The Dread Overlord propelled itself forward.
In this place, I could see the stone for what it really was, a mere shell, a container, harnessing a violent reaction of raw physics and possibility. Four hundred years ago, a combination of dark wizardry and powerful alchemy had bound it to the shell, letting just enough leak so that it could be used as a shield against the forces of the other side. Franks had prearranged all of the numbers on the sphere using his creator's mathematical codes. It was ready.
The Dread Overlord was right on top of us. I would never make it in time.
My fingers sunk into the stone as I wrenched it apart. The field fragmented and energy lanced through the spreading cracks. I let go of the stone and it floated away from me, power building toward a cataclysmic reaction.
'Take my hand!' Julie… She had come after me. I reached toward her voice. 'Hurry!' Then she grabbed me, pulling me down the chain, back to the real world.
The container shattered. Unleashed, a blue tidal wave of linear time invaded the reality of the Dread Master. If consuming me was a jelly bean's worth of bad health to it, then this was the equivalent of suck-starting a double-barreled 12-gauge. The yellow eye focused on the approaching wall of deadly reality. Incompatible matter collided, splitting atoms and releasing energy in an algorithmic multiplying fury. Ageless infinity broke. Every bit of the ancient squid god became disjointed, fractured, down to the subatomic level. The galaxy quivered.
The Dread Master simply… ruptured.
The explosion billowed outward, consuming planets.
I gasped for air.
There was dirt under me, real honest-to-goodness dirt. Flat on my back, lying in the center of the now solid stone circle, the Tree blotted out the sky above. Gunfire and explosions came from all around. A ten-foot-tall ogre lumbered past, on fire. I was never so glad to be home.
One of my arms was stretched out. Someone was holding my hand. My head hurt and I was so dizzy that it took me a moment to roll over and see who it was.
'Julie?' I whispered. She was lying facedown, perfectly still, but she had a death grip on my hand. 'Julie?' Slowly, she took a deep breath, then finally raised her head. Tears stained her cheeks. 'You came after me…'
Julie smiled weakly. 'Well, duh.'
'Thank you,' I croaked.
She just pulled herself closer, resting her head against mine. 'Don't ever make me do that again.'
I didn't know if she meant the portal, or having me abandon her so I could sulk off to die. She'd had the courage to follow me someplace that nobody should ever have to go and had dragged me back out. 'Deal.'
'Ever again…'
Something stirred at my feet. Franks sat up abruptly. He looked around slowly before staggering to his feet. 'Never killed anything that big before,' he said, sounding almost, but not quite, proud of himself. 'It was… satisfying.'
We had killed an actual Old One. We'd blown up the Dread Overlord!
'Is it really dead?' Julie asked.
Franks didn't answer. He just pointed.
Illuminated only by the burning remains of the shoggoth, Hood was on his knees. His cowl lifted, revealing black-oil tears leaking from his eyes and dripping down his face. 'Oh, Master, what have they done to you?' he cried. Behind him, the undead automatons were not moving, frozen perfectly in place like statues. Then one by one, the joints began to give away, and they toppled, metal screeching, into the dirt. The High Priest's body seemed to wilt as the shadow energy dissipated from him.
With their animated troops falling apart and the source of their magic gone, the Condition forces were done for.
I got shakily to my feet and picked up Abomination.
My nemesis seemed to be choking, clouds of flies spewing from his mouth with every heave. He retched, and a dead leech thing fell out of his mouth, fading away into nothingness on impact. Shadowy shapes rose from him like steam, red eyes blinking, before drifting off in fear. Hood was being abandoned by all of the Old Ones' servants. I stopped directly in front of him. Above us, the Tree still loomed; the gunfire suggested MHI was still battling the now outmatched cultists, but this part here was my job to finish. 'Why?' He looked up, black fluids leaking from his nose and ears. The substance that had kept him immortal was dissipating. 'Why has he forsaken me?'
'Because he's dead.'
He gagged on the demon oil. 'Impossible.'
I shrugged. 'Shit happens.'
Hood was sobbing, shaking. He knew I was telling the truth. 'I studied them for so long. They couldn't be defeated. Their victory was inevitable. Inevitable! I couldn't stop them, nobody could. I sold my soul to protect this world.'
'You got a bum deal.'
'Then you come along… so stupid. So nonchalant about the ultimate gift you've been given. I had to work for my gifts. I had to bloody sacrifice. Fight and scrimp for every last bit of knowledge.' It was like his body was breaking down as the realization of defeat hit him. 'Your way could only end in blood and fire. My way led to utopia. I did what I had to do.'
'You're no martyr,' I said, cradling my shotgun. 'Don't tell me you did what you had to do. You did what you wanted to do.'
'Curse you, Pitt!' He surged to his feet, stumbling at me. His hands landed on my shoulders but his black eyes widened in surprise as Abomination's silver bayonet was driven through his chest. 'I… I …'
He rested his head on my shoulder and bled down my armor.
The funeral was on an appropriately rainy day. Grandmother stood at my side, never letting go of my hand, as Father and Mother's caskets were put in the dirt. The caskets were closed, since the acid of the thing inside the pentagram had burned their faces into nothing but strands of meat and jelly.
The priest continued his litany, droning on, saying the same thing that his ancestors had said since Martin Luther himself had last stuck men in the ground. Eventually he was done, and the sky over Birmingham erupted into a downpour. The pitiful few who had gathered for the ceremony bolted for safety.
The two of us stayed, watching the fresh dirt churn into mud. One old crone and one twelve-year-old child dressed in black, pathetic in the rain.
Grandmother bent down and whispered in my ear. 'Let them go, Martin.'
I shook my head, water running down my face.
She squeezed my fingers hard. 'Listen to me, child. Your father trifled with things beyond his understanding, and he paid dearly. Don't make the same mistakes he did. Let it go. I know he educated you in his dark ways and his dark books, but he was a fool.'
I thought about the thing coming out of the basement floor. Grandmother was the fool, not Father. He understood what was out there and he had passed that information on to me. The Elder Things didn't need to be feared, they just needed to be understood. And understanding could lead to control.
I could control them.
'Your parents reside with the devil now because of their terrible sins.'
'Yes, Grandmother.'
'I tried to burn your father's evil book, for your own good, of course, but it wouldn't burn. So I gave away all his things to those Americans who destroyed the creature. They said that they would put them someplace safe, where nobody else would meddle with them.'
Those were mine. 'Yes, Grandmother. What were those brave Americans called?'
'Monster Hunter International. You owe them your life, you know.'
'I know.' And they owe me my father's book… I vowed then on my father's grave that I would regain my birthright. Someday I would find these Monster Hunters and take back what was rightfully mine. 'Can we go home now, Grandmother? I'm very cold.'
'Yes, Martin.'
I jerked the bayonet out in a flash of red human blood.
Martin Hood let go, stumbled back, and pressed his hands against his chest. The blood just kept coming. He
