I gasped, choking, sputtering out a mouthful of blood, what little of it I had left.
But Vanitas had started something. On the floor, Samyaza’s blood rippled, as if disturbed by wind, like water stirred by a pebble on a pond. Then it whirled, and sloshed, and it began to move.
I cried out again as Vanitas lifted out of me, leaving a deep gouge where he had stabbed me. Yet through the open wound I felt warmth returning to me, my torn muscle stitching back together, the shattered fragments of bone mending and reshaping as the many, many fractures and breaks all over my body began to repair themselves. My chest was swelling, filling with something new, yet so very familiar: raw, unfiltered power.
My hands pushed at the ground as I climbed to my feet. The pain was gone. I reached for the Null Dagger, tucking it into one of my pockets, marveling at how I was no longer on the brink of death.
I stared at my fingers, my skin. I could breathe normally again. I felt better. Not just better than when Bastion had battered my entire body, but stronger than ever. Samyaza had given me his essence, inoculated me with a dose of divinity. In the process, he’d surrendered his life in exchange for mine.
And I was going to make it count.
“Smash,” I thought. “Break his shields, V. Tear them down.”
Wordlessly, Vanitas set to work, assaulting Bastion from both sides. The smile was gone from his lips now, and I noticed that even Adriel had lost focus, his eyes flitting towards us, his mouth curling into a sneer. He hadn’t expected this. He was beginning to worry.
Good.
I raised my hand, my fingers clenched into a crooked claw as I strained to call on the elemental force of flame. The heat came easily to me, and faster than ever before, streaming towards the palm of my hand in a swirling, blistering spiral of white-hot air. It gathered there, shuddering, screaming for release, and as Vanitas’s two halves collided repeatedly with Bastion’s shield, I rushed forward, commanding the fire gathered between my fingers to manifest, to rage and to burn as they pleased.
My knuckles met with the gleaming rim of Bastion’s force field, the impact of my punch amplified by a gout of fire that roared with all of a dragon’s fury. I had never felt more strength, such arcane might coursing through my veins. I cried out as I struck another blow, and another, knowing that I would never wield this much power ever again.
Under our combined onslaught, Bastion’s shield fractured. It fell apart in a huge spray of glistening shards, tinkling and shattering with the noise of so much breaking glass. His eyes went wide with shock as Vanitas came shrieking for his head.
“At the last minute,” I commanded. “Stop at the last minute. Don’t kill him.”
Vanitas grumbled, but I didn’t have to tell him after all. Bastion lifted his hands, raising yet another shield, the glassy flicker of its edges showing me that he’d only shaped enough to protect his front.
Perfect.
In a flash, I vanished instantly into the Dark Room. For once I didn’t have to wait to step, or to sink into the shadows. For once I didn’t have to run. As I entered the chamber, the path was instantly clear before me. One step was all it took to reappear in the Comstock studio, the effect of the power that Samyaza had lent me. One step was all it took to materialize directly behind Bastion.
Null Dagger in hand, I stabbed him in the back.
Bastion’s shield failed immediately. Vanitas’s sword point stopped mere inches from his throat. Bastion fell to his knees screaming, stretching over his shoulder, screaming again when the blade tore at more of his skin and his muscle. It felt horrible seeing him in so much pain – and so much confusion, now that the Null Dagger had dispelled Adriel’s enthrallment. But Bastion did try to kill me, after all. What’s a little bit of backstabbing between friends?
“No,” Adriel shouted, his spell interrupted. The Tome of Annihilation slammed shut. “You’re more of a nuisance than I thought.”
“I’m going to be a pain in your ass until one of us dies, Adriel.” I cracked my knuckles, mentally beckoning Vanitas to my side. “You first.”
“Human filth.” Adriel bared his teeth, his eyes wild with rage, and to either side of him he stretched out the fingers of each hand. From every finger, from the blood clotted there sprouted a long, razor-sharp talon. “Cockroach.”
“Make up your mind,” I said, gesturing at the ground, already conjuring the mists of the Dark Room. “I’m flattered either way, but pick one.”
Adriel growled as he slashed at me, his crimson talons grown over a foot long, droplets of blood trailing in the air after every vicious sweep. One false move, and he would rake my face off. Vanitas battered at him from each side, and Adriel lashed out in his rage. Good, I thought. Divide his attention. Then he wouldn’t be prepared for the shadows.
“Surrender,” Adriel said. “You cannot – you will not defy the will of heaven.”
“Samyaza was right,” I said, dodging another of Adriel’s swipes. “This is all you, Adriel. This isn’t the will of heaven at all.”
“Filth,” he screeched again. So much like Thea, I thought, and yet so different. He rushed at me, hand upraised, prepared to strike, and to skewer me with talons as sharp as sabers. He came dangerously close to slashing me, to drawing blood. But not today.
I snapped my fingers. The shadows erupted in a tangle of hooks and blades, each somehow larger, sharper, more wicked than before. Adriel screamed as they caught his flesh, as spikes pierced his body from so many angles and pinned him in place. He struggled, just the once, and howled at the pain.
“Checkmate,” I said. “Give this up, Adriel. It’s over.”
“Kill him,” Adriel said. He was commanding the humans, the Comstock workers. Hell no, I thought. No way was I risking more innocent normals in this. “Kill him,” he said
again. “He who dares to defy the will of heaven.” He glared at me, his eyes filled with venom. “I will return, cockroach. I will heal, then rally my brothers, and we will hunt you down, no matter if it takes days, months, years.”