by Skyler Grant
I really needed to stop having my jaw broken. Perhaps some helmet of darkness.
Yve was rushing Veros with that massive sword of hers and he pivoted, drawing his own and piercing her chest with the rapier. The blade slid in deep.
“Sister dearest. Do not have delusions of grandeur, for all that I am fond of you, you are only meat now,” Veros said.
Yve tried to respond, blood flecking her lips.
Veros lashed out towards an empty spot of air. Ashley appeared, the blow breaking her stealth and sending her to the ground. She lay sucking in breaths.
“You should have come better prepared. Is this all you have? Did you possible think this would be enough?” Veros asked.
Heart of the Void
Walt rippled, void energy pulsing around him and the Death-hand as he delivered his own uppercut to Veros. If I was unused to taking a full-on blast from a cosmic power foe, so was Veros. Even from across the arena I could hear bones snap as the God tumbled through the air like a puppet with its strings cut.
There was a maddened laugh as Veros got back to his feet, his bones latching back into place. “Is that all you’ve got?”
Heart of the Flame
Yve, with her body wreathed in flames, delivered a punch of her own. It sent Veros sprawling across the arena floor once more.
I searched in my inventory and found the charm that Diamond had given me. I dropped it onto the ground and stepped on it, fracturing the diamond crystal in the middle. A ripple of energy pulsed. There would be no teleporting out for anyone in this fight. No last minute escapes for us or for Veros.
Veros started to get up and Yve hit him again. The flames were brilliant around her, devouring, feeding energy as she pummeled her brother again and again. Any other foe would have died, but Veros just began to laugh again. Laughing as one devastating hit after another took his form.
That was okay. I didn’t expect this to be easy. Still in my inventory I extracted the handful of gems. I didn’t have time to pick and choose between them. I didn’t like this next part, but I couldn’t see a way around it. I made my way over to where Yve pummeled him and I poured the handful of gems into that laughing mouth.
Veros began to choke and I covered his mouth with both my hands, willing my intent into those gems. Two of them were the ones I needed, the rest may simply be gems, but I only needed the two to work.
Permadeath
You have gained the Permadeath status effect and if killed you will not respawn.
My hitpoints began to tick down. Covering Veros’ mouth, the mists inside him were touching me too. Hurting me too. Killing me too. I’d be fragile after this, far too fragile for a time, but there wasn’t another way.
The pain of the mists was terrible, my body wracked by tremors as brutal energies coursed through my frame. They were affecting Veros as well, his maximum hitpoints being reduced with each passing second. His eyes met mine and for a moment we shared something. We were locked together in this sudden vulnerability. I had something he didn’t. I had allies who were here and fighting beside me.
Heart of Murder
Ashley pulled out the dagger she’d gotten from Diamond. She plunged it into Veros’ heart and the God began to spasm even more violently than before. Veros skin split apart, light leaking from within—and with a sudden howl he was gone.
I was down to a single hitpoint and locked there for the time being. A stubbed toe would end me.
“Did we do it?” I asked, feeling faint.
“Lay down and take it easy. We’ve got you,” Yve said to me.
That sounded like a wonderful idea. I wasn’t sure I could stay upright even if I wanted to.
Chapter 35
I could say it was the most uncomfortable twenty-four hours of my life, but truly it wasn’t. Half an hour after breaking the crystal a swirl of billowing, black smoke surrounded me and I found myself back at what I guessed was Castle Sardonis. It did look a bit like the outline of my bedchamber, but for the clouds of dark smoke everywhere.
Elsora was seated in a chair with her arms folded, looking distinctly peeved at me.
“I didn’t know you could travel or teleport,” I said.
“You assume I’m some great universal evil and I don’t have a way to get around? Do not be foolish. The others are safe and you can see them when a day has passed,” Elsora said.
“You’re putting me under house arrest?” I asked.
“Nothing in this room can hurt you, and pity anything from outside that tries to get in. We’ll talk in a day,”
Elsora vanished.
I think it was probably the most boring day of my life.
When the magic finally faded and my health began to tick up again, the mists in the room dissipated. Elsora came walking in, more conventionally than she’d left.
“I’m sorry for all of that,” Elsora said, and her wry smile said she meant it.
There was no need for an apology. In the fight with Veros she’d had my back and the instant it was feasible, she’d had it again. Elsora always had my back.
I stared at her trying to figure her out. I’d been trying for awhile. Was she actually the grand villainess I kept painting her to be, or a woman who loved me, or both?
“You’re staring,” Elsora said.
I was. I was starting to realize that there was something very familiar about Elsora. I had an idea so preposterous it seemed madness to even consider, and yet in a way it was staring me in the face.
“I’d like to use my Mind Games ability on you,” I said.
Elsora smiled faintly at that and shook her head. “You should know better than that. Though I dislike the sentimentality of it, I choose to love you and I’ll support you, but my secrets remain my own.”
It wasn’t a surprise. I knew how closely she guarded her secrets. If I had learned anything though it was that there was always a deal to be made.
“I think I know something. I’m just looking to confirm it. If I’m right, then I will be your husband. I will choose you, I will raise our child with you, and give you however many others you desire. I’ll be the villain you’ve wanted and the companion I think you’ve yearned for from the moment we met,” I said.
Elsora quirked a brow. It wasn’t often I got to surprise her.
“And what are you looking to confirm?” Elsora asked.
I wasn’t even sure how to put my thoughts properly into words. Fortunately I had an example. “Liara,” I said.
“Surprises abound,” Elsora said, reaching out to take my hand. “You may look.”
Mind Games triggered and took me inside her mindscape. Elsora was here seated in one of two chairs in front of a huge chess table. The other chair was empty. I’d yet to see someone else inside their own mindscape, but I wasn’t surprised. This is what I was looking for.
I walked over and studied the chessboard. Elsora was playing black, of course. The pieces all had a hint of shadow about them. One piece looked like it might have just come from a slasher movie, another had an expression of endless rage. Those must symbolize the Nine. An armored figure with a flaming sword was on the King’s square. Not so much the pawn after all, in her mind.
The other pieces were all colored Silver. One bore a crown of Cobalt blue, another of Diamonds, another of Malachite. Elsora nudged one of the Nine and rose to her feet, still studying the placement of the board. The motion caused her features to slip and change. It was Silver’s face that studied the board now, thoughtful while she made her way over to the other chair and settled down. Silver’s features faded into the stern and aristocratic features of Ashera, who moved her fingers to Malachite’s piece.
I was right. It was what I thought I’d see, but even so I had trouble believing it. Liara was two women in a single form, an incarnation of Darkness and another of Light. Pain and Pleasure in a single body. The greatest fighter and the greatest threat on the Crucible Shard. I should have realized sooner that she was in some ways a reflection of Ashera.
> I wasn’t in love with two women at war with each other. I was in love with a single woman at war with herself. It was nothing so simple as Liara—I didn’t think they shared a single body.
I willed myself out of the Mindscape and was back in the room, Elsora’s hand clasped in mine.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Elsora asked.
“Will you do me the honor of being my bride?” I asked.
Elsora leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips, a lingering touch before she pulled away. “Are you certain? Ashera would have you and most prefer her.”
“Isn’t the point of this whole revelation the fact that I’ve learned you’re truly the same person?” I asked.
“It’s never that simple. Picture being the strongest being there ever was and finding you never truly had a challenge. Everything was just so damned easy,” Elsora said.
“So you decided to play against yourself?” I asked.
“She is bold and loyal, honest and brave, bloodthirsty yet decent. Ashera truly is the hero of this little story that is playing out. Choose her and should she win, you’ll stand redeemed. You’ll save civilization and litter the field with corpses,” Elsora said, a touch wistfully.
“And you?” I asked.
“I’m brilliant and a liar, diplomatic and subtle, manipulative yet surprisingly kind. I truly am the bad one in our little morality play. If you stand with me you’ll never escape the darkness. Yes, in some metaphysical sense, you’ll be marrying us both. In a practical sense you’re picking a side,” Elsora said.
I knew that although she may often lie to me, this was the truth.
“I’m sure. I choose you, if you’ll have me,” I said.
“I will,” Elsora said, with a wry chuckle. “That was fast. That armor you wore during the fight. You said you got it from the future. When?”
“Next week,” I said.
“Then that will be our wedding. That armor must have been my wedding gift to you,” Elsora said.
“So just like that. We’ll be wed,” I said.
“Just in time. The pieces are in place and we’re at the Endgame love. You won’t believe how this all turns out.”
Coming Soon
The final novel of the Crucible Shard
Endgame
King Liam has picked a side and now he must survive his choices. The winner of the conflict will determine the shape of reality to come. Worlds will burn and friends may fall.
Books of the Crucible Shard
Buy now or read through Kindle Unlimited
Book 1: Dungeon Crawl
Book 2: Spawn Campers
Book 3: Corpse Run
Book 4: Gank
Book 5: Area of Effect
Audio
Book 1: Dungeon Crawl
Book 2: Spawn Campers
Book 3: Corpse Run
Book 4: Gank
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Author Notes
I hope you had as much fun reading this one as I had writing it. I’m particularly proud of the Dwarves, although finding new ways to twist and bend fairy tales was a lot of fun. All of the characters have been through so much and this time Ashley finally got the closure she has been seeking for quite some time. In the last few novels you’ve seen some big pieces of the story jigsaw come together and I think you’ll be blown away by the way Endgame wraps things up.
