Legion watched as the brown-haired mortal crashed, rolled, and tumbled toward the edge of the trench. From his vantage point, it looked as though the boy had fallen to impossible depths. He approached the edge and peered down, only to find the mortal clinging desperately to a jagged slab jutting out.

  A chorus of deep, layered voices rumbled from Legion’s chest, their sound chilling enough to crawl beneath the skin.

  “Let us give you a hand,” he said, his thousands of voices blending into one horrifying tone.

  He swung his sword, the strike forming a massive whip of black energy that tore through the air. The impact sent an explosion of rock fragments raining down as Zod was flung loose and fell into the abyss. Watching the mortal disappear into the depths was Legion’s cue to move.

  As Tee and Saeda pursued the fragment, the grotesque flying creatures dove at them in swarms. One swooped so close that Tee felt a sharp sting and warm blood trickle down. Part of her ear was gone. She winced, hissing through her teeth. They were worse than fleeches, feral and relentless. Running and fighting at once was grueling.

  Bursting through a wide opening bathed in stronger light, Tee felt something shift inside her skull, a strange sensation of mental space expanding. Still, her gaze never left the fragment floating ahead, encircled by a storm of flopping wings.

  The ground spread before her like the surface of a vast, dried lake—solid brown earth scarred with trenches and deep cracks. Tremors pulsed under her boots. There was no mistaking it—a giant was moving.

  She leapt across a trench without looking down, landing hard and summoning a sword in each hand. With fluid precision, she spun them on their flat sides, sending the blades slicing through the air. Three flying monsters were struck, collapsing mid-flight before exploding into sand upon impact.

  Ahead, Saeda was closing in on the fragment, her own swords spinning outward to strike more of the winged horrors. The fragment began to descend, but as sand surged upward to reclaim it, the remaining creatures dove, catching it before it could fall.

  Tee’s thoughts raced. Those beasts had to be manifestations created by contact with the fragment, just as the giant had formed earlier. They couldn’t destroy them all at once. If they did, there’d be no one left carrying the fragment and they couldn’t risk it falling again.

  Four winged monsters remained, the largest one gripping the fragment in its teeth. Pain pulsed around Tee’s ear, the missing chunk throbbing with every heartbeat. She knew that whoever held the fragment would draw the creatures’ attention—and if they turned on her, she’d lose a lot more than an ear.

  She cast a glance behind. Her heart sank.

  “Speak of the Apocalypse,” she muttered as the four-eyed black bird swooped through the same opening she’d come from.

  But something else seized her attention. The far wall to her left began sinking into the ground, revealing a hidden passage beyond. She stopped just long enough to look—and what she saw stole her breath.

  Beyond the collapsing wall stretched layer upon layer of the vast maze-world they’d been fighting in. Countless levels—some upright, some inverted—extended into infinity. Segments of the labyrinth shifted on their own. Stairs folded, walls rotated, and platforms slid in defiance of gravity. The air rippled with distortion.

  She looked up and realized the ceiling mirrored the ground, an upside-down reflection of everything around her. She was only one of thousands of levels in this endless structure.

  The dim illumination that filled the space didn’t seem to come from any single source. The walls, the floors—even the air—glowed faintly, as though the entire dimension was alive.

  Elsewhere, Kie had already slaughtered the dark mana beasts Lilith had summoned. He looked around, but she was gone. Frowning, he brought up his holo-map. Spotting Tee, Saeda, and Miko moving beyond the same archway, he started running towards their location.

  Meanwhile, Miko continued her relentless assault on the sorcerer’s energy bubble. Her twin swords clanged against the shimmering forcefield as she darted around it at superhuman speed. When faint purple sparks flared across its surface, she halted just in time. Unbeknownst to her, another strike on its surface with her metal sword would have fried her alive.

  The sorcerer lifted his hand to counterattack, but Miko zipped away, a blur of motion, sprinting toward her teammates chasing the fragment. She shot past Lilith, who was just then rising from the sand, half-buried after being struck by the giant’s colossal fist.

  Legion turned at the sound of running footsteps—Silva, the bandaged one, was stumbling toward him, a massive sword impaled through its abdomen. For a moment, Legion’s many voices hummed with something almost like pity. Silva stopped, its body unraveling into black ash that swept through the air and fused back into him.

  The ground quaked again as the giant began to reform, its shape coalescing from sand and rubble. Lilith didn’t wait. She dashed forward instead, heading straight for the archway.

  Sade and Lilith passed through the massive opening first, their eyes locked on the fragment. Legion followed shortly after.

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  Tears streamed from Zod’s eyes as he plummeted down the trench. He braced himself for the crushing impact that would end him—unless he could pull off a miracle. Concentrating desperately, he extended his telekinesis, trying to slow his descent.

  Suddenly, his fall stopped. A violent force yanked him backward, up toward the ledge he’d fallen from. In a blink, he was standing with one leg on each side of the trench, hanging awkwardly upside down above the chasm.

  Then, just as abruptly, everything flipped. The world righted itself. He shifted his weight to one side and stumbled onto solid ground, panting. The strange sensation lingered.

  Looking down, he concluded that he had just experienced some kind of reverse gravity. He knew it wasn’t his doing. His telekinesis couldn’t manipulate gravity like that. Maybe it was because he hadn’t fallen far enough from the trench, and his ability had interfered just enough to trap him inside the gravity field.

  To test his theory, he leaped back into the trench. He fell again, but that time he didn’t pull himself back. He let the fall carry him through—and after appearing on the other side, just in time to witness the monster forming, he found himself plummeting toward the domed ceiling, about to splatter.

  As the titan’s four legs began to move toward a distant archway, Zod finally came to his senses. Before he could fall back through the trench again, he pushed out with his telekinesis to stop himself, landing hard beside it instead. He sighed, knowing it was over. Then the tremors rippled through the ground, drawing his focus away once more.

  Tee kept sprinting, Saeda close beside her. The tremors grew stronger, nearly throwing her off balance. She glanced back just as Miko streaked past, wind whipping Tee’s hair into her face. Miko’s speed turned her into a blur of red light.

  “Yeah! Go get that fragment, Miko!” Tee thought, cheering silently.

  Then it hit her. If Miko was here, the Harbingers couldn’t be far behind. Gritting her teeth, she pushed harder, forcing herself to run faster.

  Ahead, the last remaining flying beast soared with the fragment still clutched in its maw. As Miko darted beneath it, Saeda hurled a sword that sliced clean through the creature’s wings. It shrieked, exploded into dust, and the fragment dropped.

  The black bird, Riven, swooped down like a missile toward it. Tee summoned another sword and fixed her focus on the incoming blur.

  “Yes… go straight to it,” she thought.

  Their plan was simple. Once Miko caught the fragment, they’d use it to lure Riven close and finish it off. Maybe Saeda could touch it long enough for a vision to give them an edge. Anything to end those nightmares would do.

  But the plan unraveled fast.

  Riven darted higher, phasing into black smoke as swords cut harmlessly through its body.

  What the—? Since when could it do that? Tee screamed in her head. How do you kill something that can turn intangible?

  Miko leapt, fingers outstretched to grab the falling fragment—when a slick, black strap lashed through the air, snatching it first. The fragment jerked backward.

  Tee skidded to a stop, eyes following the movement of the dark cord. Her heart dropped when she traced it back—straight to Lilith.

  The cord wasn’t a weapon. It was her tongue.

  Revulsion shot through Tee as she realized the appendage was retracting back into Lilith’s mouth, the fragment still attached to its tip. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she whispered.

  Arming herself with both swords, Tee charged. If she was going down, at least she’d wake up in the infirmary with pride. Saeda and Miko split off in the opposite direction, chasing after the fragment.

  Lilith stood a mile away from the archway, her long black hair swaying as her tongue—still tethered to the fragment—snaked through the air like a whip. It twisted and bent, dodging every sword hurled its way.

  A tongue that agile had to be absurdly strong, though it looked deceptively slender. Beyond her, the black bird circled high above, searching for an opening to strike. Tee clenched her teeth.

  So much for fried chicken from across the Veil. Knowing it could phase through matter meant their plan needed a serious rewrite.

  Kie stood further back. Seeing the fragment being reeled toward Lilith, he realized the others would collide with him if they didn’t change course. He didn’t wait. Instead, he leapt into the air, spinning with both swords in hand. Each rotation sent a storm of blade strikes into Lilith’s tongue.

  The ten back-to-back strikes finally did it. A sickening snap echoed through the air as the severed length of her tongue evaporated into black smoke. The fragment flew even higher, arcing away toward the left.

  Tee dashed past Kie, maintaining balance by holding both swords wide. She saw the black liquid dripping from Kie’s hands—Lilith’s blood. It burned through his skin like acid. He gritted his teeth but didn’t scream.

  She couldn’t afford to pity him. The fragment was still falling, and every second counted.

  A swirl of red symbols surged behind Lilith. The vortex solidified, and from it emerged the pale-haired figure of Sade. Within a heartbeat, he replaced Lilith, sprinting forward with glowing purple symbols orbiting his hands.

  Purple glowing symbols appeared at the same moment that luminous rocks materialized in his hand, and he hurled them at Tee. How rude!

  She jumped, slashing the glowing stones away midair as she aimed for the fragment. She wasn’t about to make Miko’s mistake—she wouldn’t reach for it barehanded. Her plan was to headbutt it toward her team while defending against whatever came next.

  But before her head could touch it, something blurred past her face. The movement was so fast she jerked her head back instinctively, neck muscles seizing in pain. A few strands of her hair floated away, cleanly sliced.

  Then everything darkened. Legion’s towering form loomed above her. His burning eyes stared down from beneath the hood, and his gleaming teeth curved into a grin.

  “Why, thank you,” his thousand voices said in unison. “You shouldn’t have.”

  His massive foot slammed into her stomach. The impact crushed the air from her lungs and sent her hurtling backward. She hit the jagged ground and rolled, skin tearing against the stone as she tumbled dozens of times before finally stopping.

  The fragment—caught between Legion’s pull and the giant’s gravitational force—veered away, flying over Kie and Lilith’s heads toward the opening they’d all entered through.

  Miko was nowhere near the front now, having veered off in pursuit, but Lilith would never have allowed her past either way.

  The shattered stones Tee hadn’t destroyed littered the ground around her and Saeda. Neither of them noticed the glowing symbols spreading from beneath each rock. Tiny dimensional portals were opening—each one a door from mini dimensions Sade trapped Leaks.