Zilliad crashed into the now stony surface of the Kohte Hapen mountains, planting both feet firmly into the shattered meteorites. The steel of Zilliad’s shin guards struck several stones as she landed, creating a high-pitched clink. The giant meteor that was crashing down from the heavens concealed both suns, casting absolute darkness over the battlefield. Smaller meteors no longer fell from the sky, creating an off-putting stillness. By the torrent of wind that trailed the massive meteor as it fell, Zilliad estimated impact was in little more than two hours. Zilliad could hear the clashing of metal as the humans assailed the beasts sent by the Makers. She could also hear the screams of the humans as the beasts retaliated against their attackers.

“Back to the ship!” Zilliad commanded loudly into the vast darkness.

As she yelled, Zilliad scanned the vibrations of the air for movement. The daughter of Haboo could feel every motion around her as objects disrupted her web of wind. The problem was that there was so much movement, Zilliad struggled to pinpoint the distances of each object. It was as if multiple insects were caught in her spider’s web of wind, vibrating all possible strings and sending signals from all possible angles.

Zilliad suddenly felt an object flying towards her with extreme velocity. She sent gusts of wind towards the projectile, trying to halt it in its flight. Zilliad's efforts only slowed the speed of the object, so she had to roll to the side to avoid its impact. As she dodged, the limp body of a human hit the ground beside her. The body bounced off the ground and Zilliad quickly got up to stand over the carcass. Zilliad observed two thin puncture wounds in the human's steel chest plate about four inches in length. Blood spewed from both the front of the human and soaked the meteorites underneath it, indicating that the wound penetrated all the way through the human's body. Another human sized object flew towards Zilliad from the same direction.

Instead of wasting energy trying to stop the missile mid-flight, Zilliad charged towards it, augmenting her speed with a stiff tailwind. At the last second, Zilliad fell to the floor, sliding feet first. Another human's carcass sailed above Zilliad’s body, having the same wounds as the last. Zilliad launched from her sliding position back to her feet and stayed her course. She could feel a tall, stationary creature surrounded by several humans. Zilliad pushed herself even harder, lowering her wings and strengthening the gales behind her.

With the limited vision caused by the massive meteor, Zilliad didn’t see her targets until she was about fifteen feet away. Zilliad saw a group of eight humans cautiously approaching a reptilian creature covered in dark brown scales. The creature had the body of a serpent but stood erect. The serpent’s head sat on a pair of shoulders that had two slender arms attached. The creature towered over the humans, doubling their height. One of the humans lowered their shields and raised their sword, shouting as they slashed towards the serpent.

The beast immediately twitched its yellow snake eyes to lock onto the aggressing human. The serpent’s arm shot backwards at an unnatural angle, propelling two sickle shaped claws towards the human’s chest. As its claws were thrusted, the creature's arms extended and stretched, increasing its reach. Blood scattered across the rocky surface of the battlefield as the serpent’s claws found their mark, skewering the human.

Before Zilliad had time to react, the serpent spun its lanky arm in a full circle around its shoulder. The human's body was flung like a catapult straight at Zilliad. The human’s back smacked into Zilliad's chest, denting her armor inwards and knocking her onto her back. Zilliad quickly pushed the human off of her and began to funnel the winds around her.

“Back to the ship!” Zilliad repeated desperately.

Zilliad created a reverse tornado that spun from the surface and sent the humans into the sky. She directed the winds to propel the humans southwest, away from the battlefield and towards the ship. Zilliad’s wind gently set the humans down several miles away, onto Sab’s land bridge.

Zilliad then tried lifting the erect serpent with her winds to send it in the opposite direction, but Zilliad’s wind wasn’t strong enough, not even to budge the armed snake. Zilliad began to slowly rise into the air, feeling around in her web of wind for electricity. Zilliad funneled as much of the buzzing wind as she could to the clouds directly above. She then directed the aggravated air at the serpent.

The serpent shot one of its arms towards Zilliad and to Zilliad's surprise, the claws of the serpent extended twenty feet away from its shoulders, grazing the bottoms of her feet as she elevated herself further into the sky. The serpent’s arms were elastic enough to stretch to at least three times their normal length. Several seconds passed. No lightning. Zilliad realized the problem. The moon-sized meteor was blocking the route for her electricity to reach the surface. Zilliad began to panic, there was no way she could take this beast down with just her sword.

Zilliad shot further into the sky and began to scan for more humans to evacuate, planning to flee from the serpent instead of face it. Zilliad found a cluster of humans crouching behind a small meteorite and without wasting anytime, she propelled herself in their direction. When she arrived at the humans' location, she found that they were not fighting any creatures. Instead, they were cowering in fear, trying to hide themselves.

“Back to the ship!” Zilliad continued to shout.

“We’re done for! We will never make it out alive!” One of the humans retorted as he shook in fear.

“If you value your lives, do as I say!”

“Value our lives?” the human spat out, “I do not put any value in fighting your war!”

This comment shook Zilliad to her core. Isaa had taught her that the humans were made to serve the deities but that she had a place among both. Isaa said Zilliad would need to learn to wear both hats, as a deity and as a human, if she wanted to survive. It occurred to Zilliad right then and there that the humans lived a life of constant fear, never knowing when they were going to be sent to their deaths.

“When the Makers have been defeated, and control of Garsuna granted to the deities, I, Zilliad, daughter of Haboo, swear that…” Zilliad began to vow, but she had wasted too much time talking.

A pair of familiarly sickled claws emerged out of the darkness behind Zilliad, impaling the cowering human that was directly in front of her. Zilliad’s mouth fell as wide open as her eyes as she watched the human’s life leave his body. Just as quickly as the claws appeared, they retracted and the human was wrenched from his position into the shadows, towards the body of the serpent. The human’s purpose shifted from soldier of the deities to another missile for the serpent, ready to be launched at his kin.

“She brought a zyoke with her! Curse you half-breed!” One of the cowering humans shouted as she got to her feet to flee.

Before the human could get two strides in, she was flattened by the body of her deceased comrade. Zilliad used all of her strength to quickly create a wind funnel to carry the surviving humans southwest, exactly where she placed the last group of humans. Afterwards, Zilliad fell to the ground, bent over, her hands on her knees, exhausted. The zyoke slowly slithered towards her and emerged from the darkness. The creature flicked its forked tongue and produced a low hiss.

Zilliad slowly stepped away from the zyoke as she sent wind bursts in its direction, desperately grasping for an escape. The zyoke flinched slightly as the wind smacked its body. Sadly, Zilliad’s attack only slowed the advancing creature. It shot one pair of its claws directly at Zilliad’s chest. Zilliad responded by sending a wind bullet into the ground, quickly launching herself to be above the zyoke’s extended arm. Zilliad prepared to counter the serpent’s strike, building up more wind projectiles for a stronger burst. It was then that the arm of the serpent below Zilliad bent at a ninety-degree angle and the zyoke’s claws connected with Zilliad’s right leg.

The impact sent Zilliad spiraling in a downward arch. She flipped several times before crashing into the surface. Zilliad heard a loud pop by her left ear as her shoulder smacked into one of the scattered meteorites. The pain helped to distract Zilliad from the screaming coming from her right leg. Zilliad looked down to see a crimson river flowing out of her steel shin guard, all the way down her leg and into her thick leather boot.

The zyoke retracted its arm, advancing closer to the now felled Zilliad. Zilliad tried to rise into a sitting position, but her left arm wasn’t cooperating. She rolled onto her side to face the serpent. Zilliad continued to desperately send more wind bullets at the erect serpent, but her efforts were fruitless, and she felt the last of her energy dwindle. Maybe Apena was wrong, Zilliad thought to herself, I’m not the child of prophecy. The serpent was now several yards from Zilliad and as it neared, it lowered its body and coiled into a striking position.

Zilliad could feel the vibrations of the battlefield echoing throughout her web of wind. Sab was sending humans south, having turned his land bridge that carried the deities and their company of humans to the battlefield into a conveyor belt of soil. The conveyor belt led all the way back to Isaa's ship. Sego was tending to the wounded as they travelled along Sab’s conveyor belt of soil, reversing time so that the human’s bodies resembled the form they were in before the battle started. Isaa was battling with the Ruonian, trying to amass ice from the surrounding space rocks to shackle the giant stone golem underneath the massive, descending meteor. There were still about twenty humans left to evacuate.

The zyoke lunged for Zilliad, its mouth agape. Zilliad clenched her eyes, trying to avoid the inevitable. But the serpent never made it to her. Zilliad slowly opened one of her eyes, thinking that perhaps she had died and passed into Kigulbisis, the lair of the Maker of Death. What she saw was the zyoke’s tongue, inches from her face, and its fangs directly above her head. A net of shadows had been spun around the entirety of the zyoke’s body.

The shadows began to constrict the serpent and Zilliad watched as the zyoke’s eyes bulged from its skull, blood spewed from its mouth, and spinal notches popped out from underneath its scales. The beast fell to the ground with a dull crash and the contents of the zyoke’s body leaked onto the surrounding meteorites. Cajo emerged from the surrounding darkness and began approaching Zilliad with a confident stride.

“Enough humans have been cleared,” the deity of the shadows said, “help them make it the rest of the way to the ship.”

“I can still fight,” Zilliad said, standing to her feet.

Zilliad gripped her left shoulder with her right hand to prevent her dangling arm from carelessly swinging. Zilliad couldn't stand for very long before she crumbled back to the ground, the laceration on her right leg proved too painful. Cajo placed one of her hands on Zilliad’s right shoulder. As she did, a necklace with a pendant darker than the shadows dangled in front of Zilliad’s face.

“Obey me, half-breed," Cajo demanded. "You have been coddled much by your uncle, Isaa, but you are still just a human in my eyes."

Cajo’s unwarranted disdain struck something in Zilliad. Zilliad's understanding of what Isaa meant by her need to learn to live in both the human and the deity worlds broadened. Obey the deities, command the humans. Zilliad’s empathy with the humans also grew as a hollow feeling grew inside the pit of Zilliad’s stomach. She felt nothing more than a tool.

Shadows began to reach for Zilliad from the darkness. The shadows lightly picked Zilliad up from her laying position and sent her towards Sego's position. Zilliad looked towards the sky, staring at the giant meteor that hurtled towards them as her limp body was guided through the darkness. Zilliad could hardly see the massive space rock from within its own shadow. Sensing the reverberations in the air, Zilliad calculated that the meteor would reach the surface in a little more than an hour.

Zilliad’s body was set not so lightly down next to Sego. The deity of time seemed worn. Sego labored as he crawled on his knees towards Zilliad with limp wings. Without saying a word, Sego placed his hands around Zilliad’s shoulders. All of the pain in Zilliad's left shoulder began to evaporate. Zilliad waved her left arm around to confirm it was fully healed. She felt the warm blood on her leg stop running as it too was restored by Sego's touch. Zilliad became completely rejuvenated as the deity of time reversed the damage done to her body. Zilliad got to her feet while Sego remained on his knees in a hunched position. Sego slowly crawled to the next human that travelled along Sab’s conveyor belt of soil. The human had been cut in half, missing both of her legs. She moaned quietly, begging for Kigulbisis to claim her.

“Thank you, Sego,” Zilliad muttered softly.

“Too much…” Sego paused to take a shallow breath, “damage… we must…” another struggled breath, “leave immediately.”

Sego had healed more than half of the humans that the deities brought, about a third of the humans lay dead, scattered with the meteorites, and the remainder were still scattered across the battlefield. Zilliad contemplated returning to complete the evacuation, but fear of Cajo’s judgment stayed her advance. Zilliad began to focus a thin, but strong, gale of wind just underneath the soil of Sab's bridge to quicken the pace of the conveyor belt.

“Take Sego back to the ship,” Sab announced from behind Zilliad, “I’m going after Isaa.”

“Right!” Zilliad exclaimed.

Zilliad helped Sego to his feet. Sego resisted, trying to free himself from Zilliad’s grasp to heal several other humans who had just arrived. Having gained a deeper understanding of the world around her, Zilliad had learned her place, she must listen to Sab. Zilliad spun the wind around herself and the deity of time to propel them above the conveyor belt. As Zilliad and Sego rose, Zilliad unfolded her wings. She focused on both speeding up the conveyor belt and also carrying Sego and herself back to the ship.

Dozens of massive stone pillars began to shoot from the ground as Sab tried to reduce the impact of the meteor the best he could. The collisions of Sab's stone pillars and the massive meteor caused chunks of the space rock to break off, resuming the showering of stone. Zilliad could sense a handful of humans fending off one of the Maker’s creatures close to where Isaa confronted the Ruonian. Sab was flying towards Isaa, abandoning those remaining humans. A pang of remorse and regret filled Zilliad as her conscience succumbed to survivor’s guilt. Why did she deserve to live while her fellow humans were still out there, sacrificing their lives?

Zilliad and Sego made it to the head of the human evacuation where a little more than fifty humans were clustered together. They were running in tandem with the movement of the conveyor belt while the rest of the humans that weren’t healed by Sego lagged behind. Zilliad calmed her gale of wind that augmented Sab’s conveyor belt and used the rest of her power to funnel herself, Sego, and the surviving humans all the way to Isaa’s ship. When they got there, Cajo was waiting for them on the top deck.

“We must wait for Sab and Isaa. Without them, we cannot get the ship back into the water,” Cajo stated, surprisingly clam.

Zilliad ignored Cajo and placed Sego at the deity of shadow's feet. Zilliad rushed to the top of Isaa's ship's sails. From the high vantage point and now over twenty miles away from the shadow of the meteor, Zilliad could see how close the meteor was from the surface. Zilliad was now too far from the battlefield to sense the distortions in the atmosphere caused by its inhabitants. What she could sense was that when the meteor finally hit, it would have enough force that the shockwave produced would reach the ship. Zilliad had no idea how far away Isaa and Sab were or if they would make it in time. The humans filed onto the ship and quickly went below deck, readying to set sail. Zilliad and Cajo watched the meteor fall in silent anticipation while Sego drifted into unconsciousness, clearly having overexerted himself.

Minutes felt like hours. Then it finally happened. The meteor crashed into the face of the Kohte Hapen mountains and obliterated the surface, burying itself in a crater that measured over fifteen miles in diameter and a half mile in depth. Zilliad felt the force of a devastating shockwave being sent across Garsuna, shooting in all directions from the impact point. Propelled by the force of the shockwave, Zilliad felt two objects the size of either humans or deities hurtling towards the ship.