Page 133 of Ecliptic

Terror and Light surged through me as Mithrion hummed in my hand. I spun in a tight circle and sank my blade into the beast’s heart. It disintegrated into a fine, black mist beneath my fingertips.

Rowen spun to me with a shocked yet impressed expression. “Thanks. Now, don’t move,” he said as he pulled his ax out of the skull of the first demon and launched it over my shoulder.

I whirled around just in time to see a Voro-Kai right behind me, stopped dead in its tracks with an ax lodged in its chest.

I pulled the star blade from its ribcage, ignoring the nauseating squelch. I didn’t even have a moment to breathe before we were caught in another swarm of astral demons.

The plan had gone up in flames. It was pure and utter chaos.

I had never been in battle; could scarcely imagine the terror it would bring. But now, I didn’t have to envision it. I was living it. And the reality was far worse than any nightmare.

As I gouged a demon in the eye, I prayed Dyani was still alive. I had completely lost sight of her after she disappeared within the wave of demons.

My eyes caught on Nepta. When the Elven-head walked, her movements were careful and unhurried, but as she fought, her motions were swift, lethal, and precise. She wielded her moon staff in one hand, opening the ground to catch and close around the heels of the Voro-Kai. With their hooves trapped within the earth, she plunged her Ever-burn blade into their black hearts.

Bodies battled and fell around me as screams reverberated in my ears. Suddenly, a demon with a contorted face lunged at me, its claws aiming to slice me in half.

Instinct took over, forged from hours on the training grounds. I lifted Mithrion and blocked the blow, feeling the reverberating impact all the way to my teeth. I gritted as I held the enemy inches from my face. The sound of sharp talons on metal made my skin crawl.

The Voro-Kai’s other arm reached up to swipe me, but I quickly ducked, swirling my blade around until it connected with the Voro-Kai’s legs, cutting it at the knees. The demon crumpled to the ground with a screeching hiss.

I glanced up as Alvar caught my vision. His brutal force was mesmerizing as he felled demon after demon. Where Rowen was fluid and versatile, and Dyani was swift and agile, Alvar was punishing, blunt, and aggressive. His scarred face and white hair were already coated in black blood.

“Drive a wedge to the tree!” Rowen yelled as he fought one of the biggest Voro-Kai I’d ever seen. It towered over my soul flame in bulging mounds of muscle and hair. “Keira, run!”

Four nearby soldiers obeyed Rowen’s command, joining my flank. Their blades swiped and pierced through thick demon hide as they helped me clear a path to Indrasyl. Dread clawed at me to be separated from my soul flame, but the mission was clear: get to Indrasyl.

I sprinted toward the Sylvan Mother Tree, slicing and blasting my way through a tunnel of demons. My mind became a blank slate as I drove my blade while unleashing blasts of Light from my palm—as I became deadly.

Disintegrating forms erupted around me like smoke bombs and clouded my vision. Thankfully, Mithrion’s bright aura led the way.

I tumbled out of the plume, tired, aching, and braced for the next wave of demons. But as I raised my gaze, I realized my path was clear. Indrasyl’s hollow trunk was begging to embrace me.

I dashed toward her when suddenly, an entity of darkness spilled from a tear in space and blocked my path.

“Erovos,” I hissed, staggering to a halt. “Finally decided to show up?”

His cloak billowed around his pale hands and bare feet. His eyes locked on me, forever churning like the pits of hell. “I was going to quietly abandon this world and leave you to die. However, your meager forces are an irritant I can’t ignore. It’s pathetic what you have shown up with, and honestly, it’s quite insulting. Now I shall destroy you like the pests you are.”

His jaw unhinged, and his mouth opened unnaturally wide as he concentrated on the soldiers behind me. And just like that day fifteen years ago, when I’d witnessed him murder a man he thought was the Synodic Son, I watched Erovos drain the life out of the soldiers around me. Their bodies froze mid-fight, and they tore at their skin as it shrink-wrapped to their bones.

My face twisted in horror as their bodies withered and wasted away. Everything that made them beautiful, strong, and brave was siphoned away in an instant. The light left their eyes long before they crumbled to the ground.

Each of their energies was a vibrant and unique hue, but as soon as their auras came in contact with Erovos’ skin, they turned into murky darkness.

Their stolen energy crackled around the world eater as his veins turned black, and without hesitation, he ricocheted the power back, hurling it at a group of charging warriors. Their comrades’ life force was used against them as they hurtled through the air. One slammed into the trunk of a tree. His body went limp, and he never stood back up.

“You sick fuck!” I shrieked as I charged at the embodiment of a black hole. He side-stepped me easily and swept me up into his black cloak, spinning me around until I faced the battlefield.

He grabbed my chin in his bony grasp and wrenched my face forward. “Watch,” he commanded.

I couldn’t move. My arms were pinned by my sides as my eyes helplessly darted across the battleground, witnessing horror after horror.

Alvar cried out as a demon slashed his leg, and he fell to one knee. He struck out his sword, blocking the demons that charged him. He was barely hanging on.

Dyani was nowhere in sight, and Nepta was fighting to stay on her feet.

The scent of sweat, iron, and blood filled my nostrils as the battle unfolded into the unthinkable.

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