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The sword was holding the creature at bay but doing nothing else.

With a cry of pain, Draven dropped the sword and stepped back, grabbing me and pulling me downwards as the creature’s arm swept over and above us, narrowly missing knocking us backwards off the bridge and into the chasm below.

The shadowy sword was now stuck in the creature’s arm like a pine needle in a bear’s massive paw.

As we watched, the sword of shadows was absorbed into the creature’s own blackness.

We had no flames. And Draven’s shadows were useless.

What else was there?

I looked down at Excalibur. Compared to the massive creature that threatened us, the sword that had destroyed the grail looked pitifully puny.

But if the creature just got close enough... If I could get higher somehow. If I could...

Meanwhile, Zorya was fading. Her form flickering and dissolving as she grew closer to embracing the ether.

I knew she longed for this release. I would not wish to keep her.

And yet...

There was no need to ask. No time to say anything.

She swung her flaming head towards me once, just once, and I felt her presence.

I am sorry for what you have lost. I go now, but I will do what I can to aid you. One last time.

With a fierce cry, the goddess of the dawn hurled herself at the shadowy creature.

Flames clashed with shadows, each blow resonating in an epic struggle for dominance.

Zorya’s flames were fading, but still she flung them at the darkness with an unyielding determination.

For a fleeting moment, it seemed as if she might prevail.

But as her fiery form flickered and waned, the monster of shadows’ dark tendrils enveloped her in a suffocating embrace.

With a final, defiant cry, Zorya erupted in a blaze of incandescent light.

As the flames subsided, the chamber was briefly silent, and in the darkness, I saw that my aunt was gone.

The creature of darkness still stood before us. Zorya’s sacrifice had not been enough to vanquish it. But at least she had tried.

Around us, stones began to fall. Heavy ones from the ceiling. Then, looking back, I saw that the bridge itself was crumbling behind us.

Only one way out remained now, and it lay before us. I followed Draven’s gaze to the heavy stone doors that lay on the other side. Could we make it?

A new cry pierced the air. The call of a hunter.

A shadow fell over my face, and I looked upwards.

A golden owl was swooping down from the cavernous chamber.

Following close behind it came a dark battlecat, its wings beating in a forceful rhythm.

Tuva. And Nightclaw.

In our hour of greatest need, my exmoor had come. Even when I had told him not to.