He stands, whole once again. But missing his arm.

A sense of immense revulsion washes over you as you watch Der’ii slowly and shakily walk forward toward you, bathed in multicolored, scintillating flames.

“Run.” You say quickly to L’Neeri, who stands transfixed by the terrible light show.

“What? Whe–”

“Just run!” You turn, dragging the man with the silver hair with you. L’Neeri doesn’t object, he allows you to pull him along as he watches over his shoulder.

The flaming Branded One growls, flames flowing off his one arm-less body. He almost seems to wrestle with himself, twitching and writhing, head lashing back and forth as tongues of flame of every color blaze around him, burning waves of charcoal into the wood of the Titan Tree underfoot. Der’ii roars again, dashing wildly after you like a crazed, wild animal. He scrambles, occasionally using his only remaining hand to steady himself as he trips and falls, fire jetting behind him and propelling him forward after you.

“Do your thing!” Your best friend yells desperately from next to you. The two of you leap out over the abyss, your stomach lurches as gravity takes hold before the light envelops you. You hold as tight to L’Neeri as you can, pulling him along at breakneck speed.

Der’ii explodes after you, his cascade of fire obliterating the brach that you leaped from. You flee out over the clouds, attempting to lead Der’ii away from your home. He follows without hesitation, his blistering flames incinerating the smaller, outer branches and leaves of the Titan Tree.

“Down! Into the underworld!” L’Neeri shouts over the rushing wind, his eyes squinted against the assailing sky. You shoot downward, Der’ii in close pursuit, breaking through the cloud layer into the twisting, monstrously massive roots of the Titan Trees.

You and your pursuer dance among the waves of wood, diving, ducking, and weaving around roots whose diameters could house houses. Der’ii screams in frustration, reaching with his remaining hand in a futile attempt to grasp you.

You lead him across the expanse, past roots and alien Titan Trees alike, Your passage barely disturbs the verdant life upon the roots, only for it all to be annihilated by Der’ii’s incinerating fire.

Der’ii suddenly begins firing projectiles at the two of you. Spinning wheels of horrible, scintillating plasma that leaks scorching heat pass mere inches from your left side, blazing their effervescent paths downward. Three of the wheels violently explode upon impact with a root below, sending it and their brethren plummeting into the abyss.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The barrage of flame wheels continues, all coming so close to you. You dodge to the best of your ability, once required to shoot one out of the sky with a well-placed bolt.

Der’ii grows ever more wrathful, now making more complex maneuvers instead of simply chasing. He begins attempting to cut your turns off and firing wheels from his hand to box you in.

He was learning.

You maneuver under a particularly large root that arcs up like an Aso’une’aawn in carefree flight, attempting to loop around and catch Der’ii off guard.

The ablaze man isn’t fooled. He goes over the root instead of under, slamming right into you and L’Neeri. Both of you plummet as Rising Star dissipates, tumbling head over heels, Der’ii careens past the impact point before looping back around.

You and the silver-haired man reassert yourselves, both righting yourselves in the air above the root.

Der’ii approaches rapidly, his propellant cone of flame extending behind him like a cape of death.

“We confront him on the root!” You yell, “No holding back, we aren’t near home!”

L’Neeri nods, falling to the wood below to dodge the approaching demise. Der’ii wastes no time following.

Der’ii lands hard, his impact expelling a wave of flame across the wood. You leverage Rising Star to zip up and over it and L’Neeri deftly leaps over it, unchained to the earth’s pull.

The two of you land on either side of your foe, simultaneously striking him as Der’ii roars in pain. You follow through with your light-empowered punch before blasting light the other way, propelling your hand the way it came. You backhand Der’ii with as much force as you can muster. He stumbles right into L’Neeri, who sweeps his feet out from under him by grabbing his legs and pulling. Der’ii’s bruised face slams into the root underfoot as he accidentally attempts to use his non-existent hand to catch himself.

L’Neeri’s hand presses into Der’ii’s prone back before he can get himself up, and the Branded One suddenly falls up into the air.

Right into your waiting hands. You zip up into the air, intercepting Der’ii’s falling body. You, in Rising Star, grab ahold of him before slamming him back into the root below.

You stand atop his broken body for only a heartbeat, and you hear him speak.

“I… need… more…”

Suddenly, an explosion of fire and fury shakes the underworld, knocking you away from Der’ii. You see him shakily stand up in his charred crater, blood flowing from his broken nose. Something is wrong.

Der’ii has one less finger.

You see L’Neeri, behind Der’ii, leap again. The flaming Branded One whips around, blasting himself into the air to meet him there.

Ochre flames whip and shift, coalescing into a shimmering, jagged hand of flame. Der’ii and L’Neeri clash in the air, Der’ii’s flaming hand and the warped space in L’Neeri’s palm slamming together with an alien, high-pitched scream like the world itself was dying. Der’ii follows through L’Neeri, flying past him as the gravity Branded One lands on the root below. He spins in the air, blasting back down at L’Neeri.

Again and again, they clash, each time that horrible scream echoes from their strikes. Der’ii steadily advances on him, and L’Neeri backpedals.

You activate Rising Star again, shooting towards them, straining to help.

“L’Neeri!” You cry, reaching for him.

He turns to look, and a flaming blade pierces his chest from behind.