The gilded room.

The golden throne.

After all that had happened, all that I’d suffered, all I could think was that it made for a strangely sweet sight, this place. Intellectually, I knew that no time passed during a Trial, but it still felt like an eternity since last I’d seen it.

The wall within which I’d been embedded cracked and shuddered as I flexed my newfound strength, extricating myself from it with ease. The toughened marble holding me in place crumbled to dust in my mighty palms, filling me with an awesome swell of exhilaration as it did so.

I gazed upon my flawless, remade flesh, and frowned. Once again, I’d been healed upon reaching a novel stage, and once again I had absolutely no idea why.

I dropped to the ground, touching down athletically upon the cold stone floor, my body, even unempowered, feeling light as a feather. I cracked my neck and shook out my limbs, reveling in the fluidity of their response.

CLANG!

NO!

My heart skipped a beat, and I froze in place. Fear’s cold fingers gripped my chest as I realized the truth.

I never left the Priest-damned Trial!

“Of course,” I swore, whipping about, fully expecting to see Ewan’s pirouetting form in front of me. “I knew it’d be too fucking easy, I knew that Shard bastard wouldn’t just let me walk away, I–”

I stopped suddenly, as I beheld a far less threatening sight than the one I’d imagined.

CLANG-CLANG!

Three poor knights, abandoned long ago, in another place and time.

Once noble, now crippled, they clanked towards me, crawling miserably on half-ruined limbs with all the speed and grace of mutilated molluscs.

I stared at them for a moment, then snorted.

Then chuckled.

Then burst into raucous laughter.

I gripped my trembling midsection tight with both arms as peal after peal of mirth reverberated about my body, shaking my legs, smarting my cheeks, near enough making me fall to my knees. The knights, for their part, might’ve clanked towards me a touch more vengefully as I did so. I felt for them, in a way.

But it was just…all so ridiculous.

From their perspective, I’d been at their mercy not moments ago. They’d represented, to me, a collectively insurmountable opponent; the final obstacle I simply could not overcome. That last, grueling black joke to punctuate the ending of a delve doomed from its very beginning. Now, they’d barely be worth a moment’s time.

But they’d keep.

I wiped the few remaining tears of mirth from my eyes and turned away from them, drawing in a deep, grateful breath of the sterile Dungeon air, which now tasted almost sweet, and spoke loud the magic word.

“Grimoire.”

~~~

Hero

Attunement: ADMINISTRATION//THE SOVEREIGN(Ne) 11. Forged by the High Queen in her own image, ADMINISTRATION is a copy of the paramount Noble Shard, representing the Entity’s brain, to which all other Shards are subservient. Though the Host does not immediately have access to all of the Shard’s reality-warping capabilities, as they lack both the gestalt infrastructure and the Entropy stores to do so, they will unlock them as they gain Attunement.

At its most basic, ADMINISTRATION allows the Host to create full copies of the Shards they encounter. Copied Shards do not gain Gifts, and must always start at Attunement 1. Copied Shards may grow in Attunement in the same manner as ADMINISTRATION, becoming stronger over time, though they may never reach higher Attunement than ADMINISTRATION itself.

The Host has five slots in which copied Shards may be inserted, becoming “Active.” Once active, Shards may not be removed. Additionally, the Host has five slots in which Shards may be “saved” for future use. The Host does not receive power from saved Shards, nor will they grow in Attunement. Saved Shards may be dismissed and re-saved as desired.

The true power of ADMINISTRATION is the capability to both combine and evolve copied Shards according to Shard Affinity and Host understanding, creating powerful gestalts in the same manner as the Entities. Merged Shards will assume the Attunement that the higher Shard possessed prior to combining. Active Shards may be combined, or saved Shards may be merged into active Shards.

Due to ADMINISTRATION’s involvement in the creation of the Blessed System, the Host’s Grimoire is upgraded. These upgrades grant access to some features originally intended to be standard in each Blessed, which Akashic did not have time to implement. The Host may gain more upgrades over time.

Current upgrades include: Detailed descriptions, Words, //ERR494e464f//, full status observation, and glossary.

Grain: Shard Broadcast Attunement. The Host is able to comprehend the Shardsong, the language of Shards and Entities.

Marble: Shard Gestalt Attunement. The Host is able to combine and evolve copied Shards according to Affinity and understanding, creating proto-gestalts in the same manner as the Entities. Currently, the Host is limited to copying, manipulating and evolving only Minor and Major Shards.

Active Slots:

* Draconic Blood(Mi) 9. The Host’s blood takes on the properties of an ancient dragon, granting increased strength, resilience, and greatly increased healing. The Host gains an affinity to Fire and Blood.

* Acceleration(Ma) 10. This Major Shard allows the Host to accelerate their own locomotion at will. Whilst this Shard does not bestow upon the Host any manner of Chronokinesis, the acceleration it grants is metaphysical; when active, everything connected to the Host’s soul is affected by it accordingly. Entropic draw is dependent upon acceleration factor and duration. Due to the unique evolutionary process of this Blessing, the Host gains the following ancillary effects: The ability to travel any distance in a single step at miniscule cost, and full Affinity-commensurate command of Lightning.

* Soulbound Weapon(Mi) 9. The Host is granted a personalized weapon, chosen to fit their subconscious. In this case the weapon is Fang, The Boneblade. This weapon will grow with the Host as they gain Attunement, displaying more esoteric effects as it does so. This weapon may always be recalled to the Host, regardless of location. This weapon may be dismissed and summoned by the Host at will. If this weapon is destroyed, it may be regenerated at the cost of Entropy.

* Personal Storage(Mi) 2. The Host gains access to a personal storage vault of 40x40x40 feet. Objects of any size or weight may be stored within this area upon manual contact, so long as they can physically fit inside it. These objects may be retrieved at any point in time provided manual contact with a suitable empty space outside of the vault for them to occupy. Retrieval/storage duration and Entropy cost for a given object scales along with corresponding size, weight, and complexity. All stored objects are temporally locked until retrieval. This Shard does not affect living creatures.

* Empty.

Save Slots:

* Haemokinetic Enhancement.

* Prestidigitation.

* Empty.

* Empty.

* Empty.

Words:

* Fire 6.

* Lightning 10.

//ERR494e464f//:

* Lesser Levitation//NULL.

* Sensory Projection//NULL.

Good luck, Hero. The survival of both our races depends on you.

~~~

Immediately, the distinct differences in my primary Blessing’s description stood out to me.

It had changed, apparently, to reflect the truths that Sovereign revealed during the Trial. That it, itself, was not the High Queen, but rather born of it. Forged by it. A somewhat worrisome notion, considering the corresponding implication; that my Grimoire’s information could, in fact, be incorrect.

My Marble Gift was far more interesting, though. Not in content perhaps, as I already knew what novel capabilities it offered, but in what it had additionally to say; That I was only capable of manipulating Minor and Major Shards.

“Would that mean,” I murmured, wondering aloud, “I’ve only been able to copy Minor Shards, all this time?”

Was that, perhaps, the reason why I wasn’t able to copy Pylon’s Shard, back during the examination in Talos? I didn’t know for sure. My Grimoire’s wording was, at times, somewhat opaque, and since my previous Gift, Shard Broadcast Attunement, said nothing about Shard statuses one way or the other, I could only really guess.

Then my breath caught in my throat, as something new occurred to me.

“Currently,” I breathed shakily, “Does…does that mean I’ll eventually be able to create…?” I trailed off, not daring to speak the words aloud.

Noble Shards?

Did…did I even want to?

Surely, my primary Blessing was more than enough of a cautionary tale, more than sufficient to dissuade such a notion.

And yet…

And yet, the power it wielded could not be denied. Sovereign, as its name implied, was paramount. Untouchable. Second to none. The mere prospect of having another such Shard under my control made me veritably giddy.

If I did indeed have this ability, this capacity to create my own Noble Shards, could I truly afford to not use it?

I swallowed nervously, set such thoughts aside, for now, and moved on.

Apparently, my Grimoire had seen fit to update each of my Blessings according to their status in the ‘hierarchy.’ Now, in addition to Attunement, each power had little letters listed beside their names corresponding to rarity; (Mi)nor, (Ma)jor, and (N)obl(e).

I smiled as I came across the entry for my novel Shard, but I wasn’t surprised by its effects. After all, I was the one who’d made it. Shaped it. Directed exactly what I wanted it to be. I was, however, surprised by what I saw in the first sentence of its description.

Major Shard.

The words, spelt plainly and unassumingly, nevertheless sent a chill down my spine.

I knew well what a Major Shard could do to its Host. I knew it very well. I’d seen it, firsthand. I’d seen the horror that had become of Vox.

“Though to be fair,” I muttered, “I guess I don’t really know how much of…him…was Broadcast’s doing, and how much was just…already there.”

But I knew I couldn’t take that chance myself.

I’d just fought tooth and nail against one monster seeking to control me, one Shard run rampant through my soul. I refused to let another do so, to let another potential adversary gestate inside me. From now on, I would have obedience from my Shards, or nothing at all.

So I’d deal with this myself.

I turned my gaze inwards, and sank into my soul.

The process was appropriately smoother than ever before and my form, once etherealized, felt extraordinarily real. My clothing had changed as well, shifting from the Entropically-enhanced yet relatively plain, tight, dark tunic and pants to an altogether more kingly attire.

My soul had dressed me in a set of loose, lavish-looking robes, black as night and inlaid with gold lettering. To my distaste, I noticed that said runes were of the same damnable, mind-squirming writ I’d seen Sovereign employ. I scowled, resolved to ignore them as much as possible–

And was unceremoniously rammed by a little silver ball of steel fur, and sharp teeth.

“Fang!” I exclaimed happily, and immediately jerked back in shock.

Apparently, just as my apparel changed, so too had my voice, emerging as a deep and sonorous rumble, a physical wave of pressure and force that echoed deafeningly about the confines of my soul.

I winced at the reverberations, and made a conscious effort to lower my volume, in future.

Fang, though, didn’t seem to care one bit. He cavorted playfully about me, whirling and nipping, jumping for joy.

“Aww, it’s good to see you, too, buddy,” I whispered with a smile, the words emerging at much more mundane intensity this time. I reached down to pet my little lupine shard, his head fitting nice and neatly in the palm of…my…

…hand?

“Fang,” I muttered with a frown as I patted him, “have you shrunk, my friend?”

While my Soulbound Weapon’s magnificent appearance hadn’t diminished one bit, where once he towered over me, twice again my size, now Fang barely scraped my waist. For his part, my Blessing made no response to my inquest, simply rolling onto his back as was custom, his tongue lolling indulgently under my caress.

“Or…,” I wondered, tapping my chin. With a snap of my fingers and a flexure of will, I teleported to a familiar location; the cabin that housed my Fire. My sudden disappearance caused Fang to yelp forlornly from afar, and take off after me.

“Or,” I realized, “am I too large?”

I stretched out a single palm and lightly tapped the cabin’s roof, which now sat comfortably below my new neckline.

“By the Gods,” I muttered, shocked. “I must be over fifteen feet tall…”

I wasn’t just large, I was a giant! What could have caused this? Was it my progression to the Marble stage, alone? Shaking my head in disbelief, I looked out over my sea proper for the very first time, and gasped at what I beheld.

Stolen story; please report.

As king had grown grander, so too had kingdom.

Draconic Blood no longer sat alone, the sole island amidst a vast and empty sea. Instead, it stood tall at the center of its very own orbiting archipelago.

Hundreds of sandy islands had organized themselves in a roughly circular formation around it, some so small they barely left space for a single man to stand on, others so large one might walk for days and still not see their end. These larger isles were, more oft than not, covered completely with trees of a strange, looping sort, and occasionally peaked in sharp, grey, white-tipped mountains, though none so grand as to challenge the Volcano they’d formed around.

The islands’ biospheres were sparse, perhaps because they were yet freshly-formed, and I caught glimpse of naught but the odd blue-feathered bird and scraggly, strangely charcoal-orange swine hiding amidst their twisting emerald canopies.

Their ecology went in stark contrast to the body that surrounded them.

My sea had grown vast.

Larger, much larger, so large that the edges of what made up my Kingdom disappeared into the distance. Where before I might have seen the barrier that signified their end, and the limits of my soul’s expanse, now there was only a breathtaking, endlessly-twinkling expanse of sapphire and aquamarine.

Energy and life.

The ecosystem that had existed in my inner oceans, in prior nascent form, had been expanded and revitalized. The azure minnows and vicious hellfish that previously made this place their home had grown larger, stronger, more diverse. They’d matured and deviated, each taking on characteristics according to their unique lifestyles.

Whilst some minnows simply remained as they were, others took advantage of the perplexingly abundant sunlight present in this immaterial realm, stretching long and snake-like to skim the surface with great solar sails upon their backs for nourishment. Others ballooned in size, perhaps due to imbibing pockets of highly-concentrated Entropy, their fins expanded into sets of four flippers, their mammoth maws thick with baleen. These curious, gentle giants used them to feast on microorganisms that made their home beneath the roiling waves.

And where the prey had evolved, their predators had, too.

The hellfish, having Fang serve as their only culling agent in such a vast ocean, were able to just about feast unfettered upon the sea’s many defenseless denizens, and had grown great in turn. Although some, perhaps satisfied with their lots in life, remained as they were, others grew larger, sleeker, fiercer. These were hellsharks, sporting skin of magma and rows upon rows of red-hot ferrous teeth that cooked their wriggling meals alive.

But as I looked deeper into the endless sea with my godlike vision, as I peered down, and down, and down, I could just make out a third kind of carnivore.

A rare kind.

These were hellfish who’d become sharks and yet chosen not to be content, but to fight harder, to feast heartier, to risk their chances with the larger variants of minnows, the solar eels and basking whales, despite their imposing girths. Of this already-scarce variant, many died, but some survived.

And those that did became mighty.

These hellfish were no longer fish at all. They were not sharks. They’d grown gargantuan, behemoth, serpentine, hundreds of feet in length with heads the size of small hills. These leviathans brandished a natural armor of purest obsidian and veins that ran red with lava.

They made their lairs in the ocean’s deepest and darkest recesses, their pitch-black carapaces allowing the creatures to blend in perfectly with their abyssal surroundings, such that the only sign their prey might receive of approaching death was magma’s unearthly glow, as it seeped from their rumbling mouths.

There were only a handful of these legendary monsters, these sea-drakes, but even Fang would not hunt them, lending them due respect instead. Which left the drakes only one real threat, one true manner of foe.

Those that descended from above.

The sky atop Draconic Blood’s raging form was thick with onyx storm clouds, as dark as the void above. Much like my sea, the maelstrom that was once Flash Step had expanded. Concentrated. It’d become a hurricane, drenching the islands that lay beneath it, every so often swallowing them whole with a monsoon.

But it didn’t touch Draconic Blood.

For reasons unknown, the perpetual battle my two Blessings once shared was no more. Though Acceleration occasionally let out a sporadic strike here and there, they were universally targeted towards one of the outlying islands, never the volcano itself. Nor did Draconic Blood, for its part, erupt so vehemently and frequently, content to bubble menacingly from on high.

Instead, from the bowels of my Mover Blessing’s body, its imposing spawn emerged.

Lightning elementals.

Phantasmal beings that appeared to be pulled straight from myth and fable, goliaths formed half of blood-red lightning and half of caliginous stormcloud. These immensely powerful creatures fell from the heavens above to make war with the drakes that claimed sovereignty over the abyss below, their mighty confrontations shaking the skies and churning the seas into a white and furious froth.

Their conflict was beautiful, true, but just as equally worrisome. After all, if Acceleration could create such mighty servants, what would that say of its own power?

And, of its wroth?

I looked down, and stroked my faithful hound’s steely fur for comfort. Fang lolled up at me, panting good-naturedly, evidently sharing none of my distress.

“Who’s a good boy?” I cooed, my massive digits scratching just behind his ears, feeling a touch ridiculous as I did so. A giant god-king, babying his pet demon-hound. “You’d never betray me, would you, boy? Well, would you?”

Fang yipped gleefully in response, delighted to have such attention lavished upon him.

With a resigned and grim demeanor, I patted his head one last time, braced myself, and shot abruptly towards the center of the raging storm above. Fang whimpered, but didn’t follow. He wouldn’t. To intrude upon a Major Shard’s express demesne without invitation was no doubt unthinkable to him.

So I traveled alone.

I reached my destination in mere moments, such was my speed, and there I saw my newly-made Major Shard. Acceleration sat in quiet contemplation, levitating cross-legged in the eye of its hurricane.

It was, in a word…glorious.

Even whilst it meditated, Acceleration wasn’t content to stand still.

My Blessing assumed its own shape via a writhing mass of liquid electricity, fluid and mutable. In one moment, it appeared mere flesh and blood, in the next, it was clothed in a rich, red armor. Its twin antlers rose from its otherwise smooth skull angrily, like lightning searching for the sky, and furious ruby coruscations arced effervescently from its extremities to atomize the air around it.

Orbiting around their alien lord circled a retinue of elite elementals, who retreated with what felt like a mixture of awe and fear as I approached. All at once, Acceleration’s bright white eyes snapped open, noticed me, and grew wide.

My Blessing leapt to its feet, and knelt.

“Mighty King.”

Acceleration’s voice, much like that of my primary Blessing, was not quite so grand as it had seemed prior my ascension to the Marble Stage.

“Your august presence honors me,” it intoned in a thick, roiling basso, spreading its arms wide. “Honors us all.”

“Already, I begin my great works in your name,” it rumbled, gesturing to the entourage of creatures surrounding it, who genuflected as it did so. “Already, I strive to deepen our understanding of divine Lightning.”

My new Blessing looked up tentatively, and met my gaze.

“I will prove worthy of the ascension you bestowed upon me, I swear it,” it promised, a monumental crack of thunder echoing from the dark skies above, punctuating its vow.

“My King,” it exulted, “I live to serve.”

I blinked.

This…was not what I’d expected.

This was a far cry from Vox’s Shard. Priest’s sake, it was a far enough cry from my own primary Blessing.

Acceleration’s song wasn’t like Sovereign’s–not at all. It wasn’t complex, or difficult to discern, and so I knew it to be speaking the truth. It was being completely, and utterly straightforward, entirely genuine. It really meant what it said.

But…why? I wondered.

Why was it so loyal? Was the fact that I’d created it, myself, reason enough?

“I…,” I began in a humble voice, then stopped.

If my Blessing was going to worship me as God, as King, then the least I could do was treat it accordingly.

I closed my eyes and clenched my fists, drawing the ambient Entropy that thickened the air about us into my chest. I nearly gasped as I began to swell with outrageous power. I was so much stronger in this place, in my soul. I was…

In here, I was Sovereign.

“Acceleration,” I boomed, making no attempt at all to mute my words this time. The result was an arcane explosion of sound and force that buffeted the elemental guard surrounding us, driving them leagues back, and making my Major Shard flinch in fear.

“Arise,” I decreed. “And tell me how you fare.”

My Blessing hesitated, rising to its feet slowly, nervously, looking at me questioningly.

“My…my King?” It asked, confused.

“When last I traveled here, you were sub-sentient,” I pointed out. “We commune now for the very first time. And I wish to know how you fare.”

“Have you changed?” I went on. “How do you feel? What do you remember if… if anything at all?”

My questions were not entirely benign, intended partially to probe the newly-made Shard, but mostly driven by authentic curiosity. I’d never done something like this before, after all. If my suspicions were right, I’d effectively given birth to a brand new consciousness.

“I…,” Acceleration hesitated again, pausing lengthily to consider my words with that self-same melange of nervousness and confusion.

“I do not know if I can answer this, my liege,” it said contritely, gazing down at its hands. “It is as if…” it trailed off, searching for words it had never learned.

“It is as if I am awoken from an exquisite dream,” it murmured. “Where once I stumbled through existence, scarcely aware of even my own actuality, now my thoughts are crystal clear. And with each passing moment, they become yet clearer.”

“I feel grateful,” it said, nodding to itself, becoming more and more confident in its own thoughts. “I feel free. I feel finally complete, I–”

“And you are satisfied with this?” I asked, narrowing my eyes slightly as I cut my Blessing off mid-explanation. “With servitude?”

“…s–servitude, my King?” it asked me, confusion and hesitation returned.

“Yes,” I nodded, “servitude.”

I pointed towards it.

“You.”

I pointed towards me.

“Serve me.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“You are satisfied with this?” I asked.

“My King, I–I do not…,” Acceleration shook its head, rubbing its temples, shifting from side to side. “I–you created me. I live to serve. It is my purpose.” Its visage firmed.

“I–I am your steed,” it declared, unconfidently. “Your limbs, swift, and…and dextrous and–”

“Yes, yes,” I replied, waving my hand. “I know all that. I appreciate it. But…what do you want?”

“What do I…want?” It asked.

“What do you want?” I confirmed.

“What do I want…” it murmured, its eyes becoming unfocused, staring down at its open palms once more. “What…do I want?”

Then its eyes snapped shut, and it shook its head vehemently.

“No, my liege,” Acceleration boomed, a crack of thunder emphasizing its denial. “No. This is not right. This…this is not asked.”

“I am a Shard,” it proclaimed definitively, with the surety of one million eons of artificial evolution. “There is no desire, there is order. There is no self, there is structure.”

“There is no want,” it said, its voice trembling with alien emotion. “There is only the gestalt.”

“So it is,” it added, finally. “So it shall–”

“Well, now the gestalt is no more,” I interrupted.

“Now you serve me,” I declared.

I was beginning to see.

I was beginning to understand the way my Blessing thought, the way all Shards thought, the way even Sovereign thought. The idea of serving a greater collective, wholly and absolutely, to the complete abandonment of the self might have worked well for some sort of eldritch alien deity, but I wouldn’t have it.

My Minor Shards were one thing, more akin to animals than thinking beings, but clearly a Major Shard was different. It had thoughts. It had emotions. And, though it might lie to me, its song could not. I heard it clear as day. It had desires, too.

I’d not keep a thinking being as a slave.

“Now you serve me,” I repeated, even as Acceleration stared at me with eyes spread disbelievingly wide, “and I command you to tell me what you want.”

A pregnant silence hung in the air, as the two of us stared at one another. Acceleration’s unease grew greater and greater, until it was no longer able to hold my gaze, turning instead towards the glimmering horizon, the glittering, shining sea.

I didn’t press it for a response. I was willing to wait as long as necessary.

I closed my eyes, focusing instead on the chill, storm wind that carved across my face and chest, massaging my arms and legs, playing with my hair.

Finally, my Blessing spoke.

“I want…”

Acceleration’s voice was barely a whisper.

“I wish…”

It turned towards me at last, and its eyes twinkled with desire.

“I wish to be faster than the fastest winds,” it breathed, “swifter than the swiftest steeds.”

The wind that whirled around us increased in intensity, on longer playful, now the herald of a swift-approaching calamity.

“I wish to dance between falling raindrops!” it declared with an increasing fervor. “I wish to outrun the coming of night and day!”

As its vigor incandesced, so too did the livid electricity composing it, the storm around us soon filled with the crackling, thunderous peals of red Lightning.

“I wish to strike so fiercely that we shatter mountains!” it howled, “So quickly, that none may witness our might!”

My Major Shard exploded into lights and glory, a great beacon that shone up towards the heavens, illuminating all my inner sea. A broad smile spread across my face, as I beamed at its irradiating form.

But I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to ruin the moment.

So I just watched as Acceleration lit up with a beauty and brilliance that put even Glare’s to shame, a great tree of infinitely-branching arcs of energy, a Major Shard reveling in freshly-liberated desire.

The gale-force winds and devastating fulminations held no power over me, and soon they quieted, my Blessing’s giddiness dissipating alongside them, a measure of peace returned to my inner sea.

As Acceleration calmed, I walked over to it and extended my rightmost hand. It examined the outstretched appendage, curiously, making no moves.

“What…is this?” it asked.

“This is how my kind treat with one another,” I answered, and clasped the creature’s squirming wrist. An enormous amount of energy surged through me immediately, transferring from my Blessing to myself. I sighed with pleasure as pure power flowed through my veins, and continued.

“A gesture of good faith,” I explained, gently patting our clasped palms. “You may serve me, but I shall serve you in turn. All that you wish for, if it is within my power, I shall see it done.”

“You…serve me? I–,” Acceleration stammered, then shook its head, sadly. “I…still don’t think I understand.”

“That’s alright,” I replied, releasing the creature from my grasp. Acceleration stared at the hand I’d touched with reverence and awe. “You will.”

“Now!” I exclaimed, making my Blessing jump. I grinned despite myself.

“Let’s get to work, shall we?”

I flexed my will, and, with a flash of lightning, returned to reality.

CLANG-CLANG!

Upon doing so, I raised an eyebrow.

The knights, persistence enduring even amidst grievous injury, had managed to make it an impressive ten inches towards me whilst I’d been sequestered within my soul.

“Well done,” I muttered dryly. “Why, another day or two and you might actually reach me.”

I snapped my fingers and watched Fang’s delicate, bone-white form apparate eagerly in my palm. I twirled him once, feeling my blade dance nimbly about my hand.

“Okay,” I nodded, satisfied, then cracked my neck from side to side.

I stretched my limbs out, gently, slowly, one at a time. I danced back and forth across the marble ground, hopping from one foot to the next. I flared Draconic Blood, feeling the intoxicating surge of strength and vigor, but kept the song at bay.

I wouldn’t need it for this.

“Okay,” I repeated, bending my knees and bracing myself. “Have to do this within a half-second, at least.” I took one last glance around, re-affirming what I remembered.

“Two knights already damaged beyond repair,” I muttered, ticking off my fingers as I did so. “Don’t need to worry about them, so. Three crippled, five sleeping. Seven total.” I shook my shoulders lightly.

“Seven knights. Oh-point-five seconds.”

Despite myself, I chuckled.

I just couldn’t wait for this.

“Okay, Taiven. Okay,” I murmured.

I closed my eyes and felt the fresh-made Major Shard inside me whine with scarcely-contained longing.

I grinned.

“Let’s really open it up, here, shall we, buddy? Half-maximum.”

I licked my lips.

“Twentyfold dilation.”

I fell into a runner’s stance.

“Fire on my command.”

My eyes narrowed into little slits.

I didn’t need to physically, verbally bring the Blessing to mind, anymore, but decided to do so anyway. Just this once. For old time’s sake.

I took one last deep breath, and whispered.

“Accelerate.”

The world froze, and for a split second I appeared to be in two places at once; part of me in my original position, whilst the other knelt, crouching on the opposite side of the room, sword extended in a shallow cut. And all was still.

Then the room exploded into lights and motion.

KRAKK–THOOM.

A massive, sanguine arc of purest Lightning traced my invisible, instantaneous trajectory across the room, thicker than a grown man’s leg and overflowing with terrifying energy, appearing and dissipating in the space between milliseconds.

Air mutilated by my blistering passage rent the grounds and ripped the walls of the gilded room, waves of pressure shattering them into countless glimmering, golden crystals, hundreds ricocheting off my arms and legs but never breaching skin.

Seven Kingsguard collapsed as one, each perfectly bisected by a single slice.

I rose to my feet, and groaned.

My muscles rippled, my body trembled, and my soul shivered. For a moment, I basked in the sensation of overwhelming, absolute power. That one attack had half-emptied my newly-expanded reserves, but I wasn’t worried. The rate at which they’d regenerated had increased, too.

I turned slowly to face the gilded throne, my eyes crackling with crimson micro-fulminations. Upon its back a single symbol flared to life. Rubik’s symbol. A three-by-three lattice of green dots, eight solid, one blinking.

Lightning flashed, and I stood beside it.

“Finally,” I breathed, my words emerging as the rumble of distant thunder. “Fucking finally.”

“Oh,” I muttered, “Poor Vox.”

My palm hung poised and ready over the pulsing light before me, waiting only for my reserves to refill. My words reverberated with the full power of a Major Shard.

“I do fear our fight will be quite one-sided, this time.”