Emily POV:

The thunderous sky dyed purple with power suddenly reverted back to its standard clear-blue, and the shrieking and howling suddenly stopped.

Just a few metres away from me, a spiral of visible Energy and Soul fell down from the sky onto the ground and at that exact spot, bones, then muscles, then flesh and skin formed.

Afterwards, a fully formed Soul went into it, but inside the Soul shone something brighter than a star.

For just a second, I could feel the power radiating from it.

But, just as I wanted to clearly see what it was, it disappeared in the body along with the Soul.

The brightness and the power instantly vanished without a trace.

I was stumped.

The whole world seemed to be torn asunder by an awe-inspiring power much, much greater than anything I could comprehend.

And then, it suddenly stopped and at the same time, a body and Soul formed out of thin air.

The body itself was not a perfect replica of Acedia’s, but rather that of the man that had kidnapped me.

It didn’t move whatsoever; it didn’t even seem to be alive.

But before I could think up any questions, the body suddenly gasped for air and started to twitch a little, afterwards remaining silent again, though this time breathing and clearly alive.

When everything was over, I felt I was once again able to connect into the grid of Energy, and immediately did.

The first thing I did was focus my attention towards Anna and Damien, still shivering in fear under my protection.

With the power available, I had put everything into protecting them from the terrifyingly powerful shrieking and, just to be sure, even from the air.

They had been in a perfect cocoon, untouched by the disaster, but didn’t know it was already over.

I immediately cancelled the barrier by reabsorbing it into my Soul.

I released them and tried to gently push them away a little, but they kept clinging firmly onto me, still shivering in terror.

They were tough children, withstood many pains, horrors and trauma that would have broken even regular adults.

But what just had happened, was on another level entirely.

It was power beyond imagination, strong enough to, if it wanted, crush the planet with ease.

Even I, who had always thought was powerful, had never witnessed this before.

Even the power Acedia demonstrated, even the power that the monster chasing us showed…

Nothing even compared to this.

If it wasn’t for the fact I used everything in my power to protect Damien and Anna, I would have probably shut myself inside that shield and lay still for the next million years or so, until I felt it was safe to finally step out.

There was no way that they didn’t think this was the end of the world.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, everything is fine…”

I said while shushing, trying to calm them down.

I could feel them slowly starting to relax, but it would take a while before they’re fully aware again.

So while comforting them, I took a quick glance at everything around us.

To say we were lucky, would be a severely lacking explanation of what happened here.

Even the greatest miracle made by an almighty and benevolent God couldn’t explain this scene.

All around us the mountains had collapsed, the earth had sunk in, the lush greenery had turned into desert and giant, sprawling craters could be seen anywhere around us.

Everything, aside from the a hundred metre wide radius around us, had been destroyed, leaving only us on a half-eroded green mountain in the middle of an endless desert.

It was clear that someone saved us.

I took a look at the body of almost-Acedia and sensed it through Energy.

The Soul was unfamiliar.

It was neither that of the Acedia look-a-like, nor that of Acedia himself.

But it put me at ease.

I was fully convinced that, despite the different Soul, this was Acedia.

In fact, I was sure that Acedia was the root cause of this all.

The only other thing capable of showing such power would be of that demon of the white realm, and I refuse to believe he was the one that came through the portal instead of Acedia.

And besides, would that monster save us?

He’d rather see us being torn apart in that terrifying display of power and laugh at us as it happened.

Meanwhile, Damien and Anna had stopped shivering and slowly left my embrace.

For a moment, they looked at me silently, their faces a sickly pale and their eyes completely red.

Neither of them said a word and didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so I simply smiled at them.

“Come, let’s take a look at Acedia.”

I said, pointing in the direction of his body.

With that, they reacted, immediately turning around and looking at the body in the middle of the meadow, completely ignoring the carnage surrounding us.

I visibly saw relief spreading through their body, but, after staring at Acedia’s body for a moment, I saw them tense up again.

Before I could ask why, they dashed towards him, leaving me behind.

Curious, I followed them, albeit at a slow pace.

I didn’t see the reason for their hurry until I arrived there.

And when I did, I wonder how I missed it.

Acedia was a mess.

His skin looked like cracked porcelain and within these cracks, it felt as if something was burning inside him and trying to get out.

His eyes were squeezed shut and his entire face screamed agony.

The hair once clearly light brown was now rapidly ageing, turning into grey first and the familiar snow-white afterwards.

But that was not all.

After I once again concentrated on our surrounding through the Energy grid, I sensed something shocking.

From his body, out of all these burning cracks in his skin, Energy poured out continuously and thickly, disappearing immediately before it had to chance to get out.

Though I don’t know what’s going on, I refuse to just sit by and wait.

“Quickly, build a shelter!”

I ordered Damien and Anna.

But, they simply stared at each other in silence, looking doubtful.

Why?

I know how capable they are in their control over Energy.

What is stopping them?

“What’re you waiting for, come on!”

It kind of irritated me, but for now, I’ll let it slip.

They were still in a daze and right now, I need to put all my attention on treating Acedia.

I quickly constructed a mattress under him for comfort and then focused on his wounds.

Honestly, I had no idea how I could help him, so I did the least I could do.

I spread an aura around me by forcing the Energy in my Soul to expand, and immediately began to spread the warm, comforting feeling in the same way my mother once taught me long ago.

Afterwards, I set up a small spell to forcefully suck the surrounding Energy into my Soul, as to make sure I wouldn’t exhaust myself while treating him.

Then, the real mending started.

Using the Energy inside the aura, I started to try and ‘fill’ the cracks with it as to make sure the Energy would not leave his body and wreak havoc here while at the same time allowing the skin to quickly heal.

After that, I used the spell I once created for Anna and Damien and put it on Acedia’s Soul.

Not only was his body seemingly burning, his Soul too seemed to be affected.

But honestly, this was all I was able to do.

No cures, nor solutions.

I have no idea what’s happening, let alone know how to fix it.

There was nothing I could do anymore…

I looked around and saw that a semi-large, wooden cabin had formed around us.

Beside me stood two exhausted children, heavily breathing and gasping for air while looking concernedly at Acedia.

I wonder what’s wrong with them?

They never had any problems with this much, so why now?

But I didn’t ask.

Right now, all my attention is set on making Acedia become better.

Even if all I could do was wait and hope for the best…

Acedia POV:

I embraced the spreading unconsciousness, but unfortunately, a moment of rest was not meant to be.

Although my body was clearly unconscious, something was going wrong.

It was not as if I didn’t expect anything to go wrong, but I hoped to at least have a little while before trouble started to appear.

However, my life has never been that kind and now is not an exception.

The small piece of the Furnace of Creation, brightly coloured both purple and white, immediately revealed its power while in my Soul.

Constantly and without rest, it started to grow larger and larger.

What started as a ball the size of a fingertip, was already quickly becoming a fist-sized ball before I knew it.

I had already forcefully spread a vacuum of power inside my Soul so it could not burn me from within, but the buffer was slowly shrinking.

Although it was under my ‘control’ as soon as I ripped it out of the Furnace of Creation, it was still not truly a part of me like the Energy and Soul have become.

Instead, it was simply something I could manipulate into doing what I wanted, but not do with it whatever I wished.

The only way to do that was to integrate it the same way Energy and Soul-power are mine.

And once I do…

Oh, God the possibilities!

Since I, Death and the Devil all have our different powers from the same source, wouldn’t I be able to create another once I truly possess the Furnace?

Would I not be able to create a power those two had no hope of resisting?

Not only that, once I integrate its power, I could create a second and third Furnace and set it loose upon their realms, forcing it to swallow their realms just like it swallowed two-thirds of mine!

Not only that, once they are out of the way, what then could I do?

Once all threats removed and the Furnace under my absolute control, I can create worlds, dimensions and new powers!

I could turn the magic, which is but a weak extract of using Energy and essentially a ‘fake’ power, and turn it into true Magic!

Not only that, I could create more types of powers!

And to all these powers, I could assign people to take control over it, like I have over Energy and the Soul!

I would be able to create gods!

I’ll be the absolute king of this realm and none will be able to manipulate me ever again!

Never again the hatred!

Never again the sorrow!

Only I will decide what happens to me and everyone else!

The future is bright!

The future is terrifying!

Honestly, I don’t know if I’m supposed to have this power.

Knowing myself, I will no doubt misuse it in some way, most likely involving a lot of innocents dying.

But right now, I couldn’t care less.

First, I need to take over the Furnace and destroy Death and the Devil.

Only then will I have the freedom to think everything over.

The small ball from Creation was still rapidly expanding, so I created a temporary release.

Using both Energy and Soul, I connected to it in the same way I used to connect to the grid of Energy and forcefully created two different passageways.

One was made from the Soul and connected to the realm of Death.

The other was made out of Energy and connected it to the realm of the Devil.

Then, I activated the miniature Furnace of Creation to go ahead and create both Energy and Souls, forcing the created powers in its corresponding pathways.

I purposefully made sure that both pathways got an equal amount of created power, so the balance would stay between them.

No doubt the both of them would think they finally got the decisive edge over each other and were lunging at each other’s throat more vigorously than before, not knowing they were still both equals.

I would have laughed, if the way to do this wasn’t so excruciating.

Both pathways were made from Energy and Souls who were a part of me, and even though this miniature Furnace is small, it still burned like hell.

In fact, it burned more than hell.

It burned like someone pouring acid into my heart, which is then pumped into veins all around my body!

It was god-awful.

The longer I stayed connected to it, the more it began to burn and burn, ever increasing and amplifying the more I send into the pathways.

It seemed to crawl everywhere in my existence and burn more powerful with every time it pumped and send power through the pathways.

It was as if I didn’t fully seal the pathways and a part of it slipped into my current Soul and body and started to wreak havoc there as well.

The ever-increasing waves of pain took away my concentration when I need it the most.

If I couldn’t concentrate, how could I ever figure out how Creation works?

I quickly began to grow desperate, trying to force myself to focus on the Furnace alone, but with every wave of pain I lost my concentration.

How can I do this?

Do I need to allow it to swallow me whole?

Allow it to grow unrestrained and then investigate it?

But if it doesn’t work, not only would I lose the little control I have over it, Emily, Anna and Damien would be swallowed by the growing inferno.

I cannot allow that to happen, but how then?

Again and again I thought it over, but my mind became more and more clouded the more time passed and threw me into despair.

But then, arriving at a time my thought turned to its darkest, relieve miraculously arrived.

My whole body seemed to be cleansed from the acid-filled veins and my Soul seemed to washed clean with a feeling of comfort and healing.

The only pain I felt was the feeling of hot-lead pouring through the pathways, but it was much more manageable than before.

Almost instantly, my mind became clear and allowed me to focus once again.

I made a mixture of Energy and Soul and shot it towards the ball of Creation.

It felt like I was pushing my hands voluntarily into a fire and made me want to flinch, but I figuratively clenched my teeth and pushed through.

To make sure I was not consumed I created a special cycle.

Using the mixture of Energy and Soul connected to the mini-Furnace, I forced it to create an additional batch of Energy and Souls.

With it, I reinforced the existing connection between me and the small Furnace, allowing it to grow bigger and stronger.

Slowly but surely I began to gain ground.

The power produced was larger than the power used and the longer this went on, the more advantageous for me.

At one point, the connection turned as strong as it could be and was able to withstand the melting-power of the Furnace.

I diverted the excess Energy and Souls into me and with it, established a second connection.

And a third.

And a fourth.

And a fifth.

And on and on it went.

The more connections I had, the quicker I could make new ones, forming a cycle continuously making me more and more powerful, until I reached the point I was waiting for.

I had hundreds of connections and all of the were stable.

Together they formed a huge net over the fist-sized chunk and was connected to its surface without any of them being consumed by the Furnace.

It was time to delve deeper.

I put the net into the Furnace and forced it to delve deeper inside of it, almost like I was trying to crawl my way into a planet’s core.

The pain was… indescribable.

It was like wading through a sea of magma, not only being burned and molten alive, but also being crushed to death at the same time.

But, it was a continuous pain from a single source, allowing me to push through it deeper and deeper.

As soon as my net of connections delved through one layer, I found out that the outer layers of the furnace was simple highly-condensed Souls and Energy, meaning whatever created it lay deeper.

Fortunately, this helped me out a great deal.

It was such high density that I could replace the connections instantly if needed and also push the net down with force of pressure, allowing it to speed up, albeit slightly.

For seemingly hours, if not entire days, I waded through this oppressive and burning field of agony, seemingly not getting any closer.

Not only that, I was astounded by how long it took.

This furnace was only fist-sized and it already took me this long.

How long would it have taken if I had tried to delve out one similar to the original Furnace of Creation?

Thankfully I hadn’t chosen that option, or I might have just given up then and there…

Then, I suddenly felt something odd.

I was delving deeper and deeper when I suddenly sensed a thread different than those of Energy and Souls.

Where Energy was purple and Souls were white, this one seemed different.

They seemed golden..

I became more enthusiastic, biting through the pain as I forcefully sped up my digging.

I connected to these golden threads and took them with me, but I could not understand them yet.

There was simply too few of them.

But the deeper I went, the more I collected.

I knew I was getting closer to the source from where these splinters came.

And then, it appeared.

A golden ball, hotter than the hottest sun and more powerful than anything I had seen.

It was the prize I’ve been looking for.

The ultimate prize.

And I will claim it!

I used the same tactic as when I claimed dominion over the Souls.

Using every bit of the power I created on the way to the core, along with the recently created body and Soul I currently inhabit, I connected to it and sensed every single bit of it.

Its incredible power had already astounded me, but now, I could feel more.

There was something hidden deep within, ripe for the taking.

The truth behind Creation was just one step away…

Fully connected with everything my being currently possessed, I used the same trick as back then.

Slowly but surely, while still being connected to Creation, I let go my old powers while focusing my entire being on the core.

I slowly abandoned Energy, allowing it to slip my grasp as I became more in tune with my goal of possessing the Core of Creation.

I let go of my Soul, allowing my existence forcefully slip into the Core of Creation if it wanted to survive.

It was torture.

Whereas with the Soul it felt like being drawn and quartered limb by limb, this was like hooks were attached to everything.

It felt like inside my head, my innards, my bones, my muscles, my flesh, my veins, my ears, my nose, my everything and everywhere, hooks were inserted and attached to ropes while being pulled and split open.

It was absolute horror, but necessary.

The mind always wants to exist and survive whatever was thrown at it, so I forced it to seek integrate the Core of Creation inside its very being, just like Energy and the Soul had become one with me.

And, right before all control of Energy and Souls were gone, success arrived, continuing my surprisingly long string of success I got as of late.

Instantly, my mind was flooded with power!

As simple as moving an arm, I could conjure a new power equalling those already existing!

And with another gesture, I could assign a God to rule over this power!

It was that easy!

I instantly gripped the power over Energy and the Soul again.

Even though I got Creation under my command, I’m not willing to let go of these yet.

First, I will make every power in existence mine, confirming my absolute rule over everything and anything.

Only then will I think about handing power to anyone else.

I will decide whose worthy of power and life from now on.

No-one will ever again be able to manipulate me!

Vengeance and freedom are near!

Yes....

Finally.....

But for now, let’s rest.

It’s one long overdue.