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The tether binding us together frayed and snapped.

I felt it shatter, like a fragile thing, instead of an ancient power. Perhaps Altar and the Creator’s previous fight had corrupted Duwar to the point of fragility – but I sensed the moment it finally broke.

A force tore me from my feet, casting me backwards through the air. My heavy limbs splayed, tangling in the fabric of a tent as my body broke through it. I’m sure a bone snapped, as did the wooden skeleton of the tent I’d just smashed through.

The world was howling. I managed to lift my neck enough to watch as a dark stain broke out across the view ahead. It crackled and spat, like dried kindling on a newly lit hearth. And yet the sky not only burned but turned into an obsidian storm.

It echoed within me, deep in the pits of my soul, where the shard of Duwar was left to whimper.

I blinked, watching in slow motion, as Cassial parted from the scar of shadows. He reached for me, spitting and snarling as the mass of power built and built into a wall at his back. “Now you will die knowing that final part of Duwar kept from you will ravage the world.”

I had been wrong all along. Cassial wasn’t using the part of Duwar he kept back, but he’dreleasedit. Because he knew he’d lost, and in Cassial’s desperation, he would take the realms with him.

Cassial had released the last part of Duwar I fought for into the world. “Die knowing you have failed. The realms are doomed, Robin. Take that into your quiet peace and hold it close. Because every soul left behind will soon follow you and haunt you for your failure forever.”

I opened my mouth and cried out a single name. “Erix!”

The word was swallowed by the realms screaming in terror. The ground shuddered with the advancing army. The sky sang with Nephilim and gryvern. And all the while, that mass of ruin and chaos gathered into a pillar so great, I couldn’t see anything beyond it.

“Will die, Duncan will die, they all will die,” Cassial shouted over the song of destruction he’d unleashed. “And it will all be your doing.”

“No,” I gasped, trying to grasp for the released power. With enough, maybe I could use it to cleanse my body of the poison. Regardless of my hopes and wishes, I was weak, the power ravaging the world was no match for my failing body.

What have I done?

“Erix…” I choked, my throat closing up. “Please.”

“Erix Oakstorm cannot hear you.” Cassial stumbled forwards, looking no better than I felt. Limp skeletal wings dragged through the earth behind him. He had his clawed, twisted hands reaching out for me, so close now I could smell the rot emanating from his broken skin. “As I said, it is over.Youare over. Duwar or no, the fey will fall today. Be it by my hand, or yours. The will of the Creator is strong, as am I. Watch now, Robin… witness what your actions have–”

Before Cassial could score his talon through my flesh, a bright bolt of lightning shot between us. I closed my eyes against the glare, smiling as the feeling of magic itched over my skin. Vaguely, I was aware of the scorch of flesh, and the howl as the lightning bolt ate down to the bone on Cassial’s arm. What was left behind was nothing but torn flesh and ichor.

My consciousness gave out for a moment. I fell back onto the bundle of collapsed tent, just as a familiar voice worked through into my subconscious.

“No one dares touch Robin and gets to see another day.” Duncan’s voice filled my world, violent and demanding as the Hunter I’d first met. I couldn’t see him because my eyes would not open. But I heard him – felt his presence close. A simmering mass of light, a guiding force, even when I couldn’t open my eyes to see him, I could follow.

“Duncan… Rackley,” came a broken, weak voice.

“Hello,father. Is it okay that I call you that? As you can imagine, I have wondered all my life about my parentage, and longed for the day to use that title.”

“You are too late!” Cassial bellowed, pain creasing his voice, and yet he crumbled into a fit of laughter. “Duwar is free. My intention woven into the threads of the power. You can kill me, and the outcome does not change,son.”

I wished I had the energy to keep my eyes open, but the darkness was gaining. I fought against it, trying everything to gather the loosed part of Duwar back into myself. But there was a resistance – something keeping me from it.

“Desperation has blinded you,” Duncan called back, lightning cast around his angelic body in a wreath of purple-white flame. He looked the painting of the saviour he had become. “Faith has destroyed you. You know nothing of the Creator, because you know little of love. And it was love that started this war over Duwar, and it will also be love that ends it. Love will see us through to another day, as it always will.”

“I do not need another day, traitor.” Cassial howled like the wounded creature he was. “The end is upon you now. Love will not save you now, just as it didn’t save your filthy mother–”

Another voice rose, a husk of silver steel that I would recognise even in death. “Spit more poison out your serpent mouth, and I will tear the tongue from your skull.”

“Erix Oakstorm, you can gladly take my tongue, but you will not have anything else of merit when this is done.”

“Famous last words, Cassial?” Erix asked as a growl worked out of the depths of him. “Perhaps I will make sure they engrave it on your tombstone. Or maybe I will smear the words with shit instead.”

My head slumped back, my body no longer able to hold itself up. I faced the darkened sky, watching a vicious power thrash against the world and devour it.

“Kill me,” Cassial screamed out, an edge of begging in his tone. “Do it!”

Silence followed, and I couldn’t begin to imagine why.