The sky was filled with cosmic flames of pink and blue, setting alight the clouds themselves.
It was as if the heavens themselves were about to reap judgment on the earth. Mathew could only watch with his heart pounding in his throat. His whole body trembled.
Was this what Mathias had meant by the catastrophe? Was the rapture starting? Were the four horsemen going to come down and herald the end of the world?
Around him, his followers were staring at the sky along with him. The otherworldly fire was twisting around itself again and again, creating a multicolored vortex. Mathew could feel the heat from where he stood, even with the part of him that had been replaced with metal.
He started to actually sweat from the temperature, though a portion of the moisture was probably from sheer panic as well.
For the first time since they had come out here, Mathew saw that the followers of Dread were starting to appear nervous.
The colorful flames began to funnel downward.
It was a column of fire straight out of the book of Exodus, easily dozens of meters in diameter. The column hit the ground, becoming a menacing pink and blue fire tornado that connected the earth to heaven, and rending divine retribution upon the land.
Any grass that was left was instantly turned to ash. The stone touched by it was not just scorched, but started to soften, and liquefy, becoming a black molten slag. The furnace was like that of a sun crashing into the earth.
Despite all this, the acolytes were holding their ground. They were scared, some were shaking, others had ashen faces drained of color, but they stood fast with weapons raised.
But what could they do? This wasn't just raising weapons against some entity; it was raising weapons against a natural disaster… or perhaps an unnatural disaster.
"Master dread!" Chares shouted, "What do we do?" Mathew stood frozen, his brain moving slower than a sloth. What could they do?
If Mathew just walked up and tried to give the flaming whirlwind a bear hug, would he not melt as the stones had? And even if his metal head survived, what about the rest of his body?
As he was hesitating, another, smaller column of fire branched out of the first one, shooting towards one of the acolytes.
The poor fellow almost instantly disintegrated, his scream lasting but a second before instantly being cut off as he was burnt away into nothing by the two toned flames.
A collective gasp went through the acolytes, and the ones nearest to the victim tried to turn and run. They were not quick enough, however, and the heat got to them before the fire did.
Their skin melted off the muscle, as their flesh ignited with more pedestrian orange flames caused by the high temperature meeting something flammable.
They screamed as they were slowly burnt alive, trying to escape, but their bodies contorted in pain, their very feet were disintegrating out from under them as they tried to run.
Mathew watched as a third column of fire branched out, and another cluster of acolytes, met the same fate.
Mathew was no stranger to death in his life, and he wasn't even a stranger to burning bodies. When he was a teenager, he had worked at a local crematorium each summer. He had helped to clean and prep newly deceased, bag them up, and burn them until they were nothing but bone fragments. But this was different.
Still living humans were being incinerated right before his eyes, as they scrambled away from the inferno consuming them, burning black skeletons still reaching for Mathew before crumbling away to nothing. It was a hellish visage, one that shook him to his core.
He couldn't save them.
Mathias had led them to their deaths… No… Mathew had led them to their deaths. This wasn't the fault of the man whose body he had stolen; this was his fault. These were HIS followers.
He stumbled backwards as the realization hit him, dizzy and weak from the burden. His heel caught on a rocky protrusion, and he fell to one knee.
"Master!" Shouted Chares near him. A hand was placed on Mathew's shoulder, but he didn't look up to see who it was. He was drowning in a sea of his own melancholy
"Master…" It was Aesop who was beside him. "What would you have us do? We must stop this somehow, before it grows enough to devour the entire kingdom."
"I can't…" Mathew whispered, the robotic tinge to his voice sounding hollow and empty, "I can't save them… just like I couldn't save anyone before… I'm just as useless as I have always been…"
Aesop was quiet for a moment, then spoke, "Master, you are the one who is meant to save us from this. You predicted the catastrophe would come, and you alone were granted the power to stop it. I always saw you as a great man, as a visionary, and I still have faith in you now. I know not your reason for seeking to do the Lady's will to protect the world from harm, but whatever that reason is, I need you to find it once more."
Mathew did not respond.
He heard a deep sigh from behind him that could only be Chares.
"Ensure everyone else retreats safely, Aesop." Chares said sternly, "The Followers of Dread need to survive. Do not allow our brethren to fall in vain."
"What of the Master?" Aesop asked.
"I will take care of him. If it comes down to it, I will take him back with me." Mathew heard the sound of a shoe on stone behind him as Aesop left to follow the instructions he had been given.
Mathew stayed kneeling, Chares by his side.
The fire column was approaching, growing larger with each meter covered. They had moments before they too would join those who had burned
"Master Dread, I would rather you survive, but if you refuse to leave, then I will stay and burn with you."
"There's no use in staying or leaving," Mathew muttered, "We'll all die anyway."
Chares was silent.
It was then that another voice spoke, one echoing in Mathews mind.
"Is that it? Are you done? Surely the soul gifted my body wouldn't give in so easily." The voice was similar to Mathew's own, but it wasn't his.
Maybe he was hallucinating, or maybe the last vestiges of the soul that had inhabited the vessel before him were speaking one last time before fading away forever.
Whatever it was, Mathias was talking to him.
"I can't. It's pointless." Mathew whispered, and he felt as Chares wrapped his arms around Mathew and began dragging him away in slow retreat.
The voice of Mathias came again, "If you wish to end things here, I cannot stop you. I am dead after all. But you have a reason to live. Remember that reason. Hold onto it. And get up Mathew. GET UP."
Clarity filled Mathew's mind. He saw his sister, Maggie. The skies were gray. Her face was streaked with tears as she clutched her brother's hand tightly. They stood before a grave. She had asked him a question. He had made her a promise.
"Maggie…" Mathew said softly, and he struggled against the grip of his loyal follower.
"Good." Mathias said, "That is what you need. This is the last time we will ever speak. Take my knowledge."
With that, two important pieces of info were shoved into Mathew's head:
The first was a way to activate a facet of his Truesight, allowing him to peer into the misty white realm, as he had done against the Nightspawn. He learned the world of misty white itself was called "The Divine Realm".
The second was the understanding of how to 'open' the Iron Mind, activating its most basic property: The ability to capture and hold prisoner a single entity.
"Let me go Chares," Mathew said, as he gained new insight into what he was supposed to do. Chares released him.
"What are you going to do, Master Dread?" Chares asked, though his voice was filled with reverence, not doubt.
"I am going to save the world."
He activated his Truesight in one eye, so that half his vision was that of the normal world, and the other saw that of misty white.
Puffed out a breath as he beheld his opponent. The cosmic fire permeated both realms, existing in each simultaneously. Not only that, but Mathew could see that the flames were actually alive.
Rather than being a powerful force of nature, they were a single sentient entity, one with both the power and drive to destroy everything.
Mathew deactivated his Truesight and walked forward, confidently, into the flames.
He then activated the Iron Mind, and, for the first time since he was shoved into this body, Mathew's mouth opened.
All three columns of flame shot towards Mathew, as if trying to stop him, only to be siphoned into his open mouth and eyes. He could feel that the fiery creature now wanted not just to annihilate everything, but him in particular.
But it couldn't. All its hate, rage, and vindictive desire for destruction meant nothing before the Iron Mind, and all it could manage was forcing Mathew to his knees.
And so he knelt, his arms spread out as if in prayer, his clothes miraculously free of scorch marks.
And so the cosmic flame entered into Mathew, as if he was swallowing up the entire sky. He then activated the Iron Mind once more, and his mouth closed shut, trapping the unknown being inside. Steam leaked from Mathews' eyes as he let his arms fall, his body exhausted.
Then, the voice of Mathias whispered one final word: "Farewell…"