Thieron hummed in my hand, sending heat waves through every inch of my body. My limbs zinged with raw energy, my fingers tingling as I gripped its handle tighter and swung the blade at Brendel.

She dodged it again, then moved around me. There was cautiousness in her approach, while she kept stealing glances at the four-piece Hermessi Amelia had left behind to take on an Earth elemental, next.

The Reapers were at it, viciously fighting the Hermessi around us, while the crew battled those who slipped past them. Those who could die among us were the primary targets, from what I could tell—Brendel wanted to make my morale plummet by killing my friends. Only, my friends kept surprising her, it seemed.

Normally, only a Reaper could use a scythe to cause damage to a Hermessi. Yet Amelia was slicing through them like nobody's business. Something had definitely changed in the fabric of things, and I wished I knew what.

Brendel threw a fiery arm out at me. I brought Thieron up to meet her. The flames touched Phyla and, by some weird twist, got sucked into it. My eyes widened from the shock, watching as part of Brendel's burning arm was literally eaten and absorbed by Phyla.

She cried out and managed to pull back, her limb quickly recovering. Fire was fire. It could not be cut or shortened, not in that form. But Thieron was still capable of doing things to Brendel, things I'd yet to fully understand.

"You've never had to deal with Thieron so up close before, huh?" I asked, confidence surging through me and lighting my soul on fire.

If her intention was to keep me busy, she was treading on thin ice, because all I had to do was get close enough to hit her, and it could very well be the end of her. Brendel probably didn't think I could kill her with it, since I wasn't Death, but I'd surprised her before. I had a feeling part of her worried I might pull something off after all. Maybe she would've died for the ritual, but I doubted she'd go willingly.

"You're but a mortal. I am forever," she spat.

I charged at her with all my strength, roaring as I raised Thieron over my head with both hands. "Nothing is forever!" I shouted and brought the blade down.

She vanished into thin air, and I stumbled forward, losing my footing. I nearly fell but managed to stay upright. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw fire coming at me, a mass of amber-and-orange destruction.

I dropped flat on my belly as the inferno raged above me. My skin burned and itched, sweat trickling down my face, as I rolled over several times to get as far away from it as possible. I couldn’t understand how this was happening, since I was a fire fae. I wasn’t supposed to be hurt by it! But the fire spread, shapeless and hungry and eager to get me. It was Brendel, outside her usual form and ready to burn me to a crisp. There had to be something about this power of hers that made her fire a danger even to someone like me.

"Taeral!" I heard Eira scream.

I brought Thieron up as the flames threatened to cover me like a blanket. The blade hissed with delight as it cut through the fire. Suddenly, everything cleared around me, and Brendel rebuilt herself a couple of yards away. Parts of her were having trouble holding on to her figure, like pieces of cake about to fall off.

"Go for it!" the Soul Crusher shouted at me. He kissed his scythe and tore another hole in the air, then stepped back. The Widow Maker growled as he tackled a column of white fire, a confused Air Hermessi, and pushed him into the interdimensional pocket. Soul chuckled as he placed a hand on the glowing hole, which was quickly reduced to a slit before vanishing.

Looking around, nobody seemed anywhere close to giving up. Varga had trouble standing, parts of him severely burned by a Fire Hermessi. Eva moved in front of him, whispering her Druid magic and likely hoping it might be enough. The pulverizer weapons were on the ground, empty and useless. They'd already gone through all the ammo.

Lumi was tired, her whole body glowing blue. Nethissis put all the energy she had left into a protective bubble, which she cast around her and Lumi. The Hermessi tried to breach it, kicking and pounding with their raw-energy limbs. It would crack, soon enough.

Seeley seemed to be dancing around the mountain peak, hopping from rock to rock and drawing symbols with his scythe. By the time he was done, four Hermessi were trapped and crushed to the ground by an invisible force, which Seeley manipulated with special hand movements. Everyone was whipping out the battle specials for this one.

Eira battled a Water Hermessi on surprisingly equal ground, but she, too, was beginning to tire. I'd lost track of time. I had no idea how long we'd spent here, fighting so many forces determined to end us.

But Brendel was within my reach. No matter what, I had to finish her this time, once and for all. I had no idea whether I'd manage to do it with Thieron, but it was worth a shot. I just needed to catch her off guard. I needed to deliver another, heavier blow, enough to break whatever spell she had on my ability to teleport. Then, I could take the element of surprise.

Armed with such thoughts, I lunged at her again. I came running in from her left, then made a sudden dash to the right. She swelled, the fire burning and licking at the air, which, in turn, rippled from the heat. Brendel was ready to take me on. I cast a large flame at her, then another, followed by a third, enough to temporarily block her field of vision with nothing but fire.

The ground shook beneath me, but I couldn't stop or falter. I was so close!

Taking advantage of the fire curtain I'd managed to pull, I bolted to her left again. I brought Thieron out from the side in full swing. As soon as I got past the fire, I came to a screeching halt. She was gone!

Something swished and crackled to my left. Brendel!

She'd come around the fire I'd set. My element of surprise was gone, but I kept Thieron in front of me, knowing she wouldn't deliberately plunge herself into it.

Brendel darted to my left, mimicking my initial strategy. I ducked when she cast her fire at me. The ground trembled even more, to the point where I had trouble keeping my balance. Fear crept into my throat.

I caught glimpses of the others fighting. Varga was down. Eva, too. Nethissis was unconscious. Suddenly, the energy vibe I'd felt earlier began to dwindle, my resolve deflating a little too fast. Several Earth Hermessi had their hands sunk into the ground—I'd found the earthquake's source. Someone had to stop them. But I had Brendel to deal with.

"You're not going to win this!" I snapped.

Fire curled around my ankle and knocked me off my feet. My back hit the ground hard. The air got forced out of my lungs. Brendel came up, towering above me. Her fiery arms reached out like laser beams. She caught my left wrist, scorching my skin. I cried out from the pain, and, in a moment of desperation, threw Thieron in a bid to stop her from burning through my right wrist, as well.

The scythe flew through her side, and white light flashed inside her for a long moment. The earth shook violently, cracks opening up and splicing through the mountain peak. I'd left a hole through Brendel's side, and her fire figure turned pale blue for a moment, flickering with unease and confusion.

I had a chance to take her out for good, but Thieron was on the ground, about twenty yards away from me. I'd missed the crucial shot, and now, Brendel's white eyes were fixed on me. The stone cracked under me, and I sank into the ground.

Eira's scream tore through the stormy night sky. Someone cursed.

And I was left wondering how I'd pull this off, as Brendel made her way toward me. It wasn't death I feared, for I could not be killed. It was failure, inching closer against the ticking clock.

Kelara

For several hours, we'd been fighting and reaping our way through an ever-growing crowd of modified souls—I'd settled on that term because it was the only one I'd deemed accurate enough for these ghosts. "Specter" didn't even begin to cover it.

The Spirit Bender had tweaked them with bits of Reaper mojo, most likely threads of clothing and other fragments embedded into the spirits. With this modification, the ghosts we'd been dealing with could hurt us, they could fight back, and they could make everything worse.

My arms hurt from all the swinging I'd done, cutting down every ghost that came at me. Contrary to popular opinion, Reapers could still experience exhaustion, albeit rarely—this was one such instance, where the volume of hostile souls was simply unprecedented. My scythe buzzed, tickling my skin and glowing in angry shades of red. I had a feeling even its blade recognized the abnormality of this situation as it sliced through the specters. Perhaps this was its way of showing anger. I'd never thought of my weapon as a mere object, anyway.

Dream and Nightmare had nothing to consume from the dead. Their powers only worked on the living, unfortunately. But their scythes, identical and huge in their design, were more than suitable for the task at hand.

The problem was that we'd been at this for a long time, and the spirits kept coming.

"This is insane!" I shouted. "Where do they all keep coming from?!"

"We must've triggered some kind of alarm set by Spirit," Dream said, and proceeded to reap a couple more specters as she worked her way through the crowd.

Nightmare was right next to her. "He's gone to a lot of trouble to make this happen," he added, in between slashes of his scythe. The spirits dissipated in flurries of white-and-yellow sparks, vanishing into the ether as they finally got their chance to move on. "This didn't happen overnight. He's been sowing the seeds for a very long time!"

One ghost rammed into my side, its teeth sinking into my hip. I cried out, the pain burning through my whole body. As a Reaper, I was basically a spirit myself, so I wasn't supposed to feel any of this. I drove my scythe into his neck with a grunt, forcing him to disintegrate and forget his tortured existence altogether.

"He knew one or more of us would come looking eventually, didn't he?" I said.

"It makes sense!" Dream replied. "I mean, how long did he think he could pull this off without someone noticing that Brendel had Reaper aid?"

"And not just any Reaper aid. High-class, First-Ten support!" Nightmare snapped.

Cursing under my breath, I kept fighting. At least these weren't superior fighters, but mindless specters who just wanted to bite and scratch and kick at everyone in their path.

But we were wasting precious moments here, instead of looking for the Time Master. If anyone could help us and Taeral's crew get our edge back, it was him.

"Can you still feel him?" I asked the twins.

"Time? Yeah, he's here. And he's close!" Nightmare replied. "That's the worst part, because I need these ghoulish sons of bitches to get the hell off me so I can do my damn job!"