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Val Halla was not just the home of the Val Kyr, it was also a fortress, one which had stood fast against the daemon forces for thousands of years. But now the daemonites had discovered how to breach the walls, leading an army of monsters into the very heart of the fortress that had been built to protect against them. Daemons infested ancient Val Halla, though the battle for her future was mostly contained to the large main courtyard.

There was an eerie break in the battle as both sides pulled back a little in order to catch their breaths. I never would have imagined the daemons had the intelligence to do that, and at first, I was sure they’d pulled back just because their numbers were being so badly reduced. However, that was before Estrid had arrived and the daemon swarm separated like the Red Sea, creating a path so she could walk through them to reach the front.

Estrid now stood in front of the daemon swarm, wearing her chitinous black armor with her red daemonite cloak flung back so it was more like a cape. She stood there with an expression of cold hatred on her face as she stared across the courtyard to where the other group of Val Kyr were gathered, the group that had been bunkered down inside the fortress until our arrival. Freya stepped to the front and met Estrid’s glare with her own look of fierce determination.

My eyes darted to the anchor, which no longer had the giant snake to guard it. I momentarily wondered if we could use it to contact some of the Val Kyr who’d been sent to Earth on various missions, then bring them back as reinforcements. However, there were still quite a few daemons between us and the anchor and I suspected the daemonites would do everything they could to prevent us from reaching it.

“Who is that?” Dad asked, looking towards Freya.

“That is Freya,” Lindrell answered. “She leads the Val Kyr.”

Dad had a momentary look of surprise when he heard the name, so I added, “Freya is her title, not her name. She isn’t the Norse goddess.”

“No,” Bethany agreed with a weak chuckle. “The original Freya left us a long time ago.”

“Estrid,” Freya announced, her tone and body language being powerful and intimidating. At the moment, she truly seemed more than human, and if I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn she really was the goddess. “You are no longer welcome in these halls. Begone.”

“I was never welcome here,” Estrid called back, her voice filled with bitterness and hatred. “You showed me that when you sent the assassins to murder me in the baths.”

“I have never done such a thing,” Freya responded grimly. If she was offended by the accusation, she didn’t really show it. “I allowed you to become Val Kyr because I saw a courageous warrior with great potential. When you were revealed as atra, I had hoped you would prove yourself worthy of becoming my student. But to my grave disappointment, you failed. And to my everlasting shame, you betrayed your sisters. Yet even then, I did not imagine you would prove yourself so foul as to ally with our enemy.”

“It was you who betrayed me,” Estrid exclaimed furiously. All the daemons began to grumble and tense, as though picking up on her anger. Since she was a daemonite with the ability to communicate with daemons, they probably were. “Yet you dare to stand there, acting self-righteous. HIPOCRITE! The Val Kyr are just damned souls with delusions of grandeur…”

Julie leaned over to whisper in my ear as she weakly joked, “When last we met, I was but the student. Now I am the master.” In spite of just how deadly serious this entire situation was, I still chuckled at the Star Wars reference.

Suddenly, Ailsa raised her bow and fired an essence charged arrow straight at Estrid, obviously seeing an opportunity she couldn’t ignore. The instant the arrow left the bow…it vanished…only to reappear in Estrid’s chest with no travel in between. Estrid was thrown back from the arrow while all the daemons roared, hissed, and shrieked…and then charged forward.

In an instant, our short break was over as the battle erupted into full force again. Gretchen let out a series of whistles, which were returned from the other group of Val Kyr. Then Gretchen called out, “They want us to reunite and form ranks.”

Our group began to leave our fortifications and move towards the other group, with the notru working hard to throw any approaching daemons back until we were better positioned. I had my sword out, clutched firmly in my hand, though I was acting as support for my dad so wouldn’t be jumping into a fight again quite yet if I could help it. To my surprise, someone had given Dad a sword so he was no longer relying just on his bow, though I wasn’t sure how well he could use it.

“Damn leg,” Dad grumbled, though his eyes were sharp and scanning the surroundings for any daemons that might be coming directly at us.

We had gone about halfway to the other group when Julie cried out, “Estrid…”

That drew my attention to Estrid, who was back on her feet and furious. Obviously, it took more than an arrow to the chest to take her down. Of course, her armor looked like it was made from daemon hide, and some daemons could shrug off arrows as easily as spitwads. It seemed that all Ailsa had done was to piss her off.

“You will all be food for the daemons,” Estrid yelled out, right before charging at Freya

Estrid’s two swords were met by Freya’s spear, just a moment before a bolt of lightning crashed down through the spear, killing and injuring several of the nearby daemons. However, Estrid seemed relatively unharmed from the powerful attack. She just lashed out with her swords, forcing Freya to react quickly to keep up with two weapons simultaneously.

Once we reached the area where the other group of Val Kyr had set up their own fortifications, Dad leaned up against a wall that had been set up, holding the sword firmly and looking determined to use it. But at the same time, even though he was clearly trying to hide it, I could see his frustration over the situation, over the fact that his leg limited how much he could move and fight.

“About time you all returned,” one of the other group called out. “We didn’t have the numbers to fight back effectively until now…”

Hilde pulled her axe out of a Hellhound and called back, “They started a siege against our walls just hours after your group left. We could have handled that, but then these vermin somehow found a way inside…” Then she let out a howl and yelled, “I’ll make a stew of you,” right before throwing herself against a spikey tortoise daemon that was about the size of a small car.

“Hold fast,” Lindrell called out to us. “Keep position…”

“Gotcha,” I said, lunging forward with my sword, doing the strike and dodge routine again. I held off from charging my blade with essence, not sure how much further the extra val would stretch.

Then without looking back, Lindrell asked, “How are you holding up, David?”

“Just fine,” Dad responded, notching his last arrow and firing it across the battlefield, striking a daemonite in the chest, just as he was charging forward on the back of a unicorn. “Good thing these daemonites don’t seem to have any combat experience or tactics.”

“True,” Lindrell agreed. “But they can still overwhelm us with numbers and raw power.”

Fleur suddenly yelled out, “There’s a hob…incoming from the fourth wall…”

I immediately looked in the direction of the fourth wall and saw a daemonite that looked something like a bald and slimy gorilla, with arms that were long bone blades, almost like swords. In fact, for a brief moment, I almost thought it resembled Golem from Lord of the Rings…but on steroids. It was racing over the battlefield, climbing over other daemons and quickly coming in our direction. To my surprise, nearly every kaern turned and started shooting at it simultaneously.

“Don’t let it reach us,” Gretchen snarled, just an instant before releasing another arrow.

The hob shocked me by moving fast, faster than I ever would have imagined of that thing, and it either dodged or used its bladed arms to block every arrow fired at it. And it still came in our direction.

“Don’t let those blades touch you,” Lei called out a warning for everyone who’d never seen or even heard of a hob before. “If it cuts you…you’ll never heal right…no matter how much jatta you have.”

The hob reached us just seconds later, leaping over both the sinking ground the notru had set up, landing on top of the wall, and then launching itself right into the middle of our fortifications. A kaern who I vaguely recognized was closest to the hob and sliced at it with her sword, but it reacted with nearly blinding speed, dodging to the side and attacking her at the same time. A moment later, the kaern’s head went flying and the hob turned to find the next target.

Just as the hob was about to leap at Moraigh, a massive axe suddenly came down on the creature from behind, splitting it completely in two. Ragnhild stood there with a look of grim satisfaction on her face as she announced, “I hate those things.” My eyes went to her eye patch, and I suddenly had a strong suspicion that she was wearing it because of a hob.

“This is fucking insane,” came a voice from behind me.

I turned and saw Cindy standing there, wielding a large two handed broadsword, the kind that I usually thought of as a Conan sword. She wiped the sweat from her eyes, then looked around her with a mixture of fear and determination that reminded me of the fact that she hadn’t been Val Kyr for very long at all. In fact, this was actually her first real battle as Val Kyr.

“What do you think about being Val Kyr now?” I asked her wryly.

Cindy quickly glanced to me and said, “Well, you did promise me excitement…” And with that, she jumped forward to hack at a daemon that had slipped through the outer defenses.

While this was all going on, I’d completely lost track of the fact that Freya and Estrid were still going at each other, viciously striking back and forth in a way that was only possible when the issues were personal. I could only imagine how much Estrid’s betrayal hurt Freya, especially since Estrid had not only been her potential student…but was also her own descendant.

“You have become stronger,” Freya grimly admitted to Estrid. “And more skilled…” Then Freya suddenly did a fast spin move where she caught Estrid’s ankle with the spear, knocking it out from beneath her and sending the daemonite to the ground. “But not skilled enough…”

Then as Freya was about to drive her spear down to impale Estrid, the daemonite shrieked with rage, making all the nearby daemons go into a frenzy, or at least more of one than they were already in. A batlike daemon swooped down to attack Freya, but the Val Kyr leader responded in a snap, impaling the creature and then returning to the job of finishing Estrid off. However, Estrid took advantage of that momentary distraction to roll out of the way and was already in the process of returning to her feet by the time Freya was ready to deal with her again.

“I will burn this place to the ground,” Estrid hissed. “We will feast on Val Kyr flesh and crush your bones beneath our feet. And then, we will use your prized anchor to free every last daemon from Hell.”

Freya merely looked sad as she said, “You have no idea how disappointed I am in you…in what you have become.”

Estrid just snarled with an expression of hatred, then she gave Freya an evil grin before lunging forward with her swords. Freya went to block, but Estrid opened her mouth and suddenly spat out a stream of flames…right into Estrid’s face. Estrid immediately took advantage of the distraction to drive her sword right into Freya’s stomach.

“Now I end you,” Estrid stated as she swung the sword at Freya’s neck.

Suddenly, Sharra was there, blocking the attack with her spear and kicking Estrid back. Before Estrid could recover, Sharra swept her spear along the ground between them, sending a wave of ground and spikes at Estrid, who was forced to leap back to avoid being struck. Without a word, she grabbed the injured Freya and pulled her back to the fortifications, throwing another wave of stone out to throw back the daemons.

Ragnhild rushed forward, obviously intending to strike at Estrid, but several large daemons came at her from the side. A moment later, she was so busy dealing with the daemons that Estrid was able to back up and prepare herself. The daemonite leader glared at Ragnhild and then at the rest of the Val Kyr with a look of pure hatred. Unlike the daemons themselves, which were mostly by primal and vicious instincts, for Estrid this was very personal.

I remained close to my dad, guarding him from the onrushing daemons while simultaneously watching the fight between Freya and Estrid. A flying daemon dove down towards us but I quickly sliced at the thing a moment before it could strike, sending the body to the ground. Dad remained leaning against the support, looking grim with frustration practically rolling off him. Without any more arrows, he’d not only become virtually useless in this battle, but he’d also turned into a liability since he couldn’t properly defend himself against the daemons. But in spite of that, he still clutched his borrowed sword firmly and was clearly ready to strike out at any daemons that got close.

There were enough Val Kyr in the fight now that the daemons were being decimated, with their numbers dwindling further and further with every minute the fight continued. The notru acted to pen the daemons and herd them into place for the slaughter, which the jatta and kaern eagerly provided. A few Val Kyr had been badly injured so far, but they would all recover, or at least, all of them would but the one that had been decapitated by the hob.

Then Estrid let out a strange shriek, one that drew my attention back to her. To my surprise, Estrid was changing, just like she’d begun to do back at that garage where I had been held prisoner. However, that time, she’d only changed enough to show me that she could, while this time, she didn’t appear to be stopping. Estrid grew larger, splitting out of her armor which broke apart, leaving her naked and giving me an even better look at her changes. Her skin was darkening, becoming an odd glossy black that made me think of oil. And still, she continued to grow and change.

“Estrid is a channeler,” someone yelled out in shock, reminding me that I hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone from Val Halla about what I’d learned as a prisoner.

At ten feet tall, Estrid was still shaped mostly like a human woman, though there was no doubt she was no longer human. Not only did she now have the glossy black skin and hair, she also had a long thin tail, spikes all down her spine, vicious looking claws on her fingers, and a pair of curving horns. And to my stunned disbelief, she was still growing larger as I watched, stopping only when she was nearly twenty feet tall.

“This is what your lies and treachery have made of me,” Estrid yelled out in an odd and raspy voice. Then she snarled and opened her mouth again, only to breath out a long blast of flames, much like a dragon. “YOUR DOOM!”

“She’s no channeler,” Lei snarled as she readied her blood and gore covered hammer. “She’s a host…”

“Bloody hell,” Bethany commented with a grim look.

“A host?” Julie asked, looking like she was suddenly going pale. “Not good…”

Hosts were the rarest of the daemonite pillars, which was fortunate because they were also some of the most dangerous. According to what I’d been told by Lindrell, at first glance, channelers and hosts appeared to be the same thing since they could both use daemon powers and actually transform into daemons. However, the way that they did this was quite different. Channelers had a link to a specific daemon and they could channel that daemon’s powers and form for a short period of time, but hosts somehow merged with a daemon…permanently absorbing the daemon into themselves. As a result, hosts could access their powers more directly, which not only made them more powerful, but also removed the time limit that channelers had.

Estrid let out a loud howling roar into the air and every daemon suddenly paused and did the same thing, howling, roaring, shrieking, or whatever it was they could do…at the same time. A cold chill ran down my spine at that since it reminded me about one other aspect about hosts…that daemons truly saw them as one of their own, far more than they did any other daemonites. As a result, if a host was strong enough, any weaker daemons would treat them as if they were some kind of alpha…as their leader.

Before Estrid had even finished her howl, three triads charged her at once, including Freya’s triad…though she’d been left back behind the fortifications to recover from her injuries. Sharra tried to soften the ground beneath Estrid’s feet while Ailsa took aim with her bow and Ragnhild simply charged while swinging her axe. Estrid moved far more quickly than I would have imagined someone her size was capable of, shifting position to avoid getting an arrow in the eye while simultaneously leaping over the soft ground and avoiding Ragnhild’s charge. In spite of her massive size, Estrid was still moving like an atra. Then she responded by spitting out a massive wave of flame while the Val Kyr leapt out of the way.

“Tiny little hellspawn,” Estrid hissed, suddenly snapping her long tail out and sending several Val Kyr flying. She snapped it out again, this time using the sharp bony tip to impale Ragnhild, who she casually tossed aside.

“I have always known you to be a traitorous beast,” Ailsa exclaimed, firing another arrow at Estrid’s face, though without essence to enhance her shot, the daemonite leader was able to avoid being hit. “You converts are the rot that festers within Val Halla, so it pleases me to see your true face revealed for the world to see. “

“And it will please me to end your existence,” Estrid responded, lunging at Ailsa, though the kaern general was too quick to be caught so easily. However, Estrid followed that up by spitting out more flames, but Sharra was suddenly by Ailsa’s side, forming a stone shield to protect them both from the fire.

“Today, you finally die,” Ailsa exclaimed, emerging from behind the shelter that Sharra had created. “This time, you shall not escape…”

Estrid merely responded by spitting out more flames, surrounding her with fire that drove all the Val Kyr back, at least for a few seconds. Then she let out another howl, and suddenly, every daemon turned and launched themselves at the Val Kyr near their leader. Even the daemons that had been attacking the fortifications abruptly turned and joined in Estrid’s defense.

“Change position,” Gretchen called out. With that, most of the Val Kyr began rushing out from our fortified position to aid those who were still being attacked by daemons.

I glanced to Dad, not about to leave him alone. “I’ll be fine,” Dad assured me. “Watch Julie’s back.”

“Be careful,” I warned him, knowing that the daemons were no longer coming in this direction but still being concerned.

In spite of the swarm of daemons, several Val Kyr were able to reach Estrid and attack her, though it didn’t seem to do much good. Not only did she have her size and daemon power, but she still seemed to have all the power of an atra. She dodged, avoided being hit, and when she was hit with blade or arrow, the injuries didn’t seem to penetrate very deeply.

Estrid spat out another stream of flame, then suddenly leapt forward, slashing out with her claws and tail. Sharra was hit with the tail and was thrown twenty yards, though she was in one piece. Another Val Kyr wasn’t so lucky as her arm was sent flying.

“Freya,” Estrid snarled, “we are not finished…” With that, Estrid charged at the fortified area, easily clearing the spiked wall and landing inside. Her eyes went to Freya, who was being guarded by Cindy and a Val Kyr I only vaguely recognized. “Now to finish what I began…”

“I don’t think so,” I yelled, charging towards the massively terrifying Estrid. There was no way I was going to stand back and let her kill Freya, especially when Freya wasn’t in any condition to fight back.

Freya stood up, though one arm clutched her injured stomach. Her face was blistered though she acted as though this was no problem as she held her spear, clearly ready to fight to the death without showing any signs of fear.

However, Estrid was no longer looking at Freya. Instead, she was staring at me with a look of surprise. “You,” she snarled. “You escaped…”

“Thanks for leaving Nessa behind,” I said, trying to hide how afraid I felt at the moment. “Without her, we never would have been able to come back here…”

“Surrender now and I’ll let you live,” Estrid told me, which was something she hadn’t offered anyone else.

I stared at Estrid, remembering our conversation back at the garage. She could have killed me then but hadn’t done so. At the time, I’d thought it was because she saw me as a kindred spirit, someone who might be able to relate to her and understand what she’d gone through. Now I was even more certain of that.

“I don’t think so,” I responded grimly, holding my sword firmly and bracing myself for her attack.

But to my surprise, Estrid didn’t charge at me. Instead, she looked over at Dad, staring at him with an expression of surprise. “A man in Val Halla?”

A second later, Estrid suddenly lashed out with her tail, hitting the injured Freya who’d been trying to catch her while she was distracted. Freya was thrown back from the impact, but Estrid didn’t even turn to go after her. Instead, she leapt over me and landed right beside Dad, who immediately tried to hit her with the sword. She casually knocked the sword from his hand and grabbed hold of him. Without a moment of hesitation, Dad pulled pistol from the holster on his belt and tried to shoot Estrid in the face, though the gun didn’t fire.

“A man in Val Halla,” Estrid repeated with a snarl, lifting Dad up from the ground and then exclaiming, “And a cripple as well…”

“Dad,” I called out, rushing closer, but hesitating since Estrid had him firmly in her grasp. If I attacked her, she could kill him before I ever reached her. My heart raced in fear, not for me but for him. Dad just glared at Estrid in cold defiance.

“You came to Val Halla to deal with the Val Kyr,” Estrid accused with an angry sneer. “To join them in exchange for health and power…”

“I came to Val Halla to fight the monsters who took my leg and destroyed my town,” Dad responded, dropping the gun since it wasn’t doing him any good. However, I could see from the look in his eyes that he wasn’t about to give up yet. He was waiting for an opportunity. “I came here to fight beside my family.”

“Do you think me a fool?” Estrid demanded, though Dad was wise enough not to taunt her by answering. “Long ago, I was a fool…fool enough to make that deal. I exchanged my service for health and power…but it cost me far more than I’d ever suspected. I lost my wife…my son…my honor…and even my very soul. I became a cursed and damned soul, just like every one of these lying Val Kyr filth…”

Estrid suddenly snapped around and spat out another blast of flames, aimed at the small group of Val Kyr who’d been in the process of charging her. As if that wasn’t enough to discourage them, she snapped her tail again, knocking Hilde off her feet. She lashed out with the tail again, using the bladed tip to tear at Sharra’s armor and then impale Zubell. A moment later, she casually snapped her tail again, sending Zubell flying back into a mass of daemons. Zubell screamed before suddenly going silent.

While all this was going on, I still held back, terrified that she’d kill my dad at any moment. Lindrell had approached as well, but like me, she was waiting for an opportunity to get my dad out alive. There was a look of furious determination on her face that spoke poorly for Estrid’s future if anything more happened to Dad.

“I will do you the mercy of killing you quickly,” Estrid told Dad. “You may die, but at least you will do so with your soul intact…”

“Go ahead, you ugly bitch,” Dad snarled defiantly. “A Sorensen doesn’t go down begging…we go down fighting.” With that, Dad pulled a combat knife from his belt sheath and drove the blade right into Estrid’s arm as hard as he could. It didn’t go in very deeply, but it did surprise her enough to make her let go of him.

“Sorensen?” Estrid demanded, sounding surprised. “I know that name…”

Dad’s prosthetic leg was busted, but he still managed to get himself standing, though he was extremely wobbly. He glared at Estrid defiantly, holding the combat knife as though ready to take her on. “You should… You send your damn monsters to attack my family… You took my leg from me…my wife…and even my son.”

Estrid snorted dismissively at that and lashed out with her tail again to drive the approaching Val Kyr back again. Then she snarled, “Sorensen was MY name… The name I passed down to my son…and his sons…”

“What?” Dad and I both blurted out simultaneously. I stared at Estrid in shock and horror, though when I glanced to Lindrell, she seemed just as surprised by that announcement as I was.

“Once, long ago…I was named Erik Sorensen,” Estrid exclaimed, not tearing her eyes away from my Dad. For a brief moment, I thought that this possible family connection had softened her heart and that she was going to let him go. But then she exclaimed, “I will not allow any of my bloodline to follow in my cursed path…”

Estrid slashed at Dad with her long claws, and the instant I saw her beginning to make that strike, I was in motion, running towards Dad as fast as I could. I reached Dad at the same time as Estrid’s claws and tried to throw him out of the way, but this resulted in the claws slicing along my side and tearing through my armor much more easily than normal claws should. I hit the ground with Dad, grimacing at the burning pain along my side.

“Are you okay?” I asked Dad, only to realize that I hadn’t protected Dad completely. Estrid’s claws had still caught him, leaving several deep gashes in his side.

Dad winced in pain and tried holding his bloody wound. “Get that bitch,” Dad told me with a pained grimace. He held up the combat knife he’d been using and pressed it into my hands. “Kill her.”

“Yes, sir,” I told him, fighting back the tears and fear that threatened to burst out.

I turned back towards Estrid, just in time to see Lindrell charging her with a furious battle cry. She leapt towards the daemonite leader, only to get back-handed and sent flying back. Three triads worth of Val Kyr were all trying to take down Estrid, coming from every direction, though her tail made attacking from behind every bit as dangerous as attacking head on. I had no doubt that every Val Kyr in Val Halla would be coming at her if they hadn’t all been focused on holding the remaining daemons back, giving us this opportunity.

I ignored the pain in my side, which was easier with every second as the pain was already starting to fade away. It was almost like I’d been given a nice infusion of jatta, which I realized was exactly what had happened. The val I’d gained from the daemonite infection wasn’t just giving me extra essence…it was giving me more jatta and kaern energies as well. I was suddenly struck by the realization that at the moment, I probably had enough of each that I might actually qualify as jatta, kaern, and notru…all at the same time. However, right now, I didn’t really care. All I cared about was that I had one more weapon to use against that monster.

“Why did I have to run out of arrows?” I grumbled to myself, thinking about just how much I’d like to plant an explosive arrow in Estrid’s eye. “I guess I’ll just have to use what I have…” I charged the combat knife with essence, then charged my sword as well so that both blades were covered with ghostly flames.

While Estrid was lashing out with her tail to take care of anyone behind her, she also bent forward and spat out another wave of flames. I just ran towards her as fast as I could, then jumped on top of the wall Julie had created to block the flames and used that as a ramp to fling myself at Estrid. I howled in rage as I hit, driving the knife into Estrid’s shoulder and then using my sword to slice her. The ghostly flames continued to burn her flesh, especially from the knife I’d left embedded in her shoulder up to the hilt.

“If he is your father, then it seems that you are my flesh and blood,” Estrid snarled at me, grimacing in pain but somehow managing to look as though I’d betrayed her at the same time. “Join with me…” For a brief moment, I thought I saw a pleading look in her eyes…and one of loneliness. I couldn’t imagine everything she’d gone through, though I knew most of the evil she’d done.

“I don’t care if you are my great grandma or not,” I responded with a glare. “You’ve got to be fucking insane if you think I’d ever help you… You’re a monster in every sense of the word…”

Estrid shrieked in rage, acting as though I’d somehow betrayed her with that statement. The remaining daemons started going into a frenzy again, though the rest of the Val Kyr struggled to hold them back, to keep them away so we could deal with Estrid.

“Then so be it,” Estrid responded, right before spitting out another blast of fire in my direction.

I had my senses fully extended and began to react the moment Estrid started to launch her attack. Before the flames even left her mouth, I was running out of the way, jumping and dodging behind the shelter that Sharra created.

As soon as the flames stopped, I leapt out from behind the shelter and charged at Estrid. I jumped at her, swinging my sword with every ounce of strength my extra jatta gave me, cutting deeply into her skin before she slashed at me with her claws. I barely avoided her claws but was in the process of doing that when she snapped around and hit me with her tail, sending me flying back.

“Michelle,” Julie cried out, looking as though she was about to run to my side though Shannon stopped her.

“Teamwork,” Lindrell called out to me.

“Lindrell is correct,” Freya stated, clearly hurt but obviously not about to stop fighting. “Val Kyr fight as triads…not individuals.”

I nodded at that, not about to point out the hypocrisy of her statement when she herself had been fighting Estrid one on one just a short time ago. Of course, Estrid had caught her by surprise and then overwhelmed her, so I could see she had a point as well.

“Notru,” Freya called out, gesturing to Estrid’s feet and adding, “Contain her tail…”

Sharra and Julie immediately went to work, jumping out and sending waves of stone at Estrid, then when Estrid was briefly knocked back, they both charged forward. Once they were close enough, Julie softened the ground beneath the daemonite’s feet so she began to sink. At the same time, Sharra sent another wave of stone at Estrid’s backside, washing it over the long whiplike tail and then making it solid again. Estrid was trapped in stone, at least for the moment.

Estrid’s feet and tail were trapped, but her claws weren’t and she was still able to spit out flames. As one, everyone rushed around to her back side where she couldn’t reach us with either claws or flame while Julie and Sharra sent more stone at her, both to try burying her further and to block any attempts to reach us.

“You will pay for what you’ve done to my husband,” Lindrell exclaimed as she ran up and slammed her axe into Estrid’s lower back

Estrid howled in rage and pain and flailed around frantically, breaking free from the stone holding her. However, Shannon, Freya, Ragnhild, Cindy and myself were already within striking distance and began slicing into her as well. My slice ran all down her back and continued to burn with ghost flames.

“You will all die,” Estrid screamed, leaping at Freya, only to be impaled with a spear and suddenly struck by lightning. She howled again, then began spitting flame in every direction, trying to drive everyone back. “DIE!”

Ailsa stood back and took careful aim, glaring at Estrid with a look of pure hatred as she coldly stated, “This time, you finally die…” And with that, she released the arrow which struck Estrid right in the eye.

“Got her,” Julie yelled out excitedly.

Estrid staggered for a moment, then finally collapsed to the ground, no longer moving. I stared at her body, feeling an immense sense of relief that it was finally over. This woman was responsible for countless deaths, for so many innocent people who’d been torn apart and devoured by her daemons. She’d even caused me a great deal of pain and trouble, before I’d ever met her…before I’d ever even heard of her. And when I remembered what she’d told Dad, that she might actually have been my ancestor, I felt sick to my stomach.

“You know,” I said in a tired tone as I moved forward for a closer look. “In a way, I feel sorry for her…”

Just as I reached Estrid’s body, Shannon yelled, “Look out…”

Estrid suddenly jerked up and lunged at me, grabbing me by the shoulder, digging her sharp claws right through the armor into my flesh, making me scream in pain. I dropped my sword, unable to control that arm anymore because of how severely she’d injured my shoulder. Then she stared at me with her remaining eye, which was filled with immense pain…and not just the physical kind.

“Let her go,” Lindrell commanded.

Estrid ignored Lindrell and the others, focusing entirely on me. “At least,” she in a grim tone, “I shall end my cursed bloodline and free you from your damned existence…”

At that statement, Estrid pulled me closer to her face, taking a deep breath in the process. My heart raced in terror as I realized that she was about to burn me to death, while I was unarmed and helpless to fight back. Of course, I still had my short sword and axe, but I couldn’t reach them at the moment, which only made me feel more helpless.

“Release her,” Freya commanded as she charged at Estrid again while Lindrell and Julie did the same thing from the other direction.

Estrid paused for a moment to lash out with her tail, then she turned her attention back to me to finish the job. But in that moment, I was suddenly struck by an idea. I had no idea if it would work, but I had to try. I had nothing to lose.

“Atra,” I announced, reaching forward to touch Estrid’s face, “adapt.”

As soon as I had contact with Estrid, I poured all the essence and jatta I had available into her, mixing and combining the two in the same way I had when I’d healed Julie’s dad. However, this time I had much more essence and jatta available, and instead of knitting the flesh back together like I had before, I instead used my power to tear the flesh apart. In an instant, her head ripped apart and exploded.

Estrid’s body collapsed motionless to the ground again, while I was still impaled with her claws and collapsed as well, completely exhausted and hurting like hell…but still feeling relieved. Lindrell was immediately by my side, infusing me with jatta and trying to pull the claws out of my shoulder.

“It’s over,” Freya announced in a sad tone. “Maybe she find the peace in death that she never could in life.”