DYLAN'S POINT OF VIEW
I saw Audrey the way Rhein did.
Not with my eyes alone, but with that unsettling clarity that comes when magic brushes too close to memory. Audrey stood frozen amid the chaos, her gaze locked on Rhein, worry etched deep into her face. Fear, confusion, relief. All of it tangled together.
And yet what caught Audrey off guard, what caught me off guard, was Rhein's smile.
It wasn't cruel. It wasn't careless. It was knowing.
Audrey didn't understand it. She couldn't. From where she stood, Rhein should have been exhausted, broken, or terrified. Instead, Rhein smiled like someone who had already finished the puzzle while the rest of us were still turning the pieces over.
Then the world folded.
Rhein reached for my hand, and I took it without hesitation. The moment our fingers locked, magic surged. A circle bloomed beneath our feet, its symbols igniting one by one, spinning into alignment as if time itself recognized the command.
The Dark Palace vanished.
We were pulled back into the present. The Mnarr Palace reformed around us in a violent rush of sound and motion.
The war was still there.
Steels rang against stones. Shouts echoed through shattered halls. Light and shadow clashed in brilliant, devastating arcs.
But something was wrong.
Time resumed its normal flow and then, abruptly, the magic broke.
One by one, the deore mnarillazas faltered. Their attacks collapsed mid-cast, shadows unraveling into smoke. The meithi mnarill fueling them burned out all at once, drained to nothing.
Silence fell.
Not the peaceful kind but the stunned, disbelieving kind that follows a catastrophe no one expected. Fighters froze where they stood. Allies and enemies alike stared at their empty hands, at spells that refused to answer.
"Rhein…" I breathed.
And then I understood.
The realization hit me so hard I almost laughed.
She hadn't fought them head-on.
She hadn't tried to overpower them.
She'd simply let time do the work—accelerated the depletion of their borrowed meithi mnarill until there was nothing left.
Rhein turned to me, eyes gleaming with unmistakable pride. She tilted her head, lips curling. "Clever, right?" she said lightly. "It was faster to let their meithi mnarill run out than to fight it."
"Impressive," I admitted, unable to hide the awe in my voice.
She stepped closer, grin turning playful. "Do you love me more now?"
I snorted. "I do. You know, Rhein, even if you somehow became stupid, I'd still love you more."
She scoffed. "Rude."
Before anything else could be said, a thunderous voice cut through the silence.
"Surrender now!" the Rah shouted, his command echoing across the ruined palace.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
Then the Deorcanen leader laughed, a harsh, fractured sound filled with defiance.
"That will never happen! The battle is still even. Don't be so certain. This will not end until one of us is lost!"
I tightened my grip on my weapon.
The war was far from over.
RHEIN'S POINT OF VIEW
The pain came suddenly without warning.
It struck my chest like a blade driven straight through bone, sharp enough to steal the air from my lungs. I staggered, my breath tearing apart in my throat as my heart convulsed beneath the pressure. For a heartbeat, I thought it might simply stop.
Then something opened inside me.
I didn't know how to describe it. Only that my awareness plunged inward, past flesh and pulse and fear, into something deeper. I saw it then: the Juelaetornulus Ruihnas. My hwizta mnarill was wrapped around it.
It coiled tight, luminous threads sinking into the crystal's surface as though instinct itself had taken control. The crystal flickered, its glow was unstable like something that had been forced far beyond its limits.
It's weakened.
Perhaps this was the consequence of what I had done earlier. Of bending its power, of accelerating what should never have been hurried. Of forcing time, mnarill, and life to obey me all at once.
I can feel the imbalance now with terrifying clarity.
The hwizta mnarill within me surged—vast, radiant, overwhelming—while the deore mnarill of the death jewel faltered under the pressure. The difference between them widened like a fault line splitting the earth.
Too much light.
Too much power.
"Rhein—" Dylan's voice reached me through the haze. "Let's help them—wait—what's happening to you?!"
I tried to answer him.
I truly did.
But the pain surged again, tearing through me like fire through dry leaves, and my control shattered.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
The scream ripped free from my chest, raw and unrestrained, echoing across the battlefield. My body arched as something ancient and instinctively awakened fully inside me.
RONA'S POINT OF VIEW
The scream silenced everything.
Steel halted mid-swing. Spells collapsed unfinished. Even the air seemed to freeze as every gaze turned toward Rhein.
A whirlpool of smoke was slowly formed around her.
I knew immediately.
There was no doubt.
Rhein's body had become a vessel, drinking in the deore mnarill of every deore mnarillaza still standing.
Inevitably.
Like gravity.
"Justin! Audrey!" I shouted, my voice cutting through the eerie silence. "Put them on now!"
I threw the necklaces with all my strength.
They spun through the air, dark chains glinting against the dying light. Each one was crude, imperfect but powerful beyond measure. Blood-forged artifacts, created from my own veins. From the blood of a hwizta mnarillaza.
Protection. The only thing that could shield them from her grim reaper self.
Justin caught his necklace clumsily and forced it over his head. Audrey nearly dropped hers, hands shaking as panic took hold, but she managed to slip it on just as the pull intensified.
The effect was immediate.
Rhein's mnarill recoiled from them, sliding away as if repelled by an unseen barrier.
I sagged with relief, my knees nearly giving out.
I had prepared for this.
Grandfather Lembo had warned me the very first time he had seen Rhein. He hadn't told me when it would happen. Only that it would.
So I made sure I was ready.
Even if it meant protecting others from my own sister.
DYLAN'S POINT OF VIEW
The deore mnarillazas began to disappear.
They simply... unraveled.
One by one, their forms dissolved, shadows thinning until there was nothing left to hold them together. The stolen mnarill, even their own mnarill that had sustained them was gone, drawn out completely by Rhein.
As the last of them vanished, the sky itself seemed to dim.
Twilight bled across the battlefield, washing the ruins in muted violets and fading gold. The war that had raged so violently moments ago ended not with a final strike but with silence.
A long silence.
"It's… over," someone whispered.
Then another voice broke, louder, trembling with disbelief.
"We won!"
The words crashed into me all at once.
Victory.
Relief.
Exhaustion so deep it hollowed me out.
I turned toward Rhein, heart pounding, and smiled at her.
She smiled back.
For a single, fragile moment, the world felt whole.
Then her expression faltered.
Her eyes fluttered, lashes trembling as if she were struggling to stay present. Slowly... too slowly... her eyelids slid shut.
My breath stopped.
"Rhein…?"
She swayed, her body tipping forward, and in that instant understanding struck me with brutal clarity.
The war had ended.
But the cost had not finished being paid.
And as I moved to catch her, dread flooding my veins, one terrible thought consumed me: This victory might take her away from us...
...forever.