Salvation

His elk companion was similar in size to the beast that he had originally slain with his four sided ego. Eki may have been regularly sized, but the crustacean army stood no chance now that they were reunited.

'You beautiful boy, how is this even possible?'

The black sludge eventually found its way to the claw on Dorin's side, relieving him of some of the pain. With Dorin, Eki, and his strange reanimated beasts, they now held the upper hand. 

The remaining crustaceans retreated back to the water, waving their shells and claws in palpable frustration. They left their fallen comrades on the shore, uncaring for the dead.

Dorin felt faint as Eki began to lick his face. His companion still had the same red eyes, but it wasn't quite as jarring during the day. They faded from his vision as he dropped to the ground.

The black crustaceans returned to Dorin, engorged by the slaughter of battle. They entered his mouth, startling Dorin as they became one with him in the final moments of consciousness.

. . . 

Morah

"Where could he have gone?"

"I don't know, Muata." Morah matched the old man's footprints in the beach sand. 

Muata had been grumbling to himself for most of their journey, mostly about how stupid he was for sheltering a stray. 

"Maybe we should go back to Tur." Nearly three days had passed since Morah had left Tur, the longest she had ever been away from the city.

"There's nothing to go back to." 

"The boy could be anywhere by now. After what happened we need information."

"That deserter is no mere boy, somehow he managed to become a spark before his forging."

"That's impossible. I was told that he had never left Tur's border."

"He must be a hunger spark, maybe even a flame. Nothing else would have been able to sever the connection to my ego and create that explosion."

Morah remembered the empty space where Muata's house once sat. It had been the man's home for the entirety of her life. "Then we need to warn the Spire."

"Tocho knows. He has to." Muata stopped and stared at the ocean. "The boy would have been found within a day if he was a mortal."

The two of them watched the waves as the sun set, one of the few breaks in their search. Morah scratched her mark, hoping it would finally go away.

"What the-" Muata pointed down the coast, where dozens of crabs were entering the water. "Now that is worth investigating."

They rushed towards the retreating crabs, and by the time they got all that was left were the prints of their claws in the ground. They led towards a small bundle of trees on the edge of the beach. 

"Manifest your weapon." Muata whispered. 

The two of them dropped their egos, and several strands of light morphed around their arms. Morah held a thin rapier, and Muata a large club.

Dozens of crushed shells could be seen in the area, stripped of any flesh. Many of their claws had been torn off, nowhere to be found. The reek of the ocean was everywhere, so fresh that it was clear that these crabs were all alive in the past hour.

'What could have devoured them so fast?' Morah readied her weapon, pushing down any fear.

Muata led the way to the trees, but all they found were empty shells and a splatter of blood. The old man put his hands to the blood and it jumped onto them, turning them completely red. It converged in the center of his left palm, leaving a dark red shard.

"With this, I will be his ruin."

. . .

Drae

"Two virtues have been spotted on the board, elder."

Drae took a report from two middle-aged women, tightening his coat as a chilling wind blew through his tent. "So it has finally come to an end." 

"Salvation." The two women said in unison.

"To which side do they belong?"

"One on our side, and one on Sala's."

"Having one at all is enough." Drae set the report on his table and walked out of his tent into the never ending blizzard outside. "That world will cease to exist by the end of today."

The two of them looked at each other and bowed towards him, as though they wished to stay inside. 

'A loyalty built solely on desperation.'

Drae felt a certain disgust that these were the last two of his clan that remained in this world.

"We must make way towards the ego world, or else we will obtain nothing from all these months of waiting."

"Yes, elder."

Drae whistled, and a black horned beast twice his height appeared from edge of his vision. It knelt to the three of them and huffed, blowing warm air past them as the women yelped. Grabbing its horn, Drae jumped onto its back and put out a hand towards the women.

"Join me or walk into the cold, never to return."