I was old enough to know never to throw caution into the wind. To assume you've won without verifying that it is actually true only precedes a surprising defeat. I am glad that I managed to learn that lesson quite early in my life. That day, my whole existence depended on it. I had forgotten about many things. Such as, for example, that size and distance might be relative and directly interlinked, and most importantly, that a single speck of sand might sometimes be all you need to flip the table upside down.

I heard Heavens scream out in pain. It was brief, yet full of torment. Dark thorns of incredible size pierced his body. His dying breath faded so quickly that I almost didn't notice it. Part of me felt grief for the creature. It came to a world full of pain and left it far too soon to see that there might be more to life than suffering. It was my fault, but I knew that the moment I'd start feeling guilty, it would be the end for me. My powers needed clarity, and right now, that was all I was going to give them. No matter the cost, no matter the pain, and no matter the sorrow, I had to push through. Everything depended on it, so I bottled my emotions and shoved them down into the deepest pit of my mind. It was already overflowing, but it would hold on for at least a little while longer.

The fragment that was standing beside Heavens got swept away by the attack. Their body lay impaled on that massive tree of spikes until they faded away into nothingness. Moments later, some of the thorns retracted and the Resident fell out of Heaven's stomach, followed by a tsunami of acid, which filled the street and soaked into the sand, turning it into biting mud. The creature seemed exhausted. They moved to the side and leaned against one of the buildings. It seemed as if they were out of breath, although their body didn't possess anything even remotely similar to lungs. Why, after all? They didn't need to breathe to survive. They, however, needed something else. With a cough-like sound, they threw up bits of an unknown metal, along with bright orange foam. Hope returned to my body when I saw the disgusting liquid hit the ground. I did it. I managed to hurt them. All I would need to do now was to repeat it just a few more times.

The moment the Resident felt at least somewhat well once again, eyes grew all over their entire upper body. They looked like something out of a horror story. It was a disturbing sight.

"Where are you?!" the creature shouted, looking all over the place, searching for any signs of me or my fragments. "I know you're here! I know the real you is hiding somewhere! Come out, you coward! Or do you enjoy seeing everything around you die in your name?!" I did my best to ignore the remark. Whatever happened, I mustn't have let them get into my head. I had my goal. My objective was worth everything. Death and suffering were all just a small price to pay.

I turned my attention to a particular fragment of mine. He was indescribable. Nothing but a cloud of smoke that had taken the shape of a human. Yet he was the key. The crucial part of my plan.

"Can you do it?" I asked the apparition. The memory responded with nothing but a nod before he disappeared from my mind and entered reality. But his purpose was not to fight. Although he would most definitely be capable of it, it would be a colossal waste of potential. Instead, he stayed hidden behind the buildings, performing a spell he knew like his own shoes.

A teal smoke started flooding the area. At first, it was crawling along the ground, before rising up to the sky like a colossal wall. Naturally, the Resident panicked. They started summoning more and more of their spikes as some sort of a contingency procedure, yet nothing could stop a mere mist from flooding the place. For a moment, the Resident even tried to completely shield themselves with their ability, but seemingly gave up on it halfway. This gave me even more valuable information. They were strong, but also desperate. Heavens may have been dead, but his existence and brief life were not in vain. It seemed that the idea that I could actually harm the Void creature broke their spirits. Their previous calm and calculated nature was gone. I could feel it. They were afraid. And I was going to use it.

The smoke had completely surrounded them, serving one simple purpose - to obstruct their vision. The Resident couldn't attack what they couldn't see. That clearly made them very nervous, yet how does one fight against a mist? With abilities like the thorns, there was simply nothing they could do, except wait for my next move. It came sooner than they might have anticipated.

Two of my fragments rushed out of the mist, which tried its best to conceal their approach until the very last moment. They both ran towards the Resident with ticking time bombs in their hands - nothing but bright orange orbs of highly condensed fire magic. It was straightforward, almost barbaric, but my head simply felt too empty to come up with a better plan. Of course, something so simple would never take the Resident down, but maybe it might have a chance of injuring them. Within a blink of an eye, those two attackers of mine were impaled onto spikes. A frontal approach simply wouldn't work, yet it was never supposed to in the first place. The true weapon of ultimate destruction was approaching from high above. Another fragment was free-falling right towards the Resident. His life didn't matter. All that was important right now was that he would manage to detonate the fire bomb within the Resident's proximity and not die beforehand. Unfortunately, I underestimated the creature's perceptive abilities.

Their numerous eyes granted them vision from all possible angles. This included the sky, which was not, unfortunately, concealed under the high walls of teal smoke. When my fragment got close enough to be seen with the naked eye, it didn't take long for another black thorn to start growing from the ground. I simply couldn't let that happen. I had no plan C. This had to work, or we'd be back to the aimless offence, and I wasn't sure I could withstand such pain any longer. Therefore, my mind had to work overtime. The spike grew fast, but it would take a few seconds before it would reach the falling copy of me. We had to act, right now. A myriad of my different memories manifested inside the fog and quickly rushed towards the Resident. Some only acted as living shields, blocking the Resident's sight so that their comrades could approach. But attacking was not their main objective. We all doubted we could even scratch the creature like this. Instead, their aim was that growing dark thorn. It had to be destroyed. We searched through our memories and found one spell just perfect for this purpose.

Once my fragments got close enough, they summoned a thin stream of water from their fingertips. The size couldn't rival any proper blade, but that was not important. What mattered was the intensity. In order words, the pressure of the water beam. It had to be strong enough to cut through the thorn.

The Resident saw through our plan, but there wasn't much they could do. Some of the fragments took a swing at the creature to keep at least a part of its attention on dodging. So many of us died in that one single attack, that I nearly passed out due to the pain, but it was worth it. Three of the fragments managed to not only cut the spike heading towards the sky to pieces but also repeated it one more time once it began regrowing, thus they further stalled the Resident's progress.

It was too late to run. The fragment falling through the sky reached the desired altitude. A massive explosion shook the entire Sunwalley. A beam of flames descended from the sky, incinerating what came into its path. Some of the buildings were swept away because of it, but the city was already in such a desolate state that slightly more damage would make little difference overall.

I fell to the ground, too tired to scream. My eyes were wide open, yet everything before them was turning black as if I'd been swimming through the darkest of fogs. I could hear voices beside me, but the meaning of their words eluded my ears. My breathing was as unsteady as that of a newborn, who has taken its breath for the first time. To this day, I am not sure how many of my fragments died in that explosion. All I know is that the pain of being burned to death times and times over is something I never wish to experience again.

I felt hands pulling me close, holding me, whispering something I couldn't understand. It didn't matter. The noise itself was soothing enough. It took a while for the pain to dull, but eventually, it disappeared. Not without a trace though. I felt as if my whole body had been numbed. Any sense of touch or even the slightest of movements felt unreal. For a moment, I wondered if I was still alive. That was a good question. Was I? I am not sure myself. I suppose I was, but I must've cheated death so many times now.

"You need to keep going! The city! Look!" I heard someone shout at me. That was enough to wake me up. It wasn't over yet. As much as I wanted it to be, the Resident simply wouldn't die. I looked down and saw the beam of scorching light shatter, bit by bit, as dark tendrils emerged out of it like a series of massive claws. With a scream, the creature of the Void shattered my magic, and in return, filled the nearby area with spikes. It was as if the entire desert had been transformed into some horrid and cruel joke of a jungle. The different thorns were twisting, bending, and further branching out. As far as the eye could see, everything got covered with them, and they grew higher and higher, rivalling the height of a rainforest. Yet, for some reason, even in this endless ocean of nightmares, there was an oasis. For whatever reason, the Resident didn't turn the city into rubble. Or at least most of it. In fact, it seemed almost as if they completely avoided the closest area of Sunwalley. For a moment, I thought it was because of strategy, but no matter how hard we tried, none of us could figure out why would it be wise to leave the city untouched amidst all this chaos.

Then it dawned on me. Something so simple, yet so unbelievable. I remembered Archer. The way they seemed to act friendly towards me and Flic was something I attributed to the fact that they were just a young Resident still full of beliefs and hope. But what if I was wrong? To test out my theory, I sent out numerous other fragments. After all, I had to keep the Resident under pressure, otherwise, it wouldn't take long for them to find me.

Two of my memories lifted me off the ground. They were now my support. My own legs simply couldn't carry me anymore. With my arms wrapped around their shoulders, I managed to at least maintain balance. The pain of death came as soon as the battle down in Sunwalley broke out once again. It was agony, yet when compared to the scorching flames of my own magic, it felt like nothing. Either I was already departing from all that suffering, or I got used to the feeling of being impaled. Hard to say what would be worse.

A blind attack, however, was not my intention. While the Resident was busy killing me over and over again, one of my fragments snuck into a nearby building. The one that has been kept in the best conditions, and which hadn't been pierced by a single thorn. Whatever was in there had to be valuable to the Resident. Something they wanted to protect. Something I could use as leverage. And indeed, I was right. All my predictions and ideas came true when I walked inside and saw Jack.