“Like I mentioned before, Veylo’s thinking was so limited. If the Leader has shown us anything, it’s that the Almighty is weak. Vulnerable. And we can destroy Him.”
“Destroy the Almighty?”
“I didn’t get Veylo to help me to win the praises of the Almighty. I got him to assist me so that I could take Him on myself. All these creatures… the Morarkes… they don’t bow to Veylo, they bow to me. As does this weapon I hold. I control the greatest weapons in all the realms, so who will challenge me in my violent war? The Almighty? The Leader?”
“You’re insane.”
“No, I’m a genius. Can’t you see how amazing this is? We don’t need to follow a god anymore, because we can be god. We can be as powerful. Even more powerful than Him. There are no limits for our kind.”
“How could you ever get immortals to align to such a cause?”
“Because they long for a peace they’ve seen the Almighty cannot grant them. They long for the paradise He promised so long ago. They’ve seen what I can do. We’ve brought back the Morarkes. We have the Christ. We’ve aligned ourselves with some of the most powerful of higherlings and fallens. Together, we will create a new Heaven.
“These corpses you see before you, these are the remnants of those who refused to help, or who we knew would never join us in such a quest. They are the powerhouses whose allies will bow to me once they realize mine is the only side to choose. Welcome, Kinzer, to the beginning of a violent, bloody war that will shake the very foundations of the realms and leave me the sole leader over all that is.”
As Kinzer gazed into Janka’s power-hungry eyes, he couldn’t believe how this could have remained hidden for the entire time they were together.
“Who are you?” he asked. “This isn’t the Janka I knew. This isn’t the Janka I fell in love with. Where did this monster come from?”
“I’m not a monster, but I can see why you think that. I’m a survivor. Just like all the immortals. We cannot survive the petty feud of the Almighty and the Leader. But we can survive the bloodshed we create in the name of ourselves.”
“With you as god?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Yes, because who better to lead the immortals than me? I am the one they believe in. I am the one they trust… just as you trusted me.”
“I wish I could warn them of their false allegiance. One can only hope you’ll be more loyal to them than you were to Veylo… or me… or Hayde.”
“My loyalty is irrelevant. Their loyalty is demanded.”
Janka stepped around Veylo and approached Kinzer. He raised his sword over his head.
“Goodbye, my narrow-minded ex.”
He drove his sword down at Kinzer.
CLANG!
Kinzer held Veylo’s sword before him, which he’d quickly retrieved as Janka was coming for him.
Janka looked at the sword, impressed.
“Did you think it’d be that easy?” Kinzer asked.
The Teleporter disappeared from behind Janka.
Kinzer figured he’d try to sneak up behind him, so in anticipation, he pulled his sword away from Janka’s and spun around, slicing horizontally through the air.
His forward thinking proved valuable. As the Teleporter reappeared, he sliced his sword before him, but Kinzer’s sword hit his leg first and severed it clean off.
The Teleporter wailed, and Kinzer grabbed onto his remaining leg just as he disappeared again.
Just like a Teleporter.
His vision blurred for a moment as it adjusted to his new location on the other side of the corpse room.
The Teleporter sliced in front of him, but tumbled to his side as he lost balance.
Kinzer leapt to his feet and swung his sword so it tore through the Teleporter’s neck. His head rolled back as his body fell against the corpse of a fallen woman in a red dress, whose black outstretched wings were covered in red streaks.
