He clung to her, basking in the moment of peace before the inevitable. He had no desire to spend a moment apart, yet he would give up everything for her. For Jaia. For Hailen. For people like Farida, Bardin, Master Eldor, and Garnos. People who proved to him that mankind—for all its flaws and faults, its vices and malice, its cruelties and indignities—was worth saving. Not every man and woman, but enough of them. He was no hero, but a killer, a fighter. He would fight the Devourer with every shred of his strength until Taiana found another way to seal the rift.
Triumphant laughter echoed behind Taiana, and the humming in the towertop grew deafening. Crimson light blossomed from the gemstone pillar in the heart of the room, filling the chamber with its brilliance.
A surge of power washed over them, knocking them from their feet and hurling them to the ground. The Hunter instinctively reached for Hailen and found the boy crouched behind one Chamber of Sustenance, eyes squeezed tightly shut and hands clapped over his eyes. The coffin-like capsule had shielded him from the blast.
The Hunter tried to push himself upright, but the power washed over him with the force of a tidal wave pounding against a rocky cliff. He could barely lift his head, twist his body to see the Sage standing over the altar.
“Listen to that! There is no sound like it in the entire world.” Elation sparkled in the Sage’s eyes—which had deepened to solid black. Tendrils of inky, swirling darkness crept from his eyes, running like spiderwebs around his face. The taint of the Destroyer.
“You are too late,” crowed the Sage in a voice far too resonant and powerful to have been formed by a mortal throat. “My victory was fated from the moment these creatures entered this pitiful world. Your struggles are futile, for you cannot triumph against fate!”
With every shred of strength, the Hunter levered himself up to his elbows. The pulsing power threatened to knock him down, but he leaned into them. He marched into that hurricane of magick, stubborn, unyielding as ever.
“There is no fate!” he shouted. “No destiny. There is no grand purpose in life, no heroes or villains. There are only choices. I choose to fight. I choose to defy you, Devourer of Worlds!”
The Sage turned to the Hunter, and the Hunter recoiled at the sight of his eyes. It was no longer simply a black color there, but seething, twisting chaos like was visible through the rift. “ORDER CANNOT TRIUMPH AGAINST CHAOS.” A voice echoed through the Illumina with enough force to set the Hunter’s head pounding. “ENTROPY IS THE WAY OF ALL THINGS.”
Harsh, booming laughter burst from the Sage’s throat. “I WILL DEVOUR!”
The Sage slammed his uninjured left hand onto a gemstone, and blinding light slammed into the Hunter.
Chapter Forty-Seven
The Hunter blinked away the tears until the world slowly swam into focus. The humming within the Illumina had grown nearly deafening, and the power around him made it nearly impossible to stand. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to his hands and knees, then his feet.
His gut clenched as he saw the glow emanating from the Chambers of Sustenance fade. The Sage had severed the connection, and with it the power that sustained the Destroyer’s gemstone prison. A loud crack echoed loud in the room as fissures appeared in the pillar. The rift within widened as well, the tendrils of chaos seeping outward, reaching dark, swirling fingers toward freedom.
A hand gripped the Hunter’s his arm. He turned to see Taiana. Her mouth moved but the deafening humming drowned out her words. Grasping her wrist, he pulled her closer and placed his ear to her lips.
“We have to turn it back on!” Taiana shouted. “The Illumina must remain active, or the Devourer gets free.”
“How?” the Hunter shouted back.
Taiana thrust a finger at the console. “There,” she mouthed.
With a nod, the Hunter released his grip on her and staggered upright. The pulsing waves of power slammed into his chest, sending him stumbling backward, but he caught himself on a Chamber of Sustenance. His eyes went to Hailen crouching beside the stone base. He had to stop the Sage for the boy’s sake. For Jaia’s sake. For the sake of everyone in Einan.
Gritting his teeth, the Hunter drew in a deep breath and pushed himself off the now-darkened Chamber of Sustenance. A wave of magick struck him, but he leaned into it. The pulse was rhythmic, like the beat of a giant heart. There was only a single second between each swell, but that was enough.
One step. Another. Two steps forward, then a stumbling step backward. His eyes fixed on the Sage, the look of triumph that stained the once-demon’s face. The sight sent anger rushing through the Hunter and lent strength to his muscles.
If the Sage won, the world ended. The moment the pillar shattered, the rift would be free to unleash its chaos. Life as he knew it, and all existence on Einan, snuffed out by the Devourer of Worlds.
He roared into the wind, a bestial cry drowned out by the throbbing power. Yet the rage spurred him onward. Two steps, three, five.
The Sage’s eyes, twin orbs of swirling chaos, fixed on him. “I WILL CONSUME!”
“Like bloody hell you will!” The Hunter gripped the edge of the altar, held tight as a wave of power washed over him, then leapt. He pulled with all the force of his arms and pushed with every shred of strength in his legs. In that single instant between magical pulses, nothing held him back, nothing slowed him down. He was a creature of blood and battle and death once more. He was the unstoppable Hunter surging toward his prey.
He slammed into the Sage like a charging horse, and he felt ribs snap beneath the impact. The Sage only laughed—an inhuman, monstrous sound. Chaos swirled from his mouth and eyes, tendrils of black reaching toward the Hunter.
The Devourer’s voice poured from the Sage’s lips. “AS I WAS THE BEGINNING, SO I AM THE END OF ALL THINGS.”
The Hunter drove a fist into the demon’s face, shattering bone. The Sage—or the Destroyer within him—didn’t flinch. His swirling black eyes never left the Hunter.
“I AM INEXORABLE, INEVITABLE, INESCAPABLE.”
The Hunter reached for Soulhunger, but hesitated. What happened if Soulhunger sucked up some of the Devourer’s power? Would that weaken Kharna further? He couldn’t be sure, but couldn’t risk it.
The Sage was no longer Abiarazi; he’d given up the last of his demonic power to enter the Empty Mountains in search of Enarium. Iron would no longer poison him as it once had. Yet he couldn’t be killed like any normal human. He was…something else. A being of flesh and bone and chaos incarnate. The taint of the Devourer of Worlds would keep him alive until it consumed him. How in the bloody hell was he to kill something unkillable?
The eerie sound of shattering glass filled the tower and sent a chill down the Hunter’s spine.
“FREE!” roared the Devourer’s voice through the Sage’s lips.
Tendrils of seething blackness snaked through the cracks and pushed against the pillar. Threads of chaos slid down the smooth gemstone surface, and the rift in reality seemed to grow wider, the gaping maw of a monster that would consume everything before it. Light, breath, even life itself—all died before the power of the Devourer of Worlds.
The Hunter bared his teeth in a snarl. No such thing as unkillable. There was only one way to destroy a being so twisted by chaos: chaos itself. The Destroyer sought the end of all things—why should a mortal vessel be any different, even if it contained threads of its essence?
Gripping the Sage’s robes, the Hunter rose to his feet and hauled the once-demon into the air. “Escape this, you bastard!” he growled.
With a mighty roar, he hurled the Sage’s broken, bloodied body straight at the tendrils of chaos leaking through the cracked gemstone. As the Sage crashed against the pillar, the tendrils pierced his flesh and seized him like a thousand tiny arms. Black leaked into his flesh, threaded his veins, and seeped from his eyes and ears. The sound of the Sage’s shriek echoed through the Illumina as the Destroyer tore him to shreds—not simply killed him, but unmade him, turned him from a colle
ction of flesh, bone, and life into that swirling nothingness.
The Hunter’s mind raced. It had taken the rift mere seconds to unmake the Swordsman, so he had to act fast as it consumed the Sage. He whirled toward the altar, his eyes scanning the glowing runes and gemstones.
A memory from his conversation with Kharna flashed through his mind.
The eleventh Serenii strode toward a low stone altar covered with glowing blue runes and gemstones, inserted the two halves of the Swordsman’s necklace into two slots, and twisted both in unison. The Keeps around Enarium came to life and, beyond the outer rim of the city, the red crystal-lined walls of Khar’nath glowed with blinding brilliance. Power streamed from the very floor of the towertop room, surging toward the rift into chaos. The light of the magick pushed back against the crack, sealing it slowly closed like two sheets of metal forged by an invisible hammer.
The Hunter’s eyes flew wide. They weren’t daggers. Though they bore the shape of weapons, in truth they were keys!
Without hesitation, he sought the two slots where he’d seen the Serenii inserting the twin daggers. His heart leapt as he spotted them, two narrow grooves on either side of the altar. He slid the first dagger, the one he held, into the aperture all the way down to its hilt. The moment it thunked home, the tower around him flared bright.
Twenty-four beams of light shot up from the Keeps around Enarium toward the tip of the Illumina. The gemstone windows of the chamber seemed to amplify the shafts of violet radiance, concentrating them into eight narrow points of immense power aimed directly at the gemstone pillar and the seething rift into chaos.
“NOOOOO!!!!” The terrified shriek echoed behind him, this one no longer the Sage’s voice, but the Devourer’s. “I WILL NOT BE BOUND. YOU CANNOT IMPRISON CHAOS!”
“And yet,” the Hunter spat, “that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
He tore the second dagger from its sheath beneath his armor’s backplate and rammed it home in the second slot. The loud thunk echoed through the chamber, and a fresh surge of power washed over the Hunter. The obsidian floors turned a bright white, and more light flooded the gemstone pillar, pushing back against the black tendrils of chaos. The Devourer’s scream rang out in the chamber again, yet the Hunter could see it retreating before the power. Like steel forged by a smith’s hammer, the cracks in the pillar began to seal.
Through a gap in the clouds, the Hunter caught a glimpse of Enarium far below. His eyes fixed on Khar’nath, visible behind Hellsgate, and found it glowing brilliant red. White bolts of lightning crackled through the Pit.
Horror surged through him at the sight. The people!
Even with the entire mob that attacked Hellsgate and flooded Enarium, no way all six hundred and eighty-four thousand men, women, and children could have escaped the Pit in that time. How many more remained trapped within?
He reached for the second blade, the one he’d inserted in the left slot. He had to pull it free, shut off Khar’nath before it killed the humans there. He’d argued with a god, fought his wife, and faced down a demon to prevent just that from happening. He couldn’t fail them now.
“DO NOT!” a voice echoed in his mind, one he recognized as that of Kharna. “THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TO SEAL THE RIFT, BUT IT CAN BE DIMINISHED.”
“Not at the cost of those lives!” the Hunter shouted back.
“YOU WOULD DOOM THE WORLD WITH YOUR ACTIONS!” Kharna boomed.
“Then upon my head, so be it!”
With a mighty yank, the Hunter ripped the dagger free of its slot. His eyes flashed to the Pit below, and relief washed over him as the crackling white lightning ceased and the glow of the red Im’tasi crystals dimmed.
His relief died a moment later as the threads of chaotic blackness began to press back against the light. The cracks didn’t widen, but neither did they seal. The Hunter’s heart stopped. Enarium had harnessed the power of the Er’hato Tashat to seal the rift, but what happened when the Withering passed? With nothing to stop the Destroyer, the world would end.
He had one choice.
He lifted Soulhunger and turned the point toward himself. “I give my life to save theirs!” he shouted.
“Drayvin, no!” Taiana cried.
“Hardwell!”
Hailen’s cry snapped the Hunter’s head around, and he found the boy standing beside Taiana. Tears streamed from Hailen’s violet eyes.
“Hailen.” A lump rose to the Hunter’s throat, and he found he couldn’t move. “Look away. Don’t watch this.”
“But Hardwell—”
“Listen to me, Hailen.” Tears streamed down the Hunter’s face. “You gave me the greatest gift I could have ever asked for. These last few months with you have been the happiest I can remember.”
His eyes went to Taiana. “Let me do this.” His voice cracked, and it took him a moment to recover. “Let me save you, save him, save them all.”
“Not like this,” Taiana begged. “There’s no return, no awakening.”
“Then it’s up to you, my love.” A smile touched his lips. “It’s up to you to make the world a better place and save it in my stead. Tell our daughter…tell her I love her. And protect the boy. Give him the opia and save his life.”
His wife nodded. “I will.”
Peace washed over him, and he prepared himself for what he had to do. A life spent shedding blood and bringing death—this was the best ending he could ask for. Atonement.
His gaze fixed on Hailen and Taiana. “I love you. More than either of you could ever know.”
He was just about to close his eyes, to plunge the dagger into his chest, when he caught a flicker of movement in the corner of his vision. A figure, clad in blue armor, with bright red hair and beard, charging Taiana from the side. Cerran, with a long, slim sword gripped in his hand.
The world slowed to a standstill in that moment. Cerran had survived, recovered the Sage’s sword. A weapon with an Im’tasi gemstone. And he was going to use it on Taiana.
The Hunter’s body refused to respond. For a heartbeat, could only watch helpless as the Bucelarii crossed the distance to Taiana. The sharp tip of the sword was aimed right at her side. He could almost feel it sliding through her ribs to pierce her heart, could feel the agony searing through her as the gemstone consumed her life force.
He couldn’t let that happen.
His arm whipped up and forward. It felt like he moved through mud, his body sluggish to respond to his commands, and he poured every shred of his inhuman speed and strength into the throw. The moment his fingers released their grip on Soulhunger’s hilt, he knew his aim was true.
The dagger hurtled across the room. Steel flashed bright as it spun end over end, then buried itself in the side of Cerran’s neck. The impact knocked the charging Bucelarii to one side, and the red-haired man crashed into one of the now-glowing Chambers of Sustenance.
Crimson light flared bright as Cerran’s shriek of agony echoed in the chamber. A finger of fire traced a long, ragged line down the Hunter’s chest, but he welcomed the pain. Even as power flooded his body, he felt a sudden surge rush through the room. A blast of ruby brilliance speared from the dying Bucelarii toward the gemstone pillar. The booming voice of the Devourer of Worlds unleashed one last terrifying shriek as it was pushed backward by the sealing fissures.
With an audible snap, the pillar was whole again, the rift once more trapped in its glowing gemstone prison.
“D-Drayvin…” A quiet voice echoed behind the Hunter.
He turned in time to see Taiana crumple.
Chapter Forty-Eight
The Hunter was moving before his mind registered it. He crossed the space in two great steps and caught her body before it hit the white-shining stone floor. His eyes went to the sword protruding from her side. An inch of steel pierced her flesh, and the gemstone set in the sword’s pommel leaked red light.
The Hunter ripped it from her side and hurled the blade across the room. With horror, he stared down at his wife’s pa
le face.
“Taiana!” He shouted at her. “Taiana!”
She gave no response. Her head lolled on her shoulders, and her body hung limp in his arms. The Hunter pressed his hand to the wound in her side in a vain attempt to stanch the flow of blood. The sword had cut into her kidneys—a fatal blow for any human. Yet he had to hope she still lived, could heal herself.
“Speak to me, Taiana! Wake up.” He shook her body.
Silence.
“No!” A sob tore from his throat, and he felt as if he would shatter into a million pieces. “No, Taiana!”
He cradled her body in his arms, rocked back and forth as tears streamed from his cheeks to splash on her pale face. Great heaving sobs shook his shoulders. He held her tight, crushing her to his chest, as if that would somehow bring her back.
Hailen’s blood had saved him from iron, yet nothing could save her from the Im’tasi weapons. They had been crafted by the Serenii to consume life and feed it to Kharna. Taiana had given her life to save the world.
“It should have been me,” he wept. “It should have been me.”
He pressed his face into her neck, unwilling to let her go. He had spent a lifetime apart from her. How could they have been reunited only to have her ripped away from him again?
The Hunter threw back his head and howled, a terrible roar that echoed off the chamber walls and drowned out the pulsing waves of power thrumming through the Illumina.
“Kharna!” he shouted. “Damn it, Kharna! I know you can hear me.”
A faint presence echoed in the back of his mind—the god was weak, yet there. Kharna’s life force, which flowed through the pillar, had not been enough to defeat the Devourer of Worlds, yet he had survived this battle.
“Save her,” the Hunter begged. “Save her life, I will give you what you want. Bring her back to me and I will kill for you!”
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