Bone Lord 3

forward on its huge, grotesque limbs and tried to smash me again with the pillar. Again I dodged the blow, but only just. One of these strikes would be enough, it would be all over. I jumped back and goaded the Blood Demon into coming forward for another attack—and when it did, it was finally in the position I wanted it to be in. Only one of my undead oblates was still alive by now; he’d survived long enough to serve one final purpose. He’d have to shift his attention from one target to another one, though. Instead of launching his strike of black lightning at my uncle—who was on his knees now, most of his armor lying in broken pieces around him—I directed the oblate’s black lightning at the ceiling above the gigantic Blood Ogre. It struck the ceiling immediately, and the whole thing came crashing down in an avalanche of stones and dust, all over the Blood Ogre. The creature was flattened beneath a few dozen tons of broken rock. Like all its pals, it had been splattered—perhaps not the most honorable of deaths, but if they left me no choice but to splotch them to death, splotch them to death was what I would do.

I stepped back and glared across the pool of blood at my uncle.

“Now it’s just you and me, fucker,” I snarled. “Let’s finish this!”

Chapter Thirty-Four

“I knew I should have just killed you when you were a boy,” Rodrick growled.

Weirdly enough, it was just him speaking now; his voice didn’t sound like a hundred warriors chanting together. Also, his eyes were no longer solid red; they had returned to their usual color. Had my zombie oblates managed to blast his connection to the Blood God out of his body? Was he now just a man, severed from his merger with the evil deity? If so, that would make this fight a cinch for me.

“I knew you would be trouble down the line,” he continued, “but even so, you’re not strong enough to stop me, not now.”

I started approaching Rodrick, who was still on the opposite side of the pool of blood. I took my time; I felt confident that I could beat my uncle anyway, and beating a frustrated uncle would be even easier—and more fun. I, slowly swung my kusarigama chain around as I connected it to the power of the zombies outside. They were still packed tight in the door of the temple, fighting off Rodrick’s army, who were struggling to force their way inside. I began to walk toward Rodrick, who was on the opposite side of the pool of blood.

“It’s strange that you should talk about me not being strong enough. Yeah, you lying, cowardly sack of shit—I noticed that you’re no longer referring to yourself as a ‘we’. Where’s your buddy the Blood God now? It seems to me that you’re nothing but a man again, Rodrick—a weak, broken old man who doesn’t stand a fucking chance against a god. I’m gonna rip you limb from limb, you sack of rancid jizz, and I’m gonna tear your—”

 Instead of cowering, however, my uncle threw his head back and laughed. Again, it was the weak, reedy laughter of a mere man; gone was the thunderous roar of the Blood God’s voice.

“What are you laughing about, you little bitch?” I roared, quickening my strides as I neared him, eager to unleash my vengeance. “I’ve won, you’ve lost. You’re about to die very, very painfully and very, very slowly. I’m about to wipe that fucking grin off your face—”

“Your undead creatures almost killed me, Vance—almost. You’ve forgotten one very important detail. Time waits for neither men nor gods…and you’ve just run out of it.”

I followed his gaze, which was focused on a window high up near the domed ceiling, and through it, I saw the first sliver of the rising sun cresting the jagged peaks of the mountains. The sun was red…blood red.

“Oh, shit,” I gasped, willing the Bone Bow into my hands.

As quickly as I moved, however, my uncle moved faster. I was still too far off. He dived through the air in a desperate leap, his curved dagger in his hand, and buried it hilt-deep between Lucielle’s ribs. The goddess’s eyes bulged with shock and pain as the long blade sliced through her innards, and she staggered and swayed on rapidly weakening legs, before she flopped forward onto the ground. The gag burst out of her mouth, and with it a gush of blood…blood that started trickling toward the pool. I knew that if the blood made it into that red lake, all hell would break loose.

I fired two quick shots with the Bone Bow at Rodrick, to immobilize him before he could do anything else. One blew off his left shin, the other took off all his right forearm. He screamed and collapsed, the stumps of his severed limbs spurting blood, but even as he howled in agony, he managed to laugh, his crazed eyes locked on the sight of the goddess’s blood running toward the pool.

“No!” I roared, sprinting as fast as I could around the rim of the pool as the trail of blood from Lucielle crept inexorably closer to the edge.

I saw the blood running closer and closer as I ran, and I finally launched myself into a flying dive at full speed, hitting the ground and then sliding on my belly, my hand outstretched.

But I was too late. My hand slid through the trail of blood, blocking it…but not fast enough to stop one drop from rolling over the edge and dropping into the pool. The moment that single drop hit the rest of the pool, the entire Temple of Blood started to shake with furious violence, as if a gigantic earthquake had suddenly started. The force of it lifted me up off the ground and hurled me against a wall.

Half-stunned, I struggled to my feet, and saw the entire pool of blood boiling and