When Matte appeared, he was surging with Essence unlike I had ever seen before... But in that moment, I knew something was wrong, and yet still...
I can't look away.
I tell myself to. I tell myself to focus on Celest's breathing, on keeping her steady, on getting her farther back, but every time the ground shakes my eyes snap back to the center of the battlefield like something is pulling them there.
Matte isn't fighting like a person anymore.
He crashes into the Lieutenant and the street detonates beneath them, chunks of asphalt and stone blasting outward as if they were thrown by hand. The Lieutenant answers immediately, driving him through the side of a building, the wall folding in on itself like wet paper, but Matte comes out the other side already moving, already firing Essence in thick, unstable bursts that slam into the structure behind the Dracus and drop it in on itself.
Scarlett grabs my arm. Hard.
"Violet," she says. "That's not—"
"I know," I say. I don't let her finish.
The Lieutenant vanishes. Appears behind Matte. Lands a blow that should have dropped him.
It doesn't.
Matte turns and hits back so hard the impact flattens the street and throws both of them apart. He doesn't slow down. He doesn't pause. He just keeps going. Essence pours off him in violent waves, not refined, not controlled, just raw force being thrown wherever his body points next.
The fight moves fast. Too fast.
They tear through a line of buildings, walls collapsing as they crash through them. Matte rips debris out of the ground and fires it like ammunition, following it with explosive Essence surges that detonate on contact. The Lieutenant blocks, redirects, counters, its movements sharp and efficient, but it's being forced back now. Forced to defend.
That scares me more than if it were winning.
Void flashes across the Lieutenant's limbs as it strikes, dark energy slamming into Matte's body again and again, but the effect isn't the same. I can see it. The Void hits him and dulls, slides, loses bite. Matte doesn't even flinch half the time. He just hits back harder.
Scarlett's grip tightens.
"He's adapting," she whispers.
"No," I say, watching Matte charge through another blast of Void and tackle the Lieutenant through a half-collapsed structure. "He's burning through it."
The Lieutenant floods the area with Void. The pressure hits us even from this distance, a heavy wave that makes my knees buckle. Matte falters for the first time, just for a fraction of a second.
The Lieutenant takes it.
It vanishes and reappears directly in front of him and lands a punch so hard I hear it from here. Matte's head snaps sideways. He should be unconscious.
He isn't.
He swings anyway.
Misses.
The Lieutenant's tail wraps around his leg and slams him into the ground hard enough to crater it. Dust and debris erupt outward. Scarlett swears under her breath and starts forward.
I pull her back.
"Wait," I say. "Just—wait."
Matte tears free with a knife in his hand. Voidscar. He stabs into the Lieutenant's tail again and again until it recoils and leaps back. They separate briefly, smoke hanging thick between them.
For half a second, I think maybe that's it. Maybe they'll reset.
Matte charges.
He doesn't give the Lieutenant time to breathe. Essence erupts from him in massive bursts, one after another, hammering the space between them. The Lieutenant dodges some, blocks others, but it's losing ground now, driven back by sheer output. Matte closes the distance and lands a blow to its torso that sends it flying through debris and stone.
The street doesn't exist anymore. Neither do the buildings.
Just rubble. Fire. Impact.
Matte gets thrown again. Slams into a wall. Gets up immediately. Fires tendrils of Essence that streak through the air like guided missiles. One hits. The explosion tears into the Lieutenant's side and drops it to a knee.
I realize my hands are shaking.
"This isn't control," Scarlett says quietly. "This is collapse."
As if in answer, Matte releases another massive surge of Essence at point-blank range. The explosion knocks both of them apart and sends a shockwave ripping through Aurix. Windows shatter. Structures already weakened finally give and fall.
The Lieutenant rises slower this time.
So does Matte.
He's still standing, but something about him is wrong. His movements are rougher now. Less precise. He charges again without hesitation, without defense, taking hits just to land his own. Void lashes into him. Essence answers louder. The two forces collide again and again, ripping the battlefield apart piece by piece.
Scarlett steps closer to me.
"If he keeps this up," she says, "he won't come back."
I don't answer.
I don't know if she means the fight.
Or him.
Matte slams into the Lieutenant again, driving it back through the remains of another building, and for the first time I see something like uncertainty in the Dracus's movement. Not fear. Calculation.
It changes tactics.
It stops meeting him head-on.
It lets Matte overextend.
And that's when I realize what scares me most.
Matte doesn't notice.
He keeps attacking. Keeps throwing power. Keeps breaking the world around him, chasing the need to hit again and again, even as his movements grow heavier, even as his stance starts to falter between bursts.
He's winning the fight.
And losing himself.
I take a step forward without thinking.
Scarlett grabs my shoulder this time.
"Violet," she says. "If you go in there—"
"I know," I say.
But I don't look away.
Because whatever happens next, I know one thing with terrifying clarity.
If this fight ends with Matte standing, it won't mean he's okay.
And if it ends with him falling, I don't know who's left to stop what comes after.