The kinetic shockwave sent Alicia skidding brutally across the polished obsidian floor.
She slammed into the base of a stone pillar, the air forcefully expelled from her lungs. The underground hall violently shook as the dimensional rift tore the ceiling apart.
Alicia forced herself up onto her hands and knees. Her wrists were bleeding, the heavy runic suppression chains completely shattered by her brother's final act.
She looked up at the altar.
Leon was gone. All that remained chained to the central pillar was a charred, smoking husk of blackened bone and ash.
"The catalyst is incomplete!" the Chancellor shrieked. His arrogant composure instantly dissolved into sheer panic as he stared at the violently expanding, unstable rift. "The Gate is collapsing! Hold the array! Anchor the mana!"
The remaining Infernus mages scrambled, frantically pouring their own life force into the purple runes on the floor to stabilize the dimensional tear.
Alicia didn't scream. She didn't cry.
