The four sat, watching the ashes, for a few minutes, before they finally talked about it. “Why didn’t anyone help us?,” Jay asked. “Aren’t we in the middle of school?”

Catherine shrugged. “Someone within the school sent the assassin. And they had the power to get everyone out of the way for the fight.”

“No, it was just a silencing and illusion device,” A familiar voice said.

Jay turned to face the pit. The assassin stood once more, but had a distinct air about them. “Now, we no longer need it. I can shield the entire area on my own, using my plants. You probably wouldn’t recognize any of them.”

That’s a god-or goddess, I suppose, Amon said from within him.

Wait, what?

I assume the person called for godly help just before they died. The gods of this world are probably not benevolent, as most gods aren’t, and had something in the contract that would let them take control of the person’s body after they died or something.

So, that’s not good.

Understatement.

The god stared at them, their eyes glowing with divine brightness. “You may recognize my name. I am Imis, Goddess of Nature.”

Catherine turned to her. “Can you leave us alone? I don’t care who you are, just that you’re annoying me.”

“Oh, so you want to die? Let me fulfill your wish.”

A root came out of the ground with startling speed, barely blocked by a sheen of quicksilver. Imis frowned. “This vessel is far too limiting for my liking. Either way, let me do what I came here to do and kill you all. May your blood feed the forests.”

Jay stood, Amon flowing onto him. “Think again.”

Jay, you might want to run.

As she said that, trees erupted around them, forming a large arena by curling their branches together. “Now, I made this arena using my divine energy. Don’t even try to break out.” Imis licked her lips. “Oh, I can’t help thinking of how good your flesh will taste when I kill you.”

She was suddenly in front of Jay, a clawed hand reaching for the half of his body covered by Amon. “Now, I’ll just take a sample of that quicksilver-”

Her hand was easily caught by Amon, and Imis was thrown to the other side of the arena, hitting the wall spread-eagled, sounds of bones breaking audible. Imis flexed her hand, standing straight, the meager damage healed. “Interesting.”

She flew forward once again, but was taken in the shoulder by a superheated bullet from Amon. Ignoring it, Imis continued, one of her arms turning to wood and shooting straight through Jay’s stomach before he could react. Jay looked around for a moment, and was horrified. The rest of his team was strung up on trees, held prisoner. Even Catherine, with her prodigious strength, couldn’t break out. Crystal’s fire and Drake’s darkness did absolutely nothing to the trees, which simply tightened their holds in response.

Another spike drove through his leg, and Jay returned his attention to the battle at hand. “Don’t look away!,” Imis exclaimed, both of her hands impaled in his body. Alright. If she’s really trying to kill you, I have to reveal more.

What do you-

Amon’s metal flecked off, fluttering in the wind as she disintegrated. “Oh, are you losing your strength?,” Imis cooed, pulling the hand stuck in his leg out to strike again.

She drove it forward, and it only hit metal. The floating metal had instantly collected into a shield, blocking the strike, before once again going back to floating. It started spinning around him, the edges sharpening as dozens of miniature shards of metal orbited him.

A fireball blasted Imis back as Jay stood, Amon’s mass visibly less on his left side. Go for it.

Oh, I get it now.

Yes, you do. Shardstorm.

Jay’s wounds healed in seconds, before Imis arrived. She entered his storm and flinched as the shards cut her flesh, the wounds building up faster than she healed herself. Amon’s bullets went right through her, the holes healing slower and slower, as Jay cut at her with a bone sword. Imis dodged just slightly, every single one of Jay’s cuts missing, though she ignored the bullets.

Imis reared back for another attack, and Jay infused the next bullet with Blood, and struck again. Somehow, she reacted, and dodged both the bullet and his sword before tearing a wound through his thigh.

Amon, this isn’t working.

Yeah, it really isn’t. Do something, I’m out of tricks.

Jay looked around, and he saw… Mana. Hiding in the wood, in the ground, in the sky, everywhere. He looked up at the sky. He saw the Mana there, hiding in the stars. “Alright. Here goes nothing,” Jay breathed, disengaging from Imis for a quick second, long enough to speak a single line. “Know our name, Imis. Time for your end.” Amon fully intertwined with him. “We are Eternity, and we are your end.”

Imis laughed. “What is this supposed to do, sc-”

She stopped, staring at the sky. “No.”

Jay fell over, spent. Amon flooded back into him, and, together, they watched as Imis stared at the sky. “No.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Power flooded out of him. First, he tried to pull Will out, but it only resulted in a blinding headache. He was out. Then he reached for Dominion, quickly hitting the bottom of his pool, then Voice, then Note, and then the Mana inside him. When he was out, the stars finally seemed sated with the amount of power he’d given them.

This attack was a memory from… somewhere. It was far weaker than the original, but echoes of the original’s intent still flowed through it. The stars gleamed in the sky, dictating their absolute hatred as the Lonely Star shone Eternity down onto the world.

Glistening chains shot out of nowhere, latching onto Imis. She didn’t even try to dodge, knowing it was fruitless. She raised her head, glaring at Jay. “I will find you, and I will kill you. No one wins against me and gets away with it.”

Then the body froze as it was ripped from the timeline, the Void now free to act upon it. It faded out of existence as the Void ate through it and disappeared, the arena and surroundings going with it. Imis was fine, naturally, as she wasn’t in the body, but it would take a while for her to find them. They were safe. For now.

A figure stepped out of Jay, poking the remnants of the body. It turned to Jay, and he gasped, seeing himself in it. “Eternity,” he whispered. Eternity nodded to him, breaking into fragments of light, and Jay understood-this was something that would only happen once. Never again would he be able to summon the Sixth Calamity.

With Eternity’s disappearance, Jay fell into oblivion.

Jay woke up with a surgeon staring down at him. “Sir. I request permission to examine your body through blood magic, and you’ll need to relax your own power to let me do that. You’re only a first year, and you’ve probably left life-threatening imperfections in your body-”

“Call Onyx,” Jay whispered before he faded again, feeling the surgeon grab his shoulders and almost shake him, before they presumably remembered he was injured.

He woke again to Emerald standing over him. “I’ve got you, kid. Good healing, but rest is necessary, and you seem like you took a few shortcuts since you didn’t have enough time or energy. Good work, in fact. If you stay alive in the moment, you can think about other things later, I say.”

He felt significantly better, but still tired enough that he felt himself fading back into darkness. Emerald let him, sitting back.

Jay woke again to Onyx standing over him. He didn’t feel as tired this time, able to sit up and maybe move a little. As he sat up, he was disabused of that concept, unable to pull himself all the way into a sitting position. “Easy, man!,” Onyx exclaimed. “You fought an assassin who you shouldn’t have won against-and then you fought Imis. I’m going to go over and kill her soon, just for this, but I came to check on you first.”

Jay nodded. “Are Drake, Catherine, and Crystal fine?”

“Yeah. They’re the ones who told me what happened. You somehow purged them of the poisons Imis pumped into them and then healed them as well. How did you do that, in fact?”

Jay pointed at the roof, his hand taking an immense effort to move. “The stars. I got their spirits to help.”

Onyx nodded. “And how’d you win?’

Jay thought for a moment, and then answered. “I did something I can never do again.”

Onyx didn’t seem disappointed, standing up as he gave Jay his last comment. “Good work, Jay. Rest and recover, now.”

He descended into sleep once more, this time knowing he’d be healed by the time he awoke again.

Jay jolted up into a sitting position, upright in his bed with the whitewashed walls around him proclaiming that he was in an infirmary. A doctor entered the room, walking over to him. “Hello, sir. Emerald checked you over and proclaimed you healed, but personally, I’d like to check you over myself, if you don’t mind. Emerald… I don’t particularly trust her, and you probably don’t either. If she’s left any traps within you, I’ll find them.”

Jay shook his head. “No need. I trust Emerald.”

The doctor’s eyes widened. “You realize she’s the most likely person in the school to have sent the assassin?”

Jay chuckled. “Why is that?”

“She teaches people to make blood golems. She teaches people necromancy. All the other teachers are respectable, but Emerald goes over the line. Since she’s affiliated with such foul arts, going a step further is the easiest thing she could do.”

“Nah. She just teaches what she teaches. Nothing wrong with that. You’re just prejudiced.”

The doctor stepped back, hastily walking out of the room.” I’ll leave you here,” the doctor said, visibly uncomfortable.

Jay watched him leave before getting out of bed slowly stretching his body in the room, making sure everything worked correctly before leaving the infirmary. The courtyard was bustling, the grass covered with early morning dew. Jay slowly started jogging, building up his speed as he eventually sprinted to the library. How are you doing?

Far better than you, I expect. Imis is not someone who can injure me. I would hope she doesn’t find us soon, however. You don’t have Eternity to bail you out again.

Jay caught her inflection. You speak of Eternity as if he’s a person.

Yes. I do.

The nonanswer stopped Jay’s probe, and he reached the library, stepping inside. He caught Ms. Leil’s eyes. “Hello, Ms. Leil.”

“Are you okay? You should be resting.”

Jay shook his head. “Emerald proclaimed me healed, and I don’t know what time it is, and what class I should go to.”

“Oh, it’s first period.”

Jay nodded. “Any book recommendations?”

Ms. Leil suddenly brightened, as if she’d gained a burst of energy. “Yes. Sooo many. Come with me.”

She pivoted and walked off into the shelves, leaving Jay to follow. Quickly, she found a specific shelf, grabbing a book off of it. “On the Gods and their Domains. You should find this useful. Other books later.”

A book caught Jay’s eye. He was about to point at it when Amon whispered inside him. Nonononononono, you can’t read that book pleasee don’t-

Uh, okay.

Amon immediately calmed down as Jay left the book, called ‘Eternity: A Biography’ on the shelf. Why shouldn’t he be reading this?

He exited the library clutching ‘On the Gods and their Domains’ to his chest, sitting down and flipping through the book while sitting on the grass. He quickly found the page he wanted. Imis. Goddess of Nature. Apparently she has full control over all of nature-plants, animals, you name it. We need to be careful outside cities and places like school. Maybe even within cities, depending on the number of parks and grassy places. However, any sapient creature does not count in her domain, so she cannot control the spirits within, only the living creatures themselves.

Not too much of an advantage there. We need to not fight Imis, or we’ll probably die.

Jay snorted. Agreed.