This was the gamble. This was the moment of truth, when the Goddess was engaged with transporting the army and could not help him. He didn't have to hold out forever, just long enough for the Goddess to complete her task and rejoin her power to his and protect them. He had infuriated the god to such a degree that Tarrin was the only thing he could see, the ony thing that mattered, and all that existed in that terrible moment was destroying the defiant Were-cat and claiming the prize that Tarrin had dangled so tauntingly in his face.
Pain lashed through him as he pushed himself to his limits and beyond, but he would not yield. His heart pounded in his chest, threatening to burst, as the incredible strain of trying to hold back a virtual avalanche with his bare paws crushed down on him, as the raw power of the might of a god was completely focused on him, but he would not yield. With a scream of absolute defiance, Tarrin rose up to his full height in the face of that powerful attack, raised the Firestaff, and held it over his head with both paws, refusing to be destroyed, somehow managing to deflect aside the power of a god. The stone around his feet began to melt, the air shimmered as the darkness poured down on him with enough force to shatter a mountain, but he would not yield. Everything that he was, everything he cared about, everything that mattered to him was behind him, the desperate need to protect his daughter giving him a strength and power that surpassed even his own physical limits, allowing him to draw on reserves of strength and magical power he never dreamed possible. The Weave answered the call of a desperate sui'kun, surrendering up to him all the power he desired, as he acted within the blessings of his Goddess, giving him all the power he needed to defend himself against assault. The All, attracted by the Were-cat's need, also gave to him freely, causing the very land itself to give to Tarrin its energy so that he could erect a defense suitable to protect himself from the god of darkness. Even the Firestaff itself, so close to the moment its power would reach its peak, seemed to aid the Were-cat in his defense, joining its power to his own and reinforcing the defensive wall of power around which the Were-cat had surrounded himself, a wall that shuddered and buckled and was distorted by the power of Val's assault, but would not break, would not open, would not lower and leave the one it protected vulnerable. The power of the Weave and the All were not the power of a god, but together, with the power of Tarrin's faith and desperate need and the power of the Firestaff, they combined to give the Were-cat a magical defense so potent that it could withstand the furious assault the evil god rained down upon him.
Val redoubled his efforts to crush the mortal and take the prize, but Tarrin responded in equal measure, the Weave and the All responded in equal measure, even the Firestaff responded in equal measure to grant to Tarrin the power he needed to protect himself. His vision blurring and his heart about to tear itself from his chest as sharp cramping pains of exhaustion quickly blasted through him, as the pain of exerting more magical force than any mortal had ever before expended took its dreadful toll on his body and mind, Tarrin stood against that unimaginable assault, stood as solid as stone, still screaming in defiant fury as he reached into the very core of himself for absolutely any iota of untapped reserve. The Were-cat, commanding the power of the Sorcerer, Druid, Wizard, and Priest, combined all of his power into a single cohesive effort that formed a whole greater than the sum of its parts. As if the four orders had Circled with one another, giving Tarrin a magic the likes of which the world had never seen before, a desperate defense erected out of pure instinct, and all of it for no reason more simple or pure as that of a parent defending his child.
Val stopped. Tarrin nearly fell to one knee, panting heavily, his eyes unfocused and a dazed expression on his face, but he had not yielded.
Val seemed just as shocked that Tarrin was still standing as Tarrin was that he had managed to last so long. His mind swam for what seemed an eternity as both the effort of defending himself and the pain of being in the path of the avalanche of Val's power rippled through him, as little flecks of darkness and light swirled around him, as arcs of electricity danced around the invisible shield of force Tarrin had erected in defense against the dark god, as the very air around the platform seemed to become alive in the aftereffects of such a release of magical energy, charged with such magical energy that Val had to struggle to reassert the void he had erected in the area.
You are powerful, mortal, but a mortal is all you are, Val's voice said, no longer angry, no longer furious, and strangely respectful. My power is endless, and yours has reached its end, but you did stand firm against my might, for however fleeting the moment. For that, I find, I must salute you. But now, it is over. I have won. I have won!
Tarrin could not deny that. Breathing heavily, his arms sagging, his tail drooping behind him, he knew that he had no more. But he knew with certain grim pride that if only for a moment, he had stood against the might and power of a god himself, and he did not yield.
He only dimly heard the screaming of Jasana and Jesmind as the god Val gathered himself to strike at Tarrin with his full, utter, and complete power, a blow Tarrin would not be able to turn aside, a blow that he would not have been able to turn aside even had he not been exhausted, a blow that would finish him and convey to the dark god the prize he had so coveted for thousands of years.
Maybe… maybe this time, luck had failed him. But he had just enough for one more act. He reached within, through the Cat, seeking to touch the All, preparing to cast one final spell, a spell that would kill him, a spell that would keep the Firestaff out of Val's hands until well after the conjunction was over-
The conjunction!
Tarrin looked up, past Val, past his dark form, and to the hole high in the ceiling of the vast chamber. Vala was now completely within the white edges of Domammon, and the Twin Moons were but a hair's breadth from touching the edge of Vala's reddish circumference.
Tarrin smiled evilly, feeling some tiny energy surge through his exhausted frame, feeling some measure of satisfaction. It had worked. He had reached Val, had gotten him angry, had goaded him into an attack, and he had somehow managed to survive through it. And as that all happened, time kept ticking away, the second hand on the little gold watch in his pocket continued to advance. Tarrin had arrived there mere moments before the event, and as he had hoped, Val had lost track of time in his fury, a fury intentionally goaded into him by the Were-cat. For the first time, Tarrin had turned someone else's anger against himself, rather than have his own rage turned against him.
Val was too late to stop what was coming.
"You're wrong," Tarrin wheezed with that same evil smile. "You haven't won yet." He drew himself up to his full height, beyond pain, beyond weariness, beyond worry and beyond care. He had withstood the assault that was the only weakness in his plan, gambling that he would somehow find a way to hold for those last few precious moments before the conjunction began. And he had managed to do it, though how he had managed, he would never fully understand.
Val seemed to follow his eyes, his shadowy form looking out into the sky. When that insubstantial head whirled back around, there was raw terror in his eyes.
You must be able to make the choices that must be made.
For the last time, he did just that. Without fear, without emotion, with only regret at what he was surrendering and fully understanding what would happen to him, Tarrin raised the Firestaff towards the sky as the Twin Moons brushed the edge of Vala's red disc and opened himself completely to the ancient artifact's whim. He saw the look of terror and chagrin on Val's face as the black Wraith-like form blazed towards him even as his power lashed out to prevent it, but he knew even as he did so that he was too late. His rage had taken him, and in losing his temper he had surrendered the only chance he would have had to stop Tarrin from doing the one thing that Val could not have permitted him to do under any circumstance.