"No, I will stay, Tyreal, until this is over for good." he had said, only minutes prior, the shocked faces of his companions... his friends... they pained him, though he suspected pain would be but a distant memory for him soon, just as the whole of Mount Arreat would be for the rest of the world if what the archangel had said was true. He could imagine it for certain, as he stared at the massive, tainted crystal. The Worldstone pulsed with raw Destruction as the energies of Baal, his soul still embedded deep within the massive thing, slowly corrupted the once holy
"you need not stay, Mortal... even my body will be destroyed in the conflagration that the destruction of the Worldstone will unleash." the Archangel said, his 'wings' writhing about in what might be construed as agitation.
Evern merely shook his head "no... you worked alone in trying to ensure Baal was not released to begin with... it wasn't your fault, even i wouldn't have expected some wastrel to be following the Lord of Terror around."
"Despite his attempt at mollification, the archangel had the decency to look ashamed... though he wondered if the being of Heaven even truly felt in the same way humanity does. Still, he turned to face the Worldstone in silence, accepting the Priest of Rathma as he stood at the entrance to the massive chamber. Tyreal drew his sword, and plunged it into the small bridge out to the worldstone, before kneeling as if in prayer, his tendril-like wings beating back and forth, as the room echoed with strange, incomprehensible speech from the angel...
from seemingly nowhere, lightning struck the raised braiser's , and the Archangel of Justice seemed to glow brighter slowly as he drew some form of energy within himself, not quite mana... but close enough that the senses he had honed for almost two decades could detect it, like a brilliant mirror to the energy within the stone... Evern suspected the archangel radiated it near constantly, but unlike the energy of demons, or mana, he was unused to it's specific color, the way it shifted and melded with world more... seamlessly than either of the other
with little more fanfare, Tyreal stood, his sword having taken in the building energies, and focusing them into a blinding tear of energy, before hurling the sword at the stone, and causing reality to... ripple and warp, like a stone dropped into a pond. It was a profoundly unsettling sight, and he suddenly understood that... perhaps this mere stone was more important than even Tyreal knew... or if he did he did remarkably well to hid his knowledge. It was then the stone began to
as the two energies mixed, polar and complete in their opposition to each other, the stone, incapable of handling the violent reaction they had to each other, began to burst, splintering crystal flying around them, yet never striking him... even now, as they both were about to die, though in Tyreals case it would be fleeting... but even still, The Archangel used his body and wings to shield Evern from the hail of fragmented shards, as he stared ahead at his end, implacable and accepting of his fate as
Tyreal however, had noticed from the very begining of his ritual that there were energies forming in the space between realms, tunneling towards this very room, centering themselves on the unaware Necromancer. A chance to give to this man, this Hero, who had done more for the Great Conflict in the year they had fought the prime evils than his race had in millennia. A chance to give him a rest that he so deserved, instead of a thankless death here in this doomed place. He needed merely shield him with his body until the tunnel manifested fully... he hoped the full might of the Worldstone's blast would hold off until it finished...
it was just as the Worlstone finally shattered fully, the force flinging evern back, in spite of Tyreals attempts to shield him, that the portal formed, a color unfamiliar to Evern as he slipped through the gemlike, viridian hole between realities. The force of the Shattering he had just endured, though only a tiny fraction of it's full might, was still enough to knock the exceptional mortal unconcious as he flew through realms... arriving in a field of green, surrounded by smoke, and a small horde of bewildered