The thoughts of Tee being nowhere in sight, and the presence of the mysterious dark dome, had flown out of Miko’s head. All her focus shifted to Saeda—standing beside Sade, facing Zod several feet away. Though the creature bore her friend’s form, Miko could not forget the monster she had seen from Kie’s memories during their meeting with Elder Caledor and Seriphal.

  She knew Kie had the spare telecom for Saeda. They needed it since the Lieutenant had reset their group teleportation back to five persons at the Commander’s command. But there was still a problem.

  Even if she moved fast enough to stab Saeda with the Ether blade, how would they teleport without Kie and Tee nearby? Fragnuts!

  Riven was already creating vortexes for the flying beasts swooping toward his partner Sade. The monsters had multiplied. Armies of them were coming.

  Sade, however, wasn’t breaking his chant on the ground where he and Zod stood. The monsters had gone brain-fried once the Fragment vanished, and he had already set a plan in motion to keep the next wave from interfering.

  “Saeda…” Zod gasped, unable to take his one good eye off the being stepping through the vortex.

  He was still deaf, so he resisted the urge to scream her name. Instead, he searched her black-filled eyes—impossible to read, since they had no pupils.

  Saeda wasn’t wrapped in the pitch darkness that had covered her when Legion pulled her away in chains. Her skin showed, though it was no longer yellow but a dark shade of grey. Her once chin-length hair had grown to her elbows and turned wild. He almost didn’t notice her lips—so dry and colorless they blended into her face.

  Zod’s fingers twitched as he considered pulling out the new glove the Lieutenant had given them to summon an Ether blade. That was their only hope of freeing her from the vulture sealed inside.

  Sade’s eyes glowed blood-red, a chilling smile stretching across his face as he stared at the mortal before him. He had synced his vision with his bird companion, Riven, giving him a full aerial view of the enchanted grounds.

  Riven could no longer create vortexes for the giant flying monsters, but that no longer mattered—the problem was about to be solved.

  The darkness coating the ground began to rise, forming a domed force shield. Miko leapt inside just before it sealed. Her boots hit the ground hard, leaving a spiderweb of cracks beneath her. Zod flinched at her sudden appearance.

  Sade’s face showed no irritation, only eerie calm. When Zod turned toward Miko, Saeda lifted a hand, and darkness shot from her palm toward him.

  Zod’s eye widened as Miko hurled her spinning sword between them. He jumped back. The blade sliced through the darkness instead, severing it cleanly. The cut portion dissolved into smoke while the rest recoiled into Saeda’s palm.

  Zod tightened his grip on both swords. Whatever that thing was, it wasn’t the Saeda he knew—it had nearly killed him.

  The red vortex behind remained open. Sade planned to use it to trap his next pet. The dome above had fully closed, with Riven still flying inside. Linked through vision, the bird gave Sade a perfect vantage of everything below. Any attack the mortals made could be predicted and stopped.

  Saeda lowered her hand. Blood dripped from her fingers, proof she was hurting, though no emotion showed behind the black strands hanging over her face.

  Saeda could see everything, but something else controlled her body. Every effort to resist only brought agony. At that point, she wasn’t sure if death might have been kinder.

  Zod gritted his teeth, his eye darting between Sade and Saeda. Any wrong move would trigger her again. What good was a deaf, one-eyed boy in that fight? If Miko hadn’t been there, he’d already be dead.

  Like him, Miko froze—eyes locked on her target, Ether blade trembling in her grasp. Seeing the blood dripping from her friend’s fingers forced her hand. In a blink, she dashed toward Saeda, moving so fast the ground behind her tore apart in waves.

  Darkness erupted from Saeda’s back and shot through a red vortex. Miko’s eyes widened when another vortex opened to her left—the same darkness burst out, racing straight for her. She raised her sword in defense, but the blade shattered on impact. The blast hurled her backward, crashing her into the ground just before she reached Saeda.

  Zod was ready to take advantage of the distraction, but the moment he felt Sade’s stare on him, he froze again. Crap.

  Miko tried to rise, but the darkness lashed out once more, wrapping around her feet. Her panicked mind pushed her hand to stab at it with her dagger. The parts that touched the blade evaporated instantly.

  Saeda groaned as the darkness retreated through both vortexes, sinking back into her body.

  Sade’s eyes shrank when he noticed the dagger. The mortals had a way to cut his control over his puppet. He wasn’t going to risk it. Having one Sentinel trapped away forever was better than having none at all.

  Meanwhile, the dark spirits Legion had released on Kie swarmed inside the skeletal dome. They tore at his flesh, but only for a moment—then blinding blue energy burst from him, vaporizing every spirit trapped within.

  Legion’s dome shattered as he poured all his might into a barrier, barely strong enough to shield himself from the surge of light. The skeletal layer burned away, revealing a glowing red force field that still struggled under the pressure of the radiant blast.

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  The blinding beam illuminated the monster-filled zone. Zod and Miko turned toward it, squinting through the glare. Sade didn’t need to—he could see it clearly through Riven’s eyes.

  But the light wasn’t from Kie. It was from something else—something climbing out of the massive hole.

  Zod’s one good eye couldn’t look away. It burned with strain, yet he couldn’t stop staring.

  Miko, trembling, pushed herself up just enough to see. The shining entity rose higher, stretching toward the sky. Her head throbbed as her mind struggled to comprehend what she saw.

  There was nothing beautiful about it. Though it radiated blinding light, its body flickered through colors, never keeping a fixed form. Parts of it changed states—solid, liquid, gas—constantly shifting in impossible ways.

  It defied description. Their eyes stung with tears as they watched the cosmic horror unfold. Where could something like that have come from?

  The heat spiked. The entity’s form stabilized—becoming a living explosion. Waves of fire burst across the zone, massive orbs of white and orange detonations merging into a single, endless inferno, devouring everything in its path.

  Sade had seen enough. He wasn’t about to fight that. It was time to leave.

  He took a step toward the red vortex Saeda had entered through—but the one-eyed mortal dashed forward like a madman. Sade’s eyes widened.

  Darkness erupted from Saeda’s arms, spearing through Zod’s stomach and out his back. His body jerked, his remaining eye slamming shut in pain. The dagger slipped from his trembling fingers.

  Zod had thought killing the sorcerer might break Saeda’s control. But he never reached him.

  Sade made a new decision—he was taking that mortal with him before he left.

  Miko’s whole body shook after seeing the darkness plunge through Zod’s stomach and burst out his back.

  “No!” she screamed.

  The darkness tried to pull Zod toward its host—Saeda—but he dug his feet hard into the ground, refusing to be dragged any closer.

  Sade didn’t like that. What was supposed to be a quick snatch was turning into a struggle, and time was not on his side. The entity was getting closer.

  Miko sprang to her feet with her dagger, spinning twice in a blur before charging at Saeda. The darkness ripped through Saeda’s left arm and darted toward her like a massive spike.

  Miko shifted her trajectory just in time to dodge and kept running, circling the dome in frantic speed. Tears flung from her eyes, hitting her cheeks as she ran. She couldn’t hold them back after watching that lunatic tear Saeda’s body apart. What kind of pain would Saeda face once she regained control of herself?

  The darkness that missed Miko coiled around Zod instead, pulling him in.

  Zod felt himself slipping away. Blood dribbled from his mouth, and he stamped his feet even harder into the cracked ground, fighting the pull of the sorcerer’s puppet. If this was the end, he wanted to see Saeda one last time. He forced his one good eye open to look at her—and the energy that blasted out from it surged straight toward the sorcerer.

  Sade dropped everything he was doing to raise a shield strong enough to stop the blast. The large dome crumbled, and the darkness coating the ground vanished, allowing the monsters to rise once again.

  Miko snapped out of her shock and dashed toward Saeda, but the darkness lashed at her again, forcing her to veer away. New monsters were climbing from the soil.

  Sade’s eyes had returned to their normal black, but he hadn’t lost control of his puppet. He still struggled to pull the mortal in and couldn’t risk doing it himself. The boy would destroy him with his deadly Ultramana. Using the teammate against him was safer—and time was running out.

  Riven’s aerial vision disconnected from Sade as his focus shattered, freeing the bird to act on its own.

  Sade ordered Riven through their telepathic link to swoop down and possess the boy. Riven could only possess still targets, and with the mortal’s injuries, he wouldn’t be able to dodge it.

  But Riven refused. After witnessing that eye-blast, it knew better. Whatever light the boy carried inside him could disintegrate any darkness that entered. Possession would be suicide.

  Riven had grown defiant about following orders—especially since it was blind obedience that had cursed it into that bird form. Instead, it focused on the swarms of flying beasts circling the collapsed dome, baffled as to why they hadn’t fled already.

  Sade’s irritation spiked. He called Riven a “four-eyed poultry.”

  Who needed Riven anyway? He’d use his puppet to reel the mortal in while keeping the speedster away.

  Miko lunged for Saeda again, and darkness lashed at her legs. Terror hit her like lightning when she realized the sorcerer was trying to trip her again. She gritted her teeth and kept running—short, rapid steps shredding the darkness under her feet.

  She got close enough to see Saeda’s face. Her black-filled eyes met hers—and then the darkness wrapped around Miko’s hands, crushing them until she dropped the dagger. Blood spurted from her veins as she screamed and clenched her eyes shut in agony.

  Then Riven saw Lilith leaving her victim—it was time to go. Changing its mind, Riven decided to possess the speedster who had stopped running. It darted through a red vortex to escape the flying predators above, then emerged from another one beside Miko. Its body turned to ash as it streaked through the air toward her.

  Miko’s eyes flew open, glowing bright blue—the light reflecting across Saeda’s pale face.

  Riven instantly fled. Forget possessing anyone that day. Whatever awakening was happening between those two mortals, it was beyond its limits—and at the worst possible time.

  The darkness crushing Miko’s hands evaporated as if allergic to her touch. She didn’t need the Ether blade anymore to release the demon from Saeda.

  She stared into Saeda’s dark eyes and spoke with a voice that was two deep tones shouting in unison. “Get out of her now!”

  Saeda’s head snapped back, her mouth opening wide in an ear-splitting shriek. Darkness poured from her mouth, eyes, ears, and nostrils—spiraling upward before vanishing into the air. Her eyes flashed white again, a black pupil returning to its rightful place.

  Zod fell to his knees as the darkness released him. His eye gleamed blue before closing, and he collapsed face-first onto the ground, slipping into deep sleep.

  Sade felt a surge of light through his connection to the puppet. The pain shocked his body, frying his nerves. His mouth opened in a silent scream—mute as always—and smoke rose from his head as he fell to his knees.

  Riven noticed the blinding light consuming everything was almost upon them. Sade had failed—not only to deactivate the Fragment’s defense, but to keep his puppet. What a loser.

  Riven stopped watching the disaster unfold and opened vortexes for each member individually.

  Lilith slew her final monster before stepping through hers. Legion, scorched by the red-eyed mortal’s light, didn’t drop his red force shield and entered his vortex still wrapped in it. As for Sade, the vortex Riven made for him was so small he had to dive through it—Riven’s petty revenge for the “four-eyed poultry” insult.

  Miko fell to her knees and crawled to Saeda. Blood gushed from the dark punctures across Saeda’s body. Miko cried and gathered her in her arms as the monsters that had risen from the earth charged toward them.

  Then, from one side, a green light began to shine—and Miko looked up.