The Shadow made a noise in the back of its throat as it turned back toward Elvira and her siblings, amusement writ all across its features. “It seems the Great One has turned Their gaze away from us. Seems you no longer have Their favor,” it drawled out. Elvira scowled, six wings flaring outward as she grit her teeth, fighting against the pain that came with the damage to her Realm.

  It felt like a dagger had been driven into her gut, deeper even than the bone spur of the Shadow. The destruction wrought upon the Heaven Realm echoed in her very soul, the damage done to her Mountain marked by the grimace on her face, and the taste of blood in her mouth. Her mind flickered to Reika, who had retreated to her Tree – but she couldn’t think of that, she had to finish the Shadow first. She would have felt it had her sister been in any true, life-threatening danger.

  Unfortunately, it was Alexander who responded first.

  “I will END YOU!” he roared, charging forth, tail thrashing and golden flames billowing from his maw. Elvira could only imagine the pain he felt, as his realm reflected all the damage of the Four Realms. That didn’t make the decision of the normally stoic dragon wise. She cursed and shot after him, lagging behind the faster dragon.

  “Alexander, no!” Keilan shouted, but it was too late. The Shadow nimbly dodged Alexander’s flames, dodging to the left, plastering a look of fear upon its face as Alexander’s snapping jaws drew near –

  Only to leap away at the last second, one of its legs cutting a hole in reality that Alexander dove straight into, unable to halt himself. In that same instant the Shadow sewed the hole shut – but not before echoes of explosions rang out of it, followed by a pained roar.

  “And then there were two,” The Shadow cackled, turning – only to be met with Elvira’s fist. Bone shattered beneath her knuckles, the Shadow’s head snapping to the side as she struck it. Father’s words echoed in her ears; Do not give your enemy an inch. He had told her, in those few times she had taken Him up on training. Her elbow collided with the Shadow’s neck, driving it downward, toward the smoldering Realms, and she blurred to keep up with its descent. Don’t give them time to think. Don’t let them create space. The force behind her strikes lessened, but the power did not as she reminded herself of those words.

  Her fists flew with blinding speed, battering the Shadow and never giving it an inch of space. No longer did she send it flying, a cold, cool anger keeping her mind steady as she thundered against this foul beast. Its spider-like legs lashed out at her, black blood dripping from its snarling maw, the bones healing. Elvira parried them with bare flesh, their length skittering against her skin like stone against steel, leaving naught but white lines. A direct hit from the needle-like tips would be dangerous, but an indirect strike could do nothing against her tempered flesh.

  She had not spent millennia honing her body to the same, nigh-indestructible levels as the foreign god for nothing.

  “You-“ the Shadow began, coughing out a cloud of black miasma – Elvira pushed through, white light radiating from her in waves, clashing against the hateful air that burned her skin and lungs, setting her feathers to smoking.

  And then Keilan was there. Webs of karmic string lashed out, binding the Shadow’s legs together. Elvira struck it hard enough in that moment to shatter a few of its ribs, hurtling the wolf up toward her brother. He held out one hand, face a mirror of her own icy rage, and a burst of raw power struck the Shadow. It screamed, blood seeping from ears and eyes as it thrashed – Elvira was upon it in an instant, grabbing two of its spidery legs and ripping them free of its back.

  “GREED, HATRED!” The Shadow howled, the sheer force of its voice setting Elvira to stumbling, her very bones rattling. “NOW!”

  The fighter in Elvira told her to keep chasing the Shadow, that they finally had it on the defensive, that all-out aggression should have been their first move. Instinct, however, guided her gaze back to the Realms. Terror struck her, momentum killed as she turned back to the Realms.

  The normally spherical form of the Realms were distorted, the Mountain sinking down, threatening to collapse upon the Tree below, while the white, cloud-like energy that made up most of the realm outside of the landmass of Heaven looked thin and wispy. The Ocean of Memories had great tidal waves rocking the shores of the Karmic Valley, bits of spray leaping up to pound against the natural barrier of elements the Physical Realm formed – a barrier two of the evil gods had latched onto, cackling madly even as the elemental gods tried desperately to stop them.

  Keilan and Elvira lunged, surging forward. Neither reached their god in time.

  She teleported, appearing in a flash of white just beside the dark god, fist cocked back and ready to pound its skull in. Behind it Aeriel and a dozen other elemental gods surged, wind swirling about them, trying to tear it away from the barrier between the Heaven and the Physical. It just cackled at them, eyes bloodshot and blood seeping from its face as it bound up all of its terrible power, and detonated it in one, massive explosion.

  For a moment, all Elvira could see was fire and death, sent hurtling away from the epicenter of the blast, head over wings. A horrible, gut wrenching pain tore through her as she righted herself, coughing up blood, multiple wings broken from the explosion. But her mind could not deal with her own injuries at the moment, gaze locked upon the Heaven Realm as it was. The skies were falling.

  Pieces of heaven fell from the skies, threatening to fall upon the physical realm and cause a true collapse of the Realms.

  Elvira cursed, hurtling forward, heedless of the pain in her wings, and placed her hands upon the skies. Power surged through her, white light radiating out from her as bright as the Sun itself, a roar of defiance tearing its way out of her mouth. And the heavens stabilized, the weight of the skies laying themselves upon her shoulders – but the Physical Realm began to peel away. She shifted, bracing Heaven upon her shoulders, reaching out with one hand to sink her power into the Physical Realm’s barrier and pull, the weight of the Realm straining her muscles. She alone held up the skies and kept the ground from falling. With grit teeth and squinted eyes, golden blood dribbling from her mouth, she turned her gaze back to the Realms.

  The explosion of the dark god had sent many elemental gods reeling, their forms tossed haphazardly about the Tree. More still battled the remaining dark spirits, the most powerful of whom would toss themselves at the gods, clinging to their forms before detonating all they were – leaving only their soul, scrubbed nearly clean, to re-enter the realms.

  The Army of Heaven surged forward on winged steeds, doing their utmost to mitigate the damage alongside Reika’s army of living trees and members of Keilan’s mysterious security force. Gilles still battled with the last remaining dark god, who laughed and seemed to surge in power from the catastrophic event. Keilan stood between the Physical and Karmic Realms, a massive web of strings binding the two together like stitches. More strings lashed out at the Shadow, seeking to bind it, but it was too nimble, dancing away from him on the fringes of the physical realm.

  Elvira strained beneath the weight of two Realms, her aura surging, seeking to rebind the Realms together. The damage was not irreparable, but it would take time to mend. The Shadow had thoroughly outplayed them – and she’d had it on the run! But they needed help, and Reika was missing.

  “Hold for four minutes. The Mistress will be here soon.” Randus’ voice echoed in her ears, and she grit her teeth, closing her eyes and forcing more of her power into mending the barrier between realms. Four minutes – her own pride at needing to once more rely upon Father’s arrival was set aside, as she prayed for a miracle and help.

  It came from an unexpected place, and Kei entered the fray.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Kei had been in the Tree when Reika returned, bleeding from multiple holes in the stomach. She had smiled at her daughter, cracked a joke about being far more Holey now, and had extended her aura outward to try and heal as many injured as she could even while healing herself.

  That was when the Tree exploded. Her mother screamed in pain, her skin cracking as her Tree was damaged – and had been forced to sink herself into the trunk to keep everything from falling apart. Things only worsened with the second round of explosions, igniting the skies and threatening to collapse everything. Only Aunt Elvira and Uncle Keilan kept it all from collapsing, gods scattered from the sudden explosions.

  And Kei felt an anger unlike anything she had ever felt before. Her hands tightened around her weapon, the wooden haft creaking beneath her grip as she fixated her senses upon the foul, mangy, small wolf floating in the skies, dodging Uncle Keilan’s strings as it hurtled toward the Sun.

  She teleported before she could even think about it. Unlike her elders, she could not teleport freely within all the Realms, her range extended only in the Physical. Thankfully, the Shadow was within the bounds of the physical, having chased Keilan and Elvira there.

  Space warped around her, a terrible, furious, wordless scream ripping from her lips as she appeared in front of the Shadow, her staff cocked back. Its eyes widened in confusion and surprise – with a mighty crack, she brought her staff down between its eight eyes, sending it hurtling back into the Physical Realm, where she could utilize the most of her power.

  “You-“ it started, catching itself midair, but Kei was there. The elements wrapped themselves about her like a cloak, lightning, fire, wind, water, earth, metal, space-time, illusion, and divine all wrapping together, her limbs elongating, extending, form twisting and growing in size to dwarf the Shadow. Divine light radiated from her reddish fox-fur, a snarl pulling her lips back over her fang-like teeth, power echoing from her form. It was a very convincing illusion.

  “Stall it for four minutes, Kei. Be careful.” Randus’ words echoed in her ears as she lurched forward, the giant-nine tailed fox snapping at the Shadow. It howled and charged forward, spidery limbs stabbing viciously at her muzzle. Lightning thundered from her fur, bolts of blue light blasting the Shadow – but it was more powerful than she, powering through to land upon her illusory form, tearing apart her elemental construct with vicious bites.

  Illusions wrapped themselves about Kei’s true body as she lunged forward from within her fox construct, staff lashing out to smack against the Shadow’s side. It howled as more elements surged, snapping against its fur and driving it down, down, down – only for it to open its maw and inhale. It felt like a vacuum. Kei scrabbled away, the elemental construct torn apart in seconds, swirling as the Shadow sucked every ounce of elemental energy into itself, swallowing and smacking its lips like it just ate a good meal.

  Then it locked its gaze onto her, invisible though she was, and fear lanced through her as its hateful red eyes narrowed, blood dripping from between its teeth and bones fixing themselves before her eyes. And she realized, suddenly, that she was way out of her league here.

  “Arrogant brat.” It snarled, then froze. The air beside it trembled, shook, then cracked – and with a roar of absolute rage, Alexander came barreling out of a rift. His scales were cracked and blackened, bleeding in a hundred different places, one of his horns snapped off, yet none of those things denied him his target. His jaws closed around the Shadow, teeth sinking into its flesh as he savaged it, golden flames pouring from his mouth and burning its flesh. Kei grinned and stepped forward to help – only for something else to put itself in her way.

  A woman who reeked of chaos and danger, her black hair disheveled, hurtled toward her, Gilles trailing behind with shadowy whips at the ready, trying to halt her.

  “It won’t be that easy, darling,” the woman cooed, and chaos reigned.

  To call Alexander furious would be a disservice to the raw fury pounding through his veins. He snarled and snapped as the Shadow fled his wrath, long, spidery limbs stabbing at his face – he ignored the sharp pain they caused, the aching in his bones from what seemed like hundreds of spirits self-detonating after clinging to him, and the way his vision swam. His sole focus was the Shadow, and even when Randus tried to whisper something in his ears, for he had enough presence of mind to recognize the voice, he could not tell what was said.

  “Brother,” the Shadow barked, dodging around a burst of golden flame that tried to drive it down toward the Tree. Alexander could see the branches swaying, Reika’s will working to fix the damage and control the limbs – if he could get the Shadow close enough, could they capture the Shadow? Then he could tear it limb from limb. “Enough already!” Dark miasma poured from the Shadow’s body, and Alexander charged through it, ramming his horns into the Shadow’s side and yanking upward. It howled in pain, darting away on three limbs, its front right leg torn to ribbons but healing quickly. It scowled at him, and he roared.

  Shockwaves of force battered the Shadow, eddies of energy from the Spirit River pooling behind Alexander in a great maelstrom of power.

  “You made me do this,” The Shadow warned through the din. Alexander dove down toward it, the spirit river surging behind him as a great wave of force – and something within the Shadow burned. Bones snapped into place as its wounds healed, a familiar presence echoing through the air. “And with the Great One’s gaze turned away, I have no fear of Them noticing.” Alexander’s eyes grew wide as he realized what the Shadow was doing, what it had done, a tainted, twisted version of Father’s power echoing briefly from its body.

  The Shadow glowed and grimaced in equal measure as it leapt forward, powering through the great wave of energy Alexander sent hurtling toward it, breaking through the waves as the same power that healed it, that empowered it, set its fur to smoking. Alexander roared in defiance, maw open wide to snap around the Shadow, savage it with his fangs – only for it to dart around his bite with astonishing speed and latch onto his throat with its too-wide bite.

  His vision blurred, power leaking from him as the Shadow took him earth-ward, hurtling to Pangaea. And his only thought as he fell was; how dare it twist Father’s power so.

  Dei watched gods do battle in the skies above. The war for Manu Ti was all but over now. From his spot in the skies, floating above the northern chain, he could keep tabs on most of what happened below. The spirit beasts and devil cultivators had all but been routed, the walls of the cities were being patched, and Fang Xu told him that most of the armies in the skies had been cleared. His expression had been one of fear despite this news, however, and kept glancing around as if searching for something.

  Dei kept his gaze fixated upon the dragon in the skies. The battle was mostly a blur. He saw a flash of fire here, darkness there, and a serpentine form hurtling through the skies. Once or twice he thought he saw Kei, the mischievous fox-girl dancing about with a man of shadows and a woman whose powers even Dei could feel. He could feel it in his very bones, setting the ground of Pangaea to shaking and the air to stilling.

  “Fang Xu,” he said, one hand braced against his knees, the other gripping his spear as he leaned over, breathing heavily. “Talk to me. What is happening?” Said man was flying in the air above him, bow at the ready as he stared heavenward, brows furrowed. Celene stood next to him, her aura radiating outward and threatening to cause a snowstorm from the sheer intensity of it all, and similarly looked skyward in concern. The scent of smoke tingled Dei’s nose, the Tree groaning as branches threatened to snap off. Whatever those explosions earlier had been, they had done terrible things to the Tree.

  “We’re in bad shape, but holding for now.” Fang Xu admitted. “I can’t see much from here, but Fu Hao is telling me that the dark spirits mostly committed suicide – detonating their cultivation and souls to damage the Realms and keep the gods in check. Elvira is holding up the skies, Keilan is keeping the ocean from falling away – and Alexander is doing battle with a wolf. He is holding his own, for now.”

  Dei shook his head. Those were all very big names to be dropping so casually like that. But that wasn’t his question, either.

  “What can we do?” he asked.

  “I don’t…they’re saying we need to buy time. For what, I don’t know.” Fang Xu frowned, cocking his head to the side, muscles flexing as he plucked the string of his bow. His red hair whipped about his head as the wind picked up, Celene glancing at him worriedly. “Sorry, Dei, I have to go. Stay here, keep the city safe. Celene, come with me.”

  “Go, go,” Dei said with a wave of his hand, taking a deep, shuddering breath, but his friend was already gone, shooting off into the sky with bow half-drawn. Celene chased after him, the other Immortal in the city doing a large, sweeping search of the outer reaches of the city. Gleaming members of the army who called themselves the Heavenly Host circled the skies and marched through the streets alongside the remains of his own forces, helping people out of rubble.

  He frowned and descended a bit. He’d seen something fall into one of the houses down there earlier, when an explosion rocked the skies. Where was it…?

  A pained roar shook the skies above, and Dei’s gaze shot skyward. There, falling from above the boughs of the Life-Giving Tree, crashing through the branches, was a great white dragon falling to the earth. Golden fire scorched the skies as it fell, colliding with the ground just beside the northern chain, sending up a plume of dust and shaking Dei to his very bones.

  A howl tore through the air, setting Dei’s hair to standing on end; he recognized the sound. It carried the same tune the shadow panthers had made, when his old mentor had killed herself and they’d taken his city. It was a howl of victory. His hands gripped his spear, and he frowned.

  This would not be like that day.