>>6119246“There! It’s almost there!” Soralisa’s excited squeal cuts through the humming. You try to see where she is, but all you can see is a faint outline and… oh.
You take your visor off.
Two people, standing on the observatory just like you — they are looking towards the sea, so you can only see their shoulders. A young woman and a young, blonde man, his tall figure hunched over as he holds onto the marble parapet.
Silently, the black-haired woman, her hair short and a glint in her olive-green eyes, sets her tanned hand over his in a reassuring gesture. She opens her mouth to say something.
“Saint—”
“What are you <span class="mu-i">doing</span>,” Willow reaches from behind you, clasping the visor back on your eyes. You plunge back into darkness.
“I saw—” the humming sound covers your words. Something is coming out of the tower. It’s so bright you can see its outline — two pyramids, their tips touching and interlocking as they shift into each other, and a shimmering bubble of energy grows to encase them.
There’s a faint zesty taste on your tongue. Like just before a storm. The air feels like it’s trying to escape — you are one with the thrumming, and then—
The pyramids break apart. <span class="mu-i">Something</span>, a ray so bright it blinds you even through the protection, eating through each shadow like white paint flooding a black floor. You turn to follow the ray, which has already hit the sea — and a glowing sphere of hyper-heated air and water explodes out in the distance, perhaps fifty miles off the coast, in a white column that seems to cut straight through the planetary ring.
[cont.]
