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

L’Neeri stares at the molten, steaming, curved blade protruding from his abdomen with an almost empty stare. He seems confused at what just occurred.

Rising Star fails, sending you crashing into the root. You bounce and slide, pain flaring from your side as you impact the wood. It seems distant and unimportant, and so you ignore it. You scramble to your feet, dashing forward as Der’ii harshly pulls the blade from L’Neeri’s body before turning and walking away.

“I have done it! Am I good enough for you? Set me FREE!” Der’ii screams to the heavens with raised arms, his flaming arm long since burned away his shirt.

L’Neeri slumps, catching himself weakly with his hand. “Nova?”

You finally reach him, holding his shoulders to steady him. “Come on, get up, we’re not done.”

“Nova, it burns…” His breathing is coming in shallow, his eyes unfocusing and refocusing rapidly. The smell of burnt flesh invades your nostrils, making your eyes water and your nose wrinkle.

“No. No, come on L’Neeri, you can’t die yet.” You say firmly as if trying to force reality to make it so. “You’ll be fine, it’s not over yet.”

L’Neeri, falls to the ground, sitting down on the wood. His brow furrows as if he is trying to remember something. “Why, do I feel this way?”

Tears well up in your eyes, replacing those from the smell. “What do you mean?”

“Sa’Bel! Answer me! Return to me what is mine and set me free!” Der’ii shouts from a little ways away.

“I feel… like I am meant to do this.” L’Neeri whispers, “I feel a weird, connection to you. Like I am physically tied to you.”

“No.” You say weakly, “No no no no no…Shut up! Come on! Stay with me, please!”

He puts a hand to his wound.

L’Neeri begins to ease himself onto his back but you stop him by embracing him.

“I’m just going to rest for a moment, Nova…” You feel blood pooling under him. “I am… tired… Just let me rest–”

“No!” You slap him, trying desperately to keep him awake. “Not yet, don’t go away!” He recoils from the strike, blinking quickly as he holds a bloodstained hand to his cheek.

He sits there, silent and embraced by you. The only sound besides his and your breathing is Der’ii screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Nova–” L’Neeri finally says. His silver-colored hair brushes your face as he turns his head.

“...Yes?” you say as you hold in a sob. He is barely breathing now.

“Don’t cry.” He takes another shallow, weak breath, “Kill him for m–” And he is silent.

You weep. Sobbing silently as you hold his lifeless, burned body in your arms, as Der’ii finally stops shouting at the sky.

The wind blows, rustling the burnt plant life around you as you cry. Brushing against your tattered clothes and your burned skin uncomfortably.

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You kneel there and hold him for some time. Time loses its meaning, why did it need a meaning?

You weep, and then suddenly, you fall through him. There is no contact, no feeling. His body is gone. He simply disappeared. You blink away the fat tears that cloud your vision, searching frantically for your best friend’s body.

Something seems to break like all is coming undone.

Foreign memories suddenly assault you like animals, each clawing at your soul for your direct attention. L’Neeri’s entirety flashing before you. His existence is laid out in front of your eyes. You Know everything about him down to the most minute detail. You see his parents, his friends, you, every embarrassing moment, every triumph, every failing, every pain and bliss he had ever felt, every instant up until he died, all shown to you all at once. You cry out, screaming as your mind, body, and soul shift. You are thrown to your feet, your body writhing, thrashing, and spasming wildly as you stumble around, screaming.

Der’ii looks upon you with horror, he edges away as your body contorts at alien angles. He raises his hands, now restored to him in a warding gesture as you fall down to the root, rolling and spasming. Streams of golden light leak from your body, showering the ground around you with the molten embers of the sun.

You scream yourself hoarse, your body being thrown about as if great invisible hands were batting you around. Your hair, previously a deep chocolate brown, bleaches itself premature silver as you vomit on the root underfoot.

What was your name? Nova, right? But L’Neeri feels right as well. You think to yourself as the pain subsides enough for you to make sense of yourself.

Breathing heavily and bent over from heaving, you hold your head, alien white hair cascading through your fingers as a torrent of being rushes through your mind. Through the inane rambling of you and yourself, a single phrase resolves itself.

“Kill him.”

A low growl escapes your gritted teeth as you look upon the shaken Branded One. Der’ii stands, eyes wide and breath heavy, Flaccid flames lick the air around him, much weaker than what you just fought and died to.

“Finally, I am free! This can end! No more suffering!” Der’ii says, his tone that of attempted reason.

You straighten, all falling away. A new feeling settles inside with you, yourself, and your circle of stone. A chain of beads the color of night. From them a warm, pulling sensation spreads, and along with them, awareness of what binds everything together. Your memories of its usage cascade in, detailing your previous mastery of it. Your hands clench into fists, “Kill him” resounding over and over in your head.

You respond. Your mission finally, truly takes shape in your mind.

“There will be no more suffering,” Your eyes lock with his, “once you die.”

You suddenly flash forward, Rising Star combining with First Tensor. A light and gravity-empowered strike instantly blindsides Der’ii and his body is sent careening out over the abyss. You blast out to meet him, never wasting a second. The flaming one screams, fire exploding into life around him as you take hold of his body. The flames lick at you hungrily, searching for anything to burn and destroy. You ignore them, slamming Der’ii again into the wood of another root.

Der’ii leaps up, casting you off of him. He leaps back, tossing wheels of ochre flame at you, all of which you deftly dodge. You dash at him, creating a wall of light to deflect more oncoming wheels as you run. The golden pane of light appears suddenly, causing several wheels to detonate and create a large cloud of grey smoke. You sprint through the smoke, waving your arm and using Second Tensor along with a bolt of light.

The bolt takes on a strange, warped appearance, combining the arrow-like jaggedness of the bolt and the strange, twisting, spherical shape of Second Tensor. It blasts forward, slicing through the cloud of smoke and right through Der’ii’s left side.

He looks down, astonished. There, where the arrow meets flesh, is a titanic gash that doesn’t bleed, instead, the skin around the slice greys and withers like ash.

You activate First Tensor again, leaping upward in a grand, soaring arc, your body becoming significantly lighter due to First Tensor, before throwing more of the strange Tensor Arrows. Der’ii dodges away quickly. Flames build below his feet, turning the wood a dangerous orange. He explodes up, right at you, but you are ready.

A box of golden light clamps down around Der’ii’s flying form, Third Tensor appears inside. You zap at his trapped body, crushed under Third Tensor's gravity, before slicing through him with a blade made of light the color of the sun.

Both of you land, his body crashing to the wood with a disgusting crunch and splat. You don’t even get to look at his body before the darkness overwhelms you, casting you into the abyss of unconsciousness.