We banked hard into a side street, skidding on marble tiles slick with the strange, oily condensation that was beginning to coat everything in the lower districts. The air here was thick, smelling of ozone and crushed stone, but under it all was that new, terrifying scent: sulfur and rot. The scent of the nothingness eating the world.
"It’s gaining on us!" Flynn yelled from the rear guard position. I glanced back. He was running backward, daggers in hand, a manic grin plastered on his face as if being chased by something the size of a building was the highlight of his week. "He’s got long legs, Kaelen! We need to break line of sight!"
"I am trying to find a street that isn't in imminent danger of dissolving!" I roared back.
I had Aria’s hand in mine. Her grip was iron-tight, her skin fever-hot against my palm. Through our bond, I felt her exhaustion like a lead weight in my own chest. She was running on fumes, fueled only by the residual high of the binding and sheer, stubborn will. Every time she stumbled, I hauled her up, pouring my own strength into her through the golden tether that connected our cores.
Keep moving, fireheart,I projected, wrapping my mind around hers.Do not stop.
I’m not stopping,she shot back, the mental voice breathless but sharp.But we’re running into a dead end.
She was right. The alleyway we were sprinting down was narrowing, flanked by towering silos that looked like grain storages for lightning bolts. And at the end, a massive wall of white stone blocked the path.
"Thane!" I barked. "The wall!"
The Bear Prince surged past me, a juggernaut of muscle and earth magic. "I see it!"
But before Thane could reach the obstruction, the ground between us and the wall changed.
It didn't crack or break. It simply unraveled.
The pristine white marble turned grey, then black, then dissolved into a swirling mist of dark particles. It was as if the reality of the floor had suddenly decided to stop existing. From the widening fissure, tendrils of black smoke curled upward,thick and viscous as oil smoke, grasping at the air like blind, seeking fingers.
"Stop!" I yanked Aria back so hard her boots stuttered against the stone.
We skidded to a halt inches from the edge of the disintegration. The tendrils lashed out, snapping like whips. One brushed the hem of Elias’s robe. The silk didn't burn; it vanished, eaten away instantly, leaving not even ash behind.
"The Devourer," Elias whispered, staring into the abyss opening at our feet. "It’s under the city. It’s infiltrating the foundation."
"We’re trapped," Flynn said, his voice losing its humor.
Behind us, the heavy, rhythmic booming stopped. A shadow fell over the alley, blocking out the twin suns.
I turned slowly.
The Colossus stood at the mouth of the alley. It was magnificent and terrifying, a perfection of star-metal wrought into the shape of the War God. Its eyes were burning braziers of white fire. Hera's fire. It raised a fist the size of a siege engine, the metal groaning as the joints articulated.
"Well," Flynn said, spinning his daggers. "It was a good run. I vote we aim for the ankles."
"We can't fight that," Thane rumbled, positioning himself between the giant and Aria. "It is impervious to physical force. I already tried to use gravity on it.”
"Then we use magic," Aria said, stepping up beside me. The golden veins on her neck flared, drawing on the reserves we had poured into her. "We?—"
"No," I cut her off, my hand tightening on hers. "You are empty, Aria. If you pull deep enough to hurt that thing, you will burn out your own soul."
The Colossus took a step forward. The walls of the alley shook, dust raining down on us. It raised its fist higher, preparing to turn us into paste.
Then, the ground beneath the giant’s left foot simply gave way.
It wasn't a sinkhole. It was an ambush from the void.
Black smoke erupted from the pavement, not drifting this time, but surging. The tendrils lashed around the Colossus's ankles, thick as tree trunks, solidifying into cables of pure entropy.
The giant stopped, its head tilting down with a grinding noise. It tried to lift its foot.
The star-metal hissed.
Where the black smoke touched the divine alloy, the metal began to pit and corrode instantly. The "impervious" material turned to rust, then to dust, flaking away in the wind.
