Cedric clutched his chest. The battle had grown to a buzzing swarm all around him. Faunia was gone. Tirolith was dead. Dead, dead, not the faux Etherian death that they'd sensed was coming for them all.

  She was dead. Irreversibly. Even by dreams. Cedric knew this, because even as he desperately dreamt of her warm smile and kind gaze, she didn't return. No matter how hard he shut his eyes, willed her back to life... she was dead.

  "Hrraaaaaagh!" A cry cut the air over his shoulder. "Kag tine, des ta—"

  A thud cut the cry in half, dropped a body at his feet, blood drooling from the mouth. A dead Sylvet.

  Cedric looked back.

  It was just a Hunter who had saved him, one with a fierce gaze, messy brown hair... He almost reminded Cedric of himself. Younger. A memory of a memory.

  "King Lorik, please! You've got to get out of here!"

  Cedric smirked. "Is that who I am, now?"

  The Hunter looked unsure for only a moment before he was forced to turn away, his shield thrown up to deflect a sudden flurry from a Sylvet mace.

  Shwik.

  The Sylvet dropped dead. Cedric willed it, and it was so.

  The Hunter looked up at his king again.

  My allies, those who I've had by my side since the first... They're all gone, now. But that doesn't mean I'm alone.

  "Right, Serkukan?" he asked himself, asked of his chest.

  The demon could no longer reply. He'd finally succumbed to Cedric's will. Cedric had finally become his own being, had rid Serkukan of all impulse. He'd made him a scale upon himself. He'd become the Dragon King in the flesh.

  He thought of Kasian. He's escaped into the shadow. But Kasian is only a man. I've surpassed manhood—he can't kill me anymore.

  Then came a splatter of blood on the floor at his feet. He looked down, his vision growing hazy. A black blade had punctured through his body, had stuck out perfectly through the center of his chest.

  Cedric tried to speak, but only blood came out.

  "Did you miss me?" asked Kasian’s voice from behind him. "I was doing some collecting. Us men, we love to have our collections, don't we?"

  Cedric smiled slightly as his vision darkened.

  "How many have you collected? Too many to expect the Deadworld, I suspect. But would you want it, anyway? You'd have to face all those you've killed. You would have to face Marisol, Rithi, Akvum..."

  I thought Azar weren't allowed the Deadworld...?

  Kasian smiled. "I made an exception for him."

  ...Are you God?

  "No, Cedric. But if you wanted to call me that, I would not take offense."

  The blade pulled out of his chest. Cedric's whole body was suddenly very heavy, and he fell like a sack into his puddle of blood.

  "In many ways, I'm stronger than Evra, than Azafel. I'm the first man, the whole world is my birthright. This world is mine to control, and none may contest me. But I admire the courage you've put forward; none before have managed to smite down my Twelve, eradicate my Hunters, appropriate my nation... You've put forward a good, albeit clumsy, fight. I've some modicum of respect for you."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Cedric tried to crawl away, but Kasian's boot held his ankle down tight.

  "Not enough respect to spare you, mind. What are you, a demi-god? Of the six layers, I'd say you might move on up to be a full-fledged god in your next life. You know, the reincarnation cycle? You've done enough good to move up, I'd suppose. But that's not in my hands."

  Kasian's gaze turned upward to the moon. It felt as though they were completely alone, completely isolated from the battle ensuing all around them.

  "In all of the worlds beyond this one, you actually moved down in the hierarchy. Your good deeds never outweighed the sin of your early life. You always fell down into the layers of hell, never to be recovered for eternities. Oh, yes, I met with each and every one of you to have ever existed. I ensured they, and every one of their kin, were slaughtered without mercy. I've killed tens of thousands of Cedrics, hundreds of thousands of Faunias, thousands of thousands of your children... I own you. You're nothing compared to what I am, to what I can do. Do you understand?"

  Still, Cedric did not reply. He no longer could.

  "This world is the alpha. This was the first that Evra invented, before it was fractured by the invention of time. By her invention of Llestren'vatis."

  The blood touched Kasian's boots.

  "Oh, why do I ramble on? We have journals for a reason. You don't need to know any of this."

  He turned around, away from the dying boy.

  "Goodbye, Cedric. You made a valiant effort."

  Then the battlefield was cleared, only the Sylvet remained. Just like that, the war was won. Tens of thousands of Hunters suddenly no longer existed. The Sylvet all turned to the once-more masked Kasian with trepidation.

  And he bowed low. "My generous entourage, we've won. The Hunters of Calamon, and their valiant leader Cedric Castelbre, are no longer with us."

  A cheer shook the world. Swords glinted and sparked across the sunlight as the night was instantly ended, replaced by day.

  Kasian stood from his bow. "Now I ask you, hunt down their remnants; any who call themselves Hunters, any who affiliate, any silver-haired elves... Faunia Vleren, the half-blood. Kill them all. Make them lambs to our slaughter, that this world may be cleansed of their filth."

  Another rancorous cheer.

  Kasian tilted his head back as something moved upon the stone walls which surrounded the petals all around them.

  Ordinators?

  The white-helmed, faceless figures were collecting all along the parapets, surrounding the army. Thousands of them.

  And Kasian knew at once that it would not be so simple to remove them from existence.

  "Men; we've got company."

  Why, why, WHY!?

  Faunia sprinted away from Calamon. She winced in pain as the sun appeared in the center of the sky, blinding her for a moment. And in that moment, a root snagged her boot, dropped her hard into a rut between trees. The skin of her right arm was torn up by the rocks below, her left wrist sprained in a futile effort to catch herself. Her shoulder struck another rock and ached, smeared blood through her shirt.

  "Why...!?" she cried desperately, tears streaming down her cheeks as she laid supine to see the sun. She thought of Hemah, for only a moment. But her thoughts could not escape Tirolith. "Why did you curse me to be a coward!?"

  She struck the ground hard. It didn't hurt more than anything else. The smell of nature, of dirt, of leaves, was quickly mingling with the iron scent of blood flooding around her.

  "Tirolith, why!? I want to help Cedric! He's going to...!"

  Before she could say the word, she lurched forward, puked onto herself, gagged, choked, cried.

  "Tirolith! You...!"

  But she couldn't muster up a curse. She couldn't stay mad. But for Cedric's life... what could she do? What was left to do?

  Give me something... Azafel, Evra...! Give me something!

  Then it clicked. She had woken Evra. Order should be restored. Kasian was the antithesis of order, a new age of battle had begun upon the world.

  "Evra..." she murmured. "Evra, if you can hear me... save Cedric."

  A dark shadow crossed overhead, through the treetops. She couldn't see it. Her vision became hazy. Her head became heavy.

  Sleep, my child. You've done well, she thought. But then, those weren't really her thoughts. Were they?

  I'll take care of everything from here...

  And Faunia lost consciousness.