Anything ~ 56!

- Taylor -

The Mage coughed up blood as Luke made his suggestion to throw away their futures in an insane, misguided, most-likely-won’t-even-work sort of way. If the blood had been from anger, she would have been impressed and asked the Murderhobo to teach her so that she could do the same to Archmage Don. But no: this was just good ol’ fashioned internal damage rearing its ugly head.

“Luke… please, no,” Taylor managed to squeeze out, even though her body protested the extra motion. A quick glance at her health made her wince in fear; even with Andre packing the wound with healing herbs and binding it with plants, the flesh in that space was shredded. She needed a healer that could repair the mutilated area, not some random leaves that had slight medicinal properties. “It might not do anything, and we need that powder to secure our power.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Andre tense up. It was times like this that she almost wished she didn’t have such potent Senses. If she were blind to people’s reactions, it would be so much easier to just do what needed to be done. Luke shrugged and pulled open the satchel. “I don’t care what we do with this. It’ll have no effect on me. You decide.”

“Taylor…” Andre took a deep breath and swallowed deeply as mana started rushing toward them. Even the Earthen Node flickered like a candle in the wind for a brief moment, and Taylor hoped that she had been the only one to see that. “We have a shot here to make a difference on a scale that I can’t even fully explain to you. This isn’t even about the Hollow Kingdom anymore. This is… nature. This entire Plane of existence could be destroyed if we don’t stop the Corrupted Nature Dragon.”

“I can stop it.” Taylor pointed her finger at the Node. “I just need to get over there. I’ll destroy that, and the Dragon will die along with it.”

A single tear slowly fell from Andre’s left eye, following the bridge of his nose and vanishing in his slowly-returning-to-red mustache. “The Dragon is more than a monster, Taylor. It’s bound to a representation of life. It is nature, at least nature within the territory of this Node. If we destroy this… nothing natural will ever again thrive in this area. The desert will expand. More and more of this world will fail as power is diverted from other ley lines in an attempt to fill this one. But it will never be fixed. There will be a hole in this world… and it will die.”

Taylor took several deep breaths as the Druid’s impassioned speech hit her like a Greatclub to the heart. “It will give us time, Andre. Even if it does work, how long will it take? What if the Dragon gets to another Node in that time and begins eating it? Then we wasted this and still failed. If we don’t stop that thing… either way, this world is dead. I’d rather us be alive, Ascended, and powerful, instead of frantically searching for something that will give us a fraction of what we’d be throwing away, and hoping we win the race against time.”

She turned her gaze away as Andre dropped his to the ground. “I’ve decided. Luke, bring me in. We’re destroying the Node.”

The Murderhobo wasn’t one for subtlety or emotional tug-of-war. She was his leader for now, and the order didn’t hurt him at all. He turned and ran at the Node as she scanned their surroundings for potential enemies closing in. They had crossed the distance in record speed, thanks to the aerial movements, but twelve legs meant that the Teeth were coming at them fast. Her Thunder Beast’s Eye had fizzled out, meaning the only light in the area was coming from the Node and Cookie. Her quick scan caused a pulse of acidic light to appear in a wave as her gaze traveled the distance, but it also meant that she knew she had time.

Enough time to do what had to be done.

The closer they got to the Node, the harder it was for her to breathe. The pressure coming off of the Node was intense, and each of Luke’s steps caused one of three different-colored lightning bolts to arc off and strike him. Somehow the thick bands of power didn’t seem to faze him, and he even chuckled a few times and muttered something about Cookie not tickling him when they were in a serious situation. Taylor shuddered to think that this man was by far the most powerful amongst them. She coughed and felt blood leak from her wounds before getting vanished by Cleanse.

Current Health: 42/123.

Shredded debuff: -5 health per 15 seconds.

This was the real reason she didn’t have time to waste. Her friends might hate her forever for destroying the Node, but she was going to die within the next two minutes. There wasn’t time for Andre to open a portal for her to his world. There wasn’t time to find a healer. There was only time for her to make sure that her team survived, time enough to ensure the world had a chance to evacuate. Her friends would need to be the beacons that humanity turned to, and if all three of them had these ‘prismatic’ Mana Channels that Luke swore were real, there was a good chance that they could do it.

They could save everyone. Anything was possible if these three set their minds to it. They just… they just needed the chance. Her determination firmed even as her vision began to fade. “Luke, it needs to be now. Throw me in there if you need to do so, but get me there now.”

For some reason, the Murderhobo forced his open satchel into her hands before whirling around and bodily chucking her at the Node. Andre’s howl filled her ears. “No! Going into the Node is death! That much power! You and the world will die!”

“It’s already too late for me,” Taylor whispered as she zipped through the air, suddenly deep in her first memory of rebelling against Master Don and being thrown just like this, low gravity and all. The Earthen Node came closer… closer… then it lashed out at her. A thigh-thick band of power reached out and slammed into her chest, arresting her momentum slowly as it worked to keep her away.

Power flooded her, the pure mana that she had been born and raised in as a child. Its touch made her finally understand at a deep level how everything on this Plane was connected by this fundamental energy. This world’s… this Plane’s mana. It was alive in a way that she couldn’t grasp, against all teachings of mana that she had ever received. It knew she was coming to destroy it. Right now, it was trying to kill her first.

“So this is what it’s like to have powerful Mana Channels.” The channeled power kept flowing into her, trying to fill her to the point that she would be destroyed, but before that could happen, she began casting.

Current Mana Regeneration: 50 per second.

“A full fifty mana per second?” A smile graced Taylor’s face for the first time since they had descended into this pit. “At least I’ll get to go out with a bang. I’ve always wondered what would happen…”

Taking a shallow breath, all her body would allow at the moment, Taylor began casting Thunder Beast’s Eye. Then she kept casting it. All the power flowing from the Earthen Node was directed through her and into the eye as she slowly drifted closer and closer to the source of the mana.

Current Health: 32/123.

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” she murmured as her health flashed bright red at her. “I only need nine seconds to use Nullify to its maximum effect…”

By this point she was incredibly close to the Node, but the force of the energy had caused her to almost come to a standstill. Another full minute passed, bringing her to only twelve health, and she realized she was about to pass out. With a heave, she released the Spell, and the world was instantly awash with green light as the Teeth were seen.

Current Health: 7/123.

Thousands. Tens of thousands. All of them closing in on her. It was time. She was already late.

She pulled in as much air as she could, and wheezed, “Null-”

“Please, Taylor. Please trust me.” Andre’s arms wrapped around her, pulling the Mage into his embrace.

Taylor choked on her words as she recognized his presence. She stared into his deep green eyes; eyes that were… the exact color of the incoming Teeth? That was when she realized that perhaps this world had been giving them the clues they’d needed to save it the entire time. “I do… trust you. Andre.”

She just wanted the best for him. But, she realized at that instant, perhaps she should actually trust him to know what that meant for himself. Taylor pressed the open satchel into his hands as lighting arced away from her spell to fry the nearest Teeth.

He would have all the time he needed to save the world, she realized. Her Spell, with all the power the world had given her, would keep him safe. “More than that… Andre. I… love…”

Current Health: 0/123.