When Hekate was a slave under Morthybargaron, she never really pondered things like the end of the world. She never had the luxury to think about even the Hoard collapsing in on them or some stray human coming along and killing and sparing the dragons by his choice. She only ever had the mind for minimizing the pain to herself as much as possible, and following her orders in the strictest sense to get it over with and go back to hiding in her little hole in the stables with her straw doll.

She studies the little straw doll for a moment, a memento of her past that she keeps in her void bag sometimes when she feels like she’s missing ‘home’.

Daniel, is of course, the ‘anchor’ for what defines her home now. If he were to someday choose to live in a stone hut, a stinky swamp, or even return to Earth, then the ‘home’ Hekate would relentlessly pursue would be that place, right alongside him. She can live without him, but she knows in her heart that she’ll never be happy again without him.

So, her search for Daniel is steady, hoping that he reappears soon after meeting with Ucahote for whatever reason. She has no idea what’s actually taking place, and now, with the reawakening of Sayrdarralouche once more, she has to prioritize what she can do to stop the world from ending.

A world that Daniel is also giving his all to protect.

Hekate stows the straw doll, which she was already holding when the titanic dragon let out his first roar. It is the last shred of her past that she is willing to keep, and now, she is the Empress of the Fievegal. Should the world desire it, or refuse to leave her alone, she will become the Empress of Zenkon if she must in order to create the peace Daniel craves so they can simply be together.

Feldroks can easily absorb all of the mana of the world, if that’s what it takes. The concern with that is the fact that, if they are overwhelmed by the amount of mana they are absorbing, or otherwise lost to their emotions, they can become corrupted it by it, and they will lose control of all of that power, becoming a monster no more logical or merciful than the mana fire itself; an unthinking force of nature unique to Zenkon.

She now looks at the sheathed sword in her left hand.

Nemaisol is a legendary blade on Zenkon, appearing in children’s stories and fearful concerns of titans all the same. It belonged to a hero-slayer, whom Kaeralegier chose to undo one of her mistakes in granting a summoned hero too much power.

Kaeralegier is a powerful, ancient goddess who bound herself to the sword, granting it the ability to negate magic. But, in stark contrast, and to prevent the heroine that needed to be slain from simply claiming the sword for herself, it rejects anyone with a significant enough amount of mana, which Daniel is the only known person in the world who continuously fits that bill. Neith was able to wield Nemaisol for seconds during one instance, but only because he had intentionally depleted his mana as deeply as he could without fainting like Hekate did just a few hours ago.

And, Hekate has far more mana than Neith ever will on a normal day, thanks to being present when both Lugrae the Feral Feldrok and the Devourer were slain by Daniel, among others since.

“What is the point of my immense magic power if I can’t do anything?” asks Hekate. She knows she could launch attacks at Sayrdarralouche, but they were already minimally effective before he had the ability to simply stand in the mana fire and seemingly absorb its power. If she could teleport him to the bottom of the sea, or into a big hole he could never escape from, she would. But, she still doesn’t have enough control over her power for something so big.

Hekate moved close to the edge of the fire, but she feels tiny against Sayrdarralouche and the unstoppable flames, and Jeavana is hesitant to join the fray again, because Sayrdarralouche seemed unnaturally obsessed with her for some reason, and she’s still recovering from her broken bones, even with pushing herself to drunkenness via healing potations.

Yaulwembor followed Hekate, having no sense of anything if Daniel isn’t present to be patient with her or Hekate is available to use her forced “communication” method.

“Jeavana… How do we kill him? Is… Should I try to summon a Fiendbreaker?”

“I don’t know what good it’ll do…”

A thunderclap erupts from the dragon’s mouth while he has his jaws clamped down on Neith’s forearm. For some reason, the grey dragon punched straight into Sayrdarralouche’s mouth, and now, several of the titan’s teeth explode as he roars and flinches back, releasing Neith. The grey Einherjar manages to catch himself before he falls into the mana fire, and he retreats away from the glimmering black dragon a short distance to reengage.

Hekate catches a glimpse, as well as hears the sounds of Zuzia’s voice from within Sayrdarralouche’s jaws, but this time, the strange muscle-bound otherworlder is screaming.

“Zuzia!” calls out Hekate. She grips Nemaisol, ready to try to find a way to teleport in, but something that Hekate didn’t notice before catches her eyes in the middle of the mana fire ‘mountain’ of embers.

It’s a shuttle, diving for the center of the crater, somehow shielding itself from the embers as it races deep into the heart of the calamity.

Daniel!?

This urgency explains Neith’s reckless haste, as well as Zuzia’s. They saw Daniel sooner from their higher vantage point, or spotted him whenever he returned.

Regardless of it being ‘just a shuttle’, there’s no way it’s not Daniel. Hekate feels it in her heart.

She glances around, spotting Senn and Serrentuk as they prepare spells to launch at Sayrdarrlouche to try to stop him.

“You two should retreat!” calls out Hekate towards Jeavana and Yaulwembor, forgetting for the moment that the latter can’t understand words very well.

“Wait!” calls out Jeavana, running after Hekate as she teleports to the two elves. The mana fire makes it a little harder for Hekate to feel her destination, but it’s nothing a little more wasted mana can’t fix by simply overpowering it, probably.

As for the two ancient sages, Senn is just finishing saying, “I believe it has a core near its spine, just below the heart! I’m getting powerful mana vortices around that.”

“Understood!” replies Serrentuk. The elven sorcerer finishes his own spell and casts, but it’s not an impressive fireball nor a beam of light that obliterates the dragon once and for all. Rather, it is a strange flicker of light that seems to pulse through Sayrdarralouche like a heartbeat, and it even makes a deep, nearly inaudible thrum that makes Hekate’s skin crawl more than the rumbling of the ground from the ‘volcanic leak’ Daniel mentioned.

That said, this strange pulse creates a visible ‘echo’ in Sayrdarralouche’s body, like a stone cast into a peaceful pond’s surface. And, at its center, a red glowing light illuminates, all but inviting someone to strike at it deep within the dragon’s body.

Just as Senn said, or as if intentionally marked based on her words, the location is towards Sayrdarralouche’s back, roughly where his wing-shoulders would be had they not been replaced by the sinister obsidian spikes glistening in the chaotic light all around him. If Hekate estimated where her heart was right now, the red sphere of light would be just a little lower than that.

And, as if waiting for such a cue, a violent explosion erupts from Sayrdarralouche’s back, causing him to scream.

It’s just like the forceful impact that destroyed his teeth, and Hekate asks, “Serrentuk?”

“Hahaha, that little girl’s as adaptive as ever!” cheers the elder elf as he adjusts his glasses. The two have mana visibly washing across barriers that their ‘split-mind’ doppelgangers are sustaining in order to buy them time against the nausea of being this close, and the elder sage turns his attention to Hekate.

“Pardon me, your Greatness. I was just marking the target for our dear Zuzia, since our magic attacks are having even less effect against him than before.”

“And… It’s working? I thought I heard her screaming.”

The male elf’s face twists in confusion, and he glances at the wounded titan, who clutches his chest like his heart was just crushed. The blast was aimed downwards, and cracks have formed on a lot of his body beyond just the eruption that wounded him. In fact, his right arm finally crumbles and falls off, and a second blast explodes the rest of his neck, launching his head upwards in a torrent of rocky debris.

“He’s not finished yet!” urges Senn. “I’m still detecting mana vortices within his body. He seems to already be regenerating.”

“We’ve bought time,” replies Serrentuk. “He shouldn’t be breathing that nasty breath without a head for some time.”

“I need Zuzia!” urges Hekate. “Daniel is flying into the center of the crater, and I know how I can reach him!”

“F-... What?” asks the elder sage, surprised by Hekate’s words.

“I saw him! He’s there, I know it. Get me Zuzia by any means! If I lose Daniel, I will make it my mission to ensure the mana fire continues,” threatens the fox-eared ravenette with a grim seriousness.

Both elves share a glance, and Serrentuk nods. “Very well. Senn, be ready to catch her. I have just the spell to retrieve her, since it seems she has done the hard work of exposing herself.”

Serrentuk immediately sets into casting his next spell, and Senn follows suit, timing her own spell to start once his takes action.

Though the language is unknown to her, Serrentuk’s words are easily understood by Hekate as he speaks in an echoing, almost trance-like tone. “[Oh Great Goddesses of the Moons, I, this humble walker of the soil of Zenkon, beseech thee grant thy humble light and bend it to my will.]” As he speaks, he cycles his staff in a wide circle, using his hand in a similar, sweeping gesture. Hekate knows that somatic elements of spells generally help ‘aim’ a spell, including ‘setting the scope’ if it’s a larger spell. It’s not always necessary, but can help with precision.

Serrentuk continues, turning in a graceful pivot as a noticeable ‘tether’ of magical energy starts to form like a flowing stream, following the movements of his staff as he utilizes the special design and its immense power-amplification abilities to turn a simple short-range spell into a long-range precision strike.

“[I call upon you, oh Mother Moon, let your light carry the child of land on your gentle streams. Divine children, I beg of thee, protect and push the child of the land at your mother’s behest. Come forth, Trail of Niayal’keloth!]”

With that final word, the streamer of magic suddenlly follows the tip of Serrentuk’s staff and keeps going, as if launched by a sling, and it pulls along with it a glowing trail of magical energy that wavers only slightly as the leading spell arcs through the sky. Serrentuk has control of the leader with his staff, expertly controlling it with his eyes closed, somehow guiding it to the top of Sayrdarralouche’s neck where Zuzia presumably launched her attacks. A splash of similar glowing blue-white energy wavers outwards, but just as quickly condenses. And, with the tether in place, Serrentuk does a few more elegant gestures with his staff, ‘yanking’ on the magical tether using the tip of his staff.

The ‘leader’ is whipped towards them, and Hekate can quickly hear Zuzia crying out.

Senn is already on the move, chanting, “[Spirits of wind, heed my call and bless me with a kiss and wind enough to cradle a humble soul for only a moment, and pass by in freedom once it’s done.]”

Wind magic gathers and swirls, and Zuzia’s screaming voice rapidly approaches before she ‘bounces’ in a cushioning bubble dedicated entirely to her.

Hekate immediately announces, “I need you guys to help me, but… D-Don’t… Don’t laugh.”

The feldrok girl notices that Zuzia’s hands are bleeding badly from her knuckles, and more deep cuts and scratches have formed on her seemingly impenetrable arms, face, and upper body where blood forms lines away from her front. Regardless, the human touches down on her feet and only glances behind her to confirm that Sayrdarralouche is incapacitated. True enough, the titanic dragon has come to a stop for the moment, missing his head and parts of his back.

Hekate starts chanting a spell as Serrentuk pats the Polish woman’s shoulder. “Good work, Lady Zuzia. Though, those wounds look quite painful.”

“I’ll survive,” replies Zuzia with watering eyes. “I… heh… I think… I’m partly in shock right now… But, wait! We have to evacuate! I saw him! Daniel’s…”

“I know!” snaps Hekate as she finishes the one spell she hoped to never need again. She has only used it once so far, and though her ancestors or whoever they are linger within the deep parts of her own spirit as guiding voices, and they’ve all be urging her that she can ‘condense’ her power or make better use of it if she uses the spell.

Regardless, she hates this spell most of all.

In spite of that, she looks at Yaulwembor with urgency in her eyes, saying, “Yaulwembor…”

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The draconic being clicks her teeth, and she fearlessly steps forward to help Hekate, and instantly, the feldrok girl can feel even more magic power pressing in on her to help solidify the spell’s effect.

Hekate doesn’t hate this spell because it is difficult to cast or anything like that. She hates it because it turns the raven-haired teen into the one thing she fears more than anything else in the world.

The ugliest creature alive.

***

Zuzia, Serrentuk, Senn, Jeavana and even Yaulwembor all shield their eyes as magical power surges around Hekate, swirling in a small vortex that engulfs her. Yaulwembor is contributing her own impressive arcane energy, but even still, it seems to be overwhelming her.

Hekate’s spell seems to be pulling in some of the mana washing by from the mana fire, forming a sort of cocoon of glowing energy around the small kemonomimi girl. Neith and Magnir have taken notice as well, and they are facing the group, watching in astonishment as the intense magical power creates a powerful glow that clashes sharply with everything around it, forming dark shadows even as close as they are to the leading edge of the mana fire, which is only a few meters away.

Hekate’s last words before descending into her cocoon were “I know”, halting Zuzia and forcing everyone to watch for a moment even though they don’t have time. Unless she comes out of the cocoon as some sort of powerful magic butterfly that can rival God’s power and shield them from a nuclear blast, it’s not going to mean much.

That said, what does emerge from the cocoon gives everyone pause for a moment.

It is a being with huge black, triangular ears like a fennec fox, a cute muzzle and glowing amber eyes. Every strand of fur, from the tips of the ears to the very last fiber of her tail seems to stand out in spite of how fine they are like any other soft-furred creature. They have a gloss and glow to them that seemingly oozes with unchecked power.

The small being has a sort of ‘faculative-bipedal’ stance; the ability to stand and walk on two legs, but the proportion ratio for the lengths of hindlegs to forelegs and their structure suggests a normal quadrupedal stance. A distinct, unmistakable bushy black tail extends behind the little furry being, but an addition that isn’t normally present would be two wings that suit the being’s size, like a baby gryphon; a little larger than the wings on the baby dragons Zuzia got to see in proportion to the body, but confirming mostly who this little creature is, had it been in any doubt.

“H-Hekate?” asks Senn.

The raven-black being has the build of a wolf-pup more than a fox kit, and she’s still clinging to the sword that she had, even though her body is significantly smaller now. She’s about the size of an oversized cat, maybe around fifteen kilograms (~33lbs) or so.

But, all of the attitude remains, and Hekate points a sharp foreclaw finger at the elven sorceress. “Yeah! I am! And I know I’m ugly! Just help me when I give the word! We’re running out of time!”

“I agree, which is why we should retreat!” urges Zuzia. “If he really is about to detonate…”

“He’s going to die! I have to save him!” shouts Hekate as she grips the sword tightly. “He doesn’t have any way to protect himself, and he won’t be able to escape! I can hear it! Th-There’s something wrong!”

“Mała…”

“No! I already told them, I’ll destroy this world myself if Daniel dies! I swear it! And I don’t…” Hekate in her winged-wolf-cub form takes hold of the sheath of the sword and the hilt separately. “Want to destroy…” The fox-eared little girl in her true form strains as she pulls on the two pieces in opposing directions, seemingly unable to draw the sword. “...The world that is our home!” The little girl screams as she pulls on the sword with all of her might, and all of the powerful beings and Zuzia herself are instinctively startled back a step away from Hekate when violet-sparks explode out from her, and her fur starts to glow intensely blue like the sinister pictures of Cherenkov radiation; a warning sign of the presence of truly dangerous energy.

“Hekate! Only Daniel can draw Nemaisol!” shouts Jeavana.

“She’s right! It repels mana!” adds Senn.

Regardless, the mana erupting out of Hekate ramps up, and the air itself seems to bend to her will as a hot wind of pure energy crawls across Zuzia’s skin. The hair of everyone with long enough styles flaps and flutters along with their clothes, and Jeavana and Senn shield their faces as they fall back a few steps, and Serrentuk and Yaulwembor try to keep eyes on Hekate.

The deceptively adorable little furball of a girl is battling a ‘Chosen One’s Sword’ in an attempt to defy the logic of an apparently-legendary weapon.

And, for all of her small size, it seems she is winning.

***

“{You fool! Stop and retreat! I’m serious! You’ll die!}” The voice penetrates into Hekate’s mind whether she allows it or not, but she doesn’t care. She recognizes the voice with ease. It’s not the feldrok spirits that she absorbed from Lugrae, who generally only appear in times she is most desperate. It would be fitting for them to speak to her now, but instead, it is a goddess of Zenkon worried for Hekate’s life.

I don’t have a life without Daniel, and you know it, Kaera! So, shut up and give me this stupid sword already!

Hekate lets out another scream, surging her magical power to enhance her physical prowess. Her feldrok body, especially in its natural form, is tailor made by evolution to employ her magical power as a natural part of her existence, like her lungs for breathing or her heart for pumping her blood. Or, so Daniel says.

Regardless, it’s her fur that she’s relying on now. She has a smaller physical form in her true form, less than half the size and weight she normally is in her favored body. But, her true body is the one she is meant to occupy by her birth, even if she loathes and despises how ugly and terrifying she is. Her claws are sharp, her teeth are menacing, and her ears look even more ridiculous on her monstrous, animal-face.

You were something before you made yourself a sword! I was nothing until Daniel pulled me out of the darkness!

“{I won’t show you mercy just because you are Daniel’s little future-waifu! I CAN NOT intake mana, especially not yours!}”

“Then I’ll take it!” screams Hekate. “I’ll take your mana! I’ll absorb it, I’ll gobble it up! Stop resisting me and help me help Daniel!” screams Hekate as she bucks back and forth, trying to shake and warp the sword and force its draw from the sheath. Kaeralegier is the sapient aspect to the legendary sword Nemaisol, but even when she’s unconscious, according to Daniel, the sword still obeys the “program” Kaeralegier installed; namely to draw only for someone with virtually no mana and to electrocute anyone with too much.

“{It’s not something I can just turn off, you idiot! Please stop! You’re going to…!}”

“I don’t care about wealth! I don’t care about power! I don’t care about being Empress! I’ve only ever had one thing that I wanted!” Hekate’s screams are full of every emotion she has, which are things she wasn’t allowed to have under Morthybargaron. As she struggles against Nemaisol’s unyielding sheath, tears form in her eyes.

“I’ve only ever wanted to be strong enough to protect Daniel!” The fox-eared girl in her true form pulls and twists, yanking on the sword again and again.

“So… Stop. Being. A stupid. Butt-goddess. And Just. Be. A stupid. Sword!”

Hekate manages to break the ‘seal’, which immediately causes lightning to start electrocuting her. She screams as the lightning courses through her whole body, jolting and biting at her like a thousand fangs clamping down on each of her limbs, her ears, her tail, and even her own teeth. But, Hekate is nothing if not resilient. She had to be in order to survive living under Morthybargaron, who she now realizes tried to kill her more than once. Even at her weakest, she has vague glimpses of memories that she long forgot where the dragon routinely failed to kill her, and he became more and more fearful of her, opting to shun and ridicule her instead of attacking her.

Pain was an everyday part of Hekate’s life before she met Daniel. And, this pain, specifically, stands in the way of her rushing to Daniel’s side to protect him from his own self-sacrificing nature. He never hesitates, but he never seems to understand what damage he is doing in his attempts to ‘protect’ everyone else. Even if he’s right, and Hekate isn’t convinced he is, she refuses to live without him.

This feeling, surging within her as the seconds tick by that Daniel draws ever closer to saving the world at the cost of his own life, causes a wellspring of rage towards the sword resisting her. This rage numbs all pain, no matter how intense a goddess’s lightning is, and Hekate keeps pulling. The mystical blade starts to show itself in earnest, and its colors distort and fluctuate like a stormy sea due to the clashing powers fighting seemingly innocuous battle at a glance; a little ugly fox-thing trying and failing to simply pull a sword from its sheath.

But, a storm rages around that little raven-colored creature, blasting rocks and dirt away and driving her allies and friends back from the intensity of the energy swarming out of them. Her fur is glowing so intensely now, Hekate could easily be mistaken for having blue or white fur normally. Energy visibly courses through the veins in her wings. Lightning crackles off of her as Nemaisol tries to reject her, but she forces through the pain and the resistance of the sword with sheer force of will and her immense magical power.

Hekate has long-known that she ‘holds’ a lot of mana, but she might as well be trying to splash the entirety of a lake out with her bare hands. For everyday use, what she ‘splashes out’ flows right back in faster than she can deplete it. When she does something truly worthy of her mana pool, it is exhilarating at the very least, and painful at the worst.

As such, she is perfect. She is too dumb to think about how dangerous it would be to face off against a sword that contains a literal goddess’s spirit bound to it. She should fear things that negate mana with great effect. She should find something other to live for than one fragile human.

I refuse.

“I refuse to accept failure!” The blade is all but slipping free. The only obstacle standing in her way now is the sword’s length compared to her diminutive feldrok size.

“{Please, Hekate! This is absurd! You won’t be able to…}”

It’s starting to become apparent even to Hekate that she won’t be able to fully draw Nemaisol, and given how the resistance hasn’t subsided in the least, she may end up failing after all.

That is until her weight is suddenly jolted by a pair of hands tugging on the sheath.

Hekate looks up at the newcomer, finding Zuzia holding the sheath with all of her otherwordly strength. “I got you, Mała! Keep pulling! G-Gah!”

With Zuzia using her immense brute force to anchor the sheath, Hekate only needs to focus on the sword itself, giving her more of her focus to resisting the electrocution that threatens to shock Zuzia as well. Some of the sparks do hit her, but Zuzia is heavily resistant to magic, and whatever the relationship is, magic seems to have a direct connection to the power of the goddesses.

However, Hekate with her mana enhancement proves to be stronger, and Zuzia’s footing crackles as the barriers she’s anchoring herself with crackle.

“I got you!” calls out Jeavana, grappling Zuzia from behind and adding additional strength while Hekate’s watering eyes blur from the continuous pain and muscle spasms it takes every shred of her willpower to endure.

Neith lands in a slide beside Jeavana, bumping her slightly inadvertently as he quickly joins her in anchoring Zuzia even further.

“We’re running out of time…” warns Senn. “If Daniel is really down there…”

“I… Am… Hekate fell Lawson!” screams Hekate. “I am the Empress of the Fievegal! The next progenitor of the Feldroks! And Wife of Daniel!” With all of their combined might, the crackling legendary blade slides further and further free.

The feldrok teen screams over the crackling electrocution, “If I have to be stronger than all of the gods, so be it! I will have what I want! GraaaaahhhhhhH!” Her scream becomes one of passionate fury, finishing removing the sword as Kaeralegier protests one last time more out of concern for Hekate than fear for herself. The sword breaks free with a massive web of lightning arcs that quickly dissipate, focusing all of their wrath on the feldrok girl now wielding the sword. The two dragons and Zuzia topple backwards into a pile of bodies, caught off guard by the sudden loss of seemingly impossible forces.

And, in spite of that divine power trying to prevent usage by a magic wielder, Hekate fell Lawson manages to brandish the legendary Nemaisol. Terrifying bolts of lightning still flash and crackle from Hekate’s body as a simple, dying protest against the sword’s temporary master.

That all said, Hekate feels like she’s getting the hang of it. She can feel the intense mana from all sources present swirling around her and through her. It is all painful, sickening, and makes her feel afraid.

But, I can’t stop. I can do this! Daniel was always afraid, too! It’s not fearlessness that makes us mighty, but the ability to… defeat… our fear!

Hekate lets out one last loud ‘roar’, that definitely has her own childish voice, but she doesn’t care. It feels good, and it helps settle herself as she claims the legendary sword Nemaisol and the goddess within as her reluctant allies for the next few minutes.

“Zuzia! I need you to throw me!”

“What!?” exclaims Zuzia having just caught her breath after falling. They’re all dangerously close to the mana fire, and Hekate points.

“There! Daniel is there, and I’m going to him! If you don’t help me, I’ll have no choice but to scurry there myself like a little scampering animal, trapped in the…”

“I get it! Stop trying to blackmail me! There’s no way through! I…”

Hekate rears her arm back, holding the sword blade towards the direction she just pointed. “Kaera! I’m counting on you to carve a path and protect Daniel until I get there!”

“{You fool!}” screams Kaeralegier’s voice, and this time, everyone hears it, flinching. Even Yaulwembor must’ve heard it, because she snarls, though she doesn’t understand where the voice came from.

“I am a fool! Get used to it!” exclaims Hekate, giving a big, devilish grin with her terrifying and ugly face.

“Your Greatness, look out!”

Neith lunges close and yanks Hekate back, but the shocking hits him, and he immediately topples, dropping her only a couple yards away from where she was.

“Neith!?”

Everyone else gasps, and Hekate looks where their eyes have gone.

White embers have landed on her tail while she wasn’t paying attention, and for a moment, her heart stops. Nemaisol should be able to negate magic, but right now, she is being overwhelmed by Hekate in order to counteract the sword’s power.

The mana fire reached Hekate’s tail, and she realizes she was so distracted that the fire crept right up on her.

“Mała!” screams Zuzia, and Hekate’s mind clouds as she tries to imagine what Daniel would do.

Do I cut it off? Nemaisol probably can. But… I like my tail. Daniel says it’s soft and fluffy… He doesn’t mind if I curl it against his arms or face. He says it’s cute! It’s the only part about me that there is to love! I-I… 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

As she’s having these terrible thoughts, her eyes widen. Her tail isn’t burning. In fact, the embers that got trapped in her fur seem to slowly fade, leaving behind only brightly glowing strands of fur in her tail.

Though her vision is soaked with tears, Hekate realizes something horrible, but also something she can make use of.

She understood from the very moment that Daniel and Xyreko connected the dots that she truly was a monster from the day she was born.

But, one more monster is present and refuses to burn via the mana fire.

Whatever protects Sayrdarralouche now may just be one more mysterious power the feldroks have.

Either way, it confirms Hekate’s choice, and it proves that she alone can be safe in doing it.

With that, Hekate takes her stance again, screaming, “Daniel! I’m coming! Hang on!”

Using all of her magic-powered might, every drop of strength she can spare away from enduring Nemaisol’s repulsive shocks, Hekate aims the sword once more for the heart of the mana fire, deep within the nadir of the crater. She can’t truly see it, but she feels the fateful pull towards Daniel that will always guide her home.

“And together, we’ll outlast the Mountains!”

Cra-cra-KABOOM!

The first thing to break the sound barrier is the sword tip, followed by Hekate’s arm, and finally, the full combined strength of a magic-negating sword and the raw magical energy used to accelerate her far beyond what should be possible.

Whether or not Hekate’s whole world falls apart, figuratively only slightly before literally, depends on the next few seconds.

***