by Steve McHugh
“It’s beautiful,” Lucifer said from beside her. “So, how do we get it to work?”
Layla turned to Zamek. “You think you can get this working?”
Zamek cracked his knuckles and ran his hand over the wood, igniting the dozens of runes that sat dormant around it.
“Give me five minutes,” he said.
Less than two minutes later, a lush green field from the Yggdrasil Tree realm came into view. With the dwarves going last, they walked through the realm gate, each of them clearly aware of what they might face.
Nabu stumbled, dropping to one knee on the dirt once through the gate. Layla went to his side, and he waved her away. “I’m not dead yet,” he said.
“You’re still stubborn though,” Layla said, her tone holding a hard edge.
Nabu smiled. “Sorry, the realm gate took it out of me. I’ll be fine.”
Harry tapped Layla on the shoulder. “You need to turn around,” he said.
“What is it?” Layla asked, turning to see what Harry saw. Her mouth dropped open.
“That’s a really big tree,” Chloe said, her neck craning upward as she tried to see the top of the tree, which vanished in the clouds above.
“Jack’s beanstalk has nothing on that,” Diana said. “It’s the size of the city we just left, and who knows how many miles tall.”
The Yggdrasil tree was gargantuan. “It’s, what, a mile away?” Harry asked.
“I don’t even understand how it got that big,” Layla said, mostly to herself. The surrounding land was mostly green and yellow fields. Rolling hills could be seen in the distance to the north, and a large waterfall to the west.
Layla turned to the saber-tooth panther. “Help Nabu.”
“I don’t need help,” Nabu said as the panther picked him up in her powerful jaws, like a cat would a kitten.
“She can hold you like that, or you can ride on her back,” Layla said.
“Back,” Nabu said, crossing his arms and exhaling. The panther released him, licking the side of his face as he stood up. “Your cat is enjoying herself.”
Layla smiled as Nabu climbed onto the cat’s back and took hold of the edge of the armor around her neck.
“Well, that’s a first,” Zamek said. “Let’s get going then.”
They started running toward the tree. The panther sprinted ahead, paused to let them get closer, then took off again. Layla swore she saw Nabu smile at least once.
They stopped a few hundred feet from the tree and looked around. Huge roots arched dozens of feet above the grass before plunging back into the ground. They pulsed different colors every few seconds.
“I guess we go in there,” Chloe said, pointing to the large opening at the base of the tree.
“It looks like a hole made by a lightning strike,” Nabu said. “But there aren’t any signs of burning or damage.”
The dwarves hurried forward as the ground rumbled and three huge giants came out of the hole and stood before the tree, bellowing. They were thirty feet tall but soon they grew to nearly fifty feet, their skin glowing yellow and orange.
“Abaddon was prepared,” Lucifer said.
Each of the giants wielded a different, but no less deadly-looking, weapon. “A maul, an ax, and a spear,” Harry said. “None of those options sounds wonderful.”
“Harry, stay here,” Layla said. “Do. Not. Argue.”
Harry nodded and took a step back as a dozen blood elves walked out of the hole and began to beat their weapons against their shields.
“Just once,” Diana said, growing in size, dark-gray fur spreading over her body, as her armor adjusted itself to contain her new werebeast form, “just once, I’d like a day where I didn’t have to fight something. Layla, Zamek, and Lucifer, we’ll make a path for you to get through. You three go stop whatever Abaddon is doing in there.”
Layla nodded and removed the silver sword from her hip, taking the metal and wrapping it around her arm and hand. She felt the heat of the silver as she manipulated it, but the discomfort was something she could deal with.
The three flame giants collided with the front line of dwarves in a cacophony of sound as Diana, Chloe, and Nabu charged into the fray.
Layla, Lucifer, and Zamek ran through the throng of blood elves, but came to a halt when several blood elf commanders forced a confrontation. One of them tackled Layla, knocking her face down into the dirt. Layla tried to buck the elf off her back, but the weight suddenly vanished. She looked up to see the saber-tooth panther’s jaw clamped onto the back of the blood elf commander’s head. A second later there was a horrific crunch and the commander went limp.
Layla scrambled to her feet, narrowly avoiding a flame giant’s punch, which scorched the earth where it landed. She turned and ran after Zamek and Lucifer, who had both successfully dealt with the other blood elf commanders and hurried toward the tree. The panther ran beside Layla, knocking aside anyone who came within striking distance.
They entered the Yggdrasil tree and found three large tunnels inside it; one on either side of them and one in front. Runes resembling the ones on the realm gates framed each one. Layla looked up and saw hundreds of tiny flickering lights high above, as if she were looking into the night sky.
“Which tunnel?” Layla asked.
“They all go to the same place,” Zamek said.
“Middle it is,” Lucifer said, and the four of them ran down the tunnel, which eventually opened into a huge circular cavern lined with dozens of realm gates. Each gate was identical to the Helheim gate they’d used to get to this realm. The centers of these gates constantly flickered black, hiding their destinations.
Just as Zamek had said, the tunnels on the left and right both led to the central hub. A fourth tunnel sat ahead of them at the far end of the cavern.
“The wooden realm gate we saw back in Helheim,” Lucifer said, “was made from the roots of the Yggdrasil tree.”
“Those look familiar,” Layla said, pointing to the four tall, black staffs that had been driven into the ground to form a small circle in the center of the cavern. Purple crystals glowed in the tops of them. She tore one of the staffs out of the ground and tossed it to Zamek, who examined it briefly before snapping it in two.
“Good thing these aren’t active yet,” Lucifer said.
A noise from the tunnel at the end of the cavern got everyone’s attention. Layla ran over and found a young woman on the floor. She wore a long, blue dress that was covered in muck and mud, and had bruises around her eyes and mouth.
“Grace,” Lucifer said, hurrying up. He immediately checked the woman for more serious injuries and found the remains of an arrow shaft between her shoulder blades.
“One of the Fates?” Layla asked.
“Abaddon has the others,” Grace said, her voice weak. “I escaped. Barely.”
Lucifer looked up at Layla. “Go on, I’ll catch you up.”
“There’s a gate at the end of the tunnel. It looks like a normal realm gate, but it only goes further up the tree.” Grace coughed up blood, and Layla thanked her before running on with Zamek and the panther.
They sprinted through the gate that Grace had mentioned right into six blood elves standing on the other side. The panther threw two elves against the wooden walls of the tunnel as Layla parried a sword slash from one elf, then kicked it away. She spun on her heel and drove her sword-arm into the nearest blood elf’s chest, then turned and sliced through the first blood elf’s leg armor, crippling it, then neatly impaling it through the neck as it fell forward.
Zamek, having taken care of the last two, raised his ax to his shoulder, from where it dripped fresh blood onto the dark-brown floor. The three of them continued on into a cavern that was identical to the one below, although there was a hole in the tree trunk wall that showed they were above the clouds. More staffs sat in the center of the cavern and the floor was covered in runes that Layla didn’t know, several of them glowing a deep red.
Hades hung on a cross in the midd
le of the cavern, both wrists adorned with sorcerer’s bands, his neck, forearms, and legs bound to the wood. He wore only trousers, and dwarven runes had been carved onto his flesh, covering his entire torso.
Abaddon stood at the far end of the cavern holding Caleb Cassidy by the throat, his feet dangling off the ground.
“I waited for you,” Abaddon said as a low growl escaped the panther’s maw. Abaddon walked toward Layla, still holding Caleb aloft.
“He thought to kill me,” Abaddon said. “He actually thought he could.” She looked at Caleb. “I see your daughter has inherited your incredible ability to think that you’re better than you are.”
Caleb kicked Abaddon in the face, and the devil punched him in the stomach hard enough to cause him to spit blood.
Layla took a step forward.
“You don’t think I’ll kill him?” Abaddon asked.
“She knows you will,” Caleb said. He looked at Layla. “Take her.”
Layla rushed forward, and Abaddon punched her fist through Caleb’s chest, tearing out his heart, but Layla was still moving, not even pausing to see the surprise on Abaddon’s face as she crashed into her and drove her arm-blade up toward Abaddon’s throat. Abaddon, too fast, caught Layla by the arm and threw the umbra over her shoulder to the hard floor behind her.
With an energy blast, Abaddon sent the charging panther flying across the cavern where she slammed into Zamek before he could get out of the way. They both hit the side of one of the realm gates, landing in a painful heap.
Abaddon drove the silver dagger that Caleb had brought with him into his skull. She looked back over at Layla. “Just to make sure.” She removed the dagger and wiped the blade on Caleb’s clothes.
Layla stared at her father’s body. She had hated what he’d done, and on more than one occasion hated him enough that she just wished he was dead, but seeing him lying there, and knowing he was never going to get back up, left her feeling more emotion than she’d expected. She looked up at Abaddon and felt nothing but rage and hate. Layla got back to her feet and, trying not to look at her dead father, concentrated on getting in close to Abaddon. The devil threw her power at Layla, but it hit the rune-scribed armor, doing no damage. Layla slashed Abaddon’s midriff, cutting a long, thin line across her stomach.
Abaddon made no noise, and with a blade she’d yanked from a sheath on her hip, parried Layla’s next strike. A punch to Layla’s stomach and a knee to her head sent Layla to the floor. Abaddon looked down on her with a smile.
“You see this dagger? This is the very dagger your father thought to kill me with, and the very dagger I just used on him. It’ll be almost poetic that I use it to skin you alive. I’ve longed for this moment. You’ve caused me far too many problems.”
“What’s one more?” Layla asked as Hades dropped from the cross onto the back of the panther, who carried him away.
“What?” Abaddon screamed, allowing Layla to move away.
“You forgot about the dwarf,” Zamek said, picking up the two axes he’d thrown at the leather bindings that held Hades in place.
Abaddon rushed over to Zamek, who tried to avoid her, but a spirit weapon in the shape of a scythe slammed into his chest. He fell to his knees as Layla tackled Abaddon.
Layla smashed her metal forearm twice into Abaddon’s face before changing it into a blade and driving it into her chest.
Abaddon laughed. “The silver feels so good against my flesh,” Abaddon said, forcing Layla’s metal arm out of her body, then throwing her across the cavern.
Layla got back to her feet in time to see the wound on Abaddon’s chest heal.
“I’ve taken so many souls,” Abaddon said. “They sustain me. They heal me. I’m going to kill you all, and use your deaths to activate these staffs. It won’t be as powerful as Hades, but it will have to do. This tree will be mine and mine alone.”
Layla noticed the bracelet on Abaddon’s wrist. “You’ll be the only one with power? That the idea?”
Abaddon lifted her arm and gazed at the bronze-colored bracelet. “Not really. You see, once I ignite these staffs, the power they contain will be monumental as it spreads out all across this tree and the realm around it. We will control Yggdrasil, and the realm gates it contains. We could go anywhere, at any time, to any realm, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us. Anyone trying to launch an attack against us here will lose their powers—it’ll be like humans flinging rocks at gods. We can move entire armies through this realm to anywhere we choose.”
Zamek got to his knees, only to be kicked in the ribs as Abaddon walked by. She threw a huge amount of power at Layla, knocking the wind out of her as the runes on her armor faded to nothing.
Layla rolled away, the pain in her sternum causing her to try to catch her breath.
“Stay down, little girl,” Abaddon said, mocking her. “You can’t win here.”
The blast of light-blue, pure magic hit Abaddon in the chest, throwing her fifty feet across the cavern.
“Abaddon, I think it’s time for you to shut up,” Lucifer said as he came into view.
Abaddon screamed in fury and threw pure necromancy energy at Lucifer, who dodged aside, creating a shield of air and fire that deflected much of the attack. Some got through, and he was forced to roll aside, almost into Abaddon’s path, who struck him in the chest with her scythe.
Lucifer cried out in pain and dropped to his knees, but detonated a ball of pure magic in her face. Her scythe vanished as she was temporarily blinded despite using her necromancy as a shield.
Lucifer crawled away, pain etched on his face. “Damn, I forgot how much that hurts,” he said.
Layla, now back on her feet, ran toward Abaddon, who noticed her just in time to duck her blade, then send her flying through the air with another blast of pure energy. Layla collided with one of the realm gates and fell to the floor awkwardly, her body burning from the impact.
“Why won’t you idiots understand? You. Can’t. Win.” Abaddon drove her scythe into Lucifer as he tried to get back to his feet, stabbing him over and over, until he dropped to his knees. “If I can’t use Hades, I can use this traitorous piece of shit.”
Abaddon blasted Zamek as he moved toward her, before turning back to Lucifer. She removed a sorcerer’s band from her wrist and put it on Lucifer’s. “It’s my last one, so it’s fitting I use it for someone important. You can’t win,” Abaddon repeated, dropping Lucifer to the floor and retrieving her dagger from the ground beside him. She dipped her fingers in Lucifer’s blood and drew a symbol on the floor, which caused all four of the staffs to glow a dark purple color. “I want you all to witness what I’m about to achieve.”
Layla saw Zamek crawl toward one of the realm gates. She tried to get up, but her body protested at the act, and pain roared through her torso.
Abaddon pulled Lucifer’s head back and his eyes opened ever so slightly.
“Good,” Abaddon said. “I want you awake when you die.”
Layla was shocked to see Nabu sprint out of the tunnel, his armor covered in grime. He collided with Abaddon, knocking the dagger aside as they both fell to the ground. Zamek rushed to Lucifer, pulling him away from the center of the cavern, although still not out of danger.
Layla rolled over and forced herself to her feet. She exhaled one long breath, and created a blade from her arm as she took one step at a time toward Abaddon, who was struggling with Nabu over the dagger.
Layla tried to reach out with her power, but she found no metal to control, and before she could reach Abaddon and Nabu, Abaddon drove the dagger into Nabu’s stomach. After a second and third stab, Nabu sagged against the floor, his hands trying to stop the flow of blood from his body. As Abaddon raised the dagger to plunge down one final time, Layla screamed in defiance and turned her blade into a spear that sliced through Abaddon’s arm just above the wrist, almost severing it.
With rage pumping through her, Layla reformed the spear back to a sword and stalked Abaddon as she backed away f
rom Nabu. Abaddon pulled herself up against one of the realm gates with her one good hand, the other beginning to repair itself as Layla changed her sword into a fist and drove it into Abaddon’s jaw, knocking her back to the ground.
Layla recreated the silver blade and went to stab Abaddon in the back, but the devil moved at the last second, and the blade landed in her shoulder instead. Layla kicked Abaddon onto her back, noticing that she looked considerably weaker than she had when they’d first entered the cavern.
“You keep using your souls too much,” Layla said, punching her in the face.
“You can’t kill me,” Abaddon said, hitting Layla in the stomach with her palm, sending her flying. Abaddon stood up, but Layla tackled her back to the ground, only to receive a backhand to the face, knocking her away.
Abaddon got to her feet again, and Layla saw Zamek behind her leaning against the realm gate. The darkness it had been showing changed to hundreds of different realm images, flickering between each of them in an instant.
“You won’t win,” Abaddon screamed.
Zamek made a noise, distracting her, while Layla grabbed the dagger from the floor and drove it into Abaddon’s stomach, much to her surprise.
“Die somewhere else,” Layla said, kicking her in the stomach and sending her back into the realm gate where she vanished from view.
Zamek stopped the realm gate and dropped back to his knees. “That spirit weapon shit really takes it out of you,” he said.
“Where is she?” Layla asked.
“No idea,” Zamek said. “I didn’t have time to select a realm, I just activated the gate to roll through whatever was there. I didn’t recognize the one she landed in, so it could literally be anywhere in a thousand realms.”
“Hopefully somewhere alone and awful,” Nabu said from the ground beside them. “You need to help me up.”
“No, you’ll die,” Layla said. “You need to stay there.”
“Dying anyway,” Nabu said. “You can’t remove the runes that will activate the Devil’s Venom before I die. They’ll wipe out the tree and the realm gates. You don’t have time.” His body began to glow a brilliant silver.
