The Arcanist’s soul shuddered, but I could see that he was running out, and the pressure of my growing soul was suppressing his own. I felt I could almost reach out and bend his soul to my purpose if given enough time.
I had no idea that a higher soul power could be used to almost forcibly compel someone, but looking back now, this should have been obvious. I had only ignored this truth because I had never even considered doing something like this to someone before.
"I... I don’t..."
"Yes, you do. You’ve carried it with you for centuries. I can barely see the shape of it. It is the first thing that set you on this path you have chosen, and you’ve buried it so deep that you thought you’d forgotten it. But it’s still there, and I want to know."
His soul pulsed again, growing increasingly weaker, even as mine seemed to grow stronger, and I only had to wait for him to break... It did not take long.
"...Elara."
I felt his soul shudder at that name; this was the core of who he was, something he hid from himself. "Who was she?"
"She was... my sister. She was also a mage, but was... better than me. By the gods, she was stronger and smarter. Perhaps, she would have made a better Arcanist than I ever was, but she hated the Conclave and would not let me become a Mage. I killed her in the night, in her bed, using an axe, a damned mortal tool to kill a genius mage. I knew it was necessary, don’t you see? She would have held me back from my glory. How could I remain beside the pathetic losers who think that..."
"Enough."
I looked at him, at the ruin of the man who had killed his own sister for power, who had climbed to the heights of Arcanistry on a foundation of bones, and I wondered to myself, why it was so easy to inflict pain on others, but fear that same pain being inflicted on yourself.
"I’m not going to kill you, as you’re already dying. The tribulation, at least, took this burden away from me, for it has already judged you, and it found you wanting. Your soul will be shattered, and your body will be ash. There’s nothing left to kill."
"Then... why are you still here?"
"Good question," I said as I stood up. The silver flame around my hand faded before I replied to him, "Because I will no longer flee from my purpose, and I will also lay my judgement."
I pause for a moment, knowing the next set of words I would say would shape my future as I pushed forward, because this is what I would become.
"I want you to know that I saw you, the depths of you. I saw the shape of the fear that drove you, and the actions you took because of that fear, and for this I judge you, not for what you did... I have no control over that. I judge you for what you chose not to become. You had a thousand years of life to be a protector, and you chose to be a parasite. The heavens do not care about the future, but I do, and I shall be the heavens that judge that future."
Inside me, I felt a new lightning law take shape, even as my status screen vibrated, but I did not check it for now, and I turned away from the dying Arcanist.
The portal of blood was still pouring a waterfall of innocent blood out of its depths, and they were still rising into the darkness above, despite the battle that had taken place here.
"Stay with me," the Arcanist whispered, his voice almost too faint to hear, and I stopped.
"Please," he said. "I don’t want to die alone."
I did not turn around, even though I knew that this was the last wish of a dying legend. I could become an Arcanist at sixteen, but this made me understand the struggles and trials that would be needed to reach this level, but that did not make me pity him; it just made me realize how so much potential was wasted.
As I walked away, I replied to the dying man.
"Then you should have made different choices."
Behind me, the Arcanist’s soul pulsed one final time, and then it was still. That pulse was the sound of a life ending, a life that had stretched across centuries, was as quiet as the sound of a candle being blown out.
The fox on my shoulder stirred, and I felt its question through the bond.
"Tell me," I said. "How do you think he died? Was it in pain? No, that was there. I also felt his fear, but in the end, was there regret?"
The fox was silent for a moment. Then it spoke, in Mel’s voice, soft and small.
"Alone."
My eyes widened a bit, and I nodded.
"Yes. Alone."
A thought occurred to me, and I glanced at the fox. My voice when I had been speaking to the Arcanist held an allure that I knew I did not have. I remembered the moment I had rebuked the Arcanist, and the entire hall had trembled,
"You can manipulate sound?" I asked the fox, and it blinked at me, and then grinned, before replying to me in the voice of the dead Arcanist. "Sure can do... cur."
I shuddered, "We will talk about all this in the future, believe me."
I walked toward the portal of blood, and with my enhanced soul and the silence in the hall now with everyone here dead, I could properly hear the screams of the innocent, and the sound was like the weight of the world pressing down on my shoulders, but I did not slow my steps.
Instead of imprisoning myself at the top of the Caelith, enduring this innocent blood pouring down on me, I would rather end it at its source, and was there not a portal here before me to take me to my destination?
Inside that place, I may find a Sovereign waiting, but the Jade Oracle was dying, and the Pale Matron would rise, so I could not find it in my heart to fear a Sovereign... if it meant I die a few thousand times, I would kill him.
I reached the portal of blood and wanted to step through... but I could not, as a force pushed me away from it.
Frowning, I exerted more power, but the pressure I could feel on the other side was almost as if I were an ant trying to lift a mountain.
"Okay, that was not going to work."