[Asterisked Accolade]

"I was dying. Wade would not be coming to my rescue. Marcum wouldn't either, I was on my own. Saera stood over me, observing my broken body with a bone-chilling smile. The sky beyond her silhouette was orange from the fires of the burning continents. Everything was covered by hot, orange sand. The trees and grass had been charred away. She reared her leg back and kicked me in the neck, sending me skidding through the hot sand and breaking most of the bones above my rib cage. It was excruciating and paralyzing. I tried to command the particles around me into a force-field, but the pain interrupted my focus. I had no choice but to lie on the ground, writhing in pain. When i opened my eyes for a moment, the sun was blocked by Saera's flowing black hair in the smokey winds as she stood over me once more. 'I admit, human. . .it is much more gratifying to crush you with my bare hands than to simply turn you to atomic mist.' She raised her foot above my face and focused her strength into it. 'At long last. . .this world is mine.' She lowered her foot with a force so enormous, that my head-- my skull was compressed into particles as small as the sand on which i died. The force quaked the entire Earth and knocked it nearly nine inches off of it's axis. At the very least, i went out with a bang.'' - William Bernard Hendriks, White Rook III: Exodus