Iskar knew it was a risk, but it was his only shot. He slid the ring onto his finger, his instincts screaming that Theodore was full of it. But what else was he supposed to do? Stay trapped forever?
He stepped toward the mini-sun. The heat was insane, like standing in an oven. He glanced back. Theodore was watching him with this creepy, unblinking intensity that made his skin crawl. 'This guy is so shady.'
Focusing, Iskar reached out with his will [Absorb].
The second he activated the skill, everything went wrong. Energy, way too much of it, flooded into him. It was like trying to drink from a fire hose. His body shuddered, and his mind was flooded with notifications.
[+10 Spirit]
[+15 Spirit]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
It was too much, too fast. A sharp, tearing pain ripped through him.
[-5 Physical Power].
His own body was starting to break down from the strain.
'Crap. I can't handle this raw.'
Thinking fast, he switched tactics. [Decay]. A wave of purple energy shot from his hand, washing over the sun. The orb flickered and dimmed, its energy weakening. 'Good. Now maybe I can manage it.'
He switched back to [Absorb], and the energy flow was still intense but felt less destructive. Then, the memories hit. Not his memories. A woman's voice, screaming in betrayal.
"RUN... AHHHHH THEO, WHYYY!?? I TRUSTED YOU!"
'He betrayed her…' Iskar realized. These were Althea's final moments.
He tried to pull his hand away, but he was locked in place, a conduit for the sun's power. Another voice, cold and arrogant, answered in his head. "I TOOK WHAT BELONGED TO ME. I'VE BEEN LIVING UNDER YOUR SHADOW FAR TOO LONG!"
Theo's voice.
Suddenly, Iskar's vision went black. The real Theo's voice, not a memory, spoke right behind his physical body. "The ring worked... hahaha..."
The last thing Iskar saw was a broken system message: [Energy Overload. Evol—]
Then, nothing.
.
.
.
He woke up in a weird, orange-lit space. He was floating. Before he could figure it out, a transparent woman launched herself at him, screaming and throwing punches.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!??? WHY DID YOU HELP HIM!"
Iskar's fighter instincts kicked in. He blocked her wild swings, flipped her, and pinned her down. "ALTHEA! Stop!" he yelled.
She struggled, her ghostly form writhing. "HE'S GOING TO KILL US BOTH!"
"Calm down! I didn't help him! He tricked me!" Iskar said, holding her wrists. "I'm stuck in this too."
She finally stopped fighting, her anger dissolving into despair. He let her go. "What is this place?"
"It's my prison," she said, her voice hollow. "The core of the sun. It traps my soul. And now yours too. We can't get out."
Iskar cursed internally. 'I was an idiot. I should've gutted that old man when I had the chance.'
"You couldn't have," Althea said, reading his expression. "Theo is powerful. He played you... hes always been cunning."
Suddenly, the whole orange space began to shake and groan, like it was falling apart.
Althea looked around, stunned. "What...? The energy... it's breaking down!"
.
.
.
.
Back in the Real World
While Iskar's mind was trapped with Althea, his body was still standing there, hand stuck to the sun.
Theodore crept up behind him, a magical dagger in his hand. "Finally," he whispered, a nasty grin on his face. "With your body as a conduit to drain her power, and this dagger to sever the connection at the right moment... all that power will be mine. Althea, the Sun God... they'll all see."
He lunged, aiming to stab Iskar in the back and complete his ritual.
But he forgot one thing: Iskar's bandages, which were now protecting him as his body began to evolve.
As the dagger came down, the bandages glowed with a fierce white light. They unwrapped themselves from Iskar's body and moved like living snakes, wrapping around his form as a shield.
The dagger hit the glowing bandages and—CRACK!—a blast of energy shot back up the blade.
"AAAAAGH! MY HAND!" Theodore screamed, stumbling backward. His hand was just... gone. Vaporized.
The chamber started to shake violently. The miniature sun, now drained and destabilized by Iskar's absorption and decay, began to crack like an egg.
"... the energy is feedbacking!" Theodore gasped, realizing his plan had backfired spectacularly. He raised his remaining hand, and the ring on it glowed, forming a protective bubble around him just as the sun exploded.
The last thing he saw was pure, blinding light.
BOOOOOOM
.
.
.
Iskar and Althea felt the orange space around them warp and twist. It wasn't just shaking anymore; it was collapsing inward, like water swirling down a drain. A powerful, whirling pull tugged at their spectral forms.
A crazy grin spread across Iskar's face. He understood immediately.
"My body," he said, the realization dawning on him with a kind of mad respect for his own relentless ability. "It's still absorbing. Even unconscious, it's not stopping. It's sucking this whole place in."
In all of that, it was also absorbing his soul back into it.
He turned to Althea, who was looking around in a panic as her prison dissolved. "You should come with me."
"I... I can't..." she stammered, the centuries of imprisonment making her hesitate even at the moment of release.
"You know your brother better than I do," Iskar pressed, his voice hard and focused. "And I know you want him dead. So help me find him." He looked her dead in the eye. "I promise you, I'll take his head off."
He meant it. He'd been played, and that was on him. But that didn't mean Theodore got to walk away. Surviving the coming explosion was a problem for future Iskar. Right now, revenge was the only goal that made sense.
The pull became irresistible. Iskar stopped fighting it and let the vortex take him, his form stretching toward the epicenter of the pull.
Althea watched him vanish. She looked around one last time at the crumbling remains of her eternal prison. A new fire, one of pure hatred, ignited in her eyes. She let go of her resistance.
"Find him..." she whispered, and then she too was pulled into the maelstrom.
And soon everything was covered in a blaze blown up.