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50


Xavier!” Tobimar shouted triumphantly, and he heard the same shout in a smaller size from somewhere in the grass. “By the Seven and One, you’ve got the best timing!”

“Thanks, guys! Now that I’m here, let’s kick some real ass!”

Tobimar redoubled his efforts, and saw Kyri also swinging with renewed strength. With the addition of Xavier Ross, the tide had at least momentarily turned, and in a few moments, Kyri had a chance to deliver another tremendous flame-strike that temporarily cleared the surface.

“Kyri Vantage, Phoenix Justiciar of Myrionar, meet Xavier Uriel Ross, traveller from Zaralandar itself.”

She gave a quick bow. “Thanks and well come,” she said. “And I’ll have more thanks later. But now we have this problem to deal with. Tobimar, there’s something terribly wrong here. Those things can’t all be coming from some underground of the mansion.”

“No, you’re right.” The shadows were milling about, probably waiting for another set of creatures to become the leaders. Won’t be long. “And most would normally live aboveground, so I doubt it’s from some unexplored caverns beneath. We need to know where the source is.”

“On it,” Xavier said. “I’ll be back as fast as I can. You guys just stay alive, okay?”

He nodded, and grinned as he saw the momentary puzzled expression on Kyri’s face . . . puzzlement that turned to enlightenment as Xavier vanished.

A new surge of monsters, some the same, but now, others even more bizarre and alien, erupted from the underground. Kyri sent a blaze of flame against them, but this time a small reptilian thing sent a column of ice against the flame and an explosion of steam clouded the area in mist. “Can he really get past this mob?” she asked.

“I’m pretty sure he can,” Tobimar answered. “If we can hold out.”

“Charge forward,” she said.

The two did so. “What is your plan?”

“The corridor they are coming from looks narrower, as though we might be able to hold it—if we can clear out those that we are passing. If we can do that—”

“I understand. Of course, it could get us both killed.”

Tobimar almost stopped as they reached the edge. Looking down he saw what appeared an endless river of foes of monstrous shapes, twisted bodies, distorted features, and it was like a waking nightmare, or an entry into one of the Hells themselves. Some looked almost human, others like a malformed and debased Artan, or a monstrous centipede with taloned arms and the face of a madman.

But he did not stop, and his swords struck in unison with Flamewing. My reserves are running out, he realized, drawing upon them for strength and finding there was almost nothing left to give. A glance at Kyri showed her face was pale and the fire on her sword flickered momentarily. And she is new to this, channeling the power of the gods, and it has to be wearing on her as well.

Xavier, you’d better hurry!

Swing, chop, block, take another blow, leap over a falling body, parry and return-strike. His whole existence was blood and monsters and aching arms, leaden with exhaustion and pain, that he pushed to deliver just one more stroke, block just a single attack, then start the cycle again. Time seemed to be running faster, more creatures trying to surround them, to kill, from all directions, yet it was ticking by slower than the fall of congealing blood.

Kyri cursed and stumbled, nearly went down. He didn’t know how he did it, but somehow he was at her side, supporting her, beating back a half-dozen creatures with one sword as she recovered, and for a moment they stood back to back, and the bodies were piling around them like obscene cordwood.

“Found it! Get out of there, people!”

Xavier’s silver-green blades joined theirs and led them upward and out. “They’re coming through . . . I guess you’d say a portal, or something, in the basement of this place. There’s a way down to it from the mansion—a lot easier than fighting back against this tide!”

A scramble, tentacles grasping at his legs and Kyri’s, a quick slash of swords, up, and they were on the scorched earth of the clearing, rolling to their feet, running, a rustling, rattling, slithering horde behind them.

Through the front door of the mansion, skidding on the rugs and slick polished floors, but Xavier was leading them, swiftly, an open door with a lamprey-mouthed monster, cut down, then the three were running down a stairway, killing as they went, but here the mob had not begun to press. She saw why as they burst into an underground chamber, through a door which had obviously been opened by Xavier in his investigation.

The monsters marched out of an archway sixteen feet high, standing in the middle of a circle of symbols that made Poplock, now riding precariously on his shoulder, croak in consternation. “Oh, that’s bad bad news there.”

“No,” said Kyri, drawing herself up, even as the creatures noticed their presence. “That’s good news. Because now, no matter the cost, I know I can stop this. Keep them from me, and it will be over.”

“Do what she says!” Tobimar shouted to Xavier. “Believe me, she knows what she’s saying!”

His friend nodded, and they intercepted the things together. Behind, he heard the girl’s clear, certain voice.

“Myrionar, God of Justice and Vengeance, I, the Phoenix, last and first true Justiciar, call one last time this day on your power. To my sword and body give the strength, to my blade the power, to sunder stone and shatter spells that bring forth monsters against my homeland and yours.” Brilliant gold light shone from behind them, casting their shadows towering and dark over the monstrosities before, and for the first time he saw uncertainty and hesitation in those creatures, a drawing back.

“I take unto myself all the power you can give,” Kyri said, and her voice was louder, more powerful, and filled with iron faith, though there was the tone of pain and exhaustion, someone pushed to her very limits, “and I shall release it, to protect my allies, to destroy our enemies, and in the name of my brother I call for it—RION’S VENGEANCE!

A blade of unbearable brilliance smashed outward, precisely between Tobimar and Xavier. The Vengeance Blade did not pause or dim or slow as it passed through body after body of the monsters. It struck the mystical circle about the gate and for an instant that circle flared green and black, as though to defend what lay behind, but that magic, powerful though it must have been, could not withstand the absolute force of a god’s power, and the circle shattered in poisonous emerald shards of power. Vengeance Blade and summoning Archway met in a cataclysmic flare of opposition, a detonation that blew Tobimar from his feet, blinded him, sent Poplock tumbling away.

He dragged himself to his feet, blinking furiously. Shapes and mist slowly came into focus, as he came to full guard. But then he slowly lowered his blades.

The archway lay in shattered, almost unrecognizable pieces; ash and scattered limbs were all that remained of the monsters, and scorchmarks were visible up the tunnel, as far as he could see, showing that Myrionar’s Vengeance was complete and total; none of the creatures had escaped.

“Whoa,” Xavier said in a tone of awe.


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