Moving toward him again, I noticed Seeley and Kelara moving in closer. They'd come to some kind of agreement, judging by their conspiratorial looks. They were up to something. Spirit was too busy eyeing me to notice them, and I figured it might work out to our advantage.

Roaring, I charged him at full speed, my boots barely touching the ice. Upon reaching him, he vanished and reappeared behind me. I then zapped myself away just as his scythe came in from the right. Behind him, Seeley and Kelara materialized. They both attacked him, though Seeley was far more brutal in his offensive.

I watched for a moment, then teleported right in front of the Spirit Bender and brought Thieron down on him. His eyes bulged with sheer horror. Kelara moved away from him, hand behind her back, and vanished. Before Thieron could touch him, Spirit disappeared, as well. I didn't take it as a disappointment, though.

Seeley gave me a brief nod and moved to take down more specters, while the ghouls did most of the hard work, gorging on all the souls they could eat. Even Herbert was hard at it, despite his charred skin and slow movements. There was anger in him, and it needed channeling—so munching on spirits must've seemed like a good outlet.

The Spirit Bender was nowhere to be seen, and I didn't like that. I rushed over to Death and tried to break the ice again. A distant boom erupted in the distance, somewhere to the north. It was swiftly followed by a bright white light, stronger than Aledras's current incandescence. It spread outward like the biggest, most powerful atom bomb ever created.

I was breathless. I doubted even I would survive what was coming, regardless of Death's touch. Everything disintegrated in the light's path. The horizon shimmered and vanished, swallowed by whiteness. The trees and the cities disintegrated, blown to smithereens, utterly obliterated. Destruction was finally upon us, and we were staring right at it.

"Oh, no…" I heard Amelia gasp, somewhere to my left.

"It's too late," Herakles managed.

This is it. The ritual is coming.

The end of days we'd all dreaded and fought so hard against was unleashed.

I was so entranced by the horror unfolding before my very eyes that I lost track of the Spirit Bender. His scythe cut into my back, and I cried out in pain. Frozen on the spot, I felt my self-control slipping away from me.

My soul was under his dominion now.

Taeral

"Your spirit is mine," he whispered in my ear.

My worst nightmare had come true. We'd lost everything. Our worlds would soon be torched. Our families gone, turned to ashes and dust. Our lives destroyed. Our civilizations forgotten. All because the Spirit Bender had a bone to pick with Death, and Brendel had a ritual to uphold. Such foolishness.

The taste of defeat lingered bitterly on the tip of my tongue as I slowly turned my head to look around. In the sea of white, I saw Varga and Eva, their heads covered but their eyes wide and filled with dread. Amelia's hand shaking as she tried to hold the scythe. Raphael, still and speechless. Riza and Herakles standing back to back, unable to utter a single word, their gazes fixed on me. Lumi and Nethissis's expressions were impossible to read, as they were possessed by the Word, but I knew the entity had nothing left to say.

Kabbah was astonished and heartbroken, glowing green with rage through Fallon's body. Kelara stood motionless as a shadow slipped past her. Seeley, Soul, Widow, Phantom, Dream, and Nightmare were all dismayed, their starry eyes coated with… tears. They were all breaking down as the light continued to cover the lands, headed our way with its unstoppable wave of destruction. The ghouls and the specters had stopped, too. No one could move anymore.

Beneath the ice, close to my feet, I saw Death.

She gave me a soft smile, and it didn't make a lick of sense. The Spirit Bender had just cut me, and the entire universe was about to fall apart. What the hell was she so giddy about?!

"Now, stand back and watch," Spirit said, amusement dripping from his voice. "Watch as it all comes down, before Death's own eyes!"

I managed to turn around and face him, but that was all. My body was no longer mine. My soul had been hijacked by his. He grinned, reaching out a hand.

"Give Thieron to me, boy. It's too big a toy for the likes of you," he added.

The worst part was that I couldn't stop myself as I brought Thieron up, ready to give it to him. Eira screamed from somewhere in the crowd. "Tae! No! Don't do it!"

Everything stopped.

The distant boom went silent. The air stopped flowing. I was frozen. Conscious, but still and unable to do or say anything. For a moment, I'd thought it was part of the Spirit Bender's wretched game, until I noticed that he, too, was quite literally paused.

Time had come to a sudden halt, and the Time Master's voice echoed across the paralyzed skirmish. "The thing about hate is that, while it does do a decent job of motivating an individual, it also blinds them."

He sounded so calm, emerging from the crowd of frozen specters and ghouls, moving past his motionless brothers and sisters, his scythe back in his hand. He gave Kelara an appreciative smile. "Thank you, little sister. You may not be a First Tenner, but you've proven yourself worthy of being my sibling, as much as the others," he said, then walked toward Spirit and me.

None of us could move. Time was paused, but we could all hear and see this moment. My heart wasn't even beating anymore. My breath was gone. The only comfort I got from this conscious blip was that I wasn't the only one. The Spirit Bender was just as helpless. While I couldn't see any emotions in his galaxy eyes, I knew there was dread in his blackened soul. This was not something he'd expected.

Kelara had taken advantage of her last attack on Spirit, joined by Seeley and me, to find and snatch the Time Master's scythe. We'd all known he'd have it on his person, unwilling to trust anyone, even a ward or magic seal to keep it from us. But he'd failed, and Time now had his full powers back.

Against the white backdrop, he stopped by Spirit's side, giving him a sympathetic smile. "You know, when Death first made us, I was in awe of you. I wondered what kind of creature you must have been, to have brought such spirit-bending abilities with you into our version of the afterlife," Time said. "I admired you. I loved you like a brother. Even when you were sullen and angry and eager to find a way to move on, to join the dead beyond… I was by your side, despite the light-years between us. I forgave you, more than once."

He raised a hand and caressed Spirit's bony cheek.

"You were the only one who refused to accept his fate. At first, I found that to be somewhat admirable. It showed great strength of character. But you should've learned, eventually, that there are things in this universe that you simply cannot change. Instead, you let it all turn toxic. You fed on your hate, you allowed it to fester…"

It was an eerie scene to witness. Destructive light was coming at us from all angles. The ritual had been unleashed. Death was under a Thousand Seals and unable to do a damn thing about it. The Word was helpless without her spoken approval. And we were nothing but cutouts pasted into a bigger picture that we'd yet to fully comprehend.

"The damage you've done will take years to repair," the Time Master continued, while my very soul swelled with anticipation, despite Spirit's firm grip on it. "Your spite has turned you mad, and for that, you will pay the ultimate price."

Time moved away from us and kneeled next to Death on the thick ice. Using his scythe, he drew a series of symbols around her. She kept her dark eyes on him, still smiling, unbowed and unbroken by any of this.

"I am sorry this happened to you," Time told her. "I cannot break all Thousand Seals, but I can get rid of the Silence one. Your voice is needed, Mother."

He bent down and kissed the ice, the symbols he'd etched turning blue before they snapped clean off, leaving holes in the frosted sheet. He pulled it out, the crackling sound tickling my ears. To my astonishment, Death could still move, much like the Time Master. It made sense, though. An entity like her could not be bound by the powers of her creations—the same could not be said about the magic she'd taught them on the side, unfortunately.

Death poked her head through the water, taking a deep breath. "Thank you, my dear," she said. Her lips didn’t move, but we all heard her voice. "Thank you for giving me my voice back, and thank you for stopping this madness."

Time bowed respectfully and stepped back, while Death pulled herself up and sat on the edge of the ice hole, her calves still submerged in the cold water. I doubted she felt the chill like a mortal would. Only then did I see the hundreds of symbols drawn on her with black ink. Her neck, chest, arms, and legs had all been covered in them.

She followed my gaze, looking down, and chuckled softly.

"Nine hundred and ninety-nine seals," she said. "The thousandth put on me, and the first broken, was Silence." She knocked on the ice. "Cold, cold Silence."

I couldn't speak, but I could feel relief washing over me, even though nothing moved. I gave the Time Master a sideways glance, wanting to hug him, but I couldn't move, still under his influence.

"I am sorry, Taeral," Death said to me. She sounded sincere, only the apology itself worried me. What was she sorry for? The Spirit Bender had played her. He'd played us all. "I should have told you sooner. I should have told you all sooner, but I didn't know my Spirit was behind all this. I admit, my ignorance was my undoing."

"None of us knew," Time replied softly.

"That is not an excuse. Not for me, and you know it. Alas, I find myself embroiled in this twist now, and I must make amends." She sighed, her gaze finding mine again. "There is a reason why you can use Thieron so well, why you can even reap spirits, though you're a living creature, and it goes beyond your future afterlife as a Reaper. Taeral, you are the fortuitous wonder I have awaited for a long time. A result of the universe conspiring to assist me in my quest to stop the Hermessi for good. To force them back into their roles as elementals."

I wasn't sure what to think of this. I'd yet to fully understand. All I knew was that time had stopped, smack in the middle of the apocalypse, and that she needed to undo it all before it was too late.

"You're not just a Reaper candidate. You're a Reaper candidate with Hermessi blood flowing through your veins. It makes you all the more special because you have the power to use Thieron. To stop the ritual for good, not just for another four or five million years, when the next Brendel-wannabe decides to give it another shot," Death continued. "I didn't tell you because I wanted to see what you were made of. The Thieron challenge brought out the best in you, and I am so proud… so damn proud of you, Taeral. Thanks to you, the Hermessi will never do this again."

The truth hit me harder than any punch. The implications were larger than life. Within suspended seconds, I realized I wanted nothing more than to make Death's words come true. I needed to be let out of this pause… I had to do something, if I could. But how?

Understanding that my enthusiasm had gotten the better of me, I eased back into the present, my eyes fixed on Death.

"When time resumes its flow, you must kill the Spirit Bender first. You have Thieron. You can do it," she said.