The Heroes hesitated. They waited as Ender came towards them, perhaps assuming he came to parlay.

If they’d had any sense, they would have struck the moment they saw him.

It was already too late.

No one knew Ender’s Power, but they’d all seen the carnage he left behind. Nothing, no one, could stand against that kind of power.

“Who’s that?” Lace asked. She squinted down at Ender. “I’ve never seen a Villain like that before.”

Kiren didn’t respond. His hands were cold and clammy.

Ender stopped in front of the Villains and they closed ranks behind him. Forge stood at his left and Father and Fade at his right.

Those last few battling it out finished each other off and the rest watched the newcomer. A drawn-out silence took the battlefield as everyone waited for someone to speak.

“Is this what Paragon has sent me?” Ender shouted. “Would she rather hide away in her golden tower than face me?” He paused. “Very well, then. I will clear away these pawns.”

“Enough!” Gale shouted. A howling wind tugged at his flapping cloak. “If you won’t surrender, we will destroy you all.”

He took to the air and zipped towards Ender, brandishing a sword. He flew fast as an arrow.

Ender tilted his head. He reached up and pulled down his hood, exposing a pale face with cropped-short, black hair and those piercing blue eyes.

He blinked.

Gale’s lower half vanished.

He fell to the ground, guts spilling out of his severed torso along with blood and viscera. He let out a wail that was more beast than man, a sound so brimming with agony that it chilled the soul.

“Dad!” Lace screamed. “Creator, no! What… what happened? Someone save him!”

A group of Heroes rushed forward.

They were all erased, leaving only a perfectly spherical pit in the ground where they had been standing, several meters wide.

More of them disappeared as they scrambled to regroup. Ender hummed to himself as he slaughtered them, as if he was doing nothing more than hoeing a stubborn patch of hay down to size.

Lace screamed and sobbed into her hands as her father crawled, legless, towards Ender.

“Paragon save us,” she whispered. “Save us… please…”

No one came. The Second Sun shone dully in the distance, deaf to the girl’s pleas.

Ender traipsed towards Gale.

Lace wiped snot with the back of her hand and stood. Before Kiren could stop her, she leapt off the side of the building and onto the roof of an adjacent two-story tenement. She tucked into a clumsy roll, scraping her elbows, but didn't seem to notice.

She swung off the side, lost her grip, and fell into the road, where she landed on her behind.

Is she…? She's not planning… She is.

Unmaker spare me.

Kiren followed her same path. He jumped between rooftops, then clambered down the side of the tenement. By the time his feet touched the cobbles, Lace had already run into the street.

Towards her father.

Towards Ender.

Kiren sprinted as fast as his feet would carry. If the girl got in Ender’s way, there would be no survival. It seemed less like death and more like they were simply erased as if they had never existed at all.

Lace threw herself before her father, arms thrown out in a shielding gesture. Her father had already collapsed, face resting against the flagstones.

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A thin, wispy wind streamed about her, ruffling her dress and throwing up her hair. It tugged at Ender’s cloak, grasped at it with insistent but futile fervor.

“You're a brave one, aren't you?” Ender said. He fixed Lace with a sharp, icy glare. “In another world, you could have been one of mine. What a waste.”

Kiren tackled Lace, throwing them both to the side. They tumbled over each other and Kiren ended up on the bottom, unable to see but keenly aware of the clangor and screaming around him. The sounds of death around his mind until it became impossible to focus on anything else, slowly tearing into his sanity.

But there was no time for waiting. He got Lace off of him and dragged her away. Where, he didn't know. It didn't matter. The further away from Ender she was, the safer she'd be. The safer he’d be.

I should focus on saving myself. She’ll only slow me down, make me more of a target.

That mattered little. His chances were slim as it was, now that he had interfered with Lord Ender himself. He had her in his arms, and letting her go now would be pointless. At least, he could take some comfort in their embrace.

Kiren pulled Lace up against an alleyway. The spot where Gale had been was now empty, marred only by a circular hole. Ender had already moved on further down the street.

He wasn't looking at them.

Kiren breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Lace screamed and kicked and tried to get away. She punched him, no doubt with everything she had, but the pain was negligible compared to what he had endured from Father.

He held her down. Running off wouldn't do her any good.

Even Heroes had their breaking point. Watching their comrades die instant, inexplicable deaths in droves seemed to be it. They fled, even the most hardened warriors tripping over each other and pulling down their fellow man in order to escape this horror.

Kiren wanted to curse them, but he couldn't blame them. Who could stand against such power?

Of course, none of them would actually get away. Ender was plucking them away like hens for the slaughter. Their retreat would only make his work easier.

“Please…” Lace babbled against his chest between sobs. “Paragon… save us…”

The panicked screams grew quiet. The thunder of footfalls died off.

Frowning, Kiren relinquished his hold of Lace and crawled to the edge of the alleyway.

The tower at the peak of the city alighted with fiery furor. Its luminance cast harsh shadows across the ground and grew only stronger as seconds passed.

Kiren’s field of vision grew into a field of washed-out whites and yellows, unable to make out anything but faint silhouettes. He put a hand in front of his face and closed his eyes, but the fire burned through his eyelids.

Creator’s corpse, what is this?

Though his eyes were closed, a shape burned itself into his retina, impossible to ignore. Not just a shape. A person.

He opened his eyes.

A woman, splendid and regal, floated in the air. Her face was surrounded by a mane of golden hair, and she was ringed with a corona of sunlight.

Paragon.

The revolutionaries ducked before her presence.

Only Ender did not.

“Ah, there you are!” Ender shouted, voice cracking. He threw up his arms. “Finally decided to come down and fight your own battles, have you?”

Paragon said nothing.

Her light exploded in brilliance, every shade of the rainbow bending and combining around her. They were flung away from her like spears, blinding and burning.

The small hairs on Kiren’s arms were singed off. He pulled back and dragged Lace deeper into the alley where the light was not so harsh. He blinked in relief, his eyes swimming with residual light.

All around him, the world seemed to have inverted, existing of pure light. Outside that sliver of an alley, everything burned too bright for comprehension.

He held Lace tighter and put their heads together. Her chest shuddered against his.

He peeked around the corner with a hand over his eyes, squinting through the near-blinding light.

Paragon’s light grew stronger still, and Ender roared over the wails of his burning warriors.

Then quiet.

The light was snuffed out all at once, and the world seemed black in comparison.

A woman fell from the sky. Her arm had been severed, dark blood vomiting from the lack of a limb.

Most of the revolutionaries rolled on the ground, putting out their flaming clothes or simply lay motionless, their bodies slowly consumed by flames. Forge stood in front of Ender, unfazed by the attack, his metal skin blackened but not damaged. The leader of the Dark Eye staggered back, his blue eyes slicked over with bloody tears.

Much of Father’s skin had been burnt off, and the muscle fibers beneath bristled as he pulled Ender away. Forge kept the resurgent Heroes at a distance.

Father glanced back, scanned over the street.

His eyes caught Kiren.

“Boy!” he shouted. “Here!”

For a split second, Kiren considered staying. Perhaps he could get away. Perhaps the Heroes would still catch them.

No. He had forgotten his place, but resisting would only result in more pain.

Kiren got up and untangled Lace from his arms. She cried out, but he pushed her against the wall and ran.

He took off down the street, towards the few remaining Villains.

Father would never let him go.

He had to keep running.