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And each of those rays had transformed into a solid javelin, all headed straight for my throat.
“Holy shit,” I shouted, leaping into my own shadow as the javelins struck the earth and cratered the ground just inches from my feet.
I dashed through the Dark Room, quickly thinking over where I could reappear next. Tsukuyomi was using the same tricks that Thea once did, transforming light into solid shields and weapons. Moonlight, specifically. And here we had stupidly thought we’d outgunned him on the night of a full moon. It turns out we’d decided to fight a walking cannon with an unlimited supply of ammunition.
The worst thing about it? His shit-eating grin.
I jumped out of the Dark Room, reappearing behind Tsukuyomi just as Vanitas screamed directly for his throat. The god tapped his sword against the ground just in time, the moonlight surrounding him hardening into another protective bubble.
Maybe if I timed it right. I waited for the clang that indicated Vanitas had struck his shield, and threw a fireball towards the dead center of Tsukuyomi’s back. As if he had seen it – without skipping a beat – Tsukuyomi spun in place and brought his sword sideways against the oncoming fireball, snuffing it out into a puff of nothing.
I blinked, shocked at how he’d completely neutralized my magic. “You’re joking,” I said.
“I do love to laugh,” Tsukuyomi answered.
I hadn’t expected him to slash his sword again so soon, this time taking a rapid step forward. I twisted away just in time, the edge of his katana biting into my cheek with a glancing blow. Hot blood welled up on my skin, the wound stinging.
“Dust!” Herald shouted from somewhere across the arena. He had seen the attack.
“I’m fine,” I shouted back, praying he could hear what I really meant to say. Don’t worry about me, I thought. Focus on fighting Amaterasu. Don’t get hurt. “I’m fine,” I said, this time to myself. “This is better.”
I fell to one knee, smashing my fist into the ground. In hooks and blades and daggers the Dark Room emitted its terrible might in our reality, spikes as sharp as steel erupting from the shadows that Tsukuyomi himself cast on the ground.
Checkmate. I grinned at him, almost enjoying the comforting warmth of my own blood as it dripped down my cheek. Tsukuyomi smiled back – and before the Dark could claim him, he disappeared into a shaft of moonlight that fell instantly from the sky.
“You can’t fool me, shadow beast,” his voice called out. “The moon is my eye. I see everything.”
Turning on my heel again and again, I scanned my surroundings for his location. I spotted everyone else in the process. Gil was still unconscious. Herald and Amaterasu were still duking it out, locked in the elemental push and pull of ice and fire. Sterling’s hair looked frizzier, and he’d somehow wrested Susanoo’s sword away from him. But where the hell was Tsukuyomi?
I should have looked up.
Roughly nine javelins slammed into my body all at once, knocking me off my feet, and knocking all the air out of my lungs. The combined force tossed me like a rag doll, and I skidded across the ground roughly, skinning the palms of my hands.
Tsukuyomi floated gently back down to earth, clucking his tongue, his sword rested over his shoulder. “And here I thought you would be more of a challenge, shadow beast. See now. The Midnight Convocation is watching you and your mortal friends break under our assault. Who are you to wear the Crown of Stars? What good would you be against the Eldest?”
Metal clanged as Tsukuyomi waved his hand and casually deflected Vanitas again. Deep in my head I heard Vanitas cursing. All I could do was leave him to fight on his own. He definitely knew a lot more than I did when it came to tactics.
Plus there was the matter of me trying not to vomit my guts out. I clutched at my stomach and groaned, twisting into the earth. It was like being punched by someone wearing brass knuckles, nine times, all at once. I felt all over my body for the points of impact. Some of the missiles had struck me bluntly. Others had drawn blood.
Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe the solution was simpler than I thought. But simple isn’t always easy.
I slammed both my palms into the ground, roaring at the very top of my voice as I called on all the writhing denizens of the Dark Room to sprout from the shadows. Somewhere nearby Tsukuyomi chuckled, and when I turned to look, he only stood there, feet away from me, crafting another of his force fields. That was how he grew more powerful, after all, by siphoning directly from the light of the moon.
“You tried that once,” Tsukuyomi said. “It hardly makes sense for you to try again.”
But I didn’t want the Dark Room to harm him. I hadn’t called on them to slash and raze. I told the shadows to rise, to surge in a massive wave, to reach their fingers and tendrils to the night sky.
I told them to blot out the moon.
Chapter 27
The shadows burgeoned and grew, reaching for the heavens, their spines and sabers thickening as they formed a canopy of darkness around us, as the blades of the Dark Room whirled in a vortex of black swords.
That was when Tsukuyomi panicked.
“You can’t do this,” he said, his sword hand falling from his shoulder, his face etched with worry. I kept my smile to myself.
I strained even harder, little cuts ripping open across my skin as the Dark Room collected its price. Blood seeped into my shirt, down my legs. It dripped from the palms of my hands, its warmth tracking across my fingers. I watched the sky, grinning as the shadows made solid closed around us in an ebony sphere, blocking out the moon, the Convocation, my friends, even Vanitas.
