[Current Balance: 5,369,811,970,700 mon]
---Previously---
"URGHHHHH!!!"
A raw, agonized roar tore from Alaric's throat.
At the same time, Caroline, her connection to the artifact abruptly and violently severed, collapsed to the floor. Her body began to convulse, her limbs jerking uncontrollably, her eyes rolling back into her head as foam frothed at her lips. She was having a violent, terrifying seizure, her mind and body rebelling against the sudden absence of the power that had sustained and controlled her for so long.
Alaric fought against the psychic storm raging in his mind, his vision blurring, the throne room twisting into a nightmare landscape of swirling colors and screaming faces. The Black Apple in his hand pulsed malevolently, a dark, hungry heart trying to devour his very soul.
---Now---
The psychic storm was absolute.
Alaric fought against it, a lone swimmer against a tidal wave of pure, malevolent consciousness. His vision was a nightmare of swirling colors and screaming, distorted faces—the memories of every soul the Apples had ever touched, every will they had ever bent, all crashing into his mind at once.
The Black Apple in his hand pulsed, a dark, hungry heart trying to devour his very soul, to overwrite his identity with its ancient, arrogant will. He felt his own consciousness, his sense of self, begin to fray at the edges, dissolving into the chaos.
He was losing.
Just as the darkness threatened to consume him completely, a single, clear thought cut through the storm.
Reuben. He saw his friend's face, not as the powerful warrior he had become, but as the scrappy, defiant orphan in the alleyways of Bristol, a boy who chose loyalty over survival.
Thulani. He saw the young slave, terrified but unbroken, and the proud, strong man he had grown into, a shield for the innocent.
Flavia and Aveline. The fierce Assassin and the gentle lady, their happiness intertwined with the lives of his brothers.
Oldgate. Penn. The gruff sea captain and the wise Quaker, two unlikely friends who had become pillars in his strange new life.
Father. Mother. Uncle Bernard. Aunt Linette. He saw their faces, not as the weary farmers of Swansea, but as they were now—healthy, happy, their eyes shining with pride and a love he had never known in his first life. They were his anchor, the family that had been gifted to him.
And then, he saw her.
Kassandra.
Her face was a blazing sun in the psychic darkness. He saw her smile, the one that held millennia of wisdom and a spark of wild mischief. He felt her touch, the strength and tenderness in her hands. He heard her laughter, a sound that had become more precious to him than all the gold in the world. He thought of their child, a tiny, unborn flicker of hope, a future he desperately wanted to meet.
This was his world. These were his people. This was his selfish desire.
He felt his consciousness, which had been on the verge of splintering, solidify around these memories, these feelings. They became his shield.
Just as he found his footing in the mental storm, he felt a familiar weight settle on his shoulder. A set of sharp, yet gentle, talons gripped him, an anchor in the chaos.
"You're getting weak, Alaric Jonathan Kenway..."
The voice echoed in his mind, calm and ancient amidst the screaming psychic storm. It was Emberis. The immortal phoenix, somehow here, a small crimson eagle perched on his shoulder.
"Emberis?" Alaric managed to mutter, the name a prayer on his lips. His physical voice was a raw, strangled sound.
"Listen. I feel the energy within that sphere destabilizing," Emberis stated calmly, its mental voice cutting through the noise. "It is going to explode. You might want to do something about it."
"Huh? Damn!" Alaric gritted his teeth, the pain in his head immense. The Black Apple in his hand was beginning to glow, its dark surface cracking with veins of brilliant, unstable golden light. He tried to access the System, his one foolproof solution.
...
...
...
He tried again. Nothing.
"Huh?"
Alaric's eyes widened in genuine panic. The familiar blue interface, the ever-present [Buy][Sell] option, did not appear. The psychic interference from the fused Apples was so immense it was blocking his connection to the very foundation of his power.
"Hello!? System!?" he yelled in his mind.
"Store!?"
"Walmart!?"
Emberis, hearing his frantic mental shouts, simply shook its head. "You have five minutes at most before that sphere detonates with enough force to obliterate this city and a significant portion of the surrounding land."
"Can't you do something about it!?" Alaric yelled, his body trembling from the strain of holding the Apple and fighting the mental assault. Voices screamed in his head, telling him to let go, to give in, to become one with them.
"No," Emberis replied, its tone was flat and final. "You summoned me here with the tiniest fraction of my power. It is impossible for me to contain a blast of that magnitude."
"Damn..." Alaric grunted, forcing his gaze around the ruined throne room. He saw Caroline's unconscious body on the floor, her chest rising and falling in shallow, ragged breaths. He had to save her. He had to get this… this bomb… away from here. Away from the planet.
There was only one solution. Up.
He looked upwards, through the massive hole he had created in the roof, towards the distant, dark sky. Emberis followed his gaze.
"I believe that is your only path to saving your cousin, Alaric Jonathan Kenway," the phoenix nodded, its mental voice holding a note of solemn understanding.
Without another word, Emberis launched itself from Alaric's shoulder. As it fell, it morphed, its small eagle-like form expanding rapidly into a much larger, more powerful shape, its crimson wingspan easily filling a large portion of the throne room.
"Come on, let's go!" Alaric gritted his teeth. He staggered forward, his legs shaking, his mind a battlefield. He tried to leap onto Emberis's back, but his coordination failed him. He tripped, stumbling forward, landing in a heap on the phoenix's broad, feathery back.
Emberis let out a piercing cry, a sound of desperate urgency, and shot upwards through the hole in the roof, a crimson rocket against the night sky.
---Pennsylvania---
It was midnight at Pennsbury Manor.
The grand house was quiet, its inhabitants asleep. But on the balcony of one of the largest bedrooms, Kassandra stood, her arms wrapped around herself, gazing up at the moon.
For some reason, she couldn't sleep tonight. She didn't truly need it, but the habit of resting beside Alaric had become a cherished one. The bed felt cold and empty without him.
There was just something in her heart that felt heavy, a strange, anxious flutter she couldn't explain. She looked up at the moon, so far away, and whispered to the night.
'How are you, agápi mou? I miss you…'
---
Back in the skies above Earth, the world was a blur.
Alaric clung to Emberis's back, his hands clenched in the phoenix's feathers, his head still clasped in his hands as he fought the screaming chaos in his mind. Emberis flew with a desperate speed, pushing the limits of its sealed form.
They rocketed through the atmosphere, the air thinning, the stars becoming sharp, brilliant points of light in the absolute blackness of space. They were traveling at the speed of sound now, then faster.
"How many seconds do we have!?" Alaric yelled, his voice was a ragged shout against the silent void.
"Still thirty seconds," Emberis's voice was a calm anchor in his chaotic mind. The phoenix was focused, its energy bent on a single purpose: gaining altitude. They were already traveling over a thousand kilometers per hour, a silent, streaking comet leaving Earth behind.
"G-Good..." Alaric muttered. He tried to focus, tried to wrap himself in a layer of chakra to survive the vacuum, but his control was slipping, the psychic assault from the Apple relentless.
Suddenly, his own life flashed before his eyes.
He saw a tiny, cramped apartment, smelled the stale scent of instant noodles and sweat. He saw himself, a lonely man dying on the floor, his only regret a life unlived.
He saw a spinning wheel, and a bored-looking god named Kami offering him a second chance.
He saw the faces of Leonard and Eleanor Kenway, poor farmers from Swansea, their eyes filled with a love he didn't understand but desperately came to cherish. He saw Bernard and Linette, his boisterous uncle and kind aunt.
He saw a small, dirty, defiant boy in an alleyway named Reuben. He saw a terrified, shackled slave named Thulani. He saw them grow into powerful men, his brothers, his first disciples.
He saw William Penn, a man of peace forced to consider war. He saw Captain Oldgate, a gruff pirate with a heart of gold, laughing his strange, booming laugh.
He saw them all… Flavia, Aveline, Jonathan, Sebastian… his strange, chaotic, wonderful family.
And then he saw Kassandra.
He saw her standing in the Isu cavern, her amber eyes filled with centuries of loneliness. He saw her smile, the one that made his heart ache. He felt her kiss, a promise of a future he never thought he could have. He saw their unborn child, a tiny, perfect life, a fusion of their immortal souls.
The Black Apple in his hand, now held away from his body, began to glow, the golden patterns on its dark surface blazing with an unbearable light. He didn't need Emberis to tell him the time was up.
'I guess this is it…' he thought, a strange sense of peace washing over him amidst the psychic storm. The screaming in his head faded, replaced by a single, clear image of Kassandra's smiling face.
'Goodbye…'
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A silent, impossible explosion of pure, golden light erupted in the void of space, a new, temporary star born from the death of an ancient, terrible power.
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