“I’m not going to let you do what you’re planning,” the mysterious dream woman said in my mind.

I answered by thinking my answer, ‘You wouldn’t let me do whatever I could to try and save Yathanae and our child. The least you can do is allow me to bring her body home to her family.’

“That’s not your primary goal, and you know it.”

‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’

“I’m the one who saved your life multiple times, your ungrateful cretin!”

‘You’re the one who has been manipulating me for a long time. For all, I know you’re Ghidanna or the Destroyer.’

There was silence for a while, as I stood staring at the portal in front of me. Behind me, Emma was standing next to the block of ice that I had frozen Yathanae’s body in to preserve her. The ice block was maintained by spell crystals that drew power from a large number of mana crystals embedded into the ice.

Finally, I got an answer, “I swear that I’m neither of those.”

‘Who the fuck are you then?’

“An interested third party, I’m trying to keep two people from making a cosmic mistake.”

‘That doesn’t answer the fucking question.’

“It’s the best answer you’ll get for now. However, I’ll stand back for now, and I’ll let you exact your revenge,” she replied with a sigh and I felt her presence leave my mind. I was not so delusional to think that I had been left alone, she was still in there. She was a scheming bitch who had plans for me. Which plans, and how they would affect my life, I did not know.

“Next stop, Slaughterville,” I mumbled as I broke the barrier on my mana again. This time, it did not reform, so it seemed she would keep her word and stay out of this. The pain was immediate and immense, but my will and hatred kept me focused. I directed the immense flood of incoming mana towards the portal, Ethan having provided the address for the gate in the Bastion. Unwittingly that is.

The incoming mana felt unending, and despite requiring a lot of mana to activate, I could not feel a drop in the level of incoming mana at all. Healing magic was unable to suppress the pain completely. Knowing the tears could become a hindrance, I used healing magic to temporarily disable my ability to produce tears.

The moment the gate opened I rushed through, calling on fire, air, water, and stone magic in preparation of slaughtering thousands upon thousands of people. As soon as I stepped through the portal four small elemental beings sprang to life. The first was a small flying western dragon made of fire, the second was an eastern dragon made of air, the third an octopus made of water, and the fourth a rhinoceros made out of stone. They started to grow at a fast pace, in a matter of seconds they were the size of a human toddler.

The fire dragon rushed towards the door leading into the private quarters of the high commanders and the priest. The octopus shambled its way into the storage area to make sure that there was no one in there. The air dragon started flying around me, forming a protective barrier and at the same time, it lifted me into the air.

I had somehow managed to use the magic that allowed the user to connect with an animal’s senses, to connect with these four elementals. I experienced all of their senses at the same time and was able to control them even when they were out of sight. Which were all of them, because I had closed eyes.

The earth rhino was running in circles around the cavern, picking up speed as it grew larger and larger. As I saw Emma come through the portal, I cut the power to the portal, and immediately changed the address of the gate. The amount of mana to do that was crazily high. It required a hundred times more mana than it did to open the portal, or at least it felt that way. Nevertheless, I had unending mana, as long as I could stand the pain, which was getting more intense by the second.

As the fire dragon broke down the door and swept through the private quarters, burning everyone inside to death, the octopus was busy drowning the butchers and other workmen in the storage area. None would be left alive.

As the first vertebrae became crystallized, making me equal to Ayda in terms of mana capacity, I knew that time was running out for me. With a thundering bellow, the stone rhinoceros started up the ramp. It took up half the space of the tunnel already. When it came to the surface, I was certain that it would be as big as it could be, without being stuck in the tunnel. It would continue to grow until I died or the mana barrier was put back in place.

As it tore up the tunnel, the fire dragon and octopus returned and started moving up the tunnel as well, with me and the air dragon following. The fire dragon was moving the fastest, nearly catching up to the rhino before it exited the tunnel.

The rhino burst out of the tunnel opening, running into a platoon of troopers, who most likely had come to investigate the strange sounds coming out of the tunnel. It bowled them over, being nearly six metres tall, the troopers splattered when it stepped on them. It continued straight towards the gate.

The surviving troopers had just gotten back to their feet when the fire dragon swept over them, incinerating them. It roared as it made its way to the eastern wall, where I would make it start clearing the walls.

The octopus made its way out of the tunnel and headed for the nearest barracks. Here it split in three and started clearing the infirmary and both staircases. When it reached a new floor, they would split again.

While I had made my way up the tunnel, another vertebra had crystallized. I had already killed the priest, so I was not concerned about hiding my presence. With a thought, I made the air dragon lift me up in the air so I would be fully visible and boost my voice, making sure that everyone in the Bastion and beyond could hear my voice.

“Only death awaits you on this day,” I roared, my voice filled with grief and pain. “Your masters have betrayed the Creator and allied with the Destroyer. That’s not their gravest crime. They killed my wife and unborn child, and for that, you’re the first to pay the price!”

At the same time as my last words rang out, the rhino rammed into the gate, making it explode. It had so much momentum that it would continue out over the side of the cliff, so instead of growing it bigger, I instead started growing a ramp.

The ramp sprung into existence from the top of the cliff, where the rhino would have run over the cliff, and continued straight for fifty metres, before starting to curve around and back. The rhino would end up crashing through one of the towers west of the gate.

As it was running along my stone ramp, I got a look at what the elves were doing. It would seem that Ayda had heeded my words, because a larger attack than I had seen, was underway. Elves were streaming towards the passageway up to the Bastion. Hundred of thousands of cavalry leading the way, followed by what looked like an endless sea of infantry. The air was filled with harpies approaching as well. It seemed they had recently changed course towards the eastern side, where the fire dragon was wreaking havoc.

Another vertebra crystallized, intensifying the pain.

“You should be able to hold another connection if you want some more mayhem,” my mysterious passenger in my mind said. I ignored her.

Nor did I pay any attention to the countless arrows or musket balls flying in my direction. They were all intercepted and redirected by the air dragon. I poured a larger amount of mana into the air dragon than any of the other elementals.

It was chaos as my elementals killed hundreds of troopers every couple of seconds. The troopers of the barracks had started streaming out. Some of them were heading towards the tunnel, so I had withdrawn the octopus, which was now beneath me, acting as the guardian of the tunnel. Making it impossible for anyone to enter it.

As all these troopers were killed, I noticed something disconcerting. I felt the mana, or maybe it was their soul, as it left their bodies. At first, they headed upwards, towards the sky, but then they suddenly changed direction and headed towards me. They entered my body and seemed to be sucked into a crystal that had appeared in my mana pool without me noticing. I tried to sweep my senses over it, but I was immediately stopped.

“It doesn’t concern you just yet, just continue to kill and accumulate their souls,” my enigmatic visitor said immediately.

I grunted and formed a connection with Little Sap. I immediately tried to form a memory crystal to record my interaction with the ghostly lady and the weird crystal in my mana pool. Yet again, I was stopped.

“I cannot let that happen, if someone was to find out I was here, it would be very very bad,” the voice in my head explained. That did not sound very comforting. I dropped the connection with Little Sap and picked up a lightning mage’s magic instead. I fused the power with the air dragon, allowing it to retaliate with lightning against those that shot at me.

Less than five minutes had passed since I came through the portal, but three vertebrae had already crystallized, each time the pain intensifying enormously. How long I would be able to keep on I was not sure, but it was at most five more minutes in my estimation.

In those five minutes, the Bastion had transformed into a place of death. Trampled, drowned, and burnt corpses were everywhere. Many troopers were trapped inside the barracks, unable to leave without being immediately set upon by my octopus. If it was stretched too thin keeping everyone in place, the air dragon would help with a bit of lightning, which had a nice synergy with the water elemental as well.

Another vertebra crystallized, making me almost pass out. I closed my eyes, concentrating on withstanding the pain. Meanwhile a small part of my mind, most likely my subconsciousness, went amok, directing the four elementals in their carnage.

I barely registered the thousand upon thousands of deaths, nor did I give the elves that had entered the Bastion any consideration, except making sure that the elementals did not kill them. The fifth vertebra crystallized, then the sixth, then the seventh, when I heard a voice screaming at me.

“Karth, stop, you’ve done enough!” Emma was screaming at the top of her lungs. The sound barely registering through my senses with the elementals. My own senses would not be able to pick it up for the galeforce winds that were the air dragon.

“She’s right, enough is enough,” the mysterious woman said, and I suddenly felt my connection to the mana close. She had capped the well so to speak when she put the mana barrier back in place. “I know you want revenge against the gods, but the amount of mana you just wielded with a lot of trouble, is child’s play for them.”

The mana connection to my elementals died down. The fire dragon sputtered out, except the few places there was something flammable. The octopus lost cohesion and an enormous amount of water rushed all over the place. The stone rhino stopped moving, becoming a giant statue, with blood spattered over most of its body. The air elemental lost control and I was being thrown around like I was caught in a hurricane.

I felt a lot of foreign mana take control of the rampant wind, and it died down a bit. A pair of hands grabbed each of my arms. The two grim-faced harpies that had caught me placed me down gently next to Emma, who enveloped me in a hug. I broke down crying.

I had failed my Yathanae and my child. Because of me, they were dead. The first thing I did was to go vent my anger and kill people. Revelling in violence. Violence or the threat there off which had never failed me before had utterly failed me.

Because of my arrogance, temper, and penchant for violence, I had brought about the death of my unborn child and lover. If I had just been less of an asshole, they might still be alive. It was a heart-crushing realization to come to. It was not somebody else’s fault they were dead. It was ultimately mine.

However, I would still make all those assholes pay with their lives. I would even take down their fucking gods. They were just as guilty in the deaths as I was.

A rider on horseback approached us. Looking up, I saw it was Ayda and her guards. She looked at the ice coffin that Emma had dragged up the tunnel. A flash of disgust followed by a mask of sorrow showed on her face.

“I’m truly sorry for your loss,” Ayda said, it was clear that she meant both of us.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Emma replied, her voice just as heartbroken as mine.

“Do you want an escort to Thesathas?”

I just nodded. Words were hard to form. Soon we had the coffin on a wagon and set off towards Thesathas. I lay down next to the coffin, pouring mana into it to keep it from melting. I closed my eyes, hoping for a nap without dreams. As soon as I closed my eyes, I knew it was not to be. I saw Yathanae and my unborn child being killed over and over again.

The trip to Thesathas was long, yet I barely noticed it. All I did was eat, sleep, and stare at Yathanae’s corpse as my fingers caressed one memory crystal after another. One moment I was reliving the experience of us making love, the next I was reliving a hunting trip we took together.

All of the crystals contained a memory of Yathanae and had at one point brought me happiness. The happiness that was so foreign to me now. Reliving the memories of happiness conflicted with the hate and despair that filled my heart.

Yathanae’s family had already been advised of what had happened, Emma having relayed the message to a priest in their manor. So when we entered the courtyard, her parents were sad but stoic. It was after all not the first daughter they had lost. They had also grieved her long before when she was captured.

As soon as I stepped off the wagon, a fist impacted my face, sending me sprawling. An angry and crying Tarathiel stood above me, left hand clenched in a fist, the right hand holding a sword. He spat the words at me, “Remember what I told you?”

“Yes,” I replied. “But please wait until I’ve punished those that killed her.”

“The one that killed her was you!” he roared and stabbed me in the stomach. I accepted the blow, did not even numb the pain.

“Tarathiel, what are you doing?” his father shouted.

“Avenging my sister,” he replied calmly as if he was telling someone he was taking out the trash.

I coughed up a bit of blood. “Yes, I’m responsible for her death, but I didn’t kill her. Those dogs that call themselves priests did. Allow me to avenge her, and I freely submit for your punishment.”

“I—I,” he stammered, but before he could say anything else, his father had put his arms around him, dragging him away from me. With a grunt, I pulled the sword out and got back to my feet as I healed the wound.

I looked at the people around me. “I’m sorry that my actions led to Yathanae and our child’s death. I will take vengeance. It might take some time, but the Bastion has already fallen. I’m sorry.”

Velatha stepped up to me and hugged me. “Thank you for bringing her home. We’ll bury her next to her sister. Tinesi would have loved to have a niece or nephew.”

My facade cracked again. Burying Yathanae and my unborn child would be the hardest thing I ever did in my life.