Stanley breathed heavily, gasping for air. He hadn’t breathed in a while and the pain of it was getting to him. If having to breathe wasn’t such an issue, he could’ve gone on for so much longer.

His body thirsted for oxygen, and he let it have it. The slow-burning pain in his muscles subsided as he tried to get out of the rubble he had fallen into.

He still felt the tingling sensation on his fingers that made him let go of the sword, but what surprised him was the sounds of cries that came from Garren.

He thought he had missed, but what was that now?

He got up with numbness in major sections of his body and a tingling finger in his arms. He looked for his sword and happened to see Nova drive some metal threads onto Garren. The cries became louder.

’I need to finish him,’ Stanley thought, but the numbness was taking a moment to subside. Before it could get better, he saw the glowing blue light that came from Garren.

His body was covered in that light as if...

Garren exploded with light, throwing out bolts of lightning that were thicker than human limbs, which spat out in every direction.

Time immediately slowed to a crawl for Stanley, forcing it to a point of slowness where his own body felt heavy to him. Stanley had seen such shows of lightning explosion twice now, but neither compared to the might of this one.

It was as if Garren was putting all he had into this one strike. It was too scary.

A bolt of light struck him in the chest and Stanley knew that could only lead to darkness and death. The future was grim.

Garren hadn’t exploded yet.

Stanley ignored the vision of the future he saw and ran for his life. The future sight showed him what was going to happen next, and in every instance, he saw forks of lightning streaking throughout the room, destroying everything.

Stanley made his way toward Nova, but he was unsure if he could save her now.

Nova was still looking beyond him, toward where her brother had been. Her eyes never moved toward him. She was still inside the metal enclosure she’d weaved using the threads she had brought along.

’I should save her,’ Stanley thought, but he didn’t know how to take her away while she was inside the enclosure. With his current speed, she would die if he didn’t take care of how he touched her.

He didn’t have time for that.

He saw a future of one of the bolts of lightning striking the mesh of metal that surrounded her and going no further. Nova was safe inside the metal mesh.

’Dammit!’ he thought. He had to leave it up to her to protect herself. He could only run.

Garren exploded in a burst of light before Stanley could make it to the doors, and lightning bolts streaked through the room, attacking anything and everything all around the room.

Despite time being as slow as it was, Stanley had no way of moving faster than lightning bolts. Just as he crossed the door, a bolt of lightning struck him on the arm.

Another bolt flew right afterward and hit him in the back, sending him tumbling through the hallway outside the hall.

Specks of light floated in Stanley’s vision, and ringing filled his ears. He couldn’t see or hear anything for a while, even his mind blanking on any thoughts. He blacked out multiple times, and he came to just as many times because of the pain in his back that was just too much to handle.

His body convulsed uncontrollably, feeling a burning sensation throughout his back. His powers had already slipped from him and time flowed normally again, not that it mattered to him right now.

He breathed deep and immediately stopped as the act of breaking caused pain to flare in his back where the lightning had struck him. He tried to feel where the wound was, but his fingers were entirely too numb to feel anything.

To feel pain in his back even through that numbness meant that he wasn’t hurt lightly.

"Urgh!" he grunted and tried to get up. When he did so, his eyes went wide in shock at the sight of his left arm.

His left arm had a lightning-shaped red scar with the rest of the arm darkened as if burnt on fire. He tried to move his arm, but anything below the elbow felt nothing. It did nothing.

His fingers did not move. When he tried to touch it with his right hand, it felt like he was touching something made of wood. His mind stopped working for a bit as he tried to understand what had happened to him.

Was this what happened when one fought a Nova?

In a daze, he turned toward the room, and fear filled his heart. If he went in there, there was a definite chance of him dying.

Death. After losing his mother, his brother, his friends, and all the other townsfolks, he was surprised he still feared death.

No, he didn’t fear death. He only knew he couldn’t die. Not yet. He had more things to do instead of dying.

He turned around to walk away, but his feet didn’t move.

’I can’t,’ he thought. Running away was easy, but that wasn’t what he needed to do right now.

’Nova,’ he thought, remembering the blue-haired girl he left inside.

"Nova!" he said softly. "I need to save Nova."

He needed to save her. She was still inside and in danger.

He stumbled more than he walked to the door of the hall, and when he arrived he peered inside.

Flames lit the room inside. Flames everywhere.

And in the center of the room was a haggard Garren, holding onto his sister with his limbs cupping her wounded body.

Tears filled his face, and even then he spoke. "You made me do this, sister."

Lightning crackled through his fingers and burned through Nova’s skull.

Stanley couldn’t even scream.