Kallie and Marcus used simultension to form an impressive battle orb that whizzed through the forest and exploded against the Warden’s chest. Despite the orb hitting him head-on, it didn’t faze him, merely disintegrated against his form. Oberi raced forward in a mad rage, leaping upward off my roots to jump toward the Warden. His teeth snagged the end of the Warden’s trousers, and fabric tore as Oberi dragged the angel out of the air. Danny crossed the space between us and the Warden in a split second, and he used his superstrength to tackle the Warden and pin him to the ground.
I was there a moment later, my hands curling around the thickest bones of the Warden’s wings, right where they sprouted from his back. I yanked with all my strength. Blood sprayed over Danny and me as a satisfying snap of bones filled the forest. Flesh tore and gave way beneath my hands as I ripped the Warden’s precious wings— and the source of his power— from his body, tearing them free.
The Warden gave a pained cry, and I relished in the satisfaction of causing him agony. This was payback for every time he’d dared to harm someone I loved— every second the people I cared for ever crossed his mind, for through the Warden’s suffering, the suffering of others would finally end. No longer would he run his sick experiments, nor would he rampage through the Earth taking lives and destroying everything he touched. For the briefest of moments, the Warden would know the pain he caused. His spirit would be ripped from his body at my hands, and the power he’d amassed in this life would be rendered useless. He’d be nothing more than a shell of his former self, with no access to the demigod abilities he’d acquired. Now that his wings were gone, we could finally defeat him.
His wings fell away from his body. Oberi growled as he took the feathers in his mouth and yanked the wings far from the Warden’s quivering form, so he couldn’t get them back.
“Looks like your request has been denied,” I sneered cruelly. I drew my hand back to deliver the killing blow.
The Warden merely laughed. Before I could cast a killing spell, a powerful energy surged out of the Warden's body, blasting Danny and me off of him. I landed hard against the ground twenty feet away, the breath stolen from my chest, heaving as I gasped for air.
The Warden rose to his feet, and his unhinged laughter rang from above me. All the pain in his voice had vanished, replaced by the sound of bone clacking against bone.
I wasn’t able to see, but my soul could witness the spiritual realm, and it watched as a set of six new wings— three on each side, covered with hundreds of terrible eyes— sprouted from his back. The wings were enormous, spanning twelve feet from each tip. New feathers had appeared, several of which drifted through the air and onto the ground. The spiritual eyes blinked as the Warden’s new wings gleamed with golden power, those eyes focused on me… haunting me.
May the lord’s eyes be upon you, for he is always watching.
Our theory had been devastatingly wrong, and our assault had backfired in the most horrifying of ways. Taking the Warden’s original wings had only made him more powerful. I’d torn off the ones he’d been born with, but now he’d grown new ones, the wings of a deity itself. He’d needed his old wings to be gone so he could transform into this final, new form of his ultimate power, and I’d helped him ascend.
It’d been a last-ditch effort to bring him down. But every mistake I made seemed to cause the worst fate for the rest of the world.
“I have to say, this has been more fun than I expected,” the Warden taunted, and this time, his voice was deeper, echoing with a thick, monstrous power that made the very ground tremble. “There’s no need to hand over the keys. I’ll take them for myself.”
I scrambled backward against the ground. If ripping off the Warden’s wings didn’t work like Ez had theorized, then there was nothing we could do that would take his magic away, kill him, or hold him back. He was completely unstoppable.
I thought once we opened the Elven Gate, the gods could help us kill him. Now I realized the truth. The Warden was a god, and I wasn’t sure if there was another living being in the universe powerful enough to bring him down. Everything I’d learned about the gods said that ascending to godhood required another god to grant that divinity to you. The Warden had done it all on his own, and that made him more powerful than anyone— god, demon, or otherwise— who’d ever existed before.
That didn’t mean we could give up. We just had to try harder, because beating him now was our last chance for survival. Unlike the last time we’d fought the Warden, no one was coming to stop me from giving it my all this time.
Danny sprang first. I heard him lick blood off his fingers, and magic surged through the forest. “Doctor Taurus, would you care to dance for me?” Danny taunted as he worked his vampire compulsion, planning to puppeteer the Warden around like a doll.
The Warden laughed. “Gladly.”
He merely swiped his hand through the air, and Danny was thrown off his feet. The vampire slammed into a tree so hard that the massive oak cracked in half and fell to the ground. Branches groaned and snapped as it tumbled downward, taking several other trees with it.
“Danny!” I hurried to him, but he made no response. I reached out. My magic immediately sensed that he’d been knocked out.
A split second had passed. Kallie was already blasting a spell at the Warden, screaming at the top of her lungs. I felt the tug of a portal sweeping throughout the forest, feeling as if it was distorting the landscape like a massive black hole. The sounds coming from the portal were otherworldly— screeches and moans that sounded more monstrous than hell itself. This portal had to be bigger than the entire Institute had been. I didn’t know where Kallie planned to send the Warden, but it was clearly far away from this realm, perhaps to another universe altogether. Whatever spell Kallie had conjured, it was greater than anything I’d witnessed her create before.
The Warden chuckled, as if her portal was nothing more than child’s play. He retaliated with a spell of his own. A massive explosion rocked the forest, and Kallie’s magic snapped. An echoing clap sounded as the portal shut instantly, sending a whoosh of wind past us so powerful that it knocked me back to the earth. My ears rang, and I was left momentarily disoriented.
When my senses returned, Kallie was to my right. She’d fallen on her knees, panting breathlessly as if the Warden’s attack had sucked all the energy out of her. My magic reached out again to check on her, and it trembled when it observed her form— that spell had taken all of Kallie’s power. If she tried to cast again, even a small spell, it would kill her.
Marcus was already on the move. He ran toward the Warden, screaming an enraged battle cry. Rishi yowled, then leapt into the spell that Marcus conjured. An ethereal magic filled the forest, swirling around us with a pulsing energy. Marcus’ power contained a spiritual element that, when it touched me, allowed me to witness what was occurring along the ghostly plane.
In my mind’s eye, I saw Rishi glowing with deathly power. The cat screeched as he leapt forward, ramming his spirit straight into the Warden’s chest. The Warden cried out as his soul twisted and distorted.
My heart leapt with hope. Marcus was trying to rip the Warden’s spirit from his body, and it was working!
When I was sure that Marcus had him, something wicked took place. The magic shifted, and the Warden’s spirit disappeared from my soul’s eye. Instead, Marcus’ spirit began to lift out of his body, as if the Warden had turned the spell against him. He was casting the spell in reverse, so that Marcus was pulling his own soul out!
Marcus screamed in incredible agony, and Kallie shakily rose from the ground. “Marcus, don’t you leave me.”
His spirit screamed in intense pain yet again, fighting against the spell. I watched as Marcus’ spirit was yanked downward, then it disappeared entirely as it was harnessed back to the physical plane.
I struggled to form a coherent thought. Marcus had pulled his spirit back into his body, yet his spell wasn’t strong enough to separate the Warden’s soul from his godlike form. Marcus’ spell died, and the magic receded from the spirit plane until I was blind to my surroundings once again. Marcus sagged to his knees, and Kallie staggered to lift him up.
Within seconds, the three of them remained defenseless. I was the last demigod standing, and I’d be damned if the Warden managed to bring me to my knees.
