"Snow, we have to find cover. We aren’t safe here,” Terrin rasped.

A small silk couch reclined against the far wall, and they dragged themselves into the shadows beside it while Nitiri’s attention was fixed on her victory.

“Can you pull the small square device out of my inner pocket?”

Elurra noticed he was cradling his arm, and he winced every time it moved. She quickly complied. She found a device with a smooth, black surface and no discernable seams in the metal. After a moment of inspection, Elurra determined it must be a Guardian creation due to its shape. Terrin instructed her to set it on the floor before uttering a command. A force field projecting an image of the blank wall behind them appeared. If anyone looked over, they would see an empty corner and nothing more.

“It is stable!” the new Demon exclaimed as one of the screams finally ended.

The second silence fell just as suddenly, leaving a deathly quiet in its wake. Tiberius gazed at the opening rift, pleasure glimmering in his eyes.

“Let the feasting begin,” he hissed.

Tiberius vanished through the rift. Nitiri and the yellow-eyed demon looked around after he left, trying to locate the two injured captives. Nitiri cursed.

“They can run if they wish, but they will never escape me in the end,” she said viciously. “I will hunt them down and kill them slowly once I find them again.”

Her eyes landed on Terrin’s sword lying on the floor a few yards away. She closed the distance in a few strides and picked up the weapon. As soon as she touched the blade, her face contorted, and her eyes grew wide with astonishment. She threw it like it was made of live coals singeing her skin. It skittered across the ground before coming to a stop not far from Terrin and Elurra’s hiding place.

“What a cursed weapon,” Nitiri hissed. Her face was pale and haunted.

“Why did she react like that?” Terrin asked in a perplexed tone.

“It speaks to you in the voice of the one you treasure most,” Elurra said softly.

Terrin’s nose crinkled.

“Who could Nitiri possibly care about?”

“There was someone once, but he’s gone now,” she answered. Elurra didn’t have the energy to tell him Cade’s tragic story, so instead she changed the subject. “What are we going to do? Neither of us are in any shape to fight a Demon or Nitiri, but we must close the rift.”

“We can’t do anything in our current state. We’re both injured. Your head is bleeding, by the way.” He gingerly reached out a hand to wipe a crimson drop from her forehead. Terrin wasn’t faring much better. A dark bruise was blooming across his left cheekbone, and his arm seemed to be causing him extensive pain. “We need to recover, but the device I have only helps to heal superficial wounds.”

Elurra bit her lip and pondered their situation for a moment before her face lit up.

“Stasis! It exponentially increases your body’s healing capabilities,” Elurra proposed, hoping that Lira’s advisers had taught him about the ability. “But even then, what can we do? Who knows what destruction we will wake to? Now is the best time to attack, or we will have no chance.”

Terrin shook his head. “We will have a chance, but we need reinforcements.”

He carefully reached into another pocket in his jacket, trying to avoid aggravating his wounds, and pulled out a small metal cube the height of his pinky nail.

“Do you have a live dove somewhere in your pockets too?” Elurra asked, running her eyes over his jacket in a search for hidden seams or pouches. “How many of those do you have, and where did they come from? How can you even tell them apart?”

“It’s a bit of a tale, but I may have emptied a Guardian’s bunker from the war. I can explain more later, but I don’t think I can throw anything, so you’ll have to do it for me.”

Her eyebrows drew together in confusion. “What is it?”

“This is a Guardian beacon. Anchor told me we need to get it through the rift to summon the Prath.”

“Who is Anchor?”

“It’s the name of the Amorian bunker. We need to lower the force field, throw that into the void, and hide again. Hopefully, we can do it quickly enough to avoid detection.”

Elurra tested the weight of the cube in her palm and took a few deep breaths before nodding. Nitiri was sitting in a chair and watching the vortex impatiently. Her back was to them. The Demon was a few feet away. His eyes weren’t visible. He made Elurra nervous, but she knew time was short. Terrin pressed a small button on the top of the cube before lowering the field. As soon as it was down, Elurra aimed and threw the beacon at the rift. Even though her aim was a bit off, the rift sucked in the device. It disappeared into the void, and Terrin sighed in relief as he camouflaged them again.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“There’s another problem,” he said. “We can’t touch the Kutsal Stones.”

“Why not?”

“The same reason the Prath can’t. Imagine the stones and Yamoi are connected with an invisible string. If more stones are together, the strings bundle and form a metaphorical rope. Guardians and Demons can follow the rope if the strings are thick enough to hold their weight. However, if they touch a stone on this side, they get yanked back through the rift. We’re both pure Guardian descendants, so if either of us touch the stones, we’ll get pulled through the rift.”

To Terrin’s surprise, Elurra’s eyes lit up. She exclaimed, “Those who touch the Kutsal Stones don’t die? That means your dad could still be alive!”

Terrin’s face twisted. “That’s the first thing I thought, too, but Anchor said it’s a bit more complicated than the analogy makes it sound. A single string isn’t strong enough to get someone all the way to Yamoi, so they get lost somewhere in between. Anchor said the best comparison would be walking through a gate in a wall versus getting shot over the wall from a cannon. They’re getting violently pulled to Yamoi, so parts of them get left throughout the rift.”

The pallor drained from Elurra’s cheeks.

“We can’t touch the Kutsal Stones, or there’s a good chance we will find ourselves scattered between here and Yamoi?”

Terrin nodded gravely. Elurra looked sullen. “This is impossible. How are we going to stop this?”

Terrin reached over and rested his hand on top of Elurra’s. Her worried eyes shifted away from the rift and found his gaze.

“Do you believe in the creators, Terrin?” Elurra asked as she watched the unnatural aberration suck the light out of the room. He was silent for a potent moment.

“I’m not sure. I used to believe in the creators long ago, but the stories say the Demons were a curse from the creators to punish nonbelievers, and the Guardians were sent once the people turned back to their faith. Considering everything I’ve learned, none of those stories make any sense.”

“Terrin…” Her gaze conveyed all her concerns and doubts. “If the creators are real, why are we trying to save Incari alone? This is not fair. They should be helping us.”

Her lip trembled as she tried to hold back tears.

“I know.”

He wrapped his arms around her small body and held her as they went into stasis.

°◌°○●○°♣°○●○°◌°

Anchor’s voice echoed in Terrin’s mind as soon as he entered stasis.

“Nitiri will open the rift. In all scenarios, you either go to her willingly, or she finds you and acquires the Kutsal Stone. In some timelines, she must torture Elurra in front of you, while in others she pries it off your dead body. In every instance, the Cythraul come.”

He hadn’t believed her, but it had happened exactly as she said it would. The rift was right there, an unnatural crack between two worlds that should never be connected. Then the Demons emerged from the void, following Tiberius’s return.

A strange sucking noise accompanied their arrival every five minutes like they were wiggling free of a vacuum on the other side. Each checked in with Tiberius and listed their name and rank. Terrin was going off what he could hear. He knew he couldn’t do anything but wait and heal until the Guardians arrived.

“After the rift is open, your death is the only catalyst that can stop them from destroying this world.”

“But…I don’t want to die!”

“Then every man, woman, and child on Incari will perish. Some will be consumed by Demons. Many will succumb to famine or be crushed in the massive tectonic disturbances. Tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and erratic weather will take thousands. Then the survivors of the apocalypse will die when the planet rips itself apart.”

The Demons were talking among themselves in their bone-chilling language, but a hush fell over the group when someone of interest emerged from the portal. Terrin decided to come out of stasis to satisfy his curiosity. He slowly regained control of his body and opened his eyes to see a nightmarish view. All light in the room had been drained, aside from the blinding fury of the rift. A dark cloud of tangible, smoky blackness and multicolored glowing eyes filled every corner. Nitiri was sitting near the rift, her gaze trained on the purple-eyed Demon standing in front of it. He approached Tiberius and grunted greetings.

“Report,” Tiberius demanded.

“The first wave is complete. There has been no Prath activity. The second wave is coming.” the other Demon reported.

Tiberius grunted.

“It is time we take care of loose ends then.”

Nitiri stood and stepped forward to take control of the conversation. “There is a small matter needs to be dealt with downstairs. It appears there is a tiny uprising against my reign,” she said in a condescending manner. “I feel it is best to deal with that first.”

Tiberius’s eyes narrowed. “You are no longer needed,” he said bluntly.

Elurra took in a deep breath and opened her eyes. She had apparently also decided she wanted to see what was going on. Terrin looked down at his arm and gently tested it. He was pleased to discover he could move it again without undue pain.

“Excuse me?” Nitiri protested. “I let you through the rift. In exchange, you owe me your allegiance.”

“Your plans to turn us over to the Prath will not succeed. We will eliminate you.”

Nitiri’s face paled, and she took a step back. The Demons shifted restlessly around Tiberius. Their floating eyes danced in excitement. Nitiri took another step back, but there was a wall of Demons behind her.

“You…you cannot kill me! I have the Kutsal Stones! I can shut the rift.”

The purple-eyed Demon floated in front of her, blocking her access to the Kutsal Stones. Elurra tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword and watched the events unfolding before her with an unreadable expression.

“You are defenseless,” the purple-eyed Demon pointed out.

A rumble of agreement shook the room.

“You are defenseless,” a few other Demons whispered.

Their sharp voices sent shivers down Terrin’s spine. Nitiri took another step back, angling herself toward their hiding place. Elurra stiffened beside Terrin, and he got a bad feeling in his gut.

“Snow, don’t do anything rash. Helping her is a death sentence for both of us.”

The Demons shifted forward, slowly closing in on their prey. Tiberius and the purple-eyed Demon were in front of her, chuckling menacingly. She retreated a few more steps, but there was nowhere left to go.

“She’s an awful woman, but I cannot watch her die like this,” Elurra whispered.

The Demon towered above the terrified queen, and a sword of shadow appeared from within the creature. Nitiri held the bracelet of terrant in front of her and hid her face, but the strike never came. A flash of blue light pierced the Demon, and he cried out in surprise. The line of light sliced through its outer layer and disappeared inside its core. A second later, it yowled in anguish, and its smoky body collapsed as its eyes turned to ash. Elurra was left standing, her sword pointed toward the red-eyed Lord of Darkness himself.

“Who is next?” she growled.