I called up my new spell, multiple corpse explosion, and instantly felt hundreds of threads all be connected to my fingertips—triggers for explosions that would all be detonated simultaneously. Then, with the last of my energy, I sent out the charge that would set it all off.
A shock wave ripped through the ground below me and blasted an incredible force against the Bone Prison inside which I and Lucielle were sheltering. Hundreds of corpses, all of which were stuck like ticks to the Demogorgon, detonated at once. Absorbing the force of the blast depleted all of the remaining Death magic, and after the explosion had torn through the temple, the Bone Prisons crumbled away.
Everything was a mess outside; more of the temple had been blown away, but so had the Demogorgon. The blood pool was no longer boiling, and the ancient demon was gone. It had been obliterated, splattered into chunks that were sprayed all over what pillars and walls had been left standing. The roof of the temple had been blown clean off, and daylight was now streaming into this foul place. The Blood Demons and the Bone Prisons in which they had been imprisoned had also been blown to smithereens.
I stared grimly at the pool of blood where the Demogorgon had just been standing.
“Fuck you, you piece of shit demon,” I growled, my fists clenched. “That’s what happens when you fuck with the God of Death.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
I looked down at my body, and it took me a while to register that I was actually still alive, as were the slaves and Lucielle. Lucielle, though, was only barely clinging to life. Her face was deathly pale, and her white dress was clinging to her body, saturated with blood. Now that the walls and roof had been blown off the Temple of Blood, I could hear the sounds of battle raging outside. But it wasn’t just my zombies fighting Rodrick’s troops now: I could hear my party fighting. They had finally arrived, and, from the sound of it, they were winning. Since I had nothing to worry about from the soldiers, I focused on Lucielle.
“You…did it,” she gasped weakly. “You stopped…Rodrick.”
“And I killed that fucking Demogorgon—or blew its ugly ass back to whatever pit it crawled out of.”
“Unfortunately for me, Vance…it’s too late,” she murmured, her voice barely audible. “Rodrick’s knife—the wound is mortal.”
“I’m sorry, Lucielle,” I said, cradling the goddess in my arms as she bled out. “I tried to get here as fast as I could. But I guess…I was too late.”
“You did everything…you could have done…but now…I must…”
She closed her eyes and breathed her last, and her body slumped in my arms.
Before I could do or say anything else, Rollar and Elyse came rushing in. Rollar’s Thunder Hammer was dripping with the blood of Rodrick’s troops, as was Elyse’s mace.
“Lord Vance!” Rollar shouted, racing through the rubble to get to me, followed closely by Elyse, who had a look of deep concern etched on her beautiful face. “Are you injured?”
“Tell me you’re safe Vance!” Elyse cried. “Please tell me you’re safe!”
I stood up, holding the dead goddess in my arms. “I’m fine,” I called out grimly, “but Lucielle…she didn’t make it.”
“What of your uncle, Lord Vance?” Rollar asked. “Did you kill him? And the Demogorgon? If the sacrifice went ahead at dawn…”
“It went ahead,” I said calmly, “and shit got a little crazy for a while…but I took care of things. You don’t need to worry about the Demogorgon, trust me. As for my jerkoff uncle, his shriveled head’s around here somewhere, with Grave Oath stuck in one of his eyeballs. The rest of him is mixed in with the rest of the minced meat splattered all over the walls.”
When Elyse caught up, she threw her arms around me, hugging my right side tight and planting kisses on my neck and cheeks.
“Thank the Lord you’re unharmed,” she said, tears of relief streaming down her cheeks. “When we saw the explosions from afar—”
“You saw both of them?”
“Yes. The first one was like a great explosion of blood-red light. We felt it from miles away, and the shockwave it sent through the ground and air was enough to throw us all from our mounts, even at that distance. We thought you had to have…had to have…died. The second was still incredibly powerful, but nothing like the first one. It reminded me of one of your corpse explosion spells, so when I saw that, hope bloomed anew. I hoped that, against all odds, this meant you were still alive.”
“Sadly, the Charm Goddess wasn’t as lucky as I was,” I muttered. “If I’d just moved a little faster, I could have saved her. Just a fraction of a second faster…”
“Lord Vance, you defeated both your uncle and a demon of the ancient world,” Rollar said. “That in itself is beyond what any man—even god—could have achieved. It is a tragedy that the Charm Goddess has passed, but you did the impossible: you stopped the Demogorgon from materializing fully after the ritual was started. Her death will not have been in vain.”
“Her death might not even be that final, Rollar,” I said, grinning. “Hell, she’s barely been dead for a few minutes—Xayon had been dead for way longer. And I did bring the Wind Goddess back, quite easily. So all I need is a willing body and I’ll be able to bring the Charm Goddess back too. And I think I have the perfect body in mind…First, though, we need to find Grave Oath. Help me look through the rubble and find it. How are the others doing?”
“Everyone is fine, Lord Vance,” Rollar answered. “They’re just mopping up the last of Rodrick’s troops outside. The battle is won.”
“Who are those people in the cages?” Elyse said as we started searching through the gore-spattered rubble for Rodrick’s head and Grave Oath.
“They were going
