The Pendulum Blade lashed out.
Ashar's strike crossed the hut in a flash of red light, fast enough to split stone and bone alike, and it swept through the bodies of the three sisters in a single instant. He felt the impact of the attack and steadied himself immediately afterwards, rebalancing his stance as the red energy crackled around his arm.
Then he looked up.
The three sisters remained seated exactly as before, their hands folded calmly over their laps, each of them wearing the same quiet, inviting smile.
"That can't be possible," Maereth whispered. "Did their bodies heal that quickly?"
The dark red energy around Ashar's arm trembled violently, as though some unseen force had seized hold of the attack itself. The entire hut groaned beneath the pressure. Dust fell from the ceiling beams. Tea cups rattled softly against the wooden floorboards.
And still, the sisters did not move.
Only Sister Seraphelle looked up.
"The purity of your hatred," she said softly. "It is as though you are one of the ancient demons."
The Axiom energy shattered apart in Ashar's hand.
He leapt backwards instantly.
Maereth staggered away at the same time, her instincts screaming at her that something monstrously wrong was taking place here. For the first time since entering the Dream Dimension, Ashar himself looked shaken.
"You are not ordinary Axiom users," Ashar said.
"No," replied Sister Vaelith. "We are servants of the force that allows all things to continue. It has saved many. In time, it will save you also."
The room brightened.
Outside the hut, the winds of the desert began to howl louder and louder. The yellow haze vanished from the sky, replaced by a whirl of burning white light. Ashar immediately sensed the distortion spreading outward through the entire region.
Something was awakening.
Something unlike anything he had ever experienced before.
His Eye opened instinctively.
"Serpent's Wisdom!" he cried. "As above, so below!"
The ability of Serpent's Wisdom allowed Ashar to travel between dimensions. In the weakness of his current body, true traversal was impossible, but he could still use the technique to perceive the pathways by which higher beings crossed between realms. Through the Eye of Sophia, he followed those hidden currents now.
And what he saw made his expression freeze.
Behind the three sisters stood a colossal shape made from golden flame.
A vast burning bird stretched across dimensions themselves, its wings folded around countless worlds like a mother shielding children from the cold. Every heartbeat of every living creature seemed connected to it through threads of light.
Ashar stumbled back a step.
This is impossible, he thought.
No being should possess that much energy.
The creature before him was Sixth Tier, perhaps even higher. Merely standing within its presence filled him with dread, and yet he could not turn away from it.
Ashar and the bird were now standing on a glowing road, around which was an empty expanse, the kind that remained before the start of creation.
"What are you?" Ashar shouted. "What do you want from me?"
The Phoenix opened one burning eye.
Ashar felt every nerve in his body seize.
The sensation was not hostility.
"You carry death inside you," said the Phoenix. "It is a needless sickness."
Ashar steadied himself.
"Why are you speaking to me?" he asked. "Are you trying to save me? Is that why these sisters brought me here?"
The Phoenix remained silent.
"Why not simply kill me?" Ashar continued. "You know what I am. You know that I have no intention of stopping."
"It is not in my nature to end life," said the Phoenix. "In the end, Ashar of the Noctis Mountains, you too shall become one of my followers. But I will not destroy you."
"Your nature?" Ashar smiled coldly. "You are so blinded by your nature that you cannot see its cruelty."
"I know what it means to live. I see it clearly."
"Then how can you defend it?" Ashar said. "I have seen the Higher Realm. We could live in harmony the gods themselves, but instead we are trapped in this miserable reality. Every creature born into existence is condemned to suffering. Hunger. Fear. Loss. Betrayal. Disease. Death. This world is nothing but a stage upon which we labour while another watches from above. So why do I want to change it? Why do I want to save it even where there is no hope?"
The air became heavier.
Outside Ashar's vision, Maereth looked between them all in silence. The hut no longer felt real. It felt as though she stood between two ancient forces that had hated one another since the dawn of existence itself.
Within the vision, Ashar's red eyes narrowed.
"I see your influence now," he said. "You speak exactly like the others."
"The others?"
"The ones who justify the world. The ones who witness endless misery and still insist existence is beautiful."
"And yet here you are," said the Phoenix. "Still alive."
"I remain alive because my purpose is not complete."
"And what is your purpose, Ashar?"
"To free the world from itself."
The Phoenix's burning eye remained fixed upon him.
And then, to Ashar's horror, the great being smiled.
"You are not the first to oppose me," it said.
The silence afterwards felt ancient.
"The missionaries of death have appeared many times throughout history. Men and women who looked upon suffering and concluded that annihilation was mercy. Some sought to destroy kingdoms. Others sought to destroy dimensions. One even attempted to extinguish the stars themselves."
"And were they wrong?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because they mistook despair for wisdom."
Ashar's energy surged violently.
"As we live," he said, "the darkness of evening hangs over us. Do you not see it? The shimmering tears beneath moonlight? Look closer, and you will understand the truth. It is a story of suffering. The beauty of tears—that is the answer to the evening's question."
His body trembled.
The Eye showed him fragments.
Cities burning.
Children dying from plague.
Worlds collapsing into ash.
He saw the sisters, and healers like them, and countless heroes standing amidst ruin century after century, endlessly trying to mend what could never truly be healed.
"How long have you lived?" he asked.
"For as long as life itself has breathed," said the Phoenix. "I have been the force behind its exhale."
The Phoenix spread its wings wider.
Across Ashar's vision passed endless scenes. He saw lovers reuniting upon distant shores; children laughing beneath starlight; old friends embracing amidst the warmth of crowded taverns; mothers holding newborn children against fading twilight.
Ashar looked away angrily.
"What is the purpose of these illusions?" he asked. "Do you believe this will change my mind?"
"No," said the Phoenix. "I will not convince you of anything. Nor will I harm you. But there is one question you must answer honestly."
The space fell still once more.
Ashar narrowed his eyes.
"What question?"
The Phoenix moved forward until it stood directly before him. In its timeless gaze there was neither hatred nor fear.
Only pity.
"When all the killing is over," the Phoenix asked softly, "and the world has finally fallen silent... what will remain of you?"
"That does not matter to me in the slightest."
"When all this is finished," the Phoenix continued, "will you return to the person you once were, and live the life that belonged to him?"
"What?"
A flash of colour passed through Ashar's vision.
He saw himself moving backwards through time, beyond the Dream Dimension, beyond the temple, the forests, the mountains. He moved through the centuries he had lived as the Western Leader.
Then everything vanished.
And he saw a child.
"What is this?"
A young boy slept upon a secluded beach hidden deep within a forest. He woke only because a girl was calling out to him. It was high Summer, and the world around them glowed gold beneath the evening sky.
Ashar stared silently.
"Are these my memories?" he whispered.
"Is this... me?"
Something happened then.
Within the hut, Ashar suddenly collapsed to the ground and screamed.
"Ashar!" Maereth shouted, though for some reason she could not move toward him. Something unseen held her in place.
Within the vision, Ashar felt his body beginning to dissolve beneath burning starlight.