Page 243 of Red Ruin

Please, don’t be too late.

Battle noises echo from below.

Flames and shadows gopoomandzzzzzt, rattling the walls.

My chest unhooks.

They’re alive.

Toward the end of a long dive, the chaos finally comes into view.

Fully monstered out, my Sentinels crash around the crater, making the best of their last chance to take each other down.

Vhex is a tall ball of hellfire. Remy’s figure blurs through flashes of shadow, appearing and disappearing between attacks.

With zero sanity left to aim or identify enemies, they scatter the lich king’s forces through pure chaos, shredding and burning monsters caught between their fight.

They must be in so much pain.

I spot Simms and Tan pressed into a corner, holding off ghouls while they try to stay out of the blast zone.

Lich-Luca’s deathly power pulses, but he hasn’t moved a step from his prison.

The scale of the array holding him back shines clearer from above. All the way down, engraved lines of magic choke the walls. They’re mostly darkened, but every one was clearly built to reinforce the tight, gold circle still glowing beneath lich-Luca’s feet.

My stomach sinks.

The array is flickering.

I slow just enough to not die on impact, then angle my wings, swooping down like a hawk.

I don’t have claws or fangs.

Just combat boots and gravity.

I aim my landing at Luca’s jaw.

Smash!

I clock him on the chin.

My ankles scream and my knees buckle as I fold. Sickening pain blacks me out as I smash the ground in an explosion of screaming joints.

Vhex’s wings curl, protecting me through a few bumps before they disappear in a rain of sparks.

It’s worth the pain.

My force dropkicks Lich-Luca outside of his magical cage.

Gold light flashes. A strange, warm energy skates across my scalp.

Lich-Luca screeches in both of his voices.

I keep rolling as his screams distort. His skin sizzles.

His flesh melts off bone.

The death magic that’s been bleeding through the mountains recoils, returning to him in a bitingwhooooosh.

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