Nova thought fast and took off her helmet, throwing it out into the air. The helmet was shot at by two flying bullets which missed, but it was just enough for Finn to determine where the shooters are. He smiled, getting two arrows ready. Finn rolled out of cover shooting an arrow high to the left and then quickly another to the right. The ground shooters began shooting at him and he took a few stray bullets, but luckily he must have a strong spirit since they didn’t seem to affect him much. He got back into cover and shook it off. “Snipers are done for!” He yelled over the chaos.

She nodded as she got up and began charging the ground shooters. Nova tried her best to dodge and deflect bullets, but still took some hits. She pushes on and jumps in the middle of the group, swinging her blades in a fury. The legionnaires now hesitated to shoot, in fear of shooting a comrade. Soon Nova finished with the ground shooters and yelled at Finn and Tyse to get moving, however, as they did they were cut off with small explosions near their feet. Nova looked and saw a group of legionnaires dressed differently, using the same mini cannons that had killed Pyrium. They were moving slowly towards the two, but Nova sprinted towards them in a wild anger. A couple of them noticed her approaching and aimed their cannons at her and fired. Nova came ready to block, but she ended up getting launched back ten feet. She tumbled on the floor and felt as if she had been hit with a speeding car. More shots came at her way, creating debris in the floor around her, but then they ceased. She looked up to see Finn shooting arrows at them and Tyse was actually shooting his gun back at them. The cannons fired at them instead and she watched them try dodging them to little success. Finn loaded his rope arrow through a small device on his bow and fired at one of the cannon holders. It connected and Finn began to reel himself in towards the cannon soldiers. That small device on his bow was very powerful, showing how Finn was sliding fast towards them. He reached them and started fighting them hand to hand as best he could. He was clearly struggling, so Nova stumbled on her feet and then ran to help. She arrived and together they made short work of them.

Just as they finish the last of the cannon soldiers in came reinforcements and drop ships. Luckily there weren’t as many shooters as there were before, but now the numbers were very much against them as troops began dropping in. They continued fighting, but struggled as Nova began slowing down and most of them were too close for Finn to even shoot arrows anymore. Tyse came in to help as he could, shooting his gun until emptying every clip.

It felt like their final stand, against an army. Many of the legionnaires were close combat units equipped with blades, clubs, and other weapons or the sorts. In the fighting Nova called out to Tyse, “Take the Glaive and get out of here!

He lost focus in the battle and nearly was hit by a legionnaire armed with blades. Nova deflected his hit just in time and killed him shortly after. “I can’t leave you!” Tyse cried out.

“This isn’t looking too good!” Finn commented as he fought three legionnaires.

“We came here for the Glaive. Don’t let this all be for nothing! We’ll be right behind you!”

Tyse shot out some more shots but was struck down by a legionnaire. He was about to be stabbed, but Nova saved him again before that happened. “You proved yourself already, but you need to leave now!”

Nova and Finn closed in to protect Tyse. He looked around the chaos and hesitated at the thought of abandoning them. Nova cleared a hole for him to escape, “Now!” she said as she grabbed him, shoving him forward. Tyse didn’t know what he was doing, but he was running. He ran towards the mall entrance, but didn’t wanted to run. Instead it was as if his legs were moving on their own. His heart raced in the moment, and now he has reached the front door of the mall, not far from the sewer exits. He opened one of the doors, but stopped himself from going in. He wanted to run towards the exit like Nova said, in fact every fiber of his body was yelling at him to run, but he planted his feet where they were and looked back. He watched as he saw Nova and Finn now taking hits, now desperately fighting for their lives in this skirmish. Tyse couldn’t do anything, shaking with fear, facing the fact that the best thing he can do right now is run. He questioned if that was truly the case and refused to accept it as reality. He had to do something, but there was nothing he could do. Suddenly an idea struck his mind, there was nothing that he could do, but what if he had gotten some help from a goddess? He looked and saw Finn knocked down and Nova trying to help fight the legionnaires around him, but she herself was hurt pretty bad.

It was as if Tyse was watching their deaths. He opened the backpack and pulled out the Glaive, still covered in the cloth wrap. His entire body shook uncontrollably, his nerves not listening to a single command he tried to give. With trembling hands, he managed to carefully undo the wrapping, showing the blade in its entirety. He looked up and saw legionnaires that had noticed him and approached slowly. They were armed with swords and shields yelling at him to not move. For a minute Tyse believed that complying would be a valid option, but then he saw Nova disarmed in her fight and now she desperately fights with whatever weapons she could find. Tyse snapped out of his cowardice and realized that much more is at stake than just the Glaive, but also the lives of two brave people and countless others. He took a deep breath and pursed his lips together. His hands quickly went forth on the blade and he placed his hands on the handle. At first it felt cold, but then realized that it was shear heat masking itself to be the sensation of cold. He clenched his teeth together from the pain and grunted as an attempt to not scream. His vision blurred from the scene and thought that he was blacking out, but as he looked at the scenery again he was somewhere entirely.

He looked around and saw darkness. His eyes then adjusted and saw that he was in a dark forest. The trees were tall and lush with orange leaves, branches extending their reach seeming as if reaching for each other. He was circled by the forest with only an open area in front of him and after he took in the view, he had realized that he no longer had the Glaive in his hands. At the end of the clearing he noticed a large stone shrine sitting by the edge of the forest. Tyse approached the shrine cautiously. He noticed how cold the air was here, making his breath form into clouds of vapor. There was a fog hanging down on the forest, adding to the cold atmosphere. When he had gotten closer he saw various different candles placed along the shrine and a plaque beneath them engraved with different names. Underneath each of the names rested different items, but he could not make sense of any of this. In the center the shrine held a large stone platform on the ground, but Tyse would not get any closer to the shrine as is.

Suddenly the flames of the candles began to grow, until they were each small burning fires. They continued to grow more violent as they joined together to create one large fire, soon engulfing the entire shrine. Tyse backed off immediately thinking a forest fire would start soon, but as he watched, the trees didn’t seem to be effected by the fires at all. The fire ceased growing and in the flames he could have sworn he could make out a face. There was a booming voice of a woman echoing in the forest, coming from the fires itself, “Who dares faces me in my realm?”

Upon looking closer into the fires, Tyse could definitely make out a face now. It was the face of a woman’s, or close to a woman, he saw a slim face with eyes burning bright orange from the flames. There was no iris that he could make out, only that the eyes were literally bright orange, burning more distinctly than the rest of the fire. He tried to make out more from the flames, but couldn’t make anything else out due to the shifting dances of the fire.

The coldness of the air had disappeared, replaced with the hot warmth of the fire. The fog that had draped the forest had been pushed out of the way. Now the surrounding area in a mask of orange light. Tyse then spoke up to the voice, unbelieving that this was the Goddess Pyrium herself, “My name is Tyse Werner. I need your help!”

“My help? Do you not mean my power? Why else would a mortal take up my Glaive?”

“My friends, they are in danger. I need to help them. Please… you are the only hope I have to save them!”

The Goddess silently judged him, “Hmm… these things you speak holds truth. Indeed you speak of honorable acts, but what of your heart? Why is it that you seek to help them?”

Tyse scoffed, “Because they are my friends… why else?”

“Are you certain or that? Or shall I say, are you truly willing to lay your life down for them?”

Tyse paused for a second. He tried to find the reasons why he was doing this. It was obvious he wanted to save them, but why was it that he is so adamant of doing do? He came to an answer soon after. He looked at the Goddess in the flames, “I would fight for them! Even in the sort time that I have gotten to know them, they have given me a chance to change the course of my life. I want to give back to them and prove that I can be strong just like them.”

The Goddess didn’t give a response. Tyse stood nervous now waiting to hear what she would say. Then the Goddess laughed, echoing through the forest, “Very well.” She said, “If you are so willing, then take up my mettle.”

Suddenly a column of fire appeared on the stone platform before the great fire. In the column Tyse could see something materialize from the flames itself. The column then twirled in a tornado and disappeared. The Glaive was there, floating above the platform where the column of fire once was. Tyse took this as a signal to take hold of the blade. He approached slowly, stretched out his hand and grabbed the sword. The blade glowed orange and its handle was warm. “The pact is made, Tyse Werner. I shall help your friends through this exchange!”

Before his feet there was a circle of fire slowly rising. It surrounded him slowly, warming him instead of burning. He felt different now, stronger, and lighter. He could feel power course through his veins as if breathing new life. He thought of the school and all of the friends he met along the way. He remembered the spring of blossoms, and warm wood monasteries he called home. He remembered the thrill of a battlefield and the comrades he had made. However, something didn’t feel right with these memories. Tyse questioned why these memories seemed so foreign to him as if they weren’t his own. That was the thing though, these weren’t his memories, but the memories of Pyrium. The fire surrounding him hovered over him like a long tunnel. Tyse tried to think about his memories, but the new memories flooded in his mind, causing his own memories to fade. In fact he started to forget almost entirely his life story as if it was all a distant novel he read in the forgotten past. Tyse was nor alarmed tried to let go of the blade, but he couldn’t. He tried moving his body, but it wouldn’t listen, as if he was no longer in control. He tried harder and harder to move a muscle and let go of the blade, but the more he did the hotter the blade seemed to get, until it was burning him like hot iron.

“Do not resist! This is a part of the joining!”

He managed to yell out of the roaring flames, “I don’t want this! I am my own person!”

“You are host to me!”

“No! I want to be free! I refuse this!”

Tyse screamed as the burning of the sword became unbearable. The flames that encircled him became less stable and violent. The heat itself suddenly became unbearable as well.

Pyrium spoke to Tyse in an angered voice, “If you will not accept this then you will burn!”

The fires around Tyse closed in on him, setting his clothes on fire. Soon the fire engulfed him, burning away at him.

Nova and Finn were fighting with their last effort. Their bodies weak and the legionnaires surrounded them with no end in sight. Nova began to believe that this would be the end. She continued to fight, promising herself that she wouldn’t fall until they had killed her. She took whatever weapons were lying at her feet as she joined Finn’s side for the end.

On the opposite side of the courtyard a large fire had erupted. It was strong enough to be felt through the clustered bodies of legionnaires. In the night the flames lit everything in a violent glow of orange. However, what came next caught the attention of everyone in the square. Bloodcurdling scream were heard in the flames, so loud that everyone had stopped what they were doing to see what it was. Nova strained her eyes staring into the blinding light of the fire, trying to make out a certain figure in the flames. The screaming from it got everyone on edge, and then Nova realized why the screams seems eerily familiar. She stared in absolute horror from the scene that she was witnessing. She had realized that the screaming person in the fire was Tyse.