Kamar-Taj: Sacrifice
"I can give you nothing, Mordo. You can only choose to believe, or not."
Distance, time, speed, and other fundamental properties of the Material Universe had all lost their meaning here. This palace was the only place where order existed within a mad, chaotic world. The palace was not so sturdy either. Amid storms that tore apart stars, the plaza outside was constantly being stripped away, its exquisite statues and stone paving weathering into dust.
A carnivorous plant thousands of meters long, utterly defying the logic of biological evolution, swam out from beyond the reach of the spired lighthouse's illumination. Countless tentacles casually sliced away chunks of stone paving. The man holding a staff struck back. The strange Aether entity of that half-plant creature fled madly like a startled animal, while pure white flames cast by the lighthouse spread like ghostly fire, reducing the several-kilometer-long beast to primordial Aether Energy in the blink of an eye.
The very concept of its existence was thoroughly erased. The other, relatively weaker Aether entities surged forward with cheers, feeding on the soul energy upon which they depended for survival. They were born from the emotions and souls of any intelligent being in the universe. They might be a betrayal etched into one's bones, a soldier's courage erupting at the brink of life and death, or the pain and regret of a terminally ill patient before death. Too weak to approach the palace's halo zone, their instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm drove them away from this tranquil place that had yet to be touched by the storm.
Mordo said nothing. The Emperor's power had far surpassed anything he could have imagined.
The Emperor raised His staff and closed His eyes.
A rift split the high-speed rotating Aether storm apart. Aether