Chương 149: 148: The Antler Breaks

Apotheosis staggered, finally recognizing the pattern in Korhess's attacks. Her strikes had never been random. Every thrust, every slash, every precisely placed wound had targeted something vital to its movement, severing or damaging the structures that allowed its enormous body to accelerate, turn, and pursue. It could no longer run.

Even if it tried, the damage would slow it before it could get far, while Korhess's chanting continued to suppress its regeneration and prevent its leaking Apis from becoming another army of Nightmares. There was nowhere to retreat. So it fought. Its entire body convulsed as energy erupted from beneath its crimson-indigo scales. VRRRRMMMMM! The surge was hotter than the surface of the sun.

The prototypes had endured solar fire before, had walked through the hearts of stars without flinching, yet this was something else entirely, an energy designed not merely to burn but to overwhelm anything that resisted it. Victor screamed as his skin blistered beneath the assault. Naomi threw up a wall of black ice, but it melted almost instantly. SSSSHHHH! Apotheosis's tail lashed through the steam. SHRAK! It sliced through Naomi's leg.

She twisted backward without hesitation, forming a jagged shard of ice beneath her thigh and cutting through the limb herself before the creature could use the wound against her. Her severed leg struck the ground, blood racing through the detached flesh until it suddenly ruptured. SKREEEEEE! Screeching eel-like Nightmares burst from the wound and writhed across the melting asphalt.

"Disgusting." Had she waited even a second longer, they would have been inside her body. Mateo raised an arm as his regeneration struggled against the Apis saturating his flesh, but Apotheosis moved faster than his perception. SHNK! Its claws tore through his chest, nearly splitting him in half and exposing his heart and lungs to the open air. Cass intercepted the creature's hand before it could reach his head, her golden Fix Points flashing into existence around its arm. TIK! TIK! TIK!

The restraints locked into place, but they flickered violently as Apotheosis fought against them. The prototypes could regenerate from being reduced to pieces, yet the Apis inside their bodies had slowed that process drastically. If their heads were severed, they would not recover quickly enough. Cass dragged Mateo away. Miriam's emerald flames washed over Apotheosis, only to disappear beneath its overwhelming heat. She tried to retreat, but the creature broke through Cass's restraints and hurled itself toward her.

Its claws seized her legs. Another hand caught her torso. Its jaws opened. CRUNCH! Miriam screamed as its teeth sank into her. She answered by pouring every ounce of fire she could produce down its throat. FWOOM! Apotheosis recoiled before it could tear her apart. A pre-attack from Korhess struck its chest. THOOM! Its torso folded inward. It released Miriam, and Korhess appeared beside her, seized her, and teleported them both away before returning almost immediately. Her spear flashed toward Apotheosis's head.

Boiling water erupted from its palms. SHRAAAAAAAAA! Korhess was driven backward, forced to abandon the killing strike. Apotheosis could still sense her attacks. It could still recognize and repel the blows that would end the battle. It was not weak enough. Its energy continued breaking free. The city itself began to melt. Asphalt bubbled and liquefied beneath the combatants. Steel beams sagged like wax, glass flowed down the sides of skyscrapers, and the air seemed to catch fire.

The livestreams that had been filled with frantic commentary fell almost completely silent as viewers watched the prototypes being torn apart. Korhess remained standing. Her emerald flames burned around her antlers.

"Sylv-varai tel-mora!" WHOOOOM! A cage of emerald fire erupted from the ground and closed around Apotheosis, trapping it inside a prison of burning light. The creature roared and thrashed against the flames. GRAAAAAAAAAH! The cage began to weaken almost immediately. Every time Apotheosis resisted, its energy ate away at the prison. Korhess advanced regardless. Her spear carved across its throat. SHRAK! The wound charred shut before a single drop of blood could escape.

"Thou art weakening," she murmured. Apotheosis's glassy eyes narrowed.

"I am adapting." Its scales darkened. The wounds Korhess had inflicted remained sealed, yet its biology began shifting around them, rewriting itself in response to her fire. Korhess's expression hardened.

"Then I shall simply have to adapt faster." She lunged again. Across the city, civilians fled through smoke-filled streets. A woman clutched her daughter against her chest as the apartment building behind them collapsed into a cloud of debris.

"Mommy, I'm scared!"

"I know, baby. Keep running!" A man in a business suit abandoned his briefcase to help an elderly woman down the stairs of a crumbling apartment complex.

"Watch your step! The floor is—" The building lurched beneath them. KRAK - BOOM! They fell together.... Emergency vehicles stood abandoned throughout the streets, their lights still flashing while a fire truck lay overturned, its hose spraying uselessly into a building no one could save. A teenager raised his phone with trembling hands.

"Yo, you guys seeing this? This isn't a movie. It's not CGI. This is real. I'm in New York right now and—" BOOOOOOM! The ground shook beneath him. He stumbled.

"I gotta go." He ran. The livestream continued for several seconds before cutting out. Another stream appeared. A young woman pressed herself against a ruined wall, her phone trembling in her hands.

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Keep running!" a man shouted.

"I can't look away."

"Look away and run!" The comments flooded the screen, but the frantic messages were quickly drowned beneath terrified repetition. SHE'S STILL STANDING HOW ARE THEY ALIVE OH GOD RUN RUN Apotheosis tore through the ruins, its crimson-indigo body becoming a blur as it charged through the city, claws extended and tail sweeping behind it. Buildings exploded apart in its wake, cars flattened beneath its feet, and the streets shuddered beneath every step. Korhess alone could still match its movements.

She stepped forward, her spear blazing brighter.

"Val-tel miran!" FWOOSH! Fire erupted from empty air and wrapped around Apotheosis. The creature roared as Korhess advanced through the flames, her spear striking again and again, each wound sealing beneath the emerald fire before blood could escape. Her earlier attacks were already beginning to manifest through its movements, old wounds appearing at precisely the moments she had prepared them to emerge. Its limbs twitched. Its movements slowed. Apotheosis met her head-on. Its claws raked across her arm. SHRAK!

It burned through her veins like acid. Korhess staggered, planted her hooves against the ruined street, and forced herself upright.

"By every root and leaf," she snarled, "thou shalt not claim this world."

"Val-tel miran!" WHOOOOSH! A cocoon of living emerald flame wrapped around the wounded prototypes, shielding them from the worst of the heat while burning away the Apis residue contaminating their bodies and slowing their regeneration. The flames curled around them without consuming them, obeying Korhess's will with absolute precision. Apotheosis's surge began to subside. Korhess felt the cost immediately.

Her flames required Apis, and she was attempting to burn away what amounted to a galaxy's worth of Apis inside the creature. Without the portion of the Nonagon she had consumed, her reserves would already have been exhausted. Even with it, she was approaching her limit.... Victor noticed the strain. He charged through the fading heat and slammed his fist into Apotheosis's jaw. THOOM! The creature's head snapped sideways.

"Keep hitting it!" Victor roared.

"Don't let it recover!" The others followed. Naomi's black ice erupted around Apotheosis's legs. Mateo drove both feet into its spine. Miriam's emerald flames washed over its body, distracting it, while Cass's fists hammered into its skull. THUD! THUD! THUD! Korhess forced herself upright. Her spear burned brighter than ever. She had been conserving what remained. Now she released everything. Emerald fire engulfed Apotheosis, searing through its scales and consuming the wounds she had already cauterized.

The creature roared as its reserves began disappearing beneath Korhess's relentless flames, evaporating like water beneath an unforgiving sun. Its claws lashed outward. Korhess twisted aside, the strike missing her chest by inches. She stepped forward. Her spear pierced Apotheosis's chest. SHRAK! The creature convulsed. Korhess drove the spear deeper.

"Again." The prototypes attacked. Korhess ripped her spear free.... Apotheosis staggered. Its reserves continued falling beneath her flames, slowly, relentlessly, like a vast ocean being reduced beneath a single relentless sun. Its knees buckled. It seemed as though the creature might finally fall. Instead, Apotheosis raised its head. Its glassy eyes fixed upon Korhess. Its mouth opened. And something vast began gathering inside. They dodged immediately. SHRAAAAAA!

Black blood erupted from Apotheosis's throat in a colossal jet, splashing across rooftops, streets, cars, and shattered avenues, and wherever it landed, the asphalt convulsed beneath the impact. THUD. THUD. THUD. Something began crawling from the blackened pools. One became another, then dozens became hundreds, and within moments thousands upon thousands of Nightmares were pouring from Apotheosis's blood, their elongated bodies writhing as they spilled into the streets and raced toward the fleeing civilians.

Victor stared through the smoke. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"What the hell are those?" Naomi's breath caught.

"I've never seen them before." A Nightmare lunged from the side. SKRRRRT! Naomi's fist punched through its skull. KRAK! The creature burst apart into black dust.

"More are coming!" Victor shouted. The prototypes blurred into motion as millions of Nightmares flooded through Manhattan, moving at roughly a thousand times the speed of sound, their bodies carrying enough force to devastate city blocks. Against ordinary people, they were slaughterers, creatures capable of crossing a street before a human could blink and tearing through crowds before anyone understood what had happened.

Against the prototypes, however, they were still dangerous, but the difference in strength was immense. These creatures could devastate cities, while the prototypes could lift moons. Numbers, however, had a way of becoming their own kind of terror. Black ice erupted across entire avenues as Naomi froze clusters of Nightmares solid. KRRRSHHH! Mateo descended among them, his fists crushing skulls one after another. THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

Miriam's emerald flames swept across the frozen masses, reducing them to ash, yet more blood continued falling and more Nightmares emerged from the pools. Far away, civilians watched from shelters as the creatures poured through the streets.

"They're everywhere!"

"Close the doors!"

"Don't go outside!" A child began crying.

"Are those things coming here?"

"No," her father whispered, though his voice trembled.

"They won't get here." He did not believe himself. Then Apotheosis began to rise, and something changed. Korhess's ears lifted as movement emerged through the smoke unlike anything she had seen before. New shapes crawled from the blood, their bodies teal and yellow, their limbs unnaturally thin and their forms twitching with violent electrical energy. Korhess stared at them.

"What manner of spawn are these?" Lightning crawled across their bodies. KZZZT! One disappeared and reappeared several streets away, while another raised its arm and released a bolt that tore through a building. KRA - THOOM! The entire side of the structure exploded outward. These Nightmares were different. They were faster, stronger, and more vicious, and their velocity carried enough force to devastate entire countries, placing each somewhere around the strength of a baseline Abomination.

The prototypes reacted instantly. Victor disappeared with a burst of speed and drove his fist through a yellow Nightmare's head. BOOM! Naomi swept her arm outward, sending black ice through another. SHRAAAK! Cass twisted through the air and struck three in succession before any could react. THUD! KRAK! THUD! Miriam's emerald flames engulfed another, while Mateo punched one hard enough to reduce its entire upper body to black dust.

They were powerful, they were fast, and there were far too many of them, yet they lacked regeneration. Every yellow Nightmare the prototypes killed dissolved into black dust, leaving only the endless tide behind. Then Apotheosis moved. Korhess's entire body tensed as the creature came at her without warning. BOOOOOOM! Its fist struck, and Korhess crossed her spear and arms in front of herself. KRAAAAAAAAAK! The impact drove her backward through several buildings.

She teleported before the next blow could connect, but Apotheosis was already there. THOOM! She blocked again, and the shockwave exploded past her, scouring entire city blocks clean as vehicles were stripped from the roads and building facades were pulverized in its wake. Her hooves carved trenches through the asphalt, yet her eyes remained fixed upon the creature. She could not afford to lower her guard.

Apotheosis attacked again and again, each blow threatening to produce an earthquake while every missed strike sent pressure waves ripping through Manhattan. Korhess twisted, blocked, teleported, and redirected, constantly moving beneath the creature's assault and refusing to let even one full blow connect. THOOM! KRAK! BOOOOM! A tanker suddenly tore free from the wreckage. Apotheosis seized it and hurled it toward her. Korhess's eyes widened.

She could have avoided it, but civilians were fleeing down the avenue behind her, so she caught the tanker with both hands. WHAM! The enormous vehicle slammed into her, crushing her backward beneath its weight. Korhess gritted her teeth as the fuel inside sloshed violently. One spark would turn the entire avenue into an inferno. Apotheosis lunged. Korhess's eyes flashed.

"Not this day." She vanished, allowing the tanker to drop harmlessly onto the ruined street while Apotheosis's claws closed around empty air. Korhess reappeared several dozen metres away with her spear already raised. Apotheosis roared. GRAAAAAAAAAAAH! Golden light suddenly blazed across its body. Korhess grunted as the world disappeared. The golden light had destroyed her perception itself, stripping away her ability to distinguish distance, direction, shape, or depth, but she did not panic.

Her ears flicked as she listened instead, catching a heartbeat, a displacement of air, the faint movement of a footstep. She ducked. A claw passed through the space where her head had been. SHRAAAK! The air itself split from the force. Korhess twisted through the gap between spaces, avoiding the next strike by a fraction before her pre-attack landed. BOOOOM! Apotheosis barely reacted. Its Apis rejected the attack. Korhess's expression tightened. She needed to find a weakness. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Apotheosis screamed, and reality buckled beneath the sound. The entire city shook as windows shattered miles away, cars bounced against the streets, and buildings groaned while cracks raced through their foundations. Korhess immediately slammed her palms together. CLAP! A shockwave erupted from her hands, collapsing the sound itself and swallowing the scream before it could reach her.

The force expanded outward in a violent ring, tearing through the black mist that had flooded the battlefield and dispersing it across the ruined city until the darkness thinned into nothing. The false echoes, distorted scents, and warped perceptions it had created were stripped away with it, leaving the air suddenly clear.

Her antlers blazed as she invoked the ancient words, not to summon the flames, but to weaken Apotheosis's resistance to them, forcing its defenses to yield just enough for her fire to reach the Apis within.

"Sylv-varai tel-mora!" WHOOOOOSH! Emerald fire surged around Apotheosis, wrapping its colossal body in a burning cage. The creature thrashed inside the flames, its claws tearing through burning air while Korhess's fire continued consuming the Apis within its body. The emerald fire sank through its hide, consuming the Apis accumulating inside its body and denying it the resources required to regenerate at full speed or continue producing Nightmares unchecked.

Korhess maintained the chant despite the strain, forcing the fire deeper while keeping her guard raised in case the creature broke through.... Still, the new Nightmares kept coming. Across the burning city, teal-and-yellow shapes continued crawling from the pools of black blood, their bodies crackling with enough electrical energy to turn entire streets into killing grounds, but the remaining four prototypes were already moving.

Victor tore through the streets like a living projectile, his fists obliterating Nightmares as he passed, while Naomi swept her arms through entire swarms and encased them in black ice before shattering them beneath a single strike. Mateo raced between collapsing buildings, his blows reducing the creatures to dust as he drew their attention away from fleeing civilians, while Miriam swept emerald fire across the avenues, burning through clusters faster than they could reach the crowds.

The city became a blur of destruction around them. BOOM! KRAK! THOOM! Yellow bodies burst apart beneath fists, black ice speared through the air, and emerald flames consumed entire waves before they could spread farther. Korhess watched them for only a moment before turning her attention back to Apotheosis. Her grip tightened around her spear as the creature continued resisting her flames, its enormous body still twitching beneath the emerald fire. Then she heard a voice cutting through the chaos.

"Korhess!" Cass streaked across the skyline, weaving between falling debris and burning buildings as golden Fix Points flashed around her body. She accelerated.

"LET'S FINISH IT!" Korhess's ears lifted. A faint smile touched her lips.

"Very well." Her spear blazed brighter.

"Come, little grove. Let us see this through." — Fix Points snapped into place around Apotheosis, anchoring its limbs and torso for fractions of a second at a time, and Korhess moved with them, her spear carving through its body again and again. Every opening became another wound, each one immediately sealed by emerald fire before blood could escape, yet Apotheosis refused to yield. Boiling water erupted from its palms, shoulders, ribs, and even wounds that should have offered no possible angle of attack.

Korhess ducked beneath one torrent and severed an arm, twisted around another and drove her spear through its abdomen, then vanished before a claw could close around her. She reappeared above it and brought both hooves down upon its skull. KRAAAAAK! Its head caved inward beneath the impact, only for the ruined flesh to writhe and regenerate almost immediately. Apotheosis swung at Cass. Fix Points flashed into existence. KLIK! The creature's arm stopped dead.

Korhess seized the opening and drove both antlers into its spine. THOOOOOM! The impact folded its enormous body forward, but Apotheosis twisted with impossible speed and swung backward. The shockwave alone tore through the city, erasing entire blocks as though an invisible wind had swept dust from the streets. Buildings disintegrated, vehicles were hurled through the air, and asphalt peeled away in enormous sheets. Korhess planted her hooves against the ground and forced herself to remain upright.

Her pre-attack landed. BOOOOOOM! For a fraction of a second, Apotheosis's attention shifted toward the conceptual wound. That was all she needed. Korhess blurred forward, no longer feeding Apis into her flames as she redirected every remaining reserve into a single burst of speed. The emerald fire dimmed around her as everything she had left poured into one movement. Apotheosis's Apis roared back to life, its resistance surging as it recognized the threat.

"Aen-mir leth-vas." Korhess whispered. The final leaf has already fallen. The end is certain. She flickered. She appeared behind it. She landed in a crouch, her spear extended. Silence followed. Apotheosis remained standing. For one heartbeat, neither moved. Then the creature laughed. Its voice came from somewhere deep within its enormous body, distorted by the damage Korhess had inflicted.

"You cannot kill me." Korhess slowly rose. Apotheosis's glassy eyes fixed upon her.

"You will die before I do. Your body is failing. Your reserves are empty. Your flames are fading. You have already given everything you possess, and still I remain." Korhess looked at the blood running down her spear. Her breathing was ragged, and her legs trembled beneath her, yet her expression remained calm.

"Perhaps." She raised her spear.

"But thou hast made one mistake."

"What mistake?" Korhess's ears lifted.

"I rejected that reality." SHHHK. Three enormous sections of Apotheosis's body slid apart. The Spear of Absence had not merely cut through flesh. It had opened invisible lines through Apotheosis's existence itself, separating it as cleanly as seams pulled apart by an unseen hand. Emerald fire immediately flooded those lines, sealing the conceptual wounds and preventing the creature's regeneration from reconnecting them. Apotheosis stared down at itself. Uncertainty entered its voice.

"No…" Before the separated sections could move, Cass streaked forward.

"Got it!" A Fix Point locked directly onto Apotheosis's head. KLIK! Korhess rose. She leapt, both hands closing around her spear as she drove it straight through the creature's skull. KRAAAAAAAM! The blade pierced its brain. Apotheosis convulsed, its enormous body shaking the ruined city beneath it, and Korhess poured everything she had left into the wound, every remaining fragment of emerald flame, every reserve of Apis, every scrap of strength still hiding within her body.

The fire surged down the spear and erupted inside Apotheosis's skull, consuming the Apis at its core. The creature screamed. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Its roar struck Korhess directly, but the sound did not simply pass through her.

It poured into her existence, spilling through every layer of her being with such overwhelming force that even the dregs of what Apotheosis was releasing would have been enough to fracture the earth, shatter the crust of worlds, and potentially tear through the very structure of the solar system.

Apotheosis was giving everything it had to that scream, pouring its strength into the attack with no restraint, and Korhess realized that allowing even a fraction of it to escape would turn the surrounding world into collateral damage. She had no choice. Korhess began drawing the entirety of the destructive force into herself. Her body convulsed as she absorbed the damage before it could spill outward, taking the pressure into her own existence and containing what should never have been contained by a single being.

The roar continued pouring into her, each wave becoming another impossible weight upon her fractured essence, while the city beneath them groaned beneath the pressure she was refusing to let escape. The sound did not merely shake her body. It fractured the fact of her being. Something inside her existence cracked. KRRRRAAAK! Invisible fractures raced through her essence, splitting concepts that could not simply be healed.

Damage spread through the very structure of what made her Korhess, tearing apart pieces of existence that flesh, magic, or regeneration could never restore. Every fragment of Apotheosis's scream that she absorbed carved another fracture through her identity, yet she continued taking it in, refusing to allow the overflow to reach the world beyond her. Korhess understood immediately. It was irreparable.

Her body began coming apart at the edges, her existence struggling to remain coherent as the scream continued pouring through her. She was no longer merely enduring the attack. She was becoming its vessel, forcing an entire catastrophe inward so that nothing beyond her would bear its weight. Across the city, the livestream chat erupted. WHAT DID THAT THING JUST DO TO HER? SHE'S BREAKING APART. GET HER OUT OF THERE! OH GOD, SHE'S STILL FIGHTING. Korhess had only one choice. She burned Apis.

Not merely her reserves, but the Apis woven throughout her own existence, consuming it as fuel to keep herself alive for a few moments longer. Her emerald flames surged violently around her. WHOOOOOOOM! She began chanting through the roar, each archaic syllable forcing her fractured existence to hold together while simultaneously suppressing the deafening screech pouring from Apotheosis.

"Sylv-varai… tel-mora…" Her voice trembled beneath the creature's scream. Again.

"Sylv-varai tel-mora!" The chant collided with the roar, pushing the sound away from her fractured being while her emerald fire continued devouring the Apis inside its skull. Apotheosis's body began splitting apart. Yet its severed limbs still moved. One arm dragged itself across the street, its tail twitched, and its claws scraped desperately against the rubble as though instinct alone could keep its existence anchored.

"Korhess, watch out!" Cass screamed. The tail flickered. SHRAAAK! It slashed across Korhess's spine. Her body jerked violently, blood spraying across the ruined street, but her hands remained locked around the spear. She did not release it.

"Thou said I would die first," she whispered. Her flames intensified.

"Thou wert mistaken." The emerald fire erupted outward. It consumed the wound. It consumed the tail. It consumed the remaining body. Apotheosis's crimson and indigo scales blackened as cracks spread through its enormous frame, while the fire crawled through every severed fragment and devoured the Apis sustaining them. Korhess twisted the spear. KRRRRAAAK! The core shattered. A wave of emerald light exploded through Apotheosis's body. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The creature disintegrated, its body collapsing into burning fragments that scattered across Manhattan before turning to ash. The remaining blood evaporated before it could touch the ground, and across the city, the Nightmares began collapsing with it. One fell, then another, then thousands, until millions of black and yellow bodies dissolved into dust, their screams fading beneath the sudden silence. No more blood fell. No more Nightmares were born. Apotheosis was gone.

For several seconds, the livestreams remained almost completely silent. Then one voice whispered through a trembling microphone.

"It's… dead." Another person began crying.

"Holy shit. They killed it." Across countless screens, comments flooded upward. IT'S DEAD. THE MONSTER IS DEAD. THEY ACTUALLY DID IT. SHE KILLED IT. OH MY GOD. People who had spent the battle hiding beneath beds, inside subway tunnels, behind barricaded doors, and beneath overturned vehicles began cheering, crying, embracing one another, and thanking whatever they believed had allowed them to survive. The celebration lasted only seconds. Because Korhess's strength finally abandoned her. Her knees buckled.

She collapsed. Cass caught her before she struck the ground.

"Korhess!" Golden Fix Points erupted across Korhess's body, anchoring her limbs and spine as Cass desperately stabilized the damage. Dark blood had already entered Korhess's spinal cord, and its corruption was beginning to spread through her nerves. Around them, the prototypes continued destroying the remaining Nightmares until the final creatures dissolved into black dust. Victor stood amid the ruins, breathing heavily.

Naomi lowered her hands, her black ice melting into steaming puddles around her feet, while Mateo stared at the empty space where Apotheosis had stood. Miriam's flames slowly faded, leaving only glowing embers scattered across the shattered streets. Cass remained kneeling beside Korhess.

"Stay with me." Korhess's eyes barely opened. Her vision had become little more than fragments, shapes dissolving at the edges of her perception, yet she could still hear them. She could still feel Cass's hands holding her together, golden Fix Points trembling as they anchored what remained of her body. A faint smile touched Korhess's lips.

"I told thee…" Her voice was scarcely more than a breath.

"…I would adapt faster." Cass shook her head.

"There has to be something we can do." Victor stepped closer, his expression tightening.

"We can get you somewhere. We can find someone. Anything that can heal this, we'll find it." Naomi knelt beside her.

"Korhess, listen to us. You're still here." Mateo looked at the fractures running through her body, his expression darkening.

"There has to be a way." Korhess slowly shook her head.

"Nay." The word was gentle, yet final.

"Thou dost not understand what hath been broken." Her fingers twitched against the ruined ground.

"It is not merely flesh that fails me. The concept of me hath already been fractured. What thou art holding together now…" Her gaze drifted toward the golden Fix Points surrounding her.

"…are shattered pieces of china bound with tape." Cass's expression faltered. Korhess continued, her voice becoming softer with every word.

"Thou mayst hold the pieces together for a little while, yet the vessel is no longer whole. It can no longer carry water. It can no longer bear the weight of what it once contained." Her breathing hitched.

"It can no longer hold the concept of Korhess." A tremor passed through her body.

"And so I slip away."

"No," Cass whispered. Korhess looked at her.

"Do not grieve yet. I am still here." Her gaze drifted toward the ruined skyline.

"I only wish…" She swallowed, the words becoming increasingly difficult to form.

"…that I had been granted more time." A small smile returned.

"Tell Clock…" Her eyes closed briefly before opening again.

"…and Ouro…" Her voice trembled.

"Tell them I tried my best to remain alive." A tear gathered at the corner of her eye.

"Tell them I loved them." Her ears lowered.

"And tell them I wished I had lived long enough to enjoy life beside them. To drink coffee without smoke upon the horizon. To wander beneath living trees rather than ruins. To wake and find the world had asked nothing of us except to live within it." Her smile weakened.

"I would have liked that." For a moment, even the livestreams seemed to understand the weight of what they were witnessing. The comments slowed. Please don't let her die. She saved everyone. Please. Korhess's gaze softened.

"So, should they mourn me, tell them not to mourn the life I lost." Her fingers curled faintly.

"Tell them to cherish the life I never had the chance to taste." Cass lowered her head, fighting back tears. Korhess looked between the prototypes one final time.

"Thou hast all done enough." Victor's jaw tightened.

"We're not giving up on you." Korhess smiled faintly.

"Such stubborn saplings…" A weak laugh escaped her.

"Still reaching toward a sun that hath already set." Her gaze softened.

"Thank thee." The golden Fix Points flickered. Cass's hands trembled. Korhess's body was beginning to lose cohesion. She looked toward the distant horizon, where the smoke was slowly thinning and the first traces of daylight were beginning to touch the ruined city.

"I have spent so long believing I must become what others expected of me." Her voice was almost inaudible now.

"A weapon. A guardian. A beast with antlers bound to duty, forever rooted where others planted me." Her fingers relaxed.

"But I learned…" A faint smile touched her lips.

"…that roots may grow crooked and still find their own soil." Her breathing slowed.

"I became myself." The others fell silent. Korhess closed her eyes.

"Thank thee, Butter." Her lips trembled into one last smile.

"Thank thee, Elizabeth Paris." The Fix Points flickered again. Her form was becoming less substantial.

"Though my time was brief…" She exhaled softly.

"…at least I became my true self before dying." Her smile remained. And for one final moment, Korhess looked peaceful. Then her eyes closed. Cass froze.

"Korhess?" No answer. The emerald glow around her antlers faded. Her body became still. The livestream chat erupted again, this time not with celebration. No. No no no. She's gone. She actually died. She saved the city and she died. I don't even know her and I'm crying. Victor lowered his head. Naomi turned away, silently wiping her eyes. Mateo clenched his fists. Miriam stared at the ground, her flames extinguishing completely.

Cass remained beside Korhess, holding her as the last Fix Points flickered weakly around a body that could no longer sustain the concept they were trying to preserve. The city had survived. Apotheosis was dead. Its army was dying. Across Manhattan, people who had celebrated moments earlier now stood in stunned silence, watching the antlered woman who had fought until nothing remained of her. One livestream camera slowly lowered. A trembling voice whispered, "She saved us." No one answered.

Korhess had burned herself away to force reality to accept her final strike. And now, at last, reality had accepted the cost. — R. I. P