Lightning struck the base of Griffon's Watch, cracking against the decimated central keep where the Archon and the Chimera of Westerweald stood before each other.

"Together, Archon Ethan," Dr Haylock chirruped within his mutant creature's breast. "Let us leave this world as we were meant to."

Ethan stared down Revok as his three heads charged another triadic death-beam.

With no fear or hesitation in his eyes, he brought up Greybane and let his own fly:

[Twilight Edge]

[Spectral Snipe]

[Ice Barrage]

[Winterbreath]

[Vine Bloom]

[Thorn Storm]

The ground beneath his feet glowed as the sheer heat emanating from his shaking palm rose to that of a supernova. The castle wreckage started to melt into the earth. The rain that lashed down upon his shoulders instantly evaporated into steam.

No objections, Sys?

He was waiting for a quip – something from the System that told him what he was doing was insane. But in the moment his attack rocketed through his body and began to splinter his Host apart, Sys's response was calm as a summer day:

Give him hell, my Archon.

Ethan felt his arm shudder as the power of so many combined skills crept through his oaken veins. He saw the claws gripping his sword begin to peel back, revealing charred bark beneath.

He threw the blade away and channeled the strength of his attack behind nothing but that arm. Within him, he could feel his Drytchling Host – and the human consciousness that she once was – start to recoil.

Come on, he told her. Don't be afraid. Don't give up, now. Remember what Malak did to you. Remember what this man has done to you and your people all these years. Remember all the pain. All the terror.

He could feel her presence stiffen. It was like he could see her here right now, laying her hand on his arm to steady him as he aimed directly at Haylock's beast.

Remember, he said. And burn it all away with me.

Haylock watched as the Archon readied his final strike.

He's focused, he thought. Present. He wants this so much.

He watched as Ethan poured everything he had into ending this battle with one final strike, and decided that this was the moment he'd been waiting for his whole life.

"Kaedmon", he whispered. "I hope you are watching this. I have done my part. I have played my role as tormentor all these long years. I have mangled a thousand bodies in your name to create a thing of beauty. That was my wish, Lord: to forge something of such splendor in this world of suffering and pain that you still cling to like a child."

He forced put his mental energy behind the Chimera's attack, charging up every copy of Ethan's Skills he had, every ounce of Spirit Core he'd taken from all his experiments over the years. All the Hybrids, all the humans, and their desperate, desolate hopes for a better world that they all shared, in the end – these things he poured into his attack, and watched as the dazzling lights that formed between him and the Archon grew ever brighter in the depths of the night.

"Let's see if I succeeded."

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Ethan let his attack fly, bathing the Argwylian night in a kaleidoscope of darkness mixed with light. Ice crystals wrapped in vicious vines swarmed around the spectral energies of his Snipe ability mixed with Twilight Edge, creating a maelstrom of darkness that met the three elemental attacks of Revok.

At the clash of their beams, the entire ground shifted, forming a burning crater of onyx beneath them. Even as they started to sink into the earth, drilling down into the island's depths and starting to break apart the very surface of Argwyll itself, still neither relented in their assault.

Keep it together! Sys urged. This is it! This – this is the power of a true Archon!

Ethan had never heard Sys so giddy before. For his part, he was concentrating on just staying in one piece.

He saw the cracks forming across his one remaining arm and the spikes of light that were beginning to peek through. He activated [Barkskin], focusing its protective growth across his arm and down into the grooves at the tips of his fingers.

Keep it together, he told himself. Keep…it…together!

Before the blinding light before him, he could see Revok's roaring faces. And within them, staring right back at him with pure, lustful intent, was Haylock.

Ethan dropped to one knee, feeling his oaken skin come away. He was slipping. He knew it.

But he didn't let his arm drop. Sys might have shouted something in the depths of his subconsciousness, but he didn't hear him.

He looked into the Doctor's eyes, and he let out a roar of pure defiance.

Such POWER!

Haylock urged Revok forward, even as the beast was beginning to groan against his commands. The very ground had come away. His castle was nothing more than a collection of spiked walls now.

But he couldn't bring himself to care.

You see, Kaedmon! he roared in his mind. This is what true strength looks like! And now – I must say – perhaps it should be mine after all.

He watched the Archon's form burn away. He was kneeling, struggling against the power surging through his veins.

Haylock's smirk dropped.

"No", he snarled. "No – no, that's not good enough! You can't give up, now. Not when you're so close!"

He urged his beast forward again, seeing the light of Revok push back the strength of the Archon's attack.

This is the best you can do? Disappointing. Utterly disappointing. In the end, is this really what you are?

Ethan's body splintered. His right leg broke apart, snapped away and replaced by a sheen of pure light. Then the other one cracked and fell apart – burned to ash.

"So be it, then," he growled. "If you will not rise, then I shall take what little promise you ha-"

FLASH.

A rip in time. A tear in space. A flash of light more blinding than that which he was currently belching out through his beast.

And then…a voice in the dark.

Ethan saw the hulking Chimera push forward as his body cracked apart beneath him, sustained by nothing more than his willpower alone.

His torso and head were all that remained.

That's it, he told his Drytchling Host. You've done all you had to. Now, leave the rest to us.

He looked into the suddenly bewildered faces of the Chimera, and saw the equally confused face of its master inside.

"Jun," he said. "Now."

Haylock blinked through the mist that had just obscured his eyes. The Archon was gone, replaced by something…familiar.

A Lycae. A dog-woman wearing embroidered robes of pure splendor – robes with long sleeves that fluttered in the wind that had suddenly picked up around him. He saw – he felt – her eyes bore into his. They were eyes he'd seen before.

Jun…Ei…

The eyes of the dog-woman as she'd once been faded away, and were replaced by the fiery Archon's.

And he suddenly realized exactly what ruse he'd fallen for:

Prophet's Pacification

All Skills: Nullified

He looked at the notification, watching the letters form and then drip away like the beads of sweat that were forming on his brow.

Prophet's…Pacification…

When…how did…did you always have this Skill?

His question was subsumed in the shock of Revok as his light died away. The beast felt suddenly like a massive weight on his mind, wearing him down, its insides pressing against him as it sunk to the ground.

…you waited, he realized. You kept it from me…all these years. Even when you lay screaming before me…you…you held back…the secret.

He watched as all of Revok's energy faded away to nothing but a stuttering thimble of light, and when that disappeared too, he looked into the Archon's open mouth.

"Can it be true?" he all but croaked. "That through all the pain, all your suffering…you were waiting for this moment, all along?"

A new light beam erupted from Ethan's maw – the remainder of all the power that was stored within his dying frame. The eyes of the Drytchling Host remained open, unblinking even as it died away, while the Demon Hat that sat atop its head commanded it to belch out a spear of light.

Haylock attempted to summon a [Repulsor Shield] but found that he couldn't force his minion to even move a muscle. He simply watched as the Archon's light pierced through Revok's lion-face, cutting through the creature's body and coming straight for him.

And as it reached his face, he saw her again – bright, luminous, and so much more powerful than even he had imagined. He'd thought he was a patient man. But time, for her, was measured in centuries. He couldn't compete with that. In the end, he was only human. And this battle had come down to survival of the fittest.

She looked down her nose at him and smiled. He didn't know if she could hear his thoughts or not.

All I ever wanted…was to create something…beautiful…

The smile faded, giving way to the dark.

…and I succeeded.

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