ARC 9 - TURNING POINT


Chapter 69: Inside Out

Perspective: Fire


Peter had banished all the fragmented memories from Graves Manor. The order he had thus established had imbued his imprisoned mind with near-unending stores of energy. He spent most of his time standing out on the balcony, his face only a hair's breadth away from the endless gray. Spying on Claw through his own senses was the only activity left for Peter, so that was what he did.

Claw was currently sitting in the Ender's private quarters, discussing defense plans with her. Claw's senses were crystal clear to Peter, maybe even clearer than they were to Claw. Peter was only an observer and so he had more time to take in every detail, in fact over the course of the discussion he had spotted weaknesses in the defenses long before Claw did. Naturally, Claw or the Ender caught them eventually, but it was a small point of pride for Peter to have caught them first. Occasionally though, small gaps in the defenses slipped by both Claw and the Ender unnoticed.

Just as Peter was about to lament that he was the last person who could get use out of these bits of information, something changed. This was extraordinary, in the mind-prison things only ever changed if Peter was the one to make the changes. Peter disconnected from Claw's senses and looked around. At first look, everything was the same, but then he noticed subtle differences. The railing he leaned against had taken on a different quality. As Peter's fingers touched the metal, he felt irregularities amongst the surface that had been perfectly smooth moments earlier.

Before Peter could think more on why this happened, the endless gray retreated and faded out, leaving behind only pure darkness. The railing in front of Peter disappeared too, and when he turned around the balcony and the manor were gone as well. In their place stood only a white wooden bench with golden decorations. Peter knew this place. He had seen it many times before. Just as he was about to look around for the Lady, his environment shifted again, or rather Peter himself did. It felt like he was rising towards the surface after diving into a deep body of water, only the sensation went in all directions instead of only upwards.

At the same time another figure appeared before Peter, little more than a blurry silhouette. However, the colors made it abundantly clear who this was. A black shape, becoming white near the top with yet blacker eyes staring at Peter. As the moments passed, the shape became clearer, gaining limbs and a set of obsidian armor, before fully taking shape.

"Claw." Peter simply said.

At first Claw didn't react, seemingly overwhelmed. Then, he replied with a similar tone. "Other one."

Peter felt the sensation becoming stronger, he was wrenched outwards before he had any chance to say more to his rogue split personality.


Fire was hit by a wave of impressions, the combined force of all his senses washed over him before settling down and allowing him to get his bearings. He sat at a table in the Ender's private quarters. He knew this already. This was where Claw had sat less than a moment ago.

Something felt different compared before being taken over by Claw. Fire felt full, not physically but metaphysically. His life force was so far beyond what he usually had that it was almost concerning. This must have been the energy the Entity had given Claw to keep him alive.

Before Fire could give the matter more thought, the Ender who sat across the table suddenly jolted to alertness.

"Fire?!" She exclaimed with a mix of emotions.

It wouldn't have taken someone like the Ender to know what had happened. The change in eye color from black to red was more than enough.

Fire addressed her in her own tongue, using her proper name: "Ender, I don't know why I am in control again, but I know it shouldn't be possible. Something happened."

The truce was established the moment the Ender understood the full implications of what Fire had said, no further words were wasted on it. They were both professionals after all.

However, despite this, the Ender found words more slowly than expected. Oh, good. This is about that crush on me she's been nursing, isn't it? Fire wondered, before quickly pushing the notion away, now was not the time to waste any kind of thought on romance, even if it was as indirect as speculating on someone else's affections.

Fire decided to cut things short. "Chances are the Entity is either executing its plan early and released Claw, or something happened to it."

The Ender seemed to have regained her composure. "Now would be a good time to tell me what that plan entails in detail, it's been awfully quiet about that. I assume it told Claw more?"

Fire replied: "You know one half of the plan; the machine will bring most nearby worlds together and collapse them into Nexus. It didn't tell anyone about the second part, because it involves absorbing all sentience in existence."

The Ender was once again dumbstruck, for evidently different reasons.

"So… those promises of conquest were just to bait me in and keep me loyal?"

"Afraid so."

Fire knew the plan from spying on Claw, but of course what he just said could have been a lie to get the Ender to turn on her employer, who may or may not exist anymore. Perhaps that second part was why she didn't question Fire, they both knew there were no other explanations.

Fire began proposing a plan: "Should we inform the rest of leadership?"

The Ender scoffed. "They'll sooner lynch us for treason out of fear than help us." She paused for a moment, then asked: "Do you know if anyone else knows about the true plan? I'd imagine nobody would be happy with that outcome. I'm barely suppressing the thoughts about it because those won't help here."

Digging into his memory, Fire looked for an answer. He knew what Claw saw but not what Claw thought so he had to come to his own conclusions. Dr. Veronica Mercury was an easy one, he had witnessed Claw's latest conversation with her, which beyond confirmed her knowledge.

"Dr. Mercury."

The Ender shook her head. "Not it, she'd sabotage the machine to prevent the plan from working but she can't go against the Entity in any way."

There was something else, an unfamiliar memory. A shift in the ambient magic field. The feeling was soon joined by pictures and sounds. Fire had seen them before through Claw's senses. Dr. Mercury standing straight ahead, in her personal laboratory. They had just discussed a way to harm Shadow. That was when Claw must have felt that shift. Fire hadn't had full access to Claw's sense for energy at that point, so he missed it back then. Was Claw helping him? It didn't matter now, the nature of the shift rang a bell…

"Freak."

"What!" The Ender exclaimed. "He knows?"

Fire said: "He at least knows that the crystals can be used to interact with the Entity in some way. He'd have to have gotten help from somewhere though, he wouldn't be able to channel the magic needed on his own."

No further words needed to be said, they both knew that Freak was exactly the type to seek vengeance on his employer once he found out he had been lied to. He'd probably do more than that, attempt a power grab for himself. Both Fire and the Ender knew that, even compared to effective multiversal annihilation, having a phantom of fear in charge was only marginally better.

In what was perhaps an impulsive action, the Ender reached across the table to take hold of Fire's hand. Moments later both of them disappeared from the room, quickly traversing the Tower, going ever upwards until they reached the Entity's throne room. In a shower of purple particles, they appeared only mere meters away from the throne.

The throne room was far from its usual orderly state. Blood was splattered across the floor, large claw marks covered the obsidian tiles. It was clear a fight had taken place. However, there were no corpses, not of assailants or defenders. On the throne sat the Entity in its usual, stiff, and passive pose. Though, something about it clearly didn't add up. What sat on the throne clearly looked like the Entity, but it lacked its presence, the oppressive feeling of being faced with a cosmic force made person.

Even without the knowledge that something was up, it was easy to see that someone was trying to impersonate the Entity, and with what Fire knew, it was clear who it was.

The Ender screeched: "Freak, you backstabbing phantom! You should have left it at simply killing the Entity!"

The Entity's form flickered out and revealed what was beneath, a very self-satisfied Freak, body rippling with absorbed fear.

"Oh, no. You figured it out! But you're a tiny bit too late. Entity's out and this handy dimensional scar is positively leaking power. Won't be long until this entire world's mine!"

The Ender wasted no further time and attacked, charging straight at Freak. The phantom's right hand shot forward and caught the Ender in the chest, easily shredding through her obsidian armor and any tissue below. His other hand followed and unceremoniously beheaded his assailant.

Fire was stunned for a short moment by the sudden display of power, fighting Freak now would be suicide and Fire had no intention of joining the Ender. His eyes darted around the room, looking for any way to escape this mess.

Freak didn't attack Fire, he only eyed him lazily. Until suddenly he seemed to realize something.

"Wait a second, you're not Claw, you're Fire!"

But in the time it had taken Freak to notice, Fire had already moved half-way across the room to a large upward spiral staircase. Fire looked inward and channeled the absolutely massive reserves of life force he now had. The energy surged through his arm and into his palm, erupting as a jet of flame, then turning into a fireball that hit Freak square-on. Fire knew better than to assume that this had any effect on Freak in his current state, but at the very least the smoke would help obscure his escape.

Fire darted up the staircase, rising ever higher, taking several steps at once. He heard the scratching of claws on obsidian below him and threw another fireball. A few dozen long paces later Fire found himself in an observatory of some kind.

A glass dome extended above Fire, some panes not exactly glass but windows to other places in Nexus. Fire completely disregarded the otherwise breathtaking view and released a burst of energy outwards from his entire body. An explosion rocked the room and the dome shattered, the shards melting and then evaporating from the heat.

The scratching sounds were close now, he could hear Freak mutter to himself: "Gah, I really didn't think this through."

There was nowhere to go, the only way out was down the staircase again. Unless…

Fire took off at a full sprint, running towards the edge of the platform. Once he reached the ledge, he extended the claws on his feet to gain more traction, then he flung himself forward. For a moment it felt like he would continue forward on his trajectory, a look behind him revealed Freak just cresting the top of the staircase, but then gravity decided to enact its influence. Fire accelerated downwards, out of Freak's reach and towards the ground.

Fire once again channeled his life force, this time into something more complex than a simple fireball. The spell was of his own creation, but he never had this much life force at his disposal to test it so all he had to show for its effectiveness were some calculations he made centuries ago, back in Rockhaven.

I really hope this works.

A massive surge of energy shot towards Fire's upper back. Tongues of flame began licking the inside of the obsidian chestplate, quickly gaining in intensity. Then, with the sound of glass breaking, two flames burst forth from Fire's shoulder blades, shattering his obsidian chestplate and incinerating the padded clothing he had worn underneath. As Fire pushed more energy into the spell, the flames changed their shape, erupting as a pair of giant flaming wings. Fire felt his descent slow, then came to a halt completely.

"Haha!" He shouted.

Now in full control of his flight, Fire continued his descent towards the Tower's base, swiftly avoiding any offshoots that were in his path. He had to keep himself from pirouetting and looping his way downwards, as powerful as he felt, he knew better than to succumb to hubris.

Almost at the bottom, Fire readied another spell, this time concentrating energy towards his hands. If he couldn't harm Freak, he could at least cripple the Tower's operations and slow him down that way. Tightly packed orbs of flame shot from his palms and exploded with force when they impacted the warehouses and generators scattered throughout the Tower's surroundings. Several more explosions followed, he evidently hit something volatile.

With the damage done, Fire picked up speed and soared up high again. His next goal was the Shelter. He needed to re-establish contact with the rebellion and more importantly with his sister. Another burst of magic and Fire accelerated forward, wreathing himself in flames as he did.

It felt good to be in control again.