Chapter Text
"I AM SUPREME!"
Balthasar Gelt's words roared over the land like the thunder of a thousand cannonades. A golden whirlwind encased him in pure arcane energy as the Incarnate channeled the full might of Chamon, the Wind of Metal. From afar one would have thought that someone had made a perfect mirror to reflect the whole of the sun's radiance.
He focused the swirling magic to combine with the rest of the Incarnates, their Winds all coming together to close the growing warp rift in the center of Middenheim. The screaming vortex of unreality clawing at the world around roiled and raged in a prison of arcane aura. The greatest living Alchemist, Balthasar Gelt was no stranger to channeling Chamon and to be infused with the very essence of the metal magic felt right. Every moment of his studies, from western edge of the world to its very east, led him to this point: to be the true and only Master of Metal.
Then a pain erupted from Gelt's chest, along with a baleful sword.
With what rapidly depleting vitea he had, the Incarnate of Metal turned to see the ghostly figure of Mannfred von Carstein. The vampire had thrust Timor Noctis into Gelt's back, the cursed blade slicing through the latent enchantments of the Cloak of Shimmering Metal. His ghastly grin revealed his fangs.
Gelt coughed out, "you traitorous fool, what doom have you wrought..." before he collapsed on the ground.
Mannfred stared queerly before he began to laugh and howl like mad, until the greatest of the Elvish warriors impaled him on his firey sword, turning to ash the creature who condemned the world to destruction. Balthasar Gelt lay on the cold earth, blood pooling in his mouth while inky blackness crept around his vision. Somewhere in the distance a great burst of arcane energy exploded, evaporating the last hope of a fast fading world. The ground heaved beneath him as the very material of reality was ripped apart by the raw energy of Chaos unleashed.
In his final sight, Gelt saw a storm-like shadow envelope him and a warmth run through his body.
"So I see you again, at the end of all things..."