I run to the site of the blast, and Terra comes into view. Surrounding him from all sides are three of the four Saints of the Radiant Axis. Each of their bodies has become warped and ruined in its own unique way.

  Caedis is holding his own head under his arm like he's some sort of dullahan, and blood runs down his chest in thick ropes. Where his head should be is a perfect, spinning halo and behind that is a pair of bloodied wings that cling to his back.

  Evelyn is there too. At first glance, her body is still quite small. She doesn't levitate anymore, but a pair of wings the same color as cotton fight to keep her off the ground. What they struggle with is her legs, all eight of them. I don't know what happened but where her legs should be, a nest of femurs and shinbones have been woven into a spider-like creation.

  She drags them behind her as she 'flies'. All the while, the ends of the legs scrape against the ground. One of her arms stretches out into a boney, multi-jointed appendage, and the other is unscathed, clinging to her staff. Despite the state she's in, she doesn't seem to be worried. Actually, she looks quite serene.

  Cirelian's back has been replaced by dozens of spines, ribcages and pelvic bones that protrude outward. They bloom out in a sphere around his torso, and an indistinguishable murky, grey pair of wings hang from his back. Unlike his siblings, these wings are limp, and appear to weigh him down.

  It was like Elen said. As long as Caedis and Evelyn stand, they can continue to revive the other siblings...

  Terra’s face is a mask of blood and dirt. He's covered head to toe in wounds. My heart seizes in my chest at the sight.

  My brother's body that I entrusted him with is in ruin...

  As the Saints take turns attacking him, I can tell that he’s losing, and I know that if he loses, the Saints will turn on the kingdom of Astrovia next.

  Thankfully, there is one more thing I can do to help Terra.

  I draw the Blade of the Shadewell. It’s warm in my hand, and the metal hums against my touch.

  "Zephyr's Burst," I whisper, and let go of the blade.

  The sword skims just above the ground, the wind carrying it to its target. Terra's hand closes over the hilt just as Caedis attacks him.

  Up until now Terra had merely carried the title of ‘shield’ as a mask. A holy knight, a faithful knight, a protector, but I know better. Across all my lives, not once had I seen Terra truly wield a shield. When we stood against the Seven Kings, he had a blade in each hand.

  A knight so sure of himself that he completely disregards defense in favor of massive offensive power.

  I had seen it earlier when I faced his Divine Aspect, but I didn't realize it until now.

  At heart, Terra is a duelist.

  Terra moves faster now. In a single motion, he parries with Eloria’s Vow, then brings the Shadewell up in a sweeping arc, slicing through Caedis’s forearm. The arm falls to the ground, and his head goes rolling with it.

  A large pillar of earth strikes Terra, pushing him back, but he's just barely able to bring his arms up to block it. He is pushed back, and a labyrinth of earth quickly forms around him. Despite this setback, I can see flashes of light coming from the labyrinth as Terra cuts his way through the walls.

  "Heal me!" Caedis roars, and turns on his sister. "Heal me, now!"

  "I can’t, I need to replenish my mana and most of the adventurers are dead now. The necromancer who brought me back has been killed, and I won't last long without him…"

  "Don’t give me that bullshit excuse! You were using offensive magic moments ago. You expect me to believe you’ve run out of mana in the past minute?"

  "You know I need to hurt things if I want to heal something, that’s just how it -"

  Caedis cuts her off by leaping at her, blade first.

  Evelyn tries to bring her staff up to block it, but she's not fast enough. Evelyn's arm is the first to hit the ground, followed by the clattering of her staff. Blood begins to fall from the fresh stump of a wound, but Evelyn doesn’t even blink. She points the still bleeding stump at Caedis and mutters a spell.

  Pure black miasma mixed with blood arcs from her wrist, splattering across Caedis's cuirass. The miasma quickly eats through the thick metal plating, and Caedis howls, clawing at collar. The miasma exposes raw meat underneath and digs bone-deep.

  Cirelian places himself between them, his boney carapace expanding until he’s blocking them from seeing the other. "You two are always bickering," he rumbles, his voice a low. "We must turn our attention to the traitor."

  But Caedis is beyond reason. He brings his sword around, aiming for Cirelian’s neck. The blade finds itself lodged deep in the bone though. Cirelian doesn’t even try to pull it free; instead, he grabs Caedis’s hand, squeezing down on it.

  Terra doesn’t waste this opportunity. He comes from Cirelian’s blind spot and drives both his blades into the opposite side of the brutes neck. The bone creaks, but no matter how much Terra struggles, he can not cut any deeper.

  "Trust me when I say this brother, my attention is solely on the traitors," Caedis spits, voice wet with blood. He releases his blade and jams his hand into Cirelian’s chest. Caedis's hand pierces a handful of ribcages and vertebrae until his fingers hook around the heart within.

  Caedis seems to struggle with it for a bit before he gives it one conclusive tug. The heart comes out in a shower of fragmented bone. Cirelian’s body shudders, then falls to the ground.

  Caedis jams his brother's heart into his own chest, and it begins to fuse instantly. The veins snake out and stitch themselves into Caedis’s own circulatory system. He screams out in pain as Cirelian's body withers away, and his own body grows. The muscles thicken, and the bones around Caedis's sternum multiply as his armor gives way, replaced by a bony exoskeleton.

  A second halo appears above his neck, spinning in the opposite direction of the first. The air around him shimmers, and I can barely make out his figure through the distortion.

  It’s wrong. Everything about what I'm looking at is incredibly wrong.

  A second pair of wings emerge from behind Caedis, and his transformation is complete. With a single flap of his wings, Terra’s body becomes fragmented, as if he was diced apart all at once. Thankfully, the biggest chunk is sent hurtling towards me.

  "Aetheric airbag!" I scream, and step to the side as several Aetheric Needles take on the feeling of that slick, nylon fabric.

  Terra, or what remains of him, collides with the airbag and I look over to see his bloodied arm roll to a stop at my foot. Eloria's Vow dissipates into the air, and Terra struggles to free himself from the confines of the airbag. With a swift flick of my wrist, the spell disperses and Terra is left laying on the ground in several chunks.

  "Clara, I…" Terra breathes, and his gaze lazily falls to my abdomen that's mostly healed by now.

  "It's okay, I don't care. It's not like you actually killed me, and you did heal me after. You need to answer one question though."

  "I don’t know if this is a good time..."

  "You know that’s my brother's body, so why did you let this happen? He entrusted you with this body of his so that you could protect me and you’re getting torn to pieces out there," I say, and grab a hold of Terra’s arm as I press it back into place. As soon as I release it, it falls and I snatch it out of the air so I can try again.

  "After everything that has happened, the only thing you want to question is the state of your brother's body?" Terra hangs his head low, closing his eyes for a short moment. When they open once more, they land on me, and I feel as if he’s staring into my very soul. "I apologize, the enemy is stronger than I could have ever imagined. I know that’s no excuse, but you have my word that I will take care of this body more from now on if you’ll allow me to continue fighting. I can’t explain my reasoning, but I must stop the Radiant Axis."

  "I already told you I don’t care about any of that. As long as you understand the importance of this body then it’s okay," I whisper, and an Aetheric Needle appears in my hand as I begin to sew Terra’s arm back into place. "We’re going to have to find your legs later. For now I’ll make you a new pair. They won’t be as strong, and they won’t last long, but I’ll put everything I have into making them."

  I hold both of my hands over the bleeding stump that is Terra’s thigh, and begin to sculpt an Aetheric Needle into the shape of a leg.

  "It’s a strong body. Elias was clearly committed to his training," Terra whispers, looking down at me.

  "Of course, he studied under Gabriel from a young age He was always afraid he’d never be able to catch up, and he was also afraid of falling too far behind… Enough of that, I need to focus. Think of a way to kill that thing while I get you patched up," I say, and look back at Caedis.

  Caedis already has his hand around Evelyn’s throat, and she bangs a bloody stump into his wrist in an attempt to free herself.

  "Greater Heal!" Evelyn screams, and her hand sprouts back in a blinding flash of light. She holds that same out to Caedis and croaks out another spell. "Invert..."

  A wave of black magic surges out, turning Caedis’s arm from skin to beating red flesh. The parts of him that were already bone though, actually change. His torso and neck actually gain some semblance of meat. It’s a thin, black membrane like the skin of an eel. The transformation spreads to his legs that turn into raw flesh with the nerve endings hanging out in the open air.

  None of this deters Caedis though. He continues to squeeze down on Evelyn’s neck until the air leaves her lungs. When Evelyn’s face turns a dark blue, and she stops thrashing under his hand, he releases her.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  "Raise," Caedis commands, and the flame of life reignites in Evelyn once more as she holds her hand out to her brother.

  "I’m sorry!" Evelyn coughs, trying to catch her breath. "I’ll heal you Caedis, I swear, I-"

  Evelyn is cut off as the same hand finds its way around her throat, and she is killed again. This continues for several more cycles. With each revival, Evelyn loses a sliver of her soul. One can only die and be brought back so many times until there’s nothing left but a hollow husk. Evelyn’s face is a constant shade of blue, and covered in tears, and snot. She quickly shifts from apologies, to shouting obscenities.

  "Fuck you, Caedis! Fuck you, fuck you, fuck-" Evelyn’s speech is growing slurred with each revival, and she is murdered again.

  This time when Evelyn is brought back, she’s silent. No more crying, no more cursing, just silence and a blank stare.

  "Well you took your time but it’s time to come home, dear sister."

  Caedis hugs Evelyn’s body to his own, and it begins to fuse with his own flesh. Evelyn’s eyes are still open as she’s pulled into her brother’s body. Her mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water, and then she’s gone.

  Caedis’s body spasms, and another set of wings tears free from his back, these wings are like a pair of snow. A third halo appears, this one cracks and flickering, as if it’s barely holding itself together. His arm regrows into a collection of black, multi-jointed bones and he picks up Evelyn’s staff with it. His legs have changed too. He didn’t get all of Evelyn’s spider-like legs, but he got at least half of them, and it helps to support his oversized torso now. The only thing that slightly resembles a human is his sword arm.

  "There, your legs are good to go. I can tell you’re out of mana, so you’ll be needing another weapon. Aetheric Blade," I say, and a blade appears in Terra’s free hand. He squeezes the handle, testing out his grip strength and then he stands.

  Within seconds Terra is standing before Caedis once more, and swings at the creature, but his blades merely bounce off of his opponents skin

  Caedis swings down with his own weapons, using the staff as more of a club than anything, and the ground shatters beneath him as he narrowly misses Terra.

  "You thought I’d be weaker now that my siblings are dead?" he laughs, and his voice comes in threes as it echoes. "We have never been closer to each other!"

  He’s not Caedis anymore. He’s something else. Something that remembers being Caedis, and Cirelian, and Evelyn, and who knows what else.

  He staggers from side to side, and drops the staff momentarily.

  "It seems that she wasn’t entirely gone… Even in death she’s fighting me. It’s fine, we just need more of me in the mix!" Caedis's voice rings through, and he grabs a hold of his head that's laying on the ground. He places his head atop the three halos. It doesn’t fit, but he doesn’t seem to care.

  He forces his head through the halos, crushing it as more blood covers his form. It’s a mess, and when he’s finished, he retrieves the staff once more.

  Terra tries to circle him, to get behind him, but the thing is faster than anything I’ve ever seen. It spins around and holds the staff out, shooting a solid beam of light that cuts through the ground itself. It’s not even speaking and spells are appearing around Terra, who just barely manages to get out of harm's way.

  When Terra does manage to get close enough to attack, Caedis just blocks, and counters every move. When Terra tries to disengage, it simply grabs him by the throat and lifts him into the air. It's monstrous hand squeezes down on Terra's throat, and then it runs a blade through Terra's abdomen.

  Something about the six-winged monster triggers something deep inside of me.

  'I have an older brother named Gabriel! What a coincidence...'

  Who said this to me? Something with wings.

  I can’t breathe. My heart is in my throat, and it's only now that I notice my body is shaking.

  Clara, whatever you think you're hearing, don't listen to it!

  I want to listen to Aetheria, but my vision splinters. I can still feel those glass shards under my skin, the crown of blades, the strings. They never left me, even though I left The Gut behind.

  "Not now, not now, not now..."

  My skin falls away piece by piece, strip by strip, and I see those memories of mine laid bare.

  Another eye grows, weeping blood. I see myself as a warrior.

  Another eye grows, trembling with fire. I see myself as a fighter.

  Another eye grows, hiding amidst the others. I see myself as a leader.

  Another eye grows, frozen in time. I see myself as a survivor.

  Another eye grows, soft and secretive. I see myself as a lover.

  Another eye grows, open and trusting. I see myself as a sister.

  Another eye grows, wide and uncertain. I see myself as a daughter.

  Another eye grows, tender and scared. I see myself as a mother.

  Another eye grows, hollow and trembling. I see myself as a failure.

  Another eye grows, small and fearful. I see myself as a scared little girl.

  I've seen all of these lives, but there's just one that I forgot.

  Another eye grows, alone and cold. I see myself in the Siberian permafrost.

  Another eye grows, surprised and baffled. I see myself at the Le Glacier du Trocadéro in Paris.

  Another eye grows, wary and untrusting. I see myself in Area 51, at the ECA’s headquarters.

  Another eye grows, sharp and calculating. I see myself as the ECA’s most promising agent.

  Another eye grows, dead and sinking. I see myself at the bottom of the Atlantic, bringing something back from beyond that brink that should have slept forever.

  Another eye grows, skinless and unblinking. I see myself in The Gut.

  Another eye grows, tired and restless. I see myself at The Crossroads, searching for my crow.

  Another eye grows, heavy and knowing. I see myself in a bar in the afterlife, looking to hire.

  Another eye grows, and it refuses to look away. I see a man with a dark complexion standing before me. Eight wings spread from his back.

  How could I forget this?

  He is an archangel, and he knows I do not belong, and he is asking me to leave.

  In my other eye I look up at the monster that has a hold of Terra. It isn’t exactly an angel, but it’s close enough.

  The sorry little excuse of a creature I call a heart is beginning to stir. The world begins to glow a deep, churning green that seems to writhe and mix with the sunlight that’s barely able to pierce it. This green is aware of everything that it desires.

  Clara, you HAVE to stop! The other Gods are beginning to take notice of your actions!

  Let them notice. The world itself can be witness to this forgotten dream. It happened, it existed, and I’ll prove it right now.

  "The 33rd dream," I whisper, and these words act as a key.

  The serpent stirs within my chest, coils itself around my ribs, and finds its rightful throne around my arm. The setting sun is blocked out as a long shadow passes by. My only true friend. He's intangible, an incomplete recollection. Even so, the memory of him is strong enough to garner the attention of every deity that this world knows.

  Many Gods have taken notice of you!

  The Northern sky grows a light shade of blue as Eira, the Goddess of Winter’s beauty allows her icy gaze to land on me. It scratches at my skin, sharp and probing, but it meets resistance. The serpent wraps around the core of my very being, the depths of my soul. Eira’s cold cannot pierce me; it strikes the serpent first, and her cold winds shatter against my friends scales.

  Far to the East, Aurion's shining light can be seen. His glaring eyes hold no light within them, a darkness washes over my body. It tries to claw its way inside with tiny, grimy hands. They wish to take hold of my sin and bend me to their will. The serpent welcomes this, and as Aurion grazes my soul, his hands recoil. The serpent is quicker though, and its fangs dig deep, biting into one of Aurion’s hands before it’s able to retreat to the Radiant Vanguard.

  "Know your place, you dirty little smudge," I mutter, watching as the last of the shadows flee.

  Death is next, and I can feel him watching me from my shadow.

  "Hey, do you remember? You said my very existence was sin incarnate. You knew all along..."

  There are other deities watching me. I'm acutely aware of them, but they don’t try anything, they simply observe from a distance.

  Your infamy among the Gods grows!

  An unknown force is watching you!

  "Be quiet," I command, and the prompts fade away from view.

  I move my hand, and the shadow overhead follows. It writhes through the sky, a river of scales, and fangs, and an age-old hunger. Parts of his body phase in and out of existence. he moves in a slow, methodical crawl through the sky. I can tell that he's ready to strike at a moments notice, and I remember those words I said to that archangel all those lives ago.

  "Leviathan, kill." I point a single finger down, and it follows, fangs bared, and smashes into the earth with a force that sends shockwaves through the ground. Caedis is ready for this though, and prepares his most powerful spell to retaliate. Their clash would have normally sent me flying away, but I don't budge. As Caedis dodges, I point to the side, and The Leviathan follows after him. When it catches him, I close my palm, and his teeth sink into Caedis's body. It thrashes from side to side wildly, like a dog that's just got hold of its prey, swinging Caedis into the ground, and tearing him apart.

  When The Leviathan finally fades away, Caedis is half his size, two of his halos are gone, and only three wings are left. He staggers to its feet, and tries to hold his body together with his hand, but

  "You… you need to join with me so that we can become complete," Caedis croaks, turning to face me. His voice is barely more than a whisper, but I hear him clearly despite the distance.

  I take a step back, but he’s already upon me, clearing the distance in the blink of an eye.

  He’s fast, but not fast enough. A hand grabs a hold of my shoulder and yanks me back as a flash of arrows fly through the air, piercing Caedis’s body.

  It’s Elen, and she has two large, gaping wounds on her back.

  I look behind me to see a pair of wings lying on the ground. Her own wings that she cut out herself, and at their center is a cracked halo. I guess in the end, she was still one of the bosses of this dungeon.

  "Once the four of us join together, Ardain will make us whole! You saw him, didn’t you? His gaze fell upon us. His holy shadows came to assist us... Now give me that bow arm of yours!" Caedis shouts, and lunges for Elen.

  Terra is waiting for Caedis though. He raises his Blade of the Shadewell, and his Aetheric Blade, and utters one of the forbidden spells.

  "Divine Abrogation."

  The light is blinding, a field of force so pure it makes my skin crawl. I feel something inside me twist, and snap before I drop to my knees, clutching my chest.

  Clarence has just barely made it to me and he drops to the ground too, his eyes wide with terror. He mimics my actions, and gasps.

  Our connection to Death is momentarily broken as this forbidden spell takes hold. The same goes for Caedis and his God.

  Only Elen stands, unaffected.

  Caedis grabs a hold of Elen, but nothing happens. His voice is gone, his magic is gone, and the strength gifted to him through his false God is gone.

  Terra kicks off from the ground, one of his Aetheric legs shattering as he does so. He’s upon Caedis in a heartbeat and dives into a deadly flurry of strikes. Each cut is deliberate, measured, and final. When he’s done, his other leg gives out from under him, and his arm falls off once more, but Caedis has been diced to bits. There is nothing left but a pile of bone and bloodied feathers.