"I killed her."
For a moment, I didn't understand the words.
I heard them. I knew exactly what they meant. But my mind refused to put them together.
Morgause.
I killed her.
Blazer reacted before I did.
The ground exploded beneath his feet.
There was no warning. No threat. One moment he was beside me, and the next his sword was descending on Valeriam with a force completely different from what he'd used before.
This time, he wasn't planning to stop.
Valeriam raised her arm.
The impact shook the gorge.
Stone fractured beneath her feet in every direction, and a blast of pressure struck my face. Blazer's sword wasn't caught between two fingers this time. Valeriam had to intercept it with her forearm, protected by a layer of dark energy that crackled beneath the blade.
Blazer spun and attacked again.
And again.
And again.
For the first time, I understood why they called him the Sword Hero.
I'd fought beside him enough times to know he was strong. I'd seen him cut through monsters, pierce armor, and solve problems with a sword that any reasonable person would have tried to handle with actual planning.
But I'd never seen him fight like this.
His blade vanished into flashes of steel. Every strike flowed from the one before it, changing direction before Valeriam could turn a defense into a counterattack. The ground split beneath each movement, and the air screamed around his sword.
Valeriam stepped back.
Only once.
But she stepped back.
Blazer took advantage immediately.
His sword carved upward, forcing Valeriam to lean aside. The next slash came from the opposite direction and tore a small strip of black fabric from her sleeve.
Valeriam's smile faded slightly.
I was still frozen.
Morgause is dead.
No.
I hadn't seen a body.
I hadn't watched her die.
All I had were that woman's words.
And that woman could lie.
An explosion snapped me back to the present.
Blazer crashed through a wall of rock, emerged through the debris, and threw himself at Valeriam again.
Caelum grabbed my arm.
"Nellie!"
I looked at him.
Behind us, the other three members of the expedition were still unconscious.
Another shockwave tore through the gorge.
One of the researchers slid several inches across the ground.
I understood.
We couldn't leave them there.
"Move them."
"I can't carry all three."
"I can get them out." I looked back at Blazer, who had just forced Valeriam to defend again. "Just help me keep them stable."
I crouched beside the nearest researcher, grabbed Caelum by the shoulder, and gathered mana.
Instant Movement.
The world folded.
We appeared behind a rocky formation far enough from the gorge that the battle reached us only as a distant thunder.
"Stay here."
I vanished again.
I returned for the second researcher.
Then the barrier mage.
Each jump consumed mana, but I barely felt it.
When I returned with the last one, Caelum was checking the first researcher's pulse.
"They're alive."
"Good."
I turned immediately.
Caelum caught my wrist.
"Nellie."
"Blazer's alone."
"Listen to me."
I tried to pull away.
"We don't have time."
"That's exactly why you need to listen." His expression was completely serious. "The respawn points are still inactive."
I froze.
Just for a second.
"I know."
"No. You need to understand what that means. If Blazer dies now, we don't know if he'll come back. There's no guarantee his body will reconstruct. No guarantee he'll wake up in Valcrest."
A thunderous crash echoed through the mountains.
Caelum looked toward the gorge.
"And the same applies to you."
I pulled my wrist free.
"Then we'd better make sure neither of us dies."
I used Instant Movement before he could answer.
I returned in the middle of an explosion.
I had to raise a barrier the instant I appeared.
Something slammed into it and made the entire spell crack.
Blazer.
His body bounced off my protection before crashing to the ground.
"Blazer!"
He pushed himself upright using his sword.
Blood ran from his forehead, one arm hung far too low, and his breathing had lost any kind of rhythm.
He stood anyway.
Valeriam walked through the dust.
Her clothes were torn in several places.
A thin red line crossed one cheek.
Blood.
Blazer had hurt her.
Not much.
But he had.
"Better than I expected," Valeriam said.
Blazer spat blood to one side.
"What an honor."
He attacked again.
This time, I saw the exact moment he lost.
Valeriam stopped retreating.
Her hand struck the side of his sword, knocking its path off by only a few inches.
That was enough.
Her other hand slammed into Blazer's abdomen.
The air left his lungs.
His body folded.
Valeriam grabbed him by the face and drove him into the ground.
The entire gorge shook.
His sword flew from his hand.
Blazer tried to move.
He couldn't.
Valeriam raised one hand.
Energy began gathering around her fingers.
I didn't know exactly what she was going to do.
I didn't need to.
Caelum had just explained it.
If that attack hit Blazer, it could be permanent.
Something inside me broke.
Instant Movement.
I appeared between them.
My barrier took Valeriam's attack.
The impact tore through my arms.
The first layer shattered.
The second lasted less than a second.
The third managed to deflect it.
The mountain behind me exploded.
I didn't say anything.
Valeriam raised an eyebrow.
I attacked.
Fire erupted around my staff before I'd even finished turning it.
I didn't throw a fireball.
I threw a wall.
Valeriam disappeared behind a mass of white and violet flame that swallowed the air inside the gorge.
I didn't wait to see the result.
Instant Movement.
I appeared above her.
Another blast.
To her left.
Another.
Behind her.
Another.
The world became flashes.
Stone.
Fire.
Dark hair.
Instant Movement.
Again.
Valeriam dodged the first attack.
Blocked the second.
The third grazed her shoulder.
I didn't give her time to respond.
I formed a barrier directly in front of her fist and collapsed it the instant she struck. The magical explosion threw her arm off course just enough for my next spell to hit her side.
Valeriam stumbled back two steps.
I kept going.
I wasn't thinking.
Or maybe I was thinking too quickly to notice.
All I saw were targets.
Angles.
Distances.
Everything I'd learned since waking up in this world had been reduced to one purpose.
Reach her.
Hit her.
Keep going.
Valeriam fired a blast of energy.
I didn't dodge it completely.
I let it graze my shoulder so I could keep my angle.
The pain came a moment later.
It didn't matter.
I fired.
Instant Movement.
My ankle screamed when I reappeared on a slanted rock.
I ignored it.
Instant Movement.
My body slammed into hers.
I formed a barrier between us and expanded it violently.
Valeriam was thrown backward.
For the first time, her expression changed.
It wasn't fear.
But she wasn't amused anymore.
I kept attacking.
Spell after spell.
My mana was dropping too quickly.
My breathing grew heavier.
My shoulder burned.
One knee was starting to fail every time I reappeared.
It didn't matter.
Morgause.
Another explosion.
Morgause.
One jump.
Another.
Another.
Valeriam raised both hands.
It was the first time she'd needed to.
My next spell crashed into a dark barrier.
Its surface warped.
Cracked.
But held.
Valeriam watched me from the other side.
She wasn't smiling anymore.
I attacked again.
Blazer was still on the ground, trying to push himself up whenever he managed to gather enough strength. Once, our eyes met for barely a second.
I didn't recognize the expression on his face.
It wasn't encouragement.
It was concern.
Maybe fear.
Not of Valeriam.
Of me.
I understood why.
I knew how I normally fought too.
There was usually a joke.
A taunt.
Some stupid comment about marrying the Demon Queen.
This time there was nothing.
I wasn't even trying to protect myself.
I blocked attacks I should have dodged because holding my position gave me a better angle for the next spell. I let my own flames burn across my skin if it meant Valeriam remained trapped inside the blast. I chained Instant Movement so quickly that my legs barely had time to find balance before the next jump.
Every part of my body was telling me to stop.
I listened to none of it.
Valeriam blocked another spell.
This time, the explosion forced her to slide several yards backward.
Her heel carved a line through the stone.
I appeared behind her.
Valeriam turned just in time.
My staff slammed against her arm.
A blast erupted between us.
I was thrown away.
I crashed into the wall.
Fell.
Got back up.
Valeriam watched me.
I disappeared again.
This time, she was ready.
Her hand cut through the exact space where I reappeared.
The strike hit my side.
Something cracked.
The air vanished from my lungs.
My body flew backward.
I bounced once.
Twice.
The ground ripped my staff from my hands.
I tried to breathe.
It hurt.
I tried moving my right leg.
It responded.
The left took longer.
Valeriam was coming toward me.
I forced myself onto my knees.
The world tilted.
I stood anyway.
Instant Movement.
Nothing.
My magic responded.
My body didn't.
I tried again.
Valeriam appeared in front of me before I could finish the spell.
Her knee drove into my stomach.
Everything vanished for a second.
When I came back, I was lying on my back.
I didn't know when I'd fallen.
My staff was too far away.
I tried to sit up.
My right arm gave out.
I tried the left.
Same result.
Blazer managed to drag one knee forward.
He couldn't stand.
Valeriam looked first at Blazer, then at me. Her gaze traveled over the ruined gorge, the sword marks carved into the rock, the craters left by my spells, and finally our bodies, both too damaged to stand.
She didn't look satisfied.
She looked disappointed.
"So these are the warriors of this age. A Sword Hero with enough strength to drive back entire armies, and yet he wastes his life protecting others. A mage with more mana than many of the greatest spellcasters of my time could have dreamed of, yet so ruled by emotion that she's willing to tear her own body apart for a single woman."
Valeriam began walking slowly toward us.
"They call you heroes. They celebrate you. They build stories around you and give you titles as though words alone could make you extraordinary. I slept for thousands of years. While I was gone, empires vanished, new nations rose over their ruins, and entire generations were born believing everything that came before them was nothing more than legend."
She stopped for a moment and surveyed the destruction around us.
"I thought time would create warriors capable of surpassing those I knew. I thought I would find magic I could no longer recognize, swords capable of reminding me what it felt like to face danger, and rulers who had carried this world farther than we ever could."
Her eyes slowly returned to us.
"But when I finally open my eyes... I find creatures who call it progress to have forgotten what the world was once capable of. You did not inherit our greatness. You inherited the ruins we left behind and learned to be proud while standing among them. Your heroes are weaker. Your kings rule smaller kingdoms. Your mages celebrate as miracles things that were once commonplace."
A calm smile appeared on her face as she raised one hand.
"And the worst part is that none of you even understand how much you've lost. But don't worry. If this world has truly forgotten what existed before, then I will teach it to remember."
The pressure around Valeriam began to rise.
"Because an age that has forgotten its gods needs only one thing before it can believe in them again."
Her smile widened.
"To learn to fear them again."
Valeriam slowly raised her hand.
At first, I thought it would be another attack.
Then I felt the mana change.
Everything she'd used against us until then had been immediate. Strikes. Bursts. Pressure. Enough force to destroy, but released with almost no preparation.
This was different.
She was gathering it.
A point of dark energy appeared above her palm.
Small at first.
Then it began to grow.
The air distorted around her hand.
Nearby stones lifted from the ground and began crumbling before they even reached the sphere. Cracks spread beneath Valeriam's feet and crawled slowly throughout the gorge.
A chill ran through me.
I didn't need Caelum there to explain it.
That wasn't meant to knock us down.
It wasn't meant to stop us.
It was meant to kill us.
Blazer understood too.
He tried to reach his sword.
His fingers brushed the hilt, but his arm gave out before he could close his hand around it. He tried again and managed to move the weapon only a few inches.
"Nellie..."
I didn't need to hear the rest.
The respawn points were still inactive.
Caelum had made that clear.
If that attack hit us, there was no guarantee we'd wake up in Valcrest again.
No reconstruction.
No second chance.
No tomorrow where Blazer could complain about losing or where I could show up in front of Morgause with another ridiculous attempt to win her over.
It could end there.
Valeriam slowly lowered her gaze toward us.
The sphere continued growing.
Then I realized something worse.
She wasn't aiming only at Blazer.
The energy spread outward until it formed a huge circle in front of her hand, wide enough to cover the entire area where both of us lay.
She meant to kill us together.
I tried to stand.
My left leg didn't respond.
I planted one hand against the ground and forced the right to support me.
I stood anyway.
Or as close to standing as my body would allow.
One step.
Then another.
Until I was in front of Blazer.
"Nellie..."
I didn't look back.
I couldn't raise a complete barrier.
Instant Movement no longer answered.
My staff was too far away.
The only thing I could still do was stand there.
Valeriam watched me with an expression that, for one brief moment, looked genuinely confused.
"Still?"
My arms trembled.
I could barely remain upright.
But I didn't move.
The energy above her palm reached its peak.
The ground beneath us began sinking under the pressure.
Valeriam slowly closed her fingers.
The dark circle compressed.
The sound of the gorge seemed to disappear.
I couldn't hear stones falling from the cliffs anymore.
Or Blazer's ragged breathing behind me.
Not even the heartbeat that had been pounding against my chest only seconds before.
All I could see was that hand.
One movement.
That was all it would take.
One movement, and it would be over.
My legs could barely hold me, but I didn't step away. I couldn't protect Blazer. I couldn't raise a barrier strong enough to stop that attack. I didn't even know if my body could survive the impact long enough to give him a chance.
I stayed in front anyway.
Maybe it was stupid.
It probably was.
Morgause would have yelled at me for doing something like this.
The thought came so suddenly that something tightened inside my chest.
Her face.
Her voice.
The way she frowned whenever I managed to embarrass her.
All those times I'd promised I would marry her as though the future were guaranteed.
I didn't want it to end like this.
Not after we'd come this far.
Valeriam began to move her hand.
Then I felt heat.
Not in front of me.
Behind me.
It came so suddenly that for a fraction of a second, I thought my own mana had gone out of control.
But no.
I knew that heat.
My body recognized it before my mind did.
I'd felt it surrounding me too many times. I'd watched barriers melt before it. I'd woken up after being burned to death by those same flames more times than I was willing to admit.
And yet I'd never felt anything so beautiful.
Valeriam noticed it too.
Her expression changed.
Barely.
A movement of her eyes.
The first sign of genuine surprise she'd shown since landing in front of us.
The sky above the gorge turned red.
Not from reflected light.
As though someone had set the entire horizon on fire.
The clouds split beneath a surge of mana, and the air began to vibrate. Crimson light washed across the stone walls, casting our shadows over the ruined ground as the temperature rose violently enough to crack the nearby rocks.
Valeriam turned.
Too late.
The fire came.
It wasn't a simple blast of flame.
It was a colossal column of magic tearing through the gorge as though it intended to erase the entire place from the map.
Red light swallowed my vision.
The attack roared over us, rattling my bones, and struck Valeriam head-on before she could release the magic gathered in her hand.
The dark sphere vanished.
So did Valeriam.
For one moment, there was nothing but fire.
The explosion tore enormous chunks from the cliff walls and hurled them into the sky. A wave of heat swept through the gorge, followed by a thunderous impact so powerful I could feel it even through my ruined body.
The place where Valeriam had been disappeared beneath a mass of crimson flames.
Then something shot out of them.
Her body.
Valeriam tore through a rock formation, reduced it to rubble, and kept flying until she crashed much farther away, throwing a massive cloud of dust across the mountainside.
Then came silence.
A completely different kind of silence.
Not the stillness of something waiting to die.
The pause left behind after something far too powerful had just entered the battlefield.
I kept staring toward the place where Valeriam had disappeared.
But I couldn't think about her anymore.
The heat still surrounded me.
Familiar.
Impossible.
My hands began to tremble.
No.
It couldn't be.
Not after what Valeriam had said.
Not after the chains.
Not after I'd spent all that time trying not to imagine the worst.
Behind me, something metallic struck softly against stone.
Clink.
I held my breath.
A step.
Slow.
Heavy.
Then another metallic sound.
I turned.
A figure was moving through the smoke.
At first, all I could see was her silhouette against the red glow still filling the gorge.
A woman.
She was walking with difficulty.
One arm remained pressed against her side, and every few steps her body tilted slightly, as though simply staying upright demanded more effort than she wanted anyone to see.
Then the smoke parted.
I saw the blood.
It ran down one arm from her shoulder to her fingertips. Part of her clothing was torn and burned. Dark marks encircled one wrist.
And hanging from it...
a broken chain.
My heart struck once.
So hard it hurt.
The woman kept walking.
The wind created by the flames lifted her hair.
Red.
I forgot how to breathe.
For one moment, the ruined gorge ceased to exist.
Blazer behind me ceased to exist.
Valeriam ceased to exist.
There was only her.
Morgause stopped in front of us.
Wounded.
Covered in blood.
So exhausted that I could see her shoulders rise and fall with every breath.
But she was there.
And somehow, the way she stood made every injury seem secondary.
Her back was straight.
One hand still burned with traces of crimson magic.
The broken chain hung from her wrist.
And she had placed herself exactly between us and Valeriam.
As though anyone who wanted to reach us would have to go through her first.
I stared at her from behind.
I'd imagined finding her.
I'd tried to convince myself Valeriam was lying.
I'd repeated over and over that I hadn't seen a body.
None of it had prepared me for this.
For actually seeing her.
For recognizing her back.
Her hair.
Her magic.
For realizing that she was still breathing.
Something that had been crushing my chest since that vision finally loosened.
Morgause.
My Demon Queen.
She was wounded.
She was weak.
She could probably barely remain standing.
But she was alive.
And she had come for us.