Cade witnessed a speechless god, and it was a sight to behold.
The divine incarnation before him stood, and for the first time since meeting her, the goddess that reigned over this city appeared small. Old. Frail. Though she was undeniably a creature of unimaginable power, this deity was a liar.
A fake.
Many of the puzzle pieces that had refused to fit in his mind settled into place. She was not Life. The revelation hit him, though it was nothing compared to the manic denial he saw grip Meadow. The petite wood elf trembled in place, whimpering as she shook her head side to side in frenetic jerks.
“No, no, no,” Meadow kept whispering.
Cade wanted to approach her—to hold her tight and help her process this earth-shattering news about her Mistress, but he was not afforded such a luxury as Creation screamed, and he was thrown back along with several tons of debris.
“YOU BITCH!”
The goddess of Creation spat with enough vitriol to drown most sovereign nations.
“YOU ALWAYS RUIN EVERYTHING, DESTRUCTION! I WILL BURY YOU BACK IN THAT HOLE FOREVER! I WILL WATCH AS MY VINES TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB FOR ETERNITY! I WILL GROW A FRESH COLONY OF POISONOUS SHRUBS IN YOUR EYE SOCKETS AND SLEEP TO THE RHYTHM OF YOUR SCREAMS!”
Creation wobbled precariously where she floated, her golden dress torn and frayed in a dozen spots. The goddess opposite her—Destruction herself—watched on with an impatient eyebrow raised at the divine tantrum.
“WRONG. YOU WILL WATCH AS I RIP THIS CITY TO THE GROUND, YOU MISERABLE CHILD.”
Destruction raised her hand and deflected a dozen thorned roots that spiked out from the crumbling floor as if from nowhere. They sizzled and burned into charred husks, and heat rolled off of Destruction in a thick blanket that spread over the entire arena.
Cade stood unsteadily and watched this deity repel such powerful attacks with ease.
She wasn’t even trying yet.
Creation’s eyes flickered to Cade and his recovering team.
“NOT BEFORE I KILL THAT CHILD OF RUIN AND USE HIS SOUL AS THE FIRST LINK IN THE CHAINS I WILL BIND YOU WITH!”
Creation lunged for him, leaves and vines rushing toward his team by the thousands. He had never seen so much power pointed in his direction. It was a tsunami of plants, with tens of thousands of thorns the size of his forearm all intent on ripping him and his crew apart.
Yet just as quickly, Destruction blurred in front of him, and a wall of magma taller than the crystal tower erupted from the floor in a perfect crescent around them. Destruction strolled forward, her lean hips swaying slightly as she came to stand in front of Cade. Her eyes roiled with fire and storms and tidal waves in an endless cascade of change.
Neither moved nor blinked for several eternal moments.
Eventually, Destruction leaned in and tilted her chin in the direction of Cade’s team.
“ARE THEY YOURS?”
Cade could smell sulfur and fresh rain and smoke drift off her body as if she were all those things and more. So much more.
It took him a second to respond, his throat dry and sticky all at once. “Yes. They are mine, and I am theirs.”
She nodded once, and Cade felt the ground beneath them shudder and bend.
“Wait!” The young thief shouted before he could regain control over his senses. “Where are you going?”
Destruction met his gaze one last time.
“IT’S TIME MY SISTER REMEMBERED HOW I EARNED MY NAME.”
The goddess stepped through the wall of magma, and it sputtered to a halt. On the other end, Creation’s hands were raised as countless vines sought purchase through the barrier of lava. When she saw her sister, a manic grin spread across her rosy cheeks.
“GIVEN UP, HAVE YOU? SURRENDER NOW, AND I MIGHT JUST DRILL A HOLE IN YOUR CAGE SO THAT A FRESH BREEZE SWEEPS THROUGH ONCE EVERY FEW DECADES.”
Creation taunted her sister while she swept some of her slightly charred hair out of her face, the laurel crown drooping farther and farther off of her brow.
Destruction didn’t respond. Instead, a burst of wind shot out from her feet and propelled her instantly forward. She tackled Creation. The two goddesses slammed against the arena’s magical dome, and it shattered without slowing either of them down in the slightest. Destruction raised her hand and punched into the row of seats where they crashed.
The entire Colosseum shook.
“IT’S TIME YOUR CITY KNEW THE TRUTH, DON’T YOU THINK?”
What little remained of the arena’s structural integrity failed then. As it did, the mortar and sandstone gave way to bones clattering to the ground from all around them. Skeletons of all shapes and sizes—primarily humanoid—started to drop to the ground, many in various stages of undress and decay, with tattered rags and rusted pieces of armor clinging to their broken forms.
Cade’s mouth filled with bile.
An anger he’d managed to subdue in the Lifekeeper Vaults rose within him all over again, and this time he didn’t try to control it. This was wrong. This was all so very, very, wrong. There was only one place they could’ve gotten all these bodies where no one would investigate.
The Tournament of Life.
Except it wasn’t the Tournament of Life. It was the Tournament of Creation, who had proved herself a liar and a charlatan. She had used it to keep her sister locked away for all this time.
Screams from beyond the arena arose all throughout the nearby city streets as the lion’s share of dried corpses poured from every window and corridor in the arena. The clatter of bones echoed like a mighty thunderstorm all around them.
Creation bellowed a fierce war cry at her sibling, her jaw unhinging a bit too wide to be natural. The air rippled again, and thick tree branches shot out of the ground. A few of them speared through some of the previously hidden audience members that had taken refuge among the countless rows of seats. With each death, the green leaves of the Oakthorn tree brightened ominously.
Destruction raised her hands, and storm clouds spiraled around her form. Lightning crackled across the pillar of wind and rain, answered by the deafening boom of thunder. She flew toward her sister, the air parting in fear at her crackling approach.
The two goddesses collided and Destruction grasped a handful of her sister’s luminescent hair. With a movement that bordered on dismissive, the goddess of storms twisted and threw Creation into a building several blocks away. A satisfied grin spread over Destruction’s molten face right before she gave chase, and their divine fight launched into the city.
To have that much power at her disposal was mind-boggling, but Cade’s thoughts were interrupted when he saw a scarred man emerge from the mirage of heat and dust kicked up by the divine duel.
“You incompetent little rat,” Hugh growled as he stalked toward Cade. “You ruin everything you touch, you know that?”
Cade watched as his old mentor raised his hands and tossed a small octagonal object onto the ground between them, but Cade didn’t get a chance to see what it could do.
Fire and lightning crackled and smashed into the arena all around them, and Cade felt the sandstone shift as an earthquake rumbled beneath his leather boots. His gaze flitted through the smoke and dust and saw that every member of his team was experiencing a similar phenomenon.
The earth quivered and broke apart, and each of them was whisked away on a different large stone as the arena continued to fall down around them. More skeletons tumbled to the coliseum’s floor, but they were sped away on these impromptu platforms as the earthquake continued to intensify. Cade saw that every member of his team had their own tiny haven from the intense tremors, but his heart sunk when he noticed that Hugh’s team had managed to jump onto several of his crew’s exiting oases.
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Hugh and what remained of his crew fought for dominance on their precarious perches. Cade felt Destruction’s magic at work within the stones that helped them flee the falling debris. She was clearly following through on her commitment to help him and his crew leave this falling city alive, but now they had Hugh to deal with.
Again.
Cade crouched low and fought to stay upright on the shifting slab of sandstone beneath him. Wails and cries of horror and pain enveloped the city as more districts were turned to fodder in the wake of the goddess’ skirmish. The treehouses bent and snapped as Destruction cleaved through them to catch her retreating sister. Creation, for her part, poured her magic into growing countless vine webs and rocky spires to slow her huntress down.
None of it worked.
Destruction was more than just a force of nature. She was a vengeful predator, and nothing would stand in her way.
Cade’s eyes darted back and forth, trying to follow the heavenly combat while also not becoming a Cade-shaped smear on the cosmic roadway. The stone platform beneath him bucked and weaved in a drunken fashion, making staying upright a nearly impossible task.
A low arch loomed ahead, silhouetted against plumes of noxious black smoke. Cade didn't think—he just moved, throwing himself flat as crumbling cobblestones whooshed past where his head had been moments before. The breeze ruffled his hair, a gentle reminder of how close he'd come to an impromptu haircut, courtesy of the apocalypse.
He scrambled to his feet, only to have a concentrated blast of wind slam him back down. His head whipped back, smashing his skull on the unforgiving stone with a jarring crack that sent stars dancing across his vision.
The wind slammed into him again. The force sent him flying, but the platform—seemingly with a mind of its own—adjusted its trajectory and caught him.
He would have to thank Destruction for that later.
Behind him, a small tornado was catching up, twin arms of debris and wind shoving obstacles aside with controlled jets of air. A swirling glow emanated from near its top, and Cade could barely make out a grizzled face in the eye of the rapidly approaching storm.
Hugh.
He rode this wind-elemental with supernatural ease. The circlet he’d received from the Trials glowed brightly atop his brow, and Cade cursed. The circlet let Hugh control an air elemental, sure, but Cade had been banking on the man never finding one. Between kidnapping his sister and otherwise ruining their lives at every step, Hugh had taken the time to call in a few favors and get an elemental summoning stone. They were freakishly difficult to make, and even more illegal for just this reason. It was a conjurable storm with a petty attitude.
Hugh scowled at him and raised a pointed finger in his direction. The wind-elemental sped up. Cade tried to dodge the tornado’s sudden burst of speed with a blast of his own scalding wind, but the creature only grew in size and vehemence as it absorbed his attack.
Oops.
Cade rolled out of the way just as Hugh reached the platform. The man stepped out of the elemental tornado as if it were a chariot, and he walked casually toward Cade while rolling up his sleeves. The circlet on his head still glowed, but Cade couldn’t see where the air elemental had gone.
Not good.
“You could’ve been so much more, Cade!” Hugh yelled over the wind as their platform carved its way through the city below. “You could’ve been great, but you refused to listen! Refused to fall in line, and for what? For those incompetent fools you call a team? They’ll always hold you back!”
“Is that why you betrayed us?!” Cade screamed back even as he scanned for options.
“You really are an idiot, boy!” Hugh bellowed. “To think I believed I’d found my heir when I picked you and that annoying bitch up from Eldrin’s slums. At least Fenwick shows promise!.” Hugh met his gaze, every vestige of paternal affection Cade had seen there was gone. “You will never be more than an anecdotal joke to my story, Cade Stormhollow.”
Cade felt like he’d just been slapped—which made the actual blow to his head hurt even more.
It had come so fast that he hadn’t been able to track it, and the last thing he saw as he plummeted off the platform was the air elemental smashing it to bits.
There was nothing to catch Cade now.
As he plummeted toward the ground, he turned around so that he was facing the distant cobblestone streets. A mistake, probably, given the way it made his stomach churn to see the buildings approaching so quickly.
With a roar of effort, he summoned the magic from his core and focused his full concentration on the air around him. His scalding wind responded to his call, swirling and coalescing beneath his falling form.
Despite his best efforts, the ground rushed up to meet him with alarming speed. Not fast enough to kill him, thanks to his magic, but fast enough to still hurt like all four hells.
He braced himself for the worst.
The impact sent shockwaves through his body, rattling his bones and driving the air from his lungs. Pain exploded in every limb, a symphony of agony that threatened to overwhelm his senses. He was alive—battered and bruised, but alive.
Cade lay there, gasping for breath as his vision swam. The world around him blurred and twisted, stars dancing across his field of view. He blinked hard, trying to clear the haze that had settled over his mind.
As his senses slowly returned, he became aware of a new sound—heavy footsteps, growing louder with each passing moment. Cade turned his head, wincing at the effort, and saw a massive figure lumbering toward him. Its outline was hazy, but there was no mistaking the menace in its approach. It was too big to be Hugh, and yet seemed to carry itself like him.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Cade willed his battered body to move. His muscles screamed in protest as he pushed himself up, first to his knees, then shakily to his feet. The world tilted and spun around him, but he fought to maintain his balance.
The approaching figure grew clearer with each step, its features coming into focus as it closed the distance between them. Cade squinted, trying to make out the details through his blurred vision. With a start, he realized it wasn’t just his silver-ranked eyesight playing tricks on him. There was a humanoid figure, yes, but inside the swirling outline was his old mentor.
With trembling hands, Cade readied himself for whatever came next. His magic was depleted, his body battered, but his spirit remained unbroken. If this was to be his last stand, he would face it on his feet, defiant to the end.
“Pathetic,” Hugh said, his voice distorted from the vortex.
The figure stopped right in front of him and set its hands on its waist. The traitorous man kicked him hard in the stomach without warning, the blow so fast that he barely registered it before he was once again sent flying.
Cade fell to the ground again, his body aching from the agony of it all.
But he had to know.
“Why are you in the tournament, Hugh?” Cade coughed as he tried to shake the ribbons of pain snaking through him. “Why go through all this trouble? What could you possibly want with Scorn’s Remnant anyway?”
Sure, this wasn’t really the time for this conversation, but a part of him needed this question answered. He had repressed the pain of this wound for far too long now, and he could already tell only one of them was walking away from this fight alive. Cade stirred his core into motion, fire crackling just beneath his fingertips.
“You haven’t figured it out yet?” Hugh laughed and circled Cade, kicking him a second time just for fun. “A person can’t awaken their core twice. I was rushed, shall we say, when I had mine awakened, but I will forever be stuck at silver rank. That Remnant was going to be my chance to make a name for myself through one of you. But when you made it clear that the others were more important to you than power, I had to find a better vessel for my plans. The irony is that you still can’t see how much you’ve tried to follow in my footsteps even as I’ve tried to remove you from mine.”
“What?” Cade got out, and this time he didn’t have to pretend to be surprised.
Hugh shook his head and continued slowly pacing in a circle around him. “You absorbed the Remnant of Destruction. Endless potential. So many paths forward for your magic to develop, and what did you choose? A lesser version of my own damned magic. You chose wind, Cade. You chose me.”
By the four hells.
Hugh was right.
Cade struggled to breathe. The world felt like it was folding in on itself. His sweaty tunic clung to his chest as smoke rolled over from the street behind them. His eyes blurred as the horrifying truth of Hugh’s words slammed into his chest. He didn’t feel the next strike land.
The brick crashed against the back of Cade’s skull with bone-jarring force. Ordinarily, he would’ve sensed it coming, but Hugh's conjured wind was lost amidst the chaotic magical maelstrom. Cade’s senses, usually so attuned to arcane currents, were overwhelmed by the thunderous pulse of divine Destruction saturating the air.
The city of trees and Life burned around him, a cosmic pyre of shattered dreams and broken homes. Every instinct screamed at Cade to curl up and die, to shut out the wild bloodshed and desperate cries of fleeing civilians.
But he couldn’t.
He was just too damn stubborn to die.
“Still so sentimental.” Hugh’s voice cut through the mayhem. “It’s a luxury real men cannot afford.”
A clay vase, its surface adorned with Creation’s maternal visage, sailed through the air. It shattered against Cade’s left temple, sending him sprawling across the street.
Hugh stood tall, silvery tendrils of magic wafting off his body. His eyes, once warm with almost paternal affection, now gleamed with predatory intent.
“You always were too soft,” his former mentor continued. “Too… human.”
With a negligent wave of his hand, Hugh turned innocent roof tiles into instruments of death. They lanced toward Cade, a volley of clay arrows hungry for flesh. Hugh's circlet pulsed with malevolent energy, a beacon of ill will in the swirling maelstrom.
Cade rolled, narrowly avoiding impalement. He scrambled to his feet, blood trickling down his face.
“I’m not you,” he growled, voice raw with defiance. “I don’t live in your shadow anymore.”
Hugh’s menacing laughter echoed in the alleyway. “Oh, you naive child. You think you’ve escaped. But tell me, who taught you to survive? To kill? To steal?”
With a theatrical flourish, Hugh spread his arms wide. Smoke from burning buildings answered his call, enveloping him. The wind-elemental converged around him once more, this time as grotesque armor of gale and death.
“Everything you are, everything you believe in—it’s all because I made you that way,” Hugh snapped. “You're not merely living in my shadow, boy. You are my shadow. My finest creation. And it's time you remembered your place.”
Hugh launched forward, a tempest given form and murderous intent. Cade braced himself, drawing upon every lesson, every hard-won skill in his repertoire, to survive. This wasn't just a fight for survival.
With each clash of magic and will, he was forging his own path, carving out an identity separate from the man who claimed to have made him.
In that moment, as the city burned and gods waged war with each other, Cade made a choice that would echo through the ages.
What's the REAL reason Cade keeps getting back up after Hugh knocks him down?
