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[color=gray][sub][right][color=white][b]Location:[/b][/color] Uhladein, Eastern Marches
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At the edge of Quinnlash's vision, the ogre crumpled into itself with one last roar, dissolving into rancid nothingness as her cannon burned it away, scattering whatever remained of it to the wind and rain. 

Near the walls, Ice Queen piloted down the smoldering remnants of a Void roc’s carcass as it crumbled.

The last echo of thunder from the retreating storm rumbled in the distance.

Outside the walls, the Void's screaming grew louder.

She closed her eye and enjoyed the noise, desperately savoring the cacophony; a gorgeous symphony of explosions and screaming. Really, what could be better? What better way was there to spend her new life?

When she opened her eye again, the boiling gray clouds overhead had exhausted themselves. The final trickles of rain dripped down from the archway where she was standing, one or two more drops making its way into the soggy mess that was now her hair, braid long undone and the strands lying sopping wet over her shoulders and back. She spat a strand out in irritation, but grinned all the same. They’d made it through with…well, not a minimum of casualties—Zecimia had been a Hunter for a very long time now, and she frankly had no idea how many humans had met their ends at the ravening maws of the Void.

But [i]she[/i] was fine. And in the end, wasn’t that what was important?

From below came a new sound, and she looked down. Far below her, she could see the heaving mass of sickening flesh that was now consuming Voidlings whole. She rolled her eye. "[color=FFE63D]Fuckin’ drama queen.[/color]" But Freakshow's little performance wasn’t what was making the sound. No, that was the army of skittering Void spider-things that were rapidly swarming up the walls. And, if her ears were right as usual, they were starting to climb up the forever-echoing elevator shaft as well. The smile grew wider. This was gonna be [i]fun![/i]

She leapt from the arched window into a quick, graceful half-turn. Or it would have been graceful, if her mop of hair hadn’t whirled around and slapped her in the face, sending her stumbling. She growled deep in her throat, hating how embarrassing it was. So in lieu of any further acrobatics, she rent her soul again, replacing the soulflame in the window where she’d just been standing. All four windows were filled now with roaring fire now. There was absolutely no way a Voidling could ever punch through. Her growl turned into a deep and protracted groan of pain, which in turn transformed into guttural words to Galiel and his cohort of imbeciles.

"[color=FFE63D]Heads up. There’s about to be a lot of screaming from the windows, and you’re gonna hear more screaming and several explosions from the elevator shaft. You're safe, you'll be fine. Those fires [i]can't[/i] burn out, and I'll be below. Don’t you dare lose focus. Rain stopped, we’re almost through this mess. Don’t fuck it up now.[/color]"

Down the gaping hole in the center, she watched as the gray walls were slowly encroached with black, skittering shapes. And though they shied away from the light of the Emberstone, they wouldn’t shy away enough. She reloaded, and her pained smile grew wider and sharper. [i]This[/i] was what she lived for.

Then, with a low chuckle, she toppled over the edge.

As she plummeted, she twisted in the air with jets of flame until she was falling legs-down. Her cannon began its low roar. Not a high charge for sure, and she certainly didn’t have a lot left in her. But the fragments that she’d torn away before were beginning to become whole again, and the flame that was her ember was burning brighter. She took aim at the leading edge of the swarm—where the fuck were they all coming from, anyway?—and her chuckle became an unhinged laugh as the flower bloomed once more. The flash of firelight lit the inside just as the lightning had Uhladein, and in the confined space, the sound of the cannon was the roll of thunder.

She let the blast carry her a ways back up the shaft, reloading as she went, and slowed her fall with a steady stream of flames. Still, by the time the thunder in Undying Light was ready again, she’d drawn level with the rapidly escalating spider-things. Another blast, another flash of lightning, another roar of thunder. This time she went straight to the other wall, striking it just as the spiders reached her. She reloaded again and kicked off the wall, forcing a jet of flame out from her foot as she did. It rolled down the tower, melting shrieking, chittering things into putrid nothing as it went. With the force from the kick she bounced back to the center of the tower, just above the encroaching black. Her smile winked out, her lips went tight. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't just keep doing this. She had something important to protect. This could no longer be fun.

Time. She needed more time. She needed her cannon to charge. Her eye flicked back up the shaft. The Void was only about fifty feet down now from the Hearthfire now, and less every second. They were so much faster than she’d thought.

Time. She had no time. By the time Undying Light was ready, the pyromancers above would be slaughtered. She hated this. She hated all of this. But she wouldn't leave them, obviously. She couldn't. Because—

The flicker of a familiar voice began to ring in her ears—

[i]You are a pyromancer. Pyromancers like us are the final line, and have the final say. You must not shirk in your duty. You must not leave the fire. And you must not abandon your comrades.[/i]

Before she'd realized, she'd put Undying Light on her back—

[i]You are a pyromancer. Pyromancers like us are the final line. You must not abandon your comrades.[/i]

Every muscle tensed—

[i]You are a [color=ff8400]pyromancer.[/color][/i]

Her whole body shook—

[i][color=ff8400]You are a [b]pyromancer.[/b][/color][/i]

Her ember [i]surged—The volcano [b]erupted—[/b][/i]

[b][color=ff8400][i]YOU ARE THE FINAL LINE.[/i][/color][/b]

Her eye snapped wide—ignited and incandesced within her skull—felt like it was [i]bubbling[/i]—

And with a raw, untempered scream of agony, rage, and desperate fear—

She tapped into her inner flame—

And let the power flow.

Blazing arcs of fire roared out of her hands and she halted in the air, suspended by her own withering heat. Her untied hair flew upwards in the sudden dry wind and whipped around her head like a great ashen crown.

The lightning came, and refused to fade. 

The thunder rolled forever. 

The tower was bathed with a fierce and wild light as she scoured the walls around her, turning any Voidlings the blaze so much as neared into a snowfall of ash and cinders. A distant part of her was frustrated that her soul was so splintered, or else she could have done so much more [sub]mama would be disappointed in me.[/sub] But the rest of her mind blazed with its own flame as memories tore through it, fragmented memories that she’d buried so very deep within.

After what felt like hours but must have only been a minute or so, the lightning ebbed, and the thunder went quiet. Her embersoul raged within her entire body, the sudden and massive use of pyromancy stoking the furnace until she was sure her skin would split and she would bleed lava. The light went out of her, and she began to fall. The swarm was still coming, but she’d pushed it back enough. The pyromancers would be able to light the Hearth before they could climb to the top again. Gritting her teeth to stop another scream from tearing her throat as pain wracked her failing body, she ripped Undying Light from her back. It quaked against her, and she could feel and [i]smell[/i] the hot metal cooking the skin and flesh of her trembling hands. She gave vent to one last roar, and one last time, the lightning flashed.

With no flame left within her to correct her course, she blasted out of the great shaft trailing fire, smoke, and ash, and slammed into the unforgiving stone wall twenty feet off the ground. She fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, hacking and wheezing. Her ember flared even hotter as it began to fix her blackened, battered form. She was pretty sure she was crying. Memories splintered into fractals in her mind as she desperately tried to blot them out the only way she knew how. Pulling herself to her hands and knees, she groaned through her teeth, wiped the burned charcoal stain of what was once blood from her face, and spat [i]furiously[/i] at the pyromancers as the crystal began to glow brighter:

"[color=FFE63D]You’re [i]fucking welcome,[/i] you [i]fucking garbage.[/i][/color]"