The Forsaken Hero

”Hmph. Is that so?” Fyren’s lips quirked in a smile, but it quickly faded.

I nodded, swallowing hard. I couldn’t smile either, even at vanquishing yet another shadow from my past. The silver light was too scary, too...wrong. I didn’t want to step through those walls and face whatever was beyond, but we’d already come this far.

As we approached, I began to detect traces of a familiar presence within, matching the mana resonance of the aura. Verity. But why? Why wasn’t she at the Divine Throne? And what was this power? It was even scarier than a ninth-level being.

My aura gathered around us as we neared, forming a bubble of gold against hostile silver. Eddies of starlight spun between the two warring powers. Occasionally, compressed flecks were flung out, slashing like swords. The walls crumbled as we neared, disintegrating and blowing away in the powerful Gales, tearing a hole for our entrance.

I blinked, shielding my eyes against the light as we passed into the inner sanctum. The Shard glowed brilliantly, blazing with the light of a million spells. The colors swirled beyond the crystal’s bounds, forming a vortex that reached the ceiling. The dancing lights combined together, the source of the overwhelming silver light.

In the center of the maelstrom, a single figure knelt in prayer, her hands clasped and head bowed. Long, silver hair spilled over her shoulders, framing the glow of a soul spilling over with divine mana.

”Damn it,” Fyren hissed, gripping his sword tightly. ”We have to go!”

”Verity!” I cried, struggling forward into the storm. ”Please, you don’t have to do this! I can free you!”

”Xiviyah!”

Fyren sounded faraway, like his voice had been cast adrift on a great ocean. I turned and was startled to see him caught in the entrance, arms raised. His skin smoldered, the light clinging to him in the beginnings of sun purge.

His brow furrowed in pain, and he reached out his hand to me. ”Now!”

Movement drew my gaze, and I looked back. Verity stood, her silver hair floating around her like she was underwater. Slowly, she turned to face us, and my heart skipped a beat. She wore a dreamy expression, euphoric on the heights of mana coursing through her. I felt a touch of envy, but it vanished as our eyes met. They were silver. Not silver irises, as they had been, but pure, liquid silver, without whites or pupils. There was a depth, a timelessness, that no mortal could have.

Fyren’s finger closed around my wrist, scorching hot the touch. He jerked me back, ignoring my cry and the wrench in my shoulder.

”Wait, Fyren, we can’t leave her to–”

A shiver rippled through me, my soul prickling in apprehension. The silence before the first peal of thunder.

And then, everything went white. Light enveloped us, searing through my wards. A wave of compressed power struck us in the back, throwing us like chaff in the wind. Fyren’s arms wrapped around me, shielding me as we crashed through the cathedral wall, shooting out like an arrow.

Fyren flipped us mid-air with a burst of mana, landing on his feet. We slid back, leaving deep furrows in the ground.

”Are you alright?” he asked roughly, letting me drop to the ground.

I staggered, coughing, trying to catch my breath, and weakly nodded. But he couldn’t do the same, dropping to one knee. Glowing lines scarred his flesh, pulsing with every beat of his heart.

”Damn, this stings,” he muttered, touching his cheek, where a thin line of sunpurge underscored his eye. He winced, jerking his hand away.

What had remained of the cathedral had vanished, blown asunder in the explosion of divine mana. A pillar of light enveloped the shard, a literal beacon that dominated the sky. It had blasted a hole in the clouds and brightened the night with rays of silver. The entire city shook from the power it exuded, trembling on its foundations.

”Requiem,” I breathed, letting my magic flow over Fyren.

He gasped as the sunpurge evaporated from his skin. A few moments later, the lines had vanished, and his muscles sagged, losing the tension.

”Better,” he murmured. ”But don’t waste mana on me. We need to move.”

The city slowly dimmed as the pillar of light retreated, shrinking through the atmosphere until it wreathed only the shard. A screech sounded, and Borealis darted down, flying a tight loop around me before settling on my shoulder. Fable and the Star Guard were quick to follow, running up to us. They all panted heavily and were covered in scraps and bruises, but were otherwise unharmed.

”What is that?” Jenna asked, staring at it with wide eyes.

”A Descent,” Fyren muttered, sheathing his sword. ”There’s nothing we can do. This battle is lost.”

I bit my lip. ”But we can’t just--”

”Yes, we can,” he said flatly. He held out his hand expectantly. ”We’re leaving.”

My shoulders hunched, and I took his hand, letting him boost me onto Fable’s back.

”What about you?” I asked, fingers curling into his fur.

Fyren looked back, and his eyes narrowed. ”I’ll catch up.”

I followed his gaze and froze. A single figure emerged from the light. Verity, still floating on currents of starlight, her hair billowing in the breeze. She held her slender sword in one hand, the tip trailing off to the side. She was serene, completely unguarded, and yet, with every inch of her radiating an aura of invincibility. My tail bristled.

”Go,” I whispered hoarsely, opening a gate to Haven. ”Now!”

But the Star Guard were rooted in place, trembling and staring. The light enveloped them as the gate solidified. Fyren lunged forward, grabbing two of them and tossing them bodily into Haven. Kahlen grabbed Gith and plunged after them.

”Interesting.” Verity’s voice floated through the air as the gate closed, calm and unconcerned. Deafening. ”So that’s where you’re keeping it.”

”Xiviyah,” Fyren said, a note of warning in his voice. ”Why are you still here?”

Without waiting for a response, he strode forward, his sword gripped tightly in both hands. I didn’t feel any more capable of fleeing than the Star Guard, but Fable took off, twisting on his feet and launching us into the air. My scream bottled up in my throat as the wind tore at us, and I finally remembered to renew the wards the light had stripped away.

I looked over my shoulder, gasping as I saw Fyren and Verity facing each other. The demon was saying something, and whatever it was made the hero’s face tighten. Fyren raised his sword, but she just looked at it, relaxing into amusement.

The next instant, everything shifted. The world blurred, and a sharp pain tore at my soul. Borealis’s shriek resounded in my ears, and my wards shattered. Something plunged into my shoulder, a searing knife of pain. Blood sprayed across my side, dripping down my arm in rivulets. I was falling, tumbling through the air.

And then Fable was beneath me again. Through burning tears, I raised my head, and my cries caught. We weren’t over the city anymore, but flying over the plains. The armies of the Divine and Infernal Horde battled beneath us, still in the initial stage of the conflict. The battlelines had yet to dissolve, and already, blood dyed the frozen plains red.

I touched my shoulder and bit my lip, holding back another cry. A long, jagged piece of steel had embedded itself in my shoulder, lodged into the bone. Blood hissed and steamed as it rolled across it, evaporating in wisps.

”What happened?” I whimpered, pulling on it. That proved to be a bad idea, as I nearly blacked out from the pain. And it hadn’t budged.

Behind us, the city shook from a titanic clash, a shockwave ripping through buildings and toppling the inner walls. Two motes of light, silver and white, streaked across the sky, smashing together and then breaking apart.

As Fable’s paws struck the earth, a flood of impressions and emotions surged through our bond. I gasped, the pain in my shoulder forgotten. The images that flooded my mind were fragmented soulspeak, colored with Fable’s fear. Fate twisting, the realm itself coming to rest. Fable just managed to slip between the weave before it caught him, and then the terrifying presence of something divine descended upon us with holy wrath. A sword, broken, and then fleeing.

My blood ran cold as I realized what had happened.

”How?” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut as my shoulder throbbed. ”How can he do that? I have the divinity, the Oracle of Eternity.”

There was no time to ponder what had just happened, or what it meant. Demons surged around us, drawn to my aura and blood. Fable growled, lashing out with a paw and severing the spine of a sixth-level evolved fire demon, driving the rest back. I tugged again on the shard in my shoulder, and this time, the burst of black dots across my vision took seconds to fade. When it did, we’d moved to a low hill out of the battle. More auras had risen across the battlefield. I felt Luke and Soltair fighting again, and could sense my friends distantly on the other side of the city.

Everyone was fighting, unaware of the terror residing in the city. Unaware that we had lost.