Liv refused to give up, even as the fist reached her head. Just as her skull cracked, Liv found it.

  The power of Will, discovered by her stubbornness and refusal to let death claim her.

  She blasted the fist coming down away, getting up. A new reserve appeared, next to her slowly regenerating energy. Liv drew on her Will, using it to fuel a strike she felt was the basic attack of this discipline. Even with her skull cracked, Liv forced her mind to stay on track, warding away the blow's effects with pure Willpower.

  "Thoughtcleave."

  Her Will pulled itself into a blade, guided by her mind. Liv pushed some of the lightning inhabiting her body into the strike as well, causing it to speed up, its power increasing by leaps and bounds. Her water emerged along with it, tempering the blade. It suddenly grew supple, losing its brittleness and speeding up ever so slightly more.

  The black-armored elf, somehow, threw up his fist, holding it in the way of the attack. The black armor contested with the Will, holding the Thoughtcleave back for a second before it broke, the blade cutting off the elf's hand, which fell to the floor, blood trickling out of it. It twitched, then lay still. The elf in the shell brought his stump up in front of his face for inspection, watching with an eyeless mask as the black armor flowed to cover it, preventing any more blood from dripping out. Liv watched as a spear grew out of the end of the hand, a built-in weapon for the elf to use.

  Liv felt at her Voice pool. It was rapidly growing, under the stress of the battle, but she couldn't even feel the pain with how much it hurt everywhere else. Her newfound Will sat next to it, the two energies partially merging but also pushing each other away. Her pool of Will was much smaller, about half the size of her Voice. Liv grabbed both energies. Here goes nothing.

  A mouth appeared on the black-armored elf's face. "How did you obtain Will? Only one discipline is available to each person, and only certain attunements within that discipline."

  Liv didn't deign to answer, the energies spiraling up her arms, Voice on her left and Will on her right. The elf finally noticed something was going on, his face snapping towards the power flowing up her arms. "Combining them will only result in disaster. Surrender."

  Liv finally spoke, though it wasn't to answer, but to ask a question of her own. "Why aren't you attacking with your own power?," she asked, watching the man. "You've only used physical attacks."

  The elf shook his head. "I will answer that if and only if you join us."

  Liv laughed. "So never, then," she said with a grin as the energies finally reached her palms.

  "Even if the combining won't help you, I need to stop you, just in case," The elf said, sighing.

  The black armor raised the spearhead on its arm, rushing at Liv. She pooled the energy into her hands, and then put them together, letting them mingle. Pain burned through her as they both resisted, the Will sending tremors through her mind and the Voice madly altering her emotions. Liv gritted her teeth and kept combining them. As the armored elf ran at her, she floated the droplet that she'd condensed in front of her.

  Instinctively, she knew what it was. A drop of Aether.

  It called, and showed her images of endless power, if she would sacrifice her friends to it. Liv refused its call, forcing it to obey. The drop of Aether flowed into a circle, and Liv flooded it with all the power she had.

  Acting as a catalyst, the Aether shot off a beam of light directly at the armored man. He held up a hand, attempting to push through. The light was burning him, the black armor melting off while his flesh slowly disintegrated, his arm bone showing and then dissolving. He kept approaching, closer and closer. The armor on his face started to burn off, but the elf continued, getting ever closer.

  I'm not going to make it!, Liv thought, the inevability of the elf finally reaching her. The Aether, slowly being consumed, spoke to her.

  In return for the death of your friend, you will gain infinite power.

  Liv knew it was true, even though the words disgusted her. If she killed Vivian, she would become incredibly strong, enough to bat away the man walking at her with a single hand.

  She would also lose her humanity.

  Liv kept up the blast as the man reached her, about to rip through the Aether. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. Liv turned.

  Vivian stood next to her, and suddenly, Note coursed into the spell she had made, increasing its power tenfold. Vivian smiled at Liv, increasing her output of power. The elf screamed as the radiance ripped through the last of his armor. He fell back, the wave of light physically pushing him away.

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  Then, it was over.

  All that was left was a pile of ashes and a massive line of destruction. Liv felt the Aether she held disappear as she wobbled and fell.

  Vivian caught her, and Liv dreamily smiled at her. "I need to go back to my own world," Vivian said. "Next time, you'll be the one helping me."

  Liv nodded as Vivian laid her on the forest floor.

  A few seconds later, she was asleep.

  Liv woke up in the room the elves had given her. She pulled her arms up, attempting to stretch. Pain hit her. Liv frowned. What?

  Then she noticed her arms. Radiant scars grew down each one of them, twisting light reaching up to her forearm. Slowly, they were fading, but Liv could tell they would take at least a couple months to go away. She looked down at the rest of her body, noticing its decrepit state.

  Liv scowled. What had happened?  

  She reached into herself, looking for her energy. She found her Voice, as usual, but next to it was an extra pool. Of Will.

  Suddenly, it all came back to her. The battle, absolutely melting the man, and Vivian materializing in her world. She looked at the room around her. They must have found her afterwards and brought her back. She lay down again. There wasn't anywhere she could go like this, not unless she wanted to fall down a set of stairs and hit her head.

  The floor creaked, forming into a set of stairs which Jade walked up.

  "How are you doing?," Jade softly asked, sitting down on the bed.

  "Pretty well, frankly. If I could heal faster that would be cool, but otherwise, nothing."

  Jade nodded. "You're already healing at an enhanced rate. Five times, to be exact."

  Liv gaped. "How?"

  "Our healers are, like, good. Really good," Jade replied. "So, a couple things."

  Liv listened attentively. "One. Those scars going down your arms-we can't heal them. We don't know what they are, but when we showed them to a seer, the seer told us to tell you to stop playing with Aether, or you'll eventually give in to its requests."

  Liv blanched. "Oh."

  Jade nodded. "She was really serious about it, too. All like 'tell her this is really important blah blah blah.'. So, anyways, what is this Aether she was talking about?"

  "I'm not telling you about it."

  "Pardon?"

  "I'm not telling you about it, for your own safety."

  "Pretty please?"

  "No."

  "Pleeeease?"

  "No."

  Jade pouted. "Why not?"

  Liv sighed, turning her head slightly towards Jade. "Aether isn't something you want to know about. Don't."

  Jade finally nodded, sighing in an imitation of Liv. "Fine. She also told us that if you create any other 'higher energies' to be careful, because they'll wreck you just as much, and some are more dangerous than Aether."

  Liv nodded. So no combining other disciplines.

  "Lastly, we found a massive line of destruction next to you. Did you make that?"

  Liv slowly nodded. "Yeah."

  "And did it have something to do with Aether?"

  Liv debated whether to verify it. In the end, she did, nodding.

  "So, do you just want the power to yourself?"

  Liv shook her head. "Aether's dangers aren't in how strong it is. The dangers are in... what it does to people. Even if you discover it on your own-stay away from it."

  Jade wilted at Liv's words. "Fine."

  The queen walked in, finding Jade pouting on Liv's bed. "Is Jade bothering you?"

  Liv nodded. "Yes."

  The queen laughed as Jade glared at Liv. "Okay. So, what can you tell us about Aether?"

  "Don't use it. Even if you find it yourself, stay away from it."

  The queen nodded, accepting the comment. Liv blinked, surprised. "You're not going to prod me about it?"

  The queen shook her head. "You're the one who apparently used it. The seer's telling you not to use it anymore, and you're refusing to tell me what it is. I think it would be a good idea to stay away from this Aether."

  Liv nodded. "Yeah."

  The queen sat down. "So, what exactly happened that entire time?"

  Liv started narrating the battle from her perspective, leaving out her Will, Vivian, and the Aether.

  The queen listened quietly while Jade fidgeted, unable to sit still.

  "So, are the holes in your story related to Aether?"

  Liv shook her head. "Not all of them. I have other secrets."

  Jade jumped up. "Tell us!," she started chanting.

  Liv shook her head. "One of them, I'm not telling you and it does not harm you that I don't. The other one... I'm not telling anyone about h-it, no matter who they are."

The queen smiled. "You almost slipped there, dear."

  Liv smiled back. "So, what next?"

  The queen stood, grabbing Jade's arm. "You lie there and heal for a month."

  Liv nodded. "I'll get some peace and quiet, finally."

  She started walking down the stairs, dragging an unwilling Jade with her. "You have one more visitor!," the queen called over her shoulder.

  Liv waited for them to enter. Zara walked into the room, wearing surprisingly casual clothes, just a shirt and pants. Liv raised an eyebrow questioningly. "So, after the battle, the queen gave me the title of commander," Zara said.

  "That's great!," Liv said, grinning.

  "No, not so much. I have to walk around, talk to people, and engage in politics," Zara said, almost spitting out her last word.

  Liv laughed. "Only politicians like politics."

  "I know, right?"

  Liv nodded. "So, what'd you come to visit for?"

  Zara shrugged. "I felt like it."

  Liv nodded once more, her neck tiring from all this nodding. "So, is there anything else you have to talk about? I'm out of ideas."

  Zara stared at her awkwardly for a couple seconds. "I don't have anything either."

  Liv felt the awkward silence grow before she cut it short. "It looks like neither of us is a sparkling conversationalist."

  Zara snorted. "True. Imma go now, then."

  Liv nodded one last time, her neck starting to feel the burn. "I'd wave, but my arms would probably blind you."

  Zara walked away, raising a hand over her shoulder as an acknowledgement, leaving Liv laying in her bed.

  She stared at the leafy ceiling for a while before falling asleep again.

  Jay watched Liv, sleeping in her bed. She'd grown since the last time, starting to consort with higher energies. He pulled out some of his Aether reservoir and watched it attempt to influence him before banishing it once again. He shook his head. As you combined energies to get to the true energy that they'd all started from, evil started seeping in, until you got to the true energy, which was something he rarely dared handle, himself.

  He watched the world for a little while, before disappearing in a blast of Domination, not that anyone on this world knew what that was.