PART FOUR
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
KATELL
Katell’s steel blade clashed against Laran’s massive sword, the impact ringing out like a bell across the endless battlefield. Sparks flew where metal met metal, but the god of war only tilted his head. If anything, he looked bored.
Time had lost all meaning in his realm—hours, days, perhaps even months—and Katell wouldn’t have known. The sky never changed, locked in a crimson twilight with no sun, no moon, only a shifting haze that swallowed the horizon. Hunger and thirst didn’t exist here—only the ceaseless, punishing rhythm of training, her body hardening into something it had never been before.
A sharp parry knocked her off balance, her boots skidding across the ground. She gritted her teeth, adjusting her grip on her Rasennan shield, and charged forward again—yet her focus slipped, snagged on the visions she’d glimpsed of the mortal realm.
How many opponents had the Emperor sent her to fight? How much blood had already been spilled?
Laran’s blade crashed against hers, sending a jolt up her arms. She shifted her stance, absorbing the impact before striking for his side—too slow. He sidestepped, knocking her attack away like an afterthought.
Sweat dripped down her brow, her breath coming in sharp gasps, but she refused to falter. Laran claimed the faster she embraced her immortal side, the sooner she could leave—but what good would endless drills of blade and shield do against the Emperor? He’d given her no real answers, only the command to fight until her body obeyed.
Now they had turned to magic. Her magic, at least—Laran had made it clear that if he unleashed his own, she’d vanish in a burst of flames, reduced to nothing but a scorched memory.
Here, the very air pulsed with power. It sank into her lungs with every breath, coiled in her blood, thrummed against her bones. The longer she remained, the more fiercely that inner fire burned. She suspected this was his true aim: to grind her body down until it yielded to the realm’s magic and let it flood her veins.
But Katell resisted. Ravenous hunger lurked in that deepening well inside her, ready to turn her into a monster if she let it.
Across from her, the god of war rolled his shoulders as if this were all a mild inconvenience. He wasn’t even wearing armour—just a black tunic stitched with gold, loose at the chest to reveal olive skin and muscle honed by centuries of battle.
He blocked her shield with infuriating ease. “Why aren’t you using my magic?”
“I am.” Katell’s teeth clenched, every muscle burning with effort. She’d poured as much strength into the strike as she dared, yet he hadn’t budged.
“I meanthe flame.” He released her shield and stepped back, eyeing her like she was the most disappointing thing he’d ever seen. “You could do all this while wielding fire.”
Katell blinked, taken aback. “Laran’s Flame? I can’t use it without Dorias?—”
Laran looked unimpressed. “Spoken like a true loser.”
Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword. “I can’t just create fire?—”
“Of course you can!” He flung his hands wide, his lip curling. “You’re my daughter.Laran’sdaughter. And it’s calledLaran’sFlame. Must I spell everything out for you?”
She lowered her shield. “How?”
“Call your magic. Let it fill you.” He lifted his hand, dark red magic coiling tight in his fist. “Then mould it into a flame.” Light condensed around his knuckles into a bright, crackling flame that danced in his palm.
“I can mould it into anything?” she asked.
His mouth curved in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Within reason. You’re only a demigoddess, after all.”
“So this is how Gifts are made?” she asked, flexing her fingers, trying to summon his magic as he had.
He nodded. “Exactly. The stronger the deity, the stronger the Gifts.”
He snuffed out the flame and hoisted his giant blade on his shoulder. “Let’s try again. This time, against the souls.”
Katell glanced at the translucent ghosts drifting nearby, shadows of fallen warriors that haunting the plain. “They can fight?”
“If I wish it.” Laran’s grin sharpened into something cruel.
Katell barely had time to raise her shield. “Wait?—”
