The transition from silence to slaughter happened in the span of a single breath.
Daxian was jolted from his fever-dream not by a voice, but by the sound of a skull exploding. It was a wet, sickening pop that echoed through the World-Tree's hull. He rolled off his cot, his stump hitting the iron floor with a dull thud that sent white-hot needles of agony through his nervous system.
He crawled toward the prow, his single hand clawing at the deck. Outside, the violet sky had been replaced by a Heavenly Tribulation. Clouds of grinding bone-ash swirled in a vortex, and bolts of black lightning struck the city with enormous force, turning stone into dust and men into steam.
"DAX! GET DOWN!"
Vane's roar was nearly swallowed by a miserable neighing sound—the scream of the World-Tree's biological core as it was pierced by a thousand obsidian spears.
The Un-Woven had arrived.
They weren't the fragile souls Daxian had spared in the rift. They were lunatics, their skins peeled back ruthlessly to reveal muscles pulsing with a corrupted, silver-black light. At their head was the Remnant, her white eyes now so blood red it was difficult to stare at them directly.
"The Weaver is a corpse!" she shrieked, her voice a miserable neighing of distorted code. "Slaughter them! Harvest the marrow!"
The massacre began in the plaza.
A Sanguine-Sentinel was the first to fall. An Un-Woven warrior, moving with lightning speed, slammed into him. The Sentinel's bones were fractured, some piercing into his skin and flesh while others jutted out of the body. He didn't even have time to scream before an enormous punch caved in his chest, sending a spray of turbid air and blood across the Prime-Stone.
Daxian reached the ramp, his gaze expressionless and scattered. He saw the chaotic battle situation below. It was a massacre. The Un-Woven were slaughtering each other and the residents alike, driven by a madness that made even Vane feel a chill from the depths of his heart.
"If I have to suffer," Daxian whispered, his voice a low, malevolent rasp, "I'll make sure others suffer more."
He didn't have his arm. He didn't have his law. But he had his ambition.
Daxian charged forward, tumbling down the ramp and crashing heavily into the ground. The impact cracked the stone, forming a deep pit. He stood up, filled with injuries, his skin opened and his flesh split. He looked like a miserable state of a man, but as he looked at the approaching hoard, he curled up his lips and laughed madly.
An Un-Woven lunatic lunged at him with a bone-blade. Daxian didn't dodge. He leaned into the strike, letting the blade pierce into his shoulder while he used his remaining hand to grab the warrior's throat.
With a smile of disdain, Daxian channeled the last of his "Noise" into the man's head.
The warrior's skull exploded. Eyeballs popped out and his flesh and blood were reduced to dust in an instant. Daxian stood in the spray, his face emotionless, taking a deep breath of turbid air.
"VANE! KILL THEM ALL!" Daxian screamed, his voice a miserable neighing of rage.
Vane didn't need to be told twice. The Lord of the Forge pierced into the chaotic battle like a meteor. His Sovereign-Hammer smashed down ruthlessly, immediately bursting the heads of three attackers. They were turned into meat paste before their bodies even hit the ground.
"COME ON!" Vane roared, his gaze so blood red it looked like he was weeping fire. "I'LL RACK MY BRAINS TO FIND NEW WAYS TO BREAK YOU!"
Vane wreaked havoc. Every swing of his hammer was an enormous piercing of the enemy lines. He was unhindered, even as his own skin was opened by bone-shards. He gritted his teeth, a laugh malevolent escaping his throat as he smashed apart an Un-Woven captain, the body smashed down ruthlessly until it was nothing but a red stain on the iron.
The slaughter between the two sides had reached the climax.
A blood river began to flow through the Forge-Shadows. The ground was littered with corpses, the skin peeled ruthlessly from their frames. Daxian moved through the carnage like a ghost. He was intensely struggling, his bones fractured in many places, but he did not seem to notice. He was in a dream of slaughter.
He saw Kael being cornered by two lunatics. Kael was gritting his teeth, holding a broken pipe, his skull nearly fractured from a previous blow.
Daxian charged forward. He didn't have a weapon, so he became one. He slammed mercilessly into the first attacker, his own bones shattering on impact. He didn't care. He bit into the attacker's neck, tearing away a peel of skin with his teeth.
The second attacker bombarded Daxian's back with a mace. Daxian coughed out blood, his flesh split, but he didn't let go. He laughed malevolently as he felt the attacker's heart stop under the pressure of his "Noise."
"You want a calamity?" Daxian hissed, his voice a miserable neighing. "I am the calamity!"
The leisurely aerial battle above them between the Sun-Eater and the Remnant's bone-ships was a fierce slaughter. The sky was filled with miserable neighing sounds. Ships were being smashed apart, raining flesh and blood down on the combatants below.
Daxian stood in the center of the pit, dumbstruck expressions of the dying surrounding him. He was a lunatic among lunatics. His perseverance was no longer a virtue; it was a disease.
He saw the Remnant descending, her white dress now soaked in the blood river.
"Perish!" she screamed, her hand glowing with a profundity of death.
Daxian gritted his teeth, his smile of disdain never fading. He didn't retreat. He charged forward into the final slaughter, his bones jutting out of his body, his eyes blood red.
"If the universe wants me to perish," Daxian roared, his voice tearing his own throat, "it's going to have to rack its brains to find a way to kill me!"
He slammed mercilessly into the Remnant, the two of them falling into the deep pit of the plaza.
The enormous shock of their collision sent a wave of turbid air across the city. In the dark of the pit, amidst the meat paste and the fractured bones, the Weaver and the Remnant began their final massacre.
Daxian was intensely struggling, his eyeballs popped out from the pressure of her grip, but he laughed madly. He was a lunatic taking risks, a man who had traded his soul for the right to wreak havoc.
"Welcome to the New Law," Daxian whispered, his blood filling his own lungs.
"The law of the Slaughter."