Looking at Ignak’s smug Will, I felt rage burning in my veins, a simmering hatred for the bastard as a pair of wings erupted from my back, their talons cutting through my clothing with the sound of shredding fabric. I saw Shatterbone tense up at the sound, and he, at last, began to turn back towards me as dagger-like claws erupted from my fingertips. I finally allowed myself to make a noise, a grunt of pain as my flesh reknitted.

I realized something quite clearly—Shatterbone was an idiot. In the long run, his plans were doomed to failure. He could make as much money as he wanted, but nothing would save him when the Goddess of Light and her army arrived at his doorstep. But even if he was a fool, he’d proven much cleverer than me.

I tried not to think about that too much.

As I began to charge forward, my mind had already focused on Shatterbone’s axe and Krez and Braz’s swords. The two guards stood beyond my immediate opponents to either side of the door, spears in hand. Phaedra caught sight of me as I closed in, then turned and ran for the corner of the room, shouting.

“Well, you’ve got some fight in you after all!” Shatterbone cried, sounding almost pleased by the turn of events, levering his axe up and holding it ready.

It would be foolish to go for him first, but I needed him to think I would. In his arrogance, he would believe it, too—no doubt he wished for us to clash like that. And then I laughed, for I realized, in a burst of clarity, that the way they were standing was almost the same formation as the mob which had attacked me in that far-off alleyway of my dreams. The Dark One had shown me a helpful memory.

So now I knew what I needed to do. Or at least, I had an idea.

As I drew closer to Shatterbone, I dived to the side, his axe whistling past the tips of my horns. My wings pulled in, wrapped tightly around me as I shot forward and tackled Krez, my hand surging toward him as I grabbed his wrist and twisted it.

In my new form, my hand was easily twice the size of his, and once I had his wrist, I only had to wrench it as hard as I could until he screamed, and the sword fell from his loose fingers.

I grabbed the sword with my other hand and continued past Krez, my claws digging into him and flinging him to one side as my other hand gripped the sword.

My claws retracted smoothly to avoid cutting myself, an instinct I hadn’t realized I possessed, but the control of which now came as easy to me as breathing.

Considering how large I had become, the sword could easily be held in one hand, and I doubted it would trade well against Shatterbone’s massive axe—still, having it couldn’t hurt.

After disarming Krez, I took another few steps, faster than I knew anyone else could catch up to me, and then turned, my wings still furled behind me, and raised the sword in front of me in a guard.

Krez still lay on the ground, writhing in pain, and Shatterbone held his axe in front of him in both hands, staring me down from just out of weapons range. Braz had come up on the other side of him and was inching to my left, trying to flank me. The guards, similarly, were approaching on either side of Shatterbone, their spears extended.

Soon, I’d be surrounded. But I had still done what I needed.

They’d entirely forgotten about the elevator.

A bell rang out in the hallway. The clanging of the opening door was the sound I had been waiting for.

Shatterbone glanced over his shoulder, a smug look on his face, perhaps expecting to see Mona being led towards us in chains by a group of his lackeys.

Instead, she emerged from the elevator looking like hell itself, three tiny spheres of flame circling her erratically, moving in elliptical arcs around her, her robes torn in a dozen places. She was bleeding from her side, but she walked smoothly from the elevator, and when she saw me there, cornered, and her eyes met mine, my heart leaped in my chest.

And then the fires dashed towards us. Though Mona had once informed me that I was immune to fire, I think that meant I was resistant to being burned, not that I would be completely untouched by the explosions that would no doubt erupt from her projectiles once they found their targets.

Instinctively, I stretched out my wings and wrapped them around my body in a protective cocoon. I held my sword down against me and felt the heat and the rush of air as whatever Mona had sent after them exploded.

I knew it would take her a moment to prepare another spell. So now it was my turn again.

I spread my wings and saw that Braz had flown past me and now lay at a strange angle on the floor, his body scorched, his uniform still burning. One of the guards was still approaching me, spear in hand, but the other was down, screaming as flames engulfed their body.

And then there was Shatterbone himself—he had now turned his back to me and held the axe in a guard across his body. He was charred in a few places but seemed mostly unharmed compared to the others. Near him, however, there was a large black scorch mark on the marble floor. I realized he had deflected, at least partially, Mona’s spell.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He apparently decided she was more dangerous than I was. Of course, he was right. He charged towards Mona, shouting in rage as he raised his axe.

My feet began to move without any conscious thought. One of the guards was still in my way, their spear pointing toward me. With my sword, I slashed toward the spear, pushing it to one side as I surged into range. Thankfully, my new form could move fast, my muscles twitching with their rapid movements, and once I was in close, my free hand grabbed the spear's haft and held it to the side as my sword cut deep into his chest. As I stabbed the guard, I felt their grip on the spear tighten at first, then release. They fell backward.

Shatterbone, meanwhile, had made it to the hallway and was approaching Mona rapidly. She had begun a new spell, a flame forming between her clawed hands, but it was hard to tell if she would be fast enough. Dealing with the guard had slowed me down, though. There was no way I’d catch up to him.

No sooner had that thought entered my mind than I looked down and saw the spear still held in my hand. And without thinking, I raised it and stepped forward, throwing it down the hallway, focusing my aim dead center on Shatterbone’s back. The moment I released it, I ran after the spear, ready to follow behind.

Shatterbone, who seemed to possess an unnatural sense of his surroundings, stopped and leaped to the side as the spear sailed past him and hit the wall next to the elevator door with a loud clang. Shatterbone roared in rage, perhaps realizing he was now under pressure from both sides.

At last, I closed the distance, slashing at him with my sword as he brought his axe to bear. My sword clashed against his axe, and I felt my arms buckle under the force of his blow as my blade faltered.

Panicking, I jumped back, realizing entirely well the foolishness of engaging him in a contest of arms, and yet I couldn’t have let him take that axe to Mona. Ignak stared at me in fury and pressed his axe forward. I dodged to one side, slashing my sword across his leg, blood gushing from the wound. He screamed in rage and swung his axe again, but despite my size, I found I was all too agile in this form. I leaped backward gracefully, and the axe swung through the air where I’d been standing.

“Master!” Mona called out, and I understood her instinctively.

Shatterbone turned away from me, towards the High Priestess, but he was too late.

I closed my wings around myself again, and as I did so, I felt another pull at my soul like I had earlier. The bond between Mona and I allowed her to tap into the power of my Will. Whatever she was casting this time, it was quite the spell.

I felt the heat even through the skin of my wings, which glowed white, my veins like shadows through a paper screen. There was a booming sound, like thunder, and I felt the tower floor shake beneath my feet. A moment later, the light faded, and I lowered my wings.

Shatterbone lay burned on the dark marble, unresponsive, one side of his body charred to a crisp. My mouth hung open, and I looked at Mona. Her hands still glowed with the fading energy of the blast. Her chest heaved with exhaustion, and she let out a long breath.

The wall behind Shatterbone had been destroyed. There was now a massive hole in the side of the tower. I saw the city and the distant mountains as I looked through it. Pieces of stone were crumbling from the ceiling.

“You did it,” I shouted to Mona, but my celebration was short-lived. Krez was advancing on me, having picked up one of the guardsmen’s spears. I charged forward, parrying his spearpoint with my sword, then reaching out with my free hand and grabbing the blue-skinned general by the throat. I shook him like a doll as his eyes bulged. With my massive hand, I squeezed, feeling his bones snap between my fingers. His body fell limp, and I tossed him aside.

Turning, I noticed that one of the guardsmen had managed to climb to his feet, but he showed no sign of attacking me. On the contrary, he stood with his palms out, slowly backing himself into the corner.

I looked back to where Shatterbone still lay on the cold marble and approached him. I knelt over his body and reached out to check his pulse. Though faint, his heart was still beating. I lifted him by the neck, then slammed him against the marble. To have him lying there, powerless, felt right. It felt like justice. I prepared to bring my sword down on his neck and end this once and for all.

Behind me, I felt Mona preparing another spell, and panic shot through me. As I looked up, I saw an orb of glass flying through the air. It shattered when it hit the marble floor, releasing a cloud of glowing yellow vapor.

As I turned to look, I saw Phaedra standing at the threshold of the Hall of War with another glass canister in her hand and a gas mask covering her face. She pressed a button on the canister's mechanism, then tossed it down the hallway after the first one.

Phaedra was the one element that had not been in the Devourer’s dream. There had only been five attackers there, all male. Not a sixth.

I rushed towards Phaedra, the sword still in my hand, but as I passed through the cloud of yellow gas, which seemed to spark with electricity, I felt like my legs were moving slower than before. My heart began to pound from the exertion. My lungs burned.

My feet were heavy for some reason, falling out from under me. Part of it was the gas. Another part, I realized, was that I had begun to reach the limits of my transformation. I had expended a large chunk of the Void-touched energy my Will possessed.

My body flopped forward, and I faceplanted onto the dark marble, looking back toward the elevator. Mona had fallen too, I saw, her arms straining towards Phaedra, pure hatred in her eyes. She tried to form a spell, but it died in her hands.

A heavy weight had settled on my chest. In the swirling gas, I saw people chittering with glee at my fall. I saw visions of demons with glowing eyes, knives drawn, coming for me in the dark.

“I’m sorry, Dark One,” Phaedra said. I realized she had approached and now knelt before me, lowering herself until I could see the gas mask on her face and her glowing eyes within its lenses. She leaned forward and stroked my cheek with her hand. It would have made me shiver, but I couldn’t feel anything.

“We’re going to have a lot of fun,” she said, and her face began to dissolve. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t move my mouth.

“You’ll wonder how you ever got on without me,” she said, and I wondered if she would ever stop talking. She held a metal collar in her other hand, covered in dark blue gemstones the color of the Void. But I wasn’t paying attention to her anymore.

I was looking away, towards where Mona was similarly sprawled out on the floor, gazing back at me as the light faded from our eyes.

The last thing I heard was the soft clicking sound of the collar around my neck, and my Will felt like it had been smothered under a titanic weight. As the world grew ever darker, I looked at Mona, and with my eyes, I tried to say, I’ll miss you, and I wish we had more time.

I couldn’t be sure, but I thought she understood.

And then there was nothing left but nightmares.