Rieren wasn’t sure how much time passed before she became aware of Kalvia standing before her. She looked up. The Empress was grimacing at the condition of her arm.

“It is not too bad,” Rieren said. It didn’t help that her voice sounded a bit choked in pain. “My Perk is already healing it up.”

It was. Divine Resilience was already reconstructing the missing flesh, bones, blood and everything else that Rieren had sliced off. She just needed to keep the wound open so that the Perk recreated the whole arm instead of just closing up the stump.

“I found this,” Kalvia said.

She offered an arm that was covered with a white sleeve and looking partially crushed in the forelimb area, just behind the wrist.

Rieren stared. “That…”

“Is your arm, yes.” Kalvia knelt, looking a little unsure of herself, before placing the wounded end against the spot where Rieren’s shoulder ended. “Wait, it doesn’t fit. I thought I retrieved your arm.”

“No.” Rieren laughed a little, then winced in renewed pain. “You did. Thank you. My Perk simply healed up the wound enough that the spot where the old limb would have been reattached has simply been regenerated over. So now, you have more of my arm than I need.”

“So… do we simply cut it shorter?”

“Yes.”

They proceeded to do just that. Kalvia placed the sliced-off limb on the ground. Rieren took up her sword and chopped off everything behind the elbow. Next came the waiting.

“Abyss, there’s so much blood,” Kalvia muttered. “I also feel like it shouldn’t be this…”

Rieren raised an eyebrow. “Mechanical?”

“Yes. It’s like you’re crafting a doll.”

“Mm. Well, the rest of this is going to take some time. I need to wait until my healing has regenerated my arm all the way to the elbow and then attach the rest of the limb to hasten the last of the healing.”

“How long?”

Rieren shrugged with her non-injured shoulder. “Perhaps half an hour? At the very least.”

“And you’ll need to keep your wound open all that time?”

She was concerned about the blood loss, which was valid. Rieren was losing a lot of it.

“Worry not,” Rieren said. “All the blood that is being lost is being regenerated too. “Plus—” She tapped the piece of torn cloth she had wrapped tightly around her wound. “This will stem the blood flow for a while.”

Kalvia didn’t look very convinced, but she gave up being worried. Instead, she looked at the Banishedborn’s body not far from them, lying face down on the earth. “I can’t believe it. He’s actually dead, right?”

“I should think so. Even Banishedborn are not immune to getting stabbed through the skull.” Rieren paused. “So long as they are starved for Essence, that is.”

“Still. We actually did it. We killed a Banishedborn.”

Rieren wouldn’t have gone that far. They had only killed Avel after Starloper had drained away his Essence and wounded him severely. If Avel had been at full strength, every single one of them would have been wiped out. “I would say we did well to take advantage of our circumstances.”

Kalvia snorted. “That we did.”

Rieren wanted some distraction from the pain, so they resolved to get moving and rejoin the others.

The intensity of the battle had lessened a great deal. In fact, as Kalvia and Rieren made it to the lip of the crater, leaving the Banishedborn’s body behind, they found that the battles had basically ended. Rieren couldn’t spot any sign of Starloper anywhere, or of the former Aryoventos Clanmaster.

Even the old Emperor’s fight was dying down. But the fact that it was still ongoing meant they at least had a direction they could head towards.

Things were still a little too bright around His Imperial Majesty, but Rieren’s eyes adjusted before too long. The Forborne Emperor was still dying, still aflame, but still powerful. He was using said power to cave in the skull of the only Banishedborn still left in the vicinity.

Rieren could feel Kalvia trembling as they approached her father.

“Where are the other two?” she asked. “I thought there were four assaulting him.”

Rieren looked around some more, found no sign of the others save the marks they had left upon the battlefield. “Escaped.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“No sign of Starloper either,” Rieren said. “Nor of Aryoventos. I believe they must have gone after the Banishedborn who escaped.”

The old Emperor hadn’t done so. Probably couldn’t, with the flames of fate itself likely locking him down.

“Do you come to witness my descent?” he asked.

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He was aware of their presence. Beside Rieren, Kalvia tensed further. Rieren had little idea how things between the Emperor and his bastard daughter had been at court. She knew they certainly hadn’t been close. But had Kalvia ever spoken with her father so directly before?

Zhouven raised his arm once more and smashed it down. The head he was hammering had already been crushed to bloody paste, bits of flesh and bone flying off at every impact.

“Isn’t he dead?” Kalvia asked.

“He’s a Banishedborn,” Zhouven said. Rieren realized his voice had an airy, aethereal quality to it. Like that of a god. “They don’t die easily, daughter.”

Kalvia’s mouth turned into a sharp line for a second. “You think you have the right to call me that?”

Zhouven slammed his fist down on the dead Banishedborn’s skull again. Poor Golvor was long gone by this point. His eyes flashed with the same sharpness, the same ruthlessness with which he had lashed out at Aryoventos. “You think you have the right to defy a god?”

“You think you have what it takes to destroy everything you yourself built up and put so much effort into?”

That made him stop killing his already-dead foe. He rose to his feet, turning to face them. Much of his form was obscured by those black-red flames eating away at his body. But his golden, shining face was free, as was the smile he bore. “It seems I can leave behind things in capable hands.”

Kalvia was doing a remarkable job of appearing cold and uncaring. Like she wasn’t facing a father who had ignored her for most of her life, who had probably never bothered to acknowledge her till this moment. “More capable than yours.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.” This time, it was Rieren who spoke. “You were always stubborn, Zhouven. You acted as your position demanded. However good and kind you might have been in some respects, you were still a willful, obstinate Emperor who did what he believed was right, regardless of any other perspectives.”

Zhouven considered her for a moment. “Are we that different, in truth, Arianaele?”

“We were not. But I like to think that, unlike you, I have grown a little in this new life of mine.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the former Aryoventos Clanmaster returning from wherever he had gone. He settled down in front of the old Emperor, falling to one knee before his liege. Apparently, Rieren’s earlier assumptions about things being awkward between them might have been unfounded.

“We have dealt with the last of the Banishedborn, sire,” Elam Aryoventos said. “The ones here, at least. Some have escaped.”

Zhouven pointed down at the crushed pulp at his feet. “You should have done what I did. They can’t escape when they’re more or less liquified.”

The Banishedborn lowered his head in actual shame. “A great failing on my part, sire.”

“You have an opportunity to make up for it.”

Aryoventos looked up, eyes shining. “Truly? Name it, sire! I will do whatever is asked of me.”

“Follow the other Banishedborn. I fail to recall his name. Star-something? He’s pursuing the last of the Divine interlopers that escaped us, yes? Go after him, join him in his endeavour, and ensure that none of the Banishedborn remain to plague the Elderlands.”

“But sire… I am a Banishedborn now.”

“Then you ought to know what you must do to complete the mission I’ve assigned you.”

The former Aryoventos Clanmaster stared up at the old Emperor. Rieren wondered if they had finally reached his breaking point. If they had finally found the point where he would refuse to stop working for this liege that he had latched onto and rebel.

Elam Aryoventos slowly rose to his feet, then nodded shortly. “I will see that your wish is fulfilled, sire.”

“Go, then.”

“And sire… what of you? All these flames, this incursion from fate itself… is there a way to reverse it? To stop it, at the very least?”

“Cease your worrying over such inconsequential matters and do as I command.”

“Yes, sire.”

With a quick turn, the former Clanmaster broke apart into dust and was gone.

Zhouven’s smile was back. “I knew I would miss this.”

“Miss what?” Kalvia asked with a sour look. “Treating people like dogs?”

“Treating dogs like dogs, yes. I will leave you with one final piece of advice, daughter. Once you sit on the throne, find the dogs and find the people. Treat them as they deserve to be treated. Stick to that tenet, and your reign will likely last longer than even mine did.”

“I don’t intend to make your mistakes, sorry.”

The old Emperor looked like he was rubbing his temple, like a wary parent with an unruly child, but it was hard to tell with the dark flames smothering him. His gaze flickered to Rieren. “You will be by her side, yes Arianaele?”

Rieren side-eyed at Kalvia, who looked back at her with no small amount of dubiousness. “I want to say no, Zhouven, if only because the new Empress detests you so much that associating with your wish will only make me appear lesser in her eyes.” Then she laughed shortly, wincing at the pain at her regenerating arm. “But yes, I will be there.”

“Then I am satisfied.”

“You should not be. I will not be there to root out the last of the gods’ corruption. I will be there to raise myself to the position you failed to hold. Once and for all, I will end the gods’ ability to ruin the Mortal Realm. Your empire, Zhouven, does not concern me one whit.”

“Of course. I suspected—”

He paused. The burning flames were now claiming his neck and mouth. Their conversation would now need to end.

Zhouven raised one hand at them and forced his last words out. “Fate may have claimed me for going against it.” His voice was broken, burning like the rest of him. “But I have left my mark on all that I sought to reach for. Even in the Celestial Realm. In this way, I will remain immortal…”

The dark flames claimed the rest of the old Forborne Emperor and finally burned away his existence.

“Of course,” Rieren said. “Even when dying, he has to have the last word.”

“Just like him,” Kalvia agreed.

She didn’t sound sad at all that his father was now dead. For good. She would not be seeing him again. Rieren couldn’t fault her for that, but the idea of not loving her father was rather foreign to her. She wondered how Atelen was doing back on Lionshard Mountain.

“Hold on,” Kalvia said. “What is that?”

She stepped forward. At the spot where the Emperor had burned away, something glimmered metallically. Kalvia reached down and picked it up.

Rieren frowned. “A locket?”

“An emblem.” For the first time since they had come here, Kalvia didn’t sound like she was here to fight. She didn’t sound like she was backed up against a wall, forced to defend herself against an insurmountable foe. “This is the emblem of the imperial clan. I—I thought this was lost in the chaos of the battle, that it was gone for good…”

“Judging by your reaction,” Rieren said. “I assume that will be rather helpful.”

“Yes!” Kalvia turned to her with a smile in her eyes. She still wouldn’t actually smile, not with how she felt about her father. But even then, she understood just how much he had helped them in the end. “With this, there’s going to be no resistance from the clan when I try to claim the throne. My position was already assured, mostly, but this will cement it in surety.”

Rieren smiled enough for the both of them. “Then it is a good thing we came here, in the end.”

“I suppose you’re right. It is a good thing.”

Kalvia looked down at the glimmering emblem in her hands, her face glowing with wonder. Rieren winced a little, then reattached her arm. Her elbow had regenerated thanks to her Perk. Now Divine resilience just had to fix up the injuries in her forearm and she would be good as new.

Rieren turned away. Distantly, she felt other glimmers of Essence coalescing together to one location. “Come on. I know where we are needed next.”

Kalvia slipped the emblem into her robe. “I think I know as well. We’ve got a lot of a work ahead of us.”

Rieren glanced around at the devastated battlefield, at the remainder of the tournament grounds she had fought in not long ago. “That we do.”