We spotted Oscanion traveling on his mana platform, headed toward Rokesha, as Azenum had predicted. He was older than father, and had hints of the same characteristic sense of blackness about him, common to black mages, but even more powerful was the brown taint, the rot. Looking at him, all I and other mages could see was a middle-aged silver-flecked black-haired man with black-brown vileness radiating off him.

Izena was in position to ambush him along his projected line of travel, cutting him off. Hopefully, he would assume that I was near her as I typically was, and not bother attacking before retreating, as was his habit when we struck at him. If he noticed or hoped that I was absent and tried to duel her, she would be forced to parry his attacks with her own, a challenge that would be utterly impossible for any other black mage alive, possibly any other that had ever lived.

Izena might be able to do it. I didn't want to test that hypothesis.

Father and I were positioned to allow Oscanion to pass us by, without attacking for now, in order to catch him while he retreated, hopefully, from Izena.

A major challenge for us was that Azenum was less mobile than Izena and me, due to his inability to produce a solid mana platform, and not powerful enough to fight Oscanion alone like Izena possibly could. Since he could not transport or defend himself, I needed to escort him. He did not like leaving Izena in the most dangerous role, but it was the only way.

The time had come.

Izena fired a thunderbolt at Oscanion when he came within range, which he swiftly parried with his own. We had expected this. It had happened many times before.

Then, Oscanion fired his disgusting flames back in her direction, pressing his attack.

I spewed enough expletives for both Azenum and me. Father was speechless with worry.

Oscanion either knew or suspected that I wasn't with Izena, or was desperate enough to save his army to try to punch through anyway. Well, this scenario is why this part had been Izena's job. I had absolute faith in her. If she couldn't do it, no one could, and the world was doomed.

Immediately, I summoned my platform, and we raced in their direction. "Hold on Izena," I pleaded under my breath. Azenum said nothing. He was fixated on the battle, his face pained.

Izena and Oscanion were trading explosions of fire that would level large towns and annihilate armies, Izena's classic white hot molten iron impacting on Oscanion's flaming sludge, cancelling each other with ground-shaking shocks. Azenum and I, shielded, were the only still-living things in the blast zone, my shields quavering dangerously under each explosion.

Izena had not had a spare moment of thought to allow her to summon her own platform--she could not summon it in advance for fear of spoiling the ambush--and was desperately trying to push Oscanion in our direction, or at least keep him in front of her long enough for us to arrive. Maybe she actually could have summoned the platform, but didn't dare commit the mana to it.

I had never in my life flown so fast. Given that my shields were already struggling to repel the explosions, I couldn't spare the tweaks needed to configure them so that they would block the wind, too, so my eyes were watering while my hair flapped in the wind.

My sister needed help. My father was watching his daughter fight in single combat against a godlike tyrant trying to exterminate humanity, and had absolutely no control over how it would proceed unless I could Get. Us. There.

At last, we were in range for Azenum to strike.

Waiting for Oscanion's most recent blast wave to pass, father sent a lightning bolt in his direction. Oscanion was still recovering from casting his last spell targeting Izena. Azenum's attack struck him before he was able to muster another spell strong enough to repel it.

Moments later, we were in range for me to shield Izena. She was exhausted, her chest heaving and her mana pool in the analogous temporarily overexerted state, as she focussed on Oscanion's form on the ground.

I felt elation.

Izena had done it. She had survived alone long enough for us to trap the enemy. This was the greatest achievement in the history of black magic, I was certain. My sister!

I had done it. I had gotten us in range in time. My shields were up on all of us.

Azenum had done it. He had struck the tyrant with a spell from a range no other mortal could manage, at the proper timing to avoid Oscanion's ability to parry with a major spell, with enough power that it could not be deflected by a minor one.

Izena could catch her breath, let her mana pool settle, and then she and father would end this, end the entire war. Oscanion had nowhere to run. All I had to do was make us indestructible, so that he couldn't fight his way out.

Azenum and I landed. I released my platform so that I could dedicate all resources to my shields.

Oscanion rose to his knees, looking first at Izena and then at Azenum and me in turn, taking in our glowing shields.

I left Azenum and ran off forward and to the right, headed to a point equidistant between Azenum and Izena so that I could shield both with minimized loss to range. My shields had been right at the breaking point so far. Every tick of efficiency mattered.

Then, I felt Oscanion's mana roiling.

What is happening? Wait, no, no this is too much, this is more than he was using in his blasts until now. Was he holding back before?! Impossible, there would be no reason for him to do that. He would have just killed Izena if he had this much mana available to him.

Azenum, as alarmed as me, fired a lightning bolt at Oscanion immediately.

I looked back toward Izena. She was wisely waiting for Oscanion to cast the spell he would need to use to block Azenum's blow, in the same way that Azenum had waited earlier, so that she could strike during his down time afterward. She wouldn't need to cast a parry spell of her own, since she had my shield. This was our crucial advantage. Our black mages could focus on all-out attack, staggering their blows perfectly, because they trusted my shields to protect them at all times. Oscanion didn't have that luxury.

Azenum's attack was powerful enough that Oscanion would not be able to parry it with a minor--

Oscanion exploded.

What?! No. No! Agggh. What is this--My shields!

My shield was failing, as was Izena's. Neither would hold much longer. Father's must be failing, too.

I only had one choice.

I made it.

Izena broke her gaze away from Oscanion's former position and turned toward me, terror on her face as her shield suddenly went down not because it was broken by the attack, but because its white mana supply was suddenly cut off. Her last sight was my shield increasing in strength as I stared back at her, having rerouted the mana invested in her shield, and our father's, to strengthen my own.

I would never know what Azenum had done in his last moments. I had been looking at Izena.

When the dust settled, I stared at the black smudge that had been my sister. So black.

----

I stood weeping soundlessly, alone, looking in what I thought was the direction of My Island. The afternoon Sun was shining, with barely any clouds in the sky.

As I stood, I realized, in just a few days, it would be 944 years since I had left this place. I was 964 years old, and immortal. What would it be like, when I was, say, 10,000? How would this view have changed?

After a deep breath, I wiped My eyes and snot. I could have used a cleaning spell, but that felt as if it would somehow cheapen the sense of loss.

After collecting Myself, I contemplated My new solid Light regalia of divinity, which evoked the Sun now shining in the sky in both the symbols used and their intrinsic luminance. I looked at My bracelets, then grasped My Sun necklace in My left hand while running My right along the stars dotting the outside of My right ear. I could feel the weight of the Sun circlet on My brow.

This is Me.

"No harm can come to any who can see the Light of the Goddess of Salvation," I stated matter-of-factly. "None." It is axiomatic.

I don't know what the world will look like in thousands of years, but I know what I will look like, and what I will spend my time doing.

Now, I cast a cleaning spell.

I looked around the field. The trees and shrubs had grown back. The grass was waving. There were no black smudges on the ground. Everything was green, stretching to the horizon. Healthy. Healed.

Had I not made My choice, the city of Rokesha would currently be annihilated, and I would not be here now. Salvation would be gone from the world, and Justice would never return.

Then, My mind turned to another victim.

"It wasn't really your fault, was it Oscanion?" I asked the air. "You were the first victim, weren't you? Or one of the first. The first victim who was a mage, the only mage working at the laboratory. It used you to kill, even used you as a platform to cast its simpler full-wipe zero-consciousness vegetable-with-orders version of mind domination on others remotely. Those victims got simple instructions installed to save effort or maybe mana, occasionally updated when necessary, but in order to use your black magic, to use you as its agent on the surface, it did something special and expensive for you. Left a piece of you behind and installed a copy of its own mind on top of yours, or maybe a telepathic link to its own mind."

I looked over at My best guess for the location of his final explosion. "Then it disposed of you when it determined that there was no way to save its tool, to try to kill Izena and Me?"

Had he been like the storm fly?

"Did you have to watch what it was making you do, for twenty years? I cannot even imagine. The end must have been a blessing. We will kill it for you, too. I swear it on the names of the Sister Goddesses. That thing, whatever it is, is anathema. We will smite it. It loves death and rot so much that its desire is imprinted on its mana, that it depopulated half the world to gorge itself on the rotting corpses? Then We will bring it the death it cherishes."

I continued My search in silence.

After a day of thorough searching with My own mage-sight, I concluded with no small amount of disappointment that Izena was not here. I confirmed with My assistants that they had found nothing, either, and bid them farewell.

"Off to Ezenta," I said under my breath.

Ezenta meant mages. Or, maybe only more knowledge of them, since mages were basically extinct everywhere now. Also, people who knew more about the history of My family.

Ezenta meant people who might ask more prying and uncomfortable questions.

"I survived, Izena has a chance to survive, and the world has a chance to survive, because of My decision, My actions," I said. "I did the right thing, even though it was painful."

The hypothetical inquisitors could go to Solenn themselves if they were so zealous.