Glyphs shot out from her midsection. One rose to the crown of her head and the other sank to her feet. A thick coating stretched over her skin, turning it to stone. A protective barrier, identical to the one Deneya had used that fateful night in the Caverns, now covered her.
Raspian was dedicated to his attack. His teeth and claws struck her barrier, bouncing off harmlessly. Vi spun, no longer turning away from the face of darkness itself. His gigantic arms were outstretched, ready to crush her.
Grasping both sides of his face, her brow furrowed, Vi snarled aloud, “Suladin dupot chronot hoolo.”
Suladin—seal him and lock him away once more for a millennium.
Dupot—enhance this power and make it stronger than ever before.
Chronot—slow its natural weakening over time.
Hoolo—stabilize and elongate.
Half of the words were hers and half were Taavin’s. They had come from the goddess, but she and Taavin had made them their own. She heard him within her, across time and space, his voice echoing inside her.
The glyphs that surrounded them condensed into crystal. It started at Raspian’s feet and began to creep up his body. He roared, swinging for her. Vi released his face, leaving crystal handprints embedded in his flesh, and stepped out of reach.
Her mouth began to move. The language of the gods spilled from her tongue almost like a song. The words were light and airy; they boomed power and whispered twisting glyphs into existence. Despite Raspian’s struggles, the crystals continued to grow up his body, caging him.
With a final roar, Raspian promised he would one day return—as he always did.
Then, silence.
Stillness.
The crystals grew toward the moon. They would patch the cracks and smooth over the edges of chaos that nearly escaped into the world she loved.
Yargen’s chant hastened, faster and faster. Vi felt power siphoning from her body like someone was pulling an invisible rope from her navel. Light flickered around her, growing ever stronger, fading, then brightening once more as the goddess’s essence was drawn out to power the crystals.
This was how the Crystal Caverns had been formed, Vi realized. History was repeating itself. Yargen would split herself again. A new cavern would be made to entomb Raspian, hidden on a new land. And when that tomb was inevitably breached, Yargen would be too weak to fight him.
“Yargen,” Vi whispered aloud. Her voice was her own—quivering, tired, scared, and human. “Do not split yourself again. The world needs you whole. Stop this vortex.”
Silence within her was the goddess’s response. Vi hoped she wasn’t too late. She swallowed hard.
“Take me. Take my life. Seal him with all of my magic. Buy time for this world with the time left in me.”
Are you certain?
Vi closed her eyes, a tired smile crossing her lips. One final time, the memories of all those she loved flooded her. She thought of the faces of every person she adored—those lost in her world who had lived on in her memories. After this, they would be gone for good.
And she would be gone, too.
“Do it,” Vi said with conviction. “This is my destiny. This is what you brought me all this way for. The world still needs you.”
Another few seconds of stillness before light exploded out from her. Vi watched as the raw essence of Yargen peeled away from her body. She couldn’t stare directly at the goddess; Yargen was too blinding and too incomprehensible in this form. Vi squeezed her eyes shut.
Flames seared her from the inside out as her spark was set free one final time. Every layer of skin boiled off of her bones. Her tongue crisped and her hair singed. She unraveled in the reverse of how Yargen had made her. Cycle after cycle of becoming condensed into this singular moment of release, lifetimes in the making.
And Vi gave herself over to the brilliant void of nothingness.
Chapter Forty
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