Die. Respawn. Repeat.

It's hard to describe exactly what happens when I activate the skill.

Space warps around my fist. That's one part of the effect. Light bends as it approaches a threshold around my gauntlet and creates a distinctly odd visual effect, complete with a flickering halo created by stray escaping beams. I can feel the impact of it too, just by waving my hand around—there's a distinct pulling sensation that accompanies every movement.

But that's not all that happens. More significant is the moment I suddenly find myself holding. Caught in the palm of my hand there's a fragment of... life isn't the right word for it.

It's a fragment of the beginning. A fragment of that primordial soup that began all life. A fragment of a Concept that's strong enough now that I can feel it—it washes away the lingering stench of death, the oppressive aura that the Abstraction had hanging over us.

I step forward, and life steps with me.

There's a sound that's somewhere between a crackle and a whisper. Microscopic spores germinate within seconds, hyphae digging into the metal of the walls; stray seeds grow, their roots tearing through the ground with all the force of time compressed into moments. Flowers bloom into bursts of color. I hear Novi letting out a soft gasp. Guard is silent, but his machinery whirs as he processes everything that's happening.

It's taking everything I have to stay standing. To keep this held.

The Knight within me is working feverishly to gather what Firmament remains in the air and process it; without its help, I think I would have collapsed by now. The body isn't meant to be quite this empty of Firmament—I'm not meant to have access to a skill of this level. Not yet. It demands more than I have.

But more than I have is the only thing that's going to stop an Abstraction, isn't it? I'll examine what all this is later. Threads, Submerged skills, Talents... it's a whole new set of questions, a whole new set of things to understand.