Page 99 of Chaos Carnival

“You have to stop this!” Baphomet's roar carried terror as his waves of darkness crashed uselessly against the Null God. His eyes kept darting to where I was trapped, his attacks growing wild and unfocused. A hunter's blade sliced his arm, drawing immortal ichor, because he'd been watching me instead of his opponent. I tried to scream, to warn him, but where the Null God touched me, even sound ceased to exist.

My chest constricted as I watched them fight. Maverick's shadows piercing hunter after hunter, Stone's crystal spears singing through the air, Lux's glamours, all of it meaningless when faced with the void.

The shame burned like acid through my bones. I'd led them here, convinced them to trust my plan. My certainty, my arrogance, my belief that I saw every possible future—it had doomed everyone I loved.

Something snapped inside me.

Energy surged through my body—not the careful weavings of fate, but something deeper, more primal. I reached beyond patterns, beyond possibility itself, drawing on the raw foundations of existence.

My senses screamed in protest as time buckled around me.

“I won't let you take them.”

Blood trickled from my nose, my ears, my eyes as magic ripped through me.

Every cell in my body began to tear apart, unable to contain what I was channeling. My skin ruptured like porcelain, golden light spilling from the fissures. Bones shattered one by one, organs liquefied, muscles tore themselves to shreds.

The pain was beyond comprehension, but I refused to let go. I was always going to die here; this Null God didn’t change anything for me.

But I'd make sure my death meant something.

“Tess, stop!” Maverick's voice broke as he tried to reach me. “Please!” I turned toward him, meeting his desperate gaze through eyes that wept blood.

My throat filled with blood, lungs collapsing, but I forced the words out: “I'm sorry.”

The energy built beyond anything I could control. My consciousness fragmented, pieces of my mind burning away like paper in flame.

I tried to reach for Maverick one last time, but my arm crumbled to ash at that movement.

Reality split into kaleidoscope patterns as my heart finally imploded, unable to withstand the strain.

My final thought was not of power or possibilities or fate.

It was of Maverick's smile that first night at Devil's Delirium, when everything was terrible and wonderful and new. When I still believed I could hate him.

Then everything went dark as my body gave out, consumed by the very forces I'd tried to wield.

Chapter 47: Dimensional Sacrifice

Tess

Iwatchedmyowndeath unfold from everywhere and nowhere, my consciousness scattered across dimensions like sand.

The Null God's form rippled, its edges blurring.

Without my alchemy to feed on, to define itself against, its presence began to unravel. I understood then. It had used me as an anchor point, my manipulation of the universe giving it something to negate, to exist in opposition to.

Waves of anti-matter flowed outward.

The circus tent ceased to have ever existed. The ground cracked, revealing not earth but pure nothingness.

My family scrambled back, but there was nowhere to run. This thing would consume everything, everywhere, everywhen.

Time warped.

Maverick was both yards away and directly beneath the void, Stone's crystals both striking true and passing through empty air, Lux both standing and falling through a non-existent floor.

The laws of physics crumbled, gravity reversed, then vanished. Light bent impossibly, showing glimpses of other dimensions bleeding through reality's thinning walls.

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