Chapter 145: To Keep an Oath

Toren Daen

"It's time I fulfilled my Oath on your blood," I snarled at the hovering vicar, fighting to keep my breathing under control. I'd thrown a Stake of the Morning, recognizing it as the only attack in my arsenal capable of matching the wild vicar's massive congealed meteor. The same attack that had slain the monstrous serpent in the undead zone so long ago had only served to cancel out Mardeth's spell.

But that didn't matter.

My fury burned under the surface as I stalked forward, my mana billowing out in a thrum that matched my heartbeat. I'd left Aedelgard in a panic, blurring through the streets and leaving Renea Shorn behind.

And I'd still been too late. Fiachra was burning under the assault of this madman, disgusting blithe and rotten vicars preying on the defenseless men and women of the City of Canals. I felt my fury rise even further as I spied the decrepit state of my friends, all nearly broken by the Vicar of Plague in front of me.

I took each step forward to the tune of my own thundering heart, my gaze intent on the blackened fire in Mardeth's chest.

I cannot run from this a second time, I thought. Not with so much at stake.

No, you cannot, Aurora acknowledged. She would rather I bide my time; grow strong enough that any clash with the Vicar of Plague would be a sure victory. But we didn't have time for that. Mardeth was here.

Mardeth nearly looked the same as he always had in my nightmares. A mocking, black-toothed smile. Dark gray skin that seemed to wrap too tightly over his bones, like leather stretched over a twisted mannequin. Long fingers that jutted out at odd angles, mirroring his gnarled physique. One milky eye that I could swear still saw, and another that laughed with malice.

Except there was one difference. He'd shorn his horns clean off the last time I saw him, embedding them into the basilisk blood crystal for some reason. Yet now there was another horn atop his left brow, one that imperiously drank in the light. It had streaks of red that splashed through the onyx like a gentle stream. I couldn't explain how, but the horn almost looked beautiful atop his head.

And I could feel the power it contained, entirely separate from Mardeth's own taunting King's Force.

I looked at Caera as I finally reached the center of the room. I felt the grim terror in her intent; the fear for her brother and herself. But beyond that, I could sense her determination, even as it faded into awe.

She stepped aside, the soulfire along her blade sputtering out as I finally stood before Mardeth.

"I heard you had a visit from Varadoth, little mage," Mardeth said as I walked forward, fires trailing in my wake. "That tittering old fool thought you were someone worth talking to. Worth debating. But he was wrong," the vicar said with slime, his eyes leering at all of us. "You aren't worth talking to. You're worth taking from."

I know that horn, Aurora said, her voice tinged with a spark of true fear. It was once Brahmos'. Foremost warrior of the Vritra clan. I do not know how this Mardeth found it.

It is the same dread presence I sensed behind those doors when we infiltrated the Redwater hideout, I thought with a clench in my gut. You said an asura died there. That the legends were true.

I traced the lines of energy from the basilisk blood crystal behind Mardeth to the horn on his forehead. I didn't know how the crystal had gained the energy it currently contained, but in the depths of my Acquire Phase, I could sense how the mana changed as it funneled through Mardeth's broken horns.

It changes the energy inside to his mana signature, I realized as I traced the visible path of decaying energy to Brahmos' horn. And then the horn on his forehead concentrates it even further inside of him.

It all came together like one, horrible puzzle. I saw the path of the dominoes that had been laid months ago. Where they were now, and where they would eventually lead if Mardeth succeeded.

"That's what you've been planning," I said, my horror surpassed by the surety of my task. I drew Oath from my side, flourishing it as I settled into stance. "To Integrate; to ascend past the white core. I won't let you."

"There are legends, even in the depths of the Doctrination. Of what happens when one's core is pushed too far. Of when it feels the deepest pain," Mardeth said, his murky tone violating my ears. "I will be of the Sovereigns themselves after tonight, little mage. And you will bear witness."

I locked eyes with the Vicar of Plague as the world held its breath. As my mana churned across my assimilated physique and Aurora steadied my thoughts, I saw a gleam in my enemy's eyes. He'd prepared this in Fiachra for a reason. To make a statement against me.

My legs tensed as a drop of sweat traced its way down my brow. My body tingled in anticipation, instincts infused through my Will demanding the blood of the mage who dared claim the sky.

A mindfire stamp propelled me at the vicar. Plasma burned along Oath as I swung it at my enemy's throat, the edge warping the air with heat.

A tendril of slime erupted from Mardeth's back instantaneously, deflecting my swipe and attempting to skewer me through the heart. I lashed myself downward, my plasma-coated hand snapping out to grab the tendril.

I yanked Mardeth's tentacle of murky mana, the decay sizzling through the plasma on my hand. Then I hurled him at the wall. The vicar sneered at me as he hurtled backward, smashing through the walls of the Joans' estate without an inch of care. I darted after his deep black heartfire, Oath humming as plasma burned along its edge.

I caught up quickly, thrusting a hand forward. A solid beam of plasma erupted from my hand, searing straight through a wall as it sought Mardeth's heart. Another tentacle of green intercepted it, the two fizzling out on contact and turning the vicar's spell into a mist. I blurred through the remaining interplay of fire, sound, and Vritra-tinged water mana, my telekinetic shroud shrugging off the refuse. Meredith's milky eye danced as he laughed.

I swung a fist coated with plasma at the vicar, another spell layered underneath. One that I'd planned for a long time.

Mardeth raised a barrier of sludge between us, that persistent gleam mocking me. My fist sank into the sludge with a sizzling squelch, battling the plasma around my arm and trying to get at the soft flesh beneath.

I smiled, then detonated my secondary spell. Waves of vibrations traveled along Mardeth's spell, the same trick I'd used to make him bleed in our first fight.

Except this time, Mardeth simply grinned as he convulsed slightly from the attack, a bead of blood dripping down his lip. "Yes, the pain!" he laughed maniacally, before his fist accelerated toward my chest with the force of a runaway train.

Pull backward, Aurora said in what felt like slow motion as the gnarled fist approached. Roll with the blow!

I saw the strike coming with my enhanced physique, my instincts heightened even further by the touch of my Will. I grit my teeth as I pulled myself back with my telekinesis just as he struck, hoping to lessen the force of the attack.

The impact still shattered the telekinetic shroud around my chest, sending me hurtling backward. Pain lanced through my bones as decay mana tried to claw through my skin and muscles.

I smashed through another wall, dust and chips of mortar exploding around me as I rolled, adjusting my balance so that my feet were beneath me again. My sound-coated fingers dug furrows into the wooden floorboards of the estate as I slid backward.

My heartfire washed over the wound on my chest, but my telekinetic shroud was slower to mend. The crystalline cracks would take several seconds to fully seal, and in a high-pitched battle, that could spell my doom.

Three attacks coming from the hallway, Aurora said, her entire focus on this battle. She couldn't afford to even pilot her relic for fear of missing something crucial. Our thoughts and emotions and intent were in perfect, deadly sync.

I saw the huddled forms of the Rats along with Sevren and Caera as I swung my saber in three quick cuts. Three arcs of burning plasma blurred off toward the oncoming pustules of rot. They came together in a hateful clash, fire and sound eviscerating murky green. Then I darted forward, chasing the wake of my attacks.

The Vicar of Plague didn't run. No, he waited for me as I blitzed toward him, the weight of all his sins imbuing themselves along my knuckles. Mana hummed and raged as sound and fire glimmered in a light-breaking tapestry across my fist.

I swung my fist, the pale skin of my knuckles visibly shuddering from the oscillating force of sound mana. Angry heat carried the surety of my essence and drive as it banished the darkness of the dilapidated Joan estate.

Mardeth didn't try to dodge–even as my spell punched through his protections. When my knuckles ground against his stomach, propelling my vibrating spell through his insides and pulping meat, he only responded with a pained laugh. I felt his bones crunch and break beneath my strike. "Yes, I knew you were the one!" he said as he doubled over. "The only one who could give me pain!"

He shuddered once again, but then his aura expanded. An uncountable number of tendrils suddenly streamed from the shadows like a hundred wriggling worms, each trying to overwhelm me with filth.

I thrust my hand out, layering buzzing domes of sound, fire, and telekinetic force around me in quick succession. The same technique that had allowed me to withstand the onslaught of a soulfire mage with ease buckled and was nearly overwhelmed in an instant as I fought to keep the tide of filth from touching me. Drops and splatters still pushed through my spell's layers, whispered secrets streaking across my skin. I gritted my teeth as little pinpricks of agony erupted all over my body, the sludge seeping into my veins and trying to reach my heart.

I exhaled, pushing more mana into my telekinetic shroud and coating myself in as much fire as I could manage. You wish to feel pain, Mardeth, I thought, wincing as his spell tried to tear its way through my mana channels. I'm more than happy to oblige.

Then I slammed a mindfire stamp into the wood beneath me, blurring forward. My layered shield quickly collapsed as it was suddenly faced with more pressure than it could manage, leaving my body to fight against the sludge alone.

The fire shroud around my body sputtered weakly as I surged through the muck, but this close to my form, I could condense my mana with greater precision. It wasn't so easy to break down and wither away. I funneled more mana into my telekinetic shroud, holding my breath as I finally emerged from the tide like a fish leaping from a stream.

Except Mardeth was gone. My eyes darted around, searching for him desperately. Where could he–

He is back in the main room, Toren! Aurora cried. Near your friends!

I shot back through the estate, seeing where Mardeth loomed over my worn and weary comrades. I layered another coating of oily sound over my knuckles, then arced into the room.

You need to move this fight from the estate, Aurora said sternly, an undercurrent of fear in her tone. Fear for me. The more mana he absorbs from that crystal, the stronger he grows.

In a split instant, I acknowledged my bond's words.

Then I threw the most satisfying straight punch I'd ever hurled in my life. My knuckles connected with Mardeth's temple as my power spread throughout his skull. I felt a grim sort of pleasure as I followed through, the intoxicating crunch of Mardeth's forehead breaking from the impact giving me a high beyond anything blithe could manage. My fist sent him hurtling through the entrance of the estate into the burning night beyond.

I landed with a tap of my foot, the remains of my fire shroud finally sizzling away. My hand ached from where my knuckles had shattered, but it was a distant, dull thing under the coursing adrenaline.

I looked back at the friends I'd made in this world, each having put their lives on the line to try and confront Mardeth. Sevren. Naereni. Hofal. Karsien. Even Caera had done her part to save my home. To save our home.

They can destroy that crystal, I thought, making eye contact with Sevren and Naereni. I just need to hold Mardeth off. I can do at least that much, can't I?

I held Naereni's eyes as I nodded, understanding what we both needed to do. Her face melted into something sorrowful as she nodded back.

I slammed a mindfire stamp into the wood beneath me, rocketing toward where I'd sent Mardeth. I held the thoughts of my friends close to my heart as I approached him in the courtyard, the mage's ragged robes billowing as he hovered in the air.

I watched as the slight cut I'd given his wretched brow healed over with a flow of green sludge. Just as fast, the surge of pleasure I'd gotten from it dimmed as well.

"I was weak once, little mage," Mardeth said, staring up at the moon. Green energy still bled into his horn from a thin line that stretched back into the estate. "I writhed on the ground like those slum rats inside. I fought for everything I needed. I bled and howled and raged. And through the depths of my agony, I finally realized something." He gave me a predatory look as his mana swelled. "The agony was not my enemy. It was my only ally."

Mardeth rolled his gangly neck, sickly cracking echoing out. He flourished his hand, a heavy mace appearing from nowhere. It was crafted of dark, reflective metal that looked like it had been dunked inside a vat of oil. The head of the mace was serrated and jagged, designed to rend and tear as it crushed. All along the shaft, little segmented razor blades peeked out angrily.

When the vicar clenched his fist around the shaft, a liquid too dark to be blood streamed from his fingers, the blades digging into his hands. The liquid dripped to the ground, sizzling and burning the grass with a tinge of smoke.

I shot forward, Oath flashing. Mardeth parried it with his mace casually, the impact sending a jolt up my arm. I grunted as I pulled myself under a rabid swipe of the mace, then surged upward again to try and cut at the vicar's jaw with a mana-enhanced blur.

Instead, Mardeth moved into my attack, allowing my blade to cut into his flank. He grinned maniacally as it drew dark, dark blood, but the angle of my cut made it far shallower than I would've wished.

Move, Toren! Aurora said. But my body was already shifting, half a dozen pulls on the ground beneath attempting to maneuver me out of the way.

Dark sludge erupted from Mardeth's cut, streaming toward me from close range. I narrowly avoided the surging liquid as I twisted supernaturally to the side, but then Mardeth's mace elongated. The segmented shaft, which was lined with deadly razor blades, disconnected at the joints as it struck out like a flail.

I barely raised an arm in time before the attack hit me, the horrid mass of spikes and chopping blades atop Madeth's mace making a bloody pulp of my forearm. My telekinetic shroud simply melted away at the coating of energy around the mace head as my body screamed in pain. I had a feeling that if I were any other mage, my entire arm would have been broken. Mardeth's next blow was barely parried by Oath as I backpedaled, trying to buy time for my heartfire to soothe over the pulped meat of my arm.

I jumped backward, vaulting over the estate wall to land on the branch of a nearby tree. Mardeth blurred forward in hot pursuit, a rictus smile on his face. "Do you think you can run again, little mage?!" he yelled as he melted headlong through a tree. "This is the final act! There's nowhere for you to hide! The name of Seris Vritra will not protect you! That bronze machine that helped you last time cannot save you now! Face the agony, Toren Daen! Face the pain!"

I was already darting through the trees, welcoming them like old friends as I led Mardeth on a merry chase: away from my friends. I sent bullets of solid plasma back toward my foe, spiking them through trees in an attempt to pierce the vicar's heartfire. The cut along the vicar's body had long since healed in a wave of caustic acid, but nothing else I threw at him made it to his body. The tendrils of decaying acid erupting from Mardeth's back seemed to act with a mind of their own, snapping out at anything I sent his way regardless of his perception.

Keep him within the bounds of this small forest, my bond advised. You are faster than him. More maneuverable. Use that to your advantage.

That was true. I was faster than Mardeth, even when he was flying. I was able to use my precise telekinetic pushes and pulls like a master, weaving through the forest as if I were unburdened by gravity. This was where I was familiar; where I was the predator.

"You claim you were once a slum rat," I said, trying to keep my anger contained. My voice echoed unnaturally through the forest as I applied my sound magic. "Yet you persecute all the unadorned in East Fiachra. You're a hypocrite," I accused.

I alighted atop the bough of a nearby tree, then darted to the side as a spear of acid cut through the branch I'd been on. I whirled, sending out a wide nimbus of fire that obscured my view. Mardeth, predictably, charged straight through it, expecting to gore me with his tendrils.

Except I'd dropped, keeping myself low as he lashed out with his mace. It soared overhead, the segmented shaft elongating like a whip as it smashed through three trees in a row. Wood splintered, little bits of shrapnel bouncing off my shroud.

"I was the only one who understood the pain that we went through," Mardeth retorted with a smile as I surged upward again. We exchanged a few quick blows, sparks flying and brightening the dark night as red and black steel collided.

I moved through martial forms taught to me by an asura. With the grace and deadly precision of an Asclepius on the wing, I cut and weaved and lashed out with talon and wing, reaping blood and hell with every deft parry.

But Mardeth… he wasn't fighting by the normal rules. He didn't care if I drew dark blood across his flank. He didn't care if every sound-laden blow pulped his stomach and cracked his bones.

Because he was healing faster. With every strike, I damaged Mardeth less and less. I felt a growing sense of unease and fear, even as I smashed Mardeth's flail into the dirt and weaved around a swiping of a tendril of rot.

Mardeth's teeth were black as I smashed my knuckles up into his jaw. I watched with growing horror as his teeth crashed together, but before I'd been able to feel his bones cracking from my blows. As his body liquefied from every sound-shrouded strike.

But the Vicar didn't even budge from my attack, now. I had barely an instant of terrifying understanding–an instant the vicar allowed–before he finally struck back.

It was only through the instincts of my assimilated Beast Will and Aurora's guiding touch that I avoided the next attack. Beads of green, oozing pus flashed into existence all around us, barely visible in the darkness.

I need to move! I thought with rising fear as the energy grew in the atmosphere in the blink of an eye. I was primed to be at the center of a storm. I need to get away! Back into the trees!

Mardeth cackled as he shut his hand, like the jaws of a rabid dog cinching around a throat. I blurred upward for all I was worth as I engaged a mindfire stamp, my legs cracking and bleeding from the absurd pushback.

I blurred back toward the trees–just as a veritable storm of rot imploded around Mardeth himself. Nearly every single tree was coated in splattering dots of sizzling acid, and no few splatters tore through me as I landed on a faraway branch.

My legs ached and they were slow to heal, my mind struggling to process the death knell I'd barely escaped.

But the Vicar of Plague gave me no time to wait. No time to catch my breath and heal my limbs. In the blink of an eye, he was nearly in front of me again, moving at speeds leagues above where he'd been at the start of this battle.

In a panic, I whipped around the tree, my breathing heavy and strained as I tried to think of what I should do next. The echoing boom of Mardeth's laughter violated my ears as I ran. The wind quickly swept away the sweat that beaded on my brow as I rocketed off a bough. Mardeth was getting faster every moment we clashed. Stronger with every blow he leveraged.

"I'm no hypocrite, little mage!" Mardeth crooned after me. A long trail of powerful green mana still seeped into his horn. Clearly, the absorption didn't have a distance limit I could rely on to try and snap that tether. It didn't seem to care about distance. "They all failed to grow under their strength. But you…"

Naereni, I thought desperately, I hope you destroy that damn crystal soon! As quickly as you goddamn can!

I was weaker than Mardeth before this fight began, and the longer it went on, he only grew more powerful. I couldn't even hurt him now. Not anymore. But I was still faster. More maneuverable. I only needed to keep him occupied, but–

Aurora suddenly yelled something in my mind, but it was overwhelmed by a sense of pain as I was clotheslined by Mardeth's elongating mace. It had appeared out of nowhere, waiting like a garotte to tear out my soul. I flipped through the air, my blood spraying as an ugly gash was wrought along my chest. Chunks of my flesh tore themselves free as I tumbled, crying out in sudden pain.

I failed to make the next jump. My body clipped a tree, my momentum splattering it with my blood as I tumbled out of the forest.

I rolled for a few yards along the road where I'd emerged before I came to a stop, blood pooling under my body. I rested on my forearms as I coughed weakly, feeling the bones in my chest creak. Pain blurred my vision as I spotted little simmering specks of my heartfire in the bits of skin and muscle that clung to my tattered shirt.

Toren, Aurora said softly, her melodic voice pulling me from the pain. Look up.

My heartfire was already working to heal over the deadly wound, but the shock had made my mind hazy. I coughed, clutching Oath, which I had somehow maintained a firm grip on. I blinked as I looked at the blade, only now realizing the damage it had taken in my clashes with the vicar.

I looked up.

Dozens of men and women stared at me in horror, backing away as my blood dripped onto the cobblestones. Children cried into the mute stillness of the night as mothers wept soft prayers to the Sovereigns. Fathers tried to put themselves in front of their families, but their knees shook and their bodies trembled.

Most of them didn't have a discernible intent, but those that did choked my nose with fear. Their terror seeped over me like a tide of putrid water, threatening to draw me into the fear as well.

East Fiachrans, I thought, recognizing more than a few faces. And… and the mages of the North District, too. What are they–

"You were like me, little mage," a putrid voice said from behind me. "A man of power and true talent born among lessers, condemned to share your food with those unfit to breathe the same air. Unfit to walk in your step. And undeserving of the slightest bit of your attention," Mardeth said, stressing the last word with his slippery annunciation. "But when I saw you helping them? Interacting with them? I grew angry, little mage. You waste your precious time and attention on these lessers. So I decided to teach you a lesson about why they are a burden."

My fists clenched around the dirt at my feet, but I didn't move even as my chest finally healed over. I locked eyes with Benny in the crowd, held tightly by his mother. I felt a spike of true fear as I finally realized what I was looking at. That terror–separate from that in the intent, yet the same–finally threaded through my bones.

I'd just led Mardeth straight to these people, I realized in horror. I'd taken him away from the estate, but…

"And I couldn't have gotten so far without you, little mage," Mardeth sneered from behind me. "Only through experimentation on nonmage scum was I able to finally perfect my serum. Create a true plague."

Benny ripped himself free from his mother, running toward me with tears in his eyes. He stumbled a few times as his mother called after him in raw pain, the other people around her holding her back.

The boy with missing fingers ran up to me where I lay on the ground, seeming uncaring of the devil I knew hovered not far behind me.

"You can't give up," he said, pulling at my arms. "Momma said that you would be here. She said you'd get rid of the vicars again! And you need to!"

"This is why you are on your hands and knees, and I am on the brink of godhood," Mardeth hissed. "Because you threw your lot in with these lessers, and I took what I needed from their cold, dead hands. It's fitting that you'll die among them. A wolf who decided to be a sheep."

I slowly stood, wiping away a stream of blood from my lips. Mardeth hovered above the trees behind me, an expression of loathing on his face. I settled my stance, shifting Benny behind me. I ruffled his hair as I put myself between him and the horrid vicar.

You know what we need to do, I thought to my bond.

I do, Aurora acknowledged, a serious note in her tone. Too long have I stalled. Too long have I feared what may become of our minds. I felt her attention turn to Benny, who shivered behind my leg. But no longer.

The grafted horn on the vicar's forehead glowed an ominous light as he focused his power, a green shine meshing with the darkness of the night sky. I looked down at Oath in my hands, my eyes roaming over the damascus-patterned red steel. In the short time I'd clashed with Mardeth, the length had been riddled with slight chips and cracks. I exhaled, putting that out of my mind as I closed my eyes.

I felt my body relax as I looked deep into my core. Deeper than I'd ever delved before; deeper than the nexus of a star. I sensed more than saw Mardeth pointing a hand toward me, my eyes closed in concentration as he slowly gathered mana for a massive spell.

The men and women cowering behind me shied away as Mardeth prepared his attack. That terror surged as people tried to push their way down the street and away from the gathering spell. I felt their heartbeats in my ears like a stampede of drumbeats, but they wouldn't make it in time. The concentration of Mardeth's spell was even greater than the one I'd popped at the start of this fight.

I pulled my Phoenix Will to the edges of my mind, its touch warm and inviting. I felt the yawning depths beneath, like the bright expanse of a star eclipsing my mind. One could get lost in there so easily; burnt away like a speck of dust.

I embraced the Will, its tendrils sinking further into my thoughts. Until I couldn't tell where I started and the Will stopped. Until she sank into me as well, thoughts and emotions and experience and knowledge and power all mixing into one turbulent dot. I felt the sudden weight of millennia melding with a careful few decades, one far outweighing the other.

Mardeth threw his spell. People screamed as they tried to run, believing an inevitable doom in front of them. Benny clutched at our pant leg, whimpering in fear. We could hear the distant wails of his mother.

I opened my eyes, a world dampened by Unseen mist and shadow sprawling before me. The lessuran hovering in the sky beyond grinned with the arrogant surety of a predator who had ensnared its prey; of a hawk who had cinched a rabbit.

My lips melded into a solid line as anger replaced my fear. A ten-foot-tall tide of acidic rot streamed along the street like a river, a grim mockery of the canals that I called home.

I inhaled, then swung my sword in a simple sideways cut. White fire erupted from the edge, growing and growing and growing as it used my anger as fuel. It burned away the ground with its absurd heat as it approached the opposing decaying spell. Gleaming starfire roared with its own tide, the ambient mana lurching and swelling in turn.

The two clashed, fire and plague intertwining like a dance of predator and prey. I snorted as the lessuran began to vaguely recognize something was wrong, his intent twisting as he attempted to exert more pressure through his spell. I simply pushed my hand forward, exerting a fraction more to overpower his pathetic willpower.

Flame devoured the plague, cleansing it in holy fire. I allowed my spell to vanish as Mardeth watched me in disbelief, white embers rising into the sky like blessed fireflies as my spell slowly sizzled back into the ambient mana.

My eyes burned with the heat of a star, and my hair slowly changed to a brilliant red as it shifted in an Unseen breeze. The feather stems underneath my eyes had grown as I fell deeper into our Will, expanding to embody small wings. Glowing orange runes that mimicked feathers ran along my arms, torso, and legs, my red chain tattoo seeming to shift and spin around those bright feathered weaves.

A smattering of something approaching fear stretched across Mardeth's face as my intent concentrated around him. As I felt the nigh bottomless well of insight flooding through my mind, I knew the tide of this battle had changed. No more was I a broken soul.

"You can't hear their heartbeats," I said, my voice echoing out into the stillness. It was cool and melodic, with an almost soothing cadence to each syllable. "But I can feel yours. Sense everything you've ever known."

I could see more in Mardeth's heartfire than I ever could before. His eyes squinted as they tried to meet mine, a deep uncertainty wafting from his crooked form. "Stare into the sun, lessuran. Gaze upon infinity, and feel it burn."