The soul fled, separating from its host desperately as it tried to make sense of the memories it had been subjected to. It spun out into a storm of red heat as it was flung back towards its origin.

Orion’s awareness slammed back into his body as his sense of self abruptly returned alongside the memories of Arika’s past. He could see her clearly now, his eyes and brain able to translate the decipher the way her body shimmered as if through waves of heat. Even disoriented as he was, he could tell no time had passed while they were joined. His Swap ability was still on cooldown, only a few seconds removed from its timer. He looked for Cain, but saw neither man nor corpse.

Hopefully, he burned to ash.

Now that he could see her, Arika’s lined face was frozen and contorted in a rictus snarl, the wailing scream of the swirling flames almost seeming to come from her open mouth. Her hair whipped around wildly above her head, lifted skyward by an unseen draft. Blood dripped from her eyes, quickly evaporating and leaving black drips of ash running down her face. Her eyes were rolled back into her skull, her senses trapped inside the prison of her mind.

Orion’s tears were burned away as they formed, the liquid not standing a chance against the white-hot heat this close to Arika. With his abilities returned to him, he teleported himself directly to her and reached out with his arms, intent on embracing her.

He was violently expelled from her immediate vicinity. He landed awkwardly and painfully.

One Charge Remaining.

Thankfully, he hadn’t been thrown too far; he could still see Arika. He got back to his feet and took another step, yelling her name at the top of his lungs. His own voice could barely be heard over the barrage of wind and flames that assailed his senses. She didn’t respond at all, her face and body frozen in defiance.

Searing pain tore into Orion’s calf as something hit him and he stumbled forward. He looked down, worried that a piece of debris had struck him. Instead, he saw a much more straightforward, yet equally terrifying cause: the blackened, glowing from between cracked-skin form of Cain was behind him. Cain’s arm was outstretched, a purple-glowing dagger gripped by charred fingers.

Senses overwhelmed by Arika’s soul as they were, Orion hadn’t noticed the signature of his Time Bomb ability still active on Cain. Now that he looked down in his direction, he could sense it as clearly as his own hand.

His attacker smiled savagely, and Orion saw the same purple glow lingering on the open slash that ran down his calf. In that moment, his Swap came off cooldown, and he used it immediately on Cain. He didn’t swap Cain away from Arika. No, this time—remembering his own violent expulsion—he swapped the man directly into the white center of the storm, just above and to the side of her.

Cain flew away. His position caused him to arc further skyward, and Orion hoped the subsequent landing would be enough to finish the man off and trigger the execute damage. As he flew, they locked eyes. Cain grinned. Even as the Amulet of Fire Protection around Cain’s neck shattered, he bared his teeth at Orion; even as the skin on his face burned and melted away, the smile remained.

Before he could fly out of Orion’s limited vision, the light from within Cain detonated. He squinted his eyes at the bright flash but didn’t look away. By the time the light from the detonation had subsided, Cain’s ashes had been burned away, scattered among the flames.

Orion braced himself against the storm and took another step towards Arika.

No Charges Remaining.

Orion grit his teeth as he pushed forward with the last charge of the amulet active, doing his best to ignore the burning agony of his lacerated calf. He forged a path toward her, the force beginning to make his muscles ache and stiffen. His throat and lungs burned as he breathed deep, trying to get any amount of oxygen to his protesting legs.

He had eyes only for Arika.

He fixated on her, feeling the power inside her continue to swell, just as her body continued to unravel and expand. His body did the same, wisps of black swirling out and seeming to orbit him as his soul thrummed along in response to hers.

The heat was immense; the force buffeting him as he tried to take another step. His leg buckled, the damaged calf giving way under the pressure. Desperately, he took a flask from his ring and drank deeply.

The same second the dose of his miraculous potion was recognized, the flask shattered, the rapid boiling of the contents too much for the glass container. Boiling liquid shot down his gullet, and shards of glass ripped into his face and hand.

The pain was agonizing, and he fell to his knees as he became unable to breathe through a burned and cut throat. He felt the flames lick at the exposed wounds, fire cauterizing even through the protection of the amulet.

Though his soul seemed to expand and disperse, his body was still in the same physical shape. He felt the path of each shard of glass along his skin, each cut and bruise, and the rawness of his throat. He used these sensations to center himself as he got back to his feet.

Blessedly, the soothing effect of the potion followed, and while the air that entered his lungs was laced with burning heat, he was able to breathe. As he’d suspected, the purple glow of Cain’s attack was preventing his lower leg from healing, and the flames danced upon the wound there. He forced the pain aside, focusing on each step as he got back to hit feet and walked towards Arika.

He lost sense of time and space, focused only on the sensations of pain in his body, and the place in the distance he had to get to.

Step after agonizing step, he approached his destination.

The last charge of the amulet expired, and the item around his neck disintegrated.

His skin tightened, causing a moment of confusion before the pain registered in his brain. The burning waves of sensation rippled across his skin, his body no longer able to ground him as his mind tried to process the input. All he felt was a single, all-encompassing source of pain.

A wave of healing washed over him from the potion, the relief immense as cracked and burned skin knitted together in the space between seconds. The reprieve was short-lived, however, as the healing pulse subsided and his body was once more able to burn all over again.

Unable to move, unable to sense anything other than the ball of agony that was his awareness, he existed in that state for what felt like an eternity. Another wave of healing washed over him, and with it, a moment of clarity: he could force himself out.

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He had his abilities to get far, far away from this place. He could escape this torture as soon as he wanted; he could simply force his abilities to obey in the state his body was in.

Before the wave of healing could expire, and the world once more became a place of pain and torture, Orion stepped into space and teleported.

Instead of away, he appeared on top of Arika. He latched onto her with his arms as firmly as he could. Her snarling mouth buried into the black robes of his chest as he held tight to her. A rush of what he could only describe as anger pulsed out from her, but he held on fast. A moment later, anger turned to fury, and the heat of the surrounding flames seemed to double—triple. The force was immense, and the fire started to burn through the healing effect of his potion.

Just like that, with his arms wrapped around her, his lungs desperately screaming her name, the healing wave expired.

Orion was engulfed by flames.

***

She railed against the injustice as she poured her soul out. In that moment, she was wrath incarnate; she would sooner burn everything to the ground than allow herself to be controlled.

She felt no pain, only a slowly growing sense of weariness and exhaustion. She felt sleep approaching, and she awaited it like a blazing hillside waits for cleansing rains to begin the cycle of life anew.

She could no longer recall exactly what had angered her so. There was an incident, a memory, something… but even as she grasped at it, it fled, like the recollection of a dream upon waking. The cause hardly mattered, however. The emotion remained, and whatever or whoever had made her feel this way deserved the retribution that would consume them.

She could feel the other power approaching her again. She had pushed it away once already after it yelled that same word one too many times. How could a single word be so familiar, yet held no meaning? It frustrated her to no end.

While she could tell that it wasn’t the entity that had offended her, she had no desire to let it approach. In fact, her senses told her that this entity actually had good intentions and seemed as though it wanted to help her in some way.

That intention only made things worse.

She didn’t need help from anyone; she held the power to do what she desired. The sun doesn’t ask the moon for help lighting the sky—in the same manner, she need not rely on the inconsequential abilities of others.

A flicker of power from that other entity, and it appeared on top of her. Had she been deceived? Had it hidden its true nature and position, only to reveal its true self once upon her? It yelled that same word, loud and drawn out, so close as to drown out the beautiful sounds of her wrath made manifest.

No… it hadn’t hidden its nature. She could feel it clearer now, seeing to the true heart of this alien thing. It didn’t want to help her… it wanted to save her. The fibers of her being screeched in outrage, and she tried to throw it away again, but it held on to her, physically latched onto her body in order to remain close.

In response, she opened the floodgates to her inner being, allowing a torrent of focused power to spew forth and cleanse the offending entity from existence.

Letting so much of her being out at once was painful, but it was a means to an end. She felt it burn to ash and knew the battle between them was finished.

The sounds of the world burning around her returned now that the entity was gone, and she was content. She reigned in her power—intent on returning to the comfortable flow rather than the painful torrent—until she felt it again.

Before her senses, she felt it regenerate, and the effect of her flames was reversed by some means. Annoyingly, even after she thought it burned to ash, it didn’t feel anguish, despair, or even hatred—it only felt a need to protect and save her.

A moment of the blessed sound of crackling wood and gouts of air lingered before it was healed enough to make that wretched sound again. It called that single word, that single, frustrating word that meant everything yet nothing to her.

She focused her fury once more as she opened the dam inside wide to her power and slammed it into the thing.

***

It was a blessing when Orion’s skin and nerves had burned completely away.

The renewal of his body—and unfortunately, his pain receptors—was a slow and agonizing experience, despite the fact it only lasted seconds. The healing wave numbed his cracked and burned body, and even though he could feel the flames still licking at his bubbling skin, the cool, tingling sensation of the potion’s healing was the most welcome thing he had ever experienced.

Blessedly, the heat seemed to back off—either that, or he was growing accustomed to it. Even if Arika wasn’t expending her own life, he couldn’t live through that pain again. He had to get her attention now, lest they both burn away into nothing.

His flesh healed enough for his lips to move and his throat to handle air. He sucked in a deep breath, the sensitive tissue of his lungs burning in protest of the surrounding heat that he invited in.

He screamed her name. He poured his emotion and intent out through every fiber of his being, trying to reach her with his emotions, as hers had reached him. He only needed to do so for a brief moment before her response was given.

She responded with radiating hatred. The heat bore down on him again, just in time for the wave of healing from his potion to end.

Knowing what was about to befall him, he was unable to keep the despair at bay. He tried to scream, only for fire to pour down his throat.

***

She rejoiced as it burned. Her soul vibrated with victory as the sound disappeared, and the desperate need to save her was forgotten by the thing latched onto her, washed away by all-encompassing despair.

It burned down again, that which was healed once more being reduced to nothing before her storm.

She knew better than to reduce the flow of power despite her feeling it burn away. She was proven correct as, frustratingly, it started to regenerate again. From a burned husk, a strange power caused the body to grow from within itself.

Worse, despair was cast aside. Despite being burned alive, scorched to the literal bone, as its flesh returned, so too did the desire to protect her—to save her.

She screamed in frustration at the resilience of this foe. An actual scream rattled out from within her, adding to the wail of flames and wind that circled them both. She ripped her reservoir wider in anger.

The answering pain that came from her very soul brought her spirit to its knees. For a moment, she considered easing back, letting the power return to a trickle. After only another moment’s thought, though, she braced herself and held the gate open wide.

The pain was a worthy price to pay in order to rid her of this pitying adversary.

***

Unfortunately, Orion’s awareness returned to him as his nerves were regenerated once more. He wasn’t aware when it had occurred, but he had lost consciousness as he burned, his faculties returning as the next healing wave kicked in.

The cool, tingling sensation of the potion’s healing provided a moment of peace before memory and despair returned.

His body continued to heal, but Arika’s soul lashed out in response, increasing the heat even more. It began to match the healing of the potion, the unimaginable power and heat pouring from within her becoming something entirely new. He heard, or rather, felt, her soul scream with rage as more and more power ripped through her.

With his only source of reprieve overwhelmed, and knowing that this new wave of power from Arika would kill him, Orion experienced a moment of clarity.

He realized that this was a targeted attack. Arika wasn’t just increasing the power of the storm, she was intentionally trying to overwhelm him specifically—she was trying to kill him.

Rather than flinching back from the knowledge like the hand of a child the first time it feels the kiss of a hot pan, he embraced it.

If Arika was trying to incinerate him; that meant one thing: she was not aware of who he was to her. He readily admitted to himself that he didn’t understand ninety-nine percent of what made her tick, but he did know one thing for certain: just like himself, Arika cared about her friends more than anything.

If she wasn’t aware of who he was, he would just have to make himself known. Hope took its rightful place above despair in his mind as he once more saw a path forward.

Orion reached deep within, grasping at the very source of his soul, the sphere-like object he pictured in his mind when he tried to go beyond his abilities’ bounds. He grabbed that object firmly in his grasp.

He squeezed.

His vision swam as small cracks formed on the surface of of it. He felt part of himself leaking out from the cracks and unraveling his very being.

The fire burned him further, his barely renewed skin beginning to melt away.

He squeezed with all his might, more cracks forming as his soul trembled inside and more of his body lost its form.

The flames reached deep down into his muscles, and his consciousness threatened to flee as the little healing provided by the potion began to sputter out.

He squeezed, twisted, and placed every ounce of will he had on the orb clutched within his perception.

It trembled.

Tendons and ligaments snapped as the heat increased and caused muscles to contract—but he no longer felt any of it. He only felt the clutched orb and the invisible hands he caressed it within.

With a final push, he squeezed tendrils of force into the cracks, sending them deep into its core.

The orb shattered, and Orion was lost.