The Forsaken Hero

I moved quickly through the burning keep. My wards flared constantly around me, a golden bubble that kept the flames and heat at bay. Occasionally, a chunk of masonry or a red-hot glowing chandelier crashed to the ground, making me jump, but I no longer trembled. My wounds were finally healed, and the power of Celestial Grace coursed through me. For only the second time, I could run without tiring, my body stronger and lighter than ever.

Borealis followed behind me, flapping lazily to keep pace. Occasionally, he’d put on a burst of speed and streak ahead, smashing through a door or scattering a group of soldiers struggling to escape the spreading inferno, but always returning once he’d cleared the path.

We burst out of the keep into the night. I gasped, icy air flooding my lungs. My wards had shielded me from the smoke and fire, but the sudden change to the bitter winter air was a shock to my system. I doubled over, coughing, and quickly soothed my lungs with a soulcast healing spell.

The battle raged across the courtyard, demons locked with soldiers in a desperate fight for survival. The gates lay shattered beneath the walls, and many of the mana cannons had fallen silent.

”Fall back!” a sixth-level soldier screamed, driving his spear through the throat of a fire scion.

”There’s too many of them!” the soldier, a woman also of the sixth level, screamed.

She brought her sword down on a fifth-level evolved ice demon, a serpentine monster with sinewy limbs. Her technique was powerful enough that it should have shorn right through it, but the monster roared and emitted a brilliant green aura. Its three-digited hand snapped forward and caught the blade just above the hilt. A thin trickle of blood oozed down its arm, but the creature released a pulse of gold mana and strained. The blade shattered in twain, leaving the soldier to stumble back, clutching the hilt of her useless sword. The demon recovered faster and pounced forward, tearing out her throat with jagged, crystalline fangs.

Similar scenes played across the courtyard. Everywhere, demons of all levels overwhelmed soldiers who should have slaughtered them without a second thought. It was the same everywhere: bursts of overwhelming green and golden light, a strength that surpassed the normal limits imposed by a soul’s level.

”There she is. Grab her!”

I whirled toward the keep, eyes widening as two sixth-level inquisitors emerged from the inferno. They charged at me, closing the gap in the blink of an eye. I barely had time to raise my hands protectively before they arrived, swords slashing across my wards.

”Damn it, what did you do with the captain?” one shouted.

He raised his sword, but before he could bring it down, Borealis streaked by the side of his head. His talons flashed, and the inquisitor screamed, his sword clattering to the ground. Thick ice vines coiled around his arm, turning it black and rigid. Barely a heartbeat later, his entire arm shattered like a glass statue, and he fell to his knees, clutching futilely at the jagged bone protruding from his forearm.

The other inquisitor shouted and summoned a blaze of sun magic. Borealis dove headlong into the attack, breaking through the currents of mana to slash his talons across her throat. She fell back with a gurgle, thrashing on the ground. Disbelief painted across her face, and she weakly raised a hand, shooting a few sparks of sun magic at him. The hope in her eyes faded as they dissipated the moment they struck the starry aura surrounding his feathers, and her body fell limp.

”Thanks, I said, turning to present my arm to him.

Borealis wheeled around with a victorious screech and landed on my shoulder. I glanced at his talons and relaxed, finding the blood had already slipped from them like rain on a window.

We both stiffened as a burst of sunlight struck the walls, radiating from somewhere in the outer courtyards. The walls buckled as cracks spread through the wards. The tower closest to us directly crumbled, sending screaming soldiers into the hordes of demons rushing through the gates. At the same time, a surge of pain caused me to gasp and clutch my chest, breathing heavily.

”Fable!” I cried.

I took off toward the gate, using every ounce of strength Celestial Grace gave me. Borealis lunged from my shoulder, knocking me off balance. I turned and saw him streak into a towering seventh-level man, intercepting him before I’d even realized he was coming for me.

Turning, I ran from the fight, flinching as a shockwave of frigid air slammed into my wards from behind. Spells, arrows, and wind blades tore the city apart. Explosions detonated all around me, the ground heaving like the deck of a ship.

A powerful aura rose behind me, catching up so quickly that I wondered whether I was even moving. I turned, reaching for my mana, but barely had time to look at the inquisitor before a blade the size of a horse came down over my head, bisecting the man from his left shoulder to hip.

I looked up, tail quivering, as a thirty-foot tall blade demon trundled over my head, spindly limbs tearing into a cowering squad of soldiers. A dozen blade scions followed in his wake, pouncing on the injured and corpses it left behind. The inquisitor vanished in a spray of blood, his screams disappearing into a scaly gullet.

Another fire demon stumbled across me next. It was vaguely humanoid, save it had four heavily muscled arms with sharpened plates running down the forearms. Its glowing ember eyes fixed on me, freezing me mid-step. I raised my staff hesitantly, but it lowered its head submissively. Slowly, I approached it, grasping my staff tightly with both hands.

I squeaked as it vanished, and sent a burst of man into my wards, preparing for the worst. But the blow never came, and it materialized behind, arms outstretched protectively. An arrow sank into its shoulder, tearing through its back and emerging, the head pointed right at me.

My tail curled as I followed the trajectory, finding a group of high-level archers sniping demons. A woman with a sixth-level bow met my gaze and frowned, knocking another arrow. Her soul blazed, and she raised her bow, aiming at me again.

I raised my hand and blasted a Dispel Magic upward, throwing her mana into disarray. Her arrow exploded, and she cursed, reaching for another, only to freeze as the demon bellowed a warcry and charged toward the tower. It launched itself up the wall, tearing handholds from the enchanted stone. It reached the turret in an instant and threw itself into the midst of the soldiers, falling out of sight. A split second later, the entire tower erupted in flames.

Gritting my teeth, I took off again. The battle raged fiercely, surrounding me with blood, terror, and death. Soldiers charged in chaotic ranks, only to be batted aside by powerful evolved demons and torn apart by their scions. Explosions and shockwaves tore entire blocks apart, scattering gore and blood in all directions. It was a scene from the deepest depths of hell, one I’d seen play out many times in my visions but hadn’t yet witnessed in the flesh.

It was by the strength of the demons I finally broke out into the city beyond. Enemies were everywhere, and I had no one to converse with or rely on, yet I remained untouched. When an inquisitor, high-level soldier, or mage found me, they were immediately targeted by the nearest evolved demon and their forces. It was surreal, in a way. I couldn’t feel their individual thoughts or emotions in the Nexus, yet they responded perfectly to my own. I didn’t even need to ask, and they were there, protecting me through the horrors of the battle.

The city beyond the walls was devastated. Fyren’s demons had cut a path straight from the canyon to the central keep, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake. Fires raged in every sector, and the screams of the injured filled the air.

Far away, several miles across the city, Fable’s gargantuan silhouette broke the night sky. He dashed through the city, leveled entire city blocks with every step. A small, glowing dot, like a firefly, flitted around him. He swiped at it with his claws, but it skipped ahead, turning and unleashing a blast of seventh-level mana that left a wide furrow of scorched fur on his shoulder.

The wolf roared and leaped back several hundred yards, demolishing a noble’s mansion. Small flickers of magic rose from the rubble, pattering his pelt in explosions of fire and lightning, and he swept his tail across the mansion grounds, decimating the resistance.

The glowing dot, which could only be Lord Evlon, rose into the air, shedding light like a miniature sun. The demons around me trembled, shrinking back, and an uncomfortable itch crawled across my horns.

Eight magic circles materialized high in the air, each a quarter mile across. My heart stopped, and I started running, crying Fable’s name despite knowing my voice would never reach him. Thousands of giant runes stretched across the sky, gathering mana surpassing any eighth-circle spell I’d witnessed.

Fable raised his head and roared. Green magic swirled around his body, gold his soul, but his aura seemed insignificant compared to the might radiating from above. He lunged forward, crossing the quarter mile between him and Evlon in the blink of an eye, claws flashing. He dominated the sky, towering over the human like a literal mountain, but his claws stopped short a foot from the inquisitor’s outstretched hand. A gleaming silver ward flared beneath his claw, absurdly small in comparison, yet unwavering.

”The Coming Dawn!” Evlon shouted, thrusting his hand toward Fable.

The magic circles exploded in brilliant light, dazzling and sending me stumbling back. Motes of like descended from the glare like meteors, strafing the region around Fable. Every single one packed the punch of a seventh-circle Solar Flare, creating a consecutive field of death that vaporized everything in its path. Fable, caught in the midst of so many, vanished in the rising cloud of light.

”No!” I screamed, throat ragged. ”Fable!”