The cyclops clutched Ardwyn tightly in its grip, squeezing the life out of him. The large hand easily covered his body, pinning his arms down and immobilizing him. Ardwyn could do nothing. He couldn’t even conjure his lightning bolt ability with his hands squeezed to his sides, and besides the power seemed ineffective against the gigantic cyclops.

The cyclops lifted Ardwyn to its massive jaws. Hot, foul breath came over him — a stench unlike anything he had ever encountered. The monster’s enormous eye fixed on him, wild with hunger. Ardwyn watched in horror as its mouth opened, revealing sharp triangular teeth ready to devour him.

A light flashed from the side, growing in intensity until a figure stepped out, floating in mid-air. It was Gwynn, the witch. A supernatural wind whipped her hair and clothes back. She wore a fine, dark purple satin robe. Her hair was black. Gone were the gray hair and wrinkles, and her youth had been restored from the old body she used before.

“You fool!” she yelled at the cyclops. “Do not eat him! We need him for the sacrifice.”

The cyclops grunted and whimpered like a scolded dog. It reluctantly obeyed Gwynn and lowered Ardwyn while maintaining its tight grip.

“Where is the other?” Gwynn said.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Rodrick had vanished, likely seizing the opportunity while the cyclops solely focused on Ardwyn.

Ardwyn scanned the clearing. Rodrick was nowhere to be seen.

“It matters not,” Gwynn said. “We will begin the ritual sacrifice now. Bring him here.”

The cyclops lumbered to the Nexus stones, pinning Ardwyn between them while still holding him down.

Gwynn took out a sharp knife in one hand. In the other an ancient tome materialized. The book opened and the pages flipped.

“At last,” she said, with a wild look in her eyes, almost inhuman and surreal. “I will be granted the power to open portals not just between realms, but entire worlds. All will bow to me, and worship me.”

Gwynn began reading an incantation from the book. The words sounded, dark and guttural, some ancient tongue that caused a certain kind of fear to rise up in Ardwyn. As she read the incantation, the stones lit up one by one, the runes glowing with a faint blue light.

“Through the Nexus portal, a world bridger will cross,” she read the incantation loud and slowly. “His essence the key, his life force the cost. By ancient powers and forgotten magic, tear through the veil of night. Nexus of realms, heed my call. By sacrifice, let barriers fall. Grant me passage, grant me might. To worlds unknown, both dark and light.”

The ground beneath them began to tremble. Ardwyn felt a strange energy building up around him. The cyclops tightened its grip on him, sensing the growing power.

Gwynn’s eyes glowed with an unnatural light. The stones erupted with a blinding radiance.

“Release him!” she commanded the cyclops. The cyclops set him down in the center of the surrounding stones, in front of Gwynn. She raised the knife with both hands and then with a heavy motion she stuck the knife right through Ardwyn’s heart.