WARNING: Gore and Violence

If this makes you uncomfortable, read the following summary:

SPOILERS:

 

The gusts of wind displaced by Apocrypha’s massive wings could be felt from the back of the chamber, all the way to the giant spyglass. Tess had to shield her eyes with her forearm to shield herself from the dust and dirt that was sent flying.

The black dragon was enormous, barely fitting into the expansive room with its head bowed low. Three men the size of Maeros could fit into the creature’s mouth. Her eyes were the size of greatshields, with scales that occasionally bristled like feathers. Each breath vented a puff of green fumes from her nostrils and maw. From her fangs dripped acidic saliva, dissolving stone to form little divots upon the floor.

Somehow, even more frightening, was the man that dismounted from her, standing ahead. He was dressed in purple robes that stretched to the floor, yet clung to his arms snugly. The cloak he wore was a similar color, wrapped several times around his shoulders. It was difficult to make out his frame, but he stood roughly six foot, or close to it anyway. His black hair fell to mid-neck and was well-kept. The same could be said for his full, dark beard, kept short and practical.

What was most disturbing was the ghostly, purple light shining from his eyes, and the inhuman gray color of his skin.

“It is good to see you, friend,” Elnaril said, taking a few steps closer and holding his arms out in peace, “Though the sight of you crushes my heart.”

The others in the group drew their weapons. Tess noted that Krahe didn’t have her gloves, but drew the same kukris that they summoned. Elnaril held up a halting hand to them.

“Elnaril,” Arlen said. His voice was calm and kind. It was a strange contrast to his appearance, “If your choice was to maintain beauty or save the world, the answer is an obvious one.”

“You’re killing the world, fuckface!” Krahe screamed at him.

“Ignore her,” Elnaril assured Arlen, “But Arlen, I’m certain that the people of this world—most of them anyway—would not want this. Oblivion is not a choice you make for others.”

“Not oblivion. We will be remade by the Old Gods,” Arlen insisted, equally calm. His face even wore a soft smile. “Auwra is poisoned without its divine. They will cure it. The antidote to this venom.”

“But where did that venom originate? The Old Gods left us once,” Elnaril stated, “What is to keep them from doing that again.”

“Just as your niece left you, friend.” Tess could see Elnaril visibly tense for the briefest moment, “Would you not accept her back if she were to return?” Arlen began performing sorcery. He worked both arms, both index fingers, both little fingers to cast his magic. In no time at all, Arlen was a vibrating blur, covered in a shimmering field of light. Tess noted that there should be a third spell, but she could not see it.

“Be ready,” Elnaril whispered.

But they already were. Even Tess prepared herself to clap her gloves together and cast. The constellation patterns ran through her mind. She scrambled to try and think of what to cast first. She was not meant for such a fight. She wasn’t ready for this.

Maeros, gripping his axe tightly, whispered,, “I’ve got the dragon.”

Tess was amazed that this man felt confident enough to face Apocrypha alone. The dragon licked its fang with a serpent’s tongue.

Krahe turned to Tess and said, “Don’t idle when it starts. Maybe you can change what happened.” She smiled, flipping a kukri in her hand, “Just maybe, Tess, maybe you can be the one to turn this tide and save the world, Tess.”

Hope swelled within her. She couldn’t help but smile. Right here, right now, Tess could stop Arlen and end all of this. She could save the world.

“You know. Maybe. I think we’re still fucked,” Krahe chuckled.

Some of that hope slipped away.

“Still,” Tess thought, “There was a chance.”

“Arlen,” Elnaril pleaded, “I don’t want this. I know you don’t want this. We are colleagues. We are friends.”

“I’m sorry, Elnaril,” Arlen said with genuine sadness, “I know what I must do, and I wish you would join me, so that we can still be friends. But as it is now, I cannot allow you to interfere.”

Arlen swung a hand up. Elnaril knew his spell before he even cast it. “Henry!” Elnaril shouted over his shoulder, “Get out of sight!.”

Henry ran toward the opening into the hallway, diving to do as Elnaril instructed.

But Arlen had a constellation prepared by the time his hand was raised.

Henry vanished. He was there one instant, gone the next, without so much as a sign left over by him. Tess knew that Henry survived in her future, but perhaps her presence changed things. Perhaps Arlen chose a different target because of the numbers in the fight.

Rahberon set his hand aflame and he threw fire toward Arlen, but the flame struck an invisible wall halfway toward its target. “What is that?!” Rahberon shouted.

“Get rid of it, Elnaril!” Maeros growled, charging forward despite the unseen wall.

Tess didn’t even see Arlen’s signs this time, as a bolt of lightning struck Maeros. He could never have brought his shield up in time, but the electricity stopped against a shimmering field that appeared around his body. Tess turned to see that Elnaril performed that protective sorcery.

Everything was moving too quickly for Tess to keep up. She was frozen in place.

“The shield is weakened!” Elnaril screamed above the roar that Apocrypha released.

“Vitr, empower me!” Dolen said, firing a barrage of white streaks, with comet-like tails, toward the shield. Each struck the field until it cracked, and Maeros shattered it with his pauldron during his charge.

Then the whole scene changed as suddenly as looking from one picture to the next. Arlen was nearer, his hands held out toward a statue of smoking ash. The statue resembled a human that was standing in the same place as Rahberon, quickly falling to the ground in a dusty pile.

“He’s stopping time!” Elnaril shouted, performing sorcery that send translucent slime toward Arlen that bound his hands in gauntlets, stuck his feet to the ground. A final spell conjured an iron bandle around the Betrayer’s head, covering his eyes.

Krahe was already upon him, a backwards grip on her kukris as she stabbed at him. Her blade hit shields, but she wedged both weapons together to try and pry it open, “You absolute piece of shit!” She screamed at him, “You will kill everything! Everything!” Her blades began to prey open the shield.

“You know as well as I that you cannot stop me,” a blinded Arlen replied calmly.

“No,” Krahe hissed in an absolute rage, “But I can make you bleed!”

One of the kukris slipped through his shield, skewering Arlen through the chest where his heart should be. Arlen growled in pain, “You damned rat! Molu’zhar!”

A black form—a ghostly monster—burst from Arlen’s body, shattering his bindings as it did. It let out a screech that hurt Tess’ ears and began to cast its own sorcery, pulling energy from the corpse of Rahberon to wrap about Krahe and lift her helplessly into the air. Arlen got to his feet and resumed his sorcery, while Elnaril was assisting Maeros with Apocrypha. Dolen looked like he was keeping Maeros in good health, his eyes weeping over Rahberon’s sudden death.

“Arlen, what have you done to yourself?!” Elnaril gasped, performing the movements before placing his hands together to make a triangle between them. In the middle of the open space, a thin, red laser fired toward Arlen. The beam cut through Arlen’s shoulder, nearly slicing it off.

Tess was lost due to the speed at which things were happening, but something must be done. Tess clapped her hands together, feeling the vibrations and feeling the ring of her gloves. With perfect control over her movements, she performed the proper gestures: The All-Father, the Horse, the Archer. An icy blast formed in her hand before she flung it at Arlen.

Arlen threw down a shimmering shield that deflected the shard of ice, but due to Tess’ invocation of the Archer, it wheeled its way around to Arlen’s far side returning to cover the side that was exposed. The demon Molu’zhar swiped it aside with his hand, however. This was the first time that she drew Arlen’s attention, who stared at her with his shining eyes.

She tried to make her gestures, but the effect of the gloves was wearing off, and Arlen was much faster than she was. Many shards of ice, each much larger than the one Tess formed, grew from the air around him. The shards flew at her, but only one struck her. The others seemed to vanish, melting away in the air. As she fell, she saw Krahe hamstringing the vicious Wyrden, distracting him from his cast. Tess spun as she hit the ground, landing on her stomach. She tried to get up, but her right arm felt useless. Still, she pushed herself to her working hand and her knees.

Blood was dripping from her right shoulder.

She turned just in time to see Arlen making a motion, as though pressing downward on something unseen. Elnaril had his attention split, casting to protect Maeros in his one-on-one fight against a great wyrm of a dragon while at the same time dealing with an almost comparable Wyrden, but even still Elnaril fired more of that translucent glue. Molu’zhar swiped it away. His spell having failed, Elnaril couldn’t protect Dolen fast enough. The Underkin was crushed like a grape under a heel.

“No!” Elnaril shouted, “Arlen, stop this!” Elnaril made three gestures with his body, dancing in a way that may have created another spell, though Tess wasn’t sure how. Four violent blasts of force extended from his body. The first one shattered Arlen’s shield, the second one evaporated Molu’zhar, and the third sent Arlen flying. The Dark Wyrden hit the wall, only to be buffeted by a fourth wave of force that pinned him to it.

Krahe was released from her binding, dropping to the ground and immediately dashing toward the bound Arlen. Her kukris out, Elnaril screamed, “Krahe, stop! He is subdued!” However, Krahe was on him. The tip of her kukri scratched Arlen’s neck before her blade was forced away by a shield. Tess saw that it was Elnaril who cast the shield.

“What are you doing?!” Krahe screamed in a rage.

Elnaril was weeping, looking desperate and conflicted. In the distance, Tess saw Maeros’ body being thrown from the chamber and into the open sky by Apocrypha. Only Krahe and Elnaril remained.

“Elnaril!” Tess shouted as the black dragon let out a gust of acidic breath in their direction, almost filling the room if Elnaril did not focus his strength on raising a stone wall that sectioned of the room away. His blast of force fell away, and Krahe’s kukri dug into the wall. Another time stop? Arlen was next to Elnaril now, while Elnaril attempted to hold the acid at bay.

Elnaril must’ve known that dropping the wall was a death sentence. He didn’t even get the word “Don’t” out of his mouth before Arlen gestured and spun a finger, twisting Elnaril’s head around like a spinning top until it fell away from his shoulders.

“Sorry, old friend,” Arlen said, “You should have killed me.”

At that same moment, Henry reappeared exactly where he was, still rushing toward the hallway. He stopped, turned, and saw exactly what had happened. “What…” was all he managed to say before being forcibly pulled toward Arlen.

Tess turned toward Krahe, seeing her standing in one of the open windows, ready to leap into the sky.

“Stop!” Arlen ordered, “Let us make a trade.”

Krahe, ready to fall, paused, listening toward Arlen.

“The cloak,” Arlen hissed, “For the boy.”

Henry floated in the air beside Arlen, immobile, unable to do anything with the blade in his hand.

Krahe glared at the Dark Wyrden, considering the deal. Tears welled in her eyes.

"There are fates worse than death."

"Fucker," Krahe hissed. “Henry...” Krahe whispered. Her voice cracked, "I'm sorry."

He couldn’t speak, but he was crying.

Not even thinking of the movements, not even using her gloves, Tess gestured with her left arm and fingers and felt power welling within them. She pushed her hand out toward Arlen and the Wyrden’s arm snapped in three places, crumpling until it was utterly mangled. Henry dropped and the second spell forced him through the window and into Krahe’s arms.

“Tess!” Krahe screamed before she and Henry plummeted from the window

“You should have saved yourself,” Arlen hissed. Tess found herself reduced in size. Everything was larger, but her vision widened until she could nearly see all around her. Arlen stepped over and Tess tried to flee, but her stubby legs and long feet were clumsy. Arlen snatched her by the ears with his healthy hand, lifting her into the air.

Apocrypha was close, and in the reflection of her very eyes, Tess could see she’d been reduced to a simple rabbit.

“You have no idea the pain I am going to inflict upon you,” Arlen whispered, a white smile spreading on his face, “She said your name was Tess. Well, Tess, what I told Henry about fates worse than death. I suppose you'll suffer them in his place."