In fact, the entirety of the Valley remained preserved in death, both as a reminder and as a punishment. Even the scent of decay, smoke, and fire lingered in the stagnant air, wind unable to penetrate the barrier I’d erected at the request of the Last Matriarch. Little did she know, I needed this area guarded just as desperately as she needed it preserved like a morbid monument to her dead kin.
For buried deep within the catacombs of my progeny, hidden by runes and blood, was the artifact that tied my half sister to this mortal realm.
To now have two artifacts in the same place? It was almost as if Fate’s sister, Luck, intervened on my behalf.
Nearly giddy with the thought, I began to search faster, desperately pulling at collapsed timber and crumbling stone, searching for an entry point to the hidden vaults below.
I savagely ripped at the scorched house, desperation and feral excitement bleeding into every movement. With a large burst of air, I moved an outer wall, exposing a narrow stone stairway that dove immediately beneath the ground.
I paused, letting my magic hang in the air a moment longer before absorbing the remnants as a blonde head appeared from the depths below.
Finally.
Chapter Seventy-Three
Ellowyn
“Hello, godling,” Solace purred, violence and malevolence flashing in her white eyes. I climbed on shaking legs out of the wreckage of the main house. Solace, in her desire to reveal my presence, only served to make the building more unstable. At any point, it would collapse and bury the catacombs below completely.
While I had no desire to confront Solace in this state, there was little option between facing certain death buried beneath tons of soil and stone or fighting for my life against the crazed goddess above.
My newly acquired Destruction Magic roiled within, pushing at its confines and threatening my balance. I stumbled, clutching my stomach while reaching out toward the ground with my other hand, hoping to steady myself.
Solace clicked her tongue with a shake of her head, faux sympathy on full display.
“Oh, poor little godling. This won’t even be fair,” she cooed, power crackling at her fingertips, a feral smile spreading across her gaunt features. “But I’ll try and make it painless, hmm? Just stay right there, and I’ll take it all away,” she whispered with an edge that had the hairs on my skin standing on end.
Move!My mind screamed, but my body was slow to react, too burdened by the influx of Kaos’ power and the ordeal in the catacombs. I meant to dodge to the right and avoid the attack completely, but all I succeeded in doing was falling flat on my face before rolling just enough to take the hit on my hip and outer thigh rather than my heart and head.
Pain exploded across my lower half as stars burst across my vision, and Ispewed bile on the ashen ground. I groaned, chancing a glance behind to see a foot-long ice spear sticking straight out of my hip. Blood pooled around it, running fast down my leg and into my pants as the ice melted when it came in contact with the warmth of my body.
“Fuck,” I whispered as I felt power crackle through the air once more.
“Did I say it wouldn’t hurt?” She laughed mirthlessly, drawing my attention to her savage expression once more. “I lied.”
The Goddess of Lies.
A second ice spear shot from her hands quicker than I could blink, piercing my left calf straight through to the ground.
The loudest scream rent from my chest, agony exploding once more as I desperately tried to pull myself along the ground away from certain death. I was the prey caught in the much larger predator’s trap with no hope of escape.
Torin, I thought weakly.I can’t leave Torin.
My nails bent and broke as I scrambled for purchase in the dried, dead earth.
“Where do you think you’re going, godling? I’m not done with you yet!” Solace barked, conjuring a third ice spear much longer than the previous two.
My heart thumped wildly in my chest, vision blurring with the force of blood moving through my body. Magic glowed in Solace’s hands, casting shadows that made her appear as sinister as she acted.
If that spear struck my spine, I was as good as dead.
I diverted my attention back to the ground beneath my hands and clawed at the Destruction Magic within my chest, willing it to respond. That particular power still refused to bend to my will, threatening to consume everything if I unleashed it or loosened my control for more than a moment.
That’s a last resort, I thought as I gripped a thread of deep-purple magic and desperately pulled.
Surprisingly, Pain coalesced in my palm, sluggishly snaking around my hands like a long-lost lover. I moved my fingers imperceptibly, malleating my magic into small, nearly undetectable spheres, and flung them with all my might at the goddess.
Solace’s magic dimmed with a wounded cry before she dropped it completely, lost in phantom pains. I lifted my head from the ground, chin scraped from the rocks beneath my body, to see Solace brought to her knees, long fingers scratching at her scalp in an effort to expel the agony I’d conjured.
