Jina

We were done, there was nothing else to do, nobody who could win this fight. We'd tried, and we'd lost. Could I flee? Could I escape if I ran now, maybe grabbing a few of my closest and most trusted and running? There was a chance, but I needed to act, I refused to be either slaughtered like a beast or kept as a pet by this monster.

My power was faltering, rebelling after what I'd done to those children. In my mind I knew it to be right, but my heart was pained, and that pain kept my strength from working as it should. No other should have though, nobody else should have that burden, that I knew. Perhaps in time my heart would calm, agree with my mind, but for now I was weaker than I'd been since I was under a century old.

“Fuck it,” said the boy beside me. He was one of the ones I'd like to bring, for after the terrors he'd unleashed today he might be the only one to come up with something to fight Cino.

He pulled something off his belt, something I'd not noticed in the heat of the fighting. It was... a mass of magical crystals, formed into the shape of a hammer. Where in the name of all the oceans and seas had he found those! Did he know the rarity? How did he even form them together?

Then he did something I expected even less, he jumped from the wall. There was magic in it as he moved through the air, angling as he raised the weapon above his head trying to get to just the right place. There was a brief flash as he shoved mana into his construction.

The hammer fell.

Cino

Victory was sweet. Atal was dead, soon his people would fall at my feet. My territory would grow, my influence, the things I could get, the things I could use. This place had so many new things, I'd be taking them, and those people who I wanted. Maybe I'd even stay here for a time, resting while I and my men enjoyed the spoils of war.

A youth jumped from the wall. He was no Ancient, no Elder, just some fool. Good, he would serve as an example to others. There was a bit of magic in him though, enough to angle his approach, unfortunate to lose that. As he came he hefted his weapon above himself, it was some kind of hammer, one that would bounce off of my shield certainly. Then there was a burst of light.

The hammer fell.

Cala

I won, this place, these people, they were done. There was even an added bonus, as though it was hard to make out I could see him, my enemy upon the walls. He hadn't been in the village of course, accepting his exile. Nor had we been able to locate him before, the bastard disappearing like smoke on the wind, but he was here now.

The soldiers had told me to stay back as they marched forward behind Cino. I was no fighter, no strong warrior or powerful user of fire. No, I just helped my lovely Cino where I could. All the things I would do for him tonight when he was done, how I looked forward to what came.

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As my lover came up to the walls I smiled even brighter, for Elian drew a weapon and leapt at him. Cino would rip him to shreds now, here for me and everyone else to see. I would watch this memory in my mind a thousand time, the greatest day I could have possibly had.

The fool Elian lifted his hammer above himself, and for an instant something shone like the sun.

The hammer fell.

Justin/Elian

Holding this weapon was like holding a bolt of lightning, a thunderstorm in my hand. It felt like a part of me, because it was a part of me, I realized that as I jumped. A quick spell altered my trajectory a bit, slowing the fall and pushing me forward, as it would've been most embarrassing to break both my legs doing this, would also probably mean my defeat.

There was only one shot, one chance while this monster felt he'd won. So I took it determined to win or die trying. I wrapped my magic around the hammer as I hefted it, and something strange happened.

This hammer wasn't like the crystal I'd seen Jina use all those years ago. It wasn't a conduit for magic alone, it was magic, my magic. Even the crystals I'd made had been such, but I'd never been able to use them right, for I'd never known what I needed them to do, not like this. It drank up the power and as it came above my head burned like a star forming. It was my magic and I'd just given it my intent, to destroy everything in front of me in a final blow.

The hammer fell.

And the world shuddered in response.

My weapon didn't strike, it atomized. This thing I'd build was made of pure magic, pure kinetic force, and force it once more became. In a flash everything but the bits of iron in the handle simply ceased to be, as did everything in the direction of my swing.

Cino must have had some shield, for there was an instant look of panic before it was shattered and he became nothing but a splash of red mist. From there the blast went outwards in a blink, a wave of destruction and death. The ground rippled and buckled as it was scoured. As the wave reached Cino's men, not so far behind him, they too died, becoming liquid, though this time with a few chunks mixed in.

Even though the angle was wide the destruction was still astounding. There was no grass left before me for a hundred feet. Trees at the edge of the woodline toppled and fell, some of those near them being thrown like ragdolls away from the blast.

It lasted only a moment, but when it was done nobody was standing. I had to pick myself off the ground, the mangled bit of steel I had left in my hand the last of it all. Luckily magic didn't have to follow the rules of physics all the time, so there'd been no back-blast. Behind me the city wall still stood, the defenders still there, if unsure what to do.

I knew what I had to do though, one last thing. Rising I walked forward through the land destroyed by my strike, past rocks uprooted and barren ground. I walked past the charred and ruined remnants, past the places where men had died from spells, or siege engines, or gas, or fire. I walked back to where the woods began. It seemed so short, such a small distance to where our enemies had emerged.

I found her there, crawling on the ground, legs bent and broken where the very edge of my attack had struck her, among broken branches and toppled trees, still somehow alive, somehow conscious.

“Hello Cala,” I said.

“You!” she spat, turning. “Why won't you die!”

“I've got better things to do. You on the other hand, have done more than enough.”

With a flick and a flash of power I pulled together the bits of the hammer handle, twisting and melting them into a crude spike. It was ugly, but that fit its purpose. Seeming to sense my intent she panicked, trying to pull herself away, useless with her broken legs.

Flipping her over on her back, I knelt on her stomach as she clawed and bit at me, small hands ripping at anything she could. She'd spent years as the kept woman of some tyrant though, years I'd spent shaping metal, and had neither the skill nor the strength to stop me as I plunged my spike into her chest.

I stabbed her for all the suffering. I stabbed her for the dead children she'd helped to make. I stabbed her for the villages destroyed. I stabbed her for the soldiers who'd lost their lives in the defense. I stabbed her for the innocents. I stabbed her for my parents. I stabbed her for Isha's. I stabbed her for Elaya. I stabbed her for Ninden. I stabbed her Larus. I stabbed her for my home. I stabbed her for my people. I stabbed her for showing Cino that place. I stabbed her for telling him of it. I stabbed her because I shouldn't have shown them. I stabbed her for not stopping her when she first left. I stabbed her because it was my fault. I stabbed her without realizing I was weeping. I stabbed her because I should never have let this happen. Again, and again, and again, and again, until I couldn't anymore.

When my strength finally failed and I was no long able to lift the spike what lay below me was a pile of gore. So once more I rose and walked, this time back to the gate. There were people there, looking at me, afraid. They opened it too, standing around as I entered.

“I'm done,” I told them, before finding a corner to collapse in.