ETERNAL TOWER - 50TH FLOOR

  EVERNIGHT, NAZENDEL - 10:04 PM

  Nick and Elena split apart to rush Damon from both sides with each taking turns swinging at the dictator. Damon alternates his swings, defending himself from the onslaught. Though given minimal openings, the dictator still manages to capitalize on them by keeping Elena away with a surge of fire and focusing on Nick.

  Damon performs a series of heavy, repeated swings onto Nick’s bow with Nick being forced on the defensive as a trail of flame prevents him from escaping to the side of the room. The floor cracks beneath them with every blow, as Damon swings once more, breaking the floor and sending Nick down a level. Damon manifests his wings to avoid dropping down, but is attacked by Elena who flies to the 49th floor, forcibly pulling him down with her golden threads that latch onto his arms.

  Nick instantly teleports to the ground, catching himself. As Elena pulls Damon down to his floor, Nick shoots a flurry of electric arrows towards the dictator that only serves to irritate him. Damon breaks free from Elena’s threads, sending a huge fireball towards Nick as he flies towards the Angel of South Lavia.

  The two Esperians clash blades yet again as the massive fireball makes its way towards Nick. Elena notices this and creates a barrier around Nick that protects him from the blast. This simple act leaves her vulnerable, however, as Damon cuts her left shoulder. A chakram flies through the smoke created by the fireball, which Damon instantly deflects while continuing to attack Elena. Nick teleports to the ceiling, catching his chakram while the Esperians battle.

  Nick runs across the ceiling upside down as Elena and Damon duel with their blades. Upon noticing Nick, Damon swats Elena away through a window and shoves his blade through the handle of Nick’s chakram, lifting him up and tossing him downwards. Nick lands on his back, cracking the floor with his momentum.

  Outside, Elena recovers and manifests dozens of spears that line up the entire 49th floor. She targets Damon with the circling spears who quickly flies upwards, dodging the spears and breaking the ceiling of the topmost floor.

  At the peak of the tower, Damon flares his blade with a large, bright crimson hue that overtakes the night sky, turning it red. He begins flying downward as Nick recovers, changing his chakram into a greatbow. Damon rushes Nick, their blades clashing as they crash through the floor. As they go through the ceiling of the 48th floor, Damon continues his charge. The two proceed to crash through five consecutive floors with Nick’s back taking the brunt of the damage as Damon finally lets go on the 43rd floor.

  ETERNAL TOWER - 22ND FLOOR

  EVERNIGHT, NAZENDEL - 10:07 PM

  With the two realizing that teleporting around and firing lasers would achieve nothing, Jason and Zack opt to fight like traditional people instead of demedioms through hand-to-hand combat. Zack blocks a high kick from Jason with his right forearm, sending a roundhouse of his own that Jason blocks with his palms.

  Jason grasps Zack’s ankle, who lifts up his other leg and performs a dropkick that sends the hitman flying backwards. Zack lunges at the downed Jason, sending a massive right hook that misses as Jason ducks. Jason responds with an uppercut to Zack’s chin, shaking the former scientist. The two continue to trade blows before shaking it up as Zack’s hand imbues a mundane, rainbow aura. Jason dodges Zack’s swings before elbowing him in the cheek and wrapping him with his tentacles. Jason attempts to choke Zack out as his tentacles latch onto the latter’s neck, however a squirming Zack elbows him in the chin, loosening the grip. Zack fires a laser behind him in response, to which Jason teleports ahead. Having predicted Jason’s movements, Zack instantly lunges to the front, performing a successful single leg takedown as he trips Jason.

  Zack sends a devastating right elbow to Jason’s left eye which instantly swells and bruises. Jason responds with a right hook that catches Zack’s left cheek, momentarily stunning him. Jason takes the opportunity to shove Zack off him, getting back up on his feet.

  Zack also gets on his feet as the two stand off, now bloodied and bruised yet still at a stalemate. The clock continues to tick as both men refuse to go down.

  ETERNAL TOWER - 4TH FLOOR

  EVERNIGHT, NAZENDEL - 10:36 PM

  Luke and Celeste continue battling Brian with the enforcer gaining the upper hand. With nearly all of their attacks and strategies thwarted, damaging the nigh-invincible sorcerer seems impossible. The only damage Brian had received up until that point was Trent’s whip which he had not expected. Luke and Celeste, however, have taken several energy blasts and are beginning to wear down after leading the charge in Evernight.

  Brian takes advantage and hurls two violet discs at the weary duo which Celeste stops and hurls back towards him. Brian blocks the discs with a barrier as Luke energizes his bar at a much slower pace than before.

  Before the three make their next move, however, an unexpected entity reenters the fray as Trent’s lower half begins regenerating its deformed upper half. A shocked Brian steps back, assuming he had put his former colleague to rest.

  “Is this the perfection you desired?” Brian irritatedly yells as the monstrous Trent stands on his feet, fully regenerated. He lets out a soft growl before letting out a mighty, terrifying roar. His screams echo throughout the chambers so loudly that Luke, Celeste and Brian all prompt to cover their ears as the glass shatters around them.

  Without being given a moment to react, Trent launches himself towards the two rebels, tackling Luke and sending him through several offices. Celeste telekinetically gathers the glass shards around her, hurling them towards an unaffected Trent who quickly regenerates. As Trent prepares himself for another launching, Brian blasts him away with a beam of energy. Brian sprints towards Celeste, who quickly pins him to a wall. Celeste levitates a large piece of railing, hurling it towards Brian who incinerates it with an energy beam from his chest before it can make contact.

  Trent gets back up, prompting Celeste to drop Brian. The abomination spews flames from his mouth which Celeste stops midair. The flames dance around Celeste’s wrists as she controls them, igniting them even further as she increases their mass. With two massive orbs of fire at each hand, Celeste tosses one to each of her adversaries. Brian blocks it with ease with a barrier, though it engulfs the area around him in flame. Trent takes the full force of the flame, flailing around screaming as his monstrous form melts.

  “You motherfucker… thought you could take me hostage… use me as blackmail…” says Luke, bloodied from Trent’s attack. He limps toward the ablaze abomination, aiming his bar towards Trent, charging it while the monstrosity continues to flail around. Brian, meanwhile, crawls towards Luke with his barrier still protecting him from the surrounding flames. Luke notices this and redirects his bar towards Brian, who dissipates his barrier and fires a massive energy beam as the flames begin to sear his body. Celeste redirects the beam towards Trent, overwhelming the monstrosity while Luke aims his bar once more towards Trent.

  “...Destroy my shop… Tarnish my mother’s name… Hurt my family…” he continues muttering as his bar reaches full-charge. A burning Brian reaches his hand out, his ringed tattoos all glowing a bright purple amidst the scarlet flames.

  “You’ve taken away so much…” before he can do anything, however, the ceiling of the sixth floor comes crashing down with Celeste hurling the debris towards him. Brian creates a barrier to block the debris, but finds himself in too much pain to sustain it. Piles of steel and concrete begin to bury the enforcer as Luke releases his energy.

  “...but you will never take away our will to fight,” Luke growls as his bar detonates, firing a massive horizontal explosion that completely eradicates the abomination.

  ETERNAL TOWER - 43RD FLOOR

  EVERNIGHT, NAZENDEL - 10:38 PM

  As an injured Nick tries to stand, Damon sends a flaming slash towards him. Nick sidesteps at the last second, barely dodging the slash. Damon swings his blade around as Nick helplessly defends.

  A ray of light comes down from above as Elena catches up with the two. She fires a wave of light that Damon blocks with his bare hand, his left palm seared though his body still untouched by the two, only affected by Entro’s trump card from earlier. She flies towards the prince, aiming to stall while Nick recovers.

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  Damon, however, refuses to block the attack and sacrifices his hand once more as his left hand grabs Elena’s blade, rendering her immobile as she keeps her grip. With Elena unable to move, Damon uses the moment to stab her through her chest with his blade as a dismayed Nick looks on.

  Elena coughs up blood as Damon’s blade reaches deeper into her torso. As Elena coughs once more, Damon pulls back his blade, leaving her to drop to her knees, bleeding.

  The scenery was all too familiar to Nick; his father died the exact same way, falling to his knees coughing up blood while a helpless Nick watched. As he forces himself to get up, Elena stares at him with a mixture of guilt, apologeticness and sympathy as if to say she was sorry for not being able to fulfill her promise.

  Damon points his blade towards Nick, antagonizing him as Elena bleeds out on the floor.

  “You… have ruined my century-long plans,” he says, bowing his head to look down at Elena.

  “But don’t worry… I’m here to return the favor. You took away everything I built, I will take away everything you love,” he continues as Nick falls to his knees once more, unable to properly stand.

  “I think I’ll start with the half-bitch. Just so you know, Elena, this is personal,” he says, raising his blade. A flash of lightning zips through the room as Nick tackles the dictator, sending both of them through the window. Damon tries to manifest his wings but Nick latches on to his back, partially tearing off his left wing as he yells in pain. Damon grabs Nick, tossing him downwards. Nick manifests his greatbow, shooting a massive electric arrow towards the dictator who flies above him. Damon maneuvers around the arrow, charging at Nick with his blade. Sparks fly and flames dance around the night sky as the two continue to fall. Unbeknownst to Damon, however, the arrow was actually aimed to curve like a roller coaster track. It finds its way back to Damon, momentarily stunning him as he gets shocked by an electric current. Nick takes the moment to pull Damon’s collar and kicks him through a window back into the tower as he follows suit.

  ETERNAL TOWER - 30TH FLOOR

  EVERNIGHT, NAZENDEL - 10:55 PM

  Nick changes his greatbow into a chakram and tosses it towards the dictator, who similarly launches his blade. Their two weapons clash in the middle of the lobby as Nick fires several bolts of electricity which Damon dodges by using the various furniture as cover.

  Damon steps out of cover, hurling dozens of fireballs towards Nick. Nick zips through the room, dodging the fireballs and throwing an electrically-charged left hook to Damon’s wounded stomach. Damon is pushed back from the blow, grasping at his wound in pain. Nick calls his chakram back, spinning it as he rushes towards the injured prince. Damon, whose blade is left in the center of the room, backs away into the opposite wall while tossing various furniture and plants towards Nick who deflects them away. As Nick closes the distance, he violently throws his chakram to the ground, making it bounce and ricochet towards the walls and ceiling. Damon raises a huge wall of fire that extends to the ceiling in order to defend himself, expecting a melee assault by the rebel, though two consecutive bolts of electricity instead penetrate the wall and electrify the prince.

  While Nick continues to blast Damon with electricity, his chakram ricochets against the back wall, flying towards the prince’s neck. Before the bastard prince can get decapitated, he jerks his head back, smashing the wall behind him to dodge in a limbo position. The chakram flies past Damon, who powers through the electricity and sends Nick flying backwards with a fireball.

  With his back injured and his torso scorched, Nick struggles to stand once more as the tyrant of South Lavia approaches. Damon picks up his blade on the ground, ready to strike Nick as a golden ray of light momentarily blinds him as it reflects throughout the glinting surroundings. Elena, who stitched her wound together with golden threads, flies downward and slices Damon in the back. A furious Damon turns around, preparing to swing against his fellow half-breed. Nick, however, jumps up his shoulders from behind and grabs onto his wings. With all his might, Nick pulls back, tearing off Damon’s left wing and partially tearing off the other. Damon yells in pain before Elena diagonally slashes his chest twice, mutilating the prince even further. Damon drops to his knees as Elena lifts him back up with her threads. She holds Damon midair as Nick charges his greatbow, aiming towards him. Damon struggles to break free, but finds himself too wounded and drained to do so as he hopelessly watches Nick’s greatbow surging with even greater energy.

  Damon looks to his side to see Elena fully determined to end him.

  “Elena please... I’m willing to talk this out,” a desperate Damon pleads as Elena returns silence.

  “ELENA, PLEASE!” the pathetic dictator begs once more.

  “If not for me, do it for-”

  “SHUT UP!” Elena yells back, cutting him off.

  “You’ve committed... so many atrocities ruling South Lavia…” she says as she looks towards Damon, her voice shaking in anger and disbelief at his plea.

  “No more. This is the end of the line, Damon. I didn’t want things to go this way either, but you left me no choice. You’re just as terrible as your father,” Elena emotionally declares as Damon’s eyes begin to swell with tears, unable to accept this ending after centuries worth of planning.

  “Estreval,” Nick mutters as his greatbow completely surges with an energy so great that Elena gets pushed back.

  “This is for every life that you’ve ever ruined. Every family that you’ve split apart. Every moment you’ve spent in my country,” he says as he draws his bowstring back. Damon sheds a tear, afraid of facing the consequences of his actions.

  “If there is an afterlife, I want you to remember me. Remember the story of Nick Altair, the Lavian who put an end to Esper’s bastard prince,” asserts a confident Nick who nods at Elena, signalling her to make a barrier. Elena understands his notion and follows as Nick fires a massive super-charged arrow that envelops nearly the entire floor in electricity. The blast annihilates Elena’s strings, along with everything in front of it. Outside the tower, a gigantic blue beam of pure electricity can be seen from miles away, almost as if a city-wide laser was fired. The electricity dies down, with an exhausted Nick falling to his knees. Elena picks him up on her shoulder, flying him outside the tower as they fail to find any trace left of Damon. A confused Nick stares at the smoke below them as Elena begins to fly away while still carrying him on her shoulder. A golden trail follows them as the sound of gunshots begin to subside down below.

  ETERNAL TOWER - 22ND FLOOR

  EVERNIGHT, NAZENDEL - 11:36 PM

  A weary and bloody Zack continues to fight a bruised and drained Jason as the tower begins to crumble around them from all the battling taking place. The two former best friends look at each other as they exhale heavily, exhausted both physically and mentally.

  “Why… Why won’t you back down…?” asks Jason.

  “The same reason you won’t. Because I fight for what I believe in,” Zack answers as Jason looks down, disappointed.

  “You realize… that the both of us will die here if we keep this up.”

  “Works just fine by me. I was lucky to have lived this long, anyways,” says Zack, assuming a fighting stance. Jason sighs once more before taking his own stance. The two rush towards each other, trading blows. Punches, kicks, knees and elbows are thrown and eaten one after another, with neither man no longer looking to defend. With each blow, memories flood both men’s minds - their childhood in Terminus, their separation as their career paths diverged, their untimely reunion in the prison cells and their separation once more during the fall of the first Eternal Tower.

  Both men are brought to their knees, still throwing hooks and jabs at one another. Jason lands a shot at Zack’s stomach which reels him in, though he fires back with a nasty headbutt as they lean against each other, no longer capable of standing. With both men unable to strike, Zack takes the opportunity to start one final conversation with his old friend.

  “I know… this is a little too late… But I’m sorry I left you. I truly am,” Zack mutters under his breath as Jason irritatedly sighs.

  “You… have never cared about anyone but yourself,” Jason fires back, refusing Zack’s apology.

  “At the time, I did. The only thing I ever wanted was to leave this hellscape,” Zack replies as parts of the ceiling begin to fall around them. A golden trail lights up the night sky outside the windows, which Zack notices, prompting him to smile.

  “...But I found a new purpose. I couldn’t live with my old one, being turned into a living weapon designed only to kill and destroy,” Zack says, grabbing Jasons arms.

  “I thought I could live as a new man. And for a time, I was. And I was happy, and I loved every single second of it.”

  “Urgh… What next? You're gonna apologize that I wasn’t able to live the life you did? I don’t need your fucking sympathy, Zack,” Jason scathingly responds.

  “Hah… Here’s the thing… Even though I was happy… I wasn’t content. It felt as if there was something missing,” Zack replies.

  “Lily… and you… weren’t there,” he says, silencing Jason.

  “But… you know… If I could do it all over again… Leave you pinned down that night…” Zack continues, looking Jason straight in the eye.

  “I would,” he says as a mortified Jason’s mouth drops, unexpecting the harsh answer.

  “Because all that has led to this moment,” he concludes as he tightly grips Jason’s arms as the tower continues to crumble. Jason realizes Zack’s idea and tries to squirm to break free to no avail.

  At that second, Raymond Altair’s words echoed throughout Zack’s mind.

  “If you despise them so much, why do you continue to work for them?”

  “The system is damaged, but not irreparable. I work with the hopes of creating a better future.”

  Zack closes his eyes as the ceiling comes crashing down.

  OUTSIDE THE ETERNAL TOWER

  EVERNIGHT, NAZENDEL - 11:56 PM

  Thousands of citizens come piling out of the tower, fearing the inevitable fall as it violently shakes.

  “For my daughter.”

  Celeste assists in catching the falling debris, setting them aside to allow the people and surrendered soldiers escape.

  “For my grandchildren.”

  As the tower crumbles, an injured Eternal Drive soldier slowly crawls away from the carnage. Luke passes him by, contemplating for a brief moment before picking the soldier up and helping him outside.

  “For the future generations.”

  Leading the evacuation process are Tina Ross and Joshua Bivelli, who guide the thousands of citizens away from Evernight and towards Roscher. The rest of the rebel group from Aurus escort the injured away from the tower.

  “For you.”

  Elena drops down onto the roof of an apartment, slowly letting go of Nick who sits on the ledge, witnessing the end of an era. The two solemnly watch as the Eternal Tower levels, sending shockwaves throughout the ground. After a near century of tyranny, heartbreak, struggle, and despair, the seemingly impossible had been achieved - Eternal Drive is no more.

  To Be Continued…