She started walking away again. Pierce, Ess, and Sev had caught up.
"If I have to torture and interrogate every last one of his minions," Scythia continued, "I will do that. Let the blood flow, let their bruises pulse as their hearts beat fear into their veins. I myself will send them to be trod upon the Glorious Paths, and when I meet the Blacksmith, he will congratulate me."
Even in a calm state, there was no arguing with Scythia, so Agrathor fell back with the others and gave them the closest thing he could to a bewildered look. His flame eyes went round and dim.
No one had any words for her, but they were still Gorgonbane. They would march forward together, though the dark remained deep, and they had no idea where they were.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
As Expected
Kash had folded back up to Testadel after ordering the sacking of Chasmverge. Ugrata had suggested sending a squad of her elites to make sure the job got done, and he had agreed this would be prudent.
Everything had gone as expected.
Even the First Grand Master had not the power to both repel a direct assault from ground troops, and defend himself from the unprecedented attack of the ultra-Monstrosity from below.
Kash laughed. He would have loved to see that thing in action, but he hadn't wanted to be in range of revenge. The day he'd discovered his faithful giants' elder brothers, well, it had been a real turning point for his plans. So much had been made possible by the ultras.
He stood on the balcony of a high minaret overlooking the fortress and the ruined city outside it. Gen and humans were working together to clean up the wreckage and rubble, carting anything that could be reused to various staging areas, and the rest to designated dumps and pyres. So far, most of the humans were cooperating, and for this Kash was thankful. The ones that resisted incorporation were sent to the prisons and isolated. He much preferred their willing assistance to anything compulsory, like slavery. If all continued to go well, a new city would be built where Grondell had once stood, with Testadel as its heart.
He really only expected pushback when it came to the worship of their Blacksmith god. That, too, would be straightened out with time. Kash's advisors had recommended a policy of syncretism, to which the Underlord had reluctantly agreed. Anything was worth it to get everyone working together for a common goal.
They had to be ready, all of them, for what was coming next. Divided, they would certainly fall to the powers of falselight rising from below. United, however, they would have a chance not only to resist and survive, but thrive in the new world that was coming, and expand the light of the known world into those dark regions as yet unseen.
Kash sighed. If the First had listened, things might have been easier. If he had listened when Kash had visited him... Well, it wasn't worth dwelling on. Things were done that could not be undone. The Second might come for him, but he thought not. From what he knew of her, she was fairly impassive in her old age. Most likely she would continue to keep her own counsel, plumbing the depths of the Theory and the Chasm until she was satisfied with the powers she discovered, or until death finally came.
The rest of Gorgonbane - they would come for certain, those who survived the ultra-Monstrosity's attack anyway. He wouldn't know who had lived through the long fall until they were seen by his forces, or they simply showed up on his doorstep. When that happened, though, Kash would be ready.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The Glorious Path
Axebourne awoke in a field of crystal-clear grass. It bent and swayed in the wind, refracting the light of the white sun, shedding rainbow glints of light into the air like physical things. He couldn't even name all the colors he saw. The sky here was blue, and for a moment he thought that the First's grand enchantment must have succeeded, that it had done something to fundamentally alter the world, far beyond simply coloring the sky.
Then he remembered his death.
He recalled the fierce pain of asphyxiation, and a feeling like his body was being bruised everywhere at once. He saw again the bright explosion, felt again the shock at Eff's failure a moment before. He saw the face of the supra-gen who had murdered him. A face with no name. The face of the First beyond it, contorted with the same pains Axebourne had been suffering. He had failed to protect Eff from assassination, and now the First was likely dead as well. He might even be around here somewhere.
He saw and felt all these things, but he felt no anger, or remorse, or fear. It had happened as it was meant to, and he knew that when he looked, there would be a new path before him.
Axebourne sat up and looked around himself. He'd been lying in the shade of a tree, a glorious thing with bright pink leaves and a pure white trunk. Scythia would have loved it, to recline against his chest in its shade.
Scythia. He felt the memory of sadness at the thought of the sorrow she must be feeling. Yet he smiled slightly. She would take his death far better than he would have taken hers. He might very well have cast himself into the Chasm if she died. He didn't know how time flowed here, compared to the world of first life, but he wouldn't be surprised if his murderer was already dead, avenged by his wife of so
