Mistborn #03 The Hero of Ages

slow me. Forestall. Delay. Since the day we created you, there has been an imbalance. I was stronger. And he knew it .
    Vin frowned—or, at least, she felt as if she were frowning, though she no longer had a body. His words . . .
    He says he's stronger, Vin thought. Yet, we are equally matched. Is he lying again?
    No . . . he didn't lie. Looking back with her ever-expanding mind, she saw that everything Ruin said, he believed . He truly thought that whatever she did helped him. He saw the world through the lenses of destruction.
    He wasn't lying about being more powerful than she. Yet, they were obviously matched at the moment. Which meant . . .
    There's another piece of Ruin out there, Vin thought. Preservation is weaker because he gave up a piece of himself to create mankind. Not his consciousness—that he used to fuel Ruin's prison—but an actual bit of his power .
    What she had suspected before, she now knew with certainty. Ruin's power was concentrated, hidden somewhere by Preservation. The atium . Ruin was stronger. Or, he would be, once he recovered the last part of his self. Then, he would be able to destroy completely—they would no longer be balanced.
    She swung about in frustration, a glowing white aura of mist with wispy tendrils expanding across the entire world. There's so much I still don't know, Vin thought.
    It was an odd thing to acknowledge, with her mind broadening to include so much. Yet, her ignorance was no longer that of a person. Her ignorance was related to experience. Ruin had such a huge head start on her. He had created for himself servants who could act without his direction, and so she could not block them.
    She saw his planning manifest in the world. She saw him subtly influencing the Lord Ruler a thousand years ago. Even while Rashek held the power of Preservation, Ruin had whispered in his ear, directing him toward an understanding of Hemalurgy. And, Rashek had obeyed without realizing it, creating minions—armies—for Ruin to take when the time was right.
    Vin could see them—the koloss—converging toward Luthadel.
    I will give you credit, Vin, Ruin said, hovering nearby. You destroyed my Inquisitors. All but one, at least. They were very difficult to make. I . . .
    She stopped focusing on him, at least with most of her mind. Something else drew her attention. Something moving into Luthadel, flying on spears of light.
    Elend.

Looking back, we should have been able to see the connection between the mists, Allomancy, and the power at the Well of Ascension. Not only could Allomancers' vision pierce the mists, but there was the fact that the mists swirled slightly around the body of a person using any kind of Allomancy .
    More telling, perhaps, was the fact that when a Hemalurgist used his abilities, it drove the mists away. The closer one came to Ruin, the more under his influence, and the longer one bore his spikes, the more the mists were repelled .
    77
    ELEND STOOD IN THE RUBBLE of Kredik Shaw, mind numb as he contemplated the destruction.
    It seemed . . . impossible. What force could have leveled such an enormous, majestic building? What could have caused such destruction, breaking apart buildings and flinging rubble several streets away? And, all of the destruction was focused here, at what had once been the center of the Lord Ruler's power.
    Elend skidded down some rubble, approaching the center of what looked like an impact crater. He turned around in the dark night, looking at the fallen blocks and spires.
    "Lord Ruler . . ." he swore quietly, unable to help himself. Had something happened at the Well of Ascension? Had it exploded?
    Elend turned, looking across his city. It appeared to be empty. Luthadel, largest metropolis in the Final Empire, seat of his government. Empty. Much of it in ruins, a good third of it burned, and Kredik Shaw itself flattened as if it had been pounded by the fist of a god.
    Elend dropped a coin and shot away, heading along his original path toward the northeastern section of the city. He'd come to Luthadel hoping to find Vin, but had been forced to take a slight detour to the south in order to get around a particularly large swath of lava burning the plains around Mount Tyrian. That sight, along with the sight of Luthadel in ruin, left him very disturbed.
    Where was Vin?
    He jumped from building to building. He kicked up ash with each leap. Things were happening. The ash was slowly trickling away—in fact, it had mostly stopped falling.