Sylvia Talgan’s POV.
“It’s ti to get to work.”
The deep, uncaring voice’s words ushered in an imdiate change, as if bending reality to its will. The world warped, and for a mont, a torrent of confusion rattled my brain.
There was a disconnect to…everything. It was as if I had stopped being , and instead, I was just nothing. That there was nothing. The fleeting feelings of confusion mixed with the insignificance of my existence waned and were instead replaced by the sa dread as before, albeit to a far lesser degree.
Cerila, who was standing up slowly beside , made blink twice. The confusion ca over again as I shook my head.
This…what happened?
“AH…BAELOR. ONE OF MY MOST LOYAL FOLLOWERS. YOU HAVE—”
The cacophony of petrifying voices stopped mid-sentence and trailed off with a hint of confusion in its otherworldly voice.
Hasn’t…hasn’t this happened before?
The golden entity looked up into the dark abyss and shouted with a voice of pure hatred, “YOU—YOU DDLING LIZARD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE NOW OF ALL TIS! WHY HAVE YOU—WHO…WHO ARE YOU?”
I could feel the radiant creature’s gaze pass over , as the sa chilly bloodlust crept over like a shadow of knives. The aura was twofold what it had been with Deguzman, and I could feel my breath leaving my body as if I had been stabbed. A set of heavy footsteps marched forward.
“? We’ve never t before, creature. So save your breath.”
My heart pumped wildly in my ears. The voice sounded like Kaladin in many ways, but it was completely different at the sa ti. The enunciation of the words, the tone, and the biting coldness to it couldn’t be any more different. It wasn’t a voice of anger or hatred, but one of calm sharpness. Kaladin simply walked away from where he was in the back, and I instinctively took a step away from it, despite it being aningless.
Fear gripped my heart as his changed eyes stared up at the creature. His eyes lacked the life and movent that everyone in this world had, except for us Vampires. The unmoving eyes deeply unsettled , and in their sharpness, I felt overwheld by their depths.
Is this…how people feel when they look at …?
With the radiant being’s aura being diminished by the sharp dread, everyone else began to stir. Bowen’s face was twisted in a mixture of anguish and fear, even the ever-restrained Lord Vasquez in the middle of climbing out of the rubble with his battered body looked more alard than in pain as he gazed at Kaladin with one good eye. Professor Garrison, Tsarra, and Varnir were not far behind with similar expressions.
“YOU ARE THE SHADOW THAT CLOUDS OUR VISION…FINALLY WE ET FACE TO FACE. WE DID NOT EXPECT THAT YOU HID IN THAT MORTAL’S SOUL,” the radiant creature said.
“You ask who I am, yet you already seem to know? Either way, I already know what you are, Amon-Ra,” Kaladin answered.
Amon-Ra…?
The creature…no Amon-Ra hovered backward slightly at the words as Kaladin’s mother suddenly appeared by our side, her face pale and her sword hands shaking uncontrollably. She bit her lip and tried to speak, Cerila reached out to him, but before a single word could leave her mouth and before Cerila could muster her strength, they were halted as Kaladin turned his eyes toward us.
In the blood-chilling gaze, a hint of concern flashed in his eyes, but his face remained emotionless. “You’ve done well. I’ll be handling things from here,” he said.
My heart froze as his eyes turned to next. “Sylvia, protect them. Your job, everyone’s job, is to survive. And that is it,” he ordered.
“Kaladin—”
Kaladin’s gaze also silenced Bowen. “You can not help here. You are to focus on your survival. That is all you can do and all that I need. I can—I can’t afford to fight and protect now,” Kaladin said firmly.
“YOU PLAN TO FACE US? ALONE? FOOLISH MORTAL, YOUR HUBRIS KNOWS NO BOUNDS. WHAT HOPE DO YOU HAVE IN DEFEATING A GOD?”
“A god? You are no god, you’re just a walking corpse. Ti to die.”
A crushing weight assaulted , as if the world itself had been laid upon my shoulders, and I was forced to my knees. It was no longer just bloodlust pouring out of him. The rocks from the crushed stone, the destroyed chains, they all rose into the air and began to crumble into themselves. Rocks the size of n were crushed into tiny pebbles by the force. tal chains mashed together to form long spears, their forms glowing from an unknown heat.
The small entities grew until it seed a blanket of tal and stone had shrouded the world. And at the sa ti the pressure only increased as Amon-Ra raised a clawed hand.
“GO FORTH. CLAIM THE SOULS OF THOSE PITIFUL MORTALS.”
From the solid crystal embedded in its chest, a radiant light escaped into streams of golden brilliance. The streams crashed onto the ground with a thundering boom, and figures of golden light began to appear. Armored Human figures with various weapons and brilliant wings of light flowing from their backs appeared.
Their numbers swelled into the hundreds, filling the chamber with their golden bodies. Each one radiated imnse power, but Kaladin or…whatever had taken him seed unperturbed by the events. He slowly raised his spear and pointed it at Amon-Ra.
As if answering his call, the shroud moved, and with thundering booms, they were gone. They tore through the air in a blur and ripped through the golden army like a thousand arrows. And they didn’t stop just by piercing one. A single projectile claid dozens of the soldiers, pierced the stone pillars, and continued toward Amon-Ra.
A golden shield appeared around the monstrosity, and the attacks seed to disappear into its brilliance. But in that single mont, the entire army had been completely annihilated.
Their forms twisted into a golden stream again and tried to move toward Amon-Ra, but sothing stopped them. An invisible force pulled at the streams as they swirled onto themselves and raced away from the deity.
Right toward Kaladin.
The golden waves spun around in the space in front of him and warped. The form began to collapse on itself, and what was once a massive span of light had been condensed into a single, tiny dot. Kaladin reached out with his armored hand and crushed the light. A torrent of darkness seeped out from his fingertips and curled across his arms, up his shoulders as he inhaled the darkness with a single breath.
Amon-Ra floated back, the golden light that was its face seed to swirl at the sight as it said, “YOU—HOW HAVE YOU DONE THAT? HOW…HOW DO YOU HAVE SUCH A POWER?”
Kaladin didn’t respond. Instead, he took a single step as the world around him warped, and then he was gone. The world-crushing aura lessened and seed to move deeper into the chamber, and by the ti I looked over, Kaladin had already stepped out into the air in front of Amon-Ra, his spear ready to thrust into the creature’s chest.
Amon-Ra swept its arm, but it was too late. The spear impacted its chest, but instead of piercing the golden crystal, it shattered, and the air warped again as Kaladin disappeared, the blur of Amon-Ra’s hand swiping at nothing but air.
Kaladin appeared where he had been, and his eyes stared down at his hand as he opened it, the black tal crumbling into dust. Instead, he extended his hands, and an intense heat sprouted from his arms, condensing instantly into two arm blades glowing an eerie red. The flas didn’t move like normal; instead, they shifted, and in their midst, there seed as if countless Human faces were pushing against the ghastly red flas trying to escape.
There was a flash of light as sothing moved out from the darkness. It was a blur, but as it stopped in front of Kaladin, its features beca clear. My eyes widened as I saw the radiant figure of Ms. Taurus. Her golden spear was ready to pierce Kaladin’s heart.
“Jess!” Bowen scread in anguish.
A bolt of fire left Bowen’s hand but Ms. Taurus swung her spear and a blade of light left the tip. The bolt of fire was split apart, while the light blade kept going. Bowen was unable to dodge it, and the blade sliced his arm clean off.
The perfect face she had slipped into a look of confusion as a red blur moved. Slowly, her head slipped from her shoulders onto the floor. Her body disappeared into a stream of light, but Kaladin gripped the stream with a hand and crushed it. Instead of turning it into darkness and swallowing it, they simply vanished into fragnts and faded away.
“You parasite scum. It’s just like you to try a trick like that. It won’t help you, though. Nothing will,” Kaladin said coldly.
“YOU DARE INSULT US? WE WILL MAKE IT CERTAIN THERE IS NOTHING LEFT OF YOU MORTALS.”
The light left Amon-Ra’s core again and curled around its pristine figure, wrapped around its arms, and took the form of a golden shield. The other hand gripped a curved blade. Kaladin peered back at us and stared directly at . And despite the fear gripping I understood what it ant.
Blood on the floor listened to my command and began to form a barrier around us. Before it ford completely, the air warped around Kaladin, and at the sa ti, Amon-Ra disappeared into a haze of light. The barrier closed around us and…
The world began to shake.
It was impossible to tell what was happening beyond the barrier. Only the sounds of clashing weapons and the titanic blows that swept over us could be heard. Every strike seed impossibly fast; my barrier quaked and threatened to splatter into pieces with every single impact.
The ground shook, splitting the stone into pieces. Even the ground below was not safe, and I had to use blood to surround us. It was like when the Zombie Dragon appeared in front of Curia, but far worse.
It was as if the world was ending.
And none of us dared even to utter a word. The faces around were pale, twisted in fear. I wanted to heal Bowen but I noticed that not even a single drop of blood left his bloodied stump. His face was twisted in agony, tears flooding from his eyes as he knelt to the ground. We were nothing more than ants in front of a Dragon. No, sothing far stronger. Amon-Ra…Kaladin had said he was not a god. But if that was not a god…then what was?
And what had he turned into? What was the Agent Deguzman spoke of? The barrier…souls…
No way…could it be?
Had Kaladin’s past self physically existed here? Was it not a fignt of his imagination, a distant mory but rather a real entity that had resided inside him the entire ti? And was he gone…replaced by this Commander Kronos?
“Kal…please…” I whispered into the world-shattering dissonance.
Then I felt sothing impact my barrier. The connection to the blood served entirely as light broke away the darkness. Dread lood over us like a brilliant star and when I looked up all I saw was a golden sword falling on top of us.
But it never did reach us as a tiny dot of space appeared. It warped the world, my blood, the stone, and the light began to be sucked into it. The golden sword twisted into impossible angles and refracted dozens of ways until it was swallowed whole, as was the arm.
Then, a mind-reeling scream pierced my ears as the giant figure of Amon-Ra reeled back in pain. A blood-red blade pierced through its chest. The red flas consud the light, swallowing it. And its power only grew more harrowing.
The tiny dot disappeared, and Kaladin appeared in its place. He was a blur as he sliced up, and the crimson blade cut through the radiant core and body of Amon-Ra, leaving a deep gash. Light poured out of the creature as it stumbled back. From sowhere far away, a deafening boom cracked the air, and a fiery crimson bolt pierced the god through the stomach and barreled into the ground before us.
Kaladin jumped from it with trendous force and knocked Amon-Ra back, his twin arm blades sinking into its stone-like body. Like a madman, he continued to stab and stab, the red flas glowing even brighter with every strike. The light turned into darkness, and Kaladin swallowed it whole.
Before long, Amon-Ra was on its back before us, Kaladin crouched atop the monster's body, staring down at its formless face.
“YOU—WE ARE NOT SO DIFFERENT. WE HAVE MUCH IN COMMON. AN ACCORD CAN STILL BE MADE. A PACT FORD—”
Kaladin stood to his full height and said in a cold voice, “We have nothing in common, parasite. I was created to seize the stars. You can’t even grasp a single world.”
The light around Amon-Ra began to shimr and transform into streams, which quickly swam away into the darkness. Its body began to disappear as Kaladin looked to the side and observed it with an indifferent gaze.
Then he turned to look down at it again and thrust his arm blade back into its core. More radiant light flew out in a torrent, and Kaladin began to absorb it. His bloodlust was suffocating and oppressive, completely destroying Amon-Ra’s. The cold sharpness seed like it could cut the world apart on its own.
“Then run, little parasite. Sche and hide. Nowhere is safe for you. We will et again. And when we do…” Kaladin trailed off.
“You will not be so lucky to escape a second ti.”
The radiant light turned into a crushing storm that burst out from its vessel. It hit us like an indomitable wave, and we were forced back. I had to avert my eyes from the blinding light. And I felt nothing but pain as I crashed into the ground.
I tried to push myself up, but the dominating wind was too much. I cursed to myself as my blood ignited in my body. Power flowed into , and I stood up and stared into the light. There, at its center, was a dark silhouette.
I pushed myself forward, but every step felt like I was pushing a mountain. I shielded my eyes and kept moving forward when I sensed sothing to my left. Pushing through the blinding light with was Cerila, Hubris held in front of her like a shield.
Her muscles bulged with mana as blood seeped from her wounds, even from her eyes. She gained on soon enough and pushed into the radiant light toward the dark silhouette. Eventually, she too beca a silhouette in the light, and I watched as she reached out toward him.
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