“What makes this one special?”
“The giant tentacle monster that popped out of it.”
“Tentacle monster?” I repeated.
“You know, like Cthulhu?” Sin offered.
At my blank expression, he tried again.
“H. P. Lovecraft?”
I shook my head.
“Dungeons & Dragons?”
I shrugged helplessly.
He threw his hands up. “Your education is seriously lacking.”
Lilith put her hands on her hips with an exasperated sigh. “Don’t look at me, Sinclair. I got her when she was a teen.”
Gavin stepped forward, commanding our attention. “It’s a herald of the final battle.” When I looked at him like I hadno idea what he was talking about, he sighed. “The tentacle monster. The humans have no clue what’s happening, aside from the volcano violently erupting. But soon they will be devoured. Unless we stop it.”
That’s when I realized it wasn’t just a couple of the patrol groups preparing to leave. It was all of us. The entire army.
“Is it a good idea for all of us to go?” I asked, fidgeting nervously.
Chaos took my hand in his, silently lending me his strength and setting me at ease. “We’re at the stage where we can no longer afford to send anyone off alone. We have to assume that any and everything is a trap. And this is a big enough threat that we’re going to need considerable backup. The last thing we want is one of our teams to get caught unaware while they’re already dealing with a foe.”
“Okay, but how are we supposed to kill a god? That’s what he is, right?”
Sin clapped his hands. “Youdoknow!”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t give him any other acknowledgment.
“To answer your question,” Evander said, stepping into my line of sight, “we don’t. We need to send this fiend back.”
“Okay, how do we do that?”
Moira shrugged. “No clue. That’s part of what we need to figure out.”
“And we’re just going to do that on the fly?” I asked, looking around like someone was going to shoutSike!and we’d all have a good laugh.
No one did.
“We don’t have the luxury of time for more research. If we don’t get there as soon as possible, it will begin devouring the world.” Evander’s tone brooked no argument.
Shit. So this was like theendend. No more waiting. No more Knights or Princes or countdowns or side quests. The end was officially nigh.
“We need each of you to take up your weapon,” Michael said gravely.
“But if it’s just Cthulhu or whatever, why would we risk taking them?” Dahlia asked.
The angel looked at us all with a ferocity that chilled me to the bone. “Because it’s very likely this is a trap.”
“And we’re waltzing straight into it?” I blurted.
Chaos’s hand tightened around mine. “That was always the plan, Red. We make them come to us, or we bring the fight to them. Either way, we have to fight.”
