Valen watched with delight as M’Randa took the Sword of Heaven and scampered away with that young man down the main hallway. He was winning and he knew it. He had known it all night, even when the Soul of Heaven had taken on thirty ellgru at once. Watching her had been impressive, if frustrating. The Soul of the Vessel had leapt from one table top to another, swiping at the demonspawn with her glowing weapon so quickly she was almost a blur. She took a head here, limbs there, and gnal wings during a twirling jump. When they all decided to pounce on her at once, she actually threw the so-called sword in a spinning arc through the air. When it had returned to her hand a moment later, she had separated most of the budmother’s children from their heads.

  True, the budmother had lost many children this night; unlike those who had been incapacitated and burned on the crystal-infused fence, demonspawn dispatched by the Sword of Heaven did not regenerate. Permanently losing a child was the only thing that really caused the amorphous black being from the Void to feel pain. But despite that, the Angel with the metal skull was confident he had already won. Because Valen had a secret weapon: the minox.

  Hundreds of the phantombats had sneaked into the crystal temple in the past two days. The shadowy demonspawn did so by hiding in carts, under barrels, and even by attaching themselves to people’s clothes and shoes as they had entered the large building. Now, they were secreted throughout the Great Hall. They crouched in dark corners and gloomy places under tables and chairs. As doors had opened throughout the prior night and day, they had crept deeper into the mansion. Now, they whispered to Valen from their hidden perches, showing him what they saw and telling him what they heard. His Angelic mind was able to piece together all these visions and voices into one seamless view of temple. Valen now knew everything that was happening in the Main Hallway, the World Room, the Sky Room, other more hidden rooms, and in every connecting corridor.

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  Including the door to the mines.

  The Necromancer’s apprentice called silently to the dozens of ird who stood in wait in the courtyard. He watched through the eyes of the minox until nearly all of the humans were in the mines—all walking right into his trap. He could also see M’Randa and her young companion scurrying down the hallway towards the others. Valen could not risk the Soul entering the mines—her abilities and her weapon could undo his trap. So, before she could reach the mine doors, he commanded the rock trolls to demolish the building, just before the doorway to the mines.

  The maneuver worked out much better than he had planned. Not only did the collapse of the temple’s hallway split M’Randa from the humans, it drove the final Hylanders into the mines where they shut the doors. Once they had done so, Valen told the ird to destroy the rest of the hallway, piling tons of rock rubble against the doors. Now, there was no retreat from the mines. There was no escape from the dozens of demonspawn he had hidden within. The humans were already dead. They simply didn’t know it yet.

  Now the Necromancer’s apprentice could focus his attention on trapping and destroying the Soul of Vessel. And once he had delivered her heart to Nilrem, his master could take the body of the crystal witch who lie in state within the temple. He already knew where she lay.

  His phantombats had been watching her for two days.