With adrenaline rushing through your veins, you forget all other troubles of your life other than those that are currently in front of you. The deaths of my newfound friends and companions were still weighing heavily on my heart, yet I didn't have space in my mind for any mourning. All of it was already taken by the literally glowing man that was now trying to destroy my body and kill the dark part of my soul that was controlling it.

As the words "Found you" reached Shade's ears, he jumped out of his cover and ran out of the building as fast as possible. I couldn't see what was happening behind us, but we could both hear this loud buzzing and cracking, like a swarm of bees carrying a lit fireplace. Then the busy flock started biting. While the pain avoided me, I could still feel that we were hit by something, and judging by Shade's grunts, it was not a very pleasant experience.

Very quickly, he ran from one building to another. This one could've been a bank. It was hard to say. Half of it was buried under the remains of a different structure. This, unfortunately, also limited Shade's exits. He couldn't go back where we came from, and running out of the wide main entrance and into the street would throw us right into Ifrit's hands. So instead of running, he turned around, determined to face whatever might come after him head-on.

We didn't have to wait for long before the buzzing bees returned. Finally, I could see them for what they really were - many small projectiles made of lightning magic. They flew into the place through the windows and started bouncing all around us. If it wasn't for Shade's incredible control over the Divine Creativity, I'm pretty sure we would've died right there and then. Statistically, it would be impossible for the bullets to miss us, yet the vast majority of them did, despite a few of them still managing to find their mark, leaving behind small burnt patches on Shade's skin.

"Maybe some sort of a plan?" I asked him. His only response was a slap to the side of the head. I felt that. For some reason, the impact somehow shook me away from his eyes. Instead of seeing through them as if I was experiencing some highly advanced virtual reality, I was now sitting in pitch-black darkness with only a flat projection of Shade's vision in front of me. It was exactly like a movie in a cinema.

A few seconds after Shade threw me out of his head, something landed around us. Well... I suppose around us isn't the right word. It was a large and hollow metal orb, which just so happened to fall on top of us with its torn-off side first. Therefore, Shade was now standing inside the sphere, protected from the outside world.

"Where the fuck did that come from?" I asked him, but the response didn't come. However, after some time, I figured it out when I looked closely at the engravings on the orb. It was a massive metal globe. Must've been placed upstairs as a form of decoration and just so happened to fall down at the right time to save us. The powers of Divine Creativity at its finest. Globe ex Machina, if you would.

It soon became clear that this was only a temporary solution. The sphere was, after all, made of metal, which was one detail that Shade's imagination didn't cover. As the lightning attacks hit it, instead of disappearing, they began travelling around the globe and the longer we waited, the more it started to look like a busy highway of tiny yellow lights. It was obvious that our shield was much more of a prison in reality.

Shade didn't panic. Seeing him stay calm in such a situation made me sick. Why couldn't I be like that? Why couldn't I stay level-headed? Heck, I was already dead and only watching what was happening, yet I still felt scared. I hated it. I despised my cowardice.

After a while of deep breathing and concentration, Shade pointed to a specific spot on the globe and whispered to it: "There, you will all meet." The small lightning bolts listened to him. They slowly started turning and changing their original paths so that they would eventually arrive at the precise spot that Shade picked. They were gathering there, more and more until they formed a large glowing yellow ball, which was now sitting in its place, yet vibrating intensely. "Burst!" Shade ordered the magic. The metal globe around us made a horrifying sound as it tore open and a large chunk of it flew out at an incredible speed, enchanted by the gathered sparks, right back at the sender of all that lightning magic. We saw Ifrit catch it. To counteract such a powerful impact, he released a massive burst of air from his shoulders, thanks to one of the books, I assume, but nevertheless, when he dropped the impromptu metal projectile, I saw blood trickling from his palms. The bandages around his right wrist have torn and come off, revealing a fully glowing forearm.

But there was no time to examine him further. I saw one of the books behind his back fly open once again. Since I could see which symbol it wore on its cover, I tried to warn Shade. "Earth magic incoming!" I shouted, but it seemed like he could no longer hear me. We waited for a while for something to happen. Maybe another chunk of rubble would fly at us, or perhaps a smaller earthquake. But to our surprise, we were betrayed by the very globe that protected us. A few parts of it started to disappear, as if the metal from them had poured into different areas. Before Shade could do anything, chains grew out of the metal sphere, wrapped themselves around our arms, and pulled us off the ground. When Shade looked at them more closely, I could see that they were literally interlocked in a loop around each wrist. There was no lock that we could pick to get out. If Shade wanted to be free, he'd have to break the chains.

"I suppose keeping you still will do the trick," I heard Ifrit mutter. When Shade turned to face him, we both noticed that a different book was now open. One that he hadn't used yet. It was floating above his slightly raised hand. Buckets of water were pouring out of its pages, flowing into a tiny ball of clear liquid sitting in Ifrit's palm. Not a single drop spilt. Despite all the magic shoved into that tiny orb, it didn't grow in size, not even a millimetre.

Shade watched the little showcase of water magic for a while before returning to his struggles with the chains. Their length seemed to be perfect. Each was pulling one arm, holding them both tightly with very little room for movement. I could only wait and watch, hoping that this would not be the end. After a while, Shade calmed down, and instead of wrestling with the bindings, he started taking deep breaths, almost as if he was trying to meditate in the middle of all this mess. Ifrit, however, didn't wait for much longer. The book seemed to have poured out all the water it could and so it returned to her kin floating behind Ifrit's back. The man then crouched down and bit and reached as far to the right as he could. It almost seemed like he would throw the tiny orb at us.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Watch out!" I yelled at Shade, even though he couldn't hear me. In the very next moment, Ifrit struck. As he swung his arm, an extremely pressurized beam of water shot out of the little ball in his palm and followed the movement of his hand. It was the longest and sharpest sword I'd ever seen. To this day, I am unsure how far the attack truly reached. It cut through absolutely everything, including all the rubble and buildings nearby. It would've cut through us too if the chains wouldn't give out at the very last moment. When I caught a glance at them, I noticed that they were rusty and worn down, just like the rest of the globe. Who knows if they've always been like that, or if Shade and the Divine Creativity pulled off yet another miracle. Personally, I prefer to believe the latter.

Shade fell to the floor just as the streak of water flew over his head. A loud rumbling could be heard afterwards, as the damage from the attack destabilized all the remnants of the nearby buildings. We, however, didn't see the exact outcome of the spell. After the water cut through the metal sphere, the top part fell down, trapping us underneath itself like a rat under a pot lid. Shade immediately tried to push it away, but the metal was too hot to touch, as I figured out by how he quickly pulled back his arms, accompanied by an instinctual hiss.

For a while, the noise and quakes from the outside continued, but no other attacks were coming our way. Because of that, Shade had a moment to think. He lay down on his back and reached up with both of his arms, as high as the small metal "lid" allowed him. For a moment, everything was quiet. I wondered if it was perhaps because of Shade or if there was simply nothing else left to break. The silence lasted for a few seconds until it was broken by Ifrit.

"No... No! You idiot, stop it! You'll destroy them!" Hearing such true fear and worry in his voice was something I did not expect. My mind couldn't help but wonder what could've caused such a reaction. What exactly would Shade destroy? I found my answer rather soon. At least partially. There was a deafening explosion nearby. Its power threw away the remnants of the metal globe, along with Shade. However, he at least managed to survive the landing in one piece. That was not something our shelter, or perhaps prison, could say. There were only small metal chunks left of it.

Without a moment of rest, Shade got up from the ground and ran outside. Even bigger explosions could be heard in the distance. It was as if the whole city was getting bombarded. When I finally saw the sky, I noticed that my prediction was not too far away from the truth. The giant flaming ball that was hovering high above the city grew in size. It was at least twice as big now, and instead of a few fire waves every once in a while, it was now constantly raining down fireballs the size of a minivan.

"This can't happen. This can't happen!" We heard Ifrit say. He was standing further down the street. Around him, we saw all sorts of magic. A glittering cloud of small ice shards was dancing above him. Large flaming swords, fit only perhaps for the Angelic Marks, were appearing out of nowhere and started forming themselves into several perfectly organized lines. And finally, there was water. It was spewing out of the book and onto the ground like out of a ruptured pipe. However, despite all those scary spells apparently ready to kill, Ifrit didn't seem to be paying us any attention. Instead, he was staring into the sky.

Shade didn't wait for too long. He had to strike now, while our enemy was distracted. But as soon as he made a single step, he froze as if paralyzed. And to be honest, I can't blame him. A gargantuan blue dragon flew out of the icy cloud. It was transparent and seemed to be glowing, even though only faintly. As soon as its head was out, the body soon followed. An incredibly long dragon of unimaginable size was growing out of the cloud of ice magic. It flew high into the sky and started to weave its body over the whole city, protecting it from the fireball rain. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was an enormous creature. Something like that could use a skyscraper as a fork if it wished to. But my amazement did not end there. The flaming blades soon followed the transparent blue beast. They darted off into the sky, where they formed several circles. Bright yellow barriers then appeared in between them, further protecting the remnants of the city from harm. I couldn't help but wonder why though. The buildings were already demolished. What was there left to protect?

After the last of the shields was finished, Ifrit turned around, just enough to see us with his one eye. He then waved his hand, almost as if he wished us goodbye, and all hell broke loose. The small puddle of water that was left on the ground beneath him rose up, higher and higher until it formed a towering wall, comparable to a tsunami. All this mass of liquid came crashing down on us. I couldn't do anything but wait and see how would Shade deal with it. I waited and waited, and the time before it hit us felt like an eternity, even though it was barely even two seconds.

Then suddenly, there was nothing. The massive TV through which I watched Shade's situation disappeared. Confused, I looked around and saw the other half of my soul sitting right next to me in the dark nothingness.

"What happened? Why are you here?!" I practically shouted at him.

"It's over Eddie. You've seen it, right? If that was his true power, there was no way I could beat him." Those few sentences took so much from me. My hopes and desires were all gone. Deep inside, I used to believe that Shade could still win. Now it was clear that my wishes were not coming true. As this realization hit me, those feelings that were taken from me by the adrenaline of battle suddenly came back. I sat down, but it didn't help me at all.

"It's all your fault Eddie, and you know it," Shade started his usual melody.

"I know."

"We wouldn't have had to go through all this mess if it wasn't for you!"

"I know."

"You were so pathetic. You couldn't handle your life? What was there not to handle? Too many fans? Too loving girlfriend? Too ideal friends? You had so much, yet you've thrown it all away!"

"I know."

"And you just had to destroy all this along with you, huh? You're worse than any of the evil villains you've written. At least they had motivation. But you? You just ruined EVERYTHING you've ever created and doomed thousands, no, millions of words to suffering under Ifrit's rule. WHY?! Why couldn't you just die on your own? Why did you have to take everyone with you?! Do you have any idea what you have caused?! Now artists are just gonna be dying at random simply because they weren't born to be gods!!"

I couldn't bear it. My body fell to the side and simply pulled my knees closer to my chest, like an armadillo trying to hide in a shell that was never there, to begin with.

"And even though you've tried to save this world, you fucked up SO much. You could've given your power to ANYONE and it would've been better. You dragged Chester into this. Now he's dead. The reapers who tried to help you? Dead! The innocent people of Sunwalley? Dead! Everstar? Dead!? And you know what the worst part is? There isn't even an afterlife anymore. You quite literally killed them all and doomed them to eternity in this darkness!"

"I know..."

"You know? And you have nothing else to say for yourself?! After all this?!"

"There is nothing I should say. We are dead. We will stay here forever. You screaming and me suffering. Just like it should be. Isn't that what I deserve?"

I could hear Shade inhale as he opened his mouth, but a different voice interrupted him.

"Oh, dear. I assumed I would witness some grieving, maybe even a sea of tears, but this? This is just sad. Do you really plan on tormenting yourself for all eternity?"

That voice was so familiar. Yet instead of relief and happiness that I might not be alone after all, it brought me nothing but worries. I sat up and looked at the uninvited guest. His face was something I never thought I'd see again.

"Jack?"