Charlie had been sheltered. There was no denying it, but an acknowledgment did nothing to protect her from the fear buried deep in her heart. It leapt from her chest and choked her breath away once she was left with no one else to rely upon.

Her trembling fingers squeezed her gnarled storm staff in an effort to stay still. She held the unique weapon tight against her chest in a feeble attempt to draw strength from the inanimate object while partially shielding her face from the approaching crowd. She barely remembered how to breathe, lungs frozen to the point that she felt light-headed as she became the center of attention, like she had been shoved into the center of a stage and forgotten her most important lines.

Given the audience, it wasn’t unreasonable to feel apprehensive, but Charlie was tired of it. She was slowly backing away from the millions of dragons that stretched across the sandy domain, all watching her like wolves observing an abandoned lamb. The way their eyes locked on her, gazes filled with careful discernment, wide mouths exposing teeth in mockeries of grins, made her feel intensely judged. The conclusion was that she was inadequate.

It had happened suddenly, where she put on a brave face for her friend, recognizing when her most confident partner was shaken by the visit of her family member, and telling her to go. Charlie promised to be steadfast and then she was by herself, all the reliable support from all of her friends and family finally gone.

Hundreds of the monsters emerged from the sands once she was left alone, collectively pressing further beyond the limits of their sandstorm as if they could sense the end was nigh. Charlie suspected they could sense her fear and they wanted to try and take advantage of her inability to manage her anxiety. She squeezed the staff even tighter.

Somehow, throughout everything that had happened, she had never been left alone. Camila was always by her side, and if not, it was Coop, her parents, Jones, or countless other phantoms and residents. They all looked after her without being asked, knowing that their support was welcomed even if she never vocalized how much she relied on them. It was too obvious anyway.

She finally forced a deep breath, digging deep and willing herself to finally summon the mental fortitude to match her talents, recognizing there was no one else to depend on at the brink of armageddon. It was just her and countless monsters. A flicker of defiance ignited within her, angry at her uncontrolled anxiety, angrier even than the terror she was constantly repressing.

“Why should I be scared?!” She cried out as the dragons pressed toward her, none of them responding with anything other than sneers and hungry glares.

It wasn’t like she had been deserted. Leaving her alone was an expression of trust, not abandonment. Everyone else recognized her potential, but for some reason that she couldn’t control, her internal doubts made it hard to act on her own. Even their trust was a double-edged sword applying pressure. It wasn’t fair, but that was how it was for some people. She might grow out of it with time, but time wasn’t a luxury humans could still depend on, and even then, she might not.

While mana had boosted self-image across the board, causing humans to naturally draw closer to their individual ideal appearances, it hadn’t done as much for their mental states. Charlie was basically the same as she had been even before mana activated on Earth, only making it as far as she had through the support of understanding companions. She had to step up regardless of her unease.

The dragons observed her diminutive presence, more and more emerging from the sands as they detected vulnerability and sought to exploit it. A tall, draconian monster even appeared from the haze, far larger than all the rest, its aura clearly pushing beyond that of a Region Boss. Its snout was framed by curling horns as it walked upright on two massive legs with a posture that was more similar to humans than it had any right to be. It knocked the deteriorated frame of an eight story building out of its way, backhanding it with one of its clawed arms, staring directly at Charlie with glowing reptilian eyes, all of its needle-like teeth fully exposed to the murky atmosphere. It fully extended its wings, demonstrating its superior size as the wave of sands smoothly turned the boss back into a silhouetted shadow.

Charlie scowled, more at herself than the monsters, but refused to give in to the fear that had virtually ruled her life. It was time for her to stand up on her own. If she didn’t, Camila would be in even more danger and the phantoms that trusted them would be caught by surprise. She had to keep the enemies at bay.

She raised her staff with both hands, holding it like a holy relic to demonstrate her faith. She felt the climate respond, winds flowing forward. They were excessively gentle at first, but quickly became heavy enough to crash through the dunes that crawled into the shrinking territory of Neon Park. The wind flattened the battlefield, exposing the countless enemies that crowded at the edge, anticipating a chance to rip her apart. The sands were disrupted by the changing air pressure, breaking the clear delineation between Lighthouse territory and the domain spread by the forces of mana.

Her eyes, though still wide with fear, held unbending focus as she delved into the elements. Her stance, though slightly shaky, ceased its retreat, physically declaring that enough was enough. With her back against the wall, she sought to show the world what she could do on her own, knowing that all of her friends and family believed in her even more than she believed in herself. With the elements at her side, she shouldn’t be that timid little girl anymore. She might not live up to all the out of control expectations surrounding her public position, but she had to try.

The first manifestation of electricity was almost as hesitant as she was, absorbing into her one-of-a-kind storm staff after passively drawing from the atmosphere. The Charged Heartwood responded to the erratic beat of her own heart, one of the three priceless relics that Coop had entrusted to the crafters for her unique weapon.

Lightning filled her eyes as power flowed through her weapon and into her body, the reverse of virtually every spell in anyone’s arsenal, human or alien. She felt the corrupted mana run through her staff and into her hands as she willed it to become hers, expanding her mana pool beyond reason while dominating its erosive nature with a mastery that was undeniable, even to her.

The energy was electrified such that first her weapon crackled with power, literally vibrating as tiny arcs escaped from the intricately knotted exterior and into the air. A flicker of lightning danced across the tips of her fingers, then, the same occurred across her palms, drawing all the way up her arm and into her chest before moving throughout her body, down to her feet, and into the ground.

Instead of channeling the lightning into blasts of explosive power, as she would when she was safely protected by her allies, she sent it into the earth, investing in her current position. This was more a declaration of war than any battle cry, proclaiming the location as her own. If the lizards thought they could push her around just because she was alone, they would be wrong.

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She clenched her own jaw with effort, lips separating and revealing just how much power was barely contained by her body as it escaped between her teeth, from her eyes, and even her skin and hair. The white glow illuminated the space, reflecting off the golden scales of the patiently approaching monsters as they waited for the wall of sand to inch forward and consume her position.

While she carved her determination into the ground, expanding her domain, the wind also responded to her burgeoning will. It started as the steady breeze, interrupting the forward momentum of the walls of sand, energizing the stagnant air while subtly tugging at her cloak. She released her left hand from the surface of her staff, raising a fist in the air as she directed a second element, while the other held the staff tight, still gathering electricity from the sky in deafening explosions. She moved more confidently, ignoring the presence of her audience, as she was empowered. The dragons grew impatient, seeing their progress stilled, shifting and becoming increasingly noisy as they decided whether to push ahead of the sands or continue to demonstrate patience.

When the first wave of lizards was unable to wait any longer, lunging forward to drag her down so they could continue their conquest, she splayed the fingers on her raised hand and the wind suddenly pulsed. Even her own ears popped, despite being the source of the blast. A deep drumming resonated across the landscape. It was a single rotating wave of air that could have been mistaken for the false start of a tornado centered on her location, expanding all around as it shot across multiple city blocks. It cut through the lower portions of the sandstorm like a knife through butter.

The dragons were caught in the blast, being lifted off the ground and tossed away like pieces of trash. Only the largest held firm, but even the bipedal boss had to lean forward to avoid falling onto its massive tail, pressured by a simple gust from the tiny Aeromancer.

The boss roared, but hesitated before approaching, being offered a glimpse at her preparations. The gust of wind had blown all the sand from the ground, revealing the last bits of Lighthouse territory on the edge of Neon Park. Carved into the surface, spreading hundreds of yards across the ground was an enormous rune, humming with the energized power of electricity that Charlie had siphoned from the atmosphere. The boss looked down at its feet, realizing that it was standing within the expansive domain of the radically empowered sorceress.

Charlie stood in the center of an impossibly complicated design, the detail so extreme it would have taken a needle tip to trace. Raw energy was rising from the cracks, climbing just a few feet off the ground the way heat might blur a desert with just a hint of electricity. Across such a massive zone it was like a white dawn had finally penetrated the crimson haze and golden sandstorm to reclaim the planet.

“I’m not the one that should be scared.” She muttered, voice distorted by the awakened power of the enormous circle of amplification. If Coop was the Icon of Humanity, she was the Icon of the Storm.

Charlie was quiet, but the thunder that followed was not. The boss dragon was vaporized by a pillar of energy crashing down from the heavens, ripping through the sands as if they actually empowered the lightning. It was so bright, the lizards that were lucky enough to avoid the initial blast were permanently blinded before cascades of chain lightning caught them and turned them to dust. There was no crater, despite expelling enough force to have been a nuclear bomb. The excess energy was absorbed by the glowing runic patterns on the ground. The entire formation temporarily increased its illumination, spreading higher into the air as the powerful discharge was siphoned back to Charlie, flickering between her skin and her staff to further enhance her radiance, causing her hair to turn white and rise in the air, and her eyes to completely transform into electricity.

As a storm of lightning followed, her leather armor was wrapped in electricity. She waved her offhand, physically pointing out targets as bolts repeatedly landed. Whenever she raised her staff, she had to peel it from where it was connected to the ground and the soles of her boots were similarly anchored. Massive arcs flowed through the air in between, forming waves that danced across the runic formation and annihilated approaching lizards at random.

With her offhand, she chopped at the air, sending horizontal blades of water radiating from her position. They were slow enough to be easily bypassed by the hordes of attackers, but she didn’t just leave them to harmlessly float across the battlefield and eventually dissipate. She smashed charging lizards in the sides with bursts of wind, sending them careening into the paths of the deadly waves. Other blades were caught by rolling gusts, turning into streaks of impossibly sharp liquid. Altogether, she established an entire obstacle course of lightning, wind, and water.

Instead of creating a steady storm that forced her enemies to contend with the winds in a more passive way while decreasing her mental load, she was actively building gales to manipulate the battlefield. The larger blades cleaved through hundreds of enemies before disappearing in the distance, though that was only a small fraction compared to those that were killed by the pillars of light rotating between the sky, the ground, and the caster.

Even with the dramatic display of power, the armies of dragons closed on her position, drawing close enough to try and bite and claw at her electrified armor. But Charlie was a golem of lightning, refusing to move from the center of the formation, trapped by her own power. Nothing survived long enough to attempt a second attack, receiving mortal feedback from her armor or being cleaved by the appearance of new water blades. Massive swirls of wind, punched down from high above before emanating from the center and kept her from being overwhelmed as the army nearly surrounded her position. The closer the enemy soldiers got, the further and higher they were thrown, sometimes ripping apart from nothing but air. Further elevation made their scaled bodies convenient paths for the lightning that rained down.

She focused on destroying the largest of the enemies, utilizing a simple form of target prioritization while all the ancillary discharges proved deadly to the rest. When she gathered enough energy, the entire runic formation popped with electrified mana, clearing the entire space before more golden lizards rushed through the perimeter, demonstrating their incredible numbers and dedication to conquest.

The forces of mana had no fear of death whatsoever, and Charlie wasn’t under the impression that it was because they were unintelligent. Instead she concluded that they knew they would respawn, so she made sure to embed a mark on their souls so that they would remember what happened. Behind the shield of electricity, she scowled, still worried about her ability despite the incredible demonstration of power. Even if she actually did live up to expectations, were these enemies she could actually defeat? The doubts never fully went away, but she would have to find a way to control her anxiety if she wanted to go on.

While she annihilated countless monsters, her mind turned inward. Charlie didn’t know it, but she was entering what Coop would have called the zone. Her actions were automatic, the nature of the elements she controlled taking over. She was at the intersection between planes, on the verge of losing herself to the essence of mana as so many others had, whether it was due to touching upon transcendental power beyond their means or because of external corruption that beckoned them into the control of another.

Charlie became a force of nature that halted the forces of mana and she would have stayed that way if not for Camila aggressively shaking her from her unconscious authority.

“Charlie! Snap out of it! I can’t lose you too!” Camila was shouting, shocking Charlie back into reality with the desperation in her confident friend’s voice.

“Lose me?” Charlie mumbled as she took in the landscape.

The ground was painted black, scorched by countless blasts of lightning. Even the golden sand was brittle and ashen and the nearest monsters were a quarter of a mile away. The intricate runic patterns had melted together and all of the energy was funneling through her staff and into the sky. Above her, the red haze was rotating like the inner eye wall of a hurricane, swept up in the rotation of the pylon of energy Charlie had built.

She had no idea how long she had been fighting, completely losing track of time. In fact, she didn’t even recall most of the fighting, aside from the first few minutes. Charlie looked at Camila, unable to hide her confusion, realizing that her friend was carrying Gabby, who was awake but dazed.

“Are you okay?” Charlie finally asked, unsure when Camila had made it to her side.

“Let’s get out of here Charlie. There’s no one left but us.” She concluded, dragging her suddenly exhausted friend toward the last ship in the region.