Published at 1st of October 2026 8:03 am

Chapter 330 The Apex of Her Power

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Mirian felt the changes washing through her soul. She had known, intellectually, that soul energy and mana were part of the same spectrum, but she hadnt fully understood the implications. The arcane power streaming through her from below didnt need to burn her soul. Her soul was a mirror of herself, but as malleable as her aura. The spirit-construct was not a force to be controlled; the arcane power below didnt need to be twisted into submission. She had flexed her soul to open the doors to Luamin. Now she let it flow, like rain over the desert, like blood soaking into sand.

Ceiba Yans gifted mana passed easily into her soul. His mana was hers. The soul energy from the countless dead below was hers. She pulled both through her, and they passed by as easily as a river flowing over worn stones. They mixed together as one current, just as all the colors of light merging through a prism to become white.

She was the ice in the far north and the orchids that bloomed beneath Ceiba Yans boughs. She carried the stories of long dead strangers from the First City, and the last pieces of her close memories with her mother. This armaggedon was just another trial that humanity would overcome. The tears of grief would be their water that let the fields of time to bloom with a new beginning. They would learn. They would grow. If they were not enough yet, then they would change and become it.

Her understanding crystallized. Mirian felt her sixth soul ascension wash over her like a warm embrace, and her spells sang forth.

She let out a cry. Grief, for the Ominians sacrifice. Pain, for all those who had done the same so that there might be the possibility of a tomorrow. Passion, for the Enteria that they both loved.

Mana and soul energy surged through her, and she flung her arms wide. Power burst from her, reinforcing her spells. Below, the arcane energy quieted. Above, Divir began to slow.

***

At the foot of the regulator, an exhausted Gaius and Zhuan had gotten as close as they could to the rampaging arcane storm where the two conduit crystals had shattered.

Gaius saw Zhuans look, and he knew the situation was even worse than it looked.

He put a hand on the Prophets shoulder. She told me that, when all hope was lost, Id come here and try to stop it myself. For her, he said.

Zhuan nodded. She looked tired beyond measure, but she raised her scepter anyways. All we can do.

Everything for her, Gaius said.

Together, they cast, pushing what soul energy they could manage into the spirit construct so that Naluri could draw on it. Gaius could feel his soul straining, and he guessed Zhuan was near her breaking point too. Gaius felt the strain twisting him up. Distortions in his soul threatened to disrupt the chthonic needle, and he could sense Zhuans soul was ripping itself up in the same way. But they couldnt relent. None of it mattered if Naluri failed.

Then Gaius felt a surge of arcane energy powerful enough he was sure one of the leylines must be burstingbut the light that flickered was above them. He gazed up in time to see the vents on Naluris artifact armor surge out with light. Two streams stretched out, and Gaiuss jaw fell open. He tried briefly to come up with a myr number that she would have to be hitting to get that kind of excess power venting outespecially given that only a fraction of the arcane energy was decaying into lightand couldnt come up with one.

Silver light danced wildly in the sky, rushing up to meet Divir.

***

When Grand Marshal Cearsia had given the order to lay down arms, Elias had kept clutching his rifle, and so had most of the others around him. It was known the heretic was an illusionist, so it was most likely a deception.

Then that damn device had blown.

Thenthis.

He thought hed the heights of magic with that beast, or with those archmages destroying half the damn city. Hed seen nothing.

For a moment, the moon kept falling, and he felt this terrible pressure as strange flames danced along the bottom of it. It was a goddamn mountain coming towards them, and he realizedprobably for the eighth time today alonethat they were all going to die.

Then he saw her, levitating amidst a storm of magic that ought to have killed anyone, and for a moment, it seemed like it would.

But something changed. Her arms went wide, and wings of light blossomed from her back. They were beautiful white light, glimmering with wisps of every other color in the rainbow. They were enormous. They streamed out for at least a mile in each direction, and there was that womanthat prophetin the middle of it. Silver light streamed up until the whole of that damn moon was wreathed in it.

And the moon slowed.

Eliass rifle fell from his hands.

Awe and fear mixed together. A realization dawned on him: hed been fighting for the wrong side. That was magic only explained by the divine.

His knees hit the ground, and all he could do was stare reverently up at that beautiful light and pray. Pray to the Ominian. Pray to for mercy.

All around him, the Akanan army began to kneel.

***

Song Jei was desperately hitting glyphs along the emergency regulation console. She hardly understood the device, but she understood equilibriums, and though part of her knew that it was physically impossible to balance this apocalyptic equation, she had to try something. She was busy looking at an illusionary readout trying to to figure out how redirect more of the arcane load to the east conduits when she heard a cry echo out in the distance. A moment later, she felt a tug on her arm. She spun, eyes full of fury, but Iliya Torres wasnt even looking at her. She was looking up, and Song followed her gaze.

There was Mirianframed in a burning corona of silver light. Brilliant light was spreading from her back, looking a lot like wings, and Songs heart stilled. Impossible, she thought.

There was a tri-point meter nearby, aimed at the southern conduit crystal. She used shape metal to tear the steel bracket holding it place, and pointed it up.

The myr readout started ticking up rapidly.

Iliya saw it, and said, We taught her?

Song shook her head. Apparently.

The tri-point detector was calibrated for high-myr detection. It couldnt measure the full power going through the center of the conduit crystal, but it had been measuring the outer coronal layer, which was around 500 myr. Mirian had said that was where shed plateaued. Now, it was ticking up. 1000. 1200. 1400. 1500. Song gaped. She was moving as much power as one of the tower-sized conduit crystals. A glyph on the artifact lit up, letting them know that its readings were becoming inaccurate due to the high energies involved. The tens and ones digits wouldnt stay still, fluctuating wildly.

And the moon was slowing.

She and Iliya clutched each other, and both wept openly. Somehow, Mirian had done the impossible.

Come on! Iliya said, and Song followed. The last of the arcanists monitoring the regulator began to evacuate as Divir loomed over head. All the while, that brilliant light flickered above.

***

On the cliff overlooking Arriroba, the whole town had gathered in a grand feast. Everyone had seen the Divir moon starting to descend, and the council had immediately gotten to work on deciding how best to handle the emergency. Then Grandpa Irabi had said his piece, and called for a feast. Either they would be celebrating a great moment in Enterias history, or theyd go out celebrating a good life lived. No amount of wooden barricades or emergency stores were going to do much if that moon came down.

The council had disagreed, but the rest of the town had overridden them, and now they were all sitting off to the side looking disgruntled whle everyone else sang and danced and ate.

I do worry about her, Jeron Castrella said, looking south.

Shes apparently older than we are now, Dhelia said, not for the first time. And she got an ancient necromancer to help us out, so she clearly knows a thing or two.

That wasnt exactly alleviating Jerons concerns. You really think that was Atrox I mean, Atrah Xidi?

Dhelia answered by thrusting a cup full of beer in front of her husband, which he readily took.

Zayd, on the other hand, was tugging at Grandpa Irabis leg again. Ride? he asked.

Zayd! You cant justhes too um he might be tired, Jeron said.

Grandpa Irabi laughed. I think this old man can manage. Hold still. Oof, this back isnt what it used to be. Alright, hold on tight.

Yaaay! Zayd said, gripping too hard on his hair. Wow! Look at those lights. Can we go closer?

Dhelia sighed. Zayd, thats over a hundred miles away.

Jeron cleared his throat and muttered, Dear, its a lot more than that.

Yes, I know, but hes not old enough to know anything bigger than a hundred!

When Mirian was that age, she could count to a thousand

Wow! A hundred miles!?

In the distance, they could just make Divir outit was like a star from the sky was slowly settling down on the horizon. Above it, there was this distant aurora, bright enough that they could see it clearly, even in the evening light.

Then, Zayd let out a gasp as the Divir brightened. The auroras sweeping across the horizon intensified. Across the cliffside, the town of Arriroba pointed and gasped. Grandpa Irabi, whyd it do that?

I do believe that might be your sisters doing, the old man said.

Woooooow, Zayd said.

***

Mirian kept the power coursing through her as Divir came down. The jagged black rock was a descending mountain, and as it neared the ground, a massive gale kicked up, sending debris and sand outward. In several places around Mayat Shadr, unstable structures collapsed completely. Mirian let it all blow past her, keeping her spell steady. Above, the magical auroras crackled across the dome of the sky, blending in with the colors of the sunset.

Well love this place for you, she promised the entombed ascended.

Her soul-sight confirmed that the last people had evacuated the leyline regulator. Gently, she let Divir come down, in the center of the city, returning it to it once had been.

Or at least, as gently as one could let down a mountain. The leyline regulator cracked open as Divirs bottom crushed through it, the heavy rock sinking through thousands of tons of crystal and metal as if it was butter. Magic spilled out sending lightning crackling up into the sky, and with a final drop, the moon returned to the place of its origin. Mayat Shadr was again whole.

The earth trembled. Another ring of dust blew out, and several more buildings collapsed. And then, as all saw what Divir truly was, she could hear the collective gasps of amazement behind her. The doors to the Mausoleum of the Ominian blew open, and on that final wind, as the earth still quaked, was a feeling.

A calm breeze on winter fields, the first stalks of myrvite flowers poking through the snow.

A myrvite titan, resting with its spawn in a warren made of crimson fungus and dark stone.

A zephyr falcon, wings steady, climbing a thermal into the clouds.

A cemetery full of mourners on a quiet night.

And a great tree, trunk black with scorch marks, almost ever branch searedbut small shoots of green leaves at the zenith of its crown.

A hundred more images danced through their minds, and an overwhelming feeling passed outward, to the battlefield, to the refugees east of the city, to even the desert drakes cowering in their dens. In the center of the flashes of imagery, they saw Divitrius, sitting entombed on their chair, and the churning sensation could only be resolved into a single word:

PEACE.

And with that, the Ominians death completed. With certainty, Mirian knew that while whispers of them still lingered in the past, no living part of them persisted beyond this point in time.

She let her hands lower. Her wings of light gradually whispered away into the air, blending into the fading auroras above until they were nothing. She turned to the people spread below. Most were kneeling. Even Cearsia was among them, head bowed. Behind the surrendered Akanan army, the airships still burned.

She let her levitation spell bring her down to the front of the mausoleum. Her feet touched down gently on stone that had not seen the air in two thousand years.

Zhuan and her father were there, along with a collection of the central guard. The exhaustion was plain on their faces. Somehow, even as a living mummy, Gaius was managing to look tired. But there was also relief.

A deep silence settled over the battlefield. There was still work to be donewhen was there ever not? The surrendered Akanan army needed to be dealt with. Without water and shelter, most would die, and Mirian planned to start this new world with an act of mercy. Liuans lies had been shattered. Disarmed, the remnant force could be handled. There would be time enough to sentence those elements of the army that had committed atrocities beyond their duty. Justice would be done, but for now, it was a time to grieve. Both the Akanan Army and the Ominians Army had taken catastrophic casualties. Enough blood had been spilled.

Mirian turned to Zhuan, and together, their hands entwined.

Are you? Zhuan asked.

Mirian looked up. The sun was sinking below the horizon. The stars were beginning to appear, and the shadows of the void above. For now, my place is still here. Enteria needs me. And we need each other. I have From the south, she could see Torres and Jei among the mages walking over, the procession covered in a thick layer of dust. In the crowd of survivors, she saw Lecne and Xipuatl, both badly wounded, but alive. Somewhere to the north were Lily and Nicolus. Her eyes turned to her father. so many people I want to share memories with.

Mirian turned to those assembled and those kneeling, her voice clear as it echoed across the ruined city. The sun sets on the old world. Those who need healing, I will visit you as I can. Leave your weapons and wands of war; enough violence has been done for a thousand lifetimes. Let all present mourn the final death of the Ominian, Divitrius, through the night. The next dawn ushers in a new beginning. A new Enteria. We will build a better world for allhuman and myrvite alikewhere love can flourish; this was the Ominians wish, and thus, it is my final command as prophet.

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