“Stop! Never mind! Stop! Regroup.” Seraphine got up and stomped a foot when she saw her commanders being damaged. The confused monsters scattered to the sides of the room as the tornado dissipated.
“I killed you! My snake was supposed to eat your lifeless body.” Seraphine put her hands on her hips and glared at Ashiyn.
Ashiyn stalked toward her. “You moron. I am immortal. I told you that. All you accomplished was to make me angry and waste my time. Give me back my blade, and maybe I’ll consider making your death quick.”
Seraphine rolled her eyes as her magic started to form around her like a mist. “Such arrogance! I am the ruler of this world. You can’t kill me. No one can.” She strode down to them and threw all the power of her magic at him to flick him away like an insect.
Her magic met the wall created by Ashiyn’s magic, and while he slid back a few steps, he managed to deflect the blow. “I’m arrogant? You’re a mermaid with delusions of world domination!”
“They’re not delusions, lover! I have dominated the world. And mermaid? How dare you! I am a naga!” Seraphine closed the distance between them and somehow managed to erode enough of a hole in his shield to slap him across the face.
Ashiyn gave her a shocked look before he growled and grabbed her arm and twisted it to the side viciously. “You lost the right to touch me, sea-wench.”
“Gods. Enough with the villain posturing already,” Ember grumbled from behind Seraphine. While they had been arguing, the half-elf had apparently retrieved his daggers. They flashed as he stabbed Seraphine in the back. “Why can’t you ever just kill each other and be done with it?”
She gasped and gurgled, collapsing under the attack.
Ashiyn watched as she slid down the front of him, clutching at his dark armor as his shield faded away. Then he glared at Ember. “I wasn’t finished with her.”
Ember smirked and pulled his daggers free, then whirled them around in his hands. “Can’t let you have control of her army when I can have it.”
Ashiyn watched Seraphine melt into a puddle of seafoam, then glanced at the army of monsters that started to surround him. “Ember, you know they can’t destroy me.”
“No, but they can buy me time to get what can.” Ember started to back away, still smirking. “Commanders! Destroy him!”
The monsters surged forward and attacked Ashiyn. The first wave flew back as Ashiyn used his magic to create an explosion outward from where he stood. Through the flood of enemies, he could see Ember running for the throne and the sword. “Soryn! Stop him!” Ashiyn called over the din. He wasn’t sure where the magus was, or if Soryn could hear him over the screams and snarls of the monsters attacking him.
These were no normal monsters. Each was a commander of a massive army and had gotten that position by being extraordinarily strong. Ashiyn fought as hard as he could, but the waves just kept coming. If he had not been killed and had to waste energy reviving, thanks to the sea-witch, he might have been able to fight them all. As it was, he was still recovering, and he could feel his strength failing.
“You will not have him!” Soryn’s voice boomed through the room as the he hovered above Ashiyn on massive, feathered wings. The brilliant magic surrounding him was so blinding it was impossible to look directly at him.
Every monster in the room screamed and clutched its head, stumbling back, away from Ashiyn. Ashiyn managed to throw his magic shield up again before the monsters around him exploded in a shower of gore. Not that he didn’t enjoy a good bloodbath, but it was a bit much at the moment. “Messy, Soryn.”
Soryn looked down at him, his eyes pure white with power. Then color drained from the magus’s face, and he landed next to Ashiyn, furling his wings. “I didn’t do that.”
I did, Sihtaar announced, though this time the sword’s voice echoed through the room instead of Ashiyn’s mind.
Ashiyn looked back to the throne. Ember lay eviscerated at the foot of Sihtaar, and the blade was rocking back and forth in place, crazy black lightning blasting from it throughout the room.
“No! We have to stop it!” Soryn said, but he was blown back across the room and crumpled against the wall.
“Silence. I’ve killed stronger angels than you, fool.” Sihtaar cracked apart and fell in pieces and from them, darkness bled into the room. The massive monster that crawled out of the remnants of the sword resembled a dragon and, as it entered the room, the fortress around them crumbled from the size of it. “On your knees before the terrifying god, Sihtaar!”
Ashiyn did not believe in retreat, but he decided a tactical advance to the rear was appropriate at this point. He was in no condition to battle a god, and he was concerned for Soryn. He fled over the stone balcony as it crumbled underneath him, only pausing to pick up Soryn. He let out a sharp whistle for Illusion as the last of the floor disappeared.
Illusion let out a stallion scream of challenge as he swooped under Ashiyn and caught them.
As they made their escape, the god-dragon let out a victorious roar that shook the entire planet.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Ashiyn didn’t go straight home. His magic told him Soryn was injured too grievously for him to heal alone. There was only one place he could think of to take his friend. He had not been to Sia’s cave in thousands of years, but he still remembered where it was, and instructed to Illusion fly directly to it.
Ashiyn slid
