[Alex's POV]
Compared to the petrified, overgrown wild track they'd planned to use to get to the top, Intef's path of destruction felt as if a set of stairs had been hewn into the mountain. Even if it still took them over an hour to actually get to the top.
By the time they'd finally made it up there, they were both a huge mess: their skin was sticky from dried blood and sweat, caked with dust from the shattered, petrified objects.
Alex was wheezing and gasping, sweat trickling down his face. It didn't help that Yahya didn't look tired at all, even though he'd been dragging most of Alex's weight along with him up the mountain.
Alex allowed himself to sag to the ground to catch his breath. Fuck, he hated feeling weak!
"What now?" Yahya asked after a while, his gaze trained on a large, white, glimmering and glittering diamond.
Alex hadn't noticed it before he'd looked up to look at Yahya, but now that he was looking at it, it truly was an impressive beacon. Alex could feel the familiar power radiating from it, even though he was sitting 8 meters away from it.
It was hard for Alex to find the shape of a human in it. He knew some part of that sparkling diamond, was the petrified body of Intef hugging Amon. Yet, the enormous spikes protruding from his back made the diamond an almost unrecognisable shape. The thing was easily 5 meters tall.
"Give me a minute will you," Alex complained. "Undoing such a large amount of petrified energy isn't exactly easy, not to mention that I haven't been able to use my own power ever since I got here."
"Wait," Yahya said, disbelief evident in his voice. "That diamond statue is the manifestation of your powers?!"
Alex chuckled. Was that amazement he spotted in Yahya's voice?
"Wel, actually, it's the manifestation of Amon's powers. And that diamond is only the center of it. The whole disaster zone is the full extend of it," he said as he watched Yahya's complexion turn white at the comprehension. "That statue, you're referring to, is your brother."
It was funny to see Yahya put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Alex watched him recoil a few steps away from the huge diamond, looking it up and down again as if he was seeing it for the first time, muttering a muffled "damn!"
It was enough to make Alex laugh and forget how shitty he felt for a moment. A moment long enough to push himself off the ground and walk over to the diamond and put his hands on it.
He instantly felt the familiar power inside. Yet, the only reason he could feel it was because it had been frozen into place. So naturally, it couldn't skitter away from his presence even if it wanted to.
Using it in its petrified state wasn't exactly an option, so that meant he'd have to manipulate it before taking it in.
"Wait a second," Alex thought and then it hit him.
"That's it!" he yelled, surprising Yahya.
"What's what?" he asked startled.
"I have to manipulate the energy as I'm taking it in! It's the exact opposite of what I'd do on earth. It's so obvious now that I think about it. I'm a little ashamed I didn't realise it earlier! Pull instead of push."
Alex vaguely noticed Yahya's flabbergasted expression at his enthusiastic rambling. He didn't say anything though.
Alex was extremely excited to start using his powers again after going a few days without them. So he focused on where his hands touched the diamond, felt his power and started to manipulate it. The energy instantly obliged as if it hadn't been rebelling against him for the past two days.
The diamond under his hand melted away into fluid energy and eagerly flowed into his body. Once he got the hang of it, he didn't need to touch the surface of the diamond anymore to manipulate the energy. It flowed like a river, filling him to the brim.
At first, Alex had been afraid for a repeat of when he'd accepted the energy of the stars into his body. That energy had felt as if he'd been hit by lightning, scourging his flesh wherever it went, continuously jittering around without settling down. It had felt raw and unchained, powerful and free.
But this energy? The energy that Amon had left behind? It felt warm and familiar, as if an old friend had returned, and went straight to his core, without harming the rest of his body.
Alex sighed in relief as he felt the energy heal him. He willed it to heal Yahya too and laughed as he heard Yahya yelp in surprise when the healing energy enveloped him.
Soon, the diamond beacon was gone, and Alex started undoing the rest of the disaster zone.
This was even more spectacular to behold, as with every statue he unfroze, little blue fireflies escaped.
They happily danced around the sky for a few seconds, as if to celebrate that they were finally free, and then they started to rise up and up before vanishing quietly, resulting in a sky full of little blue fireflies.
Yahya gasped in amazement and when Alex was done, they both just stood there for a moment looking at the ascending blue fireflies.
Alex was happy to notice that lots of dead grass and dead trees were already appearing in the barren soil.
"Beautiful," Yahya whispered after a while, tears in the corners of his eyes. "I've seen countless rebriths, but I've never seen anything like this before."
"Just pray you'll never have to see anything like it ever again either," Alex said.
When he turned around, he noticed Intef's ghost hovering where the beacon had been. He didn't look bleak anymore. He was glowing with a soft blue light, as if he could dissolve into fireflies any second.
He and Alex stared at each other, mutual respect evident in their eyes, until Intef pointed towards his feet.
"You're right," Alex said. "Grace would notice if the beacon just vanished without a trace. I'll make a new one."
Alex thought for a second. He didn't exactly want to part with his newly gained powers, but if he wanted to make a replica of the previous beacon, it would have to be energy with his personal wavelength. Otherwise, Grace might not be fooled.
All there was left to do, was decide on the design of the beacon.
Alex pondered about it for a second and then decided on an anonymous humanoid figure, made of pitch-black petrified rock, standing comfortably with its hand held out high in front of it, a diamond shaped crystal floating above its hands. It reminded Alex a little of an oscar statue offering a diamond to the sky.
The diamond was about 60 cm tall and 50 cm wide, it's pure carbon altered and modified so that it would be able to house and amplify 10% of Amon's power.
That would have to do. 10% was already a huge amount, and Alex wasn't keen on the idea of leaving even more of the energy unattended.
"What do you think? Will it pass?" Alex asked Intef who was looking at it critically.
His expression cleared as he looked up towards Alex and laughed an inaudible laugh. He nodded. Alex felt a wave of pride wash over him.
"Well, then. I think I'm done fixing all my mistakes, aren't I?" Alex said, sounding a little haughty even to his own ears. That's when Intef shook his head and Alex froze.
"No?" he asked. "What do you mean? Have I missed something."
Intef raised an eyebrow in disbelief, and then shook his head good-naturedly as if he was laughing with an inside joke he hadn't bothered to tell.
He took one step towards Alex as he raised his hand towards Alex's chest and his ghostly figure started to dissolve in little fireflies.
Alex instantly felt his hackles stand on edge. The little voice inside his head was screaming "DANGER!"
"No! No! No! Wait! Can't you just tell me?!" Alex yelled in a panic as he tried to scramble away, but it was already to late. Intef dived, jumping straight through Alex's chest.
"Farewell, father," Alex heard Intef say inside his head as he passed through him, right before submerging on the other side in the form of a thousand little fireflies.
But that wasn't all.
As Intef passed through him, Alex could feel something snap inside of him, and when Intef submerged from Alex's back, an intense, burning pain pierced the surface of his skin. Alex screamed as he fell backwards from the impact of Intef passing through him.
"Why does everything that happens to me always have to hurt so much?" Alex wondered in thought. The past few days had been really stressful on his pain receptors and nerves.
First there was Otto disappearing, then there was the energy of the stars, then there was the first shock of realising what had happened to Yahya and Intef, then there was the second shock of realising the full scale of the disaster, then there was dying and facing of with monster Intef and now there were two objects piercing his back?
And when was the last time he'd eaten anything? Breakfast couldn't be counted, because he'd hurled it back up a few measly hours ago.
No, Alex felt like he'd endured enough torture for the past four days.
He was already losing consciousness before his back had hit the ground, the pain simply too much to process.
The last thing he saw before his vision went black, were gleaming white feathers fluttering in the sky above him.
And the last thing he heard was Yahya's voice saying: "Oh, come on, brother! As if he wasn't heavy enough the way he was, you want me to carry him off the mountain like this?!"