There would be no point in hiding; whatever the Demogorgon was going to do would fill this space with unimaginably destructive energy, energy that no stone or wall could protect you from. I had to use a magical shield and hope that the power of Death was strong enough to resist it.
The only hope I had of surviving was to draw on the Death power of the many thousands of corpses buried under this temple; hopefully their lingering rage at having been murdered in the name of the Blood God would provide me with enough strength to survive what was coming.
I launched my spirit down into the soil, gathering every ounce of Death energy that was packed into the many layers of earth, going deep, all the way down to crumbling skeletons that were tens of thousands of years old, and others that were even older, ones whose bones had turned to stone. I gathered it all around me, spinning it around my spirit and whirling it up into a gigantic tornado, which I sucked up into my physical body. There was so much power in me that I thought I was going to explode, quite literally: blood was oozing out of my pores, and my veins were bulging like satiated earthworms through my skin. I was barely able to stay conscious, but I knew that I had to maintain my grip on the Death magic; using it was the only way I could survive. I needed a physical shield to channel it through, though, and I quickly realized exactly what I needed to do.
With a wordless shout I called up Bone Prisons, and immediately the huge ribs blasted out of the soil and closed like teeth around the slaves who were still alive. It wasn’t to trap them, though; it was to protect them. I called up one last Bone Prison around myself and Lucielle—who was still breathing, somehow—and then I channeled the immensity of the Death magic I had been holding in through the Bone Prisons, fortifying the ribs with this massive power.
At that moment, the Demogorgon was ready too, and without delay it unleashed its magic. Through the gaps between the ribs of my Bone Prison I saw a blinding bright light, tinged with red, and felt a tremendous force press against the Bone Prison from all sides, as if the weight of an entire planet had been dumped on top of it. The bones started to crack and splinter, but the Death magic that was fortifying them held fast against the brutal force. I could feel the Death magic being depleted, second by second, as the brightness of the red glow outside the Bone Prison increased in intensity. I was reeling on my feet now, weakening steadily, and knew that if the Demogorgon kept up its assault for just a few more seconds it would all be over.
But then, just when I thought I might actually pass out, and all my Bone Prisons would explode, the Demogorgon’s assault stopped. I didn’t know how or why—maybe the asshole had run out of power, maybe he thought I was dead—but it stopped, thank whomever, it stopped. Less of the Death magic was left in the earth below than I had used; one more of these assaults and we’d all be history. I had to take this motherfucker out right now.
I retracted the Bone Prison, but as soon as I saw what was outside I had to stop and stare. Everything behind me and around me was just gone. Thick pillars of stone had melted into lumps, as if they’d been wax candles. Walls had been liquefied, blown away like paper. The better part of the temple had been blown away, and there was a trail of rubble extending outward into the mountains going back a mile. Shit, I didn’t need the Lord of Light’s tear to destroy this place completely; the Demogorgon would do that on its own. It hardly needed a Temple of Blood anymore if it was about to take over the world…
Of course, in achieving my objective of destroying the temple, it would kill all of us too, and pretty much everything else in Prand, eventually. It was now three-quarters materialized, with its huge red legs formed down to its knees. Just its calves, ankles, and feet remained—and then it would be in this world for ever.
The ceiling, with all the hanging corpses, was still intact. However hopeless things seemed, I still had fuel. Using what strength still remained in me, I resurrected half of the hanging corpses as zombies. Yeah, this was desecrating innocent dead, but there was a greater need here, and I couldn’t afford to give much of a fuck about dignity right now. As I felt the Demogorgon summoning up power for another strike, I directed each zombie to grab a corpse with one hand, and then to rip both themselves and the corpses out of the meathooks from which they were suspended. They all did this, dropping from the ceiling in pairs. Those who could land on the Demogorgon did so, grabbing the creature’s scales with their free hand, and holding on with their zombie strength, while other pairs of zombies and corpses splashed into the boiling blood. These I directed to swim over to the materializing Demogorgon and climb up its legs.
The titanic creature roared and writhed as my corpse-trailing zombies covered it like swarming termites, but it did not try to swat them off; its mind was focused on delivering another smite of immense power, which I could feel was about to be unleashed. I couldn’t wait a second longer—I had to strike now, before the Demogorgon did.
I called up protective Bone Prisons again, and filled them with the last of the Death magic from the earth. Only, this time they would not be protecting me
