by Ramy Vance
Suzuki nodded as he unsheathed his sword. “She’s right. He needs to be on our playing ground. You’re telekinetic, right? Can you bring him down to us?”
Alex’s face was grim and determined. “I’ve done it before.” She reached out, closing her eyes as she levitated, the air swirling around her. When she opened her eyes, they flashed.
What could have been called the sky started to change color, producing shades none of them had ever seen. Out of nowhere, a screech tore through their minds, sending them to their knees—all but Alex, who continued to hold her hand high as reality began to warble.
A hole opened above them, and a shooting star came through it and crashed in front of them. Black smoke wafted from the stone and it bubbled, then cracked open like an egg, lumpy black sludge oozing from the shell.
The sludge swirled as it folded in on itself, building until it was near Cire’s height. It solidified into a hooded figure that grew taller still, towering over everyone. “How dare you?” the Dark One shouted.
Anabelle and almost everyone else backed away. “What do we do now?”
“Fuck him up!” Terra shouted as she darted at the Dark One. She swung at him wildly, tackling the Dark One to the ground.
He tossed Terra off, then reached into his cloak and pulled out a scythe.
Alex conjured her scythe. “I would have thought you’d be a little less predictable. Death? Yeah, I get it.” She ran toward the Dark One, blade raised.
The Dark One shifted into a black dragon. He swiped his tail at Alex, catching her in the stomach and knocking her away.
When Alex fell, Abby and Persephone joined the fray, Abby firing her shoulder and hand cannons and Persephone’s arms splitting open. Wings spreading, she swooped down on the Dark One, who shifted into a giant wielding two axes. He swiped at Abby, who was barely able to throw up a shield in time. Simultaneously, a second torso tore out of the Dark One’s back, its hands batting at Persephone, knocking her away.
José went for the Dark One’s legs, slashing at them with his massive broadsword. It cut straight through them.
The Dark One toppled to the ground, his body bursting into a black mist that reconfigured itself as a chimera with two heads, a goat’s and a lion’s, atop the upper body of a huge hawk with the lower torso of a snake. It slithered away and wrapped around Terra, who struggled to break free of its grip.
Anabelle flew at it, arms and legs flaming, and burned through its tail.
After the tail was separated, it split into thousands of snakes, each of them growing to the size of a freight train.
Abby took to the air and fired at the snakes, trying to take down as many as she could. Alex ran to the Dark One’s body and slid her scythe into him, slashing him down the middle.
The Dark One’s guts exploded outward. His heart, liver, lungs, and stomach grew to the size of a human and sprouted fur, their arms growing and heads hunching over, wolf-like.
The four Lycans darted into the fray as the rest of the Dark One’s body reformed as the original hooded figure.
The Dark One spread his cloak, unleashing dozens of pale-skinned harpies, who lunged at the group.
Abby flew past the Dark One and grabbed Alex. “You ready for this?”
Before Alex had a chance to answer, Abby disappeared, only to reappear seconds later, Alex behind her, riding Chine.
The dragon unleashed a torrent of ether fire, burning through the harpies as the Dark One grew to the height of a skyscraper and unleashed a freezing cold breath.
Anabelle leapt into the air, spinning like a top and shooting fire from her body to dispel the cold.
The Dark One’s shadow form screeched in anger as he sliced at the mortals with his scythe.
Myrddin stepped forward, holding his wand high, and fired a magical blast that tore through the Dark One’s body, cutting him in half.
As he fell, the two halves of him grew eight legs and scurried away from each other.
Persephone’s tentacles shot out, wrapping around one of the halves and crushing it. A wave of black blood gushed out and began to take a new form.
José ran to one of the half-formed parts and drove his sword into it. A blade shot from the Dark One and stabbed José through the stomach.
Terra tackled the enemy, then ripped the blade from José’s stomach and jammed it into the hood of the Dark One. “Are you okay?” she asked, helping the MERC to his feet.
José touched his stomach, bloodying his hand. “Tis only a flesh wound,” he said as he picked up his sword and charged the remainder of the Dark One, slashing it to ribbons.
Abby flew past, peppering the remainder of the Dark One with plasma blasts as Chine and Alex rained down ether fire.
The pieces of the Dark One rejoined, swirling into the hooded figure of Death once more as he cackled. The scythe appeared in his hand again as he turned and slashed behind him, tearing through the fabric of the reality.
A portal opened and the vacuum sucked everyone toward it.
“Everyone, let the portal suck you in!” Anabelle shouted.
No questions were asked. They gave in to the portal’s pull.
Terra tackled the little bit of the Dark One she could get her hands on, forcing him into the portal as well.
The Dark One and everyone else toppled out on the gnome world, plowing through a mass of ghouls fighting the gnomes and goblins.
“Hold on, I have a lock on a friend.” Abby smiled and ignited her thrusters, disappearing and reappearing with Sarah, who she dropped into the fray.
Sarah growled as she fell from the sky before unlocking the ninth gate, her aura exploding around her as she fell on the Dark One. His cloak stretched around her, its threads taking the form of hands that grabbed at anything near him.
Anabelle and Terra ran up his length, cutting through his arms. They had entered the Path of the Lost, and Anabelle set fire to the Dark One’s hulking body. He screeched as Abby flew across him, firing her plasma cannons. Chine launched ether fire at him.
“Rasputina and Grok?” Terra yelled at Abby. “We could really use them right about now.”
The girl nodded. “On their way. They’re fighting a bunch of undead beasts, keeping them off our asses.”
Terra sucked in air. “Damn. I wish I could see that, but we have a beast of our own to fight.”
There were dozens of roars in the distance as the Dark One swelled, growing larger still.
Hundreds of ether dragons were heading toward the Gate, spewing fire at the ghouls below and peppering the Dark One as they passed.
The Dark One writhed in pain as he screeched and spread his cloak once more, pulling out his scythe and opening another tear in reality.
Abby landed and dug her feet into the earth, nanobots constructing a cannon on her back as she leaned over. A plasma blast tore a hole down the middle of the Dark One as he stumbled through the portal.
Anabelle once more led the party through the portal after the Dark One. It opened up above the Gate on the orc world.
Persephone scooped everyone up in her tentacles as she spread her wings, slowing their descent as the Dark One fell on the army of ghouls beneath him and the ether dragons burst through the Gate.
The Dark One’s cloak seemed to be independent of the rest of him. It stretched out, attacking everything near him.
Anabelle grabbed Abby and shouted, “Can you take us back?”
Abby looked at the elf warily and then at the Dark One, who was growing larger and writhing, destroying everything near him.
“He’ll kill everyone around him!” Anabelle shouted.
The girl’s body hummed with energy as she nodded. “We got it.”
She waved her hands, spreading an energy field over them all. In a flash of light, they disappeared, reappearing in the Netherverse.
The Dark One reassembled himself from the shreds of his cloak, once more towering over them.
Anabelle loosed a blast of mana at him. “We’re ending this. No
w.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The Dark One let out a hiss that slithered down the backs of their necks.
Despite everything that had been thrown at him, he’d hardly taken a scratch.
Anabelle, Terra, and Sarah had attacked using the power of the Path of the Lost, and it seemed to have done nothing.
Abby, with all her upgrades and newfound strength, hadn’t managed to leave a mark on him.
José, Suzuki, and Alex had not fared any better.
Even Myrddin, with all of his arcane powers and knowledge, couldn’t harm the Dark One.
Everyone was tired, the battles fought previously weighing on them.
Terra leaned on Anabelle, sighing. “What the hell else are we supposed to throw at this guy?”
Anabelle shook her head and gave no answer, looking at Myrddin instead. The wizard looked exasperated.
The Dark One leaned forward and breathed his words with the finality of death. “There is nothing you can do. I am the end of life as you know it. It is my image all living things will be cast into. All you have done, all you have ever done, is slow the inevitable. I will destroy you.”
Terra groaned as she straightened. “God, can I just say, fuck this guy? How the hell did you deal with him before, Alex?”
Alex, who was staring up at the looming figure, said, “It was only a piece of him. For all I know, this could be as well. What I fought was purely mental. I have no idea what’s going on here.”
Abby spun to face the rest of the group. “That’s it! This whole thing is about energy! See, we’ve been sitting here chatting, and he hasn’t attacked us. We might not have been able to hurt him, but we’ve tired him out. Everything he’s doing must take energy.”
Abby’s words sparked a memory in Anabelle, something she’d heard repeated during her training as a Traveler. “Energy drains energy,” she muttered to herself.
Myrddin’s face brightened when he heard Anabelle’s words, and he expanded on them. “The law of energy exchange. Every action requires energy.”
Abby also seemed to understand Anabelle’s cryptic words. “Just like Tesla.”
Suzuki and Alex, along with the rest of them, seemed to be at a loss. “Okay, I know we don’t have time for a mystic arts lesson, but what the hell does that mean?” Alex shouted.
Abby pointed at the Dark One. “It means that just like we all have our limits, the Dark One does too. Like an electric transformer, he can be overloaded. We just need a way to conduct the energy.”
Myrddin stepped forward. His wand shot out a bright white light that caused the Dark One to recoil in anger. “Feed your energy into me. I’ll be the conductor.”
Abby looked at the wizard, her mask pulling back. She fully understood what had been left unspoken.
The damage to Abby’s body from doing the same thing while fighting Tesla had been extensive. She had only survived because of her nanobots. Myrddin might not live through the exchange.
He met Abby’s eyes, no doubt realizing the same thing about his physical limitations, but he remained quiet. “Hurry! We need to do this fast!”
Anabelle, Terra, and Sarah stood behind Myrddin. The elf clenched her fist and let her body exude mana, dumping it all out and sending it toward Myrddin. Terra and Sarah did the same. Their energy swirled together, taking on a myriad of bright colors as it fed into the wizard.
The Dark One lunged forward, his cloak spreading, unspeakable terrors screaming from his eyes.
Alex jumped in front of Myrddin, her fingers on her temples. “I’ll keep him at bay!” She shut her eyes, and a psychic wall spread in front of Myrddin and the rest.
The Dark One collided with the wall, shrieking as he was repelled.
Alex fell to her knees, swaying as she tried to keep from passing out. She loosed a scream, erupting in flames as she accessed the dragon blood in her anchor to bolster her defense. She wished Chine was with her, but her dragon was off fighting other enemies.
So many enemies…
As if he heard her—and perhaps the dragon did. They were bound, after all—Chine dropped to her side and fed her energy.
So many enemies, Alex thought again. And so many friends.
Cire joined Anabelle, Terra, and Sarah, lending his power to Myrddin, staff raised high. The earth around him grew fertile, flowers and sprouts springing up and encircling him.
The Dark One shrieked with rage, the fabric of reality tearing. The space surrounding the Dark One’s body looked to be unraveling, a vast cosmos of stars, suns, and infinity shining through the tear.
“It’s not enough!” Alex shouted. “He’s breaking through!”
The Dark One reached back and swung his scythe, hitting the shield Alex was projecting. The force of the attack shook the barrier, nearly cracking it, but Alex held it together, blood pouring from her nose and ears. This shield would not crack. “Give it everything you got,” she shouted.
A bolt of energy shot into Myrddin from behind, which caused the ball of energy forming around the tip of his wand to explode in size.
Anabelle, Terra, and Sarah looked over the shoulders to see where the energy was coming from.
Grok walked toward the group, the ground shattering beneath her feet with each step as her body pulsed with energy. She stopped walking and stood beside Anabelle, Sarah, and Terra.
Anabelle grimly nodded at the orc, and she returned the gesture.
The Dark One sliced at Alex’s shield again.
A deep gash appeared on the rider’s face, blood pouring from it.
Abby landed at her side and threw up an energy shield as well, doubling their defense against the Dark One as he slashed at the barrier, screaming in rage.
The Dark One finally slammed the tip of his scythe into the barrier, barely cutting through. “You are nothing to me,” he howled. “Nothing!”
Then there was another surge of energy. Bright green flames flew toward Myrddin, tinting the color of the magical energy.
Rasputina appeared from whatever hell she had been in, breathing heavily, and approached the group, her green eyes locked onto the Dark One. “Today I come for Death himself. I wish to look him in the eyes for the first time in thousands of years and extinguish him.”
The lich walked up to Myrddin and pulled a bone from her ribcage, fashioning it into a wand. She pointed it at the Dark One as she muttered lost arcane words under her breath.
The enemy recoiled as Myrddin’s and Rasputina’s wands swirled with magical energy.
Suzuki plunged his sword into the ground at Alex’s and Abby’s side, screaming as he lent his energy to the barrier.
The cloak of the Dark One blew away as if it were caught in a wind, and they beheld his true form for the first time.
He was an alabaster giant, white as bone, gaunt and fragile-looking, his ribs visible through tightly stretched skin. Dying stars glowed beneath the thin skin, covered by straggly blond hair that reached his stomach. His legs were spindly, splitting at the kneecap into multiple appendages without shape or form, melding together. His mouth hung open without a jaw, stretching wider and wider still, billions of teeth growing far back in his throat, which was as black as space.
Anabelle loosed another burst of mana, pushing her body. “We got this!”
Rasputina looked over her shoulder at Persephone. “Now is the time, child. Can you do what you must?”
The drow slowly nodded.
Rasputina’s right hand grew long and crooked, her fingers ending in barbed points. She slashed to her right, tearing a wound in reality. The song of the Elder Ones floated through the tear.
Persephone knelt, singing softly under her breath. Her hand turned to tentacles and snaked into the tear.
Rasputina sliced up, and the tear stretched above the Dark One into the Netherverse.
The drow’s arm split into thousands of tentacles as she screamed.
The unworldly shapes of the Elder Ones descended from the tear.
The Dark O
ne looked up as unknowable shapes wrapped around his arms and legs and neck, forcing him to the ground as he screamed and writhed.
Persephone’s arm disintegrated as it flowed into the mass of the Elder Ones, and her eyes were wide with fear as she reached out to Abby. “I love you!” she shouted as her skin began to crack. “I love you so much!”
Abby stretched her hand out to the drow. “I love you too! I’ll always love you!”
Alex grabbed Abby’s arm. “You can’t! Hold the barrier!”
The lovers’ eyes met as Persephone’s body floated into the Netherverse.
Rasputina’s voice rose above the cacophony. “Now! Give it everything you have!”
There was a collective scream as everyone unloaded.
Rasputina and Myrddin, the wizard and the lich, one-time enemies, not allies, looked at each other briefly, then they shouted a word none could place. A word from long ago that held meaning.
A thin spark flew from their wands, floating as lightly as a petal caught in a gentle breeze. It landed on the nose of the struggling Dark One.
Green flames spread from the spark and consumed the Dark One as he tried to stand. The bodies of the Elder Ones held him down as the flames spread, burning through the moonlight skin and scorching to the bone as the Dark One screamed, a haunting sound of pain and hatred that continued to echo even after his bones had been consumed.
Everything vanished.
Anabelle looked around, confused.
They were back on the gnome world.
On the battlefield, the ghouls dropped to the ground. Harpies and vrosks fell from the sky like rotten fruit falling from a tree.
The gnomish army, all of whom were covered in the filth of battle, stood dumbfounded, staring at each other.
Kravis raised his fist, screaming triumphantly. A riotous cheer rang out from the troops.
Abby was curled in a ball beside the Gate, wailing and screaming for Persephone.
Terra and Anabelle ran to her side and tried to help her up, but Abby would not allow them to. She pushed them away and crawled toward the Gate, shouting, “She’s gone! She’s gone!”
“Abby! Abby, listen to me,” Anabelle shouted.