To use the Firestaff.

And he who holds the Firestaff at a certain time, on a certain day, shall become a god.

Twenty longspans away and to the east, in a brilliant flash and a demonstration of power the likes of which had not been seen since the Blood War, the featureless tundra east of the pyramid flared, and left behind in its diminishment over a hundred thousand armed troops, ten of the the thirteen clans of the Selani, three hundred dragons, nearly ten thousand representatives of Fae-da'Nar of varying species, a thousand Aeradalla, nearly three thousand magic-users of all four orders, and nearly two score of Demons summoned forth by the Succubus Shiika to do battle on their side.

The closest element to this suddenly appearing force was a group of Waern under the command of a Camibisi. The Waern took one look at that host, and then turned and fled squealing back towards the reserves stationed some distance behind them. The Waern, it seemed, were not fools. Their half-breed commander screamed and cursed at them, even cut a few of the slower Waern down from behind as he chased after them with his sword waving in the air, but he too retreated quickly as a grand, earth-shaking shout arose from that mighty army, and huge gusts of wind swept across the warm grass as three hundred dragons, the mightiest creatures on Sennadar, took to the air from the fringes of the huge army and turned in loose groups to unleash their furious might on the land-bound enemy.

Then came the charge of the bipeds below, led by the legendary Knights of Karas. Leading a huge formation of armored cavalry of Knights, mounted elements of the Legions and the Arkisian armies, and with the Selani loping easily in pace with the horses, the combined armies of the civilized world began their assault as Goblinoid elements of the army arrayed against them rushed forth from their positions to meet the fleeing Waern and the armies of humanity in a mighty clash on the unnaturally warmed grasslands of the land surrounding Gora Umadar.

The dragons were the first to strike. Led by a huge blue, larger than every other dragon in the host, the dragon Sapphire struck the first blow, an intertwined blast of lighting bolts that lanced forth from her open maw, driving into the center of a large formation of Trolls, killing most of them and causing the ground where the lightning struck to literally explode from the power of the magical attack. Other dragons followed suit, pounding the armies below with infernos of fire, blasts of lightning, clouds of poisonous gasses, streams of lethally powerful acid, and withering cones of intense cold. They absolutely destroyed those enemies closest to their charging allies, and then broke up to attack any large concentration of enemies that were close to them, making sure that no large element of the enemy army was going to meet the attack of the humans and their allies in one piece. They did not try to destroy every little thing, they simply made sure that their enemies were forced to scatter for their very lives, making sure that no organized defense would meet the Knights as they thundered onto the battlefield.

It was a tactic elegant in its simplicity, and absolutely devastating. When the Knights caught up to the Waern and the Goblinoid reserves that had been rushing to meet them, their foes had had no chance to form up and meet the assault in an organized manner. The Knights and heavy cavalry simply rode them down, splitting them into two groups, and into that hole charged the Selani. They widened the hole, and the Legions of Arak with Sulasian Rangers mixed into their lines marched in behind them in the classic Arakite wedge formation, the Rangers withering the enemy with storms of arrows as the highly disciplined Legions solidified the split of the enemy into two groups. Wikuni Marines, Ungardt, Amazons, Arkisian Legions, and the armies of Sulasia spread out to envelop those isolated pockets and cut them down as quickly as possible.

But that was but the initial blow, and Val's armies outnumbered the forces of the humans and their allies by ten to one. The dragons, the great equalizer that made their forces evenly matched, fanned out with Aeradalla escorting them to protect them from the winged elements of Val's forces, vrock and Harpies, fanned out in their mission not to lay waste to everything, but to cause as much chaos and disorder in their enemies as possible, keep them off balance until friendly forces could arrive to strike them before they had a chance to organize themselves. Even dragons had limits on their magic, so they had to use their breath weapons and their spells wisely, to maximum effect, before being forced to land and fight with their opponents in close combat, a method that actually posed risk to them should they come up against a strong Demon.

The battle outside had only just begun. The battle within had not yet truly started.

Val's power struck the Were-cat, but in that same instant, the Twin Moons broke the smooth perimeter of Vala's edge, and the conjunction was at hand. And in that split second, the long-sealed pathways of power which the Firestaff called upon to convey its might were opened. The Firestaff suddenly erupted into blinding white fire, a white fire that melted away Val's attack, that cast every nook and cranny of the platform and those who had watched the struggle between mortal and god with a light ten times more brilliant than the sun.

That light, that power, that brilliance, that energy erupted from the staff, a power so vast that even a god seemed as nothing when compared to it. It was the power of everything, of the entire universe, an echo of the vast energy generated in the instant of its creation. The Firestaff reached back through unfathomable means and touched on that power, the overwhelming power of life, of awareness, of being, a force that was vaguely related to the All, but the All was the most pitiful shadow of what this power truly was. The light surrounded Tarrin, enclosed him, and then he felt its power surge into him through the paws that were holding onto the staff, conducted into him from the nether regions where that power still echoed and through the staff, the instrument of its conveyance.

It was absolutely indescribable. The power of the gods themselves flowed effortlessly into him at a rapid pace, scouring away all that was mortal with their fiery touch. There was no pain, only a kind of utter ecstacy as his mind and soul were torn loose of their mortal constraints and bonded to the power of the universe itself, a power without bounds, without limitations. It infused him, caused his body to shine forth with the same blinding radiance as the staff itself as flesh and blood and bone were saturated with absolutely power, scoured away, replaced by the god-stone that replaced his mortal coil and formed the icon that represented him within the mortal world. It was but a metaphor, a symbol of his true self, but was necessary all the same as a point of reference which the mortal mind could fathom and understand. The power filled his mind, expanded his consciousness, revived memories taken from him by Niami during his turning, again allowing him to look down into the workings of the universe, but this time with an awareness that could comprehend the nature of its workings. Tarrin could see everything that was, everything that had been, could see the intent and reason for all, and he understood its meaning. The power joined to him swelled within him, freeing his mind of all mortal restriction, expressing the ultimate potential that he possessed, a potential that transcended the boundaries of mortal comprehension. Tarrin was joined to the universe itself, understanding all, seeing all, feeling truly as if nothing were beyond his capability.

He understood what needed to be done. There was no choice in it, and no choice in what would happen, but he had to make an active attempt to begin it. He reached out with his soul, with all his godly power, and sent it through the power of the universe itself, until those energies most harmonious with his power and his personality responded to him. Those energies, those states became his chosen forms, and those forms represented the base of his power. The energies of fire were most compatible with him, as were the both mortal and immortal concepts of duty, honor, and protection, traits that had been his strongest aspects as a mortal, and transferred into his godly sentience to form the basis of what he represented to the universe and to the mortals and other gods. They were what he was, his being, and their energies were his to command to a higher degree than the rest.