Tyr groaned in discomfort, he was red and feverish, waving the bleeding stump of an arm about wildly and barely capable of thought. It wouldn't heal, he was made a husk by the power he'd used, and then the power he'd given. A ragged and withered man with patches of hair falling away every time he moved his head, held tight and in place by his father who didn't look much better, though his complexion improved with every second on the 'right' side of the gate.
“What is that?” Daito pointed, he stood next to a grim looking Signe, nervous to even be standing here but she was close enough to the rift that it shouldn't be a problem. 'Shouldn't'. Hastur clucked his tongue, he had made a grave error in releasing such a foul 'weapon', but there had been no other way. He hadn't considered a wholesale global suicide pact to arise from it.
“It's a dimensional anchor.” Hastur replied. “They are attempting to draw the portals close enough forcibly compress the astral dimension.”
“That is really bad!” Gerald added with a startled cry.
“What what will happen then?” Octavian asked, even he didn't know. “Can we stop it?”
“As for stopping it...” Hastur processed the information provided. Even so, he came up short. “That thing is made of deuritium, and it is incredible pure. Given a few weeks, we might be able to send men to saw through it, but you know what deuritium is like. If that rift reaches the end of it's journey, we will all die. Everything will die, both worlds will be forcibly bonded in real space and we'll effectively be standing on a sun when the process completes.”
'Die'. A death that would annihilate even the celestials that ordered their little bubble of reality. First, it would be a conjunction event, and shortly thereafter they'd be bonded, atoms overlapping and forced apart at such velocity as to create the largest mortal-born fusion reaction ever envisioned.
“It'll be quick, though.” Hastur mumbled. It didn't feel like such a bad way to go. Not the way he'd envisioned it at all, but... Well, if everyone was dead, so was his purpose. And he had been about his purpose for so long that seeing an unavoidable end left him a bit conflicted.
Octavian nodded grimly. Deuritium was the only known metal that was complete anathema to magic and mages alike. Only one race was relatively immune to its effects, or at least resistant to its ability to disrupt the flow inside them. It was often forged and depleted for use in shackles that could bind mages and prevent them from casting. Or melted and poured down their throats to make painful contact with the mana cores of particularly vile apostates. A painful death, the worst that humanity had likely ever conceived.
Hastur paused, looking toward the red haired kijin being tended to by a black haired, younger member of his kind. “Kijin are immune to deuritium.”
“...So?” Octavian raised an eyebrow. “You want to give them axes and have them go swing at that thing? It's nearly a meter thick at the chains, they'll never get through it in time.”
“For a primus and so called intellectual...” Hastur hissed quietly, a passing of words only they could hear. “You're rather dull in the head at times. You know that?” Feeling hope blossoming inside of him again turned his mind about. Cold fear and a need to survive by any means necessary, there was a chance the plan would not be disturbed, and he desperately needed to realize that.
“Hastur.” Octavian growled a warning, clenching his fist and feeling that throbbing vein of his. Cortus had once been his kin, but he'd lost his name and his aspect. Now he was merely human, and Octavian was well capable of removing him from play at any time. Run as he'd like with his detached soul, when subjected to enough spira it wouldn't save him. Perhaps it was time to do so.
–
“Really?” Xavier asked, brow furrowed. “That's all I need to do?”
The plan was simple, Xavier would go through the gate, and use allomancy to soften the bonds of the deuritium. He couldn't control it, nobody could, but there were gaps in everything. Nothing, down to its barest parts was truly solid. With enough time, he could wear it down and snap one of the links of that chain. Enough to stop it from dragging the world it had come from closer, at least. It would be difficult, but not impossible. All they needed was a chance. Once completed, he would be given a few minutes to retreat while the dimensional mages struggled to hold the portal open.
He looked to Girshan. “What do you think?”
Girshan's face was grim and sad. To think that they'd send a child to do their work was not only embarrassing, it went to show how lost they all were. However... “I don't see another way. Whatever you decide, I am with you.” The harpoon that had landed was also the mechanism that pulled it, rather than a winch on the other side. To think that they'd managed to successfully enchant deuritium was... Impossible, but this wasn't a time for science. Every second, it grew closer. In the landing of it, the time dilation was gone. Acting as a sort of conduit that prevented the bending of time. Some mechanic. Not a time for a science, even Gerald wasn't overly interested in pushing for further understanding.
This was their darkest hour, a literal apocalypse confronting them.
“We believe in you.” Abe tousled Xavier's hair with a soft smile. Barely able to stand with the anti-magic waves that the enriched material was radiating.
“Go now.” Octavian ordered. They had no time to waste, and he couldn't stand to think that they'd put his world in danger just for concern for the lives of a single kijin. The barrier between their portal and the world was gone now. All of the instability vanished and now it wasn't a circular ring, but rather the entire mouth of the tunnel to reveal the space. Allowing them to position themselves just beyond the lip to remain safe if something happened.
“This better work.” Tyr spat, pained and one armed, nearly lost to the burning heat rolling through his body. “I made you a promise once. One day, I will kill you. All you're doing now is biding yourself time to continue on with your wretched existence.”
Hastur laughed, choosing not to respond. The other primus' smiled at Tyr's whimsy. Maybe it would happen, but not for a hundred years or more. Even Vidarr was incapable of killing Hastur, and he was by no means weak. One would need a level of control only four living primus' could muster, or any of the hidden powers throughout the continent, and that was unlikely. If it was going to happen, it already would have. Hastur was necessary, and everyone knew it.
Xavier ran forward, pumping his limbs as fast as they could carry him without the use of magic. He didn't possess the control or confidence necessary to not end up a splattered mess on the ground, using mana so near the deuritium. He felt it like a vibration on the air, but it hovered around him softly. Like a blind friend using its hands to determine him as an ally. Kijin were of the fire and earth, the metal loved them and it seemed that even extended beyond the known rule that mages could not survive for long around deuritium. To the point where even a single shard of the stuff could kill a man just from holding it, requiring it to be depleted through special techniques to focus its properties.
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Tyr stared at the boy, willing his eyes to remain open, supported by the unfamiliar touch of his father on one side. Jura remained beside him, but she needn't aid in keeping him upright. Content with holding the remaining hand to his right. She looked nervously at Xavier, and then back at Tyr's arm, seeing no activity that would indicate new growth. Wherever the rest of it was, it was lost long beyond the mouth of the astral gate.
Xavier reached the chain with arms outstretched, taking it in a grip. It was the densest metal he'd ever felt, almost like glass, requiring him far more time to get a hold on than anything else. While the metal remained friendly to his touch, the bonds between its individual molecules were too close. He tried vibrating it to the frequency where it would soften, but failed at that as well. Panicking, he turned back nervously to the others and gulped. He couldn't show weakness now. This was his moment to be a hero, just like his 'big brother', feeling great regret at fleeing beyond the portal while Tyr and the others continued to fight. Even Benny had stayed, and a kijin always measured himself against another.
Or so he'd been told by those few kijin he'd ever interacted with. He wanted to be like them, those heroes that rose up against the oppressive Varian regime and were culled for it. Unable to be made into true slaves due to their resistance to the chains that had kept the Anu laboring in the mines in eras past. It was close now. The head of the chain was near enough to their own portal that it stopped pushing and began pulling. Bringing the rifts closer. People were shouting at him to hurry, panicked voices, but he was all focus. This was his moment. His chance. The eclipse shifted and moved, the sun lightning the moon with a baleful bloody glow.
Benny saw this and smiled softly. Patting Tyr on the back as he passed with axe in hand. His armor snug and comfortable around him, feeling like he was walking alongside his sworn brother at all times. He burst into a run, heaving his axe back and summoning all his strength to strike at the deuritium. Blue steel, which composed most of the blade, was not as hard – but it was enchanted. Popping and cracking like a frozen lake under the weight of the strikes meeting the resistance of the black steel, it held for the time being, hammering alongside Xavier at the brittle metal. Bits and pieces began to rain off it. Revealing lines and patterns of the carbon used to refine the metal, serving as the perfect place for Xavier's allomancy to take root. Even as he struggled, Benny poured mana potions into the boys mouth. Not a boy, among kijin Xavier was a man, a warrior, gritting his teeth in discomfort in his desperate bid to save an entire world.
There could be no more worthy a goal than this.
Abe stepped forward, struggling against the pressure of the deuritium. It felt like stepping through a hurricane, but he reached Xavier's back, laying a hand to flesh and pouring all of his magic into the boy. Xavier's veins popped and burst, his eyes becoming bloodshot as he howled through the incredible pain. Overcoming his limits through pure force of will before he found it, the clustered web of metal opening up to him and turning to dust. Slowly but surely, he worked an imperfect and jagged crack through the metal. The damage exacerbated by the strain of being pulled, it was working!
Shattering, the taut chain whipped about, spraying shards of the metal in all directions. Abe was struck full in the face, just tall enough for his exposed flesh to be riddled with it. Xavier cried out to him while Benny watched on, his younger kin shaking the telurian frantically. But he was dead, instantly killed by the shrapnel. Benny was aware that Abe had known what he was doing. In either case, he would've perished under the pressure, sacrifice was sacred.
“Abrath the telurian has been witnessed.” Benny and Xavier locked eyes, the former smiling softly and patting him on the back. “No victory without sacrifice, little brother.”
More people were yelling, but he could barely hear them. Benny hauled the body of Abrath over his shoulder, Xavier over the other, sprinting for the rapidly shrinking gate. Pounding across the ground with fire in his heart at the idea that they'd just saved the entire world. A kijin... A race that would rarely find a friend in any other.
“Run!” Jura cried. She felt great pain at the loss of Abe but she didn't want to lose both of the other men as well. “Hurry!” The dimensional mages present were like children in the face of a tsunami, sent blown back and injured by the sudden collapse of spatial integrity. Benny just barely made it through the gate with both of her friends on his back. Wheezing with the exertion before bursting into laughter.
“Close one!” Benny said, gently lowering Abe to the ground as a distraught Xavier looked over him.
“No.” Someone said, pointed. One of the dimensional mages began to speak before he was interrupted by an earth shaking howl. The tallest of the black trees was crying out. As the others turned to look upon it, dozens of identical chains began to rain from the foreign portal to make a mockery of Abe's sacrifice.
Benny didn't hesitate, with a weeping Xavier running beside him, the latter's face twisting into an expression of intense loss and rage. All because the weaklings on the other side couldn't accept the fact that they'd lost. Tyr lurched forward, falling until making good purchase on Benny's belt, skidding along the ground behind him.
“It's over.” Tyr said, eyes glazed and lost. “Don't go. We'll figure this out, I can fix this.” Even in his fevered state, he knew better than anyone that the two kijin couldn't possibly stop those chains. Not so many of them. The portals were already so close, eighty meters away and stabilized once again, ready to start moving. “I can stop this, I know I can. Let me do it... Please.”
“Witness me.” Benny replied, plucking Tyr from the ground and crushing him in an affectionate embrace. Pushing him away with a grip around his shoulders, he stared into his brother's deep blue eyes. He felt it all, all the love and camaraderie. All of their moments in the cantina and those in the forge. Fighting and laughing together so many times. He smirked. Benny had always wanted to see into the depths of the great sea, and here he was. Staring at something that looked just like how it'd been described, stormy, violent, vast.
“No...” Tyr croaked, he held onto Benny with all his strength but he was weak. Jura tugged at him from behind while Benny removed the hand latched onto him with little effort, setting Tyr to the ground and looking up with a smile of contentment at the red moon above.
“Witness me.” Benny repeated. Tyr shook his head in a refusal to do so, dragged back from the lip of the gate by the others. Unwelcome hands, but he didn't have the strength to stop them. This reflection, this part of himself...
“Witness me!” Benny shouted urgently. “Please, my brother! All I ask is that you witness me!”
Tyr's voice cracked, heaving as he tried to refuse. They were all going to die now, and Benny had the right to die the way he wanted. He rose, dragging himself up the ridges of his fathers armor of white and gold to stand unsteadily on his feet. Sorrow faded from his face and he looked at Benny for the last time. Xavier repeated what the other had said, grinning in triumph, holding a shard of deuritium tightly in his hand.
“You are witnessed.” Tyr replied softly, haunted by the acceptance, eyes moist and heart heavy. “I witness you, Benny and Xavier.”
“We are witnessed!” Xavier howled like a madman, crushing the deuritium between his teeth like a stick of chalk.
“We will meet again.” Benny said from the other side of the portal. “No matter where you are, in this life or the next, I will find you. Witness me.”
The red moon and the white wolf weeping.
Everything went dark, the window through the rift cracking like glass, imploding inwards as a new apocalypse settled over that foreign world. The last thing Tyr remembered seeing was Benny's calm nod and sad smile as he did the same. They deuritium driving their mana cores wild and overtaking them, the burst of energy enough to close it with a finality.
It was over.
They'd done it.
But at what cost?