Tom exhaled slowly.
His voice came out low and apologetic. Consoling himself more than his dead subordinates that couldn't hear him.
"Do it for their sake."
His golden fire changed shape.
The burst became a wide, sweeping curtain of concentrated flame that spread outward across the surrounding rubble. His fire became a cremator, reducing any corpse it touched to ash in a matter of moments.
Whether it was the bodies of his followers, the bodies of Association responders or the bodies of tournament competitors he had watched fight not so long ago.
All of them became dust.
The wind carried the ashes across the ruined arena in slow, drifting streams.
Immediately after losing their host, the bones stopped glowing and fell to the ground from their airborne position.
