by Daniel Ruth
My thoughts had wings and almost no time had passed while I had gone over my limited options. Having a rough plan, I acted. I activated my force field, putting all my remaining energy in it. I had been saving it, so amplified by the energy flowing from the portal it was a lot. Once more I jumped down to the pit and rushed through the barrier. I tackled Vatapi who was still posed in proud victory, encircled his waist with my arms and carried him across the portal.
He raged and blew hellfire from his mouth down on my back but to be honest that was the least of the pain. As I crossed the threshold the anchor rune tried to act. It was like having a heart attack, a huge pressure coupled with sharp pain right over my heart. I did my best to ignore the hellfire eating at my force field and the pain from the anchor and focus on the energies within the rune. The portal’s existence and sheer energy fought with the rune and I used the imbalance to act. I reversed the energy balance and in that instance I became the anchor and the indestructible chunk of permacrete was forced to come to me.
I flipped Vatapi so his back was to the portal and waited. Off in the distance I heard thunder and crashing and I knew a new hell was about to be unleashed. Of course, the demon lord wasn’t tamely standing there. He bathed me in hellfire from his mouth once again and clawed my head and back with his remaining hand. My force field went down almost immediately afterward. Even with the energies flowing through me, it was gone in seconds. The only reason I didn’t go flying off, like I had before, was the death grip I had on the demon’s waist and that the column of demonic forces was directed downward.
My legs collapsed immediately after my force field so I was just hanging from his waist. I think the hellfire may have done something to my back because I couldn’t feel my lower body and my upper body burned, radiating more pain than I thought possible. He stopped soaking me in demonic energies and almost gently held my now limp body up before him. “It was a good try but as I said, you’re not the first dragon I have schooled in manners.”
“Yeah, but I am aiming to be your last,” I rasped out. The thunder was coming closer, but I couldn’t see behind him.
“Pathetic...” was as far as he got before I felt a monstrous concussive force detonate from behind Vatapi and the entire world became one of light, explosions and pure motion. When the world finally stopped moving I dazedly opened my eyes in confusion.
There was a forest around me, not a park but a real forest, with leafy trees of various sorts, some reaching hundreds of feet in the air. Pushing up with my arms, I saw a long trough of earth plowed into the ground far into the depths of the forest. Both sides of it were clear of vegetation, only shattered splinters showing where entire trees may have been in the way.
I still couldn’t feel or move my legs so I rested in my shallow crater for a few minutes. As I gained more strength I looked behind me and started at seeing the upper half of Vatapi’s body from his chest upwards, face down on the ground. His huge cat’s eyes gazed blankly at the dirt he lay on. Next to him rested a massive chunk of rough permacrete with a large rune engraved on it. My personal sling for the deadliest goliath.
I let my arms collapse in relief. While I made sure to keep an eye out for any movement from the demon lord I was confident he was dead. Or at least dead as demons can get. With the dimensions blockaded from the rest of the multiverse I was not sure if he would reform in his home plane, but he was gone for a little while at least. As his form slowly dissolved into sludge and then evaporated I simply relaxed and let my body heal.
It took several hours, but feeling and strength came back into my legs. I finally stood up. I was in a new dimension. Likely it was the Baron’s but since there were now ten dimensions chained together, there was no guarantee that was true. With a sigh, I returned to my default human size and form.
Looking over to the anchor, I trudged over to pick it up. This world had lots of energy. I wouldn’t be getting tired anytime soon. Well, not physically. I wouldn’t mind taking a weeklong nap now that the world had ended. With a sigh, I started to follow the furrow I had created in the ground. With any luck, it led back to the portal and my home for the last year. Doubtless there would be a bit of work to do once I got back.
The End of Book One of The Chained Worlds Chronicles
