaning down against the railings once more, a small smile crawled onto his features.

“I look forward to how this land will grow.”

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******

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Look how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.

- Anne Frank

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The Phoenix Uprising: Flames in the Dark

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Flames in the Ashes

Harm squeezed his eyes shut.

I can’t believe this is happening.

So much for making sure everyone lives.

“They’ll be fine,” he said, turning towards Kaiver. “Solholme can keep Hal-Seth busy until we can get over to her. You’re the one that needs help.”

Kaiver gave him an insulted look. “I take offense to that!”

“Yeah?” He rushed towards him, causing the burly Viperion to flinch. In that moment, Harm leapt towards the muscular snake, placing one hand on Kaiver’s shoulder before vaulting upwards. He flipped completely upside down, stretching his legs upwards and pointing to the ceiling while Kaiver supported his whole weight on one shoulder. The security officer staggered, allowing Harm to drop down elegantly behind him and use the momentum of his descent to bring Timekeeper crashing down upon a mutant, cleaving the creature right down the middle.

“See how offended you are when you’re dead,” he concluded, flicking his sword through the air and ridding it of some of the green fluid and blood that had splattered onto it.

BAM!

He jumped a little at blast of the shotgun. Behind him, Kaiver, pumped the weapon in his hands and sent another blast that sent several of the mutants careening back.

“The only thing I’d be offended about is that I’ll get to die without taking you out on a date first!” shouted the viper, flashing a devious grin over his features. “Now that I’m probably gonna survive this now that yer here, what’re the odds of you n’ me hitting the town?”

Harm rolled his eyes. “Seriously? Now of all times?”

“Yer the Chronomancer! Why not now of all times?”

He couldn’t help but let out a short laugh as golden flames engulfed his left paw. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the fire onto the corpse of the mutant he had just bifurcated. The flames began consuming the bloody halves and as the other abominations shuffled over them, the similarly caught fire. Despite their flesh being burnt off, they continued to advance, closing the circle around them.

Kaiver suddenly grabbed Harm’s shoulder, pulling him back.

BAM!

Shotgun shells rained down upon the abominations, forcing them back and expanding the circle. Taking the hint, Harm turned around and threw another blob of golden fire into the mutants behind Kaiver, spreading the flames. The moment the mutants got too close, he and Kaiver switched places. Again, he spread flames while Kaiver blasted the shuffling, winged creatures back with his shotgun. The tremendous groan from the enormous monstrosity caught Harm’s attention. It was shambling towards them, slowly but deliberately.

We can’t keep this up.

“Hand me your gun,” he instructed.

“You think you can handle this shaft, puppy?” Kaiver said, holding out his shotgun.

Harm folded Timekeeper away as he grabbed the shotgun and wrapped his paw around the base of the barrel. Golden runes of light danced across the length of the weapon as he ran his paw up the length of the barrel. He then handed the gun back to Kaiver. “Depends if you can take my load.”

Kaiver leveled the gun and fire.

Streaks of powerful golden light burst from the barrels in a typical shotgun spread but these streaks cut right through the mutants, sending them back with enough force that they struck those behind them and sent them all flying back a good distance away.

“Whoa! Hell yeah!” shouted the Viperion. “The fuck did you do to my gun?”

“Infused it with Chronomancy,” Harm responded with a smirk. “Reinforced the weapon and then made sure that every pellet that goes out of it flies off at relativistic speed. You’ve basically got the power of a frigate’s kinetic cannon in your hands.”

Kaiver grinned but waggled his eyebrows at Harm. “So ya think your science-magic is damn hot, eh? Well no man knows how to handle his shaft better than himself. He jus’ needs the juice and motivation to get it up. Think you can fill me up, puppy?”

Harm took a moment to translate those words into a phrase he could understand.

I think he’s asking me to keep supplying him with energy so that he can further improve his gun.

He unhooked Timekeeper from his waist and let the blade slide down his arm so that he gripped it by the golden chain. Vaulting over Kaiver’s broad back, he swung the weapon around him like a propeller, slicing through the nearby mutants. At the same time, with his paw on Kaiver’s back, he turned back time slightly to keep Kaiver rejuvenated. The Viperion must have felt his energy levels return as he crouched a second later and set his gun on the floor. He whispered a few words in the Illuminus Weizar, silver light engulfing his weapon.

Harm flung back Timekeeper, gripping it by its grip before throwing it ahead of him. The blade pierced the skull of an abomination. Gripping the chain, he yanked it back. Using that same momentum, he bent backwards, letting the weapon fly behind him and spear another abomination behind him. All the while, he kept his paw on Kaiver, maintaining his Force and Spirit levels.

“Done!”

The Viperion slowly rose to his feet, grinning brightly as he held his new and improved weapon in his hands. The enormous quadruple-barreled shotgun was simply a beast. The same golden runes of Chronomancy glowed across its shaft. Harm was impressed that Kaiver was able to forge the weapon and work around his magic.

“Let’s test this baby out!” Kaiver leveled a gun in the direction of the enormous Valdin-beast and -

BAM!

Harm was forced back a foot as the shockwave from the blast pushed him back. Kaiver had his feet firmly planted and remained standing in place as a cone of searing, golden beams exploded from the four barrels of his gun and shredded through every mutant in his direction. With no velocity lost from where he stood to the Valdin-abomination, the rain of pellets ripped into the fleshy, pustule-ridden monstrosity with ease. The transformed geneticist let out a groan of discomfort. Despite the bullet holes riddling its body, it still remained standing and advancing slowly towards them.

It doesn’t seem to be in any rush…

I don’t think it even cares about us.

Clawed hands dug into his shoulders and he jabbed his elbow back into the gut of a mutant. He slipped back in time, flashing in a blur of gold silhouettes to stand beside Kaiver. The Viperion glanced at his bleeding shoulder with concern. The wound was already starting to close up.

Harm glanced around and his eyes fell on the entrance to the facility. Those mutants closer to the door were starting to waddle their way out into the storm.

If even one of them gets out there, we could lose them in the storm!

“Kaiver!” he shouted. “Can you get us to the door?”

The burly guard’s arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him against the powerful chest.

“I was hoping you’d give me a chance to sweep you off your feet.”

Large, steel pillars burst from the ground beneath them, lifting them into the air before starting to tilt towards the warehouse doors.

Damn. Not even an incantation or a somatic movement.

He’s a pretty damn talented Ferromancer.

“We survive this and you’ll get my legs in the air,” Harm quipped, slipping off Kaiver’s grip as his arm had fully recovered. He dashed along the tilting pillar just as another one erupted from the ground, throwing aside mutants. He leapt from beam to beam, crossing the sea of genetic abominations until he reached the front entrance. There, he spun around and swung Timekeeper. A shockwave of golden light burst from the tip of his blade, slicing through the legs of the abominations and causing them to tumble. Even with their severed limbs, the creatures barely slowed down and continued to crawl at them.

It really is a goddamn zombie apocalypse.

Never saw this coming.

With a loud thud, Kaiver landed beside him. The burly security officer let out another blast from his transformed shotgun. This time, Harm was ready and planted his feet with enough force that he wasn’t blasted back. More of the mutants were knocked back, their bodies shredded. Even those whose heads had been completely ripped off by the blast continued to advance, the eerie green fire in their veins somehow keeping them alive.

“This isn’t working!” Kaiver growled. He glanced at Harm. “Hey, can you keep my stocked up? I might have an idea.”

Harm folded Timekeeper away and cracked his knuckles. “I’ve got time.” He held up one paw towards Kaiver and with the other, golden lightning crackled at the tips of his fingers as he pointed it towards the advancing abominations. An aureate aura surrounded Kaiver as the green-scaled Viperion wove a spell. In front of him, steel manifested, twisting and warping into a new shape. At the same time, bolts of gleaming lightning jumped from Harm’s fingertips, slamming into mutants. The moment they hit, those creatures were immediately flung back to their tubes, thrown back through space and time to where they had first started.

“Done with this” Kaiver suddenly shouted. A mechanical whirring filled the air as the automated turret sprang to life. Its double barrels started churning away, pumping bolts of hot iron into any of the mutants it could see.

Kaiver then moved several feet to the left, on Harm’s other side, and began weaving the same spell. A few moments later, another turret had manifested. The two machines shot metal slugs as big as Kaiver’s forearms into the mutants. Each one tore through four or five of them, leaving holes as big as basketballs in each.

“Yes!” shouted Kaiver.

Harm offered a weak grin, slumping forward slightly as he lowered his arms. His eyes had reverted to a hazel color. Seeing this, Kaiver holstered his shotgun and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

“You okay?”

“I just need a few seconds to recover,” Harm gasped, finding his breathing a little raspy. “Keeping you in a state of constant health as you weave technomancy and ferromancy while simultaneously keeping back a horde of mutants is kind of exhausting.”

Kaiver grinned at him but that grin quickly faded as his eyes went to something just beyond the doors. “Yeah well… Get back on your feet quick, buddy. The big guy is almost here.”

Harm followed his gaze. Valdin’s grotesque form was approaching, having slowly made its way halfway across the warehouse. The turrets had yet to spot it. They were preoccupied with keeping the closest mutants at bay. Calculations suggested that once that beast got close, the turrets would not be able to keep it and the smaller abominations back at the same time.

We need to do something…

“Give me a second,” Kaiver said, releasing Harm. “Any support you can give I’d appreciate.”

Harm lifted a paw towards him, shutting one eye in the effort. “Go for it.”

The shotgun in Kaiver’s hands began to shimmer and shine with a silvery light. A faint golden aura surrounded the Viperion as he began changing his weapon once more. Harm could barely keep his eyes open as his Time was quickly being exhausted in the effort. The thrumming of the turrets faded into the back of his head, darkness slowly engulfing him and silence quickly encroaching. Even the howling of the sandstorm was starting to fade.

Goddamnit… Not now…

A firm hand on his shoulder told him to stop and he barely managed to open his eyes. Kaiver pulled him back behind what appeared to be a mounted chaingun still with those golden runes along the barrel. Harm sat down on the sand, panting while Kaiver mounted the chaingun and fired. Beams of golden light tore through the abominations in front of him, ripping them to shreds. Satisfied with the result, Kaiver shouted an insult that Harm couldn’t comprehend and started peppering the Valdin abomination. The rapid barrage tore right through the beast’s flesh even going so far as to tear through an entire arm in a matter of moments.

This revitalized Harm with hope. The turrets were keeping the smaller mutants back and Kaiver was focusing on the big one.

It’s working!

Harm propped himself up on his knees, gritting his fangs together. His limbs felt like they were made of lead pivoting on rusted hinges. He gnashed his fangs together as he forced himself to his feet. Each passing second, his Time slowly recovered but being almost drained, it would take him a few hours to full recover.

Unless…

Closing his eyes while still on his knees, he gently placed his paws on his thighs and took a deep breath. The black sand that whipped against his flesh hurt for a brief moment and that was definitely contributing to his slow recovery as his body automatically began repairing, no matter how small, any damage he sustained. However, instead of letting the sand hit him, he cast the spell that triggered the Purge of Time, Final Hour. The sand transformed into rust-red specks and floated into his body.

A rush of power shot into him, causing his eyes to snap open and a gasp to escape his muzzle. It was like being injected with pure, unfiltered adrenaline. Every muscle in his body was instantly relieved of all pain and exhaustion, his bones felt like new and the fur all over his body stood on end. He shut off Final Hour, glancing around to see exactly what had caused just a jolt of strength. Black sand got caught on the back of his paw from the storm and he wondered how an inanimate object could provide so much.

In my experience, inanimate objects don’t provide much time let alone something static like a grain of sand… Yes, they can last forever but without the capacity for choice, they don’t branch off into infinite timelines. They are static…

… except…

He had completely forgotten that the ‘sand’ was actually the byproduct of Phoenixes self-immolating due to a god’s curse.

This isn’t just sand. It’s the remnants of an entire civilization… of choices unfulfilled if Hal-Seth hadn’t led Illuminadia to the extinction of his own species. Somewhere in the vast timelines, that never happened and these things are still people.

And since Final Hour did not consume everyone from different timelines, just the possibilities…

Harm grinned to himself and rose to his feet. “You ready for some fancy Chronomancy, Kaiver?” he boasted.

“Show me whatcha got, daddy!” Kaiver laughed over the roar of his chaingun.

Ignoring the sexual remark, Harm flung his paws out on either side of him. While activating Final Hour all over his body, he focused on the two turrets in front of him. Golden rings of light encased both machines. Those rings seemed to danced up and down the weapons, scanning them. A second later, they split off from the main turrets to just a few feet to either side. A shimmering, golden silhouette appeared within the rings, each one a ghostly image of the turrets. The ethereal gold slowly gave way to solid steel and wires. Within seconds, there were another two turrets suddenly available.

All four began shooting again, doubling their capacity for pushing back the mutants.

That’s the ticket!

With Final Hour constantly active, Harm didn’t feel exhausted at all. He repeated the process, cloning the turrets a second time, this time pushing them further. Six turrets quickly turned to eight and then from eight to ten and finally to twelve. All twelve of the automated turrets shredded through the mutants, pushing the smaller abominations back to well away from the warehouse doors.

The giant Valdin-beast, however, was still an issue. As it crossed the threshold of the the smaller mutants, it became the target of the turrets. A loud, pained groan rose from its throat as its shins were absolutely shredded. It fell forward, barely propping itself up on its grotesque arms. Even those were quickly ripped to shreds. Coupled with Kaiver’s chaingun, the abomination that Valdin had become was quickly becoming a bloody, green mess, little more than shredded flesh and flickering green embers.

Time to end this.

Harm flung his paws forward. Golden runes danced along the barrels of every gun and cannon in the line. Golden fire encased every bullet, streaking through the air and slamming into mutated flesh. The moment it struck, the flames bust and spread, turning the flesh it struck into black ash that were consumed by the fire. Even Valdin’s corrupted form quickly became consumed. As the Chronomancer’s Fire ate through his flesh, the creature let out a groan, slumping forward and spreading the fire all the more. Panicked abominations were caught by the fire, scrambling over one another and only causing the conflagration to build.

“Aim at the warehouse,” he told Kaiver. “Bring down the house.”

“With pleasure!’ barked Kaiver and he turned his chaingun into the very walls of the facility. The flames spread, eating at the walls of the warehouse. Metal groaned and the ceiling collapsed, crushing all those within the cavernous laboratory beneath its weight. Those same flames soon spread over the debris, devouring anything that wasn’t already aflame.

Whatever was left of Valdin’s notes and experiments would be destroyed by the all-consuming fire.

Kaiver released his chaingun. “That’s that!” He sighed heavily and regarded Harm with a soft smile. “Hey… Joking aside. Thanks for sticking around.”

Harm lowered his paws, letting the Chronomancer’s Fire start to die while deactivating Final Hour. “I couldn’t let a cute guy like you end up a mangled corpse, now could I?”

The security officer gave him a grin. “You think I’m cute?”

“No but I figure that I might as well lean into your shamelessness since it’s clear you’re never going to let up.”

“If that’s the case, what do you say we go on a date?”

Harm’s tail fluffed out in shock and he whirled around to face Kaiver. “You’re kidding right?” The burly Viperion just grinned at him. “You’re not kidding.” He ran a paw down his face in utter exasperation. “You realize that I am a Chronomancer. I’m ageless. You are going to die before I do. Well… that’s not true. I can die any second but it’s more a fact that I can’t die of natural causes or old age.” He shot Kaiver a fierce look. “You will. Any relationship with us is doomed to have you pass away peacefully in your sleep while I remain as I am now.”

Kaiver shrugged. “Sounds more like a you problem. I get to have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fuck a Chronomancer for the rest of my life and you get to shoulder the burden of missing my cock up your ass for the rest of your endless one. I don’t see a problem.”

Of course you don’t…

A loud explosion erupted from behind him. Harm turned to see a burst of red light erupt from the main laboratory.

“To be continued,” he demanded. “Let’s find a vehicle and get back to the lab!”

Kaiver rolled his shoulders while flashing Harm a grin. “Why find when I can make?” He bumped Harm with his crotch. “What do you say, Destroyer? Think you can keep me topped up?”

Harm smirked at the Viperion, quietly admitting to himself that the sexual banter was quite endearing. “I can keep you filled all day.”

Kaiver had to take some time to wave the spell but he managed to conjure up a working Xaosian truck from the materials around him. He deconstructed the twelve turrets Harm had created and used their metal to make the vehicle. Since he wasn’t just conjuring metal from nothing, it was far less exhausting. He and Harm jumped into the truck and were zooming back down to the main lab a seven minutes later. They had reached the lab itself twenty minutes after that.

The blast doors were completely open and abandoned while a raging inferno burned beyond the doors. The sandstorm had doused much of flames in the hanger but in the hallways and main laboratories, it was still afire. Kaiver manually triggered the fire-suppression systems that began dousing the hallways in fire-retardant and anti-fire magic. Harm was already striding down the hallways before the flames fully died down, the Viperion right behind him. It still took a whole fifteen minutes before they reached the fifth floor.

Hal-Seth sat at the center of what had once been his chamber, kneeling in front of his shattered crystal, back turned to Harm and Kaiver. The smell of burnt flesh was in the air. Not too far from the Champion lay a charred corpse. Harm could just vaguely make out the labcoat that clung onto it.

Solholme…

“What did you do?” Harm accused.

A loud, wracking sob left Hal-Seth’s chest. “I tried to undo my mistake. I tried to use all of my power and even Jubifyre’s Fire to complete the spell, to do something miraculous for everyone. I tried to give everyone the Fire.” He turned his head, glancing over his shoulder as tears ran down his feathered cheeks. “With the Phoenixes gone, no one was there to inherit the Fire. The Fire constantly burns. It is eternal. It gives heat and life but without anything to use that power, it festers and grows. It needs an outlet or it will burn everything around it. What little the average Pyromancer can cast barely picks at the raging inferno that the Fire has become.”

He lifted his hands so that they could see. Harm flinched at the sight of burned fingers, charred to the bone. “I… I tried to have the Avios inherit the Fire. Jubifyre said that my curse, the Molting Disease, was my connection to the Avios race and I hoped to use that connection to give them the Fire. I used her own Fire to start the process and fuel the spell that I failed to execute and then the life in my unborn child to craft the specifics of the spell as Valdin had… but…”

Harm’s eyes widened. Just beyond Hal-Seth was the shattered remains of the Phoenix Egg.

No…

“It… it was too much…!” sobbed Hal-Seth, clutching the sides of his head with his charred hands. “There was too much Fire! Too much rage and… and guilt!” Rage entered his voice and he whirled around to face Harm. “And your spell made it even more difficult!”

My…

When Hal-Seth pointed at him, Harm noticed the golden rings still enclosed around the Phoenix’s left arm.

Oh… That spell… The spell I put on him that slowed all magical effects going out of him by a fortieth.

It must have screwed up his calculations and caused the magic to lash back at him.

“My sacrifice was ruined!” roared Hal-Seth, rising to his feet. The rainbow-colored feathers of his wings ruffled slightly. Brilliant colors began to flake off into fading embers leaving the feathers blackened and dull. “I gave up so much but because I was asleep for so long, the Fire has become untenable! It’s become rage and guilt incarnate! Before long, it will consume us all!”

Hal-Seth sneered at Harm. “And it will be our fault, Chronomancer.”

“Our?” Harm repeated. “Seriously, what did I do? I told you that we should defeat the crazy genetic abomination first and then have a rational discussion about our next steps! But you flew off the handle, thinking we’d try to stop you because just because you took inspiration from Valdin and Ulerian’s actions! Are you going to blame me for putting that spell on you? The spell that slowed down the accelerating Molting Disease? The spell that I could have removed if you just clued me in on what you were going to do and took the time to convince me of your plan?”

The Champion let out a soft laugh. “No. I blame you for waking me.”

Oh… Okay that I can’t deny.

“If I had just remained asleep,” sighed Hal-Seth. “Perhaps I could have been killed and be free of this guilt. I would have remained blissfully ignorant of my own faults. But now… Now I know exactly what I have done. I know how I have failed.” His eyes narrowed at Harm. “And I know I have no place in this world.”

He spread his now blackened wings, tongues of black flame dripping from his feathers; a dark contrast to his pure, white flames. “Now end me, Hound of Haamiah! End me so that my suffering may finally be put to rest and the world can be free of my cursed existence!”

The burned and exhausted Hal-Seth charged forward… but barely made it a few steps before his legs gave out. Harm and Kaiver rushed forward, with the latter being faster and catching the collapsing Phoenix.

“Hey… it’s okay dude,” soothed Kaiver. “You… You tried. You fucked up. Twice. But you tried.”

Hal-Seth sobbed into Kaiver’s arms, heaving loudly as tears ran down his face. “I only wanted to make the world a better place. I only wanted to give my people the power to keep their Fire going forever.”

“‘Only’ isn’t what I’d use,” Harm said, gently resting a paw on Hal-Seth’s shoulder. “You were ambitious. No one can fault you for that. But maybe immortality isn’t something to be granted to average people.”

The Champion opened his eyes but was too weak to look at Harm directly. “And what of you, Chronomancer?”

Harm shrugged helplessly. “My sins destroyed an entire Station and damned its people to eternal torment or obliteration. It’s comparable.” He turned to Kaiver. “Let’s bring him to the Nebula cannon. I’ve got an idea.”

Kaiver hoisted the limp Champion onto his shoulders, clutching the Phoenix by his legs and letting Hal-Seth drape himself across his broad deltoids. “Going to fire him out of the goddamn cannon in a blaze of glory?”

“No. Besides, even if I wanted to, Aria destroyed the cannon, remember?” Harm turned and headed out of the chamber. “I’ll admit something to you, Hal-Seth…” He glanced off to the right, gazing down at the dark central chamber of the laboratory that was barely lit. The emergency power had been exhausted and only the faint flickers of a few flames provided some semblance of light. “I’ve often wondered what could have been. What if I had been more forceful in my objections to the Chronomancer Collective’s attack on the rest of the world? What if I had actually acted when I saw the direction the Thirteen had taken and recruited followers? What if…” He closed his eyes briefly as he approached the stairs. “… what if I hadn’t rebelled?”

As he started mounting the stairs, Kaiver stopped him.

“Uhm… Dude. You know we have elevators, right?”

Harm stopped mid-step and gave him an incredulous stare. “What…?”

Kaiver pointed a short distance away at what was a large pair of sliding doors. “We have lifts. You really think we force our guys to go up and down ten flights of stairs every time they want a coffee?”

Harm’s left eye twitched. “I spent so much time going up and down these stairs! Why the hell did no one tell me there were elevators!?”

Hal-Seth chuckled softly. “I guess… even in our advanced age, we have much to learn.”

With a small smile, Harm approached the lift and hit the ‘call’ button. Golden light encased the length of the lift, repairing it and providing it with power.

“Not going to deny that. But it’s the lessons we don’t learn that always stings the most. Particularly those we’ll never get to learn because of experiences we could have had.”

The elevator arrived and with a soft ding, the sliding doors opened. Harm entered, Kaiver right beside him. To his credit, the big Viperion kept a hold of Hal-Seth even as the lift began heading upwards towards the tenth floor.

“We’re always left wondering what we could have been,” Harm continued. “What we could have done better.” He turned towards Hal-Seth as they passed the seventh floor. “You want to know something I just remembered? All the black sand on this continent was actually generated from all the Phoenixes exploding and reincarnating until they had no energy left.”

Hal-Seth let out a bitter chuckle. “A fitting epitaph to my failures.”

“But also a perfect allegory for what I am about to say.” Harm turned as the doors sprang open to the tenth and final floor. “Despite the fact that the sand is made of countless opportunities lost, countless lives exhausted, it’s not everything. When I used Final Hour on them, I could feel the multiple branches in the timeline that could have resulted had those specks of sand hadn’t been consumed in the War of the Wings.”

“So you know the gravity of my sins.”

Kaiver jostled Hal-Seth slightly perhaps in an attempt to cheer him up but also as he started heading out of the elevator. “Harm, mate. Not the best pep talk here.”

“I’m getting there,” Harm insisted, following shortly after. “I’m saying that we can’t be stuck with the what ifs. That sand? It’s not something to mourn. It’s something to give us energy. It’s a challenge. I mean, look at it this way; despite the fact that this place is pitch-black and mostly barren, people still found a way to build glistening cities. Wyrmriders live on the backs of huge sand dragons, for crying out loud! They rose to the challenge and not because it’s off the back of a mistake but because they saw it for what it is and rose to the occasion!”

Harm trotted forward, just standing on the threshold of the sand storm. He stuck out one paw towards the whipping winds and then held the other towards Hal-Seth.

“So what do you say, Champion of Adramalech? Do you want to rise to the challenge? Start a new not to undo your sins but to adapt to this new world set before you?”

Hal-Seth barely had the strength to lift his head. “What about the Molting Disease?”

“You let me worry about that.” He lifted his paw again towards the Champion. “Well?”

A soft crackling erupted from the breast pocket of his vest.

“Harm? Can you hear me?”

It was Aria.

He lowered his paws for a moment and fished out the communicator he had pilfered earlier. “Aria? Where are you?”

“On one of the destroyers,” she answered. “We’re currently above the storm. We can see that it’ll go down in about an hour. Are you safe? What happened to Valdin? Hal-Seth?”

“Valdin and his abominations have been disposed of,” he responded. “Solholme is dead. Hal-Seth killed her.” Then he lifted his gaze towards the last remaining Phoenix. “I had to kill Hal-Seth as well. It’s over.”

There was a pause on the other end.

“I wish it had gone differently…”

“If it’s any consolation, I saved Kaiver.”

“And Chronos promised to take me on a date!” shouted Kaiver just to prove that he was alive.

There was a soft chuckle from the other end. “I don’t know if I should feel sorry for you or be happy. We can’t send anything down at least until the storm dies down a little. Do you think you can hold out for that long?”

“Oh I can think of something we can do for an hour,” Kaiver teased, waggling his scaly eyebrows.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” Aria sighed. “Sit tight, Harm. I’ll reach out again in an hour.”

“Bring a mop,” Harm answered, ending the transmission. He then turned towards Hal-Seth, tucking the communicator into his pocket. “You’re officially a dead man, Hal. Either you sit there and die or…” Again, Harm held out his paw into the storm and reached out towards the Champion. “You step into this bold new world, free of your sins and whatever guilt Solholme wanted to burden you with, free of Adramalech and start your life anew.”

Hal-Seth closed his eyes, slumping against Kaiver’s shoulders. His breathing was ragged. For a moment, he didn’t move. Then, he lifted his arm, mustering his remaining strength to reach out towards Harm. Kaiver moved him closer. Harm gripped the Phoenix’s feathered hand and cast Final Hour. He drained all the Time from the sands whipping around behind him, channeled through himself and pumped it straight into Hal-Seth.

The Phoenix’s eyes filled with energy, his eyelids fluttering open. His grip around Harm’s wrist tightened while the golden rings around his forearms grew and expanded. They spread all over the Champion’s body, spreading even beneath his armor and blackened feathers.

Hal-Seth lifted his eyes, golden light shining behind his eyes.

And he smiled.

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*******

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The restaurant was perhaps one of the more middle-tier in Haven. Each table was given their own private booth where their surroundings were cloaked in illusionary magic to appear as anything that they wanted. At the moment, Harm had chosen an image where they were standing on the walls of the casino city of Glasterah. To his right was all the neon lights, flashing shows and magical sparks of the holiday destination. Opposite to that, to his left, was the dark abyss of the Sunless Lands. What made this restaurant unique was the fact that everything was served in liquid form.

His ability to consume food without throwing it up due to his Time Locked state was limited to liquids at the moment. It would take more time, research and hours spent heaving over a toilet before he’d be able to fully master actually being able to eat some food. But he had motivation to keep trying.

At least one of these days I want to be able to eat something Kaiver cooks.

His ‘boyfriend’ and current personal bodyguard emerged from the illusion, seemingly stepping out of thin air to take up the seat in front of him.

“Sorry about that,” Kaiver laughed, adjusting his tie. “Drinking a whole seven-course meant kinda makes you want to piss. A lot.”

“I can only imagine,” Harm chuckled. “Anything I consume I immediately deconstruct into Time.” He leaned back into his seat. “I hope this place was at least good?”

Kaiver grinned at him brightly. In the year since they had met, the Viperion had kept up his physical routine but had admittedly developed a little bit of a gut. This made him a little softer but after traveling with Harm around the Stations on various missions, he still had arms that could crush melons and shoulders as wide as mountains. Harm didn’t mind the slight belly. It just proved how, deep beneath all the bluster and admittedly lewd comments, he was a kind, caring man that he chose to cherish after all this time.

“Mate, anywhere you take me to is fucking awesome,” Kaiver said. He glanced off into the darkness of the illusionary Sunless Lands. “Though I can’t say I’m honestly a fan of the decor. Did you have to choose this?”

“I thought it’d be appropriate for our one year anniversary,” Harm answered, lifting a half-empty glass. “Can you believe it’s only been a year?”

“Fuck me…” laughed Kaiver, picking up his own glass. “After all the shit we’ve been through, feels like a bloody decade.” He winked at Harm. “You sure you haven’t been messing with the progression of time to make things slower?”

“Now why would I do that?”

“Because you know I’ll die eventually and you want to cherish every second with me.”

Harm immediately lost his smile.

Kaiver reached out with his spare hand and gently held Harm’s paw. “Babe, we’ve talked about this.”

Looking away, the Chronomancer said, “I know. And I respect your decision. Doesn’t make it easier.”

The Viperion gripped his hand tighter. “That’s why I keep joking about it. Because when I eventually do die, you’re going to remember all the fucked up shit I’ve said about it, laugh and let me go.”

Harm shook his head and found his smile again. “Fuck you and your mind games.”

“You’ve blown my brains out more than once,” snickered the Viperion, holding up two fingers. “But I’m still up two.”

“I’ll get you tonight,” Harm countered with a grin. “I’ve got all the time in the world.”

Kaiver smirked but it was short lived as he glanced back out into the darkness. “Speaking of things that are immortal… You think he’s still out there?”

Looking into the illusionary sands, Harm said, “Undoubtedly. I gave him the equivalent of 340 million lives. That was just one instance of every Phoenix that died during the War. Each Phoenix died countless times during the War. There was actually research done on how many grains of sand are in the Sunless Lands and they estimate it to be 4 septillion.”

Kaiver blinked at him a couple of times. “So that means that each Phoenix had to die…”

“A shit tonne of times to fill that country,” agreed Harm. “Millions upon millions. Of course we can never truly know. I’m guessing that each Phoenix’s death offered more than just one grain of sand so it could be that each death offered maybe a million grains or something? I don’t know.” Harm shook his head. “But it was a lot. And Hal-Seth… Well… He’s got millions of years currently supporting him.”

“And the Molting Disease isn’t going to progress anymore thanks to you enhancing your spell,” Kaiver concluded. “I just hope he makes use of the time you gave him instead of doing something shitty like seeking revenge or reviving the Phoenix race.”

He grinned at Kaiver. “Well, if he ever does, it just sounds like I’ll have to stop him alongside my trusty bodyguard, right?”

Kaiver winked at him. “Damn straight. Well… ‘straight’ wouldn’t be the right term.”

Harm rolled his eyes as the waiter came in and asked them they wanted a picture. He exchanged glances with Kaiver and that was all the communication they needed. They pushed their chairs together, intertwining their fingers as the waiter began casting a spell to capture this image for eternity.

Then Kaiver broke form and kissed Harm’s cheek.

The Last Chronomancer, the Destroyer of Time and Traitor of Temporal couldn’t help it.

He genuinely smiled.

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******

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A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body

- Benjamin Franklin

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The Phoenix Uprising: Flames in the Ashes

Flames of the God of Fire

Harm glanced over to Kaiver, staring at him fiercely. “Don’t die! That’s an order!”

Without another word, he turned and bolted for the warehouse doors. He became a golden blur, slipping and sliding through time and in between each of the mutants desperately trying to claw at him. Where he could, he spared a slash, a burst of golden fire or a punch; anything to give Kaiver as much of an edge as possible. Once he was out of the warehouse, he flung his paws through the air. Golden runes danced across the enormous doors themselves.

BAM!

Those doors slammed shut with a resounding bang.

Harm didn’t spend too much time dwelling on the fact that he could very well have condemned a brave man to a brutal death. He grabbed the hilt of Timekeeper and slowly dragged his fingers across the edge. No blood was drawn but the golden edge began to seethe with a shimmering, aureate aura. The moment he reached the tip, he swung the blade through the air, slashing at the space in front of him. The very air ripped and roared with anger as he tore through the very fabric of reality. An angry, saffron wound appeared in the air in front of him, slowly widening to reveal an entirely different world beyond.

He didn’t hesitate and stepped right through the tear in spacetime. His shoes covered in the black sand of the Sunless Lands fell onto the golden cogs of Haamiah’s Machine. The tear closed up behind him a second later, leaving him in the oddly peaceful world of Haamiah’s personal dimension.

Feels like forever since I’ve been in here.

Golden cogs of all different shapes, sizes and designs turned all around around, filling the world with the constant ticking of Time moving on at a steady pace. He stood on one such enormous cog but it turned so slowly that its movements were barely perceptible. The entire sky was filled with these cogs but if he were to look downwards, beyond the few cogs that obscured his vision, he could see the rust-red desert and the graveyard of cogs that had fallen from the Machine into the all-consuming desert of forgotten time.

On the other side of the central cog, just in front of an enormous pendulum, sat the God of Time himself, Haamiah. ‘Sat’ was a subjective term, of course. Haamiah’s gold and white throne towered nearly as tall as the titanic pendulum that stretched upwards into infinity, dwarfing the god. However, the God of Time never actually ‘sat’ on the throne. In fact, the divine creature floated above the seat, arms folded between the enormous sleeves of his mantle.

There were many interpretations of what Haamiah looked like throughout history. Some displayed him as a bald human with ever-present golden eyes. Others saw him as a puckish Vulpunus with black fur. There were even those that painted him as a flaxen haired youth, a short-haired warrior and an aged, old man all at once but always with those golden eyes. In truth, Haamiah’s true form was quite… formless. Almost ghostly in appearance, Haamiah looked more like someone had draped a white cloak decorated by golden runes and a gold sash over an invisible, indescribable figure with no true form. A hood concealed all of Haamiah’s features, leaving the contents of the hood perpetually dark save for the golden eyes which possessed the mark of a clockface without numbers over the irises. Behind Haamiah were three pairs of wings formed out of a symmetrical, gold and black blades. This symmetry, however, was broken by one ‘feather’ missing from Haamiah’s middle right wing.

Harm lifted Timekeeper, saluting to the God.

“Not a word,” he warned and immediately stepped towards another edge of the enormous cog.

It was ironic that in the Machine, time didn’t flow. It made time flow but time itself never progressed within the Machine. He had all the time in the world to think of his next move. A sense of urgency still burned in him, however, as he once again tore a rip through time and space using the blade made from one of Haamiah’s ‘feathers’. Beyond the tear was Hal-Seth’s chamber, currently empty and unguarded. He stepped through, the tear closing behind him and leaving no trace of his excursion.

“Guess I’m a little early,” he laughed to himself. He moved to the base of what had once been Hal-Seth’s crystal, regarding the ruins of the edifice that he had shattered. With a soft laugh, he added, “Fuck… I’m the final boss now.”

A rising noise like a steadily approaching storm filled his ears but he resisted the temptation to turn around. He waited patiently until the roaring became so loud that he could feel the heat of Hal-Seth’s charging through the Flareclaw facility at high speeds before finally arriving at the chamber. The Champion of Fire let out an audible gasp upon seeing him.

“How…? How did you beat me here?” Hal-Seth demanded.

“I think the better question is,” Harm replied, still refusing to turn around. “How the hell did you manage to travel all this way while engulfed in fire and didn’t flambes that poor child in your arms?”

Using the reflection in the crystals, Harm watched Hal-Seth momentarily regard the egg he was clutching. Whatever retort the Champion had died when Solholme arrived a second later, stopping a few feet from behind Hal-Seth upon seeing Harm.

“You beat us here,” she announced. “I knew you were a talented Chronomancer but that must have taken a lot of your Time.” She grimaced as blue flames shot out of her hands, once again forming whips. “Regardless, I will accept what help you can offer against Hal-Seth!”

“Why would he help you?” snapped Hal-Seth, spinning around to face her. “Adramalech wanted me to bring the Fire back to the Avios! You are stopping me from doing that! I am doing what I am destined to do! I am curing the Molting Disease! Something you couldn’t do in the millennia you were alive!”

Harm lifted a paw. “Before this devolves into a bickering match, allow me to stop you from speaking for me.” He could feel their eyes on him so he finally turned around to face them. Clutching Timekeeper in both paws, he turned the blade downwards so that it’s tip was now pointing right between his feet. “I am indeed here to stop you, Hal-Seth. But not in the way you think.”

“What are you talking about?” demanded the rainbow Phoenix. “I am just! Adramalech -”

“You keep talking like you know what Adramalech wants. Both of you do.” His golden eyes fell on Solholme. “You assumed that Adramalech wanted to kill all the Phoenixes and every Avios out there and start anew.” Then he turned to Hal-Seth. “You think Adramalech wants you to start again. Raise a new religion out of the ashes of your civilization. Did it ever occur to you that all he wanted was to stop Illuminadia from suffering and to ask for her forgiveness?”

Both Phoenixes stared at him incredulously.

“Adramalech is a selfish, careless, capricious god!” snapped Solholme. “He selfishly opined Hal-Seth’s own achievements and twisted it to resurrect his girlfriend! Why would he let her die?”

A burst of white flames exploded from Hal-Seth, forcing Solholme back. They barely touched Harm and the Last Chronomancer didn’t even flinch as they licked at his feet. “Do not speak of our Lord with such blasphemies! Lord Adramalech sees beyond our needs! He is a God! He foresaw the schism our race had caused. He saw the sin I had introduced by giving mortal people immortality! We strayed from the path and now he is offering us the Fire as redemption! We just have to be selfless enough to give up this life to give others a chance!”

Harm groaned loudly. “Listen to yourselves! You’re giving Adramalech too much credit! He was selfish in using Hal-Seth’s genius to resurrect his girlfriend but he was too lazy to come up with his own solution. He did not decide to punish the whole Phoenix race either. He barely did anything while your entire species tore each other apart and Illuminadia had herself tortured and killed over and over again just to end her curse. He was paralyzed with fear and indecision. But in the end, it was his love for her that eventually made him realize he had to let her go.”

“And what makes you such the expert?” Solholme sneered.

Harm lifted Timekeeper slightly. “This.”

He tapped the tip of the blade on the ground very lightly. Just the fainting clink of the golden metal tapping against the white, steel floor. The ground sizzled and burned. Golden embers burned away the metal like it was paper, peeling away the laboratory rapidly in a radial patterns and leaving behind a blackened, cracked, scorched earth. Hal-Seth’s crystals shards sizzled away in favor of a wide, dark expanse filled with choking, black smoke. Walls once used to contain the Champion burned off for distant volcanoes whose burning lava was like glowing blood. A ceiling filled with hanging wires vanished to reveal a starless sky with its only occupant a broken, cracked planet whose glowing magma was shining through its charred surface.

Hal-Seth’s brow furrowed and he threw his gaze around at the world around them. “What is this…?

Then he turned around and his jaw dropped. Solholme followed his gaze and even she staggered back in surprise at the figure sitting in front of her.

Perched on an enormous throne that towered over ten storeys and about that much wide made of what appeared to be solidified fire was their god. The incredible, muscled figure of Adramalech, the Seraph of Fire, was pinned to the throne by black, spiked chains; its piercing spires puncturing his flesh and letting his burning blood seep into the chair. Even through the crimson armor that he wore, those spikes bit into his divine flesh. His large, clawed feed were pinned to the ground by black stakes. His feathered hands held onto the armrests of the throne in a similar fashion. Those black chains constricted his chest, pinned his legs to the throne and even choked his thick neck. All four of the god’s fiery wings were either pinned to the ground or the chair itself. The extra pair of arms that sprouted from behind the God’s shoulders were pinned together by the chain, palms together and a stake driven through them into the headrest above him. Adramalech’s avian features regarded the three of them wordlessly, his crimson eyes seemingly uncaring. Even the vertical, unblinking third eye sitting on his forehead seemed cold and distant.

“My… My lord…?” whispered Hal-Seth. Rage filled his eyes and he spun towards Harm. “You did this, didn’t you? You and your heretical God of Time!? You punished my God for what he did all those years ago!”

That was expected, Harm thought bitterly.

“Your god did this to himself!” Harm barked, fangs bared. That caused both of the Phoenixes to turn towards him in shock. “The Gods are no more immune to emotions like love, sorrow or guilt than the rest of us. In fact, they might even feel it more because of just how old they are. They have watched Tower Thirteen grow and develop, stared at it with uncaring eyes and letting Time pass it by. They live an eternity feeling nothing. But when something breaks through that bleak gray of emotional distance, it burns brightly; brighter than any star or light that can ever be produced. They’ll do anything to keep that light alive because it is the only thing that breaks through the endless boredom of their eternal existence.”

Kaiver…

“And when that light goes out,” he sighed heavily. “It hits them hard. Makes them irrational. Makes them do stupid things like twist what would have been a gift to an entire race into a selfish attempt to subvert nature and Time itself to prolong that fire’s life… or inflict themselves with severe self-mutilation as a means to represent their own guilt.”

Hal-Seth turned towards Adramalech one more time before turning back to Harm. “How do you know this?”

Harm’s features hardened. “I once sought to teach the so-called ‘Immortal Guardians of Tower Thirteen’ that they are still very much mortal; that they are not gods of Time and are flawed just like the divine creatures they seek to emulate. The Chronomancers refused to take this lesson and were subsequently destroyed. I took a heavy hand with them. I thought my job was over. But it’s not. There are still entities out there toying with people’s lives. Entities whose very stirrings change the world and they look upon it with an uncaring gaze that dwarfs the Chronomancer’s arrogance.”

“You want to kill Adramalech!?” blurted Solholme. “You want to kill the God of Fire!?”

“If that’s what it takes,” Harm responded darkly. “But first, I will teach him that his actions has consequences beyond his own selfish desires. I will wake him up. Free him of his guilt and show him that he is part of this world and he has an obligation to live the life that he was given instead of wasting it sitting here wracked by his own guilt with no desire to ever get over it!”

Solholme threw her head back and strode over to him, arms wide. “If I didn’t like you before, I do now, Chronos!” She reached his side and turned back around to face Hal-Seth and, by proxy, Adramalech. “So let’s kill a god!”

Hal-Seth snarled and drew Crossfire, only able to grip one of the crossbows as he still held the egg in the other hand. “You will not commit this blasphemy! Not in front of me! In front of the God of Fire!”

“This is the Burning Throne,” Harm snarled. “A reflection of Adramalech’s guilt. He’s turned his own world into a prison. I’m trying to help him get over his guilt. I’m trying to heal him.”

“By taking away his divinity!” Hal-Seth made a slicing motion through the air with his weapon. He lifted the egg into the air. A fiery aura surrounded it and it floated high into the air, out of reach and out of danger. With his other hand free, he was able to draw Crossfire in its entirety. “Gods are not like us! They are divine! They are greater entities that we cannot hope to understand! It is not our place to know them!”

The winged Phoenix swung both parts of Crossfire through the air in a slashing motion. Both chakrams flew from the arch of the bow, curving through the air as if possessed. Searing, white flames lashed out from each edge, swinging out in lashing arms like twin, fiery, spiral galaxies tearing through the burned world. Harm immediately dashed off to his right, slipping forward in time and avoiding the lashing arms. Solholme swung her blue-fire whips through the air, deflecting the projectiles where she could. Some seared dirt slammed against her flanks but she was otherwise unharmed.

“And yet you were the one constantly shouting about how you knew what Adramalech wanted,” shouted Solholme. She raised her feathered hands, the blue flames rising from her fingertips to form a concentrated ball of scintillating sapphire fire. With a cry, she hurled the ball straight at Hal-Seth. The sphere tore through the charred ground, leaving a canal of melted rock as it charged towards the Champion. Hal-Seth had enough time to huff before spreading his wings and leaping easily into the air, putting himself in front of the egg he considered so precious. The ball barely made a fizzle against one of Adramalech’s toes.

“You are such a hypocrite!” she concluded.

Hal-Seth’s feathered wings began to let out a white glow. “I was chosen as his Champion! I was chosen as his representative in our world! He entrusts me with his will! His voice!”

Harm took that moment where the Phoenix was talking to slip through time. He appeared right behind Hal-Seth, blade coming down.

CLANG!

Crossfire clashed with his sword, Hal-Seth barely glancing over his shoulder at him.

“And what right do you have, Hound of Haamiah, to make such outrageous claims as to know a god?” The white light from Hal-Seth’s wings grew unbearably bright. The heat was so intense that Harm was forced back, crashing to the ground as his flesh sizzled and blistered. “What right do you have to pronounce judgment upon the divine? You are not strong enough to stand amongst them. You are not old enough! You are not wise enough!”

Harm grit his fangs together and propped himself up on Timekeeper. “Strength, age and wisdom,” he panted. “Is that the only thing you judge separates us from the gods?” He grinned savagely through his fangs. “And here I thought a god’s merit is unquantifiable.”

Blue fire tendrils snapped around Hal-Seth’s frame, two wrapping around his wrists, one around his neck and another around his waist. Surprise flashed across the Phoenix’s face as he was suddenly dragged to the ground.

“Chronos!” Solholme shouted. “Do something now!”

Harm was running before he was even fully up to his feet, golden flames exploding from his spare paw. His claws dragged across the ground, raking the charred earth with aurelian fire and leaving a trail of the flames behind him. He reached Hal-Seth and swung his arm upwards in a sweeping uppercut. His claws bit into feathered flesh with enough force that the Champion was flung a whole five feet into the air from his kneeling position. Solholme followed up by slamming Hal-Seth back into the ground from where she stood. She released her whips from the winged Phoenix at that moment, giving Harm an opening. The Last Chronomancer, still partially in the air from his earlier sweep, swung Timekeeper crashing back down upon Hal-Seth’s frame. Golden lightning crackled across the blade and smashed into rainbow feathers with enough force that a shockwave exploded from the moment Hal-Seth hit the ground, leaving a crater around them. That lightning sparked again and in an instant, Hal-Seth was dragged back into the air as time was rewound though his injuries remained. Despite the heat around them, a spire of yellow-tinged ice exploded from the ground and impaled the Champion right through the chest.

The Chronomancer caught movement from above him and he immediately slipped backwards in time, positioning himself to same space he had occupied before he had attacked. Solholme came crashing down from above, wreathed completely in blue flames. He could almost see tears streaming from her face as the fiery, blue meteorite collided with the immobile Champion.

CRASH!

Harm had to turn away from the fierce, fiery blue conflagration. A firestorm of sapphire flames launched into the air in clear defiance to the dark, smoky surrounding and crimson flames all around them. Solholme launched herself from the flames, landing right beside him while panting heavily. The flames died the moment she left their embrace.

It’s not over, he realized.

Hal-Seth’s scoff cut through the momentary silence. “Mock if you will but it does not change the fact that I am the only Champion here.” Bright, white flames burst from where the Champion lay. Even broken and burned, Hal-Seth effortlessly rose to his feet. Holy white flames burned away his injuries. “Even with your combined abilities, you will never defeat me.”

Solholme grimaced, faltering slightly. Soft, golden light wrapped around her and her energy began to return. Harm kept his paw raised in her direction while keeping his eyes on Hal-Seth.

“In some way, Hal,” he said, “you’re right. We can’t know what the gods want. But sometimes, even the gods themselves don’t know what they want. So they rely on mortals to help decide exactly which direction the future should take. That’s why the Mother Goddess gave everyone free will.”

Hal-Seth huffed loudly. “What blasphemy is this? The Mother Goddess gave everyone magic. She gave us the Illuminus Weizar.”

It was Harm’s turn to shake his head in derision. “I guess the great deception existed even during your time.” With Solhome’s strength restored, he lowered his paw and took a step forward ahead of her. “The fact remains, we are at a crossroads. One that Adramalech finds himself currently unsure where to support. You stand to enact an ancient plan that I feel has no right in the modern world. Solholme wants to wipe that plan from history and allow the rest of Tower Thirteen to continue as it always has without the Phoenixs’ legacy.”

A confident smirk crossed his features. “In a way, Adramalech has two paths ahead of him. Two Champions. But I can’t be his Champion so…”

There was a sudden gasp from behind him followed by an intense heat. Hal-Seth’s eyes widened as his features were illuminated by a bright, blue glow. The Champion’s jaw dropped open at the sight of the focused, pillar of azure fire behind Harm and the silhouetted figure within.

“What…?” whispered Hal-Seth. “How could this be…?” His eyes turned to Aramalech. “You would… You would turn against me, My Lord? Why do you test me?” There was a flash of sorrow in his eyes followed by a fierce determination. “It’s a test. That is what this is. You are testing me. Testing if I am truly worth of your mantle as Champion!”

Harm shrugged absently as the flames died behind him. “Believe what you want. But now the battle is a little more even.”

Solholme stepped forward, standing beside him and her eyes burning with her blue flames. “Yours may be the flames of purity, Hal-Seth but mine is the flames of will! So long as I stand, my flames will burn anything even if it takes an eternity!”

Hal-Seth leveled Crossfire at them. “So be it, Jubifyre. Let us burn each other for all time.”

Harm immediately slipped through time just as Hal-Seth pulled the trigger. A single, focused beam of white flame shot from Crossfire, cutting through the air. A second passed before a shockwave exploded from around the beam’s path. Even though Harm was a good fifteen feet away, he was still launched back by the blast and crashed to the ground. Solholme was barely affected. Blue flames burst from the soles of her feet, sending her forward to close the distance between her and Hal-Seth. Brilliant wings of azure flame burst from the small of her back, shadowing Hal-Seth’s rainbow wings.

The Champion of Fire tried to keep his once-lover-and-Custodian at bay, flying backwards while launching his chakrams and beams of flame at her but Solholme was quickly closing in. In one hand, her flames focused into a single blade of flame and in the other was her long whip. That tendril of flame cracked and snapped through the air, getting closer and closer to Hal-Seth as they ducked and weaved through the air. Blistering beams of fire and balls of blue flame peppered the landscape.

Harm could only watch… even as his eyes drifted to the one thing that could end the battle.

He turned -

… and pillar of flame burst out of the ground in front of him.

Adramalech’s three eyes were leveled directly at him.

“Really?” he demanded. “You know it’d end this whole thing.”

The god narrowed his eyes at Harm, the first ever reaction he gave since his appearance.

“Fine!” Harm shouted, throwing his paws up in exasperation. “I’ll let your last two remaining Phoenixes kill each other without me resorting to using the obvious McGuffin.”

CRASH!

Solholme slammed into the ground a short distance away. She was rising to her feet a moment later but Hal-Seth was already preparing his next attack. He pressed the two halves of Crossfire together, the two chakrams floating one in front of one another like a targeting reticule. A loud, high pitched keening filled the air. White flames seethed where the two arcs of the crossbows met, growing more and more intense with each passing second. The wingless Phoenix could only wreathe herself in blue flames to protect herself from what was to come.

“I’m ending this,” Harm announced. He shot Adramalech a fiery stare. “Don’t try to stop me.”

The God of Fire… closed his eyes.

That’s consent!

“Be purified by my Fire!” roared Hal-Seth.

A focused beam of white flame as thick as Harm’s torso exploded from Hal-Seth’s weapon. Solholme raised her arms across her face to block…

Only for Harm to immediately step in front of her… and give her a wink.

Then he slashed Timekeeper through the air, tearing a hole through space and time. He immediately stepped through, stepping into Haamiah’s Machine. He took about three steps forward before slashing again, opening a tear in space just ten feet to Hal-Seth’s left. Even though the Champion was in the air, Harm was still able to leap through the hole in space, slash at the stunned Champion and deliver a second slash that tore another hole back into the Machine. Just as he was touching down onto the golden cog a second time, Hal-Seth’s beam was passing through the first. He had just cut third hole when Hal-Seth’s own attack came screaming out of the Machine and striking the Champion. It passed through the Phoenix, burning flesh and feathers before entering the Machine again. Harm was always one slash ahead of the beam, dancing through the Machine and Burning Throne back and forth as the beams criss-crossed one another, always with Hal-Seth at the center. Harm always slipped around the crossing flames to avoid the lances of white fire from colliding, each pass taking out one part of Hal-Seth’s body.

One last slash came as he opened a rip right above Hal-Seth, passing the Champion. The moment he landed, he danced backwards, avoiding the cascade of white fire that descended from above. All the flames collided and -

BOOM!

Erupted in a flare of white fire.

Solholme’s high heels clacked against the hard, cracked earth beneath them. “Do you honestly think that was enough? Using his own abilities against him?”

“To kill him?” Harm responded. Above them, the blackened and burns figure of Hal-Seth remained ominously hovering. “Probably not.” He grinned and hiked a thumb over his shoulder at the towering god behind them. “But to prove that the scales aren’t in his favor? More than enough.”

“And how do you figure that?” mocked Hal-Seth’s raspy voice as it rapidly recovered. Alabaster flames burned away the ash from the Phoenix’s body, leaving him pristine and clean as ever before.

Harm held out his spare paw, conjuring a small, transparent blue orb with a golden cog inside. “I’ve been working with Adramalech and the other Seraphs for over three millennia now. He knows what I’m capable of. Hell, he watched me during the Purge of Time. He knows that I’m right-handed. He also knows that if I got close to you once, I can get close to you again and use this little baby.”

The Phoenix regarded the glowing orb with contempt. “And what is that, exactly?”

Solholme let out a soft chuckle. “A Time Bomb. Chronos created the technique to destroy the Chronomancers. Each Chronomancer is basically a Champion of Haamiah. Immortal and with powers that could cause entire nations to crumble. Chronos was the one that developed the techniques that could kill them and his Time Bomb is the most insidious.” She grinned as she turned towards Adramalech. “What say you, great God of Fire? Shall we continue with this farce? Is it not clear that should the Destroyer of Time wish, he could easily end this and Hal-Seth?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” barked Hal-Seth. “You made the mistake of making me aware of his trickery! Now, I must simply avoid it!” He lifted Crossfire towards Harm. “And eliminate you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Solholme said, turning back towards Hal-Seth. “See, compared to you or I, Chronos will always keep coming back. We can be killed over and over again but we will reincarnate so long as we have Spirit and Force energy. That limit is finite. Eventually, we will run out of chances much like how our brethren died as you kept killing Aurelene over and over again. But Chronos? The Chronomancer has no limits.”

“Absurd!” snapped Hal-Seth. “No such technique can exist.”

“Oh but it does,” laughed the wingless Phoenix. “You’ve been out of it for so long, Hal-Seth, that you don’t realize that the world has moved on from you! Chronomancers are Time Locked. Their very existence is bound to the very progression of Time itself! You can obliterate every molecule of them, burn them all away, but you will never destroy them! It might take a while but they will eventually return!”

“Then I shall just burn this ‘Time Locked’ state away from the Chronomancer!”

Wait… can he do that…?

“You cannot.”

The booming voice like a rumble of thunder cause all three combatants to pause and turn towards the God of Fire.

“Sire…?” Hal-Seth breathed.

The God of Fire, eyes still closed, spoke once more. “That same arrogance is what caused the defeat of the Demon King, Asmodeus, at the hands of Haamiah. Your magic, Pyromancy and the Fire itself is bound by the Illuminus Weizar as is almost all of creation. But Time is not. You can only burn away what is defined within the confines of your understanding. You do not understand Time. You do not understand Haamiah.”

The multi-armed avian opened his three eyes. “So this contest is decided.”

Hal-Seth drifted to the ground. “No… No! My Lord! I can defeat them! I can find a way! I can -”

“Enough, Hal-Seth!” snapped the deity. “Every flame must eventually die. Yours was extinguished long ago. You are just the ashes clinging to the shadows of possessing embers. Fade, my Champion. Fade and let the new flames bring light into the future.”

A crackling noise emerged from Hal-Seth. The startled Phoenix lifted Crossfire and watched with a mixture of shock and sorrow as the gold and red metal of the crossbows began to blacken. Fiery red cracks like the last dying embers trying to hold onto its frame broke through the black ash but those only showed structural weaknesses. The weapon broke off on those cracks, chunks of ash falling to the ground and joining the charred earth while the flames within the fissures faded and blackened.

The two, hovering chakrams of the weapons dropped to the ground with two, loud thunks. Like the main weapon, they turned black and crumbled. The weapon turned to dust in Hal-Seth’s hands… then his own feathers began to turn black, fingers turning stiff and unresponsive. A flash of pity crossed Solholme’s features and she reached out to him for just a moment but then withdrew her hand.

Hal-Seth watched as his own hands crumbled to ash before he finally lifted his gaze to meet Harm’s and his former Custodian’s gazes. A sad smile touched his lips.

“The Fire has spoken,” he offered, sadness in his voice. “I leave the future to you.” The Phoenix nodded to Solholme. “You are Champion now. May you Fire burn eternal.”

Solholme closed her eyes, a small tear running down her face. “Fuck you, Hal-Seth. Fuck you and your nobility. I’m going to be my own Champion. I will burn my way. Not yours. Not Adramalech’s.” She turned a fiery stare towards the God of Fire even as tears streaked down her face. “And if that doesn’t fit the Mighty Flame then you can kill me here and now!”

Adramalech did not response.

If I didn’t know any better, I could swear she was kind of hoping she’d die too.

“You can’t die just yet,” Hal-Seth said as his body began to crumble. “You’re going to have to take care of our child, after all.”

Solholme’s eyes widened as the Phoenix Egg slowly floated towards her, landing softly in her grasp. “Fuck you again. Leaving me with this…”

As his features turned black and the light from his eyes faded, Hal-Seth could only turn his head upwards as if he was seeing something above them.

“Ah…” he croaked softly. “… So bright…”

?

*******

?

A small chime rang out.

The wooden door slid open and the hostess appeared, bowing towards her guests.

“Welcome to the Fyrefalls Resort!” she exclaimed cheerily. “The only place on Incendius that -” Her voice got caught in her throat as she noticed exactly who was standing at her door, small red leaves fluttering around them.

“Is that any way to treat old friends?” Harm Chronos asked, arms folded and smirking.

“Please,” Aria said, pushing him aside and bowing respectfully towards the crimson-feathered Avios. “The last time she met us, we were accusing her of some heinous crimes.” Aria then winked at her. “Of course, this could be a case of mistaken identity. After all, we were accusing Professor Edith Solholme of crimes against the Church. Madame Fyrewing couldn’t possibly be the last ever existing Phoenix.”

The former lead researcher of the Flareclaw Research Facility hid her laugh behind her bright white and red pants suit_._ “Of course,” she said cheerily. “I just have one of those faces. Won’t you come in? Do you have an appointment?”

Harm held up to fingers. “Two under the name ‘Des Clockwork’.”

Edith - now under the name Rene Fyrewing - rolled her eyes. “I really should have guessed.”

“I really wasn’t trying to be subtle when I made the booking,” Harm responded with a snicker as he entered the facility.

“I had an inkling,” Fyrewing responded. “But I couldn’t be sure. We get all sorts of guests here.”

“Of course you would,” Aria said, beaming proudly. “There is no place like it on Incendius.”

The Madame immediately went into her spiel about how she had discovered the majesty of the Fyrefalls which was perched on a sheer cliff covered in trees that were constantly a vibrant red. The warm, temperate winds blew constantly which caused the leaves to go fluttering off and cascading down the side of the cliff making it look like a fiery waterfall. Somehow, the trees around them perpetually generated these red leaves. Add to that the fact that there were natural hot springs present and it made for a magnificent tourist attraction. The facility became one of the best luxury spots in all of Incendius in the twenty years that it had been established.

The spiel, of course, was for the benefit of the countless other guests and staff that milled about as they went through the main hall of the hotel. Harm and Aria knew all about the magic Solholme and her daughter put into their surroundings to expend the countless energy Solholme inherited as a Champion and to suppress their own powers as Phoenixes. They had helped the two escape Flareclaw, after all, after the Church had leveled the facility. Valdin’s mutants had almost broken out into the sands of the Sunless Lands. By the time Harm and Solholme had returned to Tower Thirteen, everything had been devastated.

Harm had to pause a moment at the enormous, stone monument at the very center of the atrium. Unlike the bright colors all around them, this one monolith stood out. It was jet-black, glassy and covered in names. All the people that had died at Flareclaw. The story was that Fyrewing had a daughter who worked at the facility before it was leveled by the Church. The monument was in commemoration of everyone that died there.

His heart seized up a little when he saw the name ‘Kaiver Warson’ on the list.

I told you not to die.

“Master Chronos?”

The soft voice brought his attention to the young avios standing right beside him. His features immediately brightened at the familiar bright green and red feathers of the young woman in front of him.

“Celeste!” he exclaimed, holding out his arms to hug her. “It’s been too long!”

She laughed heartily and hugged him back. “I missed you too, Uncle.”

Though not genetically - or even lawfully - related, Aria and Harm had spent a great amount of time helping keep both Solholme and her daughter hidden from the rest of the world. They the resort often and, similarly, the two Phoenixes came to Haven when they could to stay in contact. Lumire had even gotten involved to help with the illusion though he didn’t quite like the fact that Celeste called him ‘Grandpa’.

“You have grown so much!” Harm exclaimed, holding her out at arm’s length. “I see you every month or so but I still can’t get this image out of my head when you were still so small and throwing your first fireballs.”

“And you never change,” she responded with a shake of her head. “At least physically.” Her brow creased sightly with worry. “I heard you were involved with that nasty business up north with the Pyromancer’s Academy.”

Harm waved the concern away. “You know me. I’m ‘Lumire’s Shadow’. Anyone sees a sharply dressed, white-furred Wulfun and they’re automatically assuming it’s me.”

Celeste gave him a deadpan stare.

“Fine,” he laughed. “I was there. Are you really surprised?”

“No but still had me worried, Uncle.” She nudged him and then offered her elbow to him. “I know you’re strong but one of these days, something will douse your fire.”

Always with the fire-related-metaphors. Just like your father, I guess.

“Good thing I’ve got more running for me than just my ‘fire’,” he responded with a smile as he took her elbow and allowed her to escort him through the facility. “And on the day that I eventually do die, I like to think that I’ll go out on my own terms. Or at least take out a huge asshole with me.” He sensed Celeste’s concerned look without looking. “Or maybe leave a pretty corpse. In all the time I’ve spent alive, I’ve never give much thought to what pose I’d like to be when I die. I’m thinking it’d be me with my arms out like I’d like to give people a hug, eyes wide open.”

Celeste giggled. “Uncle, that’s really creepy.”

He gently bopped the tip of her beak like he used to when she was young. “Exactly.”

With a roll of her eyes, she said, “So, how long are you staying?”

“Lumire decided that Aria and I deserved a week or so after what happened up north. Since we were in the area, we thought we’d visit!”

“Great! Then I’ll have a whole agenda planned for you!” Celeste replied with a bright smile. “You’ll have all of Fyrefalls at your disposal. Just take your time and enjoy!”

Harm smiled softly, his eyes drifting to where Aria and Madame Fyrewing was striding just a few steps ahead of them. The contrast from the Phoenix Uprising twenty years ago when those two stood across from one another, once opponents, then allies and finally survivors was striking. Now they were the best of friends and truly enjoyed one another’s company. Already, they were exchanging tea recipes.

“Take my time, huh?” he repeated softly.

His mind went back to Hal-Seth. A Champion who had fallen asleep, wracked with guilt and desperate to undo his mistakes. Far too stuck in the past, he could not adapt to the future and ultimately was burned away. His legacy, however, was far brighter.

“Yeah… I think I will.”

******

Doubt thou the stars are fire,

Doubt that the sun doth move.

Doubt truth to be a liar,

But never doubt I love

- William Shakespeare

?

The Phoenix Uprising: Flames of the God of Fire

?

?

?

Flames for the Broken Tower

Echoes of other timelines passed.

“…I did not need to leave Kaiver to die. I could have stuck around, kept him alive, escorted him to you and then defeated Hal-Seth. Solholme would still be dead but at the very least, Kaiver would have been alive. Similarly, if I had just followed Kaiver’s pleas and just left him the moment you did, I could have saved Solholme.”

Whispers of what could have been.

“…I gave him the equivalent of 340 million lives.”

Declarations of what could still be.

“…“Every flame must eventually die. Yours was extinguished long ago. Your are just the ashes clinging to the shadows of possessing embers. Fade, my Champion. Fade and let the new flames bring light into the future.”

A chance to make it better.

Harm’s eyes snapped open.

I know what I have to do.

His free paw lashed out, seizing a mutant by the face. His claws dug into the creature’s flesh. Where it dug through the feathers, the flesh beneath his palms blackened and turned into rust-red dust, swirling around him like a dark miasma. Even before the abomination had fully disintegrated, he pounced on another, punching a fist right through its chest, gripping some organ within and executing Final Hour to start disintegrating it. He rose pulled away and ran his fingers over Timekeeper, the edge of the blade shimmering with golden fire. With the added range, he swung the sword wildly around him, running in a tight circuit around Kaiver. Each slash was a fatal blow, trigging the abomination’s loss of Time and adding to the rusty cloud like a dark extension to the twin tails of his scarf.

Valdin’s mutations were pushed back, giving him some breathing room and Kaiver some space. He grabbed the Viperion by the wrist and slipped through time, turning them both into a golden blur that reappearing just outside of the warehouse in the midst of the howling storm. The storm of red-black dust was absorbed into his body just in time for him to hold up Kaiver’s wrist. Golden runes danced across the snake’s forearms. A little display of light appeared on the back of Kaiver’s palm with the number ‘173’ displayed.

“You’ve got one-hundred and seventy-three lives now,” Harm told Kaiver. He slashed through the air with Timekeeper, creating a tear through time and space. Beyond was the twisting, golden cogs of the Machine. “Don’t waste it. Keep them back and stay alive. I’ll be back.”

As he released Kaiver’s hand, he stepped into the Machine.

A strong hand seized his wrist, causing him to turn back towards the Viperion clutching him.

“What does that mean!?” demanded a confused Kaiver. “Do I get to die nearly two hundred times or something? What happens? Do I reincarnate like a Phoenix? Heal like you? What?”

He gave the man a soft smile then immediately turned around and threw his arms around the burly security officer. “You’re smart. You can figure it out. Don’t ever let anyone underestimate you. Especially not some cancerous blob like Valdin.”

With and a light brush of his whiskers against Kaiver’s cheek, he turned and dashed into the Machine. The angry, golden tear closed behind him and he strode with intense determination across the cog where Time had no meaning. He never spared Haamiah a glance as he tore another rip through the Machine and stepped immediately out into Hal-Seth’s chamber.

The Champion and Solholme were already there. Hal-Seth held Solholme up, clutching her by the neck while he had the Phoenix Egg in the other hand. Blue flames were flickering around the wingless Phoenix and Hal-Seth’s own white flames seemed to be dragging her fire into his own. Neither of them noticed him.

Harm reached out with his paw and immediately made a crushing motion.

The golden runes around Hal-Seth’s forearm immediately constricted around his feathers and flesh. The jolt of pain made the Champion drop Solholme. She dropped to the ground, gasping for air, eyes wide. Hal-Seth screamed, reeling back and lifting his cursed arm into the air as the act of Chronomancy squeezed down on his muscles and bone until -

SPLAT!

They completely severed his forearm from his body.

“Do you want to know what the sad part of this entire story is?” Harm warned, striding forward with his paw still outstretched. “In the scenarios I’ve seen, in the timelines I’ve viewed, you don’t get a happy ending. Not once.” He made a slash through the air with Timekeeper, the golden light flickering across the edge. “There’s the one where everyone dies but I end up killing you because you gave up out of despair. Then there’s the one where Kaiver lives but you were so distraught over putting everything into a spell that failed that I end up cursing you with more life to make amends for your sins. Let’s not forget the ending where you died because Adramalech abandoned you and Solholme was chosen as the next Champion.”

“Me…?” croaked the wingless Phoenix.

Hal-Seth scowled at him as white fire burned around his stump of a forearm. Slowly, his Flames of Purity began to reconstruct his severed limb. “What are you talking about? You can see across timelines?”

“Not very many Chronomancers can do it,” Harm admitted. “But when you have access to the Machine and know what you’re looking for, it becomes very easy to see where the singularities are, where the crossroads occur.” He lifted his sword towards Hal-Seth. “You know what the saddest part is, Hal-Seth?”

The Phoenix Champion just stared at him guardedly while protecting the Phoenix Egg behind him.

“I can’t even guarantee this ending will see you happy. I can only hope there is a better ending for you in the future.”

He rushed forward, becoming a golden blur that dodged left and right constantly to keep Hal-Seth guessing. The fiery Champion huffed and swept his crossbow in a long, horizontal slash. Alabaster flames lashed out in an arc in front of him. Harm swung Timekeeper at the flames, causing even the Flames of Purity to be reduced to rust-red dust, allowing him to pass through effortlessly. This caught the Champion by surprise and all he could do was raise Crossfire to block the downward slash from the Last Chronomancer.

CLANG!

Ancient weapon clashed with ancient weapon but Timekeeper _’s_ golden aura began eating away at Crossfire_ ’s_ integrity. All the times that he had been in this same place flashed before Harm’s mind, not just this instance but also in the other timelines.

Not again!

A second Harm Chronos jumped out from behind the one holding Hal-Seth back. The stunned Champion had no time to react as the duplicate slipped behind him and snatched the Phoenix Egg out from his grip.

“No!” Hal-Seth cried and immediately kicked the Wulfun his was clashing with back. He spun but found the one clutching the egg dashing off. In perfect coordination, the one he had engaged spun to face the nearby wall and unleashed a long, horizontal slash. A long blade of golden light lashed out from the tip of the blade and cleaved right through the nearby wall, revealing the cylinder of the central lab. The Chronos clutching the egg jumped through the gap in the wall, dashing immediately for the exit.

Hal-Seth let out a roar of frustration and spread his wings. He drew the other half of Crossfire and was immediately cloaked in seething, white fires. The Phoenix Champion launched into the air, chasing right after the Chronos that had escaped. The one he had engaged turned and immediately helped Solholme to her feet.

“We’re going back to the warehouse,” he announced. “Follow my lead.”

She nodded in confirmation. Together, they were bolting out of the chamber, one sliding through time and the other propelled by blue flames. They made it to the warehouse where Hal-Seth had just reached the other instance of Chronos. Seeing them both, Chronos threw the egg into the air right above him. Hal-Seth naturally turned his gaze towards the fragile artifact. This allowed both Chronomancers to dash towards one another, colliding and fusing once more to consolidate their power in a flash of glittering, golden dust. Hal-Seth lunged for the egg, catching it in mid-air before -

WHAM!

Solholme slammed into him from behind and caused him to crash back to the ground, the egg slipping from his clutches and rolling across the ground. Harm snatched it from the ground before dashing right out into the wailing storm of black sand.

“You will not escape me!” roared the Champion.

Ivory flames exploded out of the warehouse with enough force that it pushed back the sandstorm. Black sand was transformed instantly into molten, ebony glass. Pain burst from Harm’s back as the heated shards bit into his back but he did not stop running. He ducked between the buildings littering the outer facility, jumping through a nearby window, shattering the frame entirely and bolting past aged, dusty furniture. The white Wulfun just managed to plow right through a nearby door before the entire building erupted into white flames. The shockwave send him crashing to the ground, clutching the egg tightly against his chest.

“Chronos!”

His left eye burned and he realized and his vision was askew. That eye had been burned or damaged. He would heal with enough time but first…

“Catch!” he shouted, leaping to his feet. He hurled the egg in the direction of the voice.

He saw Solholme’s silhouette through the storm, her arms outstretched to catch the egg.

SLAM!

Hal-Seth slammed into his former-Custodian, sending her stumbling through the air. He turned to catch the egg only for two whips of blue fire to wrap around his wrists and yank him down to the ground alongside the falling Solholme. Harm fought through the pain and slashed through the air in front of him, tearing a path through the Machine. He dashed through, stepping onto the golden cogs of Haamiah’s realm before emerging a moment later to catch the egg.

Solholme was trying to hold down Hal-Seth but the infuriated Champion was far stronger than her, his alabaster flames burning away her feathers. Harm flung a bolt of golden lightning at the Champion, causing the multi-colored Phoenix to abruptly straighten as the lightning crackled across his body. They locked gazes, Harm daring to wink at Hal-Seth before bolting back into the storm. Hal-Seth let out a terrifying almost primal scream of frustration and charged at him.

Harm waited all of two seconds, up until he felt Hal-Seth’s hot flames almost burning his tail before he triggered the secondary effect of his golden lightning. Suddenly, Hal-Seth was yanked back to the same position he had been just seconds ago when the electricity hit him. The stunned Phoenix had no idea what had happened and he flailed for a few seconds. The suddenly disorientation sent him crashing to the ground, allowing Solholme to shoot past him and tail Harm.

The sound of gunfire reached his ears and he could see the muzzle-flashes of turrets not too far ahead.

“What’s the plan?” Solholme cried.

“Go long!” Harm roared, pointing at Valdin’s warehouse as it came into view. Solholme nodded and shot forward, blue flames propelling her forward and right into the warehouse itself. Kaiver had set up a wall of turrets at the entrance, the machinery peppering Valdin’s mutants and keeping them back. The Viperion himself was parked behind the line, holding what appeared to be a four-barreled shotgun and providing support as much as possible.

When Kaiver saw Solholme, he turned and his features brightened as Harm came dashing forward. His features turned into confusion when Harm thrust the egg into his arms.

“Throw this to Solholme!” Harm commanded.

“What?” Kaiver demanded.

Without wasting a second, Harm immediately spun around and held out his paws. Golden rings erupted from his fingertips, forming a pattern of interlocking, concentric circles over him and Kaiver.

WHAM!

Kaiver flinched. “Apollia’s flaming tits!”

Hal-Seth slammed into the barrier, face contorted in fury while being surrounded by scathing white flames.

“Throw it!” Harm roared.

Kaiver yanked his arm back, holding the egg in one hand. With a roar, he threw it right into the warehouse. Hal-Seth immediately diverted his attention away from Harm and bolted after his precious, unborn child. Even with a head start, Solholme was not nearly fast enough to beat Hal-Seth as the Champion shot past her and snatched the egg from the air.

“Triumph!” roared the armored Phoenix.

At that moment, a large, featherless hand rose from just out of view. It seized Hal-Seth, practically swatting him out of the air and forcing him to drop the egg. Solholme immediately bolted towards the artifact, catching it before it fell into the horde of mutants beneath. The abomination that had become Valdin lifted Hal-Seth towards his contorted features, green flames burning from his eyes.

“Release me!” demanded Hal-Seth, struggling in the creature’s grip.

Solholme shot back towards Harm and Kaiver, landing safely behind the wall of turrets.

“That won’t hold him!” she shouted. “We need to end this now!”

Harm nodded in agreement. “I know.” He ran his fingers over Timekeeper’s blade once more, reinforcing the golden enchantment shining from it. “Give me an opening. I’ll end this.”

Kaiver stepped forward, lifting his shotgun. Arcane, silvery runes danced all over its surface. The counter on his wrist had dropped down to 150. “Good thing I learned how the ‘lives’ you gave me worked, then. Watch me work, mate!” He shouted a few words of the Illuminus Weizar and that golden number started dropping rapidly. The shotgun in his hands twisted and transformed, metal forming out of nothing reconfiguring itself into a platform that pushed both Solholme and Harm back.

Solholme at the same time lifted her hands to the air, pointing them straight up. Her blue flames burst from her fingertips and even the hidden wounds on the small of her back. They coalesced above her, transforming into an enormous sphere of sapphire flames that raged with millennia of pain and regret.

Silvery light erupted from Kaiver with the sound of clanking metal ringing out from all the gunfire of the turrets. Kaiver was suddenly standing on a weapons platform. Two enormous rocket launchers were perched on either side of a long, thick double-barreled cannon. Smaller chainguns were perched just underneath the main cannons.

“Take this, you feathered fucker!” roared the Viperion. He pulled the triggers. Rockets burst from their launchers, the cannons sprang to life and the guns rattled off heated bullets. Valdin’s form screamed it absorbed most of the fire but at the same time, the explosions slammed into Hal-Seth, catching him in the flurry of fire and destruction. Kaiver kept the fire going, his magic constantly maintaining the ammunition stores even as the many lives that he had stockpiled started dropping rapidly.

“Now!” Solholme cried. “Out of the way, Warson!”

Kaiver let a few more seconds of sustained fire pepper Hal-Seth and Valdin before he jumped off the platform. Solholme thrust her palms forward. The enormous ball of blue flame that had grown to the size of a small vehicle launched forward, melting Kaiver’s platform, cutting through the ground and charging forward like a fiery boulder. It cleaved right through the remaining mutants until it collided with the downed Hal-Seth.

A scream erupted from the Champion. Blue flames exploded from the impact, blasting outwards with enough force that it blew the warehouse clear off its foundations and send fiery metal wreathed in blue flames out in all directions. Kaiver erected a metal barrier in front of him and Solholme to protect them from the barrage. When he turned to check on Harm, the Chronomancer was gone.

Harm stepped into the Machine. Amidst the golden realm of the God of Time, the universe stood still. Around him were scenes from other timelines. One where he had failed to save both Kaiver and Solholme, having to fight a weakened Hal-Seth by himself. Another where he saved Kaiver but Hal-Seth had failed to enact his spell. There was one where he favored Solholme and they confronted Adralamech in his Burning Throne. Others flashed before his eyes; events that could and would have been.

But he could not let that happen.

“In a world were time is fractured,” he uttered, holding out his paw in front of him. “There can be no moment of doubt, no moment of indecision or uncertainty.” His fingers closed into a fist. “This world is already broken enough. I cannot allow it to be fractured any more.”

He closed his eyes, peering into the futures of those timelines. The silence of the Sunless Lands, an ending where everything fell into obscurity and the Phoenix race died and faded into nothingness. The prosperous warm waters of a day spa surrounded by red leaves. The brilliant, albeit fleeting colors of a life with a rough but loving man.

And yet, above them all, he chose this future.

“You all agree,” he whispered. “This is how this story ends.”

From the reaches of Time, the other version of him all reached through the Machine, sacrificing their endings, their realities, to form a singularity. Together, they stepped into the Machine, tearing holes through their timelines to cross into his.

“No matter the future, no matter how happy we may be, this has to be the one that survives the singularity,” he announced. “Not for us, not for Kaiver, Solholme or even Hal-Seth.”

“But for Tower Thirteen,” they all agreed.

Then, as one, he tore a tear through the Machine, brilliant blue flames flaring out at him as if the gates of the underworld had sprung open trying to stop him from committing the ultimate atrocity; the utter destruction of entire timelines into a singular point.

And yet, unperturbed, he stepped into the blue flames, Timekeeper at the ready.

Harm Chronos, the Destroyer of Time, charged into the blue flames, slashing at Hal-Seth from behind. The force of the blow threw the Champion of Fire six feet into the air. Hal-Seth’s pure, white flames began to heal him. Solholme’s searing blue flames began to eat away at the white-furred Wulfun but Harm simply slipped right back into the Machine before the flames could damage him too much. As he stepped through, he held up a paw. He slapped the palm of another one of his instances from a timeline which was dark and missing the Phoenixes’ flames and warmth.

That instance charged right through the tear his had just made, lunging at Hal-Seth and cutting through him with such force that Hal-Seth was flung another eight feet higher. Again, like the prime timeline Harm, this instance stepped back into the machine and tagged another instance. But the moment his feet touched the machine, that timeline was eradicated. This Harm faded into a flurry of tiny, golden stars as his timeline merged with the prime. These stars flooded into the Timekeeper of the next Harm charging through the Machine.

“What are you doing!?”

He paused a moment, glancing off to his right, opposite to Haamiah’s throne. There, the very space of the Machine had burned away to be replaced by the charred landscape of the Burning Throne. Adramalech sat tortured and pinned by his own guilt, unmoving but still capable of tearing rifts through time and space into the realms of other gods.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he responded, turning his gaze away from the God of Fire. “I’m buying us time. I’m making this right.”

Another Harm charged through the tear, flinging Hal-Seth higher and again, passing the buck to the next instance. With the combined force of two timelines, he was able to flung Hal-Seth further into the air, now keeping the burning Champion suspended twenty-feet into the air. The instance from the ashes stepped back into the Machine, briefly glancing at the happiness he had with Kaiver before fading into the blade of the next instance.

“You are sacrificing entire timelines in favor of one where you simply bring us back to where we once were! The Molting Disease will have no cure! Hal-Seth will still be trapped! This will all be meaningless!”

The fourth Harm charged through, this time coming in from above Hal-Seth and flinging him back downwards. The day spa of covered in red leaves faded from existence as the might of three timelines came crashing down upon Hal-Seth.

“You’re thinking too small, Adra,” Harm responded with a small smile. “You don’t see what Hal-Seth is.”

The God of Fire paused. “What…? What are you planning?”

“He is a singularity,” he explained, gazing off into the Machine. Through the twisting cogs, he saw the possibilities, the different endings and the different stories start to fade away, merging into his golden sword.

Over and over again, each Destroyer passed on their power to one another, sacrificing their timelines to form a singularity that was encompassed into Timekeeper. Hal-Seth was sliced over and over again with increasing force, bouncing back and forth with increasing velocity and speed as Harm emerged from the Machine over and over again. To a stunned Kaiver and Solholme, it was like a single Wulfun was spinning around the beaten, burned and bleeding Champion over and over again, keeping Hal-Seth permanently suspended thirty feet in the air.

Hal-Seth’s screams never ceased.

“This isn’t about me, Hal-Seth, Solholme, Kaiver or even the Molting Disease. This is about the greater enemy.”

“You…” gasped Adramalech. “You planned this!”

“I don’t have plans. I just make people think I do.” He leveled his gaze at the God of Fire, Haamiah hovering in a golden throne just over his shoulder. “Besides. You’re one to judge. You were the one that sent us to Flareclaw in the first place. You made it look like Lumire but you were the one that brought us here with the intention of getting us to destroy your past misdeeds; of ending yet another cycle you found yourself trapped in.”

“And your solution is not delay the cycle’s next iteration.”

“No,” Harm growled, eyes narrowed. “Before we break a wheel we must first keep it from turning. Then all we have to do is take away one part of it and it stops being a circle.”

“This is insane!?” barked the winged deity. “How will this help!?”

He glared at the God of Fire. “Ulerians theory and approach was sound. Hal-Seth was a singularity created by your interference. No matter prior events, no matter the timeline, he was always frozen in time because of what you did. He is a constant. Had he more time, Ulerian would have found Hal-Seth’s true name eventually.”

“But you destroyed that possibility when you destroyed Ulerian.”

Then he turned his back to Adramalech, gazing at the writhing and screaming Champion of Fire while a gentle smile remained on his face. “That’s where you’re wrong. After all, if he is a singularity and exists across all timelines, that means all the versions of me across all Time have access to him. Access to the fragments of his name collected by Ulerian.”

The God of Fire’s eyes widened in realization.

“This… This is a great gamble, Chronos. You have no guarantee that it will all turn out well!”

“That’s why it’s called ‘faith’, Adra,” he responded, pressed his spare paw against his chest. “We just have to believe.”

“But you are sacrificing countless timelines! There are billions of lives in each one and you are using them all for this one gambit! You were happy in many of them!”

“My happiness is irrelevant.” He turned around as the last of his instances delivered their blow to Hal-Seth. Around him, countless cogs began disappearing from the twisting mechanism of the Machine. Though it was still an endless lattice, it was slightly smaller now. “Time waits for no man,” Harm whispered as the line of Destroyers grew shorter and shorter. “Not even the one destined to destroy it.”

He turned, joining the line. For a moment, he spared a glance at the golden throne sitting in the distance. The God of Time watched impassively, golden eyes fixated on him, unmoving. Harm sneered at the deity.

“Fuck, I hate you.”

A paw rested on his shoulder and he turned. The last instance of him smiled.

“Don’t waste it,” he told himself. All those timelines came flooding into his Timekeeper, the last branching reality filling his blade with a blinding golden light. Even Adramalech was forced to retreat into his fiery realm, forced to contemplate the sacrifice the Destroyer of Time was making to ensure a true and free future.

Harm gripped his weapon tightly and stared into the hole in the Machine in front of him. Hal-Seth, was splayed out in front of him, pressed into the ground but still somehow starting to recover.

Now is the time!

With a roar, Harm charged through the Machine. He emerged back into Incendius, streaking straight downwards like a bolt of golden lightning. Behind him, golden blades came charging out from above Hal-Seth. The Champion of Fire’s eyes widened as he gazed upon the visage of the God of Time behind Chronos just as the portal into the Machine faded.

A dozen golden blades jabbed into the winged Phoenix before Timekeeper plunged right into Hal-Seth’s heart. No scream of agony or pain erupted from Hal-Seth’s beak. Golden runes sprang up around them, magical circles shaped like interlocking cogs and gears appearing all around the two with them at the very center.

Hal-Seth’s pure, white flamed flickered out. Golden crystals grew and sprouted from the Phoenix’s body spreading rapidly. Wherever one of the golden blades bit, crystals sprouted. All the light emanating from Harm’s Timekeeper flooded into the Phoenix, fueling the growth and causing immense, crystals to start forming all around them. One of the crystals shot high into the air, touching the top of the warehouse’s crumbling ceiling. These crystals twisted and curled, forming the six-winged bird of Adramalech. Others swirled and curled almost like living flames around them, lifting Hal-Seth and Harm off the ground.

A throne of gold began to form at the base of the mighty emblem just as the light from Timekeeper faded. Harm pulled his blade free of Hal-Seth, leaping back the Champion’s red eyes watched him with a touch of understanding and sadness in his eyes.

“Why…?” was all Hal-Seth could mutter before the crystals began encasing his throat, twisting his body to be perched onto the throne.

Harm staggered back onto the base of the steps leading up to the twisting, crystal throne. “Your story ended a long time ago, Hal-Seth. This was just your cameo in some supplementary material. Here’s hoping that you’ll find a satisfying conclusion in the sequel.”

There seemed to be a flash of understanding in Hal-Seth’s eyes… before he closed them and succumbed to his fate. The crystals all over his body fused together, forming a single, translucent block that rose up a good three storeys tall. The perfectly golden crystal like a single solid block of topaz had only a single blemish - the Phoenix Champion encased within, rested on the crystal throne, eyes closed and hands against the armrests. Crossfire clattered to the ground, free of Time’s grasp. The blades of Haamiah that has pierced him dissipated into streaks of golden light, returning to the side of the God of Time.

Harm took a step back from his work.

This is the best I can do for you right now, Hal-Seth.

When you next wake up, I hope the world is ready to save you.

The sound of Kaiver and Solholme rushing towards him echoed in the ruins of the warehouse around them. The sandstorm had died around them and with little light left, a near-complete darkness had surrounded them. Solholme raised her hand, producing a small, blue flame that illuminated their path. The golden crystal emitted its own, soft light but not enough to provide illumination for their surroundings.

“You just sealed him away again?” Solholme asked. “We’re back where we started.”

“Give him a break,” Kaiver said. “The guy was fucking unstoppable. You saw him! After all we did, he just shrugged it off!”

“No…” Harm responded, shaking his head. “We could have killed him. He was open. I could have used a Time Bomb to obliterate him.”

Solholme seized his scarf. “Then why didn’t you!? You could have ended this!”

“Because then we would be condemning a man for just trying to be a better person and helping everyone even if his naiveté caused unprecedented consequences.” Harm slapped her hand away. “It wasn’t Hal-Seth’s fault that those that chose to sever their link with Adramalech’s Fire weren’t granted the immortality that he gave the Phoenixes. It wasn’t his fault that Adramalech usurped his work and twisted it to preserve the life of Aurelene. It wasn’t his fault that Aurelene yearned for death and it certainly wasn’t his fault that Adramalech decided that he would do anything, even sacrifice countless lives, to give her peace.”

Harm turned towards the slumbering Hal-Seth. “His only fault is that he believed that he was doing the right thing.” Turning back towards Solholme, he said, “This is the only way I can think of that everyone can get some sort of decent ending.”

“It doesn’t solve anything!” she snapped. “The Molting Disease -”

“Will be cured,” he interrupted. He bent down, picking up a discarded piece of metal. Waving a paw over it, golden words tranced across the surface of shard. Once done, he handed it to Solholme.

Her brown furrowed. “What is this…?”

“The name of the Molting Disease,” he responded.

Her eyes widened in shock. “What? How? It took us nearly ten years just to figure out four characters.”

“There are countless timelines in existence,” Harm then turned towards the crystal. “Across each timeline, there are Solholmes, Kaivers, Hal-Seths and Harm Chronoses. Each of them ran with their own stories and they all had their endings. Some of them were happy. Others… not so happy. But across the timelines, they all found pieces of the Diseases’ True Name. All I did was reach into them, pluck all those pieces and put them together…”

Even though that was a side-effect of my compressing all of their realities into this crystal monument…

“Mate…” concluded Kaiver. “…that’s heavy.”

Harm lowered his gaze and nodded grimly. “It’s not everything. It’ll be enough for you to clear the Molting Disease.”

Solholme regarded him curiously. “What do you mean ‘it’s not everything’? Why are you withholding information?”

He gave her a piercing stare. “Because you’re still consumed by hatred and regret. If I give you his whole name, you’ll use it to kill him or worse. All I’ve given you is the part about the Molting Disease. That’s all you’ll need.”

She scowled at him but that scowl turned into a begrudging smile. “How quaint. You know me so well.”

With a gentle smile, he turned to her, “I told you once that I was a teacher, didn’t I?”

“What of it?” she spat.

“Take this as a lesson, Edith. For the past fifty years, you’ve worked to finding Hal-Seth’s true name and now it’s changed because he woke up for a few hours. All that work was for nothing.” He stepped forward and rested his paw on her shoulder. “Look past your vendetta. You hated Hal-Seth for his betrayal. Don’t let that define you. You once said you began this endeavor to make up for that moment of hesitation that eventually led to the Molting Disease.”

He pointed at the small sheet of metal. “So there you have it. The key to curing the disease.” Then he hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “And the opportunity to leave behind the most painful part of that experience. Close this chapter of your life. Move on.”

Harm let out a soft half-huff, half-laugh. He strode past the two, emerging into the storm and reaching down at the forgotten Phoenix egg that lay just against one of Kaiver’s now silent turrets. Solholme’s eyes softened for a moment before hardening like crystallize fire as Harm held the egg preciously in his paws. Turning he held it out towards her. “Learn to love again and raise your child without the shadow of hatred. One day, she’s going to want to know the name of her father. You might just grow a pair and wake him up. Or who knows? Maybe it’ll be your dying wish to use his name to wake him up so that she will know him.”

Solholme’s beak twisted into a sneer but she nevertheless tucked the piece of metal with the Molting Disease’s true name under her armpit and held out her hands for the egg.

He shrugged absently as he handed the precious package to her. “For the record, whatever Valdin and Ulerian were working on wouldn’t have been enough.” He placed a paw against the crystal of time. “The Illuminus Weizar encompasses almost everything in creation, giving everything a name. One of the things it does not grant power over, however, is Time. At some point, they would have hit an insurmountable roadblock. A missing phrase. Something about the name that doesn’t make sense.”

“Because it was the God of Time’s power that sealed him away,” Solholme concluded. She sneered at herself. “I hadn’t considered that.” Then her eyes switched to him. “What makes this any different? You’re a Chronomancer. You use Time and sealed him in Time.”

There, Harm gave her a small smile. “That’s because Hal-Seth wanted the Disease cured as well. It’s become part of his definition. Like I said, I’ve given the part of his true name that’s related to the Disease. Nothing else. That should be enough.”

“And if it isn’t?” Kaiver asked.

Harm then turned towards the crystal. “Well… Then I guess we’ll have to wake him up again.” He then nodded towards Solholme and the egg she was clutching. “And by then, I hope he wakes up to a much better world. Until then, we can do what we can to prepare it.”

He turned towards Kaiver with a slight grin.

“So how about we brighten up this world of ours with a date, big guy?”

Kaiver’s eyes widened and a light blush touched his cheeks. “Wait! What?”

Harm elbowed his gut lightly. “Come on. If you’re worried about outliving me you have…” He grabbed Kaiver’s right arm, twisting it to see the display on it. “56 lives right now. Considering Viperions live about 80 years on average, that means you’ve technically got 4,480 years to live. Unless you lose some of those lives trying to keep up with my lovemaking.” He winked at Kaiver, grinning lewdly. “Chronomancers can go all night long after all.”

The Viperion offered a shaky grin. “Damn… Well…”

Solholme rolled her eyes and groaned loudly. “Can we at least get out of the sandstorm first before you keep flirting?”

High above them, bright lights streaked through the storm. The rescue ships had arrived.

Harm smiled as the ships’ shields extended to block them from the storm.

Kaiver’s meaty arm rested around his shoulder, pulling him close. “You serious about dating, mate? I ain’t special like you…”

“I’ve looked into an infinite number of realities,” Harm responded, patting Kaiver’s chest lightly. “You’re pretty damn special in all of them.”

“Now you’re making me blush!” Kaiver laughed heartily, rubbing the back of his neck. “Was I good in any of them?”

“How about we all find out together?” Harm stepped out in front of the two, turning to face them with a bright smile. “After all…”

He held out his paws to both Edith Solholme, the Phoenix formerly known as Jubifyre that had spent her time since the War of the Wings trying to atone for her sins and Kaiver Warson, the innocent security offer that had found himself caught in a fight for survival against corrupted religious zealots, insane mutants and the Champion of Fire.

“… Time waits for no man.”

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** Sometimes you have to burn yourself to the ground before you can rise like a phoenix from the ashes.**

- Jens Lekman

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The Phoenix Uprising: Flames for the Broken Tower

The Phoenix Uprising

The Flareclaw Research Facility was dedicated to the curing of the Molting Disease, a strange malediction that affects only Avios which causes their feathers to fall out. Though far from fatal, the loss of one’s feathers is still met with much stigma even today despite modern prosthetics and illusionary magic. The facility was headed by one Edith Solholme, a celebrated Incendian prodigy that managed to find education in Haven. Head of security was Kaiver Warson and under Professor Solhome were lead theologist Paradin Ulerian and geneticist Athuras Valdin.

It was their hope to identify the true name of the Molting Disease in the Illuminus Weizar and then write a spell into the very genetics of every Avios to render them immune to the disease. The research showed promise and after eight years of work, they had discovered four characters in the name. This was all in Doctor Ulerian’s field, however, and though Doctor Valdin could perform as much preparation as he could, he had yet to make any actual progress.

Flareclaw had sent out a distress call for evacuation. However, this call was fabricated by either Ulerian or Valdin, it is not clear which. It appeared that Valdin had been growing impatient and had reached out to local Wyrmrider Clans for test subjects. They had been smuggling captured slaves from the Sunless Lands to him which he performed illegal experimentation upon.

His research was based upon the discovery of a fertilized but inert Phoenix Egg buried within the mountains surrounding the facility. He had scanned the DNA of the egg and attempted to fuse this DNA with that of normal Avios and people in general. His hope appeared to create a new generation of Phoenixes that could be immune to the Molting Disease.

As he reached the completion of his research, however, the Wyrmriders came to attack and collect on his debt. That was when the distress call was sent out. Myself and Templar Valkyrie were the intended targets for the call. Through falsified credentials, we were led to believe that His Holiness, the Propheticus Primoris had forwarded the call to us and ordered us to investigate the situation. When we arrived, the facility had already been attacked twice by the Wyrmriders.

Professor Solholme had most of the situation under control by the time we arrived. At the time, we were unaware of Valdin’s machinations. However, the Wyrmriders soon attacked in full force, deploying four Slaughterships and a Wyrmroost vessel. While we were able to get a distress call out and two local destroyers were able to arrive eventually, there was a hard-fought siege. Doctor Ulerian grew desperate to protect his research and attempted to use what little of the Molting Disease he had discovered to create a weapon for him to use against the Wyrmriders. This led to the grotesque mutation of those working under him into what he considered his ‘disciples’. The power of a True Name - even if it is partial - is incredibly powerful. They were driven mad by the transformation and had to be eliminated.

With the help of Professor Solholme, we were able to repel the Wyrmriders and eventually confront Doctor Valdin. At the time, he had completed his research and developed a genetic monstrosity that had fused the DNA of Phoenix and countless other researchers into an abomination that he called the ‘next stage of evolution’ for the Avios race. He genuinely believed that the Molting Disease was not a curse but, in fact, the next evolutionary step for all Avios and his abomination would inflict every Avios with the disease and then ‘evolve’ every one infected.

Professor Solholme sacrificed herself valiantly against the abomination while Aria evacuated the civilians. What research we could salvage was retrieved and then the site sterilized. All survivors have been debriefed. Security officer Kaiver Warson has been reassigned to my retinue for the time being. The area in and around Flareclaw has been declared a biohazard and quarantined off for fear that Valdin’s experiments mixed with Ulerian’s theological magical curse could spread another, more fatal version of the Molting Disease. A quarantine zone has been deployed within a 1.5 mile radius around the site and heavily guarded. The area has been dubbed the Flareclaw Black Site.

Rumors have risen of a large, golden crystal that has formed at the site. I can confirm that his crystal has indeed formed and appears to be the result of the residual affects of Ulerian and Valdin’s misguided attempts to cure the Disease in a hasty matter. Anyone who gets close or even sees the crystal have been known to develop wings from unusual places even within internal organs that can cause severe damage or even death. A containment area has been placed around the crystal to keep it from sight and only those with Omega-level clearance may access it.

On a positive note, one of Professor Solholme’s closest assistants, one Associate Researcher Kylia Suncrest closely worked with the Professor and was across both Ulerian and Valdin’s research. Having been Solholme’ protege, she was able to piece together what Aria and I could recover of the research undertaken in Flareclaw and implement a cure for the Molting Disease within a few weeks of the incident. She correctly deduced that Ulerian’s research delved into the magical properties of the Phoenix race while Valdin’s was more connected to the physical aspects. By combining them and taking what she had learned from Professor Solholme, she was able to develop a cure for the Molting Disease and compress it into a pill. Administered to those suffering from the disease over the course of six weeks of treatment and it could successfully eliminate the disease entirely without dependency on the drug. While the source of the Disease is not known, it is at now treatable. For this, Suncrest has earned her full doctorate and has been given the highest honors on Incendius as well as Haven. She is hailed as a hero and survivor of the ‘Phoenix Uprising’.

It just goes to show that all research and knowledge takes time to be fully understand. We can neither be too hasty nor impatient when we try to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

Similarly, we must show restraint.

Some mysteries are better left buried.