Riven looked down at Rose, grin faltering for a moment when he saw her condition again, but keeping it there for her sake. “We’re saved. Glaven is here.”

Rose’s lips quirked for a second. Just a tiny flicker. Impossible to be sure of it was a smile or something else. Otherwise, she didn’t respond or show any other sign that she had even heard him. Riven swallowed, then looked away. She was in too much pain probably. Damn it, but it wasn’t like he’d be smiling and agreeing if his arm was twisted and bleeding like that. He wouldn’t be saying “it’s fine” if he’d just lost an eye. He decided to stop obsessing over it and placed his eye against the cracks that had formed.

A pillar of earth had shot up where the Deadmage had last been, revealing grey granite bedrock beneath the dark brown soil. No sign of the witch himself, but it was too much to hope he was dealt with. Riven stared up. There he was, floating with his limbs spread out in the air like some damn ghostly kite.

Riven looked through another crack to the side, grin growing wider. Glaven was wading through the array of Spectres, most of whom were dead, falling apart into Sept that faded into nothing. He had his Coal short sword in his hand, the black blade catching the sun’s last light. Sparks danced around. Glowing, golden little orbs, shining like stars and floating like planets around him. Glaven had brought out his Essence, and he was out for Deadmage blood.

The Deadmage was still floating around. He had pulled in the air again, scores upon scores of scythes forming a rending cloud of twisted light. When Glaven had come close enough, the witch threw them down, all falling fast as hail.

Glaven hardly reacted. One of his stars shot out and dissolved in the air above him, a net of red and blue lines spreading out everywhere. Violet shadows covered the spaces between the lines, and where they intersected, they jagged purple lines erupted like more netting. “Leave,” he commanded.

There wasn’t any visible change. The air scythes rained down on him, and Riven was about to tell him to get out of the way when they abruptly disappeared. A soon as they came within Glaven’s spitting distance inside the violet haze, they vanished. Command. That was Glaven’s Essence. More air scythes fell and they all vanished, all at the exact same spot.

The Deadmage pulled back on his barrage and hovered still in the air. Glaven smiled up at him, and there was a tiny twist in the air above him. A small gust of wind shot towards Glaven, but all else remained as it had been.

Riven’s eyes widened. Of course. Command. Glaven’s Essence was forcing anything to follow what he commanded. He must have ordered the air to evacuate, forming a shield of vacuum above him, and that had dissolved the Deadmage’s air scythes. It made too much sense.

“Come down,” Glaven said. “Make this easy for yourself.”

“Easy?” The Deadmage’s voice was harsh, a dry and rusty croak as though he hadn’t used it in ages. “I will never die, much less die easy. You all shall be defeated. The Sundering waits for us all.”

“Then die.”

One of Glaven’s stars shot out from his side and flew towards the Deadmage. He tried to protect himself with his wind and air, but it made no real difference. The golden star passed through them all, leaving a comet trail of red and blue. With a growl, the witch dodged and the star shot past him. It dissolved in the air above him, spreading out in a red. blue, and purple haze that obscured the sky.

“Descend,” Glaven ordered.

The haze fell, trapping the surprised Deadmage under it as it rushed towards the ground. It was more air. Glaven’s Essence had trapped a massive amount of air. The Deadmage shrieked as he was hit, his air scythes disappearing. With a massive thump, the haze crashed into the ground, crushing the Deadmage under it. His screams shut off, overtaken by the shattering of the pillar Glaven had shot up, broken chunks bursting apart as they fell to the ground.

It wasn’t over. As much dust had been thrown up, as many rocks had fallen where the Deadmage was supposed to have been, he wasn’t dead. A tornado burst out of the debris all of a sudden, shooting for the sky. The Deadmage rose within it.

Glaven stepped back. Another one of his stars dug into the earth. “Spear.”

A spear of earth shot out in a spear with rocky thunder. It gutted the Deadmage, the jagged end piercing through his midsection and throwing him back, and the tornado dissolved into thin air. But he wasn’t dead. The Deadmage scowled, mouth twisted in a rictus of pain, and he gestured wildly with his hands. An enormous whip of air formed around him. He shot the scythe at Glaven and it tore through the air as it charged down, Glaven taking a split second to decide between using his star and jumping backwards. He chose the latter, falling back step after step before the scythe hammered into the ground where he’d been standing just moments ago.

This was getting dangerous. Riven looked back at Rose, noting her unchanged condition. He needed to get her out of here before they got caught in the crossfire. But how? This broken cocoon of his had shut him in he pushed against the rocks but there was no give.

Riven’s gaze fell on Rose again. One inscrutable eye was staring at him. “It’s okay,” he reassured. “I’ll get us out of here, don’t worry.”

Her hand was doing something strange. She dug her fingers into the broken ground and dragged back a handful of rocks, then pushed her hand forwards and repeated the motion. Riven frowned. What did she mean? Was he supposed to dig?

There was a huge crack outside. Riven pressed his eyes to a crack, heart hammering. The Deadmage was throwing more air scythes everywhere. They crashed into the earth, sending up rocks that pelted down everywhere and causing the lightning-like cracks. Glaven wasn’t defending himself. The number of his stars had reduced, and he’d opted to run, dashing over the broken ground as he dodged scythe after scythe rammed into the ground. Maybe he needed to reserve the rest of his stars. If Riven wasn’t wrong, Glaven was circling around the area, aiming for the area behind the Deadmage where he wouldn’t be hit. So long as the witch wasn’t able to aim behind his back too.

“You all right?” Viriya was running up to the cocoon of earth around him. She jerked to a stop in front of it and pressed her face to one of the cracks. The same crack that Riven was looking through. He jumped back. It was far too reminiscent of the time that child’s Spectre had seen him through the keyhole. “You alive?”

“I am, though you almost scared the life out of me.” He pointed back at Rose. “We need to get her out of here. She’s hurt bad.”

“Get back.”

Riven scrambled backwards, though making sure he didn’t fall back on Rose. Just in time. Viriya tapped the cocoon of earth with her star, then touch the ground. A second later, it fell apart. The earth was pulled to the spot on the ground, a green mound forming as Riven did his best not to fall over on Rose. After all he’d done to protect her, that would be the silliest way to end things.

Viriya knelt down beside Rose, her eyes growing wide. “Oh Scions.”

“The Spectres are gone,” Riven said, trying not let his heart quail at the tone of Viriya’s tone. “We can get her out of here if we move quickly.”

She didn’t respond at first. When she looked at Riven, there was a swirl in her dark eyes, like they couldn‘t settle on being black or deep green. “We can’t. I can’t.”

“What? Viriya, Rose will die, if we do nothing.”

“You’ll have to go on your own.”

Riven swallowed. “Don’t say that.”

More cracks tore through the air. They both turned to see that Glaven had managed to get behind the Deadmage, who was doing his best to turn while still pierced by and stuck on the jutting rock spar. Glaven set one of his stars free and it dashed through the air as if searching for something, lines of red and blue doing their best to keep up.

Riven gasped. The air was sparkling, and he realized what it was. Sept! All the Sept the Deadmage had stolen, all the bits and pieces that had been floating in the Deadmage’s tornado. They all swirled in the air, clumping together into little dots no bigger than his fist.

The Deadmage shot more air scythes at them, but a violet net had bloomed among the Sept clumps, and the pieces veered this way and that, dodging every single scythe rushing at them. A few hit, causing the Sept clumps to explode, but the broken pieces re-joined seconds later as though they were under the influence of strong magnets.

Then Glaven’s command rang through the area. “Shoot.”

Despite the need to get away with Rose, Riven only knelt there in the dirt and watched. The Sept clumps glowed red and blue, sapphires and rubies burning with some inner light. Then dashed towards the Deadmage like a barrage of a hundred different guns all fired at the same time.

None made contact. The Deadmage shouted, and air coagulated above him in a compressed disc. A shield to ward off the bullets. The Sept struck the compressed air and slowed, their shapes bending and twisting as they slowed to stop. In moments, they were all stopped, forming a little galaxy of crimson and turquoise stars. Glaven hadn’t succeeded. Damn Deadmage’s Spirit was too powerful.

But Viriya intended to do so. Before Riven could vocalise his protest, she shot to her feet and pulled her gun. She fired, but her shot suffered the same as Glaven’s multitudes. The Deadmage gestured, and a smaller pocket of compressed caught and crushed the golden-green bullet.

Riven went cold all over. The Deadmage’s next move became horribly clear. “Viriya, get back!”

“You’ve wasted enough time.” The witch gestured again. “Now die.”

The air above him swirled. All the Sept shots spiralled together, spinning together faster and faster until they were faster than any tornado that had come before, a blur of red, blue, and one lone circle of green. A spinning vortex of death. One that Glaven, Viriya, and Riven all stood and watched.

Then the Sept all shot down. Hundreds upon hundreds of bullets, all shooting down like a meteor shower.

“Viriya!” Riven shouted.

Too late. There was no way for Riven to help. No way for him to survive, much less help anyone else do so. He was powerless to do anything. Unless—

Survive.

The pressure built. Expanded to fill all of him. Then burst out. All in a fraction of a thumping heartbeat. Golden lines burst out of Riven and shot everywhere, though far fewer merged with the ground this time. Most shot into the air and spread in a golden cloud over his head, twisting and turning as though an invisible needle was knitting them all. All in another fraction of a heartbeat too.

Just in time. The hailstorm of Sept bullets shot down and crashed into the shield of golden air. Riven blinked, nearly falling back on his arse in surprise. The area above seemed to freeze, the bullets all stopping in their tracks. Then they fell, released from their stranglehold to tinkle onto the ground. What in the Chasm was happening? He shouldn’t be surviving now, just as he shouldn’t have the last time. What in the world was this strange power that flowed through him whenever he was in mortal danger?

Survive. Survive, that was what kept barging into his mind every time it happened.

“You did that?” Viriya asked, mouth slightly parted in surprise. Her eyes were wide. Too wide. She was afraid. Actually frightened. She’d been expecting to die.

“I… I think so.”

Riven wasn’t paying much attention. He stared at Glaven in the distance, who stood too far to be shielded by Riven’s golden glow. His brother had tried using his Essence to Command a shield but the Deadmage’s whipped-up Septstorm had torn through it and Glaven was injured all over. He was still standing though. Still indomitable as a Municipier had to be.

Far above, the air was swirling around the Deadmage again. More scythes were forming, all dancing around the birth of another tornado. When would that Deadmage stop?

“See,” Viriya growled. “It’s not going to stop. Never. Not until we kill that monster.”

Riven pulled his gaze away from the Deadmage with some effort. All this talk of stopping when they could make a run for it, couldn’t they. But now that he could see without worrying about immediate death due to a lack of attention, he stared back the way he had come. Then gasped. No way. Glaven had killed many of the Spectres somehow, but there were far too many left, though they were all engaged in a furious battle with the military. The military who were solely Resplendian.

Viriya was staring at the battle too. “We can’t go back. Not until we’ve dealt with him. Just us if that’s how it has to be.”

“It’s impossible,” Riven whispered. “How in the Chasm are we supposed to defeat that thing?”

They’d thrown everything at that monster, yet it kept blocking, breaking, dodging, living no matter what was done. Damn it, he was stabbed right through the guts with a giant rock spear. If that wasn’t going to kill him then what in the world would?

“Go!” Glaven shouted from his position. He was staring at them all. Staring specifically at Rose, and all her blood. Just like the blood seeping out from his wounds. “Get out of here. Fight through the Spectres. I’ll deal with this bastard.”

“How?” He’d never hear if Riven whispered. So he screamed. “How?”

“Just go.”

Brute that Glaven was, he expected them all to barrel through just as he would have done. But it wouldn’t work. Riven wasn’t Glaven, didn’t have the same power, skill, or experience. Weak. He was damned weak. Shit.

For all Glaven’s talk, he did nothing. In fact, his eyes were growing wider every second, and his hands slowly rose to his throat. Riven’s heart froze. No. No. Even at this distance it was obvious the sudden shift in Glaven’s complexion, his natural tanned hue gaining a slow, blue shade.

“What’s happening?” Viriya’s voice cut through Riven’s heart. It was one, tiny octave away from outright panic.

“The air.” It took too much effort from Riven to get those words out. “The damn Deadmage is removing the air. He can’t breathe.”

“Ho—how do we help? How do we stop it?”

Riven grit his teeth. Might as well have asked how they were going to flap their hands to fly and circumnavigate the whole world. But he couldn’t let Glaven die. Stupid bastard that he was, he couldn’t let his brother die any more than he could leave Rose alone in her condition. “We fight.”

Viriya stared at him. Her eyes were bloodshot, her lips trembling like she wanted to desperately say something she shouldn’t. Riven held back his grimace. Of course, she was terrified. Powerful, implacable, unstoppable Viriya was facing death like she had never before most likely, perhaps in a helpless way that was unprecedented. It’d reduce anyone to quivering messes. Could she actually turn catatonic? No time to find out.

“Shoot the rock,” Riven said. “Now!”

One blink. That’s all it took for Viriya to get a grip on herself. Then she fired at the jutting rock spar, her glowing bullet bursting into the prism of stone and earth. Glittering green spiderwebbed everywhere, starting at the spar then carpeting the ground, before the bottom half crumbled.

Glaven’s spear of rock fell, and the Deadmage shrieked. His new tornado and swirling air scythes disappeared as he lost focus. With a deafening crash that silenced the witch, the rocks shattered on the ground, sending up a plume of dirt and dust that obscured everything.

Riven shielded his face with his forearms. “Keep an eye on Rose,” he told Viriya, then dashed off.

He kept his eyes on the ground, wary of stones and pitfalls on his path. There were so many of those. The ground had cracked and fractured to form pits that looked as deep and dangerous as the hole that had spoken to him, rocks of every shape and size had spilled everywhere like the marbles of some mad giant, and it was all Riven could do to not trip and dash his head. If the Deadmage saw him, he’d be a sitting duck. All for the bastard Glaven. He’d better appreciate when Riven saved his arrogant arse.

Holding his breath and screwing his eyes shut against the dust, Riven jumped over chunks of the broken ground and little abysses that threatened to swallow him whole. He jerked to a halt when he came upon Glaven in the gloom out of nowhere. Then froze. All of him, body, breath, heartbeat, even his thoughts. Glaven didn’t look alive.

His eyes were wide open, and so was his mouth. That dreadful blue tinge hadn’t left. His whole body had gone rigid as a plank, numerous wounds covering him whole though none looked too serious. There was no sign of any motion. Even his chest wasn’t moving. Nothing.

Riven knelt and pressed his hand over Glaven’s. Cold wracked him all over. Glaven couldn’t be dead. Impossible. Riven hadn’t come this far only to let his own brother die like this. He felt nothing though. No pulse. No beat.

Damn it. Riven pressed his hand down harder. He let up the pressure and pressed it down with his full weight. If Glaven’s heart refused to beat on its own, the least Riven could do was help it restart. Give it a good shove, and it would start rolling downhill on its own. Glaven would live. Glaven would survive.

Survive. Survive.

The pressure built within Riven again. Familiar now, pins and needles spiking all over his skin. He was filled to the brim again, bursting at the seams and ready to spill everything, not daring to breathe in case he vomited whatever it was that he held. With a rush and golden flash it all shot into Glaven.

Riven breathed hard, eyes wide. The Chasm had happened? He froze. Just underneath his palm, Glaven’s heart was beating again. His eyes had fallen closed, and his face was returning to its natural hue. Riven remembered to breathe. Glaven was alive. His stupid brother hadn’t died.

All because of that golden light from Riven himself? He had to figure out what in the world it was. A wave of dizziness struck him, but it soon passed, leaving behind the threat of a headache.

“Riven!” Viriya’s shout, filled with fear and panic, made him twist his head around.

The dust was clearing, and within it, a shadow was becoming clearer and clearer. Shit. It couldn’t be. The Deadmage was rising, streams of air shooting up all around him. This wasn’t over. This wasn’t over by a long shot.

Were they going to have to call down a Scion’s Chosen to kill this freak?

The distance between them might have been great, but Riven had no trouble reading the droop in Viriya’s shoulders or her shuttered posture. He had no difficulty discerning her dilemma. No problem hearing her silent question.

Riven rose. His whole body was on the verge of shivering. But one thing was clear. “Viriya, you’re right. We’re going to fight.”