Everything slowed.
The world dimmed to a narrow tunnel of fractured light, the cold seeping deep as the spears of ice lodged within Moss's body held him suspended between breath and oblivion. The sounds of battle faded, replaced by a growing silence that pressed in from all directions. And then, beneath it, the ice, the pain, even the dying thrum of his own pulse. He heard it again.
Thump.Thump.Thump.
The rhythm was ancient, heavy, unrelenting. It was not a heartbeat so much as a world's pulse, the movement of mountains, the shift of stone under pressure. Titan's aether moved inside him, not as a whisper, but as a force that seized his fading consciousness and yanked it upward.
Warmth crashed through him, overwhelming the cold. The ice lodged in his flesh hissed, steam rising where Titan's power surged. His vision bled yellow as if sunlight were being forced into his skull through cracks.
Then the world snapped.
Moss gasped awake, but it wasn't truly him who rose.
He felt his body stand, but his mind remained somewhere behind his eyes, watching. His limbs felt impossibly heavy and impossibly strong all at once. His fingers trembled not from weakness, but from the sheer power trembling through them, struggling to find shape. The yellow aether lines across his left arm flared violently, racing across his shoulder, neck, and parts of his chest, branching like molten stone veins beneath his skin.
His thoughts tried to form words, commands, questions—but none reached his body.
Titan was driving.
The earth rumbled beneath him, answering the rage that was not his, yet flowed through his bones like fire seeking escape.
Ahead, Shiva stopped her next attack mid-motion, her eyes narrowing. She recognized what was happening before anyone else.
"He awakens… but not in balance."
Moss attempted to speak but all that escaped his mouth was a guttural growl. Titan's fury colored every sound, turning breath into a vibration strong enough to crack thin layers of ice at his feet.
Another heartbeat thundered within him. His or Titan's, he couldn't tell.
His hands clenched.
The ground responded.
Long fractures shot outward from under his boots, racing across the frozen lake like lightning. Jagged slabs of ice thrust upward, breaking through the surface as if pushed by great hands below. Titan's essence churned the earth beneath the frozen crust, bending it to his will.
Shiva shifted her stance, weight redistributing with practiced ease. "Control, vessel. You will destroy yourself if you push against aether you cannot yet wield."
But her words found no purchase in Titan's mind, nor in Moss's borrowed limbs.
Moss tried again to force his body to stop, to breathe, to listen. But his thoughts felt muffled beneath the roar of Titan's wrath. The world flickered around him, pieces fading in and out as though he stood between waking and a dream of stone.
His legs moved before he thought to move them.
He lunged.
The impact of his step shattered ice for several meters. Stone erupted around his boots, forming plates of crystalline rock that anchored him like a walking avalanche. His right fist swung toward Shiva in a blow that would have crushed bone and ice alike.
She raised her hand.
An ice barrier spiraled upward just fast enough to catch the strike.
It didn't matter.
Titan's force behind Moss's arm smashed through it, shattering the barrier into a cascade of glittering shards that spiraled wildly into the air.
The watching party cried out.
"MOSS!" Rynne's voice cracked. She tried to run forward, but two Miqote warriors crossed their spears in front of her, forcing her back. Her knees hit the ice, her hands trembling as she watched the impossible display of strength.
Lyra drew a blade in panic. "He's out of control… that's not Moss!"
"No," Serra whispered, eyes wide in analytical dread. "That is Titan."
Dole stepped forward, teeth grit, fire gathering in his palm. But the ground split beneath him as Titan's influence radiated outward, forcing him to stop or be swallowed by the shifting terrain.
Shiva's eyes narrowed. She moved with blinding speed as Moss attacked again, fists slamming the earth, sending pillars of stone surging upward. Each strike echoed like thunder, the sound rolling across the lake.
She leapt over one pillar, slid across another, weaving through the barrage of chaotic power.
"Moss," she said sharply. "Listen. Push against Titan, and you will break."
But Moss couldn't even hear the words anymore. His consciousness felt submerged in a sea of molten stone and wrath. Titan wasn't speaking. Titan was acting, protecting, purging, venting fury through a body too fragile to contain it.
Shiva's expression shifted with sudden understanding.
He is drowning inside his own awakening.
The pillars intensified, rising faster, harder, uncontrolled. One nearly clipped Shiva's side before she conjured a twisting gale of frost to deflect it. Ice spirals rippled outward, coating the stone pillars in thick rime.
Moss roared or was it Titan roaring through him and slammed his foot down.
A quake tore across the lake, lifting entire sheets of ice into the air like broken wings.
Even Shiva paused at that one.
This power… already so raw. If left untamed…
She flicked two fingers sharply.
A massive surge of ice erupted beneath Moss, forming jagged spikes meant to halt his advance without killing him. Titan's reflex took over—Moss's skin hardened, turning the spikes aside as though striking solid granite.
But the stone-skin strained.
Cracks formed along his arms where the power was too intense.
Shiva's face tightened.
He is going to tear himself apart.
She summoned a burst of chilling wind that struck Moss squarely in the chest. The force of it threw him back several meters, ice forming around his arms and legs to restrain him.
He shattered that ice immediately.
But his body was done.
His right knee buckled.
His arm spasmed, yellow aether flickering violently.
His vision, from his mind's eye, went white.
He felt Titan push once more, a final furious surge.
And then everything snapped.
His body collapsed, muscles seizing before going limp. The stone-skin splintered away in fragments. The yellow lines faded into dull embers beneath his skin.
The world went dark again.
Rynne screamed. "MOSS!"
Lyra lunged forward, blade drawn, only to be blocked by Miqote spears. Dole unleashed a roaring Fire II larger than he ever summoned before that blasted across the ground toward Shiva with desperate force.
Shiva raised her hand.
The fire evaporated into a storm of frost.
Her voice carried, clear and absolute.
"Enough. You cannot help him. And if you stay, you will die."
The Miqote tribe closed in, weapons raised. Their footing was sure even on the trembling ice.
Rynne fell to her knees, sobbing, hands clutched at her chest. "Please. Please, don't take him. He needs us... I need him."
Shiva's expression softened, faintly.
"He needs understanding of the power within him. None of you can give that. Only I can. He will live."
Then her eyes sharpened with command.
"Leave."
Dole cursed under his breath but moved to Rynne, helping her up. "He's alive. That means he's too stubborn to die. Come on."
Lyra wiped her eyes aggressively, as if forcing herself not to cry. Serra lingered, gaze fixed on Moss's unmoving body, analyzing even her grief. But even she knew they had no choice.
The party mounted their chocobos slowly.
Rynne looked back every few steps, tears streaking her face.
"Moss," she whispered, voice breaking.
Dole rode ahead, forcing himself into the lead position. He grinned back at her, trying to lift her spirits.
"He's tough," he said. "Too tough for ice to snuff out his flame. Unlike mine..."
But as he turned forward again, his smile faded.
His jaw clenched.
His knuckles tightened on the reins.
And his teeth ground together in helpless fury.
Behind them, as the tribe formed a perimeter, Shiva knelt beside Moss's unconscious form. She placed one hand on his chest, feeling the Titan's aether still smoldering inside him like a dormant volcano.
"So much potential," she murmured to herself. "So much danger."
The wind carried her thoughts away as she lifted him gently with gathered aether.
"I will teach you, stone-heart. I must. For what approaches… you will be needed."
The frozen lake glittered beneath the rising sun as the others vanished into the trees, leaving Moss alone with the Eidolon who would shape the power within him.