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With a gut-wrenching scream, Dyani bore her star blade down on her twin. His guttural scream echoed through the air as his body shook and slowly disintegrated into motes of starlight.

Dyani’s gaze darted up to the Voro-Kai army, savagery burning in her feline eyes.

“Dyani, come back!” I screamed, but my plea fell on deaf ears.

The formidable warrior stood as the light bounced off her hair and star blades. Her chest heaved as she lost herself to her grief.

With pain etched on her face and a cry on her lips, she sprinted into the army of darkness.

I raced after her without hesitation. Our strategy to lure the Voro-Kai away from Indrasyl was shot to hell, but I would never make Dyani face the demon army alone. And neither would Rowen. Together, we ran across the barren field to join our friend in battle.

“Attack!” Alvar roared as ten thousand demons launched into a thundering stampede .

The Wyn and Viltarran soldiers obeyed. The ground trembled beneath my feet as we ran towards a head-on collision.

The brave warriors charging beside me had a chance of surviving.

But I? I charged toward certain death.

The tide of darkness enveloped me. Shimmering blades crashed against talons and tusks as a canopy of arrows whizzed overhead. Blood sprayed past me, staining my comrades and the earth in red and black ichor.

I battled through the chaos, carving Mithrion through the air in exacting strikes.

Adrenaline heightened my senses as I took in my surroundings.

Takoda’s healing hands were deadly as he unleashed a flurry of arrows. His gaze shifted slightly with each pull of his bowstring, his eyes locking onto target after target.

Rowen hurled an ax from each hand, hitting two different demons. Empty-handed, he reached behind his back and unleashed two more weapons. He swiped and slashed, losing a blade in the skull of a Voro-Kai.

Another demon lunged at Rowen’s unprotected side.

Terror and Light surged through me as Mithrion hummed in my hand. I spun in a tight circle and sank my blade into the beast’s heart. It disintegrated into a fine, black mist beneath my fingertips.

Rowen spun to me with a shocked yet impressed expression. “Thanks. Now, don’t move,” he said as he pulled his ax out of the skull of the first demon and launched it over my shoulder.

I whirled around just in time to see a Voro-Kai right behind me, stopped dead in its tracks with an ax lodged in its chest .

I pulled the star blade from its ribcage, ignoring the nauseating squelch. I didn’t even have a moment to breathe before we were caught in another swarm of astral demons.

The plan had gone up in flames. It was pure and utter chaos.

I had never been in battle; could scarcely imagine the terror it would bring. But now, I didn’t have to envision it. I was living it. And the reality was far worse than any nightmare.

As I gouged a demon in the eye, I prayed Dyani was still alive. I had completely lost sight of her after she disappeared within the wave of demons.

My eyes caught on Nepta. When the Elven-head walked, her movements were careful and unhurried, but as she fought, her motions were swift, lethal, and precise.

She wielded her moon staff in one hand, opening the ground to catch and close around the heels of the Voro-Kai.

With their hooves trapped within the earth, she plunged her Ever-burn blade into their black hearts.

Bodies battled and fell around me as screams reverberated in my ears. Suddenly, a demon with a contorted face lunged at me, its claws aiming to slice me in half.

Instinct took over, forged from hours on the training grounds. I lifted Mithrion and blocked the blow, feeling the reverberating impact all the way to my teeth. I gritted as I held the enemy inches from my face. The sound of sharp talons on metal made my skin crawl.

The Voro-Kai’s other arm reached up to swipe me, but I quickly ducked, swirling my blade around until it connected with the Voro-Kai’s legs, cutting it at the knees. The demon crumpled to the ground with a screeching hiss.

I glanced up as Alvar caught my vision. His brutal force was mesmerizing as he felled demon after demon. Where Rowen was fluid and versatile, and Dyani was swift and agile, Alvar was punishing, blunt, and aggressive. His scarred face and white hair were already coated in black blood .

“Drive a wedge to the tree!” Rowen yelled as he fought one of the biggest Voro-Kai I’d ever seen. It towered over my soul flame in bulging mounds of muscle and hair. “Keira, run!”

Four nearby soldiers obeyed Rowen’s command, joining my flank. Their blades swiped and pierced through thick demon hide as they helped me clear a path to Indrasyl. Dread clawed at me to be separated from my soul flame, but the mission was clear: get to Indrasyl.

I sprinted toward the Sylvan Mother Tree, slicing and blasting my way through a tunnel of demons. My mind became a blank slate as I drove my blade while unleashing blasts of Light from my palm—as I became deadly.

Disintegrating forms erupted around me like smoke bombs and clouded my vision. Thankfully, Mithrion’s bright aura led the way.

I tumbled out of the plume, tired, aching, and braced for the next wave of demons. But as I raised my gaze, I realized my path was clear. Indrasyl’s hollow trunk was begging to embrace me.

I dashed toward her when suddenly, an entity of darkness spilled from a tear in space and blocked my path.

“Erovos,” I hissed, staggering to a halt. “Finally decided to show up?”

His cloak billowed around his pale hands and bare feet.

His eyes locked on me, forever churning like the pits of hell.

“I was going to quietly abandon this world and leave you to die. However, your meager forces are an irritant I can’t ignore.

It’s pathetic what you have shown up with, and honestly, it’s quite insulting.

Now I shall destroy you like the pests you are. ”

His jaw unhinged, and his mouth opened unnaturally wide as he concentrated on the soldiers behind me.

And just like that day fifteen years ago, when I’d witnessed him murder a man he thought was the Synodic Son, I watched Erovos drain the life out of the soldiers around me.

Their bodies froze mid- fight, and they tore at their skin as it shrink-wrapped to their bones.

My face twisted in horror as their bodies withered and wasted away. Everything that made them beautiful, strong, and brave was siphoned away in an instant. The light left their eyes long before they crumbled to the ground.

Each of their energies was a vibrant and unique hue, but as soon as their auras came in contact with Erovos’ skin, they turned into murky darkness.

Their stolen energy crackled around the world eater as his veins turned black, and without hesitation, he ricocheted the power back, hurling it at a group of charging warriors.

Their comrades’ life force was used against them as they hurtled through the air.

One slammed into the trunk of a tree. His body went limp, and he never stood back up.

“You sick fuck!” I shrieked as I charged at the embodiment of a black hole. He side-stepped me easily and swept me up into his black cloak, spinning me around until I faced the battlefield.

He grabbed my chin in his bony grasp and wrenched my face forward. “Watch,” he commanded.

I couldn’t move. My arms were pinned by my sides as my eyes helplessly darted across the battleground, witnessing horror after horror.

Alvar cried out as a demon slashed his leg, and he fell to one knee. He struck out his sword, blocking the demons that charged him. He was barely hanging on.

Dyani was nowhere in sight, and Nepta was fighting to stay on her feet.

The scent of sweat, iron, and blood filled my nostrils as the battle unfolded into the unthinkable.

We were losing.

I found Rowen, expecting to see my beautiful warrior on his feet, tearing down the enemy. But instead, I saw him on the ground, a Voro-Kai slashing down upon his chest.

Rowen rolled away at the last second but was kicked violently in the stomach. He flew through the air and landed in a painful thud. Before he could stand, he was kicked again. He couldn’t get up; the Voro-Kai was keeping him pinned down.

My body struggled, kicked, and erupted in Light, but I couldn’t escape Erovos’ gravitational hold. I was going to watch Rowen die—the love of my life—so inherent and unstoppable that I’d crossed the thermals of space to find him.

My eyes darted for Callum, Dyani, or anyone to help him, but everyone else was in the same dire position: fighting for their lives. Who knew how Maddock could have shifted the tides of war. I hated him even more.

Rowen’s eyes flashed to me trapped within Erovos’ grasp. His expression was so beyond broken, it was sorry. So, very sorry. His tortured gaze apologized that I would have to watch as his life ended. It was something I would never wish on my greatest enemy.

Deadly claws flexed, aiming at Rowen’s heart.

My throat was raw from screaming. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

“Watch your precious lord die,” Erovos whispered in my ear. “Look at his face. He knows you will be next and that there is nothing he can do to stop it. His love for you is quite beautiful, really.”

I began to travel to Rowen, but I couldn’t. Erovos’ fingers dug into me like pins on a butterfly’s wings, keeping me in place.

If I couldn’t get to Rowen physically, then I would astrally. I started to project, my body going limp, but Erovos violently shook me back to myself.

“Don’t you dare leave this body or I will snap your neck.

I know you’d rather witness your love die than have him watch as I kill you and give your body to the Voro-Kai.

And I would. I would make him watch it all.

Then, I’d slowly torture him,” he cooed in my ear as his frigid breath skittered along my skin. “Let him have the swift death.”

“Don’t touch him!” I screamed, thrashing in his hold.

My body shook uncontrollably. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t astral project. My blood and bones were useless. The only thing I could do was squeeze Mithrion tighter in my grip.

Suddenly, an idea struck!

Erovos had to feel me in my body, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t split myself in two—be in two places at once. I’d separated before, though not intentionally, and I’d never controlled both forms simultaneously. But I had to try!

I found the thread of my existence shimmering with the Elder Spirit’s first-light. It looked so precious and fragile, but I had no time to second guess how this might affect me.

I pulled at the frayed edges, tearing myself apart. My head felt like it was splitting in half; the pressure was unimaginable, but I gritted my teeth and kept pulling until I snapped like a rubber band.

At first, nothing happened, but then I stepped away from my body as if it were as simple as stepping out of a coat. I was the bow and the shooting arrow all at once.

My awareness shifted in two, doubling the horrors of war.

I blinked as my realities flashed before me. One helplessly watched as Rowen dodged a barrage of blows while the other ran towards him.

Explosions of shadow, light, and debris burst around me as I charged across the battlefield. Dead and wounded soldiers littered the ground. Most were unmoving while others writhed in pain, and some, I suspected, were already turning from Voro-Kai bites .

My gaze shot forward as my body moved on its own accord, habitual from hours at the training grounds.

The Voro-Kai had one of its hooves on Rowen’s chest, holding him down for the final blow.

I ran between them; it was the only thing I could do. The Voro-Kai’s talons would cut right through my spectral form and kill Rowen, but I couldn’t stop. I threw myself between them and raised my Ever-burn blade.

A jarring force clashed against me, and both sets of my eyes widened as I realized I’d blocked the demon’s strike midair.

I’d carried Mithrion across the threshold of reality. One part of me held her within Erovos’ cloak while the other blocked the attack that saved Rowen’s life.

I knew my blade was remarkable, but I had no idea it could cross the plane’s of reality; just like me.

I existed in a faded, glowing version of myself, yet my fury was in full force. I pushed my blade until the beast’s claws met my hand guard, then I whirled out from under the Voro-Kai’s weight. Power charged through my limbs and into the extension of Mithrion as I stabbed the demon’s chest.

The beast roared and staggered back, but I followed, my grip steady on the hilt. Fetid breath washed over me as I drove the blade in deeper, and as soon as the tip punctured its heart, the beast disappeared in a plume of smoke.

Before I had time to look at Rowen, I painfully slammed back into my body.

Erovos realized what I had done, and his long nails dug into my skin. “You think you’re clever?” he snarled. “Look around you. Your army is dying. You are losing. My Voro-Kai are overwhelming you.”

What he said was true. I had saved Rowen from one Voro-Kai only for him to be attacked by another. For every ten demons slaughtered, one hundred more took their place .

The claws of darkness hovered and closed in, burying us alive.

I knew I wouldn’t survive this battle, but now, it looked like none of us would. Both Wyn and Viltarran blood would stain this earth forever.

Suddenly, a blinding light pierced my eyes.

Was this how it ended? In red-hot flames?

The air here was cold and dead, and I closed my eyelids, welcoming the lick of flames on my skin.

If it was all to end in fire, I hoped the scorched earth would one day beget new life, but first, we would all have to burn.