He roars.
Not the vicious kind.
Pained.
And Seren knows without doubt that it’s Ronyn’s pain she hears.
“Teddy,” Seren breathes.
He’s still standing.
Fuck.
He’s still standing.
The shield trembles violently in his hands, blood pouring down the front of his body now in impossible amounts as Nyrielle’s magic burns clean through him. The smell of smoke and scorched flesh floods the battlefield.
Still he holds the line.
Still he refuses to fall. As though Death himself has to pry him from the line by force.
“No.”
The word tears from Seren as golden threads explode violently from her palms. A Gateway rips open beside Nyrielle’s feet. Another tears through the air behind her. Seren throws everything she has into the magic, trying to drag the goddess sideways into the echo-plane before Teddy’s body gives out completely.
Nyrielle barely even looks at her. A spear of stolen power lashes outward instantly.
Pain detonates through Seren’s ribs as the strike catches her mid-cast and hurls her violently across the fractured stone.
The Gateway collapses. Golden magic shatters apart around her.
Seren slams hard enough into the battlefield to split skin across her shoulder, breath ripping from her lungs as smoke and agony flood her senses.
Still Teddy holds the line.
Seren’s eyes drag to Nyrielle. She is not dead. But she is wounded. Weakening. For the first time since the battle began, she looks afraid. She looks…human.
And Teddy sways.
The movement is small.
Barely noticeable beneath the chaos of battle.
But Seren sees it.
Stars.
She sees it.
“Teddy.”
The shield flickers violently in his hands now, blue Aether destabilizing in frantic bursts of light as blood continues pouring down the front of his body in impossible amounts.
Still he tries to hold it.
Still he tries to stand between the world and ruin.
Because he does not know how to stop protecting people. Does not know how to stop protectingher.
