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“Kill her,” Truda said. “It’ll be better than—”

The floors began vibrating and the walls rattled. Pieces of stones bounced on the floors and skittered around the room with each vibration. A familiar, haunting roar resounded loudly below them.

A giant creature crashed through the floor, sending everyone tumbling back with its force. Kolfinna barely had time to scramble away as the dreki launched through the ceiling, sending chunks of stone to rain down on them. She quickly erected a thin barrier to protect herself, Truda, and Magni from the stones just as the dreki swooped back through the hole it had created in the ceiling and landed on the stone coffins. It opened its mouth and roared again.

It was even more monstrous here than it was in the desert dimension. It wasn’t blind, either. Large, skeletal, leathery wings hung behind its spiky back. Black scales lined its body uniformly and giant, yellowed teeth poked from its mouth. Red eyes glowed sinisterly.

In the shock of it, Kolfinna suddenly realized she had relinquished control over her vines. Revna, now freed from Kolfinna’s constraints, was running toward the open wall. Kolfinna stepped toward her, but something else caught her eye: Blár was lying a few feet away from the dreki, his body alarmingly close to being crushed if the dreki spun around at any moment. For a few haunting seconds, she froze. Save Blár, or capture Revna?

She needed to capture Revna.

But before she knew it, her feet pounded the floor toward Blár, and she nearly tripped over the littered wreckage of upturned stones, pieces of the ceiling and flooring, and remnants of their battle. The dreki opened its mouth and aimed a breath of fire in his direction.

She wouldn’t make it, she thought in horror.

She definitely wouldn’t make it.

Kolfinna spread her hand out and flared her mana into the floor, forcing a wall to stand around Blár; it would be a thin wall, since she didn’t have time to solidify one, but it would be enough to protect him. The dreki spewed a breath of fire and blew her wall to bits. It inhaled again, ready to smoke Blár.

“Blár!” Kolfinna drew forth all the plant matter she could and thrust it around the dreki’s tail, and then yanked at it so it would turn its attention away from Blár. It worked, and the dreki spun around to scream at the green vines and brown roots wrapped around its tail.

She skidded in front of Blár’s body while simultaneously pulling the dreki’s tail to keep its attention away from them. A quick glance at Blár’s body revealed he was untouched by the flames, but he had gotten hit by small pieces of the ceiling, she reckoned by the new scratches and cuts on his face. But he was alive, and that was all that mattered.

Kolfinna tried to gather him in her arms, but he was too limp and heavy to carry. His head lolled to the side as she tried moving him. Seconds ticked by, and the dreki blasted the vines arounds its tail, and Kolfinna quickly lost sensation of the dead vegetation like a cord snapping in half.

Without thinking, she grabbed his arms and pulled. Her biceps screamed with exertion; he was heavy, almost too heavy for her to drag. Somehow, she managed to drag him across the floor, his back rolling over the rocks and fragmented stones.

The dreki roared again, blowing hot air into the room. Kolfinna threw up another wall between herself and the dreki, but it cracked under the heat of the dreki’s fire breath, which fanned out in the room as the dreki swiveled its head in every direction. Magni and Truda were leaping away from its attacks, oblivious to Blár and Kolfinna.

“Find Revna!” Kolfinna shouted above the hiss of fire. She continued to drag Blár across the room, closer to the doorway. “We can’t let her escape!”

“She’s already gone!” Magni cursed and dove behind a coffin as the dreki shot fire at him.

There were so many things they could’ve done to prevent this—things theyshould’vedone, thingssheshould’ve done—but she couldn’t dwell on it, even as a bitter taste filled her mouth.

With the dreki breathing fire and demolishing the room and Blár’s unconscious state, what could they even do against the dreki? All of them were practically running on fumes. They hadn’t entered the battle with full mana in the first place, so she could only imagine how worn out everyone already was. The only thing she could think of was to wake up Blár so he could defeat it—because for Blár, the dreki was nothing. But where was theGenfødsel Kniv? Ithad to be somewhere on the floor. She prayed it hadn’t fallen into the hole in the floor the dreki had created.

“Magni, Truda!” Kolfinna shouted as she erected another stone wall between herself and the dreki. “Distract the dreki for me! I have a plan!”

“Easier said—” Magni started, rolling away from the dreki’s flames and sending a wave of his own.

“Please!”

The dreki’s tail decimated a wall as it swung around to swipe Truda and Magni. Large chunks of the ceiling collapsed from above them, crashing into the floor and shattering upon impact. Kolfinna finally dragged Blár’s body out of the room and into the hallway, pulling him farther and farther away from the fight. So long as Magni and Truda kept the dreki occupied, it wouldn’t find Blár.

She spun around and sprinted back into the room, keeping close to the wall so the dreki wouldn’t turn to her. She dropped to her knees among the debris, searching for the knife and throwing periodic glances at the dreki.

The dreki belted into the ceiling and flicked its blood-red gaze to her. Her breath caught in her throat and she rolled as it sent a wave of fire at her. Her clothes crisped in the heat and she fell behind one of the coffins as the dreki blasted at her relentlessly. The smell of smoke and ash assaulted her nose and she pressed her back against the warm coffin as fire sprayed around the edges of it. A glinting of metal caught the corner of her eye. Hidden beneath the rubble, theGenfødsel Knivgleamed red with the fire.

Kolfinna infused her mana into the rubble and pushed the rocks aside, wrenching the blade free. It was light in her hands but heavy at the same time when she thought of all the souls that had been struck with it. Despite the inferno of heat in the room, she shivered, wrapping her fingers tighter on the hilt.

Something distracted the dreki—probably Magni or Truda—and it stopped breathing fire against the coffins. Kolfinna poked her head around to see and sure enough, fire was streaming from Magni’s hands and onto the dreki; it was pathetically small compared to the dreki’s brilliant flames. But it was enough to distract the creature as Kolfinna slipped into the hallway, holding the blade far from her body to keep from accidentally nicking herself.

Kolfinna dropped to her knees in front of Blár. In this state, it almost looked like he was dead. His chest didn’t rise or fall, and his eyelids didn’t flitter like they were supposed to when someone was in a dreamlike state. Here, he was too still. Like a beautiful painting, or like a corpse.

The blade clattered to the floor, slipping from the blood coating her hand. Kolfinna hadn’t even realized she was bleeding profusely from her shoulder, but now that she had a few seconds away from the battle, her hands shook.

She picked up the knife and placed it on Blár’s chest. A thick rivulet of her blood marked the silver edge of the blade. She hesitated as red droplets stained the gray material of his uniform. What if the blade dug into his vital organs? She had seen Mímir use it on Revna’s chest, and it didn’t seem to damage her, but Kolfinna didn’t want to take that risk. She instead pointed the tip of the blade at Blár’s hand and pushed it into his skin.The dagger sliced the skin with ease.