Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

WHOOMP! KA-BOOM!

An earth-shattering explosion shook the land as a massive stone structure was transported through the Void and superimposed on another one, similar to itself. The following incompatibility of two nearly identical Space-bending artifacts occupying the same physical plane at once resulted in the violent annihilation of both.

The massive stone temple-like stone structure around them immediately collapsed in on itself as its insides were violently ripped apart and turned to rubble, leaving a wide ring of destruction that could be seen from kilometers away.

Yung Lin ran like mad, praying to a thousand gods that his intuition was wrong. He begged and pleaded with the beings unlikely to exist to make it all just a dream. Yet, the smoke rising above the forest and the familiar shouts of his Junior Brothers told of a dark tale.

As he cleared the last distance and came into the open, his deepest fears came to life. The Portal Nexus, something his Sect spent millions of man-hours and a decade of wealth to complete, was completely ruined.

The destruction was such that no two stones remained in their place, and all the runes, magic formations, wards, and glyphs protecting the place were completely obliterated. They were made to survive a full-out attack from even their Sect's Patriarch, and yet, they were all gone.

Yung Lin felt his body fill with dread. Whatever destroyed this was powerful enough to completely wipe their Sect out of existence with a single hand! He swallowed hard and carefully took a step closer, doing his job as the one responsible for the site's construction to evaluate the damage. But as he examined the place and considered the consequences of such destruction, and the punishment from the sect he would receive, perhaps facing a swift annihilation wasn't even such a bad thing.

What Yung Lin didn't know, was that all the protections they had only worked against outside threats. They had nothing that could block or endure the violent explosion between two Portal Nexuses colliding in the structure's core.

But as the white light of the teleportation faded, Gerald was revealed in the middle of all that destruction, completely unfazed.

For a moment, of course. Immediately after, the dust and smoke rushed at him, resulting in a violent coughing fit.

Cough! Cough!

"Yo, what the fuck!"

Cough!

He quickly used some Wind magic to blow away the dust and get some breathing room. But as his vision cleared, he became aware of his situation, and especially the destruction around him.

"What the hell happened here?!"

He wasn't aware, however, that as he was being teleported, he gained a few short seconds of invulnerability as his body materialized in another place. Luckily he ended up in an open space, otherwise, he would have probably merged with a stone structure and would have been annihilated just like the Portal Nexus itself.

It had to be said that the Nexus wasn't supposed to move from its place of origin and shift through space with him. However, as it was not finished, and also wasn't yet anchored in space, when Gerald accidentally used the machine's full power, it was forcefully ripped from its base, and relocated to another viable destination.

It just so happened that it was another Portal Nexus that was also under construction, and so the two merged, destroying each other in the process. And now he was stuck here. Wherever here was…

Gerald dusted himself off and carefully made his way over the rubble. This place seemed to be quite luxurious before it was destroyed, and he hoped people wouldn't blame him for its destruction. Though he heard some agitated voices coming from all around him, and he readied himself for the worst.

Just in case he would have to escape, he changed his clothes and wore the most generic attire he could find. It was the most common cloth shirt and trousers as well as some cheap boots and gloves to hide his silver left hand.

Blatantly showing unknown people a bunch of silver didn't seem wise.

But as he came out into the open, he realized he was nowhere near the known Kingdom or the Empire. The facial features of the people were much thinner, and their skin color was much lighter as well. They also appeared to be from the same organization as they all had similar long black hair and wore an identical light blue tunic and white trousers, with leather greaves and vambraces of matching light gray color.

They were all in a state of shock, something that was to be expected when a massive building suddenly collapsed on top of them.

Gerald saw a few of them digging through the rubble and helping some of the unlucky ones that got wounded or buried.

"Hey, you!" He heard a shout directed at him. It came from one of the people there, though this one was slightly older than the rest, and his attire also had a different dark blue trim, probably marking his position as a leader. And he did not appear happy, to put it mildly.

He advanced with aggressive steps and only stopped a few paces from Gerald.

"I am Yung Lin from the Brilliant Sword sect," the man introduced himself and cupped his fist. It was clear to Gerald that he was angry for some reason, but an abundance of caution forced him to act according to the tradition.

The two then started at each other in silence until Yung Lin couldn't take it anymore.

"… Who are you?" he eventually asked.

"Oh!" Gerald realized what the man wanted. "I'm Gerald, from the… Blood Sun Viper sect," he introduced himself while lying through his teeth. He felt like using the name of his enemy could be useful. At least he didn't have to come up with a completely new name for a freaking sect.

"You said you are from the Blood Sun Viper sect?" the Lin guy asked, and Gerald could pick up some slight changes in his expression. Perhaps it was curiosity?

"That's right! Do you know it?"

"Never heard of it," the man shook his head. "But I know you are lying… Now, why would that be? You wouldn't be the one responsible for all this destruction, now would you?" His eyes had that dangerous look to them. The one that said: "One wrong word, and you are dead!"

Gerald was in a dilemma. He suspected that his fooling around with that machine was what triggered the teleportation, and it was also most likely responsible for the destruction around him. However, he couldn't be completely sure. When he came to, the place was already in ruins, though the dust of its collapse had yet to completely settle.

"Honestly… I don't know what happened," he began. "One moment I was minding my own business, and then there was suddenly this bright light, and bam! I found myself here, choking on dust. Where am I anyway?"

"Ancient Ironbark Timberland, property of the Brilliant Sword sect," Yung Lin answered coldly. "And you lied again!" His expression turned frosty and a pale blue longsword appeared out of nowhere.

"Last chance! Were you the one responsible for the destruction of the Portal Nexus?!"

"The what?" Gerald was confused, but his opponent didn't seem to want to elaborate further. "Look man, it's possible I was partially responsible for this mess, but honestly, it wasn't on purpose!" His words evoked some reaction as the other guy took a deep breath and his body began to lightly shake, probably due to the anger his body was visibly struggling to contain.

"Listen, I'll pay for the damage, alright? I got plenty of money, just name your price." He made the offer not because he felt bad, but because he couldn't read the guy opposite to him. Everyone else he could somewhat examine, however the man himself was an enigma. He had no clue how strong he was or even what heights his Aura reached. He seemed to be well versed in holding it hidden, which made him uncomfortable.

"Pay?" Yung Lin scoffed at the sheer thought of someone personally paying for the entirety of the damage. "Do you even know what you are saying?! How could you possibly have so much money?!"

Not bothering to waste any breath, Gerald emptied half his gold stores, as well as the countless Earth Crystals he had with him, and made a human-sized pile on the floor. "Look, here! That's most of what I have, surely it is enough?"

Yung Lin stared at the small mountain of shining gold and crystals as he was momentarily rendered speechless. But then he started to laugh. A mad kind of laugh.

"Hahaha! I'm dead, I'm so fucking dead! HAHAHAHA!" He covered his eyes with one hand as tears started to roll down his cheeks.

"For decades the Sect gathered treasures and saved Spirit Stones, and now some retard Mortal destroyed it all. And he wants to pay it back with a pile of trash?! HAHAHAHAH! Oh gods in the Void, why do you have to punish me so?!"

Gerald understood well enough to know that he had fucked up despite the words not being addressed to him. What might have been valuable in his eyes didn't necessarily transfer to another civilization.

"Uh… Listen… How about we come to an agreement… I got other stuff-"

"SHUT UP!" Yung Lin held his head and his eyes went wide as he was slowly losing his mind. "Listen to him… This idiot is still trying to speak… He should just fall over and die…" he quietly mumbled to himself. "Yes… Yes! Maybe if I capture him and slice him up, maybe the Elders will forgive me… What have I got to lose?!"

"Listen here…" Gerald tried to speak up and try reason with the man, but then he noticed the latter's sword hand move, and he instinctively leaned to the side and lifted his silver hand up to block the incoming strike.

However, the expected recoil of the collision never came, as the pale blue sword went straight through his silver hand, accompanied by a soft white glow.

His hand was gone. The metal offered no resistance whatsoever. Even a glowing knife going through soft butter would have slowed down more than the sword did.

In that instant, Gerald realized he had fucked up. He had royally fucked up!

"Stand still, and let me kill you!" Enraged Yung Lin roared as he lurched forward, bringing the sword back by swinging it the opposite way.

"Fuck that!" Gerald blasted the man with all of the Wind power he could muster at such short notice and got himself a few precious meters of breathing room. Not that it mattered. As soon as Yung Lin landed on the ground, his legs kicked down with tremendous force, and he was propelled forward once more.

"This guy is insa-!"

BOOM!

Gerald's shout got silenced in an instant as a heavy punch landed on his chest, taking his breath away. He got blasted backward and landed in the rubble, after which he bounced off and skidded to an eventual stop a dozen or so meters away.

"I… can't breathe…" Gerald's eyes bulged out as he struggled to take a breath. The punch caved in his ribcage, and he knew his bones shattered despite being double-reinforced with magic.

And what's worse, the damn madman was not done. Yung Lin leaped forward while bringing the glowing sword toward him in a downward swing. The sight of it alone was dreadful, and Gerald knew he had no chance of taking it head-on.

With a swift gravity manipulation, he managed to reposition himself farther away while still dealing with the lack of breath. His lungs collapsed due to the shockwave of the punch, and he had to manually force air inside with magic. Luckily he came up with it despite his panicking mind and pain all over his body.

"… Damn it!" He released the seal on the Void cuffs around his wrists and let Mana flow into him. He reinforced his body as much as his flesh would allow and prepared to escape.

Yes, escape. He was not stupid, he had lost this fight before it has even begun. The only thing left to do was to get as far away as quickly as he could. He only hoped that his opponent wasn't capable of flight.

He groaned and twisted gravity upward, falling towards the sky. He quickly reoriented himself and entered a more aerodynamic pose and gritted his teeth as the cracked ribs rubbed against each other. It was agony!

'Go, go, go! Higher! Faster!' he repeated in his mind. The ground was quickly going farther and farther away, but his hopes were answered. It seemed that despite all that power the guy chasing him had, he was incapable of flight.

Gerald wasn't surprised though. Having knowledge of gravity and the theoretical workings of space-time manipulation was not something just anyone would have.

However, that didn't mean he was safe just yet. For one, the guy called Yung Lin was running at an absurd speed on the ground while following his flight path.

Gerald was flabbergasted. He was surely going close to 200km/h and yet the guy managed to somehow keep up. There was again that gentle white light, only this time it covered his entire body. It seemed like all of his movements were sped up as his limbs moved like a blur.

But that wasn't the end of it. No, the main problem was that Gerald had no clue where he was! Everywhere he looked was the same! The ground was covered with a green forest that went as far as his eyes could see. And being hundreds of meters in the air, he could see far, really far!

"Faaaaaaaaaak!" He exclaimed in frustration. How could things turn to shit so quickly?! But then he noticed a tiny light flying in the air. Or, actually, it wasn't a light, it was just the sun reflecting off of… something. Actually, there was more than just one of that something.

"AAAH!" He suddenly felt something strike his back and dig deep into his flesh. Blood began spraying in a thin line after him, and the cold air did little to alleviate the pain of an open wound.

Then he noticed those things flying around him make quick turns, and like spectral arrows, they made a beeline toward him. He knew he was in danger, but not how much exactly. Whatever just hit him could easily break through his Iron Body defense, so remaining exposed was just asking for trouble.

He quickly put on the armor he received from the King, and took out the Titan's Bulwark. The steel shield was nearly 20 centimeters thick and extremely heavy, but with gravity manipulation that didn't matter much. It did make him much slower though, as the air resistance nearly tripled in an instant.

And that's when he felt it. Something strong just struck his shield, making it ring like a gong. It nearly slipped his Telekinetic grasp, but luckily he held it close enough to his body that his hold on it remained strong.

Whatever those things were, they seemed determined to torture him. Two more strikes hit the Titan's Bulwark, both of which killed his momentum, and brought him to an immediate stop. He was now a lone stationary target in the sky, and he could see those nearly invisible things circle around him as they were readying for another attack.

Bam! Bam! Slice!

Gerald barely had enough time to turn his shield and block two more attacks, however, a third one snuck behind him and left a deep gash in his leg despite the armor. He winced from the pain and blasted a pillar of flames toward the creature, however, the fire came nowhere close as it had already flown to the other side of him.

Then another two joined in. Gerald could at most block three strikes at once, however, there were five coming at him at once from all sides. One time he managed to land a hit on one of the creatures with a fireball, but the thing just flew through the flames, unaffected.

"Damn it!" he grunted. "What are these things?!" It was like a small group of invincible sky piranhas, taking small bites out of him whenever they could.

It was nowhere enough to kill him quickly, however, he had long realized he had no chance of fighting back. Hell, even the hardened steel shield protecting his body had fist-sized chunks taken out of it. He could see tiny teeth marks in the metal, something that filled him with terror.

His body was no stronger than the shield itself, and if he was just delaying the inevitable…

"Fuck it!"

He had made a decision. He quickly dropped his altitude and flew right at the guy waiting for him on the ground. Maybe he could get these monsters to focus on him and he could get a chance to escape.

However, as he neared the forest canopy, weirdly enough, the flying near-invisible beasts halted their pursuit and turned around, circling high above it. It didn't seem like they dared go any lower than that. It was understandable. They relied on their extreme speed, and in a forest that aspect of their ability would be extremely limited.

However now Gerald had another problem, which was the widely-grinning Yung Lin guy waiting for him on the ground. No, scratch that, he was already flying at him!

Gerald tossed the Titan's Bulwark at the incoming madman in an attempt at stopping him. The shield was full of holes and cracks already, and it didn't offer much protection anyway, so why not repurpose it?

Slice!

"Oh, give me a break…" Gerald quietly complained as he saw the longsword split his shield down the middle like it was a piece of wet paper. Then came a flurry of sword strikes, and the once proud shield was shredded into countless uneven metal chunks that fell on the ground. Luckily a few of them hit the enraged Cultivator just hard enough so his jump came short and he missed Gerald by a few meters.

"Man, fuck off already! I said I'm sorry!" Gerald shouted, and hundreds of spell scrolls materialized around him. "But if you want to fight so much, then I'll show you how a proper Mage does battle!"

All of the scrolls were activated at once, and the forest was immediately illuminated by countless Greater Fireballs powering up, the whistling of wind accompanied the formation of Wind Blades, and moisture condensed out of the air as Ice Lances were born.

"Go!" Gerald shouted and pointed his hand at the stupefied guy on the ground. His magic immediately went into action, locking any path of escape as it formed a dome of death falling to the earth, the formation becoming tighter as it closed in.

BAWAHAMBOOMBAMBORORROBOOM!

It was a direct hit, Gerald saw it. Or at least until the first Fireball went off, then there was just a cacophony of light and sound as the forest ground was ravaged into oblivion.

Even his Magic Eyes couldn't see the brutality of his spells in action as the chaotic magic blinded his senses.

However, he didn't dare relax. Who knew if that was enough to finish him off? But on the off chance the Cultivator survived, he had another present waiting for him.

"Hehe… Good thing I saved it," he smirked as a slightly cracked crystal dodecahedron appeared in his hand.

Paying close attention to the cloud of dust and smoke on the ground, he noticed something shining in the middle of it. And as a gust of wind blew, the Cultivator was revealed. He was completely unharmed and encased in a transparent pale yellow barrier while standing in the middle of a crater.

"To think Mortal magic can do this much…" he murmured. A small white stone then appeared in his free hand, and he lifted his tunic and slotted it in an indentation on his previously hidden light blue metallic belt.

"But it's still not enough to hurt me," he coldly said as his gaze landed on Gerald.

"Yeah, didn't think so…" the latter responded and brought his hand forward. "Let's hope this does the trick then!"

The Ice Age Lance dodecahedron was powering up all the while, and Gerald even gave it some of his own Mana so the spell would be ready faster. And now it was at full power, waiting to be fired.

"Go!"

The crystal shattered as massive amounts of Mana were extracted in an instant, and a long icy lance was instantly condensed from the air.

"What?!" Yung Lin exclaimed after seeing the crazy magic burst into existence and shoot at him. He had no time to react, and could just lift his sword in front of himself to block the incoming projectile.

BOOM!

It was a clean hit. Even if the sword in his hands sliced the Ice Age Lance clean in half, the momentum behind it was still too great to stop. As such, both man and the ice disappeared from Gerald's sight, creating a corridor of broken vegetation and torn plant life in the woods.

"Is it over?" Gerald dared to hope.

However, the answer was a resounding no!

Yung Lin came running back like an angry locomotive, his stomps on the ground producing audible booms as his feet struck the forest soil. He was furious!

Despite once again not sustaining any injury, the fact that he was forced into a defensive position by someone he considered inferior to himself, was infuriating!

"What the fu-!" Gerald exclaimed as another sword strike was aimed at his head. He narrowly dodged by moving down and landed on the ground. He immediately summoned the Stone Golem Armor around himself and created some distance between himself and his opponent.

He then summoned countless Stone Bolts from the ground and hurled them at Yung Lin.

The latter landed on the ground and immediately began displaying his superior skills as he slashed and cut every single projectile that came at him. In just a few short seconds, he must have stopped at least a hundred. But, as Gerald sped up his attack while running backward, he also hastened his strikes while pushing forward.

"Heart of Frenzy!" Yung Lin shouted, and his movements sped up so much, that it appeared as if he had grown another pair of hands. The longsword in his grasp was moving so fast, that it appeared to be a rotating grinder with a thousand blades as it turned the stones to dust. Worst of all, the man didn't even break out in a sweat while doing so.

Gerald then augmented his attacks with Fire and Wind, and even threw some Explosion spell scrolls in the mix, only to achieve the same result. It was completely futile. His opponent didn't even flinch as he continuously changed his attack style and just continued forward with his assault.

Yung Lin didn't show any exhaustion, and instead smirked, "Your talismans are useless against me, Mortal! Quit resisting and die already!" He then focused his mind into a single point and burst forward with a powerful Soul attack.

"ARGH!" Gerald suddenly felt as if someone punched him in the brain and he felt his Soul expand under the strain so much so that it nearly tore.

It was nowhere near the damage he sustained in the Great Desert from the white orb, however, it was still much more painful than anything King Robart or the Emperor could do.

"You are mine!"

Yung Lin thrust his sword forward, and despite Gerald's best attempts at blocking by creating numerous Stone Walls, the light blue longsword easily pierced the rock and stabbed into the left side of his chest.

The force of the strike completely broke his stone armor and then pushed Gerald off balance and he fell to the ground as Yung Lin stood above him, still pushing the sword down.

"Hm? Why can't I…?" he wondered out loud as he felt some resistance coming from Gerald's body. He released his Soul attack and focused on stabbing him through the heart.

Gerald gritted his teeth as the cold blade moved inside his flesh, trying to make a new hole in his internal organs. He looked the Cultivator in the eye and spat some blood at him in spite. It was blocked by the yellow barrier and fell to the floor.

"Diamond Heart, bitch!" Gerald grinned a bloody grin as his body started steaming from the heat generated by all his focused defensive magic. A stack of papers then appeared in his hand and the tossed them into the air.

"Let's see you block this! Solar Point, go!" He pointed two fingers at Yung Lin's face and blasted him with all he had. At the same time, the Solar Point spell scrolls were triggered and all of them focused their light on the same spot. Namely, the Cultivator's face!

"AAAAAAAH!"

500MP, or thereabouts, were focused on a tiny surface for no more than a second. The flash of light was bright enough to blind even Gerald despite having closed his eyes.

He could hear Yung Lin roar in pain, but he didn't have enough time to determine the extent of the damage. As soon as the pressure on him lessened, he scrambled to get back up and quickly cast Recovery on himself as he began running away.

Well, running might not have been the right word. He began quickly limping away as his leg was hurt from all the damage he had previously sustained, including the beasts in the sky who took a few bites out of him.

"Oh, no you don't!" he heard Lig's angry shout and shuddered in fear. If even that attack wasn't enough to incapacitate the man, then he was really screwed. And as he felt death breathing down his neck, he had to turn and at least take a look.

He saw Yung Lin take another white pebble and place it in a small cavity on the hilt of the sword. The light on the blade immediately intensified tenfold and a moment later he performed a forward thrust toward him.

"Lightning Jab!" They were more than ten meters apart, but that didn't seem to matter at all. A beam of white light suddenly hit Gerald's chest and came back out his back, continuing on the trajectory that took it above the forest and out into the sky. In less than a second, it was all over and it disappeared from view.

"Ah!" Gerald gasped and held his chest. His body now had a hole the size of a fist, and he could see the light coming from the other side. Where once his heart and lung were, now only emptiness remained.

Blood gushed out of his wound and he fell to his knees.

With his last remaining strength, he looked up and saw Yung Lin coming at him. The man had his face disfigured and his eyelids burned off. His skin had evaporated from the blast and you could see the muscles and tendons rapidly twitching on his face.

"YOU!" he roared with bloodshot eyes. Each of his steps was slow and calculated, and he held his blade in front, clearly expecting retaliation from Gerald. However, there came none.

The man that gave him so much trouble was barely breathing, his blood spilling out and soaking his clothes and armor.

"To think a mere Mortal could wound me…" he smirked in rage. "And all of that, for a few drops of blood." He took a small vial and drank from it, his wounds closing back up at visible speed.

"I… made you bleed," Gerald said with a defiant whisper while not diverting his gaze as he stared into his opponent's eyes.

It was an achievement, that's for sure. However, it seemed he wasn't going to get away this time. He had done his best, but it wasn't enough. The difference was just too large.

He silently cursed the Phoenix Necklace that was now laying silently on his chest. He was dying. If this wasn't a time to activate and save his life, then when?! He only had one life!

He internally sighed. The necklace was not even guaranteed to work, he read that much from the temple where he found it. And even if it was perfectly made, what did he expect from an artifact made 10.000 years ago? And then hastily repaired by a freaking amateur…

"Whatever…" he mumbled. "I've lived a good life…"

"What did you say?" Yung Lin leaned closer to hear what Gerald was whispering about. As he did so, the yellow barrier of his belt encased Gerald's body as well, and the latter's eyes immediately focused to the max.

Suddenly, with all the remaining strength, his ruined right hand coiled around the Cultivator's throat and squeezed.

"Wha-?!"

Yung Lin tried to get away but noticed the hand of a seemingly dead man was like a vise. He couldn't move at all! And that was not all! Despite having no heart, Gerald was still alive, although barely. He was using magic to manually pump blood through his veins, not allowing himself to lose concentration for even a second!

"Ready to die?" Gerald grinned as blood spilled out of his mouth and his body began heating up. "I learned this move from my friend, the Giant!" He focused all the remaining Mana, even pulling some extra out of his surroundings into his body, and prepared to detonate it.

He opened his mouth and roared with a mad, suicidal smile. "EXPLO-!"

"LIGHTNING JAB!"

BOOM!

An explosion shook the forest, and after the dust settled, the winner was all too clear.

Gerald was fast, but the Cultivator Yung Lin was faster.

His pale blue sword pierced the skull of his enemy, destroying his brain in the process and stopping the suicidal attack in its tracks. The stone beneath them was cracked from the force of the strike, and the hole continued for many dozen meters into the bedrock beneath.

With the last fragments of resistance gone, the bloody hand holding his throat fell to the side without power, and blood began pooling underneath.

Yung Lin blinked a few times. He had won. He had won, but at what cost?

The skin on his face had already begun regrowing, as did his eyelids, and by the end of the day, he would be like new, but did that even matter?

The Portal Nexus was destroyed. His dreams, his hopes, his achievements… They were all gone. He began chuckling, in a desperate kind of way. His chuckles then transitioned into full-out laughter, and that turned into wails of pain as reality set in.

His life was over.

He captured the culprit, battled him, and killed him, but it didn't matter! The Elders were going to rip him apart for this. They would need a sacrificial lamb, and he was going to be the one responsible for it.

Crack!

"Huh?!" Yung Lin jumped up in fright as he heard some cracking noise coming from the smoldering corpse.

"Ah…" He understood. His opponent pushed himself to the limit and beyond, and his body was now breaking down. And indeed, soon after the flesh started to burn, slowly at first, but then increasingly faster and stronger.

Gerald's body burst out as tongues of flame sprayed into the forest, burning hotter and wilder than they should. More cracking sounds came from his body as his bones broke under the heat, and his skin began to melt and char.

Flesh and burning clothes mixed and produced a terribly-smelling black smoke that lingered in the area, and the raging inferno quickly spread across the dry leaves and dead branches that littered the forest. Soon only a charred skeleton remained of Gerald, with the pathetic armor still mostly intact, the damn thing not doing anything to protect his life.

Yung Lin observed the forest fire for another hour, deep down hoping that something would happen, but he was left disappointed. The flames slowly continued to spread outward, devouring dead wood and young plants, the smoke billowing high in the sky.

It was over, well, and truly over.

With one last long sigh, Yung Lin turned around and prepared for the long road back to where the Elders would probably already be waiting for him.

He killed the perpetrator, but now he had nothing to show for it as his body already turned to charcoal and ash… It was truly... a terrible day. It was...

THE END…

… of book one!