Take them, Raziel, Palka tells me. Take them and run.

My gaze shifts to the dark form of the General rising from the ashes beneath the dragon’s claws.

“Mistress Palka in the flesh,” he says. “My Lady has heard much about you.”

Palka answers him with a roar that sends his attacking forces flying back again, splitting apart the earthen mounds her entrance had thrown up but leaving him, strangely, completely unaffected.

What’s this guy made of?

Once again Palka reels back and fixed me with her draconic eyeball, desperation welling up inside her.

Children of Glenheim, she communes. You have fought and bled enough for your mother. You have died while I lay beneath your feet, afraid of my destiny.

The Elves all look up at her with fear, and with longing. They all know what’s coming next.

“Mistress…” Myra whispers.

The great wyrm belches another torrent of fire down at the waiting General, who doesn’t even make an attempt to move out of the way of the attack. I can feel the heat from here. I can feel my fur crisping even from behind the dragon’s neck. Her breath could melt clean through stone, I’m sure of it.

And yet he doesn’t move an inch…

Now, I must ask you to listen to me one final time, Palka continues through her furious assault. You must go. You must live. Live to see the Darkseed die. Live to see your Sisters grow. Those of you who remain, my children, you must leave our world behind. A mother cannot watch her family die.

Her eyes dart towards me again, and slowly my confusion begins to melt away.

“A mother protects her family,” she tells me again. “Even if it means dying for them.”

“Y-you can’t!” screams Mia from within her sister’s arms. “Sis! Tell her! Tell Mistress Palka we’ll –“

Myra’s grimacing face catches her sister off guard. And me, for that matter.

She looks right at me, biting her lip, knowing what she has to say. What she has to do.

The other Glenmaidens below belt out their protests. But me? I’m focused on the shadow of Thorn from within Palka’s inferno, and the dragon’s pleading eyes.

“Palka.”

She hears me. I know she does.

“…I’m sorry.”

Amidst the sickening sounds of the Seedlings snapping their crumpled limbs back into place and charging her again, the great beast closes her eyes.

No, Lightborn, she sighs within my mind. The Lightborn brought the world to our doorstep, but it is I who have allowed it to kill us. Through fear, hatred, ignorance and now – hubris. It is I who have brought doom upon us all. I, alone.

The fire fades, and Thorn remains, brushing off sparks of sapphire dust from his untouched shoulders. Through the light of the flames I can see something sparkling around his armor – I’m almost certain it must be some kind of shield. The same thing he used to repulse all my attacks.

Save your sorrow, she says. And think now of the future. I charge you, Raziel the Loafblade, to guide my people to a brighter dawn.

“Little-Brother!” Swiftrunner cries out beside me. “What do we do?”

I see the dark glimmer build up in the General’s palm again.

And something beyond Palka’s words resonates within my mind:

SIDE QUEST: OATH TO PALKA

Details: Shepard the Elves. Guide them to freedom.

Reward for Acceptance: Brine Dragon’s blessing

Accept Quest? [Y]/[N]

“Raziel…” I hear Myra whisper.

In her hand she holds her blade fast, and cradles her sister’s crying face in the other.

But in her eyes – there’s no sadness right now. There’s trust. Trust in me.

And that’s all I need to see.

“You have my word, Palka,” I tell the waiting dragon. “Dog’s honor.”

She smiles back at me as Thorn aims his gauntlet at her snarling maw.

“Of all the creatures who could have assumed the mantle of Lightborn, it took a dog to show me there might yet be hope for this miserable little world.”

The dark ray charges up in the demon General’s hand.

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“Run beneath the shrine to my chamber,” she says. “There, enter the pool with my children and follow the current. My blessing shall be your guide.”

“Mistress…” Myra murmurs. “Good luck.”

“Go in peace, young Myra,” Palka replies as she readies another gout of flame. “Show the world out there that we of Glenheim did our part.”

The other Glenmaidens sheild themselves from my sight, even as they grip their charges tight and prepare to descend.

They know how this is gonna go down.

“Tell them,” Palka says as her flame reaches the back of her throat. “Tell them freedom is worth dying for.”

Accept Quest? [Y]/[N]

SIDE QUEST ACCEPTED

Go with my blessing below, Lightborn.

The beam of all-consuming dark leaps from Thorn’s hand to seek its target.

Farewell.

And Palka’s fire meets it head on.

The world is bathed in a canvas of white – shadows of the dragon, the general, and the twig-soldiers are thrown up against the crumbled pieces of wall that remain around us, lighting up the starless night sky. I try to shield my eyes from the sight and brace my body against the overbearing power that sweeps out from the clashing between light and dark. But another part of my brain knows that this is no mere lightshow. This is the opening gambit of a duel to the death.

And it’s our cover to get the hell outta here.

“Everyone!” I cry out over the cacophony of inferno sapphire meeting the deepest dark of the abyss. “Follow me!”

I let go of Palka’s back and grab Swiftrunner by his paws, starting up a [Tailcopter]that takes us down the dragon’s scaly behind and back onto the melting ground beneath her feet.

The remaining Glenmaidens do the same, though they hesitate at first. There’s little they can do to console their charges who throw up their arms in protest, crying out that they’d rather stay and perish. But even their faces twist when their mother-guardian looks down upon them again, her sad eyes forming tears of bleeding aquamarine as the beam of death starts to creep up her breath of flame.

And they follow. Even Mia, who beats her hands against Myra’s chest and begs to stay. They all follow us down and we begin our sprint towards the ruined shrine. Because at the end of the day, a mother’s sacrifice has to be respected. You can’t argue against it.

And, looking into the hordes of shambling Seedlings that now turn their attention towards us, I vow that this is a sacrifice I’ll guarantee won’t be in vain.

“Myra!” I shout over my shoulder.

She looks at me through furious, yet focused eyes.

“Keep them running!”

As she nods and barks the command to the line of Elves I let loose a [Swallow Swipe] that sends the first wave of the horde reeling back. As the next line comes, I’m more than ready.

[Relentless Swipe]

ACTIVATED

As the first beam of brilliant light flashes from my canines I bring my blade across the air and send another one flying into the crowd. They split apart and join their friends in the dust.

“Hurry!” I hear Myra shout. “Follow the Lightborn!”

We push through the ranks of the undead Seedlings, feeling the searing heat of Palka’s battle behind our heads as we flank left and charge, me readying my [Dig]for just the right moment.

“Little-Brother,” Swiftrunner says beside me as I cleave through another swathe of the General’s minions. “If you require diversion, use me. Let me be-“

“No one else is sacrificing themselves here, least of all you, Swift!”

I see his eyes flash towards me out the corner of my own narrowed pupils, but right now there’s only one thought swirling in the storm of my head, keeping me going through the broken, oaken limbs that split apart before my blade.

“We’re gonna make it,” I growl. “We’re gonna make it.”

I don’t know if it’s just adrenaline talking, or the fact my blood’s still boiling from the taunts and wounds inflicted on me by Thorn’s dire blade, but right now I’m not myself. I know it. I’m a tiny Corgi battering ram spurned on by a dragon’s dying wish, and as I hear her shriek behind us and fall, I don’t turn back.

“MISTRESS!” Mia cries out.

“Don’t stop!” Myra responds, pushing off the crawling form of an eviscerated Seedling clawing at her legs. “Keep moving!”

This…this is familiar…

The running.

The death.

The futility of it all…

My mind clouds with the sight of Greycloaks barreling towards a creature spawned from the depths of the abyss, borne towards their deaths as it laughs down at them.

Then the miasma of blood and laughter I see our own enemy.

Thorn’s staring down at us. At me. And before I can move another inch, he brings his beam of darkness down on us.

“EVERYONE DOWN!”

I don’t look back to see them leap out of its trajectory. Instead, I [Blink]past the strike, hear it sear right through the bubbling earth, and aim my blade at the neck of the fell General.

[Glittering Thrust]

[Relentless Thru-]

A mailed fist meets my jaw and pins me to the ground. Before I can finish my attack, he’s got me in a chokehold that drains the breath from my throat.

My sword falls to the ground.

“Raziel!”

“Little-Brother!”

The sounds of frenzied combat echo all around me as I struggle in his grip.

“I didn’t intend to kill you here, Raziel,” Thorn tells me as he kneels down to look right into my twitching eyes. “But you’ve made things far more complicated than they had to be”

Behind my ears, the fallen form of Palka lies, her massive limbs writhing in death-spasm, her fires long since extinguished.

Her jeweled scales litter the ground where once she’s stood so strong and bright.

“You realize, don’t you?” Thorn says. “All your efforts, all your struggles, and all your pain – they are justified by nothing more than your hubris. Yours, and that of all who still believe the life granted to us on this dying earth means anything at all.”

He brings up his other palm and charges his killing light again.

Only this time, it’s me that’s staring straight into the void.

“That was always your way, Raziel. You led so many to die in the name of progress. Now, it is only fitting you pay the price.”

Through the encroaching darkness that radiates from his palm, I shoot him a tiny, bloodied smile.

“You know, you really do talk too much.”

His attack flashes out from his coiled fingers just as the realization strikes his withered old features.

When the dark beam hits my face, it does nothing but spear through the earth and fizzle away, leaving the General to stand and look at the shimmering blue light where once a little Corgi stood.

[Spectral Shift]

DEACTIVATED

A corgi that’s now looking at him from the ruins of the shrine, standing just above the hole he dug for his charges five minutes ago.

He stares blankly at me, his eyes switching between the hole and my smug little form.

“Who taught you…”

“’And he shall know your ways’”, I bark back. “Every heard that one, soldier-boy? It’s one of those Lightborn tricks you love to dunk on.”

“Raziel!” Myra’s voice calls from within my little escape tunnel. “We’re ready!”

I’m trying to think of a cool one-liner here, but the General’s surprise at me using his own trick against him seems like more than enough.

So surprised he is in fact, that he doesn’t even seem to register Palka getting right back up behind him, her smashed, lolling jaw ready for another gout.

“It seems one can teach an old dog new tricks,” he says.

“Here’s another one!”

[Repulsive Bark]

It catches him this time, and I use the sonic wave generated by my shout to push back into the impromptu escape tunnel. The last thing I see is Thorn being thrown right into Palka’s waiting teeth as another gout of fire erupts from her gullet, and the world of Glenheim disappears in a haze of infernal sapphire light.