The guard was short. Not as short as Fraethe, but at eight and a half feet tall, he was the second shortest god that I’d seen. Still, even at that ‘short’ height, he still towered over me by three feet.

I crouched down and hit around the corner where the guard couldn’t see me. The bracelet Armestia had lent me would hide my presence so that he wouldn’t be able to sense me. However, that wouldn’t do any good at all if he actually saw me instead.

“I can do this,” I whispered, nearly shaking with fear. But in spite of that fear, there was absolutely no way I was going to turn tail and run. I’d already decided that I was going to do this, and I was too damn stubborn to change my mind now.

Before I could move on, another god…goddess arrived. She was ten feet tall and dropped out of the sky, landing right in front of the guard. She was beautiful in an almost too-thin way, with long white hair that whipped around in the wind. In fact, as she stood there, the wind continued to blow around her. Was this Br’ieze?

The newcomer and the guard talked for a couple minutes, speaking entirely in Oraevian, the language that I’d only just learned. They talked about how their war was going, naming several gods that I’d never heard of before. I couldn’t understand everything they said, but that was to be expected. My Oraevian was only rank 1, which meant that my vocabulary was probably a bit limited. Still, I understood enough.

After the goddess left, shooting up into the air with a powerful burst of wind and then flying off, I continued on my way. I made my way past the guard, and once I was successfully past him and out of his line of sight, I let out a long sigh of relief. However, I didn’t lower my guard. I’d made it this far, so didn’t want to get careless and screw things up now.

I turned my attention to the floor, and to all the symbols that were etched there. These were the same symbols that I’d seen all over the place since arriving, and which I’d previously thought might be decoration. Now, I knew that this was actually Oraevian writing. In fact, these were the local equivalent of road signs. I’d been given the ability to read Oraevian, just so I could use these signs to help me find my way.

“Where is it?” I whispered to myself, trying to find the markings that Armestia had told me to look for. “There it is…”

With that, I followed the signs, just as I’d been doing for the last two hours. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, because I knew that I was nearly to my destination. When I read the next signs, I received a popup.

ORAEVIAN HAS INCREASED TO RANK 2.

I smiled faintly at that. At this rate, I’d be reciting Oraevian poetry in no time.

For a brief moment, I just stood there, feeling like I was the hero in some epic story, on my way to rescue the damsel in distress. However, that only lasted a couple seconds, until I reminded myself that I was no hero. In fact, if I was in a faerie tale, I’d probably be the plucky animal sidekick.

“I’m and mouse,” I said with a sigh of disgust. “I’m just a mouse, trying to sneak a key into the captured heroine…”

This was a humbling realization, but one that would help to keep things in perspective. As far as these gods were concerned, I was just a mouse, and that was the entire reason they’d trusted me with this mission. I could sneak into places that they couldn’t, and I could get to Maelyne without being noticed. Yep, just like the animal sidekick in a faerie tale.

With that, I looked around, knowing that there were magical traps and sensors scattered about. These would sense the power of any god who approached, which was why Armestia and the others hadn’t come. I wasn’t a god, and therefore, was able to slip right on past without being detected.

“Squeak squeak,” I said wryly. “Now, where did they put that damn cheese?”

A minute later, I reached my destination and immediately saw that I was in the right place. There had once been one of those crystal buildings there, but now, it was gone. It had been shattered and destroyed, with massive shards of it scattered about. However, right in the middle of where the building had once stood, was a large crater. In the middle of the crater, floating in the air where the ground should have been, was a glowing sphere, made of shimmering energy.

“Maelyne’s shield,” I whispered, recognizing a more powerful version of my own ability. “Literally.”

Massive silver chains wrapped around the glowing sphere and were anchored to the sides of the crater. In addition, black tendrils with thick spikes, wrapped around the sphere as well, making it look like thorny vines were trying to strangle it. Even from where I stood, I could tell that if Maelyne dropped her shield, then those thorny vines would crush and impale her, which effectively turned her shield into a prison.

“How long has she been doing this?” I asked in awe. I knew that my shield sucked up a ton of mana, so I could only imagine how much it must be costing Maelyne. “A crap ton.”

I tried not to think about how much mana this shield had already taken, or about what would happen should Maelyne run out of mana. She’d held it this long, so I told myself that she could hold it for a little longer. But in spite of that, I also began to move a little faster…just in case.

I walked around the edge of the crater, still being careful to stay low and not be seen. Once I reached the nearest spot where the chains were anchored, I stopped and examined it with a scowl. There was a certain frustration that came with having a lock picking skill but finding that every lock I encountered was magical in nature, and completely immune from normal lock picking.

“Good thing I have this,” I said, pulling out the key that Fraethe had given me.

The key looked a little fancy and old-fashioned, but not like it was really anything special. Still, I could feel a power radiating from it. Fraethe’s power, and he was the god of keys. According to Armestia, the ‘midget’ god could unlock any lock, seal, or binding…including the ones holding Maelyne. This was the very power that our enemies were after, and I currently held a portion of it in my own mortal hands.

“Here goes everything,” I said, touching the key to the chain, just like I’d been instructed.

As soon as the key came in contact with the chain, it vanished in a flash of light. The chain suddenly began to crumble apart where the key had touched it, and this spread up the lengths of the chain, from one link to the next. Each link crumbled away, leaving nothing but a trail of falling dust behind. It only took seconds for this to reach the sphere, then to spread over the rest of the chain, and to the black thorny vines.

It only took about a minute for all the chains and the black thorny vines to crumble away. Once they were gone, the shimmering sphere began to move, floating towards me. I cautiously stepped back, not taking my eyes off the thing. It settled onto the ground a short distance away from me, then vanished, revealing Maelyne.

“This is…unexpected,” Maelyne said as she stared down at me. She looked exhausted, though she still radiated a sense of power and confidence. “How did you come to be here, my champion?”

“It’s a long story,” I answered self-consciously.

The truth was, it hadn’t actually been very long since Maelyne had been attacked during our last conversation, but a lot had happened since then. I wasn’t sure how to even begin explaining.

Maelyne just stared at me for several long seconds before announcing, “I see…”

I gulped at that. I’d come to realize that if you have a high enough awareness, you could pretty much read people’s minds, and that was what she’d just done to me. That probably should have felt like a violation, but it didn’t. Maybe because she was smiling at me with a look of pride.

“I gain power from the loyalty of my followers,” Maelyne admitted to me. “Your loyalty alone may have given me enough strength to survive my attackers.”

“Um…you’re welcome,” I responded, not sure what else I could say.

However, Maelyne wasn’t finished. She crouched down beside me so that she could look me right in the eyes, then she reached out with her hand and gently touched my cheek.

“True loyalty is not a bond of convenience, nor a chain to bind another,” she told me with a clear note of pride in her voice. “True loyalty is not one sided. It goes both ways and strengthens both parties. You have shown a loyalty beyond what I could even have hoped for in my champion, and know that I value this more than I can say.”

Then Maelyne stood up again and looked around with a grim expression. It took me several seconds before I saw what she was looking at. There were several specks in the distance, coming right towards us. Gods. It had to be.

“Aw, crap,” I gasped in sudden realization.

All those magical sensors and traps that I’d simply walked past, were meant to go off if they detected a god. And now that Maelyne was free, they must have detected HER.

“Have no fear,” Maelyne told me. “You risked a great deal to protect me from my enemies. Now, it is my turn to protect you…”

The sky above us began to blow and howl, with the winds becoming faster and harder until I felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane. I put up a shield wall to provide cover and Maelyne smiled faintly at that. Suddenly, I had another shield on me, a personal one covering my entire body, which I recognized as the same shields I put on Matt and Teri…only stronger. A LOT stronger.

A second later, the white-haired goddess that I’d seen talking to the guard, appeared, floating in the air above us. This time, I had no doubt that this was Br’ieze, Harker’s former patron.

“I know not how you escaped your prison, Maelyne,” Br’ieze announced in Oraevian, “but you save us the trouble of peeling you from your shell.”

“We were friends once,” Maelyne responded with a look of fury. “You betrayed me. You betrayed all of us…”

“I refuse to be bound by that game,” Br’ieze spat out. “I refuse to be bound by those ridiculous rules… I will do what I want…when I want. We are gods, and it is time we take our due once again…”

The wind was blowing even harder, and if it wasn’t for the shield that Maelyne put on me, along with my own shield wall, I probably would have been blown away. As it was, all I could do was look around.

There was a tornado…a trailer park destroying tornado, rather than the little ones Harker had created, passing right through the middle of the city. It was almost like being right in the middle of some disaster movie.

And as if Br’ieze herself wasn’t bad enough, the other god I’d seen in the air had arrived as well. I could see him well enough to tell that he was a man with wings…six of them. All six of his wings were huge, with black feathers. I had absolutely no idea what his thing was, and I was afraid that I was about to find out.

Suddenly, bolts of silver light shot out of nowhere and hit this newcomer. One bolt shot through each of his wings, tearing each of them apart. The god dropped to the ground like a rock, only to get hit with a half dozen more of these silver bolts.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think Cassandra was shooting…,” I started, only to pause and realize that it wasn’t Cassandra who was shooting at that god, but her patron. Armestia was doing her part to help us.

“The game existed to protect us all,” Maelyne told Br’ieze. “To protect our world. Because of the actions of you and your allies, Horgath has been swallowed by the ocean, Kellar was buried in lava, and all of Laint is crumbling to ruin…”

“I…don’t…care,” Br’ieze exclaimed. “I WILL be free… I will have the worshippers I deserve…”

“So be it,” Maelyne responded with a note of finality.

Maelyne held out her hand and fired a blast of golden energy at Br’ieze, hitting the floating goddess and sending her flying back. A bubble of golden energy suddenly appeared around Br’ieze, trapping her within, though she obviously struggled to escape.

“The death of your champion cost you power,” Maelyne stated. “Then, your host body was destroyed while you were riding it…which hurt you a great deal. Even in my weakened state, you are no match for me…”

It was at this moment that the guard I’d seen earlier, appeared. He charged in, firing a ball of glowing green energy at Maelyne, who seemed to ignore it…until a shield wall appeared and blocked the attack. The guard leapt to the side, firing four more balls of energy, all from different angles. New shield walls appeared and blocked each of them with ease.

The guard glared at Maelyne and held out his hands, firing out dozens of balls of green energy, which flew off in different directions, then changed directions in the air so that all of them came at Maelyne from different directions. She casually formed a shield over the both of us and the attacks were all stopped.

“We need to get you to safety,” Maelyne told me. “Emnyle can return you home.”

Maelyne gestured to the guard and he was suddenly trapped within a bubble as well. A moment later, his bubble shot off into the distance, taking him with it until he was completely out of my sight. However, she didn’t do that to Br’ieze. Instead, she fired a blast of golden energy at the trapped goddess, which went through the bubble and hit Br’ieze in the chest. Br’ieze collapsed and went motionless. The bubble vanished and she was unceremoniously dropped right into the crater.

Since Br’ieze and the guard had both been dealt with, Maelyne turned and calmly walked away from the crater and the site of her imprisonment. I followed behind, feeling like I was a kid trying to keep up with adult. It was pretty embarrassing, but that seemed about normal for a human in a place like this. At least this time, I wasn’t being picked up and carried like a toddler.

As we walked, I could feel the ground shaking, and it only grew more intense. Sounds of crashing and explosions echoed from ahead of us, but Maelyne didn’t hesitate to walk straight towards the source, leaving me running to keep up.

Once we were past the magical sensors and traps, I finally saw the source of the noise and shaking. Kraag was there, and he’d created a massive stone wall about fifty feet tall, which was blocking enemy gods from coming at us. Several of these other gods were currently trying to break through the wall, which I could see since sections of it kept breaking open and giving a glimpse of those on the other side. However, the wall immediately repaired itself before they could actually come through these openings.

When one god leapt right over the wall, he was suddenly shot full of silver bolts, which seemed to come from nowhere. Obviously, Armestia was hiding somewhere and playing sniper, much like how Cassandra did.

“Maelyne,” Kraag said in an even tone. “It is good to see you free…”

“It is good to be free,” Maelyne responded with a faint smile. “However, I would have preferred to not find myself immediately on the field of battle…”

“That was not our choice,” Kraag told her. “The anarchists have responded in much greater numbers than anticipated.”

At this point, several more gods arrived on our side. I had absolutely no idea who they were, or whether or not they might have champions I’d met during the contests. What I did know was that they faced the wall, ready to fight anyone who broke through.

Maybe the newcomers knew something I didn’t, because a couple seconds later, a huge section of the wall exploded. Kr’aethar stepped through the shattered wall while his allies quickly rushed through behind him. In an instant, Kr’aethar and Kraag were going at each other.

“Remain close to me,” Maelyne said, giving me a reassuring smile that promised she’d keep me safe.

Gods on both sides were now going at each other in a way that reminded me a little too much of the battles I’d been in recently, just with a LOT more firepower. The ground cracked and shattered, creating a gaping chasm that ran right to a building. The building crumbled and fell into the chasm as I watched.

A pillar of blue energy exploded from beneath one god and shot up all the way into the sky. Above me, everything became tinged with the blue glow, until red lightning suddenly began crashing down, striking one god and blasting a large hole in the ground. At the same time, Kr’aethor literally threw Kraag through the wall of a building, then charged in after him.

“This is freaking insane,” I gasped, horrified by the casual destruction.

The city was literally being destroyed as I watched. And in spite of all the chaos and destruction, I still the feeling that the gods were holding back. Perhaps, even with all this going on, they still feared what would happen to their world if they all cut loose with everything they had.

“This battle is escalating much further than I think anyone intended,” Maelyne commented. “Even our foes.”

One thing I quickly noticed was that our side seemed to have the advantage, and that was mostly due to Maelyne. She put shields on every one of her allies, protecting them while they fought and keeping them from being injured or killed. The enemy gods didn’t have that kind of protection so went down a lot easier.

Maelyne held out her hands and shield walls appeared throughout the battlefield, blocking multiple attacks at once while simultaneously giving our allies a place to take cover. I watched in amazement since I could only create two shield walls at one time, and only within a couple feet of me. Maelyne had two dozen, and some of them were more than a hundred yards away. This was a demonstration of the same power that she’d given Heather and me, but on a whole different level.

This whole display was a powerful demonstration of how even a purely defensive power could affect the outcome of a battle. However, I’d seen Maelyne using offensive abilities against Br’ieze and the guard, and she wasn’t doing that now. Why not? Then I suddenly wondered if she was holding back because of me, because she wanted to demonstrate how powerful her defensive abilities really were.

Before I could ask Maelyne, things suddenly shifted. A massive wave of flames rushed down the streets and paths, rolling over some buildings and even opposing gods, who screamed in pain. Maelyne threw out her hands and created shield walls in front of everyone on our side, which was in addition to the personal shields they already had. The burning wave continued rolling through the battle, but only our enemies were hurt by it, thanks to Maelyne’s power.

“Pfath,” Maelyne said in Oraevian, using an almost formal tone. “God of fire and pain.”

Even as the flames faded away, a figure emerged from where they’d been. He was nearly twenty feet tall and looked to be made of living fire. Even if Maelyne hadn’t named him, there would have been no mistaking who this was.

Maelyne stared at Pfath with a hard glare that was filled with a cold fury. Pfath had played a large part in starting this war, but even if he hadn’t done that, and if he hadn’t been a part of having me kidnapped and tortured, the fact that he’d just casually injured his own allies would have been enough to piss her off.

“I am still weak from my imprisonment,” Maelyne told me with a grim expression. “And I have used up far too much of my remaining power in this battle…” Her eyes narrowed. “But I cannot let this affront stand…”

With those words, Maelyne held out her hands and fired a massive blast of gold energy, right at Pfath. The flaming god saw the attack coming and moved aside so that the blast only caught him in the shoulder. Still, he was thrown back and his shoulder was torn to pieces. Char and embers exploded from the ruined shoulder and what little that remained of his arm flickered and faded.

A bolt of silvery energy suddenly struck Pfath in his other shoulder, and my eyes were drawn to Armestia, who had come out of hiding. She stood on top of the ruined wall, on a part that was still standing. She didn’t have a bow in hand, though when she held out her hands, two more bolts of energy shot out.

“I THINK NOT,” a deep and grating voice announced, right before Kr’aethar stepped in front of Pfath. The bolts of silver energy struck him in the chest but didn’t seem to have any effect all. “MY ALLY WILL NOT FALL TO SUCH A WEAK ATTACK…”

Kraag came out of the ruins of a nearby building and charged at Kr’aethar…at a slow pace. Don hadn’t been much for moving fast, and it seemed that he’d inherited that from his patron.

Suddenly, Maelyne snapped around and formed a shield wall right in front of her. An instant later, faster than I could follow, a flash of purple hit her shield and went right through it, then tore right through her side. Maelyne yelped in pain and grabbed her side, which was torn open and bleeding what almost looked like liquid light.

This all happened in the blink of an eye, and it took me a couple more seconds to catch up, and to notice the figure standing…floating in front of us. He was about ten feet tall, with a black body that seemed to be made of the darkest, hungriest black I could imagine. Green smoke and rags were wrapped around this black body, which made it a little more solid looking. And then, the creature held a giant scythe made of purple energy.

“Arakthiel,” I whispered with a gulp, recognizing the cold and hungry power that radiated from him.

“You waited until I was tired and distracted,” Maelyne said with a grimace of pain, “then struck me from behind. I would expect nothing else from a coward.”

“Cunning and strategy,” Arakthiel responded in his eerie voice, which sounded even stranger now that it was coming from his own throat rather than the one he’d borrowed from Robe. “Not cowardice.”

I took a fearful step back, knowing that he was well beyond my ability to fight now. My eyes darted to the ground beneath him, which was dissolving and vanishing, simply from being in his presence.

“Maelyne,” I said, giving her a worried look. She was tired, injured, and obviously in a lot of pain.

Arakthiel swung his energy scythe at Maelyne again, but this time, she suddenly had a spear in hand, which she used to block his attack. The spear immediately began to burn and dissolve, but she used it to launch a couple more attacks. They traded blows for only a few seconds before the spear vanished. A moment later, a bolt of silver energy hit Arakthiel from behind.

Arakthiel howled in pain, while Maelyne gave him a dark smile, saying, “Cunning and strategy.”

Armestia fired several more bolts at Arakthiel, but he moved in a near blur, dodging each of them. While doing so, a cloud of purple energy began building around him, one that radiated a sense of hunger and death.

“Now to destroy you, Maelyne,” the god of the abyss exclaimed. “And your little champion too…”

A dozen bolts of silver energy came flying at Arakthiel, hitting the area where he’d been floating just a moment earlier. Two of them even hit him, though not before he released the mass of purple energy.

“NO!” Maelyne cried out, throwing up several shield walls in front of us, trying to stop the purple energy. However, it oozed around the shield walls, dissolving them in the process.

Maelyne couldn’t protect us with a bubble shield, the way she’d used to survive her previous attacks, because Arakthiel’s energy was too close and would have caught inside the shield as well. She threw another ‘companion’ shield on me while desperately trying to push back the purple energy, but it was no use. It had us completely surrounded and enveloped.

“YOU WILL NOT HAVE HER!” Maelyne screamed with a fierce determination.

She threw herself over me, using her own body to shield me from the purple energy. I could see it running over Maelyne, eating away at her flesh as though it was a powerful acid. I could see the agony in her eyes…and the determination.

“MAELYNE!” I cried out in shock and horror.

“I will protect you,” Maelyne promised, even as glowing blood dribbled from her lips.

Maelyne put her hands on each side of my face and looked me in the eyes. I could see the fear and worry in hers, though they weren’t for her. They were for me. She was pushing as much mana into my shield as she could, holding it in place, in spite of the fact that the purple energy was trying to eat through it. I could tell that she no longer had the energy to spare for that either.

“If this touches you,” Maelyne said in a whisper, as though she had a hard time getting out the words, “it will destroy you utterly. I won’t let that happen. I will protect you from that fate…”

All I could do was stare back at her in horror, and not only for myself. Maelyne was dying right before my eyes. In desperation, I tried healing her, but even as I did this, I knew that I didn’t have nearly enough mana or power to even make a dent in this. But still, I tried, hitting her again and again. Maelyne just smiled at me with a look of pride.

“Do…you…trust…me?” she asked, her voice almost gone.

“Yes,” I answered without hesitation.

Maelyne smiled at that, then bent down and kissed my forehead, almost like a mother kissing a small child. As soon as she was done with that, she suddenly twisted my head. I felt a sharp pain in my neck, and then there was only darkness.