As he fell down the tower, he could not help but notice that there was a crowd forming at the base of the tower. Everyone who had taken shelter within the tower had rushed outside to look at the oddity going on just outside the area of their mountain home. After a few more drops, Yun reached the ground level and quickly made his way back to Laurence. Hushed whispers followed him as he walked through the crowd, and he could understand why. Everyone knew that it was possible to create small treasures that manipulated time in limited ways, but the scope of understanding, the strength of materials and the skill required to make a device that could lock time in an entire plane excluding a small area was beyond any one of the Hephaistians. The fact that their leader could pull out such an object of last resort simply left every single person who witnessed it in awe. Yun doubly so.
“How? Why did you not tell me before?”
Laurence continued to work, but his pace had sped up and the mana that churned around him had begun to take on density. It was no longer just a visible gas to the naked eye, but also when one tried to move their body through it they would slow down as if pushing their way through water. Despite this, Laurence continued to speed up. His actions were mechanical in precision, not missing a beat as he kept up the process that he had been doing for two days. After a minute, Laurence finished another section before turning back to Yun.
“No point. It only works for an hour, and takes a year of the bubble in reverse to recharge. It’s at best a ditch effort, but might be just enough to save us”. Turning back, Laurence began working on the final stretch. His actions sped up, but his pace slowed down to a crawl. With each step, the path he walked upon became more and more intricate than before as his entire creation gained an even deeper complexity.
As Yun stared at the runes that lined Laurence’s path he could not help but feel like the aeons were passing before his very eyes. He pulled his eyes away from Laurence’s work. There was a time to study and learn from his brother, but now was not it. He had to be ready in case things turned for the worse, or if Laurence needed more time.
Sending his truesense all the way up the tower, Yun watched the sand drain in the hourglass. It was like he was watching his life and the life of everyone who stood with him trickle away as each grain of sand rolled from the top compartment into the bottom. It was excruciating, but all he could do to take his mind off obsessing over Laurence and getting in the way. He knew that the field that Laurence had delved into was very different. Had they both been discussing the ins and outs of creating realms, or commanding groups of golems, Yun was firm in the knowledge that he could run rings around his brother, but when it came to weapons of war or applications of time he was like a child in front of Laurence.
He continued to watch as his brother took step after step closer to the middle of the tower, all the while keeping an eye on the rapidly emptying hourglass. It was draining out at a rate quicker than Laurence was moving, but Yun still hoped that they would finish around the same time.
He was a metre away from the centre of the room when Yun noticed a thin line of liquid collecting in the middle of the path. It was barely noticeable, but the thought of touching it gave him an overwhelming sense of dread. Whatever this fluid was, Yun instinctively knew to keep himself as far away from it as possible. Every fibre of his being told him that if he touched this fluid then not only could it hurt him, it could stop him from ever coming into being again. He could only assume that whatever Laurence wanted to make, this was the final product.
Moments became seconds, seconds became minutes and minutes slowly became the hour as Laurence worked tirelessly before the crowd of people. After placing down the final rune, and setting the strip of stone in position, there was a flash of light as the mana in the air lit up the immense array that Laurence had produced. Placing his hand within a ring made of intricate glyphs in the middle of the floor, energy began pulsing rapidly. The light changed colour, from the pale blue that usually represented the energy of life, to a soft maroon, indicating Laurence’s control.
Turning round, he began walking towards the front of the mountain, towards the battlefield and the colossal dragon that blotted out the sun. Yun followed, but kept his truesense trained upon the hourglass as it wasted away the final minutes of defense. For a while, Laurence just stared at the dragon before slowly raising his glowing right hand to the sky. He turned to Yun momentarily before smiling wistfully. “You know, I didn’t really get it before. Why you were so obsessed with looking after these people... Our family. I’m still not absolutely sure why, but after having two days to think about it, I realise that I can’t involve you in this. So as to my question, it doesn’t matter now”. Dropping his arm, he pointed at the body of the dragon before sighing. “So long my sentiments...”
The green light that had filled the sky for the last hour slowly receded but at the same rate a glistening giant spider web appeared high in the sky above Misty Peaks. With each passing instant, the segments of the spider web became brighter and brighter as the sky got bluer and bluer. The brightness moved along the cobweb, making its way to the middle through the spiral as well as the anchor webs. As it collected in the middle it was condensed to an incredible degree, just waiting for a spark to set it free.
Sluggishly the dragon’s strike began making its descent as the bindings that locked it in time had become unfettered. Its expression began to change as it noticed that there was something wrong. There was something different about the way things were set up before it. Thousands of little changes assaulted its sense but the greatest were the giant spider web that sat at face level, and the two men who stood on the plateau at the mountain peak. Both exuded a threat to the dragon that was beyond uncanny, unavoidable, and frankly terrifying to the creature. In a fraction of a second, the dragon shifted from an all out attack to desperately trying to escape, but both Laurence and Yun could tell it was too late. It was too late for anyone on the field before them.
A rich green light flashed and a beam, like the one that had protected the mountain but condensed a thousandfold, tore through the sky. It slammed through the dragon and in an instant the figure that had been given form through the life of an Immortal was rendered unto dust. The beam carried on, unabated, and cut through the army that was quickly approaching behind the dragon. There was no time for them to retreat, there was no time for them to beg, to scream, or to even feel pain. For them there was simply no time left. The beam slammed into the ground and began churning the earth, and before their very eyes, the mire made of corpses and blood transformed into something new. A vibrant forest grew and spread out of the dead earth, with trees that pierced the sky and impossibly dense undergrowth. It was as if the primeval woods of the first floor had been transported before the mountains, but as the crowd of Hephaistians slowly grew behind the two men, every soul there knew of the army that had once stood in place of those mighty trees.
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