[Revok, The Chimera of Westerweald]

HP: 1550/2500

WILL: 2400/3000

You know you can beat him, Ethan.

The blood that sprayed out from the Chimera's back and ran down his one remaining arm told him that.

But the lack of Willpower depletion was only driving him further into his haze of fury.

He'd taken to blocking out the Doctor's cries and taunts. Now, he focused on slicing away at the beast, ripping, tearing, and cutting through its body like it was little more than a few sheaths of paper.

And still, its mind resisted.

He leveled himself, silhouetted by Argwyll's moon at his back, and channeled [Twilight Edge].

But his strike went right through the beat's back.

He felt himself falling through the air, traveling right through the creature's torso, seeing Haylock's cackling head welded inside its heart, and then nothing but the inky blackness of the Argwylian night.

He spread his oaken wings with [Wing Buffet] and hovered above the ocean before he plummeted into its depths.

And from above, the Ethereal chimera activated [Dive] again.

He felt a flash of heat above him and looked up just in time to see the beast coming at him like a meteor launched from the heavens. He had just enough time to activate [Ethereal Form] himself and phase through the Chimera's raging body.

He wanted to deactivate the skill just as he reached the creature's core so that he could take a swipe at the Doctor's head, but the Chimera's speed suddenly picked up as it went crashing down into one of the castle towers.

Ethan didn't let it recover. He twisted in the air, spread his wings, and sent a gale of death towards his foe:

[Wing Buffet]

[Twilight Edge]

[Spectral Snipe]

A miasma of shadow raged towards the beast, and it met the cloud of darkness with its three beams of killing, radiant light. The triadic attack struck true, easily repelling Ethan's blast.

And that's when Ethan's [Spectral Strike] clashed with it.

A single sapphire light beam trailed off from his blade's tip, charged with all the energy he could muster. As it met the Chimera's three breath attacks, the sky was lit by a supernova.

"Beauty!" Haylock yelped below. "True beauty! This is a dance of death worthy of us, Archon! This is the way we shall leave this world!"

So wrapped up was he in his own delusional babbling that the Doctor didn't see the thing that streaked through the blinding light show. As the supernova from the clash of their attacks died down, Ethan came flying at him with a [Dive] attack of his own.

The doctor forced Revok into the sky, summoning up a combination of [Wing Buffet] and [Roar] that he was certain would tear the trailing Archon apart.

Revok's wings summoned up a whirlwind. The cries from his three throats combined in a howl that pierced the night itself. He watched pieces of the Archon's wooden flesh peel away. He watched the Demon Hat's form begin to give out.

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But Ethan didn't stop. And Dr Haylock was beginning to see that an imitation could never be as powerful as the original.

He summoned up a [Vine Whip] and [Thorn Hail] combination, but as he launched the assault, Ethan let fly his own synthesis of destruction:

[Repulsor Shield]

[Ice Barrage]

[Spectral Snipe]

A single blue beam wrapped in shards of ice flashed from the Archon's blade. Haylock's vines were cut apart, each one of them disintegrating at the sheer power of Ethan's strike.

"Miraculous…"

And then the Doctor felt the full force of Ethan's [Dive] bomb attack. Before he could even activate Revok's own [Repulsor Shield], Ethan slammed into him with the force of an exploding sun.

The entire central tower of Griffon's Watch then crumbled away, taking both the Chimera and the Archon down with it.

…

Within the crumbling ruin that Griffon's Watch was quickly becoming, Tara stood and watched over the rest of her team.

Fauna was administering to Laumphrey, who's entire body had started to quiver the closer they got to Jun'Ei's brain. She spoke of a 'psychic resonance' that was forming around her vat – something akin to lucid dreaming. She felt it keenly as a distinct sense of pain.

For Tara, however, the focus was on Klax. Ever since they'd made it back up the shaking stairways and half-destroyed rooms of the shuddering fortress to this place, he'd done nothing but get on one knee and bow his head.

"Jun…" he whispered. "I…I didn't know…"

Tara wanted to reach out and reassure him. But she didn't know what good it would do. Truthfully, if she touched him now, she didn't know what he would do.

"Klax," Fauna said beside her. "Klax, we have to go…"

The Lycae looked up at his beloved – at the small, floating remnant that remained of her.

"…no."

He said the word with such sudden finality and certainty that it made Tara's whole body quiver.

"What?"

"She doesn't want to," Klax said – eyes totally glued to the brain in the vat. "She wants to stay here. She needs to."

Fauna looked to Tara who simply shook her head. Both of them looked up at the rocking ceiling, seeing pieces of debris rain down all around the Doctor's Sanctum.

"Give us what protection you can, Faun," Tara asked. "If Klax says we're staying, then we're staying."

Fauna looked to Klax, seeing that the Lycae wasn't going to move no matter what she did.

And, with a small flicker of sorrow, she set up a quick defensive charm around them.

"I – I can aid you," Lamphrey said as she stood, shakily, and began her own chant of protection. "The Lycae is right. The Prophet…shall soon speak. And these words shall be her last."

Tara's vision blurred. After all the exertion of this place, and everything she'd seen, she felt like simply collapsing and letting go, finally, of all the pain that had bundled into a little knot in her stomach.

There really is no one else for you, is there? she thought as she looked at Klax. There won't ever be anyone else…

Her thoughts were then suddenly overturned by what had started happening in Jun'Ei's vat.

The briny water around her had started shaking. Bubbles started to fizzle up past her stem.

Klax looked at the vat as if he was looking on the face of a Goddess that had suddenly and inexplicably just come to life.

The bubbles were getting more numerous. And appearing with such sudden, intense speed.

Klax placed a firm paw on the vat's surface.

"Jun…" he whispered. "I'm here. I'm –"

SMASH.

…

When Haylock's vision cleared up, he looked through the eyes of his beast, seeing nothing but crushed vats, mauled hybrid experiments, and fire.

The fire of his home, brought down all around him. Not that he'd ever really cared about it.

He urged Revok to rise up and shake off the pieces of onyx Duskmetal that had embedded themselves in his hide on the way down. Right now, the creature's HP wavered at 700. But its Will was still as strong as his own: 1400.

It was enough to keep it upright and enraged, even as the world burned around it.

He scanned the coils of smoke rising out of the crushed tower around him, trying to find where the boy had gotten to…

Ethan Hawke, Ethan Hawke…where are y-

CLANG.

The sound of metal being bent out of shape assailed his six ears. And before him, covered in scars, most of his oaken flesh singed away, stood the Archon.

The Demon Hat stared him down and crushed the broken section of tower in his claw. Then, the puppeted Drytchling plucked up his deadly blade from the ground and leveled it right at his opponent.

And Haylock, only now, realized that his lips were stained with his own blood.

"That's you," he said through the throats of his beast. "That's what you were always meant to be. That's what your predecessors didn't understand. They didn't know what the Archon truly is to this world."

Haylock forced Revok to stretch out its wings.

"The end," he whispered – if a Chimera could truly whisper at all. "The end of all things. Beautiful, tranquil, complete death."

Forks of lightning arced in the sky, illuminating the rage-fueled face of Ethan and his Host.

"It's the only logical conclusion of life, is it not, Ethan? People will remember us one day. They will speak of how I was the one who finally made you see what you truly are."

The Archon swiped his blade through the fire and brimstone around him. His feet practically crackled with lightning.

"You won't be there to see any of it, Haylock," he snarled. "Let's finish this now."

Practically giddy, Haylock answered him.

"As you wish."

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