Here's the outline I had, cleaned up for today. There might be some things missing; feel free to ask any questions at all. I'll post the raw outline right after for those who are interested!
Volume 6
It's revealed that, all along, Nerium was actually a spy for Agrona, cut off from home base. He was tasked with destroying the Kadamba tree in the prison, basically doing the job Toren and Chul wound up doing. He's an outcast because of his inability to become a Kadamba himself, and he decided to tear the system down himself. He will do everything he can to kill every Kadamba he finds, including the one that was protecting Naesia and the others. He flees from the Kadamba tree in the desert, leaving Toren, Chul, Naesia, Ulysseiah, and the others to die in the storm. Toren and co rush after him as they're pursued by monstrous beasts, just as the Matali contingent arrives to reinforce them. They reach the banks of the river where Wren stores his stuff.
This is where the plot twist comes. Toren, knowing that he can't hide undercover long at all, deliberately blows his cover as a pantheon yaksha, attacking the Matalis. He pretends to be a spy for Agrona, punting Chul down into the water in a feigned act of betrayal. Chul swims to Wren's cache of stuff as Toren dukes it out with the Matalis. Toren thrashes them within an inch of their lives before allowing one to get a "lucky" shot off on him, "slaying" him. But before they can confirm their kill, his body is swallowed by a "beast," really Wren's constructs in disguise.
Belowground, Chul gets jumped by Nerium, and Chul, in contrast to Toren, actually spares Nerium, who all along had been trying to draw Chul into his mindset. At the end, though, Chul feels as if that is all he can do: before Wren brings a certain item forth. A spark of the divine flame of Brother Fire. Wren reveals the rest of the story about the old pantheon, Aebel, and how their brother, the first Kain, slew him to end their warmongering, forming a new pact with the Sacred Fire: one of creation instead of destruction. As the sacred fire flows into Chul, Wren says he will teach Chul what it means to forge with strength rather than shatter. And Chul, with Nerium hostage, determines to prove to the hamadryad that he can create.
After this, Cylrit and Caera have a heartfelt exchange before Caera lets herself be taken away to be experimented on by Sovereign Orlaeth in an effort to awaken her further. Her last memories are of fading to black and using her choice as an anchor to hold on.
Sevren works with Wade, Naereni, and the others to set up something that's being smuggled out of Seris' old estate, but all across the Dominions in a specific pattern. Wade questions what the purpose of these devices they're setting up is, noting that it seems to be a shielding artifact of some sort. One of the survivors, a woman whom I never came up with a name for (Let's call her mysterious woman X), arouses Sevren's suspicion. She appears to really be the first convert in Circe's new religion thing, as she asked Circe how to channel Toren's power the most directly.
Just then, Melzri swoops in, and Sevren thinks he's gonna have to fight. Melzri, however, demands that Sevren protect Mawar, or else she'll kill him. Mawar is at risk of having her Retainership stripped for her losses in the war, as Agrona needs a scapegoat. Sevren realizes that this was the real reason he saw Melzri in Truacia: she was looking to hide Mawar in the marshes with Bivrae, but Sevren and co murdered Bivrae too soon. Still, Sevren rightly calls out Melzri for this facade of a family. He says that she doesn't even really care for it, and she only really cares for herself. But as Sevren says this, he trails off, realizing that he's the same with his own family. Always chasing a vision rather than the real people. He and Melzri have hated each other so deeply because they are mirrors. He agrees to shelter Mawar from the retribution of the other Scythes.
And as all this is happening, Seth Milview gets another vision. He asks his sister to just ignore them, as her fanaticism scares him. Yet she insists, and Seth tells her a certain place she needs to be…
Arthur instructs his mother on how to call out to Toren, as Aya had managed to get info on the technique. She does so, channeling his powers. With this boost, Alice is able to heal Virion, finally bringing him back. Arthur practices more with spatium and realizes he's close to Integration.
Toren and Wren arrive with Chul, who now bears Sacred Fire, in Klethra. Ulysseiah has gone on ahead, and earlier she had a meeting with Veruhn Ecclesiah, where she realized with horror that he, too, is experiencing the same aetheric attacks as she. But Toren, now disguised as a dragon with Wren's cloaking artifacts (which make it far easier for him to obfuscate his mana and aether signature, and thus allowing him to have a separate identity from the pantheon warrior), investigates the ruins of Evascir's home, and he realizes where the Asclepius are being hidden...
Beneath the Boundary Sea. After all, what better place to hide a firebird but leagues beneath the ocean in a specialized prison?
Now Toren needs to be able to reach this prison, but that's tough because the Boundary Sea is acting weird as fuck now. Warping space, a whole lot of mana beasts that refuse to die emerging like a tide from the waves, etc... This comes to a bit of a head when Toren is out and about, disguised as a dragon, and looking for a Navigator to potentially try and go on a death mission, when he sees Lithen and Naesia publicly admonishing an "Asclepius" phoenix. (Actually, someone else in disguise.) Toren can immediately tell that Lithen's heart isn't in it, but he has no choice. Ulysseiah also watches and is drawn into the debate.
Then, Sylvie, alongside Taci (who is basically forced to be her lackey, since she has the blackmail of "you tried to kill me" as a final nail in his proverbial coffin), finally appears, taking a public stance against Lithen and Naesia in a central square. She gains the upper hand in a debate, successfully displaying at least part of the lies about the Asclepius. Then she locks eyes with Toren, and she doesn't quite seem to recognize him...
And then all hell breaks loose as they're attacked by a legion of the sea monsters. Toren and Taci work together to protect Sylvie as they put down the monsters, but one escapes after muttering Toren's name, and Toren can't bring himself to kill it for some reason. In the aftermath, Lady Myre and Charon Indrath arrive to assess the damage. It's very clear that problems involving the boundary sea are spiralling out of hand, and there needs to be a task force to address this. Naesia and Lithen are selected, as are the Matalis and Ulysseiah offered by Veruhn. Sylvie, not knowing who Toren is, wants him to join her on this, as she is trying to form an asuran faction that favors the lessers of the "Old World." Taci, ironically, sees right through Toren's disguise, but doesn't say anything to Charon or Myre. He does, however, demand that Toren heal his eyes and make him whole again. Toren refuses for now.
Toren returns to Chul and Wren's hideout, where Chul is undergoing forging training with Wren (and also approaching the need for sculpting). He tells them the circumstances and says he'll try and free the Asclepius on this outing, as it's close to the prison in the sea. He leaves behind his broken violin.
Toren, Taci, Sylvie, Lithen, Naesia, Ulysseiah, and co leave on a sea expedition charting the waves. Ulysseiah starts to piece together that the Pantheon that she thought died to the Matalis and this odd dragon are one and the same. Toren spars with Taci, and Toren starts to train a replication of Taci's spear effect. After all, heartfire can be used to widen mana veins. Why can't it be used to squeeze them shut, too?
Chul, training with Wren, starts to fall in rhythm as he hammers away. He feels the person he wants to be, feels the fire, and sculpts himself in a moment of clarity. Suncrusher reignites, becoming not a maul meant to destroy, but a hammer that can build. Sunmaker.
Then, back to Toren and co, when they start to actually reach the crux of an "anomaly" near the Asclepius prison, we cut away to another POV.
Caera finally awakens from her painful experimentation, now a white core mage. She gets some information on the Wraiths, but is brought to see something. Seth Milview has been captured, and is sitting before Agrona. Seth had lied to Circe about his last vision's location, and had sent her to the safe place, and he instead took the plunge to the one he sensed was "dangerous." But Fate is apathetic, and Seth was sent into an ambush.
Agrona, with Caera watching, demands for Seth to channel Toren Daen. "Pray to his god" type shit. And Seth, terrified of Agrona, does so. He calls on Toren, and Toren answers: but his shade/spirit is almost immediately trapped in a cage of Agrona's making, forced to loom about about Seth like Aurora. Toren and Agrona engage in back-and-forth verbal spars, with Agrona making the point that Toren will always return to him: since Agrona is the only person alive who's ever reincarnated someone from the dead, and Toren needs that information to bring back Aurora. Agrona also gives Toren some background on the Legacy and why it's so important.
In the end, though, Toren is trapped. But Seth, realizing the need for a greater good, tells Toren to channel all the power he can. And Toren, reluctantly, does so. Seth manages to tear off Agrona's mask as he alights with Resonant Flow, revealing that the High Sovereign was permanently scarred by Aurora's final attack. This, however, kills Seth, overloading his heart. Toren lets Seth's soul communicate one more time with Circe, and Toren's goals shift further. He isn't just going to fight Death. He's going to fight Fate. He fully embraces his Morningstar image, determined to shatter heaven itself. This is also a definitive shift in how Fate is portrayed. Instead of apathetic, this is deliberately cruel.
And Toren awakes, just in time for a Cthulhu-esque beast (Deva, whatever) to rise from the depths of the sea, decimating the asuran assault force as they reach the prison island. It is an extension of the Flood that's been manifesting in the Boundary Sea, a concentration of all the rage of the aether realm.
Toren, done hiding, holding back, and pulling his punches, awakes from his "soul coma" and finally engages his Domain, revealing his true identity to those he'd been traveling with. He lets loose, using all the absurd and over-the-top amounts of mana he can for the first time. (Catharsis, yay!) He is in a stalemate with the Cthulu beast for a time before finally relieving it of an arm and driving it back. Before it retreats, however, it names him Spellsong.
Toren, tired but thoroughly pissed and alight with newfound resolve, breaks the Asclepius out of their prison before ordering Ulysseiah to turn the boat around. It's time they had a talk with Kezess Indrath.
Now, Arthur also goes into seclusion to undergo Integration. At the same time, Caera is shaken by all she's seen but unable to tell anyone. Still suffering from visions and aftereffects of Orlaeth's torture, she leans on Cylrit to give her some peace. She talks with him just to center herself, and he, of course, listens very well. She asks him whatever questions she can think of that come to mind, using him as an anchor for herself in a wayward drift. Caera identifies that it was Cylrit who planted the roses in the garden. They have a poignant moment where they lean on each other to get through the pain.
Lady Myre realizes something has gone very, very wrong, and suspects that Lord Veruhn is half the cause of it, obscuring Indrath intelligence. Most of the Navigators, and similar leviathans, have been captured and forced into containment under Kezess' orders. But as she, Charon, and Aldir confront Veruhn for his betrayal, something even stranger happens. A heterochromic stranger phoenix, laughing and joyful, is strolling through the streets of Klethra despite the institution of martial law. And when they go to confront this fool, she realizes instantly what he is. She orders him taken into custody, but Chul is much more powerful now: something about his recent sculpting is different. As the outcome of Chul's unique sculpting, whenever he is weakened, his very physique is strengthened on his next recovery. He can strengthen his physique into infinity so long as he finds a way to exhaust himself. Chul, ever the happy blowhard, tells her to await the rest of his family. Charon questions what he means, just as a pulse of mana ripples through the city.
A light appears on the horizon. Toren, at the prow of a ship with two hundred Asclepius at his back, arrives before the city. He announces himself: son of Dawn, Spellsong, "lesser," Morningstar, enemy of Agrona and leader of the Banished. And he says that he's come to bargain with Kezess. Because they both have a likeminded goal: break Fate itself.
Kezess enters negotiations with Toren, actually allowing the Asclepius to stay in Klethra so long as they stay silent and work with the dragons on understanding Fate, and give all their information to Kezess. Toren learns even more about the ancient Wraiths from Lady Myre, and connects with Veruhn and Ulysseiah more. They realize that the leviathans have some sort of connection to the wider aether that is affecting them differently than the dragons. Toren also expands his channeling abilities, allowing a few of the Asclepius to channel him at once. Toren speaks with one of the captured beasts—the one he'd hesitated to kill before—and it channels mana into a beast core. Toren realizes that some lingering part of Greahd is inside this beast.
Chul presents Toren with his reforged violin, the first thing Chul ever crafted. Toren breaks down in tears, and the two are finally brothers. Arthur finally Integrates.
Toren and Ulysseiah approach Veruhn with questions about the aether realm and the boundary sea, and why Greahd's soul(?) was influencing one of the creatures. Veruhn reveals insight about the aether realm around Epheotus, how it's been growing, how it's made of souls… And all these souls seem enraged, and that rage bleeds through to the leviathans. But it only happened recently, around the Second Dawn. But things go wrong when Veruhn suddenly erupts into a rage, devastating the city (unbeknownst to the Asclepius, this was done by Kezess with a mana pulse to justify what comes next).
Nigh maddened by the song of the sea, he attacks the city of Klethra as dozens of beasts arise from the ocean, seeking to kill the inhabitants and march toward Mount Geolus. Ulysseiah is actually "slain." Toren and Chul manage to fight off Veruhn, working together in perfect tandem. Veruhn descends into the sea. But then, in the aftermath, Kezess' missives declare that all the leviathans are to be exiled from Epheotus, as they're a threat to everything. Toren and the Asclepius reject this, as they realize this is a step toward the genocide of aether-wielding leviathans (something that Veruhn had foreseen and been working to try and avert).
All along, Mordain and Kezess had been talking, arguing about what the best way to run the world would be. But Kezess finally snaps, accepting that he is the monster he's always worked to destroy, and finally embraces it. He lets Mordain go, running back toward Toren and co. This "escape" is the exact justification that Kezess needed to truly, finally declare extinction on the phoenixes, too. Toren and the Asclepius lead an exodus with many of the leviathans that are still there, trying to fly to safety. Toren uses his Domain in its support capacities for the first time, using its buffs to help the Asclepius and leviathans break the blockade. Toren's Domain strips enemies of their power (by denying them ambient mana to reinforce their spells) and enhances abilities of allies tenfold (by compounding the ambient mana they can use), while also granting every ally the awareness of Sonar Pulse and Intent Sense.
Toren and Chul engage Aldir in dual combat, forcing him to enter his true pantheon form. But before they can continue their battle, Aldir steps aside. Because Kezess himself blocks the way, finally having stepped off his mountain.
At the same time, Sovereign Orlaeth is lured to Darrin's estate by Caera's words after she gets a message from Seris. The Sovereign barges in on the Denoirs planning rebellion with a number of other Highbloods and allies of Toren.
Dragoth, Echeron, and Melzri all accompany the asura. Orlaeth, knowing that Caera and Cylrit are enemies of Agrona, orders Dragoth and Echeron to end them and the rebels. A brutal battle ensues, with Caera and Cylrit taking on Dragoth as Sevren kills Echeron with his new weaponry.
Through it all, Orlaeth watches and observes. He knows that Caera helped smuggle the shielding artifacts to this place, among some others. And he'll enjoy the show as it plays out.
As Sevren emerges victorious over Echeron, Melzri intervenes, trying to kill him, but she hesitates, as Mawar is on Sevren's side, asking her to turn away. But as Melzri finally turns, Orlaeth assaults her mind, ordering her to kill both Mawar and Sevren. Cue "Mysterious Woman X" finally holding off Melzri, revealing herself to be Aya in disguise, who'd managed to sneak onto Alacrya by following Cylrit at the end of the Vol 5 climax. Melzri is subdued.
Switch to Orlaeth's POV. Because none of this matters, because even as Caera and Cylrit kill Dragoth (who would have earlier been revealed to be another one of Scythe Kelagon's sons, and thus a counterpoint to Cylrit, who stepped past his father's failure of a role model), Orlaeth holds the power, and orders them all to kill each other. But then a single voice speaks up.
A singular woman has sat unnoticed throughout the entire battle, one "Renea Shorn." She compliments Orlaeth on his tactics, but Orlaeth dismisses this stranger. After all, what use has he for a lesser? Seris sips her tea, letting him speak. But finally, she interrupts him, telling Orlaeth that he should be mindful of himself. He's bleeding.
Unbeknownst to Orlaeth, his secondary head had dared to try and invade Seris' mind, and the very act itself caused it to die from inverted poison. Its eyes bleed as it hangs limply over Orlaeth's shoulder, unresponsive. Orlaeth hadn't even noticed it was dead. And for the first time, Orlaeth begins to feel fear.
Seris congratulates Caera on her trials, recognizing her and Cylrit's strength, as Sevren laughs madly. Because he knows best what is about to happen. After all, he'd been the one to use inverted powers against Vritra retainers, destabilizing the entire continent. Seris took time in her last minute preparations for what comes next.
Orlaeth runs, and the hunt is on. Seris, finally embracing part of her darkness, chases him, making him prey. He tries everything in his power to kill her or escape, but he's nothing but a bug for her to squash. She toys with him for a bit, enjoying it in a sadistic way. Orlaeth says that she was never mutated or had her mind altered by the Sovereigns at all. She was born this way, and they had nothing to do with it. Seris reigns herself back in, acknowledging this, accepting it, and moving forward.
And then she hauls Orlaeth's beaten and broken body to the center of her shielding array, preparing his core. Because she learned something from Toren's notebook, and from the Breaking of Burim itself. If she wanted victory over Agrona, she couldn't just wall herself in in Sehz Clar and wait for a hero. She needed to take action herself, needed to flip the script to give the people a chance.
And as she uses Orlaeth to power her shielding array, it's revealed that Sehz Clar is not the target of the shield, as in canon, but the Central Dominion itself. The entirety of Agrona's home dominion is covered in a titanic shield of inverted decay, locking him and the rest inside.
When Toren had begun his flight from Epheotus with Asclepius and leviathans in tow, he'd found organized resistance. He and Chul fought Aldir to a stalemate, forcing the pantheon general to finally use his true asuran form. But before this could ever be used fully, Aldir steps aside: because Kezess has arrived.
Toren, sensing that he's probably the only shot at hurting Kezess, throws himself at the ruler of Epheotus. Kezess hits Toren once with a casual punch, and Toren fucking dies.
And I mean, he dies. Toren's corpse is sent hurtling through the air, skipping on water. Toren's soul is thrown from his body from the sheer force of the blow, and he has to scramble to stuff his spirit back in his corpse before he slams into a mountain. Toren, horrified by the fact that a single punch killed him, gathers the nigh infinite amounts of mana he had gathered in his spirit, and prepares to do the functional equivalent of a Dragon Ball Kamehameha on Kezess.
Kezess delivers a suitably badass and megalomaniacal speech as Toren gathers his power, Broly versus Goku style. And then Kezess tanks it head-on, not even taking a scratch from energy comparable to what had reignited the sun at the end of Volume 5. And as Toren exhausts himself, it finally clicks what Kezess' power is, why he's invulnerable and immortal. He's halted his own time, as he's halted time for all of Epheotus.
As Kezess reaches Toren's body, Toren pulls off one final gambit, an extension of his Domain. Toren instantiates his very Sea of the Soul throughout the domain, just for a flicker of time. And when he cuts Kezess, he can't heal that. But it's a bit too late for Toren anyway. All for a scratch: until Mordain steps in, using his foresight powers (think of Nighteye on crack) to whisk Toren away and stall Kezess to the end. Mordain's power works by foreseeing the future, essentially guaranteeing a near-eternal stalemate. Kezess could break the stalemate, though: if he only used Static Void. Static Void "separates the user from the flow of time," meaning that Mordain's aether arts wouldn't work in that space between moments: but neither would Kezess' time-based invulnerability.
And Mordain knows Kezess would never use such a technique, even if it means letting Toren and the rest get away, because Kezess will never let himself be vulnerable again. So instead, Kezess will wear Mordain out, allowing his phoenix once-friend to exhaust his mana first.
Ulysseiah returns, too, ordering the Deva (and a corrupted Veruhn) to hold off the rest of the Indraths. On the other end of the rift, Arthur uses his spatium to open the path, allowing the wayward asura to finally escape back to Dicathen in a beam of light.
Toren evacuates with the rest of the Asclepius and leviathans. Ulysseiah is tossed through alongside them by Veruhn, who prepares to die defending them.
And as Mordain faces off with Kezess, Mordain catches a glimpse of Aurora's soul. He laughs as he finally understands, and he readies himself to die.
Volume 7
Toren arrives with the battered Asclepius and leviathans on Dicathian soil, but they can't stay long. A letter arrives for Toren: a taunt from Agrona about how only he can help Toren reincarnate Aurora. Toren recuperates for a time, realizing that Mordain is dead.
Toren and the New Hearth would, alongside Arthur and maybe a couple of Lances, head over to Alacrya to assist Seris in the Alacryan war. Chul would spark up a friendship(?) with Olfred, who is also close to Integrating, as Chul will promise to assist the dwarves in rebuilding after the war is over.
Toren is still insistent on reviving Aurora, to which this devolves into an argument with Arthur, who knows what the loss of a mother can twist people to do. Arthur would call into question the meaning of death, and here we would see more Regis development as the shade questions who he is in the wake of Fate itself becoming almost cruel.
Toren arrives in Alacrya at the head of not just the Asclepius, but many leviathans as well. He has a reunion with Seris and Sevren, as they've essentially laid out the whole of Taegrin Caelum on a silver platter. Toren makes a speech to the people about rebellion as the flag finally soars high. Seris prepares a program to break Agrona's hold over their runes.
Toren has a meeting with Circe. She's lost her faith in the wake of Seth's death, and she blames Toren. Toren is honest with her: he's no god. There is no god here that will answer her prayers. He's here to talk, but there will always be a place he can fail.
Toren and the Asclepius lead an initial battle against Wraiths that is successful, but Agrona unleashes a refined version of Mardeth's plague onto Alacrya that forces the rebels to split their forces. Toren, who initially wanted to assault Taegrin Caelum with all the power he had available, is forced away. He realizes he can't get in with brute force alone. Many of the Asclepius are forced to flit about Alacrya, channeling Toren to heal the plague. This leaves Toren tired.
Oludari and a few other Wraiths are captured. He gives Toren insight into his world-hopping devices, but they won't work for some reason! We get more insight into how the Legacy was formed.
Toren finally plays a song for Seris, where they reconnect and find solace in each other. They finally have a time for themselves. Seris falls asleep in Toren's arms, but afterwards Cylrit enters. Cylrit looks upon them fondly, but then asks Toren for advice. He's torn with his current relationship with Caera, terribly aware of the parallels with Seris. Caera wishes for something more from them. Cylrit feels that same desire, but he's conflicted. But is this another repetition in Fate? If he says yes, has he manipulated her? If he says no, does that mean Fate can never change? Toren gives a word of advice, what he can. And Cylrit leaves, perhaps not at peace, but with direction in his steps.
At the same time, Lady Myre arrives on the coast of Alacrya as ambassador for Epheotus, forcing Toren to work with two fronts. Even if he defeats Agrona, Kezess will be waiting for him. Unbeknownst to Toren, Seris, or the rest, Lady Myre starts talking with Agrona through secret channels. Agrona, notably, isn't in Taegrin Caelum often, but spends most of his time beneath Mount Nishan. Agrona shows Myre a few bits of Catastrophe samples: fire, water, and wind. Myre delivers a gift from Kezess: a bit of Mount Geolus. Earth. Then they scheme on how to remove Toren from the board, while also attempting to undermine each other. Yet as Myre leaves, Agrona gives her a letter.
Toren retreats with Chul and Arthur into the Relictombs, because he's not yet powerful enough to deal with Kezess or the others, and the djinn have more knowledge of the soul. Toren learns to share his mana with those who channel him, just as Aurora shared her mana via her feather with Toren long before. Arthur and Regis have also been getting visions/warnings about Fate, which ties into the entire experience with the Cthulu monsters in the near-bursting boundary sea. Toren and Seris also prepare a new plan: one that isn't spoken of yet.
Then, when Toren returns from one of his ascents after receiving word from Seris, he is approached by Circe, who tears out the inverted horn in his chest, killing him. The Town Zone is destroyed as Wraiths, let in by Circe, eradicate their base of operations in the once-impregnable fortress. Circe gives Inversion to Perhata, who destroys it, condemning Toren to never revive again.
Perhata and the Wraiths, knowing themselves victorious, cart Toren's body back to the heart of Taegrin Caelum. Circe brings Toren's body before Agrona personally at the heart of Taegrin Caelum, professing that Toren betrayed her faith. And just when Agrona is close... She reveals another white dagger/inverted horn, before driving it into Toren's chest.
Seris and Toren, realizing that they could never get close to Agrona without a miraculous play, engineered a new gambit. And now, using one of Seris' Inverted horns that she broke off, Toren's able to lurch back to life, tearing through the fake Agrona (Fifth Sovereign). And using his understanding of Agrona's soul, Toren, alongside Chul, beeline for the basement where the true threat lies. Circe escapes the conflict just barely, embittered but finding solace in Agrona's coming death.
Toren and Chul utterly tear into Agrona, jumping him before he can leave his isolation pod thingy, JJK style. But Agrona reveals some tricks up his sleeve: he's able to use every rune that any Alacryan has ever earned just by tracing it in the air with mana, and this makes him a terrifying opponent. Agrona has also concentrated deadly poisons designed to inhibit the heart, making all of Toren's heartfire-based techniques sluggish and slow. But as the battle escalates, tearing Taegrin Caelum apart, it's clear Agrona stands no chance: especially when Seris arrives, serving as their backup.
Until… Toren's mana attacks stop working. And he realizes that something is very, very wrong.
Toren was always correct that killing an Anchor would stop Agrona from ever being able to reincarnate the Legacy into a body. That was always true. But Agrona is one for irony, mockery, and corruption. And Toren, all along, had served Agrona the perfect way to have what he wanted anyway.
Because Toren's bond with Lady Dawn showed Agrona that the High Sovereign never needed to give the Legacy a body. He just needed to call her to this planet and chain her to him in a mockery of a bond, enslaving her spirit to his will. In a deliberate twist of what gave Toren all the power he'd ever known, Agrona keeps the Legacy's soul chained to his via a bond.
The battle inverts nearly immediately. Chul and Toren are able to protect themselves to a degree with their heartfire, but they can't expend mana beyond themselves lest it be absorbed and conquered. Toren's heartfire arts offer some respite: if he can hit Agrona with a heartfire severing strike, or disable Agrona's mana channels with heartfire, there's a chance at victory. Chul can also channel Toren's techniques too, and as Chul is basically a melee fighter, he actually performs better than Toren. Toren's domain offers some resistance, but it's not enough. They rise into the sky, fighting and battling, before Agrona nearly kills Chul with a dagger to the heart. Toren collapses his domain, forming a prototype supernova spell in an attempt to eliminate Agrona entirely, but it fails. His heart gives in at the critical moment.
But just as Toren and Chul are about to be killed, Arthur arrives, shoring up the defense. Arthur's control over aether means that those he protects can't have their mana easily absorbed, and Seris' inverted decay is still poison to Agrona's body. They're able to make Agrona pause: but it's clear it's a lost cause. Except there's the slightest reaction from Cecilia's enslaved soul...
Agrona backs off. He informs the group that an army from Epheotus, thousands strong, is on its way to kill them all: and Toren and the Hearth are the only things that can stop it. So he needs to go and let himself die against them like the hero he is. And neither can Toren die until he's revived Aurora: she needs to see her sons die to Agrona. Agrona honestly wasn't expecting Toren to attack so soon, but he still has a piece to play as a pawn. Agrona delivers the last bit of insight Toren needs to understand how to reincarnate people.
Toren, Chul, Arthur, and Seris retreat, horrified and near despair. But Arthur, Toren, and Chul realize something. a) Cecilia hesitated when trying to kill Arthur. and b) Regis has an inkling that they must revive Aurora. She's the key to this. Now they must work together to try and reincarnate Lady Dawn at last.
Toren, Chul, Arthur, and Regis gather in the Relictombs, prepared to call Aurora's spirit down. And indeed, she answers… But she won't rejoin her body. She refuses. Because it's revealed that Aurora had never stopped fighting, even in death. She's been merging with Fate itself as a new Aspect: the Heart, but it's not complete yet. And with a Heart, Fate might just be kind, not the apathetic monstrosity it had always been. It can also be cruel. Fate might be what people make of it with their emotions. And the way that it might be completed is Regis, prying open a hole into Fate itself. But it will need one more sacrifice: that of Toren's ability to revive people at all.
Regis, who had been questioning his purpose as set before him by Fate, realizes that Fate wants this least of all. It cannot have this. Regis takes solace in the realization that he can choose his own purpose, just like Caera did. He decides to take Aurora's offer.
So Toren and Chul share one last meeting with their mother as family, before letting her go. And then, in tune with Arthur and Regis, they initiate a ritual, centralizing it through Aurora. Regis sacrifices himself to carve open the new "place." And in doing so, he sends a vision of what could have been to a certain dragon bonded with Arthur, asking her to take care of him. In a flashing heartbeat, Fate itself is remade: alongside both Toren and Chul once more in their final sculptings, with Aurora's vessel offered as the foundation. But the ritual to reincarnate Aurora never finished. And though Toren cannot initiate another one, for he will never remember how to again, he can still call down one more soul…
While Chul's physique is buffed, Toren's heart is what is remade. His heart is made indestructible and cannot be destroyed. (Destruction itself wouldn't be able to destroy it.) It can stop beating, it can weaken, but it will never vanish.
When the crew emerges from their ritual, the asuran army is almost upon them. Seris has been working frantically, setting up an array atop Mount Nishan, where ritualistic mana pulses emanate. She knows that they can't face Agrona as is, so they're going to go with the gambit that she'd planned from the very start: force Agrona and Kezess to fight one another to the death.
Sylvie rushes to Epheotus with many of her companions, warning all the asura there to evacuate. With the aether realm destabilized, the Relictombs and Epheotus itself will soon dissipate, and the oncoming battle of titans will leave it more devastated.
Arthur proposes to Tess, asking her to marry him when these battles are all over. Tessia, tearfully, says yes. A remade Toren, alongside 200 Asclepius phoenixes and a couple hundred leviathans, wait in the sea and sky for the oncoming Epheotus army, aware that this is exactly what Agrona wants him to do. How can 400 contest against thousands of warrior asura? How could they ever hope for victory?
Before Toren's recent sculpting, there would have been no chance of victory. But now, a kinder Fate is on their side, and Toren's heart is the strongest it has ever been. Before, only a few people could channel his aetheric abilities at once, because his heart wasn't strong enough for more. But now...
Now, 400 enraged asura can call on his soul at once. When channeling Toren, every phoenix in the warband can heal from nearly any wound, can heal others, can cause unhealing wounds, can hear heartbeats, and can use Resonant Flow. And now, Toren can share his mana---nigh infinite due to the unique quirks of his Integration and shrouded weapons---across those he's connected to, just like how Aurora's feather granted him mana in the early days. Stack on top Toren's Domain that strips enemies of their power and enhances abilities of allies tenfold, while also granting every ally the awareness of Sonar Pulse and Intent Sense?
Well... 400 might just slaughter 10,000.
The army arrives inside a gigantic hurricane, conjured up by a group of sylphs. At the center, Aldir and another couple of clan heads await. Toren keeps his domain up, empowering the army, and they charge headlong, determined to halt them from reaching the Alacryan mainland, where the storm would tear the continent apart. Toren explicitly orders Chul to stay out of this battle: his time will come. Toren faces Aldir alone, basically low-diffing the poor dude at this point while handling the other clan heads with marginal difficulty. But as the battle reaches its climax and the New Hearth successfully dissipates the storm meant to destroy Alacrya and halt the army in its tracks, Agrona pulls out his final trap card.
A manmade Catastrophe, a corrupted fusion of decay earth, water, fire, and air that blocks out the sun, emerges from Mount Nishan. In canon, Agrona mentions how Cecilia is utterly inept and unimaginative with using the powers of the Legacy. Unfortunately for everyone else, Agrona is intelligent. Because the Legacy is absolute control of all mana: including the mana of those ancient, slumbering gods. Agrona uses the Legacy to hijack the great Catastrophe, controlling it and using it to devastate the army. It starts small, but it absorbs more and more and more of the army that had arrived (literally feeding the Catastrophe, allowing it to grow and mutate). It grows to be miles upon miles upon miles long. Toren exhausts himself trying to keep the Hearth and the leviathans from being absorbed, too, via heartfire channeling and letting them take shelter in his shrouded spirit. Arthur and Seris pull off their last gambit. With spatium and Windsom's artifact, they open a pathway to Epheotus, portalling Agrona and his monster inside.
Much of the army that Epheotus had mustered is devastated by both the battle with the Hearth and the attack from Agrona's Catastrophe. Toren is tired as near-death, and only has a few minutes to rest and recuperate, his indestructible heart the only thing keeping him moving. Chul, Arthur, Sylvie, and Seris join up with Toren one last time, ready to complete their boss rush. They're almost out of plans at this point, and it can go either way.
But Seris knows that Agrona isn't out of plans yet. She knows that Agrona would want Kezess to feel the pain he did. She just hasn't picked out how yet. Aldir and the other asura that still live after the assault from the Catastrophe still have wavering confidence in Kezess. For all Agrona's might, they can't foresee their leader losing.
In Epheotus, Agrona's Catastrophe surges toward Mount Geolus, climbing the slopes Kratos style. Except it is the size of the mountain itself. Or bigger. Kezess, practically Grey and ready to embrace his despotism, awaits at the top, and he finally transforms into his draconic form, before slamming into the Catastrophe and Agrona both, sending them tumbling down.
Despite all of Agrona's advantages, though, Kezess is the unifier of the Great Eight. He only gave away the Indrath Will to Lady Sylvia because he had exhausted the insight he could learn. He could halt time, was unburdened by time itself, and could never tire nor run out of mana due to the timestop spell he'd cast on himself. Even the Legacy struggles to disrupt Kezess' aetheric control, and the battle seems to be a stalemate.
Until Lady Myre interrupts her husband's aetheric spell that halts his time.
Because long ago, at their last meeting, Agrona revealed something interesting to the wife of Kezess Indrath. Many decades ago, Kezess had signed away Sylvia's life to Agrona for the sake of maintaining the status quo. Windsom and a select few dragons knew where she hid in the Beast Glades. They simply would never arrive to save her, as she knew too much and would destabilize her father's regime. Cadell only knew to search for Sylvia in the Beast Glades because he was led there.
Agrona slays Myre, thanking her for her assistance, before relieving Kezess of an eye, an arm, and a wing, casting him down to earth like a crumpled paper plane. Now Kezess knows what it feels like to be betrayed, broken, destroyed, and Agrona revels in that sensation. But before he can bask in his victory, Toren, Chul, Seris, and Arthur arrive on the field. In the meantime, Sylvie and many of the other asura work to lead an evacuation of all other asura from Epheotus.
Chul slams into the Catastrophe, tackling it away from the Legacy's control, and Seris trails after them. Chul's Catastrophe fire is one of creation, that remade Sunmaker and forged a new day. Seris' nature is of inverted decay, destruction turned against itself. And the Catastrophe? It is just destruction. Just hate. Just entropy. Together, Chul and Seris face off against their mutual opposites, all that they had wished to avoid becoming. In contrast to the Breaking, where they had fought, now they are unified.
Arthur and Toren work together to face Agrona and the Legacy chained to his soul. Agrona can conjure any rune that any Alacryan has ever used, and reinforce it via the Legacy's control. But Toren can contend with the Legacy in firepower, so long as Arthur's aether protects his spells, and Arthur, as a quadra elemental, can nullify any spell Agrona uses. After all, he can make a counter to anything. Together, they're able to hold the line against Agrona and the Legacy.
But when Toren finally seems exhausted, he manages to touch Agrona and Arthur's shoulder at the same time. Suddenly, Arthur stands upon Agrona's soul, looking up at the chained Cecilia. Arthur begs Cecilia to step away, to take his hand and escape their chains. He will help her break the shackles of her past life, help her be someone she was never allowed to be. She isn't Fated to be a victim. There is more to her life than this suffering.
Agrona laughs at Arthur, recalling the time a while back when Cecilia had hesitated before Arthur. Agrona mocks him, saying that's far from enough. Cecilia might not be Fated, but Fate doesn't matter, does it? As all seems lost, someone new echoes Agrona's words. Yes, Fate doesn't matter.
And Nico finally appears. Nico, the final trap card. Nico, the outcast. Nico, the soul Agrona had never acknowledged. Nico, who Toren reincarnated in place of Aurora, tying Nico's soul to his for this very moment.
Nico takes Arthur's hand, and together, they pull Cecilia from hell. And Cecilia is freed from her bond, finally in the arms of those who love her. Agrona howls in anger, trying all he can to take the Legacy, to rip it back. But Agrona's soul-eating methods are imprecise and scarred. Agrona, upon trying to devour the Legacy, bloats, morphs, becomes a shadow of himself: the very reason he'd avoided trying to "eat" the Legacy before. It would eat him first.
Back in the real world, Arthur opens a portal outside Epheotus, the furthest away he can manage. Toren, Agrona, and the lingering remnants of the Catastrophe flow through. They find themselves on the moon, far, far, far away from earth. Toren absorbs the remnants of the Catastrophe, killing it. He's more tired than he's ever been. And before Agrona, mutated and despicable, can attack one more time, Toren engages his Soul Domain, imposing the Sea of his Soul upon the world around them. Then, unlike before, Toren collapses it at full force, like the collapse of a star. The domain/world-shattering force crashes inward, then rebounds off of Toren's indestructible heart, ripping a hole in the fabric of the aetheric realm and tearing apart Agrona. The moon is utterly destroyed: but that's only the start. The hole in the aetheric realm bursts, letting the buildup of aether erupt past them. To those back on earth, it would appear as if the entire sky had become an aurora borealis, brighter than even the sun.
Toren's body is utterly destroyed in the deluge, and Agrona's soul is swept away, the pieces of souls he'd devoured set free. In a sort of soul-vision, Toren experiences everything that Agrona had that led him to become the maddened, broken being he was. Toren wouldn't condone Agrona, wouldn't comfort him, wouldn't justify him. But in the end, Toren would be there for even Agrona as he died. Agrona would be upset that he'd never see Aurora again, and never get to absorb his victory. Agrona had done too much to try and craft his soul, and it—alongside the Legacy—break apart, becoming one with the soul stream.
Arthur, in the meantime, would help Sylvie with the exodus from Epheotus. The entire pocket dimension would be slowly collapsing on itself as the aether realm evaporated. But then he'd arrive before the broken form of Kezess Indrath, cradling Myre's body. And Arthur would know that he could slay the tyrant once and for all. He would consider it. But then he would step away, going on with the relief efforts, leading them through a portal to escape the collapse. It would be unknown if Kezess lived, or if he decided to walk on his own two feet and follow through.
Toren's heart would be the only thing left in the wake of all of it: indestructible and undamaged, but no longer beating. In the vacuum of space, it would finally resuscitate, and Toren would painfully regenerate after a half hour or so, but without mana and unable to fly without ambient mana. He'd start drifting into far space, unable to stop or grab hold of anything with telekinesis to hurl himself back to earth.
Until Chul would arrive, taking his brother arm in arm and delivering them back through a portal conjured by Arthur.
The battle is won, but there's much to do. Oludari escapes from Taegrin Caelum with a dozen Wraiths, finally able to use his portal technology without the aetheric realm as a barrier to world travel. He escapes with Perhata and a dozen others to Earth. Grey's Earth. Sylvie would become queen of the refugee asura, hoping to follow in her bond's footsteps of eventually releasing power. Seris would work with Arthur and Toren to construct a new government for Alacrya in the wake of Agrona's fall. Darv would eventually split off from the Triunion, forming a sovereign state with close trade relations with Alacrya. Chul would be a close part of this. Toren would approach Arthur, hinting about how they might both transcend Integration. Circe no longer leads her Spellsong cult, but it has grown out of control. Circe would work with Toren to try and spread understanding, essentially to quell the religions springing up.
And at the very end, Arthur and Tessia would get married, where we'd learn what would become of Cylrit and Caera, Nico and Cecilia, Sevren and Melzri, and all the others we've grown to love. Here is what the finale chapters will cover.