The blue light stood in stark contrast to the rising red sun, making the old tentacled thing look all the redder. For a moment he thought the sun's tendrils actually recoiled at the sudden brightness, and the titanic red beast seemed much, much closer than he'd ever thought it was.
The sky took on an aspect Pierce had never seen before. It had a texture. There were swirls and lines drawn across it like carvings on a wall, and the area around the sun was painted a color Pierce had never seen before either, a hue between blue and red. He almost thought it was an illusion.
The glorious moment of light was all too brief. A fiery flash lit up the tower's zenith, and the newly blue sky went black again. Several figures came plummeting down off the tower, tossed like ragdolls by the explosion.
The First had failed, and Gorgonbane had failed to protect him. Pierce's heart sank deeper than it ever had before.
His depression quickly became the fuel to ignite a bonfire of rage as red as the sun above. He lost track of the moments as he began to cut through the Underlanders like a thresher through wheat. His became a world of limbs, and blood, and liquid bone. Even when he slipped in the gory muck, he managed to lash out and slay whoever was unfortunate enough to be near. He had a recollection later of one of the bounding shadows coming in to attack. It was a male of the race, like gen but black where they were grey. He had childlike features similar to Ess's, and a bearing full of confidence that also reminded Pierce of her. If the dark gen had been possessed of magic, he might have been a match for Pierce, but he was merely a skilled fighter and acrobat, and Pierce cut into his heart, melting the bone of his ribs.
He thought, how dare they? Why try to take Overland from those to whom it belonged? Why this evil? If they would not back down, they must be slain.
Pierce came to the end of a swath of destruction, having created a lull in the battle by killing so many gen. There was sound - he must have gotten away from Scythia, unless she had been harmed. He came back to himself and scanned the area around the tower. Ess's orange orbs were swirling about, shooting gen through their hearts. So Ess was okay, despite the fall from above. There was Agrathor, jaws open in a piercing cackle, launching streams of lightning from his skeletal fingers. Gen tried to flee, but the electricity moved among them as if they were made of metal, burning into their backs and out their eyes.
Scythia was indeed far off, but on her feet and toppling another obelisk. Where was Axebourne? And the First? And Sev? Pierce spun and looked toward the tower's outer gate. The huge forgemaster was there, swinging a long iron bar into the ranks of approaching gen. His face was impassive, as if he were calmly exterminating vermin. How did he feel about slaying his former countrymen?
This had to end. Where was the enemy commander? Pierce could see no evidence of an officer.
Must he go and slay every last one of them for this to stop?
The ground had been rumbling this whole time, and now it shook in earnest, knocking even Pierce off balance.
A black pillar broke the surface of the ground. More than a pillar, slightly rounded on top and as thick as the tower of Chasmverge itself. There were ridges engraved in the black shape's surface like the prints of a finger.
Pierce's heart stopped. Was that a finger?
Three more towers emerged, another shortly after. The attacking gen and remaining werewolves began to flee. On the far side of Chasmverge, another five towers were rising, all thick and dark and ridged with those patterns like fingerprints. They flexed, bending to grip the earth.
It couldn't be, but it had to be. Pierce's mind couldn't grasp it well enough to admit what he knew was true. This was not a mega-Monstrosity, but something more.
What more can there be? Pierce thought. An ultra-Monstrosity...
There was a deafening series of cracks, pops and rumbles - sounds louder than anything Pierce had ever heard. The earth beneath him shuddered, lurched downward, sending his stomach into his throat. What his body thought was solid ground tilted downward toward the Chasm. The tower's annex came off its supports and tumbled into the dark, taking who knew how much of Eff's knowledge with it. The main tower flared with the green light of its protective enchantment, trying to hold itself together. Gravity won the battle, and the tower snapped halfway up. Green light flared again, dimmed into nothingness, and the stone blocks of the ancient structure began to cascade away into the void.
There was a final jolt, and Pierce entered a seemingly endless freefall, down and away from the red light of the sun.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Deeper
Blackness like he'd never seen. A deep, utter, all-enveloping absence of light.
How far had he fallen? He knew his body had grown tough, but how had he survived? It was a miracle that nothing had crushed him. Curse his bad luck.
He lay on the ground waiting for his senses to come back to him. Slowly, they did.
Mostly he heard the thick silence of a lonely place. Every few seconds, liquid dripped somewhere far off. The dark world smelled musty, but cold. It was cold, wasn't it? The chill had gotten into his armor, numbing his skin. He couldn't see anything.
He did have a light, though.
Carefully, as if afraid he might break himself, Pierce sat up. He felt around him to make
