Page 232 of Red Ruin

At two-on-one, I’m pressed.

Beyond three-on-one, in a constant melee, I’m gasping.

If Vhex and Remy forget me…

My throat pinches.

I grit my teeth against a wave of ghouls.

Simms comes in clutch, herding them away from me with a well-placed wall of earth.

I’m not alone yet.

I grip Vhex and Remy’s weakening silks and scream into their souls.

Don’t you fucking dare abandon me.

Their last silks spiral, desperate to hold on to me.

Goosebumps pebble my arms.

They’re fighting.

I have to fight just as hard.

The earth wall that saved my ass also blocks my path. I get all turned around in the smoke and chaos.

Skeletons rise so thick they block my view. I can’t sense anything beyond flashes of Vhex and Remy’s agony and the overwhelming energy of death that presses in from everywhere at once.

I keep pushing. Slashing. Dodging flakes of bone.

Then my heel hits open air.

I glimpse the rim of a crater as I tumble down.

My shoulder hits the wall first.

I try to ball myself as I tumble, protecting my head with my arms, but there’s no slowing the roll. I smash down the slope, pummeled and sliced on razor-sharp, black rocks.

Obsidian, I realize as I come to a stop on my back.

My vision spins.

The endless darkness of the open shaft stretches above me.

I must be underneath the original seal.

Groaning, I try to move.

My glaive is gone. I drip blood from more cuts than I can count or even feel.

As I push up, my hands hit the dull, gold lines embedded in the rock.

More arrays.

Please tell me they still work.

“You’ve kept me waiting.”

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