[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This-Chapter 101: In Which We Finish What We Started

Azryth’s power hit the binding like a tidal wave.

Not gentle or controlled, everything he had left poured into our connection with the single-minded focus of someone who’d just killed his brother and didn’t care about anything except making sure I didn’t die too.

The combined essence was immediate and overwhelming.

Warden power and demon fire, not just flowing together but synchronized perfectly, braided so tightly I couldn’t tell where my power ended and his began.

I felt his determination through the connection, felt his rage still burning cold and blue-white, felt the absolute certainty that we were finishing this together or not at all.

The entity felt it too.

Our combined power hit the nexus heart like a hammer, and I pushed harder than I’d thought possible, channeling everything through the crystalline surface.

Fifty percent pushed back.

The entity fought, tried to reverse the flow, tried to use the connection we’d created to pull itself through anyway.

But it wasn’t just pulling at me anymore. It was pulling at both of us, and Azryth’s power was ancient and vast and absolutely furious.

Sixty percent.

My body was past failing, running on nothing but will and Azryth’s power keeping me conscious enough to finish this.

Seventy percent.

The entity’s presence diminished, the massive formless weight of it being forced back through the dimensional barrier inch by impossible inch.

I could feel Azryth beside me now, his hand on my shoulder. The touch wasn’t entirely solid anymore, claws where fingers should be, the texture of his skin changed to something that wasn’t quite flesh. His other hand joined mine on the nexus heart, both of us channeling, both of us pushing, the binding between us blazing with combined power that was more than either of us could produce alone.

Eighty percent.

The dimensional barrier started to close, reality trying to seal itself now that the entity was being pushed back through.

Ninety percent.

Almost there, almost sealed, just a little more.

The entity made one final desperate push, trying to force itself through despite everything we were throwing at it.

Azryth’s power flared brighter, cold fire burning through the nexus chamber, and I felt his absolute refusal to let this thing win.

Ninety-five percent.

The barrier was closing faster now, reality healing itself, sealing the gap the entity had been forcing open.

Ninety-eight percent.

I pushed everything I had left through the nexus, felt Azryth doing the same, our combined essence burning through the crystalline heart with enough force that it started to crack.

Ninety-nine percent.

The entity was almost fully sealed, just the barest fraction of its presence still touching this reality.

One more push.

I gathered what was left of my power, felt Azryth do the same through the binding.

We pushed together.

The entity sealed.

The dimensional barrier slammed shut with a sound like reality screaming in relief.

And the nexus heart shattered.

Not cracked, shattered, it exploded into fragments of crystalline energy that dissolved before they hit the ground, purple-black power dissipating in all directions.

The chamber lurched, reality warping as the anchor point that had been holding both realms in forced proximity suddenly ceased to exist.

I felt the implosion starting, felt the space around us beginning to collapse inward.

"Move!" Azryth shouted, his voice layered with infernal harmonics that came from something deeper than vocal cords.

He pulled me backward, arm wrapping around my waist. The limb felt wrong against me, not quite the shape it should be, temperature fluctuating between freezing cold and searing heat.

We stumbled together away from where the nexus heart had been, both barely able to stand.

The implosion accelerated.

Purple-black energy swirled inward, not violently but inexorably, everything that had been the nexus collapsing into a single point that got smaller and smaller and then just stopped existing.

The chamber went dark.

No more purple-black energy, no more pulsing light, no more dimensional barrier visible through dissolving walls.

Just obsidian stone and infernal fire from the throne room beyond and the ringing silence that came after something cosmic had just been sealed away.

My legs gave out.

Azryth’s arm was still around my waist, and we went down together, not quite a fall but not controlled either. He managed to get us to the floor without either of us hitting our heads, which felt like an achievement given the circumstances.

We ended up sitting on the obsidian floor, my back against his chest, his arms around me. I could feel the wrongness of his form through the contact, the claws instead of fingers, the texture of skin that had shifted into something else entirely.

Both of us were shaking from exhaustion and power depletion and the fact that we were somehow still alive.

I felt what we’d just accomplished. The entity sealed, pushed back through the dimensional barrier that had slammed shut behind it. The massive ancient presence that had been trying to break through was gone, contained on the other side of reality where it belonged.

And Veyrith was dead. I felt the absence of him through Azryth, the space where his brother had existed for five hundred years now empty. The complicated grief tangled with relief and rage, all of it washing through our connection.

"We did it," I said quietly.

"Yes." His voice was still wrong, still layered with harmonics. "We did."

We sat there in the darkness, breathing, existing, not dead despite everything that had just tried to kill us.

The binding between us felt different. Quieter, somehow. The forced aspects that had been screaming during the nexus fight were gone, burned away by the sheer amount of power we’d channeled.

What remained felt voluntary, chosen, ours.

I didn’t turn to look at him, I didn’t need to. I could feel through the binding that he was still in the true form he’d manifested to kill Veyrith, could feel his power slowly reverting but not there yet. The cold fire still burning around him, the claws still manifested, the infernal presence that made reality uncertain in his immediate vicinity.

"The coalition?" I asked after a moment.

"Fighting still when I left, reality was still bleeding together then."

I should move, I should check on them, help if needed, do something useful.

Instead I just sat there, leaning back against him, feeling his heartbeat through our contact. Fast but steady, matching mine.

We’d done it. Sealed the entity, killed Veyrith, stopped both realms from being torn apart.

I should feel victorious, probably. Relieved, or something positive.

Instead I just felt tired.

And aware that my warden seal was completely shattered, that I’d channeled power I was never meant to handle, that my body was going to have opinions about this for weeks.

But we were alive.

Both of us, still breathing, still here.

That was enough.

A small sound broke the silence, not from the throne room, from inside the chamber.

A chirp, almost. Curious and tentative.

I opened my eyes.

Something small and black was moving near where the nexus heart had been. About the size of a cat, round like a furball, with two small eyes that gleamed in the darkness. No limbs that I could see, but it moved anyway, rolling or floating or something in between.

"What is that?" I asked.

Azryth’s arms tightened around me slightly, protective instinct kicking in despite exhaustion. The claws pressed carefully against my side, not threatening but present.

"I don’t know."

The thing chirped again, then started moving toward us.

Not threatening, just curious, it rolled across the obsidian floor, furball body somehow propelling itself forward without visible means.

"Should we be concerned?" I asked.

"Probably," Azryth said. "But I’m too tired to care right now."

The small black furball reached us, stopped a few feet away.

Two eyes blinked at us from the round body, no mouth visible, no limbs, just a ball of black fur with eyes that somehow conveyed curiosity.

It chirped a third time, then rolled closer, and settled itself near my leg, like it had decided we were interesting and worth staying near.

"Residual energy from the nexus, maybe," Azryth offered. "Manifested physically when it imploded."

That made sense. The nexus had been massive, channeling power between dimensions, some of it crystallizing into physical form during the implosion wasn’t unreasonable.

The thing made a small contented sound and seemed to settle in, like it had found exactly where it wanted to be and had no intention of leaving.

I was too exhausted to deal with it.

"We should check on the coalition," I said, not moving.

"Yes," Azryth agreed, also not moving.

The small black thing chirped quietly, apparently comfortable where it was.

And we sat there in the darkness of the former nexus chamber, alive against all odds, with a small black furball keeping us company.

I’d deal with all of it later....the furball, the coalition, the fact that reality had permanently changed.

Right now, I was just going to exist and be grateful we’d survived.