Silver-red light exploded outward, washing over the shadow creatures like a wave. They recoiled, shrieking in voices they shouldn't have, scattering back toward the edges of the floating island.

Galthor stood in the center of the light, breathing hard. His aura couldn't maintain this intensity for long, but it had bought him a moment's respite.

He used it to observe his surroundings more carefully.

The floating island he stood on was perhaps a hundred feet across. In the distance, he could see other islands, connected by bridges of solidified shadow. Some of the islands held structures. Others held frozen figures, people caught in their final moments like insects in amber.

"You were a god once," Galthor said absently. "Before the Abyssal War."

He could feel the tainted divinity.

The entity didn't respond.

"I can feel it. Traces of divinity buried under all that grief. What were you the god of?"

Still nothing.

"Mourning," Galthor guessed. "Or something like it. Helping souls pass on. Easing the transition from life to death."

"I was the Comforter of the Dying." The entity's voice was different now. Smaller. More human. "I held the hands of those who had no one else. I whispered peace into their ears as they faded. I was... different and kind."

"What happened?"

"The war happened. The Abyssal creatures broke through our lines. We had no choice but to follow HIM to war. Millions died in a single day. I felt every death. Every fear. Every regret. Every goodbye that was never said."

The shadow creatures had stopped attacking. They stood at the edges of the island, watching and waiting.

"My worshippers died too. All of them. In the same day. The connection... the sudden severing of all those chains at once... it broke something inside me."

Galthor shivered, he couldn't, didn't want to imagine something like that.

Galthor lowered his aura slightly. "And you've been here ever since. Feeding on grief because it's all you have left."

"I didn't choose this," the entity said, and for the first time, Galthor heard something other than malice in its voice. "I didn't want to become this. But grief doesn't care what you want. It takes and takes and takes until there's nothing left but itself. And then the death of Him and the Demons twisted everything."

Galthor was quiet for a long moment.

"I'm sorry," he said finally. "For what happened to you. But I can't stay here. My people need me."

"Then you will die trying to escape. Or you will become like those others, frozen in eternal suffering."

"There's a third option."

"What?"

Galthor smiled grimly. "I could consume you instead."

The shadow creatures surged forward again, and the battle resumed.

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

The bridge was gone.

Karathra stood at the edge of the canyon, staring at the empty space where stone and bone had stretched moments before. Beside her, Brakthar knelt with his head bowed, the Drowning relic clutched in his white-knuckled grip.

A barrel of water beside him, this time, it was provided by Lady Pelica.

The other masters had emerged from the pocket dimension and now stood in stunned silence. Hrothgar, Drakira, Ashclaw, Zargoth and Rukar. All of them staring at the fog below as if they could will their chief to reappear.

"He's alive," Brakthar said. His voice was hoarse. "I can feel him...somehow. He's alive."

"But for how long?" Lady Pelica's voice was calm. "The Weeping Canyon has never released anyone it's taken. Whatever silenced the entity earlier clearly wasn't enough to destroy it."

Karathra rounded on her and her eyes flashed. "You were right there. You were hovering, you could have helped him!"

She never really did like the lady.

"How? By flying into the explosion? By following him into the canyon?" Lady Pelica met her glare without flinching. "I would have died, and your chief would still be lost. The Abyssal land raised the difficulties of things!"

Karathra's hand moved toward her axe but Brakthar caught her wrist.

"She's right," he said quietly. "There was nothing any of us could have done. The bridge was warded against him somehow, It targeted him specifically. Maybe it was because of what he did earlier."

"Then we go down after him." Karathra pulled free of Brakthar's grip. "We find another way into the canyon and we bring him back."

"With what?" Lady Pelica gestured at the canyon. "The fog alone would kill most of you. The space-time distortions would scatter the rest. Even if you somehow survived the descent, you'd be trapped in the entity's domain with no way out."

"The Chief found a way to hurt it before. He can find a way to escape."

"Perhaps. But what will you do in the meantime? Wait here and hope?"

Karathra's jaw tightened. She wanted to argue, to scream, to find someone to blame and make them pay. But beneath the anger, her mind was working.

The Chief had given orders before he fell. Continue the mission. Kill the Fiendish monster. Meet up with the other banners. At least that was what he said meant.

He hadn't said rescue me. He hadn't said wait for me. He'd said complete the mission.

Because he knew. Even falling into the canyon, he'd been thinking ahead. Planning. If he survived, he'd find his own way to the core. If he didn't...

No. She wouldn't think about that.

"We continue," Karathra said. The words felt like stones in her mouth.

Ashclaw's head snapped up. "What? We're just going to leave him?"

"We're going to follow his orders." Karathra turned to face the masters. "The Chief told us to kill the Fiendish monster on our side of the Abyssal land. That's what we're going to do. Then we regroup with the other banners and figure out our next move."

"But...."

"He's not dead." Karathra's voice cut through Ashclaw's protest like an axe through flesh. "I can feel him as well, Unchanging Warth would protect him. He's down there. And you know what? I believe in him. I believe he's going to win."

She looked at each of them in turn, meeting their eyes, forcing them to see her certainty.

"The best thing we can do for him right now is complete the mission. Give him something to come back to. Show him that his faith in us wasn't misplaced."

Silence stretched across the group. Then Brakthar rose to his feet.

"The Chief believes in us," he said. "We will not fail him."

One by one, the others nodded. Even Ashclaw, though his jaw was tight with suppressed emotion.

Karathra turned to Lady Pelica. "You know Abyssal land better than any of us. Which way to the Fiendish monster?"

Lady Pelica studied her for a long moment, something unreadable in her eyes. Then she smiled slightly.

"Follow me."

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