I wasn't a complete idiot; I had shifted Focused Invulnerability to nuclear blasts created by myself. That hadn't stopped the blast from shoving me a foot into the metal floor or completely destroying every single item I carried, my costume included. Fortunately it had been over an hour since I'd conjured said costume before, so after scraping off all the glassed dust and bits of metal stuck to my skin via Proximakinesis I reformed it good as new.

That was the only part of me that was good and new, because the battle with the warriors had left my body wrung out and left to dry. Using any skill that required stamina was right out and actually fighting... a normal sword demon could probably wear me out to unconsciousness if it played things smart. My limbs were a twitchy mess, my lungs burned with every breath from exhaustion and my nervous system was in need of a hard reset because every few seconds it insisted I was getting handsy with a Jock. Probably an overload on that stupid magical drug. And everything felt worse because the fight was over and the boost from Empowering Regeneration was fading. In short, facing someone like Mot right now was a pipe dream - not that it mattered. There simply wasn't enough time to take a nap, not with how quickly new monsters could get summoned.

The rest of the room had fared... slightly better, all things told. There was less than a foot of buckling on the floor right around ground zero and while the nearby walls had been thoroughly scorched they had neither torn nor melted. Then again, that desperation plan hadn't in any way been equivalent to a proper nuke. There hadn't been enough material blowing up and the enhancement had stopped the moment any part of it left contact with me so the explosive force had been under a hundred tons of TNT. Maybe significantly less.

As I walked further and further from ground zero, the floor looked less scorched, the walls had fewer surface deformation, the force delivered by the detonation declining sharply with distance. At nearly two hundred feet away anyone trying to tank the blast would have taken thousands of times less kinetic and thermal energy. That was a very good thing; it meant I found Mandy lying inside a circle of completely intact floor rather than an atomic shadow.

"What... the fuck... was that?" she croaked through bloody lips, too beaten up and exhausted to even stand up.

"Pocket nuke," I told her, because why not? It was too late for secrets. "Fortunately the insulation, shielding and reinforcement rings stood up to it well enough." I stared at all the damage under her clothing, the cracked bones and bruised organs. If she hadn't gone all out and thrown around small meteors as party favors those warriors would have killed her. "You look like shit but you'll live," I finally told her, incredibly relieved she didn't have internal bleeding, radiation burns or anything like that that I could see.

"Give me a minute and I'll be fine," she told me then attempted to get up. It didn't work. "OK, make that five minutes. Then we go after the bastard that did this."

I wisely remained silent. Instead, I pulled up my character sheet and assigned the new points I got.

Name: Maya Wennefer Bio: female human, 17y3m16d

Word of Force [49 pts]

Force Adjustment III, Force Awareness II, Forcefield Creation III, Forced Acceleration III, Greater Proximakinesis IV, Immutable Force III, Lasting Force II

Other Powers [34 pts]

Chronal Leap I, Empowering Regeneration IV, Focused Invulnerability II, Instant Action III, Retributive Defense II, Super Suit I, Spatial Distortion II, Spatial Leap I

power points: 0/83

Attributes [0/83]

Might 41, Agility 21, Reason 6, Vigilance 9, Ego 21, Luck 2

A single-point increase after hitting the new tiers in my primary and two secondary attributes didn't feel like much, but every little bit helped. Especially when it came to stamina, one extra point was the equivalent of an hour or more of heavy but not extreme exertion. Fighting for that long without much skill use, fighting for ten minutes with all my non-costly skills fully active, or jumping out of time once or twice for about ten seconds. When I'd been running on fumes that kind of boost was huge. It would also help me recover said stamina faster, though nothing short of a prolonged rest would get me back to full strength.

As for the extra level of Forcefield Creation it made every kinetic manipulation I could make more flexible, more versatile, easier to make and less costly. It was more of a utility improvement, but all of my raw power options would have cost eight points or more; points that I simply didn't have. Except those were just rationalizations and not the actual reason I'd improved that specific skill.

"Are you feeling better?" I asked my best friend, using Proximakinesis to clean her up, set a couple cracked bones properly and getting her to her feet without adding to her injuries. "It's OK if you need more time," I told her, holding hands with her... earnestly.

"No, no, I'm fine." She looked around, but whatever she was searching for she couldn't find it. "Let me find my staff and then we can go kick's that damn Necromancer's ass. Must have spent about half of it blasting those warriors to ash but the other half of the stored energy is still there."

"Good, that's good," I muttered and then reached with my powers. "Sorry about that, by the way."

"About what?" No sooner had Mandy asked the question than a Proximakinetic field picked her up and carried her off back to the floor's entrance. "No, no! Put me down! You can't beat him alone!"

"You're right, Mads. But if you come with you will die." She was already across the chamber, slowly flying to the tunnel we'd forced our way through. "We can catch up for that ice cream later, if we both survive." I remembered the path, the entire map of the tower and beyond. My level of Vigilance and Reason made sure of that, and the information they'd granted I put into the floating spell. I had also tied Force Awareness to the effect and programmed it to avoid monsters the second effect detected. I was much slower and cruder than my flight, would only last for a few minutes and could be far more easily overpowered, but Mandy wasn't a force manipulator. Unless it run its course or she found a way to disable it she'd be kept away from here and away from the worst trouble, which was the whole point.

"Noooooo!!!!" She vanished through the tunnel and I was left to face the greatest threat on my own...

xxxx

The tower's final floor was a cylindrical chamber with entirely unadorned walls of black metal, similarly featureless ceiling and floor, and only three things worth mentioning; a tree of black metal thorns with a crackling halo of red energy forming a loose sphere around it, a throne of the same black metal with the one responsible for the city's destruction sitting upon it... and a young blond girl maybe half my age chained to the floor between me and the throne.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The pale, black-haired, black-eyed man upon the throne started clapping, the harsh sound shattering the silence. His simple black tunic gleamed with red sparks as he did so, like he had decided to tumble in a tub full of glitter. He had no weapon, no tools like Mandy's staff, no enchanted objects that I could tell. Maybe he was so supremely arrogant he'd decided to face the one who'd slain more of his army than any other person in the city in his nightie. Or maybe he was just powerful enough not to need any props.

"Well done, child," he told me in a pleasant conversational tone that sounded disconcertingly mundane, plain even. "You have managed to inconvenience me and live. Many would kill for such an accomplishment."

"Some people will kill each other in the street for their drug of choice," I replied with a shrug. "That doesn't make what they kill for important or meaningful. It only makes those people idiots."

"On that we agree," he nodded amicably. "Yet you cannot deny that such desires gain importance simply because they allow you to manipulate others."

"Manipulating others is too much work. I'd rather spend the same time improving myself or having fun instead." Because if he wanted to argue bullshit philosophy we could definitely do that. I had lots of ideas of my own others often told me were annoying or stupid, by which they meant they didn't like them, so we could waste our time until either I recovered enough to speed-blitz him or his doomsday plot killed us all.

"Not much of a leader, are you?" He smiled. "No matter, leadership is an acquired skill. You could learn it after you graduated the Mavethan magical institution of your choice."

"Seriously? You're giving the whole 'join the dark side' speech?" I walked closer slowly, wary of a trap. He just looked at me with such naked hunger it made me feel rather uncomfortable, for all that I was ninety percent sure it wasn't sexual. "Does anyone ever believe that crap?"

"It is Mavethan policy to make the offer sincerely whenever possible." Sure it was. "As for how many join, you'd be surprised."

The blonde girl's features cleared as if a previously invisible mask was removed from her face and what I saw rooted me to the spot. "NO!" I couldn't help but shout as I saw a face almost the mirror image of my own, except nearly a decade younger. Why was she even here?! She was supposed to be Tampa with gramps not... No! That fucking good-for-nothing psychopathic madman. I'd kill him! I'd kill them both!

"Perhaps now you see the value of manipulation? Sending your disappointingly crude father to collect the rest of his progeny was time well spent, then."

I wasn't really listening. I'd already skipped the intervening distance, using Chronal Leap to arrive next to my younger sister and grabbing that chain to tear it off the ground and - gently! - pry it from around my sister's neck. Lightning crackled the moment I touched it, but compared to the last warrior's attacks it was feeble and barely slowed me down. Then a sound like a crystal chime came off the chain as its links shattered and a glass-like cylindrical wall appeared around us both even as the ceiling dropped on our heads. Without hesitation I grabbed the falling disc and stopped it in its tracks with a grunt of effort.

"Anne, are you OK? Did he... did any of them hurt you?" She just gaped at me, eyes wide. We both mostly ignored Mot's insane prattling and I tried to set the metal ceiling down. Except it fit the transparent cylindrical wall exactly and wouldn't budge in any other direction but up and down.

"Manipulation, my dear, is how and why you willingly trapped yourself in that carefully designed cell, while I am still out here waiting for the ritual to reach completion." A glass full of red liquid appeared in his hand, and he sipped from it. Then he gestured and the ceiling grew suddenly heavier. "I am a master of weather, metal and death magic. Facing me within a tower of metal and lightning filled with undead monsters was a sub-par plan to begin with. Didn't your magic instructor teach you anything at all?"

"What magical instructor?!" I demanded. "You're making even less sense than before." Instead of an answer the detached ceiling increased in weight yet again. Enough so that I had to struggle a little to keep it up.

"You do realize if you don't cooperate I can keep conjuring more metal until your load crushes both your sister and you, right?" True to his words, more weight was added and my arms began to tremble.

Screw this, why was I listening to an insane megalomaniac? I stepped outside of time then charged at the magical wall... except it stopped my attack without budging at all. It wasn't magical; it was a wall of real ice. It had to be enchanted because a dozen blows only formed a few cracks. I had not recovered from my earlier ordeal so I couldn't hold time stopped for long. When it restarted, unless I was holding the ceiling up, it would fall and bruise me... but crush Anne like an egg. I reached for teleportation, then stopped. I could jump out now, but I couldn't teleport others while I was out of time.

Cursing in frustration I got back under the load. Time resumed and I attempted to use Spatial Leap on Anne... and a pulse of dark magic negated it.

"Your ability to employ Time Stop is beyond impressive for someone your age. However, Mavethan mages have long since designed counters to such powers. Not perfect ones but if the enemy can be manipulated to stumble into the trap..." he trailed off, just smirking smugly with the knowledge that he had me exactly where he wanted me; in a trap I'd blindly entered that I was unwilling to pay the sacrifice to escape. "I'll ask again. Who taught you how to harness your abilities? Who has been helping your pitiful resistance all along and what do you know of their designs? You and your sister will be free as soon as I am satisfied with your answers." He leaned back on his throne and sipped something that was probably not wine. "Feel free to take your time, if you want to. But how long can you hold that weight above your head?"

The bastard was right. Drops of sweat were already rolling down my skin and I could see no way to get out along with Anne. If only I had some ranged attack that wasn't... blocked... by ice? That... that could work. I would only get a single chance at it though so I'd better make it count. With some effort, the world around me stood still once more.

I didn't even bother to let go of the weight while shaping the force-field I needed. Not one to hold up the ceiling long enough to get out, that would take too much time... assuming Mot couldn't just repair the ice barrier if he saw me cracking it. Since this would have been a dumb assumption, I formed twin cylinders of Proximakinesis going out of my eyes and as thin as I could make them. The field I set to grab at photons; only a relatively small number of them at a time, with the total amount of force it could apply split among them.

Photons could certainly be affected by force; black holes wouldn't have been black if they couldn't be. You just needed an immense amount of gravity to do so because photons were barely affected by gravity at all. But my Proximakinesis didn't care; the photons were there, they could be affected by force, and I could visualize what I wanted. And much like the strange rules of acting outside of time still let me move through the air, breathe, hear and see, so could my powers affect such things while time was stopped.

Relatively small amounts of photons were redirected and pushed out. I had no idea whether it worked as I thought it did, but my Proximakinesis was applying force over distance, ergo energy. Energy which manifested as constant twin beams of light pointed at what I was looking at. The first few seconds I held time stopped, they drilled narrow holes through the barrier. Then they struck the target I'd aimed at; Mot's throat. Three seconds, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one...

The time-stop lasted longer than any other time as I fed it almost the entirety of my remaining stamina. There was no point saving any for later; if this didn't work there would not be a later. When time resumed a blast akin to a grenade shook Mot's throne while the weight of the detached ceiling pressed down against my exhausted body. Beyond the pierced curtain of ice, the vile sorcerer stumbled off his throne, both hands clutching at the ruin of this throat. Slowly, oh so slowly, his head fell back, his blackened spine snapping like chalk and both head and headless body toppled to the iron floor.

A powerful, revitalizing wave of power flowed through me at the villain's death and I unleashed my new eye-beams upon the ice curtain while holding up the crushing load a while longer. Ten seconds of real-time later, half the ice curtain crumbled and the cylinder of iron I'd been holding up fell sideways. The moment it no longer loomed above ready to crush us both, I picked up a terrified Anne and flew the both of us off the trap.

Behind me, Mot's body shone crimson, sublimating into a mass of glowing mist... a mass that was drawn into the orb of similar radiance tangled in the spiked tree's branches. For a moment, the radiance formed a perfect sphere. Then tiny mouths opened along the branches, sipping in the red light of what I was pretty sure had been many corpses and the tree of iron grew fruit. And those fruit had eyes!!!

We got the hell out of there, me carrying Anne down the floors as quickly as possible without acceleration or air resistance could hurt my little sister. Every second that passed the tower shook more and more, whole swathes of it rusting away while what was left grew more and more eyes. I kept Anne's eyes closed all the way down and ten seconds later we were out.

As shock waves made the ground shake like a stormy sea, Mandy flew closer over a huge pile of rubble. She had somehow found her staff and she was pissed. Only slightly more alarming, the very sky above the tower was torn apart, opening a window to somewhere else with far too few good tourist sites to visit and far too many mountains of spikes full of balefully glaring eyes.

One of those countless mountain peaks from the land beyond what was almost certainly a humongous portal started falling straight towards us...