• Published 22nd Jul 2019
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The Life of Penumbra Heartbreak - Unwhole Hole



The seven-month life of Penumbra Heartbreak, the alicorn daughter of the King Sombra

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Chapter 76: Starborn

The shield flickered and reignited- -although it was so much smaller than it had once been. Instead of covering the entire Capital District, it barely extended beyond the Citadel’s courtyard.

Daybreaker saw this, and was distantly concerned- -although saw no need to rush. She could taste the foul magic supporting the dome, and knew how much pain the individual casting it would eventually be in- -so it was better to prologue the experience.

She was unaware of the danger inherent to her decision.

From the icy darkness, something stumbled toward the shield. The ponies closest to the edge cried out and pushed against one another trying to get away from it. Those who were luckiest saw only a monster. Some, though, recognized him, and their fear poured into the Heart of Darkness. Penumbra shuddered as that very fear, in turn, flowed through her.

Twilight Luciferian hobbled toward the dome. His mouth was foaming, and his lips were stained with silver- -but it had not been enough. There was no longer a way to stop the screaming. The demon within him was inches away from taking control herself. Only by sheer will and luck was Luciferian still marginally conscious.

He approached the dome and stopped, confused. He reached out and poked it. It promptly rejected him, sending a massive wave of feedback back toward him on even the slightest touch. The crystals in his orbit absorbed most of it. His mutated biology handled the rest.

They had closed the gate to him. To him, One of Thirteen, the greatest of the Dark Thirteen- -and he was forbidden entry. This thought enraged him deeply, and he could not help but laugh.

“Princess!” he called. Distantly, he could see her, pouring her magic into the broken mechanism under the very center of the Citadel. “Princess, I’ve come to save you!” He giggled. “Isn’t that nice of me? I’m going to save you, and you’re going to be queen! And we’ll be married! And...and...sompeony will finally love me...”

“I love you,” said the demon beside him. “I will always love you. I am the only one that ever will.”

“Shut up shut up SHUT UP SHUT UP!” He cried, tears welling in his eyes as he covered his ears- -although of course, that would not block her out. She was rapidly becoming him, and he her. The lines were blurring.

A pony appeared on the far side of the shield. Luciferian’s own eye was mostly blind, but the one that had formed on his left side saw her well and noted the indelible marks around her neck.

“Go away, Lord Luciferian,” she said. “You are not welcome here.”

A smile crossed Luciferian’s face. “You would reject me from my own castle? From my own wife?”

“She is no one’s wife. Nor does this castle belong to you. You know very well you cannot break this shield. It will destroy anything living it touches, including you.”

Luciferian’s smile grew wider. “And yet you’re still inside it, aren’t you? Even with that mark? Which means it’s not complete!”

He began to laugh uncontrollably, tears running down his face. He raised his left hoof, the metal casing around it rapidly oxidizing and collapsing from internal recomposition. “Did you hear that?” he cried. “She says it destroyed ANY biological tissue? Well let’s see if it’s TRUE!”

His laughter rose to a crescendo as he rammed his left hoof into the shield. Then, suddenly, he was screaming in pain, although he could no longer differentiate it from any other sensation.

The shield reacted violently as Luciferian’s hoof was pushed through it. The entire system buckled and the princess cried out, suddenly brought to her knees by the strain. As powerful as it was, it could not hold back the embodiment of pure morality, the flesh of the Most Beautiful Pony.

The protective armor casing was immediately vaporized, as was the material that the hoof itself was made out of which could only by the loosest of all definitions be considered “flesh”. What remained had no corresponding analog of any living creature in Equestria, although to the ponies seeing it for the first time- -including Luciferian himself- -it resembled a structure of thin, black bone.

His claws unfurled from where there had once been a hoof, and they dug into the crystal ground. He began to pull himself through the shield, and as expected, SHE would not let him fail.

“PRINCESS!” he cried, through his laughter and pain. Through his dulled, corroded mind, she was the only thing he could think about. The only thing that mattered. “I OWN YOU! The prophecy CANNOT be denied!” He giggled relentlessly. “They say you’re sterile, don’t they? But I don’t think you are! I’LL PROVE IT MYSELF! Love me, princess! LOVE ME!”

Luciferian pressed himself forward, driving whatever he had left into Penumbra’s last defense. She closed her eyes and struggled, desperately trying to keep the shield running, and to protect the ponies within it. The strain proved too much, though. Luciferian’s force was too great, and the shield dome shattered.

Luciferian pressed himself forward, driving whatever he had left into Penumbra’s last defense. She closed her eyes and struggled, desperately trying to keep the shield running, and to protect the ponies within it. Luciferian tried to pull himself through, but then suddenly sensed something. His crystals- -the only part of him that still followed hid will exclusively- -tilted suddenly, forming a powerful defensive shield. Even then, the blow was so well-conceived that it knocked him back, causing the shield dome to suddenly retract around his leg, removing it completely.

He rolled across the ground and stood. As he did, the black claw reformed, and then flesh formed around it, generating a perfect yellow hoof. Even his tattoos and ceremonial scars grew back along with it.

“Because of course you wouldn’t come off that easily,” he grumbled, rolling to one side to dodge another blast. One of his crystals returned fire, and Thirteen’s invisibility spell was instantly overloaded.

The crystals took account of the situation. Thirteen was in poor shape, and as Luciferian watched, she fell to her knees, gasping and desperately trying to put out sparks hemorrhaging from a hole in the front of her armor.

What was left of Luciferian’s mind performed the calculations based on his own knowledge of chronplexy, and he understood.

He began to move. To him, it felt like he was drifting. Thirteen saw this, and tried to stand and take a defensive stance, but the jump had drained her. She was forced to retreat, limping as she did so.

“It looks to me like your suit has a hole,” said Luciferian, trying to control the laughter. “The seal is broken. And you’re not powerful enough to withstand the temporal shear forces, are you? So if I want you to STOP BOTHERING ME...” His eyes narrowed. “I think I should probably strip you naked, shouldn’t I?”

Thirteen fired a blast of magic. Luciferian’s crystals reacted, moving into position at his orders and generating a set of portals. The beam was absorbed into one and reflected between them repeatedly in every possible direction. Thirteen saw what he was doing and raised a partial shield- -only her own beam to be directed to strike her from behind, sending her sprawling.

Luciferian cast a second spell, piggybacking it along his portals. Thirteen was suddenly struck by an adhesion spell, binding her left side to the ground. Then Luciferian snapped the bindings that held space intact.

The whole world appeared to rotate as angles and distances ceased to have true meaning. To Luciferian, it was simply a matter of consciously performing new math rather than relying on one’s own instincts. Thirteen, to her credit, attempted to react, but her mental power was simply not adequate. As space turned and twisted, she became disoriented.

Even countering Luciferian’s adhesive spell, she charged him only to run headlong into a building that was over four kilometers to her left and two inches from her right. She then tipped and fell upward as relative gravity began to move at its own inverse.

Luciferian smiled as she tumbled and he performed his calculations. Then, in an instant, the world snapped back to its normal dimensional- -right as a beam of m magical energy stabbed deep into the hole in Thirteen’s armor, tearing away pieces from the border and leaving it substantially wider.

Thirteen fell, arresting her motion with a levitation spell.

“Impressive,” said Luciferian. “For an ordinary unicorn. Another rare spell. But I suppose that’s all you can do, isn’t it? You know spells other ponies don’t. But I’ve read every book. I know them all.”

He stepped forward while remaining still. His body split into multiple copies of itself. This time, they all at least appeared to be the same size.

Thirteen responded by replicating herself as well, and her selves charged Luciferian’s, immediately filling the street with a vicious battle of clones. Luciferian’s clones, being far weaker, were initially knocked back- -but their weakness was only a result of the difference in spell used to complete them.

“How transparent,” they sighed in unison, each suddenly turning and striking Thirteen with a spell that interfered with her own. Hers, unlike his, relied on high-speed oscillation; on contact, the clones suddenly lost their vibrational pattern and Thirteen was forced to manifest. As she did, Luciferian was waiting, and grasped onto the ragged border of her armor, tearing chunks of it off.

Thirteen leapt backward, firing a single exceedingly complicated bolt, one precision built to penetrate any shield it might encounter. Luciferian smiled and countered with chronoplexy, freezing time around the blast and stopping it in its tracks.

Thirteen took a step back, apparently surprised by this.

“Do you like it?” said Luciferian, smiling. “I learned it form observing you. Very closely. I like you. I think the princess does too, which will be helpful. As king, it will be my prerogative to choose mares worthy of my company. I think you qualify to be part of the harem.” His smile grew wide and vicious. “But first, I’m going to finish stripping you naked. Piece. By. PIECE!”

Thirteen’s horn ignited, and suddenly the spell trapped in Luciferian’s magic shifted, parts of it having been entangled at its conception. It suddenly lost integrity and detonated with substantial force- -right into his face.

Her performed an orthogonal dodge combined with an intangibility spell, effectively allowing him to avoid all damage while simultaneously taking the shortest possible route to Thirteen. He struck her in the chest with his left hoof, sending bits of her armor flying as his crystals sent out tendrils of magic to grab at what remained. Then he kicked her through a portal.

She did her best to change direction, but Luciferian parsed space to slam her into herself. Thirteen collapsed on a heap on the ground, only to receive a full forward blast cast from Luciferian’s crystals. It tore through her shield spell and armor in a single hit, sending her flailing backward through the snow.

Luciferian smiled and slowly limped forward. “The princess…the princess is sterile...but you’re not...maybe I can build myself a new body using you...this one is almost done. No more clones but maybe I can still transfer...”

Thirteen looked up at him. The last explosion had broken off half of her helmet, and the remainder was sparking. One wide, violet eye was staring at him- -and this gave him pause. The expression in it was not fear, or anger, or even defeat. The only emotion it showed was complete and utter indifference.

“What even are you?” asked Luciferian, suddenly both enraged and disgusted. He cast a stable cutting spell, forming what amounted to an incredibly elegant sword. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

He took a step forward, and Thirteen tried to stand, only to collapse. She had fully depleted her magic.

“You can’t jump time now. There is nowhere to hide.”

“Ejecting host-operator,” said a voice, causing Luciferian to jump back. He was for a moment immediately terrified, having never even considered that she would be insane enough to attempt to form a paradox. Even incapacitated, she could still rip the universe apart- -and herself with it.

Except the voice had not been hers. Her mouth had not moved. Luciferian had no idea where it had come from, but knew that this strange voice was surely the product of foul witchery.

Thirteen’s armor suddenly split, producing a horrible ripping sound as it peeled away from her body. Luciferian took a step back, horrified to realize that it was not metal, or armor in any sense of the word; inside, it was somehow organic, a creature all its own bonded to Thirteen’s flesh by numerous thin, adhesive tendrils.

The pony within stepped out. She was distinctly unimpressive, but somehow made Luciferian feel distinctly uneasy. Her coat was almost lavender, but somehow unnaturally gray, as if she had not seen sunlight in decades; her mane was darker, with a pale stripe, but it was cut so short that it was barely visible.

Without her biosuit, she was only able to take a single step before falling into the frozen snow. Although the temperature was frigid, she did not shiver, nor did she seem to perceive the cold in any way.

“Well, that dashes my hope,” sighed Luciferian. “As it turns out, you’re hideous. I don’t want you.” He lifted his projection-sword. “So go AWAY.”

Thirteen suddenly looked up, and Luciferian nearly cried out. An enormous toothy smile was plastered across her face.

“What are you- -” He suddenly felt a chill run through his body. What was left of his mind had grown heavy, and it was slow. He had seen it, but not realized what it was, or what it meant. Now, in an instant, he suddenly understood, and knew the implications.

Thirteen had no cutie mark- -except for a black equals sign.

Her horn flashed. A portal opened, and a strangely bifurcated stick emerged. Held between its forked point was a single suspended cutie mark. HER cutie mark.

“NO!”

Luciferian could not react in time. Thirteen looked him in the eye and released the spell, immediately rebinding her special talent back to her body.

In a blinding instant, Luciferian was thrown back. His half-demonic body compensated, attempting to protect him, while what little remained of his intelligence tried to cast a protective spell- -although neither were terribly effective as he was overwhelmed with a surge of pure, undiluted magic.

Yet it did him no harm. Because it was not a simple surge of power. Every piece, down to the most infinitesimal fragments, was collated and targeted perfectly.

Luciferian shielded his eyes from the blue glow and looked up at the pony before him. She was lifted into the air, supported by her own magic. Her body was scarcely visible through the glow of magic that should have easily incinerated it, but Luciferian swore he saw the distant images of seven pairs of wings surrounding her.

Her magic took shape as she opened her eyes, assembling itself it a system of luminescent wheels within wheels, surrounding her and slowly rotating as their eyes opened with hers.

“This isn’t possible- -it’s not possible!” Luciferian took a step back, casting a chronoplexy spell and conducting analysis. “No unicorn is that powerful- -it isn’t- -” His eyes grew wide as he saw the results of his scan. “No,” he said, looking back up at her and taking another stride backward. “Your chronal center is displaced- -you haven’t just SEEN the future, you’re...” His eyes grew even more wide. “Three thousand years...”

His mind was filled with memories of the words of madmares, of prophecies and predictions told by the insane, some of whom had gained their madness from the seers themselves. Of the slow decadence and decline of the Purebloods, of a world of dilute breeding and weak magic- -a world to be superseded by the rebirth of an entirely new and impossible sort of unicorn.

She was the future of his race, what they would one day evolve to become, a unicorn that would make alicorns obsolete- -and she was staring directly at Luciferian.

Across the kingdom, Daybreaker suddenly paused, her eyes growing wide. She and her younger sister both turned simultaneously toward the blue light on the horizon.

“Sister?” said Nightmare Moon. “What is that?”

“A rival,” snarled Daybreaker, bearing her teeth. “Hold on. I’ll deal with it.” She charged her horn.

“Sister, no! That is not our mission! The prophec- -time runs short!”

“Don’t tell me what to do, Nightmare. It’s not my fault you’re too much of a failure to do it yourself.”

She tilted her head back and fired her spell.

Even across the kingdom, Luciferian suddenly felt the heat of nuclear fusion as Daybreaker’s beam vaporized its way through crystal buildings and fortifications in an instant. He cast his own shield, if only to protect himself from the corona of the blast.

Despite her range, Daybreaker’s accuracy was perfect. The beam was targeted at Thirteen, and very nearly reached the target- -except that Thirteen raised her hoof and stopped it, accumulating the magic in her own aura. Not once did she take her eyes off Luciferian.

Then she changed the spell. Instead of breaking it, she amplified it. Across the kingdom, Daybreaker cried out and was forced to her knees as exponentially more magic was drawn from her.

The beam increased in intensity, but Thirteen barely seemed to notice- -until it suddenly stopped. For a brief moment, a blinding sphere of nuclear energy was trapped somewhere within the endlessly rotating wheels that surrounded her- -then, as Luciferian watched, it collapsed inward on itself, forming a single point of pure blackness. Only then did Thirteen turn to it. She lit her horn and transfigured it into an ornate teacup, then sent it through a small portal.

Then Thirteen just sighed. Luciferian did not understand why, until he was knocked back by a sudden blast of devastating solar energy as Daybreaker emerged from a teleportation, screaming in rage with her long, fluffy, threatening wings spread as wide as they would go.

She charged Thirteen. Thirteen’s horn flashed and Daybreaker cried out, suddenly clawing at a blue collar cast around her neck.

“How dare you! HOW DARE YOU- -EHK!”

Thirteen pulled the collar tighter. Daybreaker struggled and thrashed, casting wave after wave of spells that landed on Thirteen’s body harmlessly. Then, suddenly, Thirteen pulled Daybreaker’s face close to her own.

“Go away, Daybreaker,” she said. All of space seemed to strain at the sound of her voice, and Luciferian covered his head, as if it would save him from a potential temporal paradox. “I’m not getting paid to deal with you.”

She ejected Daybreaker with such force that another large swath of city was destroyed, this time by her alicorn body tumbling and crashing through it. Although Luciferian could not see where the track of destruction eventually led, Thirteen’s accuracy was excellent. A now severely battered Daybreaker came to stop beside her sister.

“Shut up, Nightmare.”

“I said nothing, sister.”

“No, but you were about to. Stupid horse.”

Luciferian took a step back as Thirteen’s vaguely luminescent eyes turned toward him. Her wheels began to turn.

“Well, this is bad,” said the demon, lounging in the snow and watching. “Starlight Glimmer. Interesting. But of course we all saw that coming. We’re not idiots, after all.” She flipped over, as if she wanted a belly rub. “So. You’re not going to make it. Summon me. SUMMON ME NOW YOU STUPID HOR- -”

A sudden blast of light shot by, and the demon cried out and vanished. Luciferian was knocked back and looked down to see that his left hoof had been encased a complex webwork of spells. He did not recognize their construction in the slightest, nor did he have the context necessary to understand them- -but he immediately felt their effect.

He collapsed, suddenly deprived of the presence of the demon whose flesh was keeping him alive. He had not realized how frail he had allowed his body to become, and how close it was to total collapse.

Before he could fully lapse into unconsciousness, Luciferian cast a set of powerful restoration spells to assume the functions of his internal organs. His body at this point was more magic than organic- -and that suited him just fine.

“That was a mistake,” he said, smiling as his horn ignited.

Thirteen reached out to him, but Luciferian ducked orthogonality through the universe, flashing forward into striking range. He had already cast analytic spells and generated his own. He countered Thirteen’s wheels, driving his own magic through and toward her body, cutting through the spells that protected her.

She compensated, but her face momentarily showed an emotion that Luciferian took to be surprise. “See?” he said. “I told you. You brought my mind back. Now I have control of HER.”

He twisted the spell, drawing his runic combinations outward and forcing energy forward, injected past what he took to be Thirteen’s shields.

Thirteen sighed and lit her horn. Luciferian’s spells were instantly deconvoluted. It was not a matter of them being overwhelmed or countered. He could feel what was happening. The functions that produced them were being disassembled in real-time, something that very well should have been impossible. Key variables were forced into mathematical uncertainty, and the spell broke away harmlessly.

Luciferian jumped back, risking severe damage in the process. Although the removal of the endless screaming had restored his mind, his body was weak.

That did not matter. He pulled together his crystals and added them to his calculation matrix.

“I defeated Sombra. I can defeat you too.”

Thirteen’s expression did not change. She began to move forward. As she did, her wheels slowly revolved, and Luciferian came to understand- -at least partially- -that they were part of a self-contained, self-reproducing spell, quite possibly an AI of sorts. What purpose it served was unclear- -or, more terrifyingly, there was a possibility that their presence was simply an unconscious expression of their caster’s will.

As she moved, they consumed entropy. Parts of the kingdom that had collapsed or broken were restored: buildings reconstructed, cracked streets made level, and plants restored to life- -only to be broken apart into their basic molecular form.

Luciferian cast. It was a distraction spell, meant for him to get in range to activate another analytic spell. He jumped orthogonality, shifting space around himself- -and receiving a hoof to the face.

Confused, Luciferian dropped back to normal space; he had been struck from a dimension that he had not calculated for. Then, from the same dimension, something booped him.

He jumped back, changing the parameters on his analytical spells. They self-destructed violently.

Thirteen’s wheels shifted, their eyes suddenly opening. Luciferian cried out as he drew in all his crystals, casting a shield spell as a small portal opened up and he was pinned by a teacup with the weight of a thousand planets.

He was crushed into the ground by the weight of it, and suddenly Thirteen sat beside him, lying in the snow and staring at him, as if mildly amused. Luciferian desperately countered with a hasty gravity spell, absorbing a tremendous amount of feedback in the process. Thirteen lit the tip of her horn, transfiguring the teacup back into a singularity while simultaneously removing its runic containment. Luciferian barely froze time in time to stop the resulting Hawking explosion. Thirteen continued to watch before dismissing the singularity in an instant, annihilating it from the universe.

She stood up and Luciferian struck again, forming a wave of adaptive spells that spread outward from him- -and from his crystals, striking from behind. He barely formed a shield in time to deflect his own attack, barely realizing in time that the pony he had taken for Thirteen was, in fact, himself.

He performed a scan. There was no signal. Her magic was almost limitless, it should have been impossible to lose her. Yet she was gone.

She could teleport. She could travel through time- -in theory.

“No,” whispered Lucierian. “No, not without her suit. She can’t survive in this era for long. Where...”

He saw motion in his peripheral vision. His eyes flitted to the reflective facets of the crystal towers- -and he saw her. Or, rather, he saw her reflection, walking calmly through the world projected in the mirrored surface of the crystal.

Yet she had no body in the real world. She had become her reflection- -and was headed for Luciferian’s.

His mind began to run, pulling through the text of centuries of books, trying to recall the nature of this spell and its construction. There were several references, but their manipulations either took too long to prepare or would cost too much energy. He had damaged himself badly by using spells too hastily. Though his mind was sound, his body was damaged- -and in particular, his horn. The binding had never healed completely, and he could feel it straining badly.

She was growing closer. He had no choice. He put his faith in his own power and summoned a devastating spell.

He roared with rage as his power exploded outward, shattering everything reflective within one hundred meters. It was hasty and crude, but effective. As the mirrors shattered, Thirteen was shattered with them- -or rather, that particular clone was forced to merge with the one that now floated above Luciferian.

And she just sat there. Watching.

“Why?” said Luciferian, collapsing to the ground. “All that power. You could defeat me in an instant, couldn’t you? But you won’t.” He looked up at her. “Why? Is it because that would not be enough? Is it because I matter that little? Or is it because will all that power you cannot rule this world as I shall?”

Luciferian was vaporized at an atomic level. Those atoms were then moved, and reassembled.

With a cry, Luciferian materialized into deep snow. He was confused and in pain, but he realized that he could see the Citadel in the farthest distance. At that distance, Daybreaker’s heat could only be distantly felt. To his chagrin, Luciferian realized that Thirteen was trying to freeze him.

And there was nothing he could to about it. He was too weak. The wind chilled him deeply, and he knew that there was no way he could get back to the kingdom on his own.

Thirteen appeared before him. He attacked her, and her wheels cast spells that deflected it. She countered by reaching into the snow with her magic, drawing up a pair of golems.

Luciferian laughed. “Snow golems? Really? They’re the weakest golem.”

He cast a spell around them, melting them to liquid water. But as he did, his spell changed, enhanced by Thirteen’s alterations. The pink magic suddenly became remarkably solid and was forced inward with such incredible force that the water became vapor, and then in turn was purged of its oxygen.

Then it was compressed even further. The hydrogen inside began to glow, and then ignited in nuclear fire.

Thirteen absorbed the thermonuclear force, unperturbed by it. It was barely twelve megatons; she had witnessed weapons millions of times more powerful, and deployed them from time to time in her thirty four centuries.

She quickly absorbed the energy, causing the blasts to dissipate. For a moment, it seemed that Luicerian had been defeated- -until his intangibility spell failed and he collapsed back onto the burned ground. His horn was sparking badly, the surgical scars connecting it to his body beginning to show distinct signs of rejection failure.

Thirteen dropped to the ground and approached him. Luciferian, breathing hard, looked up. Then he smiled.

“Thank you for the extra time. I think I’m ready. Goodbye, Thirteen.”

Luciferian drew energy from his crystals, pulling their mathematics into himself to perform a chronoplexation spell. Thirteen tried to dodge, but it was too late. She was caught in its field of effect. Her body seemed to slow as time around her collapsed.

Then, as the spell completed, Luciferian sat back. He could not move so long as the spell was cast; holding a material pony was far more difficult than suspending a spell. However, it hardly mattered.

“Don’t bother moving,” he said. “You can’t anyway. Not relative to me. For every second that passes for you, two million years pass out here. By the time you walk back to the Empire?” Luciferian chuckled. “Well, the sun will be burnt out by then, won’t it? Now I just need to complete it...make it permanent...”

He began the process- -but as he did, he saw Thirteen’s eyes slowly turn toward him. Then, to his horror, she began to move forward slowly.

“But that- -that’s impossible!” cried Luciferian. “You can’t possibly be moving that fast! The relativistic effects- -the energy requirements- -”

She raised her hoof toward him. To him, it seemed so very slow, but he understood the implications. Luciferian tried to take a step backward, only to scream out in pain. His position was fixed; even the slightest motion had wracked his body with temporal sheer. Another step, and it would peel him apart.

There was nothing he could do as she raised her hoof. He closed his eyes and braced himself, desperately trying to think of a spell. Then he felt it touch him.

As he was struck by a hoof of infinite mass, Luciferian was forced backward through his own layers of temporal sheer and chronal displacement at four times the speed of light. The ensuing paradox forced him cleanly off his plane of reality and sent him screaming through the undifferentiated multiverse beyond. The time spell around Thirteen collapsed, and she took a breath- -before following him in.

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