Layers of mountain peeled off from either side, fluttering in the air until the valley slammed shut. A gust of wind blew towards me, sending me spiraling off like a mote of dust caught in a tornado. I steadied myself with flight magic, but my vision continued to blur.

The mountains slammed into one another, turning into balls of earth and dirt and dust that unraveled into strings then specks that splattered into rough brown noise. The wind roared and scrambled the mess even more, blowing apart the debris and hiding the valley behind the mess. But was there even a valley there any more? Hard to consider something a valley if it couldn’t be surrounded by mountains any more because the mountains were gone.

And yes, the mountains were gone. They were completely gone. The base of the mountains had been cut clean in an unnatural line as if they had been edited out by a computer program. Now, the base of the mountains was level with where the ‘v’ of the valley had been.

The red star and the silver moon were both gone. They had crashed into one another, but even though they looked like they were made of glass, they had not shattered. Instead, they had become conjoined, face-first. The red star’s red light seemed brighter and sharper but the full moon didn’t have edges so it appeared larger and more intimidating. These two symbols rotated in the middle of the debris, their light peeking out from the noise from time to time in flashes of red and silver like a dizzying disco ball.

In the edge of my vision, I saw Mount Smoke, which was far enough away that they were safe from this mess but they definitely heard the boom of the mountains crashing into each other and the roar of the wind as it swirled around the debris. The flashes of light that signaled the fight between my friends and the followers of the Immortals was gone. I could almost picture everybody stopping their fighting to stare at the tornado of debris in front of me. The followers of the Immortals would be jubilant—the ceremony had started. My party would be shocked for a bit but they knew what they had to do. We had plans for what would happen if I failed to stop the ceremony. They had to deal with what they were dealing with and rush over to help me as soon as possible.

And honestly could anyone really blame me for failing to stop this ceremony? How was I supposed to know the entire valley was going to blow up? That the Book of Annihilation was somehow represented by two massive mountains and a sharp narrow valley?

The wind continued to roar but I noticed it was no longer as erratic as before. The wind was blowing only in two directions, the directions that the two mountains had been in before. The two winds pushed against one another, trying to win control of the debris but at the same time, bringing the debris closer and closer together until everything was a ball of earth swirling around a nucleus of red and silver light. Behind it all, the sun began dipping below the horizon. Soon, the orange glow in the sky would be gone and only the light flooding out from the cracks in the ball of earth would light up this dismal dreary place.

I didn’t just stand by and watch all of this happen. I summoned all of my old magic spells and tried to put a dent in the mayhem. I used air magic to try and control the wind, but it kept roaring and whipping about. I tried using earth magic to control the debris and the spinning ball of earth, but any handfuls I could control were knocked about by the wind or other pieces of debris. Fire was useless as was water. I tried to use motion magic, with hundreds of invisible magic hands flying about the place, futilely grabbing on to whatever they could and bringing things together as if in a massive embrace but there was simply too much to hold onto and too much chaos to control.

My light magic could not compete with the red and silver glow. My other motion magic was useless as well. I tried using gravity magic, which had mostly been consigned to helping me balance myself or to unbalance enemies, but it was like trying to throw an anchor off of a million ships while caught in a storm. Rain magic was just as useless, since this phenomenon was not caused by the weather. I even tried magnetism, like the sort I had used for the makeshift rail gun, but there really wasn’t much magnetic material in the debris for that to have any effect.

And so there wasn’t much I could do about it. Perhaps if the Book of Annihilation had appeared to me as it had appeared before, in the form of a small book that one could easily grab onto and run, it would have been worth some desperate measures. I could have risked my life jumping into the tornado to retrieve the book or I could have brought out my new magic system early and tried to win the day that way, but it didn’t make sense to do anything right now. Not when I had no idea how to retrieve the Book, or if it could even be retrieved at all. How was I supposed to stop this ceremony? How was I supposed to do anything right now?

I needed help. I needed a sign. I took a deep breath and emptied out my lungs into the roaring winds, asking the Simurgh to give me a sign! If it didn’t want its enemies to win, if it wanted me to retrieve the Book, it had to do something and it had to do it now!

I didn’t know if the Simurgh could hear me over the din of the swirling ball of earth and the roaring winds that were holding it together. I did not know if the red and silver lights that were washing over the landscape were somehow obstructing the birds from hearing what I had said, but what I did know, was that the Simurgh did nothing.

The other Immortals had exploded two gigantic mountains yet the Simurgh could not even send me a message. I would’ve taken a suggestion. Maybe even some manipulation of my emotions, anything that would give me a clue. Yet, there was nothing.

I grit my teeth. Why was I expecting something from an Immortal, anyway? If one was lucky, their help was useless, and if one was unlucky, the Immortals’ help was most dangerous for the one receiving it. There was always a catch, a hidden clause they never mentioned but which always ended up screwing you over.

I was on my own.

I had to make a decision.

Should I stand here and wait for a sign? Should I wait for this ceremony to end, for the Immortals to get whatever it is that they wanted, and to deal with it from there? Did I go on this journey for nothing? Would it have been better to stay with the United Army and try to set up some sort of resistance there? I kept second guessing myself. Thinking about possibilities, regrets, decisions that I had made that had led me to this place.

I had a choice to make. There was only one thing that I knew of which could turn the tides here. If the Immortal of Desire, the Simurgh, was not going to get involved, that meant I had to increase my firepower right now. I had to find a way to blow away the spinning ball of earth, to calm or cut through the two competing winds, and to destroy the two glowing symbols at the heart of this mess. I had to find a way to cut through what could not be cut through. To destroy what could not be destroyed. To control that which could not be controlled.

I raised my hands in front of my body, took two deep, calming breaths, and decided. It was time. I had to use my new magic system.