Chapter Five Hundred And Fourteen - 514
Within a maelstrom of burning sands, Beef stood with arms outstretched and eyes clenched shut.
Cmon, he muttered, ignoring the burn of heat on his tongue.
The fury of light and heat around him shifted, sands and golden radiance pulled into alignment by the slightest of margins. They shone, the sands turning red hot as they ground each other into molten glass, and the light flashed through it all, a corruscating circle of wild, untamed potency.
A ring.
Cmon!
All at once it collapsed back into a chaotic roar of power. Beef fell to his knees, hands slamming into the bones that lined the ground and letting loose a frustrated scream. Damn it!
The bones scattered, blasted by his pummeling fists, sliding away from him even as more rose from the ground beneath. An endless, churning supply. Patellas clattered and spread, arranging into the lipless mouth of his least favorite person. Beef hurled a handful of joints at the face as it formed. Damn you too! Leave me alone! I have to finish this!
YOU MUST
Nope! Beef shoved himself to his feet. He set his hooves in the shifting bones and reached out once more with his Intent. Felix can only hold this for so long, Boneman. I dont have time for your stupid visions!
YOU SEEK TO BEAR MY POWER. YOU CANNOT ACCOMPLISH THIS ALONE.
Watch me!
Yet no matter how Beef threw himself at the storm of light and sand, it did not budge. The light failed to bend to his Willpower as it had, and his Intent felt almost bruised. He gasped, several minutes later, sweating profusely and cursing.
Dont look at me like that! he half-shouted through his panting. The Primordials bone face had not twitched since it last spoke. I can feel your judgy eyes.
MINE IS NOT TO JUDGE. MINE IS TO SHOW.
...Show what?
TO BEAR MY POWER. YOU MUST WITNESS THE COST OF ENTROPY.
Entropy? Like rotting stuff? Hard pass. Beef steadied his breathing once again and felt tenderly at the edges of his Intent. It wasnt a physical sensation so much as a mental onethere was nothing to touchbut the comparison felt appropriate. His Mind was sore and strained, and his Body and Spirit werent far behind. The light and heat still baked and boiled his skin; it was fighting constantly to repair itself. Its not more memories of my parents, is it?
I AM THE POTENCY. YOU ARE THE FILTER, UNBOUND.
Doesnt really answer anything
WITNESS.
AND CHOOSE YOUR PATH.
I choose this! Beef said, flaring his Intent with all the strength he could muster. Felix had instructed him back on the boats, but reality was far different than practice. I dont need to see anymore dumb, cryptic things about my dad or my old life! All I need is to focus! On! Now!
The liquid light surged, swirling faster and faster, burning the world. Burning him, as sand turned molten once again, joining into bands of brilliant glass.
Dont force it, guide it.
The words seemed to drift from somewhere beyond, but Beef couldnt be bothered to source them. They felt right, so he pulled back, letting the maelstrom rage. It surged, spinning faster and faster, propelled by its own momentum. The bone face beneath him stared blankly, but Beef swore he saw a frown cross its weird eye sockets. He ignored it, just as Felix would have; he didnt have to give in to some spooky face just because it offered him power. The power was here.
He just had to take it.
There!
Lightning forked in the sky, illuminating the twenty-foot drop to the ground below. His dad clung desperately to the gutter, eyes almost totally closed due to the rain. Mikey! Mikey get back inside! Call 911!
No! No, I can help this time! Beef shouted. His other self was gone. It was just him now, and he wasnt going to let it happen again. Reach out to me! Gimme your hand!
His dad grunted, shifting his bodyweight to reach uponly for the gutter to give an alarming groan. It lurched, dropping away by several inches, and his dad let out a startled yelp. Mikey! Its okay! Its not that far, a-and Ill be fine! Just get inside!
Beef knew he was lying. Twenty feet might not have been a lot back on the Continent, but people died from less on Earth. Beef got on all fours, reaching out over the edge. Gimme your hand! Please!
Finally, his dad did it, leveraging enough of his weight up to grasp Beefs handexcept he wasnt a Minotaur anymore. He was just a kid again, and when the gutter tore away from the house, Beefno, Michaelcouldnt hold on.
His dad slipped.
He fell.
Lightning speared down from the sky, brighter than before and far more liquid than it had any right to be. Beef remembered this too, but he could barely see it through his tears. His dad fell in slow motion, falling into the wet shadow of their yard, as Beef was seized by the lightning. With an awful, definitive lurch, Michael had been taken away.
Beef blinked. He was back in his room, and the window was securely latchedbut his entire body was soaked through with rain. Did he survive the fall?
A LIE.
A TRUTH.
A WAY FORWARD.
Thats not what I asked, you bone-faced idiot! Did he live?
WITNESS.
The room flickered, becoming a vast, endless expanse of water. Beef floated, listless and increasingly angry, as huge creatures frolicked through the depths around him. They looked like whales crossed with dinosaurs, and were entirely too big as they swam around a huge, floating mass of bones.
WE CANNOT GO BACK.
The whale-thingsleviathans, he somehow knewtwisted in sudden pain, dying by the hundreds. Their corpses turned to a sick, purple-blue ooze that instantly stripped them to the bone, before spreading to the next. And the next. The mass of bones waved an appendage made of femurs and skulls, turning them all to dust.
WE CAN ONLY MOVE FORWARD.
ALL THINGS DECAY.
The waters themselves turned to sand and hot, fetid wind. Bones were scattered, and dunes rose up to swallow any remnant of the majestic creatures.
BUT.
ALL THINGS RISE.
In the distance, a blaze of power split the sky as an image of a sword was lifted in a hand of black scales. Water burst from the sands, swelling to fill the desert once again. The ocean returned, and storms dominated the heavens.
ALL THINGS MAY CHANGE, IF WE CHOOSE.
The face of bones vanished, as did the water and the sands, leaving Beef alone with the storm outside his window. In his old room that he crafted from Primordial Essence and his own Willpower. There was a knock at the door.
Michael? Can I come in? I brought another beetle.
WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE, UNBOUND?
