The road to Dalcaster was fraught with numerous perils.

Shades lurked in every shadow, while imps swarmed the trees and the road like ants in a rotting log. Thankfully, these were no worry for the caravan—Kendrick seemed to be the only one unable to cast spells, but they had no need of his services. Witches and wizards picked off creatures of the Underworld with beams of light from their fingertips or bursts of flame. They even used spells Kendrick had never seen before, such as aural chains and spinning, sharp discs of aura that could cut enemies in half. He saw Bellara studying these new spells with great interest.

There were demons along the route as well—thankfully not nearly as many. These were not so easily dispatched, but the caravan had an intuitive way of sharing the magical load and collaborating on binding and attack spells to bring them down. One wounded demon was unfortunately able to escape into the woods. It was the only exception.

About halfway through their journey, as the setting sun cast orange rays between the trees, it seemed as though the trickle of monsters had run dry. Kendrick sighed with relief; each moving battle had caused him to tense up, but now he felt he could be at ease... at least for the moment.

“You mentioned that you had a strategy that could defeat Adrogan the Devourer,” the wizard Olser said, falling back in position to ride alongside Bellara’s wagon. He must have used another spell—Kendrick noticed the background noise of clopping hooves dissipate and the two spellcasters spoke at a conversational volume.

“Spells can’t penetrate the Prime Sin’s scales,” Bellara explained, still talking a bit louder than necessary. “At least none that we tried. You’d be better off aiming for the creature’s mouth.”

Olser scoffed. “Have you seen what comes out of that wretched mouth, dear girl?” She eyed him scornfully and his expression softened a little. If you only knew, Kendrick thought. “Yes, well, it’s much easier said than done. You’d either have to overpower the monster’s blast—impossible, I’d say—or time the attack just so. But there’s no telling if it would stop the impending attack or even affect it at all. We can slay demons, even archdemons, but this is a completely different class of being.”

Bellara folded her arms, tapping her boots together and furrowing her brow in thought. “We’ll need everyone doing their part at the same time. Defensive spells. Maybe illusions.”

“An illusion that can fool a Prime Sin?”

“It’s powerful. Legend doesn’t say anything about it being bright.”

Olser smirked at her, a reaction that belied a modicum of respect for the upstart witch. “I suppose we should keep all options on the proverbial table for a fight like this.”

Sahni suddenly clutched at her chest. “Agh... Guys, I... I think we might be getting closer.”

Bellara immediately grabbed the aurimeter and held it up, sweeping it across the woods all around them. The forest was eerily silent; no screeches or roars of Underworld creatures, and few sounds of wildlife. The needle moved only faintly. “Kendrick, what does your lens say? Anything?”

He tapped it to ensure he wasn’t missing any readings. “Nothing so far. But that thing glitched out my lens earlier today. Who knows if it’s even working right now?”

“You said that earlier, glitch. What does that mean?”

Kendrick felt a faint tickle of a memory from his past life. This was one of the many inane details he still retained, rather than important things like who he was or what he did, the people he cared about... “A glitch is when something doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to work. It can be temporary, but it can also be hard to fix. My lens was showing other characters when it tried to gauge that monster’s aura. It was almost like...”

“Like what, Kendrick?” Sahni asked. She rubbed the tender, newly-formed skin of her regenerated right hand.

He sighed. “It was so powerful, I thought it would break the lens. Like... the lens couldn’t keep up with it.”

Bellara nodded, brushing locks of red hair from her face. “It’s not every day you meet a titan from one of the other two realms. We enchanted the lens, but it’s an older design. I’m sure whoever made it never intended for it to be used on anything more powerful than a mortal or a jinn. It’s a stroke of luck that it handled demons as well as it did.”

“I know that beast makes my chest hurt,” Sahni added. “Being anywhere near it hurts. Sometimes I wish I weren’t so sensitive to aura... That probably sounds ungrateful—I didn’t mean it like that...” She lifted her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, tugging her gray dress down past her knees again. She massaged her clavicle.

For a while, the ride was mostly silent except for horse hooves thumping the dirt and wooden wheels creaking as they turned, a cart rattling over a bump. A stretch of uneasy peace.

Then came a familiar growling screech that sent birds flapping for their lives in all directions. A moment later, the sound of malicious Underworld energy ripping through the Ecumene once more.

Sahni winced again. “It’s close.”

“I think we can all tell that now,” Tanathil said over his shoulder from the back of their horse.

“Dalcaster is a mere two sunstrides from here,” one of the nearby witches called out. “It’ll reach the city limits soon. We must secure the city first and ready evacuations! Then we fight!”

“A sound plan,” Olser agreed. Kendrick got the impression that Olser needed to feel he was the one who gave the final approval to the group’s next moves. “We shall congregate in the city square. We’ll cast a spell to make an announcement to the whole of Dalcaster. Once everyone is on their way out in the opposite direction of the Prime Sin... then we make our last stand. Us or it. Now, onward! Full speed!” Each person on horseback flicked their reins in succession and the wagons moved as fast as equinely possible.

Kendrick remembered Gydeon’s brave stand against the monster. He hoped that strength in numbers would give them the advantage they needed.

Then he had a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach. The thrill of slaying lower-level Underworld invaders was a thing of the past now; killing shades, imps, and jinn was a chore, and anything stronger than that was a potential life-or-death situation. He wondered if he would even survive the night against Adrogan. The heroism that had welled up in him earlier now felt fleeting, insincere—childish, even.

He felt a pang of longing for home, and wondered if he would ever see it again.

***

It didn’t take long to prepare the citizens of Dalcaster to depart. They had already been packing their belongings, but feared for their chances on the road without transportation. They had been promised evacuation by the Kanthian Army but were ostensibly abandoned; the arrival of Olser and his cavalcade was an unexpected blessing.

“Aldiel be with you all,” said an elderly man climbing shakily into a wagon. Two children helped him the rest of the way and then climbed out to walk. Olser had gifted Dalcaster with all but five of the party’s wagons and horses to help carry the most infirm and immobile among them.

The city was evacuated block by block as quickly as possible, and the most able-bodied citizens—usually the small children—were recruited to help in the process, warning neighbors down the road of the impending danger. Kendrick didn’t know how they would move so many thousands of people before the Prime Sin arrived. His adrenaline was flowing again with the challenge.

“This block’s done!” he shouted as he met Bellara in an intersection.

“Mine, too!” said Sahni, approaching them from across the cobblestone street. “How many does that leave?”

“That one zany wizard, the one with the purple beard, has the last two blocks at the end,” Bellara replied, counting on her fingers and muttering under her breath. “This district is done. Olser said that once we finished here, we should return to the city square.”

“Let’s go, then,” Kendrick agreed. “Feeling anything out of the ordinary, Sahni?”

The timid witch shook her head. “Not since we lost Adrogan on the road. I can’t sense it right now. You don’t think...”

“What?”

“What if it was never headed to Dalcaster at all?” Silence hung in the air between them. “It took us a little while to bury Gydeon...” Her gaze fell to the ground as she remembered their fallen friend. “Then we met up with Olser and the others. We passed Adrogan in transit, but we’ve managed to evacuate most of a city. And not able-bodied runners, either! Don’t you think it’s strange that we had all this time, assuming Adrogan’s been on the move all along?”

“Dalcaster has more aura in one place than anywhere for at least fifty sunstrides in all directions,” said Bellara. “Sooner or later, it would be drawn here. It’s a force of nature, not some minion—it's not as if the Dark Lord can just lead it around by a leash. It goes where it wants, and it’s Adrogan the Devourer—”

“The army,” said Kendrick. “The Kanthian Army—Gydeon said they just left here with all the able-bodied fighters, right?”

Bellara slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, no...”

“Maybe the soldiers managed to stop it?” Sahni offered with some fragile optimism.

After a moment, Bellara shook her head gently as if not to crush Sahni’s spirit all at once. “We can’t rest our hopes on that. We have to go and help Olser prepare. It could still be bound for Dalcaster and even stronger than before—let's go!”

At her insistence, they all set out running for the city square. Kendrick hoped that their evacuation would give the refugees enough time—time to put distance between them and the slow-moving titan. The consequences of his failure to stop Adrogan weighed heavily on his heart.

He couldn’t fail again. This time, it would mean his own death, too.

***

“A concentrated beam attack,” said a wizard.

Bellara leaned against a brick wall with her arms folded, tapping her foot. “I tried one. Didn’t work. The scales are too strong.”

All together, there were 40 individuals gathered in Dalcaster’s city square—Kendrick, Bellara, Sahni, Tanathil, and 36 witches and wizards in Olser’s party. They congregated to discuss the best strategy to combat the Prime Sin Adrogan.

“Multiple concentrated beams?” suggested a pink-haired witch.

“They’ll all just bounce off and we’ll be killing each other or demolishing buildings,” said Bell.

“Oh!” said a hopping little wizard, perhaps a stride to a stride and a half tall. “What about shooting one of its eyes? That would work, right?!”

Bellara shrugged. “It’s a moving target. The monster blinks, and turns its head, and who knows—maybe its eyes are as tough as its scales, too. Besides, you’d have to be a much better shot than me to hit a target like that from a distance. Might as well try to hit a shlorbis from a sunstride away.”

“I should like to focus on the strategy you mentioned earlier, Miss... Cass, was it?” said Olser. The redheaded witch nodded. “The creature takes in aura, digests, and fires it back, so its innards are much more dynamic than its exterior, much more fluid. It stands to reason that its interior cannot be nearly as tough as its protective hide.”

Kendrick remembered the hideous, awe-inspiring, yet terrifying sight of the monster towering over him. In hindsight, out of the heat of battle, it was mind-boggling—six legs, a long, powerful tail, and a snout full of teeth like some abominable alligator from Kendrick’s home universe. Alligators, he thought. That animal tweaked another one of his dormant memories.

He remembered learning about the alligator, its impressive bite force, the fact that it cannot chew and instead rips off hunks of its prey before swallowing each bite whole... He watched a documentary about them at some point... With someone...

Dammit. Why can’t I remember?

“We’d need a bomb of some sort,” said a bald witch with a scar on her forehead. “A bomb, a delayed reaction shot into the creature’s gullet. We can prime a crystal to do that, aye?”

“That would hardly be sufficient,” argued Olser. “Besides, it would be a drop in the sea compared to the aural strength of its blast. Our spell could be lost entirely a moment later.”

A bite strength of 3,000 PSI, said a memory surfacing at random in Kendrick’s subconscious. PSI... What is PSI? 3,000 what? Pounds? No, it can’t just be pounds. PSI means something else... Pounds of... something? An alligator can’t bite down with 3,000 pounds of force, can it? Why can’t I remember PSI? We watched the documentary in that room. The snow was coming down...

“What if we used all the crystals we had?” Sahni suggested. “Um... Perhaps we could bind them together and throw them all at once? Oh, but we would have to time them all to go off at the same time... Sorry, that wasn’t a good idea...”

“It’s fine, Sahni,” said Bellara. “I think you’ve got the right idea. I just don’t know how to put it into effect.”

“Whatever we do,” said the bald witch, “it has to be all or nothing. If we waste our aura on a major attack and it gets pushed aside by the abomination’s beam or it doesn’t have the effect we want... then we’ve wasted a good portion of our fighting strength. We can’t afford to make any mistakes.”

3,000 PSI only in one direction, Kendrick remembered. Snippets of recollections were coming to him in a frenzy now. It felt like his first memory was a loose thread that he kept pulling and pulling until it all unraveled inside his head. 3,000 PSI bite force down. How did they deal with alligators? We had them in... zoos... No one was strong enough to open an alligator’s jaws. Impossible... How did they handle them then? What if they attacked? 3,000 PSI bite force, 3,000 PSI biting down...

But not up.

“The beam is the main problem, then,” said Olser. “Perhaps a war of attrition is in order? If we can find a way to stall the beast, let it fire off blasts to its black heart’s content, then eventually it will be disarmed of its greatest weapon.”

“No,” Kendrick interjected.

Olser arched an eyebrow. “Oh? And what do you propose instead, young man?”

“The opposite. We give it all the aura it needs.” Kendrick was grinning ear to ear now.

“Wonderful,” said Olser, shaking his head and snickering. “The boy’s lost his mind. You, elf, would you tend to this lad while the rest of us exchange some real ideas?”

“My name is Tanathil,” their traveling partner shot back quietly, filing his nails. He didn’t deign to oblige the human wizard.

“There’s no way we can wait out this monster,” Kendrick contended. “If it runs out of aura, either it’ll go berserk with hunger and eat everyone in sight, or best case scenario, it’s a giant lizard with six legs, spikes all over, that can just trample everyone and everything anyway. And it’ll probably keep its mouth shut if it has no more aura left to shoot. There goes our best shot at hurting it. Then what?” A few of the spellcasters nodded in agreement.

Olser folded his arms. “Fine, then, you have my attention. What good will it do to make it even more powerful?”

“It seems to shoot its blasts on a regular basis,” Kendrick replied. “Almost like they’re timed. We just need to make sure it keeps its mouth shut when that happens. The aura blast will come up anyway and Adrogan will blow its own head off in the process—from the inside!”

The purple-bearded wizard sashayed over, gesticulating wildly as he talked. “What's stopping it from simply foregoing another blast? This isn’t some slow-witted demon, mind you. It’s a Prime Sin, for Aldiel’s sake! We can’t just force it to attack!"

“But what if we could?” Kendrick held up a finger as if to demonstrate his idea. At the tip of it, he manifested a single aurum in a tiny point of white light. “What if we force-fed it enough aura? If we gave it enough, it might have no choice but to have to release some of it. All we have to do is chuck enough aura down the hatch in one go—no need to time multiple spells or anything like that.”

“If its aural digestion is anything like that of an imp or demon, then the body can only hold so much before it bursts,” said Bellara. “They have no excretory systems. Imps feed until they explode. Jinn and demons expend aura in their attacks. This Prime Sin consumes aura, and the only way out is through its mouth. Feed it enough, the digestion process starts, then comes the beam... He’s right. If we can manage to bind its maw, the blast will have nowhere to go!”

“It would take ages to fill enough crystals manually for that to work,” said the pink-haired witch. “And lobbing that many in one at a time—even in armfuls, it would be a laborious process. We would need to time a spell just right, a portal spell. But we have a mere matter of moments—”

“Hey!” Kendrick interjected. “How fast can you pull off the spell to bind its mouth?”

“Fairly,” said the little wizard. “If we all work together in perfect harmony, it should be quicker than this sentence!”

Kendrick put a hand on his Psysword. “Can you get me directly in front of its mouth? Levitation spell—something?”

“That’s very gallant of you to volunteer,” said Olser, “but the problem is time, dear boy. I still don’t know how you plan—” Kendrick drew the Psysword and brandished it. “Your aural weapon. An orkanite conduit? It won’t work without a user. It’s not as if you can throw the thing. It’ll fizzle out before you can—” Kendrick threw the blade aside clear of the group and it clattered against the stone street, still lit. “By the Realms... That’s not something you see every day. How high is your utilization rate?”

“High enough.”

“It’s enough aura that the blade’s crystal, and the aural properties of the orkanite...” Olser stroked his black beard. “The aura sticks to it like a magnet, in high enough quantities. Fascinating!” He shot a quizzical look at Kendrick. “You’re sure this is sustainable?”

The swordsman shrugged. “I guess so. It just started doing this earlier today.”

Olser stroked his beard some more. “I doubt it’ll be enough...”

“Could we not, then, add more to it?” Sahni suggested. “A collective aura bomb of sorts? I mean... would that work, do you think?”

Olser snapped his fingers. “Brilliant! We’ll see if it can hold. But if it can, I suggest we keep only the aura we’ll need for our binding spells. Healers should hold onto a bit of theirs as well. However, every last aurum we can spare needs to go into this blade.” Olser clapped a hand onto Kendrick’s shoulder. “Well done, young man. All of you. This might be just the edge we need.” He turned to the group now, resuming his leadership role. “Esira, Vardenne, let’s use our aurimeters to determine how much aura we can spare! Get a count of everyone, will you? Ullard, Purplebeard, you two work out defensive spells! We need to give this swordsman a good shot and protect everyone in case our plan fails. Ciliren,” he said to the short wizard, “you and I will head the binding efforts! We need at least six...”

“Well done, Kendrick,” Sahni congratulated him with a smile. She broke off from the group to rejoin their four-person inner circle while the others hammered out the details.

“You, too!” Kendrick replied.

“Hey,” said Bellara. She elbowed him playfully. “I never got a chance to thank you for all that you did today. Hard to believe it’s all been one day...” She sighed and shook her head. “I thought I’d never fight again after the Rift. But seeing you of all people charge into battle made me realize I had no place on the sidelines.”

Kendrick snorted. “I’ll take that as a compliment, I guess?”

“Good. You should.” The teenaged witch nodded once, tucking her scarlet hair behind her ear. “You’ve come a long way, you know. On the path to being a hero. It’s not just fighting. It’s giving others the hope to fight, too.”

Kendrick shrugged. “You two have done the same for me. It was about time I returned the favor.” He glanced at Sahni’s regenerated limb and it looked almost normal again. “How’s your hand feeling, Sahni?”

“Much better,” the blue-haired witch answered. “After Tanathil finished healing me earlier, it’s been—” Suddenly she fell to one knee, clutching a fistful of her gray dress near her chest. “Oh, no...”

“Okay,” Kendrick breathed. “Okay. This is it. It’s coming! Olser, my man, how’s that aura coming along?!”

Olser poked his head out from behind the small crowd. “What?! We haven’t started yet! Aldiel above. Here, give me the weapon and we’ll start loading it!” Kendrick tossed the inert Psysword’s hilt. He watched as Olser gesticulated toward the currently bladeless weapon and explained it to his comrades. Already, one of the other wizards took the blade and activated it with a startled flinch, sharing it with the next witch in line so she could make her contribution. They kept two people’s hands on it at all times, lest the aura come loose, but after a while it became a self-sustaining aural connection.

“Sahni, are you all right?” asked Bellara.

The younger nodded. “I’ll be okay. Just...” She winced. “...hurts.”

“Okay then. You should go with the defenders. I think I see them preparing barrier spells.” The bluehead nodded, hobbling uneasily over to a group of three wizards and two witches casting layers of protection. “Kendrick, you should stay by the Psysword. They’ll likely be ready shortly.” The monster roared somewhere nearby; thankfully, it wasn’t near enough to do any damage to Dalcaster, as far as they could tell. “Are you sure you want to be the one to deliver it?”

He nodded. “It was my idea. I don’t want to make someone else do it for me. Plus, this might be the last time I ever use it. What if we never get it back?” He observed two wizards load their aural offering into the Psysword, one after the other, passing it along rapidly. “I at least want a chance to say goodbye to it.”

“Understood. I’m going to see where Olser wants me. If his directions are wise, I’ll follow them.” She put her hands on Kendrick’s shoulders and locked eyes with him. “Stay alive out there, would you?”

He grinned. “That’s always the plan.” He felt a sudden pang over Gydeon’s death as Bellara turned to walk away. They made it out because of you, he thought. They’re headed west now. Whatever happens here, you already won. Your sacrifice wasn’t in vain. He clenched his fingers around the imaginary hilt that would soon be in his hands once again. And now I’m going to get the revenge you deserved to have. For you and your mother. For all of Kanthos. It’s about time the Ecumene got a big win.

The Prime Sin roared again in the distance. The wail echoed off the stone walls of Dalcaster, followed by the electric whine of its dark aura blast and the muffled crunching of the ground breaking apart. “There we are,” said Olser. “A hundred each at least, all you can spare. Let’s go!” He urged the last stragglers to finish their contributions to the Psysword’s aura pool. “I meant to ask you, while we have a moment...” He eyed Kendrick suspiciously. “...what are you, exactly?”

Kendrick pointed to himself, looking around uncertainly. “Me? I’m just a kid named Kendrick. Well, a guy. I mean, I’m 18—or was 18. I might be 19 now... Why?”

“Have you been sent from the Overworld? An emissary of Aldiel is unable to lie when asked a direct question.”

Kendrick shook his head. “No... I’m kind of confused.”

“Four different aurimeters put you at nearly {1,000} aura,” Olser replied. “And they’re all in working order. I am a skilled wizard, and through ardent meditation, I have managed to break the {200} barrier on only two occasions. Whence do you draw your perplexing power?”

A chill snaked up Kendrick’s spine. “Well, I’m... not really from around here.” Another roar—another thunderous blast of energy plowing through the trees outside Dalcaster. It grew louder each time, coming from the east. “I can give you the details later. Is the sword ready?”

“The sword!” Olser barked.

“Uh, uh, almost!” a lanky wizard answered, fumbling the hilt in his hands. He closed his eyes to transfer a portion of his aura and then handed it gingerly to Olser. It was lit again, glowing white-hot with the aura of over three dozen individuals. Olser closed his eyes solemnly, gripping the hilt tight with one hand. The blade shone just a bit brighter by the time he was done and handed it to Kendrick.

“We'll give you a boost up to throw this into the Prime Sin’s gullet when the moment is right,” Olser explained. “I’ll be in charge of the portal to whisk you away at the last moment before the blast goes off.” Kendrick nodded. “Your top priority is getting this blade where it needs to go. The lives of tens of thousands depend on you. We won’t get any second chances. Is this clear, young man?”

“Crystal.”

“Good.” He patted Kendrick on the shoulder. “You’ll be a legend sung of for generations hence, lad. Come with me to the second line.”

Olser led him to the battle formations spread out in Dalcaster’s city square. There were three lines of spellcasters. Sahni was in the front with a dozen other barrier makers; it made Kendrick nervous to see her directly in the line of danger. Bellara was in the middle with those who would be performing the binding spells, a cluster of 18 witches and wizards. Tanathil was in the rear with the others, presumably the healers.

Adrogan screeched deafeningly—it was now close enough that the sound hurt Kendrick’s ears. When the next blast ripped into the city, he saw the tops of distant buildings crumble under the force of the attack. This is it, he told himself. This could be our last outing together, buddy. He looked upon his Psysword with a mixture of pride and the fear of loss; they’d been through so much together already. If it is, it’s been one hell of a ride. You’re my hero either way.

His lens picked up a reading—the first of its kind, since it was comprised of the auras of so many individuals. It read simply:

PSYSWORD {5,308}

Kendrick smiled.

Then the Prime Sin rounded a corner, crushing a tavern roof with an idle swing of its tail.

PRIME SIN ADROGAN | {91,#0#}

PRI#E SIN ADR#GAN | {#1,000}

{CALIBRATING}

PRIME SIN ADROGAN | {~91,000}

His jaw fell when he saw what the creature was carrying with it.

Between its toes and impaled on the tips of its claws were several pieces of what could only be armor—some steel, some leather, most of it bloodied and torn and sans any wearers. The monster had a single steel sword dangling from one of its eyes, wedged underneath its eyelid; the intrusion seemed to matter little to it. Worst of all was all the blood caked around the creature’s lips and staining its teeth. Kendrick shuddered.

The Kanthian Army, he thought. He wondered if there were any survivors.

“Barriers up!” Olser yelled authoritatively.

Kendrick heard two spells uttered simultaneously, one by Sahni and several of her cohorts—“Parto furtuis!”—and then another cast by the remainder—“Kinestagnai ampla!”

A shield spell materialized, so thick that it was translucent like a spiderweb full of morning dew. The Prime Sin’s right foreleg crashed into it—the wall cracked in icy layers but stayed that singular footstep of the beast. Its next one broke the barrier fully, but the jagged edges of the shattered spell still slowed it down.

Meanwhile, the second spell was taking effect as well. It was some sort of immobilizing spell; foggy white aura swirled around the beast’s two front legs, and with each movement, it created trails behind it. The aura was physically holding it back, stalling its progress through the city.

Buying the evacuees more time.

“It’s preparing,” said Olser. “Catapults ready! Portal ready! Binders, stand by!”

This must be my cue, Kendrick thought. He took one last look at the Psysword, then gazed back up at his target. You’ve got this. He was talking to himself and his weapon at the same time.

Adrogan began opening its bloodstained mouth.

The moment its jaws moved, Olser belted out the spell. “Sumu illacta!”

Suddenly, Kendrick was flying through the air.

The ground retreated beneath his feet and he came face-to-teeth with the toothy maw of Adrogan the Devourer. He saw shadows coalescing inside, crackling with mauve sparks. The beam was charging.

“Take THIS!” Kendrick screamed with all the force in his body, and as he did so, he leveled the Psysword like a javelin and threw it with all the strength his shoulder could muster.

The aural blade launched forward, illuminating the inside of the creature’s mouth. It soared past the swelling ball of dark aura and landed even deeper down the monster’s throat.

By that point, gravity had started to pull Kendrick down toward the cobblestones below again, several grandstrides beneath him. He would probably die on impact—shatter various bones, most certainly.

He didn’t hear the portal spell that whisked him back to safety. His head was spinning. Everything was a blur.

“Obstrae dynamus!” numerous spellcasters called out. That one, he heard. The first time he’d heard those words, Gydeon had revealed himself to be not a helpless traveler, but a conflicted wizard; he’d saved Kendrick’s life against his very first demon.

And here was that same spell cast many times over. Numerous white rings thick with aura sealed Adrogan’s jaws shut. Kendrick watched the titanic muscles flex in its cheek; it was no use.

Just like an alligator, he thought, beaming on the inside.

Then Adrogan beamed on the inside as well.

Shooooooom! An explosion of aural energy blossomed from the monster’s neck. The explosion decapitated the Prime Sin, cutting through its flesh in chunks and leaving it dangling by threads of scales, black blood and dark aura flowing out of its neck stump like vomit. Finally, the clinging bits of skin unraveled and its head dislodged completely, landing with a thunderous thud that cracked the cobblestones for a grandstride in all directions.

The wizards and witches cheered. The Prime Sin’s body collapsed in Dalcaster’s city square. Already, it had begun the long process of sublimating into pure dark aura. The energy was so dense that the aura formed piles the consistency of muddy sand, small bits blowing away and fading little by little. A beast of these titanic proportions would likely take days to dissipate completely, Kendrick reasoned.

It didn’t matter. They’d won.

“WOOO!” Kendrick hollered. “We did it! Did that really happen? Is it really over?” He tapped his lens to get a read—to confirm if his eyes were deceiving him. It felt too good to be true.

{~66,000}

{~65,400}

{~65,200}

An explosion with the force of nearly 30,000 aura was what it took to slay the Prime Sin. A combination of the Psysword and its own internal aural combustion.

As he pondered the outcome, Bellara ran over to him, cupping his face in her hands. Her face was alight with joy and excitement. He thought she was about to kiss him—she went in for a hug at the last moment. Sahni joined them, and Tanathil, who was shaking and looked like he’d seen a ghost, even took part in the group hug. They were shouting excitedly at him and seemed to be pleased with him, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. He was in a hazy daze of raw, unfiltered happiness.

“What happened to it?” he finally asked. Olser grabbed him from behind, lifting him into the air and spinning him around while hollering incoherently.

“You freak of nature! You madman! You did it!” Olser screamed with hysterical glee. “Unbelievable! Oh, you absolute madman! Adrogan the Devourer is dead by our hands and by your sword! The Underworld just received a black eye the likes of which it surely never expected. As we speak, the fragments of Adrogan’s black soul you see before you are now making their way to the Underworld—to be reformed in time, mind you. It may take days or years. But by that point, the Rift will be closed and it will be banished to its infernal prison for millennia once again!”

It was well into the night by that point. The wizards and witches with some aura to spare lit crystals to prop up or carry with them as torches. They shared the food and drink that they’d brought with them, splitting it freely amongst each other. Kendrick, who hadn’t eaten all day, thought it wise to munch on something, but his mind was hardly on snacking.

He was still basking in the glory of what they’d done when Bellara came up to him. “I found something that might belong to you,” she said coyly. He looked up and saw the hilt of the Psysword glinting faintly in the crystals’ light.

“It made it after all!” He grabbed the hilt and hugged it close to its chest.

“Ooh, be careful,” she warned him. “That would be the most anticlimactic end, impaling your brain now after everything that just happened. They would have to leave that out of the songs.”

“Oh, you would never, would you?” Kendrick cooed to the hunk of orkanite in his arms. “Would you? No, you wouldn’t. You know me. We’re best buddies, right?”

Bellara snickered quietly. “Don’t make me regret giving that back to you.”

“Guys?” Sahni murmured, approaching them from the outskirts of the celebration. “We have another visitor.” Kendrick jumped to his feet and lit the Psysword. “Kendrick! No, no, uh—not like that. I’m sorry. I should have been more clear...” She stepped aside and gestured to a hovering green light that fluttered around her fingertips. “It’s our green fairy friend, Keex. Remember?”

“Fairy business associate,” Keex corrected her. “Good news, bad news? Preferences? I’ve been flying for fourteen days straight and could use a break here.”

“Right, right,” Sahni replied. “Um... good news?”

“Yeah, let’s not kill the vibe,” Kendrick agreed.

“Good news,” said Keex, flitting over to Kendrick. “The work you’ve done here with Lizard Breath—brilliant work, I should say—is being done all across Kanthos. Two other Prime Sins are already dead as well. The rest should follow soon. The King of Kanthos has officially assumed command of all spellcasters militant and is effectively deploying them to combat threats as needed. Expect him to summon you shortly for the battle to come.”

“And the bad news?” Bellara asked warily.

“Erm...” Keex darted over in her direction. “You’ll be summoned shortly for the battle to come. Eclipse should be happening in... Oh, how much longer until the sun comes up? Some time after that, obviously—but not too long!”

“Killing the Prime Sins weakens the dark aura in the Ecumene significantly,” Bellara observed. “But the eclipse could undo all our progress at once.”

“There’s no fucking way,” Kendrick spat, suddenly annoyed. “You’re telling me these things can come back?”

“No,” Bell shook her head dismissively. “Not that. But the Dark Lord will draw immense power from the blotting out of the sun. Rather than fighting a scattered pack of foxes, we’ll be up against one overpowered, angry bear...”

“Essentially, she’s right,” said Keex. “Sahni, might you have my, um...?”

“Of course,” said the blue-haired witch. “As always.”

“Much obliged! Pleasure doing business.” As soon as Sahni opened the jar of herbs, the fairy shot inside so fast that it made a little clink against the glass bottom. “Ahhh...”

Sahni closed the jar and put it back in her bag.

“Well,” she sighed, “at least my fairy friend is back.” There came a muffled clinking sound from inside her bag that persisted for a few moments. “We’ll be together... whatever happens tomorrow.”

“When was the last time we had a chance to sit down and actually enjoy a victory?” Kendrick wondered aloud.

“Don’t worry,” said Bellara. “Either tomorrow will be a victory for the ages, or... we won’t have to ask a question like that ever again.”

“All,” Olser announced, “this has been the most exhilarating evening of my life, but to replenish the aura that we will desperately need come dawn, we must attempt to sleep tonight. At least a little. We will sleep in shifts so that the sleepers may be awoken at the first portent of danger. You four, swordsman, witches, elf—take the first leave as a token of our thanks. Sleeping spells, if you must.”

The four of them thanked Olser and the others in turn, but privately, Kendrick doubted he’d be able to sleep even a wink that night. Not with everything that tomorrow promised.

One way or another, his journey was almost at an end. The Dark Lord Urobius roamed Kanthos at that very moment, poised to use the eclipse to conquer the entire Ecumene.

The final battle was at hand.