Sasha’s group faced Black Sabbath, who wielded its brimstone blade, watching them cautiously.

  Gundyr planted his halberd machina, Metal Gear. “Rules of Nature…”

  Something about the world around them shifted, though unable to be pinpointed. They side-eyed him in wonder, unable to take their attention from the enemy. Gundyr motioned to Elise with his remaining hand. “You go fight, King Isaac. I’m in no condition to, so I’ll stay back and protect the girl.”

  “What have you done?”

  “I can’t say, lest the devil overhears and counters accordingly. All I will reveal is that this area is safe.”

  “Alright then. Thank you,” Isaac said to him. He tried to pat Gundyr on the shoulder, but their bodies slipped through one another as if ethereal.

  Sasha took notice immediately. Did he turn us intangible? She tested it by waving her sword. As suspected, it phased through the ground.

  Appears so. Major responded. His power is more neutral than advantageous though. If Black Sabbath gets close, he too will become intangible.

  Ah, I get it.

  A shadow from the future darted towards her from the place Black Sabbath stood. A projection. Sasha flinched as the others stood prepared. “Watch out!” she warned them.

  Moments later, Black Sabbath barreled through them in but a blink. It cleaved, causing ash and wind to kick up in all directions. When the cloud settled, it’d perched upon the pummel of its blade protruding from the ground, staring them down at a distance. Its attack never hit them despite striking true. “How long do you all plan to stall? You’ll parish from age before I do.”

  “We won’t keep you waiting. Let’s go, partners,” Primus said to the others. He walked from the range of Gundyr’s power with Sasha and Isaac in tow.

  Isaac and Elise shared prolonged eye contact as he departed from her side. He took a familiar piece of cloth from his pocket, a violet bandana, and tied it around his forehead.

  As Sasha went to battle, she was half confused and half floored by what she’d just experienced. Before, she figured she could only see the future and past projections of objects, but now it worked for the living too. Perhaps she could leverage this new foresight against Black Sabbath, but to master such a thing now of all times? It was unlikely.

  “Primus. Let me lead,” Sasha said.

  “Why? Do you want to steal my thunder?”

  “No. I think I can predict Black Sabbath’s attacks. It’s a new power that came with absorbing Lovecraft. Just for now, trust me. Stay back and be ready for anything I call out.”

  “Okay then.”

  Isaac cleared his throat, catching their attention. “You two, do I need to even say I’m punching up? I don’t want to get in the way.”

  Primus shook his head, disappointed. “You used to carry yourself with far more confidence, Isaac. It’s too late to give up. Die with me a bold warrior.”

  “You didn’t let me finish. I’m not saying I want to give up, and I don’t want any of us to die. My point is that we’ll need Rainbow in the Dark. We’ll need to vaporize this devil, but it’s too fast for me to hit.”

  “We’ll need to immobilize it then,” Sasha responded. “We can make it happen. I’m sure we can.”

  They both looked at Primus, who tilted his head, shrugging. “Why’re you looking at me?”

  “Because that’s what you do. Weight. Gravity. You can do it, right? Have you forgotten?”

  Primus looked like something clicked in his head. “Augh, I can! I can do it!”

  Isaac got distressed. “If only you had the intelligence to use your powers properly—,” he stopped, guilty. “No, I’m sorry. Abdul gave you his body for a reason. You can do it.”

  The group stopped at the edge of what remained safe. Mere steps later, they would face the hardest battles of their lives. Sasha got meek. She looked at both men, both who she’d grown too close to, and felt a pang of fear. Isaac turned into a statue of gold in front of her, and Abdul crumbled into dust.

  She gasped, taking some steps back, and there they stood normal again. They both looked at her, concerned. “What’s wrong? It’s okay to be nervous,” Isaac said.

  “Even I’m a little scared, but I know we can do this together,” Primus added.

  “Nothing,” Sasha said. If these were their futures, she would act now to change them. She couldn’t let them die.

  They exited Rules of Nature’s range. Instantly, Sasha called out, “From above?!”

  Primus and Isaac braced, brought together their palms, and unleashed wild ki into the air overhead. Black Sabbath flashed blurrily above them with its blade heaved. The foe smacked against their wall of fire, wind, and gravitational energy. With a body half caved in and gurgling noise from its mouth, Black Sabbath was thrown wildly, twisting, until hitting the ground. Black lightning surged across its body, healing it instantly, as Sasha rushed with her sword drawn to capitalize on its injury.

  By the time she reached Black Sabbath, it’d stood with a great sword manifested. They clashed and moved faster than the eye could perceive with clanging, lashes of wind, and sparks flying all around. Although it looked like Sasha was keeping up with the devil to everyone else, only she knew the genuine truth.

  The enemy vastly out sped her. In that moment, Sasha wasn’t fighting Black Sabbath. She was reacting to a shadow allowing a glimpse into the future. Even with this precognition, though, she was too slow. And if she was too slow, the others most likely were too.

  Black Sabbath pushed Sasha back further and further until Primus and Isaac both jumped into the fray. Against her expectations, Primus kept up as keenly as she did. They parried the devil’s strikes together, getting in their own retaliatory damage when they could.

  Isaac hung back in a defensive stance, targeting Black Sabbath with slashes of wind ki. Without even seeing it coming, it managed to dodge the blasts, attack, and defend all at the same time. The three seemed utterly useless. It was like they were trying to mine metal with sticks. Not only that, but Black Sabbath didn’t show pain. Instead, it reacted with joy.

  “Now!” Isaac called. “Let’s try that!”

  “That?” Primus asked. “Oh. That.”

  On cue, Primus reached his palms out to Black Sabbath, clenching his fists. With a tensing body and gravelly voice, he commanded, “Stay put!”

  Black Sabbath reacted with confusion as, in an instance, his body compressed, crackling and sinking as if held down by immeasurable weight. It laughed and laughed with a shaking body unable to move. “Here I thought you were boring. How shall I survive this?” it asked.

  “You won’t,” Sasha said, giving space for Isaac.

  Isaac unsheathed the Dios dagger of light at a distance. “Rainbow in the Dark,” he said.

  All became dark as the sources of light in the sky were extinguished, flowing into his blade. The seven crescent moons above vanished. A shining, blinding great sword of light was left. As Isaac approached with his trump card revealed, Black Sabbath fell quiet, threatened. It got serious.

  A supermassive shadow emerged from where Black Sabbath was trapped there in Yellen’s ash, aimed towards Isaac. Sasha could only describe this premonition as their annihilation. What could she do to warn them against something so big? Something so outstretching?

  All she could do was scream.

  With a guttural yell, Black Sabbath punched its arm free of Primus’s oppression. A blade appeared there. “Heaven and Hell!” Black Sabbath said, swinging downward. A vertical, all-encompassing beam of dark ki shot out, traversing across the realm of Yellen in moments. It bisected the air, sky, and ground, causing tremors through all they could see.

  Sasha turned her head to her partners, rattled.

  Isaac stood pale with his words caught in his throat, his daggers loosely gripped. He hadn’t been so much as scratched. Directly in front of him was a martyr of silver armor who crossed his forearms into a blocking posture. Primus’s ki, and all flame, steamed out. He’d stepped in front of the attack – all of himself committed to defending.

  “Brother,” Isaac said. “Why?”

  Primus couldn’t move. Blood spilled from his armor and mouth. “I did what I wanted. Like always. I’ve always believed in myself like I was the center of the world.”

  Isaac was stunned to silence. Primus continued, “I believe in you even more than that. Right now, you’re the center of our universe. I’m stepping from the spotlight. Prove my choice right.”

  “I can’t. I can’t do this without you, buddy,” Isaac sputtered out.

  “Yes. You. Can.” The light faded from his helmet. As Sasha’s premonition foretold, his armor crumbled into shards and ash. Primus was gone. His soul reached out to Isaac’s chest, fading away.

  Sasha crumbled too, stricken by devastation. “Primus?!”

  Isaac blank-mindedly stared at Primus’s ash as the gears turned in his head, and the gravity of their situation set in. A toxic slew of emotions overwhelmed him. Black Sabbath watched with a wide smile. It cackled at them.

  Isaac beat his own chest with hammer fists and teeth gritted, crying out, “No, no, no! Gods damn it!”

  Isaac stood, snatching up the Dios Dagger of light alone. With a shaking face, he glanced at Sasha who’d fallen into despair, and then Elise who watched anxiously from a distance. “I can do it. I can do it.”

  His willpower and fury built. He tightened the bandana around his forehead. “I won’t let you destroy my world. Who the hell do you think I am?” Golden ki flashed behind him like lightning.

  Black Sabbath stared a hole through Isaac. It was as if the devil suspected something to come. “A puny human. Until now. Something is different.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “That’s right! RAH!” Isaac yelled. The golden lightning struck again. Sunlight entombed him. When it faded, he and his daggers had vanished. A being of vascular bronze and gold metal remained with the glowing eyes of a god. The sun came with his arrival. For the first time, a great sun shined in Yellen. Daylight had arrived.

  Prince Isaac achieved God Aspect. He and the Dios Daggers had fused.

  Isaac brought dual swords of yellow light energy from thin air, engraving tension into Black Sabbath and newfound hope in the others. “I am the rainbow that will cut through this darkness. A knight with countless dreams to protect.”

  Black Sabbath crossed its arms, dismissive. “You’re vain. Once I snuff out your flame, the truth in your heart will be revealed. Cowardice. Terror—,”

  “Grit your teeth, devil!” Isaac called out, vanishing. He flashed above Black Sabbath with a downward smash, caving in its skull. Black Sabbath exploded with a yelp and then reformed instantly. It ran backwards, evading frantically, but Isaac caught up with ease. They chased each other across the battlefield in bursts of sheer power and blurring speed, only slowing to sling insults and anticipate each other’s next moves.

  Their clashing took to the skies, striking each other like thunder, before being brought back down into the ash, boldly emerging from deep craters. Almost every single time here, Isaac came out on top. Every time Black Sabbath reared its trump card attack, Heaven and Hell, Isaac interrupted it with a blitz of speed that left the devil reduced to shreds.

  Isaac’s light was the answer to Black Sabbath’s darkness. Put simple, the devil was scared. This wasn’t something it would admit, but everyone could sense it. The bravado faded, leaving an on-edge, cornered animal whose sole goal was survival.

  Black Sabbath jumped high up above, shouting down to all of them. “Not fair! I’ve been cultivating my power here for eras and some human is facing me?!”

  “You can’t get far alone!” Isaac responded.

  He teleported, backed by a flash of lightning, and grabbed it by the throat like a chicken. Black Sabbath shot a spine of flesh and bone at Isaac’s chest only for it to snap in half against his armor. The devil was spun in circles and smacked down into the ground. Instead of ash, though, Black Sabbath met Isaac’s kicked boot; he was already there, waiting as if playing a sport with himself.

  Black Sabbath ping ponged back up into the clouds where a torrent of green wind ki manifested, ripping its body apart. Isaac put his hands together, aiming up to where Black Sabbath’s reforming body swirled in the gusts. “Rainbow in the Dark,” he said, gasping for air. With the thrust of his palms, the infinite, chaotic light of the sun emerged through them.

  Black Sabbath swung its sword from the brink of annihilation. “Heaven and Hell,” it echoed throughout Yellen.

  Instead of vaporizing the devil, Isaac’s light energy clashed with its own. Light and darkness collided against one another in a spectacular display of equal and opposite power. Their ki struggle grew and grew, ballooning until it took up the entire sky and beyond. Radiating energy split away, carving away at the ground below, and soared off into the unknown. Cracks formed in Isaac’s armor, and his gasping from earlier worsened. He let out a roar of agony as he stood firm, reaching further.

  One arm failed, falling limp to his side. Isaac lost consciousness for a moment, bounced back awake, and screamed as the entirety of the sun channeled through his palm. He faltered more and more with every passing moment, stumbling back, half of his God Aspect vanishing, with boots rooted in the ash. “I’ll never give up! I don’t care if it kills me!” he yelled as his helmet and gauntlets melted away.

  Black Sabbath’s beam of death wavered with instability. Its straining voice emerged in not only Isaac’s mind, but everyone else’s. “I’m at the end too. It’s your will against mine now. Do you think I will cave after what I’ve been through, human? It took a strong heart for me to get this far.”

  “Shut the fuck up!”

  “Struggle with me until the end! In this flash of glory!”

  Both warriors pushed onwards. Both withered. Neither of the fellow men could care less about the consequences. At the utmost peak of this display of passion, pride, and spirit, everything was interrupted by their onlookers. Isaac felt one hand on his back – then two – and then three.

  They kept him from being shoved back any further. “What are you all doing?! Be careful!” Isaac commanded.

  “We’re in this together. I don’t want to see you turn into gold,” Sasha said. She projected her blue, godly ki into his fading soul, as her vision blurred even with her eyes shut tightly. Every ounce of herself was expelled. Isaac’s side of the cosmic ki struggle strengthened, pushing back Black Sabbath’s. An omnipresent growl responded from the sky. The darkness amplified tenfold in a desperate burst.

  Next was Gundyr. “There is too much on the line. You’ll have better times for a warrior’s death.” He followed with his coursing lightning ki. It pulsed into Isaac’s body, providing enough electric energy to send him walking forward. His steps took on the weight of worlds, each of them widening his beam of light in the sky.

  “Don’t ruin this! Don’t ruin our moment! You dare strip a champion of his honor?!” Black Sabbath cried out down to them. Its commitment wavered and sputtered more and more.

  Sasha shook her head. Here in its death throes, it almost sounds human.

  As we all were, Major said.

  Isaac found his exhaustion gone, and his left arm fresh and new. Only one thing could explain such fast healing. Only one person could have been the third hand on his back. “Elise?!”

  “That’s right. Fuck him up,” she said. Elise had used her cestus Machina, Ween, and now had a disabled left arm. Its power, Voodoo Lady, switched their traits to make Isaac the healthier of the two.

  “Thank you – everyone,” Isaac said. He walked down Black Sabbath, wielding Rainbow in the Dark like a spear, until it drilled through all adversity. The overwhelming resistance ceased on the other side, accompanied by whimpering.

  When his almighty light faded, nothing remained of Black Sabbath other than a wispy, powerless shade containing its soul. Isaac and it watched each other from a small distance. Everyone else – Sasha, Gundyr, and Elise – collapsed on the spot, blinded. They covered their ruined eyes, all rattled by the soul fatigue of putting everything physically and spiritually into Isaac.

  This left Isaac alone to face Black Sabbath, on his knees no less.

  “You fought well, human. It’s a shame that we were interrupted by those weaklings. There, we almost achieved beauty,” Black Sabbath said.

  “I’ll admit, I felt a little frustrated for a second. That’s how we men are. We want to stand on our own and go out in a flash of glory, you know. But that’s not necessary. We are at our strongest when we’re together. Friends. Family. Loved ones. Those are good things. Warm things.”

  “I should have separated you all; Slayed the weaklings first. I’ll never understand this hidden power of your species. Your resilience.”

  “That’s alright. You don’t have to. I don’t get it either. It just works out in the end. There’s this theory of mine, but I don’t know if it holds any truth: Ki is spirit. Sprit is willpower. Willpower is heart. If we believe, and push ourselves hard enough, we can do whatever the hell we want no matter what your type has to say about it.”

  “That’s just not fair.”

  “I know, right?”

  “What will you do with me?”

  “I respect you enough to let you choose. Whatever that choice is, though, it’s over for you.”

  “Absorb my soul. You will grow immensely powerful from it.”

  “That is an option.” Isaac tried to move, but he didn’t make it far. Pale-skinned and sick to his stomach, he put his forehead into the ash. “Never mind.”

  “I’ll come to you then.”

  “No, how about you stay put,” a new voice said.

  “Excuse me?” Isaac asked.

  Both Isaac and Black Sabbath gawked at the watcher. There, Jericho stood with snapped prison shackles, skin-tight armor of devil’s metal, and his onyx longsword Machina, Black Hole Sun. Its red dragon eye glared at everyone in the vicinity. “Take this soul – I’ll kill you all. It is mine to devour.”

  “What are you on about?” Isaac asked, confused. “I’m in no place to fight but just know that I don’t see how you’ve earned this.”

  “The king of homunculi creates – controls all my kind. Only a homunculus should and could use this power. Kill the king, kill the children. You really want to kill me?”

  Isaac gave Jericho crazy eyes. Nothing he said made sense to him. Jericho returned a blank stare, utterly devoid of emotion. “You really want to kill me? How shall I respond to that?” he asked again.

  “Of course not. Take Black Sabbath’s soul then. We don’t want any conflict.”

  Black Sabbath said no words, but its look gave Isaac chills. The devil had a twisted, wide-spread smile.

  Jericho nodded, approached, and pierced its soul with Black Hole Sun. On the moment of impact, their realm shifted – Yellen faded. Everyone returned to Castle Hemmer.

  Jericho cracked his neck, stretched out his shoulders, and flexed his fingers. “I am ascended, no doubt. This will take getting used to,” he said. The rest of the group caught his attention. Without missing a beat, he strolled up to Gundyr and Sasha who got their bearings with straining eyes.

  “Ha. We meet again, Gundyr,”

  “Are you who I think you are? If you are, then I extend my greatest apologies. Truly. May I ask for mercy? I was on the wrong side of this whole thing.” Gundyr said, stiffly awaiting an answer. When he didn’t get one, he sniffled a little and then put his forehead to the ground.

  “Not so high now when found low?” Jericho asked.

  Gundyr looked perplexed. “I’m sorry, can you rephrase that? I’m not sure I understand.”

  Jericho drew Black Hole Sun and beheaded Gundyr as Isaac cried out for peace. The matter-eating blade devoured his throat and midline organs, absorbing his soul into its own. Instant death. Sasha and Elise responded to the gory sound with horror.

  “Jericho? Is that you?” Sasha asked. “We’re not your enemies! Please stay your hand!”

  Jericho knelt in front of Sasha, laxed. “You aren’t yet, but he was one. You’ve done good work here, woman. I’m not so bored to murder our heroes while they are down. Instead, I will give you time – time to grow up and mature while I grow into this shell. Then we shall truly have fun.”

  “You intend to come after us? We could work together. You know that.”

  “No, no, no, you foolish tit. When all the stars have aligned, I will come for your dagger because I want a real wish. Convergence shall be just mine. So, go. Gather the others, until we meet again, kid.”

  Sasha let out a shaky sigh. She could barely make out his ominous figure with her eyes still hurt by Isaac’s light. He appeared to her like a dark outline in clouds. Despite this and her overwhelming anxiety, Sasha extended her hand out to him and gave an affirming nod. “Alright, Jericho. I accept your challenge. I’ll be preparing and waiting. I wish this could have gone differently.”

  Jericho didn’t shake her hand. He didn’t even respond. The only thing to leave his mouth was an unimpressed, “Hm.” He got up and walked away with a casual pace and clinking footsteps.

  Sasha curled up on the ground. Oh my god. What a monster.

  She bumped into the left half of Gundyr’s body and recoiled. “Why? Why?!”

  Nobody had an answer for her. Everyone was just as exhausted in any way a person could be exhausted. Deaths lingered over them and their victory had been crashed – exploited by an opportunistic vulture.

  The coldest killer Sasha knew had just declared war against her. To top it all off, Jericho was now the host of evil incarnate. So, had Black Sabbath gotten what it wanted in the end? Freedom to ruin their world?

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Major said. “The answer is no. World’s Shiver has ended and Black Sabbath’s threat is over. I can’t deny that Jericho cannibalizing such a soul won’t twist him, though, and the almighty power will corrupt for certain.”

  “Major, watch your mouth when he could still be around.”

  “His soul is gone. He has left.”

  Sasha let out a sigh of relief. “Twist? Corrupt, you said? He was already gone before that. I don’t want to know what path he’ll go down now.”

  “A horrible one. Black Sabbath is among us in spirit.”

  “Elise, Sasha…” Isaac called.

  Both responded with a short, “Yeah?”

  “I can’t move my legs.” His tone lowered into something empty and deflated. “Can’t feel anything below my waist, or in my fingers, either.”

  “It’ll be okay, honey. I’m here,” Elise responded. She crawled over to Isaac’s side by following the sound of his voice. They both fell quiet in an embrace.

  “I’ll never be able to fight like this, but it’s not like I’ll be fighting anyway. I remember my promise,” Isaac said to her.

  “I’ll fix you right up. Don’t you worry. I’ll need new eyes too. I can’t see anything.”

  “Look at us. Pitiful. We’ll have to work together until we figure this out.”

  Their conversation turned to personal whispers. Whispers Sasha chose to ignore. She rubbed her eyes. Four-fifths of her vision had vanished. It destroyed her depth perception. What remained were abstract shapes, lines, and colors. It could be supplemented with her soul-seeing and future sight though. For a while, she would have to view the world like reading a children’s book’s illustrations.

  It hit her that she was now utterly alone other than Major and Simon. She set out to find Lovecraft with five comrades and now half were dead and the other half had decided to retire. That left her and someone whose sole purpose was stealth to deal with Jericho in the future.

  Sasha stumbled up to her feet, propelled by what little ki she had left. Isaac noticed. “Where are you going?”

  “Simon. I want to find him.”

  “Be careful. We don’t know what’s lurking around here.”

  “I’ll blow their brains out,” she replied, motioning to her sawed-off shotgun.

  It took a while, but she eventually found a balcony after wandering Castle Hemmer’s halls enough, not a soul in sight. Most were dead, homunculi, soldiers, and castle staff alike. The stench was horrible. Lacking vision only made it worse since she focused more on the other senses. She didn’t even want to think about the impact this would have on the kingdom. Who would rule with no heirs?

  From the edge of a balcony overlooking High Monestate, Sasha yelled her lungs out. “Simon! Simon! This is Sasha!”

  No response. She repeated it thirty seconds later.

  No response again. Sasha cupped her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice, her throat sore from both hoarseness and grief. “Simon! Simon—,” a voice responded to her call.

  “Sasha! Sasha! This is Simon speaking! I repeat, Sasha! Sasha! Simon here!” echoed out from across High Monestate, accompanied by a strange bird call. “Ca-caw! Ca-caw! Ca-caw!”

  In the great distance, a purple soul flame caught Sasha’s eye. Simon waved to her in good spirits. She broke down there, weeping. She’d won. For now, her fighting was over.