We stood in front of the platform that would take us the final leg of our journey, down to the seal and to Shadawn. “Do we have a plan?” Peyton asked, running her hand along the edge of the panel. She turned to face us when she finished speaking.

“Free the asshole, hit him with everything we’ve got, and then when you give the signal, I’ll kill him,” I said. Asterollan and Lexie both nodded in agreement as I spoke, though I noticed that Lyre frowned.

Peyton sighed. “So that means you and I have to hold back enough to make sure we stay alive until the end of the battle. No running directly into the fray for me and you, and try to keep our attacks at a distance and reserve our energy as much as possible.” I frowned, thinking of every time she had run directly into the most dangerous situations, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re right,” she said after a moment.

I started singing Baby Shark in my head. “So you and I focus on things we can do from a distance. And Lexie, Asterollan, Lyre, Raella, and Zolambi keep his attention off us by attacking – hard.” I glanced over at Peter thoughtfully. “Should I bring Peter?”

“No, you can’t bring Peter. What if he dies!?” Lexie said immediately.

“There was a little bag of gunpowder in Cassandra’s things. I was thinking maybe he could hang on to that and lob it at Shadawn if he gets a chance.” Lyre had offered up Cassandra’s bag of supplies for anything useful, and I had found the small bag of black powder while sifting through it.

Lexie turned to me, her eyes wide with alarm. “You are not going to kamikaze your spider!” she said, her voice shrill.

“That wasn’t what I meant. I was thinking he could just drop it on the guy and one of us could light it with fire…”

“Is… can Peter even understand a plan that complicated?” Peyton asked. We all turned to look at the giant jumping spider. It clicked its jaws, happily waving a leg into the air.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. Peter chirped happily. “Well, let’s see.” I scanned the ground and picked up a nearby rock. I held it out to Peter and leaned in close, watching the reflection of my face glitter in its eyes. It occurred to me that being this close to it was something I would never have been able to manage before. “Here, take this.” The spider obediently moved forward, taking the rock from my hand. I knelt closer to it, whispering, “Go to the ceiling and lob this at Lexie when I say ‘good boy.’” Peter obediently chirped and moved out of sight.

“Regardless, is a little black powder going to make a difference?” Peyton crossed her arms, tapping her fingers gently against her elbow as she watched Peter disappear out of view overhead.

“Maybe not a little, but if there was some way to make a lot…” Asterollan said. “I’ve seen a lot of it blow a ship to smithereens.” Lyre’s frown deepened into a scowl momentarily as Asterollan spoke, before he caught me watching and then his expression evened out.

Peyton turned to look at Raella thoughtfully. “We can summon water… and make plants grow from nothing. Could we create more black powder with magic?”

Raella looked surprised at the question. “I’m not really sure. I suppose… hand me the bag of powder.”

Lyre stepped forward to provide the bag to Raella. “Good boy,” I commented loudly. He tilted his head in confusion at my statement just as I heard a soft thump and watched Lexie’s hand fly up to rub at the back of her head. “Oh! He understands! Good boy!”

“What the…” Lexie grimaced, frowning at me.

Raella ignored us, opening the bag to sift her fingers through the course powder. She studied it for a time, the light of magic surrounding her as she focused on it, and then shook her head. “It’s not an impossible idea, but not something we’re going to accomplish in such a short time frame.” She handed the bag back to Lyre. “We can’t spend forever camped here, after all.”

We all stared at the platform hesitantly. Peter jumped down from wherever he had been hiding and crawled along the edge of the platform, tapping the sides as he went. “The Underlings will find a way here eventually,” Zolambi said finally. “We need to go.”

No one immediately moved, but then Peyton sighed and boosted herself up onto the platform. She turned around to look at us, and said, “If we sit and plan too long, we’ll lose our nerve. We’re running out of time and our chances won’t get any better. We go now. It’s now or never.” I nodded, and moved to join her on the platform – she reached down and offered her hand. I paused a moment and took it, allowing her to help me up.

“Now or never,” I agreed. Then I started wondering if that sounded stupid, and added, “Now. Definitely now,” guaranteeing that I sounded stupid. The others joined us on the platform.

Raella, who Jon Umberling had shown the controls to, moved towards them and began to work on using them.

The dwarven soldiers, Captain Kaphryn, Jon Umberling, and Chase all stared up at us from below. “I should be going,” Chase said, watching as the platform lit up along the bottom and edges. She looked like she was debating jumping on to join us, but Zolambi only smiled and shook his head at her wordlessly. She sighed, staring at each of us as though it might be the last time she saw us. I wondered for a moment if it was.

“Good luck,” Jon Umberling said, looking somber. “Our very world depends on you.”

Lexie was standing very near the edge of the platform. She placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at the small gathering before us. “It’s all good,” she said confidently. “We’ll have this world saved in no time!” Peter chittered like he agreed with her, his front legs waving in the air.

The platform started to inch forward. And I made a split-second decision. “I’m sorry,” I said.

Lexie was just turning her head to look at me with a slight frown on her face, wondering why I had apologized, when I shoved her off the platform. Twisting vines were already reaching up from the ground below to catch her, softening her fall and grasping her limbs, holding her in place. The platform gained speed, pulling away quickly, and I could just barely see the look of shock making the whites of her eyes stand out before we were away. “Lucas! What the fuuuuck!”

The platform swooped into the next tunnel and I stared back at the spot of light at the end of it as it grew small in the distance. Turning to face my remaining companions, I could see Peyton regarding me with a warm smile on her face. Asterollan frowned, his arms crossed. “You plan to die today, one way or the other, I see. You know she’s going to kill you for that, right?” Peyton said, though her tone lacked any venom.

I sighed. “But at least she’ll be alive to do it.”

“She would have been useful to have in the fight ahead of us,” Asterollan said, less pleased. “She’s stronger than you give her credit for.”

“And what will we do if we need to reform the seal?” Raella asked. Her face was carefully composed and emotionless, but her tone betrayed the seething anger underneath.

“We’ll deal with it when we deal with it,” I said. I didn’t look at either of them as I spoke though – I found myself staring directly at Peyton. My thoughts were only on one thing: winning this fight.

---

The trip was shorter than I had thought it would be.

The platform exited the tunnel from high up on the wall of a massive cavern. I gasped, ducking down to place my hands on the platform as it tilted, but despite the angle we weren’t sliding off. Far below and approaching fast was what I assumed was the seal.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at it. I think I had expected something massive in scope, especially given that it supposedly contained all the gods and not just Shadawn. But it hovered very near the floor, a pulsing ball of light. The platform floated to a stop as it reached the ground, the ball still several yards away. We each dropped down and approached.

The surface of it was volatile, more like looking at something molten or made of plasma. It seemed to thrum and pulse with energy in front of us, and I could see tiny hairline fractures of darkness along its surface. I handed Peter the gunpowder and told him to hide in the ceiling and throw the bag at the bad guy when I called for him. He scurried away, disappearing into the dark, and I felt a little better that he would be out of sight for the battle.

I wasn’t sure how any of this was going to go. “How are we going to break the seal?” I asked.

Peyton approached the ball first. She turned to look at the rest of us. “He’s been asking me to free him since the beginning… he showed me how.” She took a deep breath, and I realized she was calming herself, steeling her nerves for what was going to happen. Her nervousness made me nervous, and I swallowed hard. “Remember, Lucas. We need to move away quick, let the other handle this.” I nodded and set my jaw.

Her eyes lingered on mine for a moment, and I nodded again for her. She reached out and placed her hands on the surface of the ball, and muttered, “All right, you bastard. Let’s start this.”

I wasn’t sure if anything was happening at first. The ball seemed to shrink for a moment, and grow dim. Then there was a loud noise – like a tear in fabric, or an explosion, or a scream, or all of it at once, and it seemed to come from everywhere without and within. I flinched, and I could hear some of the other shout out in shock at the sudden noise. The ball seemed to suddenly expand to encompass us all and then shattered with a noise like breaking glass.

Peyton, Asterollan, and I all immediately lit up. I wasn’t even aware I was reaching for magic – in retrospect, it would have been smart to have been ready, but I had made no conscious decision. It was simply like the wall between myself and magic vanished, and I wondered if that was what it meant to truly hold all the power of my god. I gasped as I felt the power surge through me. The sudden rush of it was euphoric, the auras around the three of us bright and instantly overwhelming the entire cavern. Asterollan shone so bright it was hard to look directly at him, so I focused on Peyton – her floating eye was focused off to the side.

Following its gaze, I could see darkness coalescing.

Shadawn was taking shape.

It was like the shadows creeped into each other, whispering as they gathered, and a humanoid shape took form within. When he appeared, he looked like any other elven man. In fact, it was almost disappointing how normal he appeared. Despite that appearance, there was a sense of apprehension in the air, something that made me internally shiver like I was hearing nails scratch across a chalkboard. I realized the revulsion was almost like concentrated fear, and remembered what domain he had chosen.

He was tall – about my height – and thin, with pale skin and long, angular features. His eyes glowed faintly. He smiled at Peyton, a smile that conveyed no actual warmth. “I see you’ve put the knowledge I gave you to use. Even if you intend to use it against me.” And then, without any visible sign of wielding magic, no gesture, no shout – a rush of tendriling darkness moved to grab Peyton.

She looked as surprised as I felt. The only thing I could think to do was to summon vines to grip her and pull her back – we needed to stay further from the fight, and she was too close. She gasped as my vines pulled her forcibly back, though it was hardly necessary – a barrier had erected in front of her, and the darkness crawled along the edges of it like it had its own living will.

As I ran over to where I had pulled Peyton, I could see that Raella was focused on maintaining the barrier. Shadawn narrowed his eyes at her, annoyed at her interference, his expression speaking of his absolute disdain for a mere mortal. And then everything exploded into chaos.

It was crazy to watch – Asterollan had moved forward, his blazing sword of light swinging with precision, but Shadawn moved unnaturally, almost like he didn’t exist as a physical object in space. He shifted easily out of the way of Asterollan’s magical weapon, and easily brushed off the spells that Zolambi was hurling at him. Raella seemed to focus on defense, quickly pushing Shadawn’s offensive spells away or creating barriers to deflect them.

As I reached Peyton, she shot me an annoyed look. “Really? Vines?”

“You’re welcome,” I said. I turned to watch the battle. “Are we even hurting him at all?”

She was watching as well, the floating third eye focused on the battle. She nodded after a moment. “They’re doing damage. He’s just… very strong. Final boss energy.”

I watched him continue to move quickly and easily away from Asterollan’s sword, and focused on summoning vines just beneath him, springing up to grip his legs and thighs. Despite the unnatural shifting, the vines held him tight – it surprised me, because I hadn’t expected them to, and I wondered if there was something about the divine nature in the vines that helped against him. Asterollan’s next strike cut him deep across the abdomen – it looked fatal, but the wound reformed quickly and he growled angrily, hitting Asterollan hard and sending him skidding back several feet.

He turned to glare at me, but as he did, a massive wall of flame rose up in front of Lyre, blocking him from view. “It’s working,” Peyton said. “We’re doing damage. But this is going to take awhile.”

“Oh, that’s nice and fucky,” I commented, trying to sound as cheerful as I could as the fire faded and Shadawn came back into view. If he had been hurt like Peyton claimed, there was no physical sign of it yet. Mostly he just looked annoyed, but thankfully that anger seemed to have shifted away from me and towards Lyre, who he regarded carefully after the fire spell.

He pointed at Lyre and a lance of shadow struck out, lightning fast and jagged. It seemed to hit something in the air and dissolved in sparks, though it didn’t look like Raella had managed to summon a barrier in time.  Lyre looked just as surprised as Shadawn did, who let loose a low hiss of anger as his attack dissolved, his eyes narrowing. He inhaled deeply, and focused, the air wavering around him, and then waves of dark energy exploded from around him, knocking all of us back and off our feet – but more than that, when the wave hit, there was a sudden explosion of pain from inside of my skull. It was like hearing a thousand voices screaming in terror at once – it hurt so bad it left my vision flashing and left me dazed. I hadn’t even realized I’d been knocked off my feet until that pain subsided.

As I lay on the ground for a moment, gasping, I realized this was just the beginning of the fight.