The fire was eating him.
Kael swung the Void-blade, severing an arm from the Anomaly. The shadow-limb dissolved into smoke, but Kael fell to one knee. His vision was tunneling. He couldn't feel his left side anymore.
More, the Obsidian Arm demanded. Feed me.
Delicious, the Anomaly laughed.
It reformed instantly. The creature was endless. It didn't just regenerate; it drank the energy Kael was leaking. It towered over him now, a tidal wave of teeth and oil.
"Kael! Pull back!" Voss screamed. The machine-man had abandoned his rifle and was using a rusted pipe to bludgeon a Scavenger that had climbed the bridge. "You are at 2% vitality! You will cardiac arrest!"
"Can't," Kael wheezed. Blood dripped from his nose, his eyes, his ears. "If I stop... it wins."
He tried to stand, but his legs were water. The Void-blade flickered, shrinking from a greatsword to a dagger.
The Anomaly surged forward. It didn't strike. It enveloped.
Cold darkness washed over Kael. It felt like drowning in ice water. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He could only feel the Anomaly siphoning the last of his soul.
Mine, the Anomaly purred.
Then, the world cracked.
It wasn't a sound of rock breaking. It was the sound of a star dying.
A shockwave of pure, white light blasted the Anomaly off the bridge. The darkness shrieked and scattered.
Kael gasped, air rushing back into his lungs. He looked up.
The Throne of Rust was gone.
In its place stood a man.
The First Sword wasn't broken anymore. He was standing tall, the scars on his body glowing so bright they were painful to look at. In his hand, he held a hilt. There was no metal blade. Instead, a beam of solid sunlight extended from the crossguard, humming with a sound that made the rust on the bridge vibrate.
He had broken the chair.
Behind him, the drain of the Deep Basin—no longer plugged by the Throne—roared. The Void Sea began to rise, a whirlpool of entropy climbing the walls.
"You broke the seal," Kael whispered.
The First Sword looked at him. His eyes weren't coals now. They were stars.
"The seal was already broken, boy," the warrior said. His voice wasn't grinding stones anymore. It was clear. Resonant. "It broke the moment you fell."
He stepped between Kael and the gathering shadow of the Anomaly.
"You brought the fire," the First Sword said, nodding at Kael's obsidian arm. "I'll bring the light."
The Anomaly reformed at the end of the bridge. It was massive now, feeding on the rising Void Sea behind it. It looked like a dragon made of storm clouds.
YOU HAVE ABANDONED YOUR POST, the Anomaly roared. THE SEA WILL TAKE IT ALL.
The First Sword raised his blade of light.
"Let it come," he said.
He charged.
He didn't run like a man. He moved like a lightning bolt. He closed the distance in a blink, his sword carving a blinding arc through the dark.
The Anomaly met him. Shadow clashed with Starlight.
The impact blew Kael off his feet. The entire Rust Plains shook.
"Kael!" Voss was there, dragging him up. "The structural integrity of the sector is zero! The Basin is filling up! We need to leave!"
"Not yet," Kael said, gripping his own flickering Void-blade. He looked at the two titans fighting on the edge of the end of the world.
"He needs help."