As the waves of power coming from the massive tree became stronger and stronger, we spread our wings, covering Rai and Sigmir beneath them. In unity, we were able to shift the burden away, the differing affinities of our individual parts coming to the fore, both sides necessary to withstand the power flowing around us. If not for our position in the centre of the effect, allowing us to channel the power towards the path it wanted to take anyway and direct it outwards, we wouldn’t have been able to withstand it, even if we worked together.

But in the eye of the storm, the winds were the calmest.

And yet, even the calm wind in the eye of the storm was only calm in comparison to the galeforce winds outside, where the powers of Life and Death, as well as the powers of the Moon and Sun, were causing havoc.

We could feel that some of the power of Life was drained away, taken in by Adra who was still holding onto the roots of the tree. But with her actions, the balance of power was broken and all the power contained in the tree was gushing out. It was too much for us to bear, the power we had to handle too varied to diverse for us to withstand.

“We need to disperse some of the power,” one part of us decided, as the strain on our wings intensified. Reaching out, that part managed to snag some of the unleashed power, barely managing to take control.

Remembering the nearby receptacle, prepared to contain the power of the Moon, we channelled the Death we had just grabbed, pushing it into the Moon and trying to bind it there. The power of the Moon had been cleansed of the Darkness and Cold of the Void, leaving it somewhat empty, ripe to be filled anew.

With the power of Death flowing past us, no longer battering against our defences, we could relax a little. The power of Life was still trying to corrupt us, to infuse us with its primal, savage needs but in comparison, it was gentle. It was destructive, but not directly, it was a corruptive influence that would infect a being, turning it into something that would only seek to proliferate and replace others with their own lineage.

On the other hand, the power of the Sun was more destructive, the burning light enough to ignite flames here and there and even burn through the protective Shadows we had summoned to allow our wings to withstand the bombardment.

Pain coursed through our being, as more and more of the burning light of the sun lit up the night.

In comparison, the light of the Moon was more akin to the primal force of Life, spreading, infecting and inducing insanity where it went. Most of it was bound in the pond, getting influenced and changed by the pure, cleansing power of Death we channelled into it, becoming something more. What, neither of our halves knew but both of our halves were curious, fascinated by what we were creating.

We were about to buckle when some of the power battering us started to flow away, getting absorbed somewhere. Sadly, neither of our parts had the mental wherewithal to follow that trickle of power, even as it turned into a stream. We had more important things to focus on, namely, how to survive.

As the seconds trickled by, it felt like hours to us. Fatigue, both physical and mental, accumulated, our reserves quickly draining away as the stress of pushing against the increasingly powerful waves of Astral Power from the ancient tree took its toll.

A part of our mind was linked into the Astral, busily taking in power, only for the power to be vented back out in a desperate attempt to keep our companions alive. Our whole reality started to shrink, the focus narrowing until there was nothing in our minds, nothing but the waves of power we had to withstand and the Astral River that gave us the power to do so.

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Finally, there was a massive, crushing wave and it took everything we had to withstand it. Our body was battered and our united mind exhausted, to the point that the individual parts had almost entirely faded, merged and blended, to the point that it wasn’t an Us any longer, but an I.

We desperately drew in fresh Astral Power to prepare for the next wave, but there was just nothing. Only small, insignificant ripples in the Astral River, no more waves of power that threatened to drown us.

As relief flooded through our system, our individual identities made a push to assert themselves. With a desperate push, we moved away from each other and I staggered to the ground, my mind spinning.

A pair of strong arms stopped my tumble, cradling me carefully and a familiar scent entered my nose.

“Thanks, love,” I whispered, desperately clinging to my consciousness, even as my body wanted to shut down. We were, quite literally, not out of the woods yet and I couldn’t allow myself to fall unconscious.

With nothing but strength of will, I managed to dredge up a small amount of stamina from the depth of my body, catching a second, or maybe third, wind. There were quite a few blue notices, but I simply ignored them, as there were more important matters to deal with. Nearby, Lenore had already passed out after Ylva had caught her, cradling her in a canine embrace. The sight brought a grin to my face and I wanted nothing more than snuggle up to Sigmir and sleep for a week, but later.

Looking around, I was flabbergasted at the sight. In the distance, dawn was breaking, bathing the world in a dim, hazy glow, but around us, things were incredibly strange. The massive tree we had approached was mostly gone, leaving behind a withered, crippled husk, looking as if it had decayed rapidly, parts of it broken, other parts simply disappeared without a trace. Adra was kneeling near the point where she had stood before, Rai holding her shoulders, keeping her from keeling over.

The small pond next to us, where they had gathered the distilled Moonlight, was gone too. Instead of the clear, shimmering water, there was an ashen-grey crystal, roughly the size of my fist. Even from a few metres of distance, I could feel the power dwelling within it, enough to make me shiver despite myself. There was enough power there to move a mountain. Or at least, to bring Death to everything on a mountain.

Intrigued, I reached out, hissing in pain when I touched the crystal. Just touching it was painful, my affinity for Death-Magic was too little to let me handle it without trouble. I didn’t have the Astral Power to enclose it in Ice, so I could only grit my teeth and lose almost ten percent of my total health in the process of storing the crystal in my magic bag. But there was no way I’d leave such a potent artefact and source of power just lying around, not if it was right there for the picking.

“Where’s Jenn?” I asked Sigmir after picking up the crystal. The added strain and the pain turned my voice into little more than a hoarse whisper.

“After everything was over, she was gone,” SIgmir shrugged, her voice quite unconcerned.

“Oh,” I could only mumble in response, realising that I hadn’t even tried to protect her. But then, I had barely managed to protect Sigmir and Rai, so if I had, it might have doomed us all.

Letting out a sigh, I turned my focus outwards, towards the forest around us. It, too, had changed, almost as distinctly as the ancient tree in its middle. Only where the ancient tree had withered and lost all the power it had gathered over years, maybe even centuries, the forest had been inundated with power, mutating and changing everything.

Countless trees had grown taller, some of them had turned mobile while others had been set ablaze by the violent power of the sun.

“We need to run,” I ordered as a sudden realisation made my face turn even paler if that was even possible. If the trees had been inundated by the Sun, some of them would have burned, but a lot would probably become some sort of Wood and Sun elemental, a rather frightening combination as it should synergise quite well. And if that happened, they would become empowered with the day, making our flight nigh impossible.

Hearing my words, Rai picked up Adra, who was still out of it from the massive amount of power she had ingested, while Sigmir placed me on Ylva’s back and picked up Lenore.

Clinging on the Ylva’s back, I drifted in and out of consciousness, as the others ran through the forest. Finally, I couldn’t hold on any longer and passed out.