Meteor

Cael floated in the Absence of Reality for what felt like Centuries. He held no sway over any of his sensations. His eyes failed him in conceiving his surroundings. His ears trying in vain to pierce the imperceptible void all around him. Was he dead? No, he could still remember what had led up to this point. The insane amounts of power coalescing in his body, all from a simple revelation. He had stumbled on an almost unprecedented breakthrough, but was left cursing the results. It wasn't a victory if he was to be trapped in this stasis for eternity. 

'Think, dammit. What was it that Carlo had said? Something about The Prisoner being the Augur? Doesn't help me if he's not here, though.' But in a way, he was. The echoes of hostile Anima still lingered inside Cael's ego. Bit's of unexpunged refuse left from the feeble attempt at animosity. It was hard to imagine that these crumbs of residual energy could offer any assistance, but they would be a boon , if Cael could make the connection. One he had slowly began to piece together.

'It's still there. His Anima. Faint, but I can feel it gnawing inside me. What a gross feeling.' Cael had likened it to the onset of Hunger, his core grumbling from something akin to indigestion. And the thought of having a connection with that goblin peaked his disgust. He could use this, however. This fleeting beacon leading him to somewhere hopefully more understandable than wherever he was now. If only he knew what to do with this information. 

'Sure, great, I've noticed it, but that doesn't lead me any closer to escape. I'm just a hair short. Think.' Thinking was the one thing Cael could accomplish in spades. Or rather, he was a savant in the art of concentration. The power of contemplation. In both Worlds, it had allowed him to piece together bits of information that, on the surface, held no obvious connection, but offered an entirely new perspective if looked at in a certain way. And so he got to thinking. All the way back to his first lessons. 

'Within each Recusant lies two dormant pools of energy at all times. Anima and Ultima. Anima is the force that forms without the body, while Ultima forms within. Hiding within the folds of the Soul, collecting inside the Ego. Anima is resurged through the Rotation Technique, whilst Ultima emerges naturally while accumulating Anima over time. Think of it like the consumption of resources. Every input returns two outputs. The Intended Product, or Anima in this instance, and The Reagent, or Ultima. These two forces contradict each other, but exist amongst each other in equal measure.'

That was it. It was staring Cael directly in the face, but given the jarring circumstances, it took too long to notice it's appearance, at first. The Reagent. Ultima. It's connection with his Ego was a given, but Cael began to postulate if he could use it alongside Anima. Or rather, The Prisoner's anima that continued to claw and scathe deep inside him. Carlo had explained that while the Foremost aspect of Anima was Action, he Described Ultima as a means of Control. 

The possibilities of these powers threaded along theory and logical conclusions, but what if Cael had pushed further? He would never consider himself a Mad Scientist of sorts, but if given the chance, he would gladly raise his own Frankenstein. Anything to give himself a leg up against the Powers he will inevitably rage against in this World. At the time, he didn't see it that way, however. He just needed a means of escape from the paradox he was currently trapped inside. And his bootstrapped theory offered a way to do so. 

Ultima Manipulation was determined impossible long ago by Recusants Wiser and Stronger than Cael could possibly imagine. But he had proved to be capable of dashing impossibilities to the wayside. The fact that he opened The Pit once more was proof enough, in his mind. All he had to do was catch lighting in a bottle. Easy. 

The process was grueling and finnicky. Every time Cael began to coax the Foreign Anima inside him, the only response he received was sharp pains emitting from his core. Like The Prisoner himself was fighting against his intentions. Retrying over and over again, attempts to manipulate the Ultima in conjunction with the Hostile Signature of Anima continued to be fruitless. Cael was missing the right perspective to reach a breakthrough. He needed a paradigm shift.

As if on cue, a seemingly malevolent force, aside from The Prisoner's Anima, began to coil and writhe inside him. He had felt this sensation once before, when Mirna had been killed in front of him. Just thinking about it made his heart shiver, but it was an important investigative anomaly. The Darkness that reached out from inside was terrifying to him. It was alien, it was unkind, and it was powerful. Just like Meron, in a way. But it could serve a greater purpose.

As time slowly began to crawl within the Break in Reality, the mysterious power continued to coalesce. Aching and burning, it took everything from Cael to allow it's continuous rise into his Ego. The veins on his arms and face tightened as the force passed through effortlessly. It was an entirely different sensation from using Anima. There was no familiar pull on his core, or a push that led to unforeseen scales of power. It was a drag, a slow bleed that fed on Cael's insecurities, his dark thoughts. Longing for his return to a more familiar scene, the Darkness acquiesced with a painful resurgence.

Wisps of Blazing Flames coursed from his hands, a magical display of pure and potent rending. The White Flames grew in size until they became unwieldy for Cael's novice hands. The Power was too great, and he felt himself slipping. Slipping into some darker hell, perhaps, but Cael could only postulate. He needed a Hail Mary, after all. This Power would show him the way, only if he was strong enough to make the journey. 

The Flames began to mingle with the Invisible edges of the Paradox that held Cael in his Stasis, sparks of energy dispersing from their point of contact. As if Causality itself was breaking in front of him. It scared Cael beyond words. He had began to wonder if he was enacting something with far more dire consequences than he could presently imagine. What if this Flame had escaped this prison, and began to Consume all of Meron in it's endless gluttony? Cael held no fondness for his current World, but understood the grim existence that possibility could bring. This power was dangerous, if only for the fact that it was unknown to Cael. To be fair, however, there was much in this World Cael wasn't made aware of yet. 

The Sparks continued their dance across the Void around Cael. Like thousands of Nightlights swimming in a sea of nothingness. It was undeniably a beautiful sight, under any other circumstances. Regardless, the Flame had felled it's mark, as the Paradox shimmered from Nothingness. Waves of undulating Causality spread itself around him, every instance of contact Cael made with the aftereffects from the Flame threatening to tear him apart. He could feel the seams of his being beginning to unfold in tempo with the Paradox itself. 

He wanted out. He begged for it, screamed. To see the light of day once more, after the endless years he had sworn he spent in this unfeeling place. He wanted Sarah, although he knew it was impossible. Their joyful conversations bouncing around in his memory as Reality crumbled around him, like jigsaw pieces falling away to reveal a Daylit sky. In an instant, the Paradox had disappeared, with Cael now falling from some indeterminable height above Fort Annalise. 

He wanted back inside now. 

The Churning winds caused by his fast descent sent ripples through his face and clothes, the skin flaps of his cheeks flapping like a pair of wings against the intrepid exertion of gravity in freefall. 

As he passed through Misty Clouds and the Cooling Atmosphere, adrenaline replaced the fear within him. He would need to act quickly if he were to survive.

From his vantage, he could see the expansive forests of Ager's Breach, The Indominable Mountain Range that sectioned it off from the Menilean Sea to the North. And miles of empty grasslands and small towns. Nothing that would reliably cushion his fall from such a height.

He was careening ever closer to the surface at this rate, as his surroundings became much more detailed than before. He could see Fort Annalise in all it's glory, the Massive Bulwark that surveyed all of Ager's Breach for potential attacks from Lesser Beings. Cael had only moments to act before he became a bloody stain atop the Garrison's Walls.

In his terror, he hadn't noticed the Flames reemerge from his hands. But instead of gnawing at the ample source of Reality that coursed around him in his descent, it instead flowed over every part of Cael's juvenile figure. Like a dashing set of armor made entirely from Molten Energy, he felt safe even in such a dire situation. 

It was only seconds later that his body made contact with the Great Hall, Splinters of Stone and Wood crashing alongside him. He was a human meteor, and in a singular display of raucous destruction, Fort Annalise was forever marred by his fall. 

A Large Chasm, like the one in Ager's Breach, spread throughout the Great Hall from Cael's sudden connection with the Ground, extending even to the Inner and Outer Baileys cordoned off by the previously Impregnable Battlements that had offered the Garrison an unintimidated view of the Valley to the South. Crumbling Structures and fragmented Walls now eclipsed the bounds of Fort Annalise. All from a single child. It was obliteration on an unseen scope. The Fort would protect no longer. Not in it's current state. 

As Cael began to rise from The Crevice his descent had formed, he took notice of the heaps of bodies in his wake. Men and Women, ranging from their early 20's to well into their Elderly Years by Human Metrics, lay dead and scattered gruesomely amongst the previously ornate Great Hall. Echoes of a raucous meal, a feast for the Adjudicator's sudden appearance, lay broken under seas of blood. It was far too much to process for Cael. It would be too much to process for any sane individual . One unfortunate fellow was cleaved in half by a falling Chandelier, his body crisscrossing across the Hall in a gruesome trail of flesh. It was a revelation for him, albeit a horrifying one.

The Power he used wasn't without consequence. Every action had an equal and opposite reaction. It was obvious, and it only registered in Cael's mind in this moment, surrounded by the corpses of his unintended victims as he was. How conceited he felt as he stood there, an emotionless stare piercing the bodies of what he assumed to be a Mother and Child. He was the perpetrator here, the evil that killed without remorse. In a way, he was just like his Father from Earth. The Thought sickened him. And the tears followed soon after.

"I'm Sorry. I'm Sorry. I'm Sorry." He bent over from the strength of his cries. Tears mingled with blood as he purged the sorrow caused by his hubris. Attempts at apology were rewarded with cold silence, the lifeless eyes of the corpses around him seemed to stare back with unbridled hatred. Mocking him. Blaming him. They were all correct. The pain grew and grew inside him, the tears only growing in intensity, as he stewed in his remorse. He couldn't find the strength to move forward. Not like this. He had taken not only a life, but dozens. It wasn't something he could easily move on from. For the first time in both of his lives, he was the villain. 

From behind, entering slowly and with intentioned steps, the frame of a familiar man came into view, marred by the visage of tears in his eyes. But Cael knew who he was regardless. 

Lord Carlo and Cael shared a Glance. Thousands of words spoken in an instant, without the need to speak. As bloodied and Bruised as Carlo was, all he could do was plant a hand on Cael's trembling shoulder. The man he considered a useful enemy was attempting to comfort him, in Carlo's own way. And while the question of how Carlo arrived here remained, when he should've been cast to some inconsequential point in Space, Cael could only bury his head in his hands, his whimpers and moans slowly losing their crescendo as the two stood in abject solidarity for the first time since their introduction. 

"Death is a Teacher. And I'm sure you've come to understand the importance of it's lessons."

Cael had. Through sickening display after sickening display, the Death around him could only teach. There was no blame to be cast. No evil present here. Just a boy coming to grips with the unrelenting power inside him. That was what Carlo's understanding look told him.

An atrocity, no doubt. These were sentient lives slaked in an instant, after all. But the Blame wasn't solely for Cael to burden himself with. The Trepidatious Power, while shielding him from an assured demise, hastened his descent, fueling his connection to the ground with umbral energy that bolstered the destruction of Fort Annalise. That killed these innocents. 

It was a shame he didn't believe it.