"Show me what you feel when everything you care for is taken away."
He found himself back in the throne room lit by silver candles. It took him a moment to come to, feeling an odd sensation at his feet as he looked down.
The warmth he found was a slick, scarlet substance that plentifully pooled at the steps to the throne.
"What...?"
As he looked around him, his stomach dropped as his blood ran cold; the bodies of his friends were twisted and eviscerated.
The knight was left covered in holes, lifelessly slumped against a kneeling statue. Just behind Jasper was the bard, who he looked to have tried to shield, though Nova shared the same fate, laying in a pool of blood.
"Jasper...Nova..."
Just a few steps ahead of him, he found Charlotte laid on the steps, covered in lacerations and bloodied beyond survivability.
"Charlotte..." He weakly said.
Brought such unequivocal despair, the young man collapsed to his knees as the strength even to stand was sapped.
Everything else was ignored; sorrow swelled in his soul as he laid there, succumbing to despair. It rose into a sickening feeling, bringing him to spit the bile from his stomach right there.
Even as the hollow king stood in front of him, he didn't acknowledge the presence as he wept.
"When you've lost everything, there's often two paths one's soul faces," the king's soft voice met his ears. "Rage or Emptiness."
Facedown in a puddle of his own tears and bile, he continues to weep, gripping at the stone steps. The bitter emotions that swirled inside of him intensified like a tempest.
"Which kind of soul are you, I wonder?" The King questioned.
Brought to the furthest depths of bottomless dejection, the self-deprecating plague on his mind was placed secondary. What surfaced was an urge to fix things, even in the smallest way possible—by avenging them.
He pushed his hands against the ground to lift himself to his feet, wobbling as he set his eyes on the one ahead.
"That look in your eyes is much the same as mine once were. Sharpened with rage, yet glistening with sorrow," the King said. "—That's good."
"I'll kill you—!" From the top of his lungs, Finn shouted as he lunged towards the figure.
Click.
—Once more, the staff resonated against the ground as the scenery warped itself. From the sight of overwhelming despair in the grim chamber, he was brought back to the tranquil garden.
The chirping of birds, the leisure chit-chat of those that lived on only through memory, a gentle breeze passing through the fruit-bearing trees—it was peaceful.
"What...?" Finn questioned.
All of that rage and despair he felt a moment prior was washed away as he stood there, looking at the King of Giants who still held an apple in his hand.
"It was all...fake? Now that I'm here, it feels like a dream, but a moment ago—" Finn recalled, shaking his head lightly.
The magic-cleaving blades dispersed the projectiles, leaving him with one left honed onto himself. It seemed to come faster than the others, already mere inches in front of his face—
["Impervious"] [4:59]
—Just as it collided with him, he remained unmoved as it exploded into an assembly of sparks. He let out a breath as his muscles relaxed, looking over to find that the spellblade had the same idea.
Atop another monument in the grand chamber, Charlotte confronted an incoming trio of magic missiles head-on.
["Mirror of The Void"]
A structure of glass framed in pearlescent steel materialized in front of her hand, intercepting the incoming projectiles. Each one sank into the mirror like a hook into the sea, dispersing as the spellblade cast it aside.
Finn watched with a certain degree of fulfillment, seeing the newly-acquired skill of the young women. They shared a glance from across the chamber before everyone's attention was placed back on the Old King.
The entire room rumbled as the regal figure produced a torrent of azure radiance around himself. Like a blizzard in a tundra, the mana swirled around the Old King with a howling intensity.
Jasper shouted from the middle of the room, "—Doesn't look good, mates! Something big is coming! Get behind me!"
Though for a moment the assassin considered going for a strike, he decided to follow his comrade's suggestion as the sheer pressure of the mana weighed heavily.
'Shit—where's that help, Zigmund?!' He thought, sprinting towards the knight.
As the light of the magical energy near the throne rose to a grandiose shine, he slid himself behind Jasper just as Charlotte and Nova huddled up as well.
"Raise it now!" Finn shouted as the ungodly quantity of mana made the air hiss. Experience tales at m v|l e-NovelFire
"Getting right to it, mate!" Jasper yelled in response.
["Absolute Defense of The Impenetrable City"]
The knight set his shield in place as it produced a multi-layered barrier of ethereal castle walls. An impromptu fortress, presenting a heavenly, white shine to the transient barrier.
Finn kept his shoulder to Jasper's back, helping him stand strong while Charlotte and Nova braced just beside.
From ahead, it was impossible to see the Old King himself through the overwhelming coalescence of mana that took shape.
It took the form of celestial arms, hands clasping one another into one singularity point.
"What's that?" Charlotte questioned.
"Nothing good!" Jasper responded hurriedly.
Each of the nebulous limbs opened their palms, blooming like a flower as the finger presented as petals. At the core was a glimpse into the cosmos themselves, rumbling before it erupted with a burning glow—
[<<Genesis Nigh>>]
A flash of cosmic force released from the core of the mystical hands commanded by the Old King. It held a complexion like that of staring at the bare cosmos, riddled with stars and eternal nebulae.
A captivating, yet horrifying sight, crashing right against the formidable barrier of the knight.