Page 30 of Crimson Skies

“They know we’re here.” She glanced at the fog wreathing the valley, her heart slamming against her ribs. She could just about discern the forest and the vague outline of a fort built into the mountain at the opposite end. “We wouldn’t have been able to get through those woods undetected anyway. The place is teeming with ghouls.”

Izaran cursed under his breath.

“Then we must fight,” Bostrof growled.

The Lucifugous king exchanged a steadfast look with them. They nodded.

Magic flooded Eden’s veins as her bloodcursed soul core connected with Woody. The devilwood staff quivered in her grasp, his bloodlust hastening her own desire to fight as they faced an old enemy. Crimson light bloomed around the two of them when they rose from behind the boulder.

The ghouls shrieked at the sight, their eerie ululations echoing around the vale. Their cries were answered by hundreds of others from the forest below.

The sound was so uncanny it sent a chill through Eden.

The creatures on the ledge loped up the mountain, muscles moving fluidly beneath skin riddled with pustulous sores, their powerful limbs carrying them toward the promontory at inhuman speed.

The darkness thickened around Bostrof as he rose and removed his sword and battle-axe from his back. Izaran followed suit, only to startle when a golden glow pulsed from Loki.

The imp removed the Eternity Key from his belly. The weapon extended into a golden broadsword even as he swelled into his Gargantua form.

Izaran’s head tilted. “Is that a—?!”

The rest of his words were drowned out by a series of explosions.

The spell bombs Eden had cast at the ghouls felled them on the spot. Loki grimaced as bits of flesh and gore splattered him.

Izaran gaped. “Did—did she just take out ten ghouls on her own?!”

Bostrof sighed. “Yes.”

Izaran indicated Loki’s giant form with a leaden expression. “And is he really a—?”

Bostrof made a face. “He is.”

“Here they come,” Eden warned.

A sea of red eyes emerged from the Bloodsand forest filling the hollow of the valley. Hundreds of ghouls were coming for them.

The monsters scaled the slope rapidly, their putrid flesh carrying the stench of death on the wind.

Bloodcursed magic sparked across Eden’s flesh and along her staff as she brought forth volley after volley of spell bombs. Her attacks rained down on the ghouls like a curse from the Gods, leaving nothing but scorched craters in their wake.

Still they came, their numbers legion. They clambered upon one another, a wall of corruption that crashed upon the promontory like a wave.

Bostrof and Izaran moved amidst the creatures in a storm of whirling shadows, their blades carving through the enemy even as the latter searched vainly for their presence. Divine light pulsed along the Eternity Key as Loki wielded the weapon in a graceful dance that decapitated dozens of ghouls.

It took but minutes for them to defeat their foe.

The last monster’s dying scream faded into a silence that throbbed in Eden’s ears.

14

Eden’s pulsethundered in her veins as she observed the bloodied battlefield below her. She looked out over the valley and cast her magic across the forest of dark trees.

Relief surged through her. There were no more ghouls left.

Woody resonated with her soul core in the next instant. Eden stiffened.

The devilwood staff was trembling in her grip.