“You’re right on time,” Mind said.
Waves of heat washed across them, the entire group surrounded by flames as tall as the walls of Ilumidora. The firebirds swept through the flame wall, appearing and disappearing with a tip of a wing, or a terrifying current of fire from an open beak.
Mind caught Elenyr’s gaze. “Did you know they were coming?”
She had tears in her eyes. “I had no idea. Fire must have sent a message on his own.”
Cut off from his army, and with only Bartoth at his side, Draeken’s scream of rage was barely audible over the inferno. He turned about, his hands trembling, his eyes wild. Mind thought he would attack the firebirds, but his shock carried a trace of fear, as if he realized that he stood in the jaws of defeat.
“You cannot win here,” Mind said, drawing Draeken’s focus. “The people will not accept you as their ruler.” He picked his way across the broken ground towards Draeken, raising a hand as cinders washed across the battlefield.
“Then I will turn them into fiends,” Draeken snarled. “I still have two generals.”
A large shadow panther appeared from a cavity next to the fallen Titan and slunk into the group, carrying the body of Famine. Shadow smirked as Famine was dropped to the ground. She reached for Draeken with trembling fingers before her body disintegrated.
“Make that one,” Mind said. More fiends went mad, the entire charge faltering.
“War!” Draeken barked, the fear now apparent in his voice. “Kill them!”
But War hesitated. His broken arm still hung at his side, his armor dented and cracked from battling Belrisa and Tardoq. He glanced between Elenyr, the ring of fire, and Draeken, but did not attack.
“You obey my will!” Draeken dropped to the ground and struck War, knocking him back. “These people are insects to be squashed.”
“In the Dawn of Magic there was one lesson I learned,” Jeric said. “When you give people freedom, you grant them valor.”
“You are all born of flesh!” Draeken whirled and stabbed his finger at them. “And not one of you can kill me!”
He reached to the sides and clenched his fists, and shards of light formed in the air. Each as large as a ballistae bolt, the shards hovered over everyone. They dropped from the sky. Willow rolled Light out of the way, while Tardoq and the Bonebreaker jumped aside. Mind darted to Shadow and caught his arm, yanking him beyond the spear, but the weapon sliced across his shoulder.
Draeken charged and caught Mind about the throat, his voice savage and desperate. “You think you can protect your brothers? You think you can stop my power? Have you not learned what I have become?”
Draeken began to squeeze, and Mind’s vision flickered. Others struck at Draeken but he swatted them aside, his eyes fixed on Mind. Tardoq swung his sword but Draeken caught the blade in his bare hand and wrenched it from his grip.
“You will die witnessing your failure,” he snarled to Mind.
Mind then looked beyond Draeken and managed a smile. You first.
A group of fiends managed to get through the firewall, but their bodies disintegrated as if they were made of smoke rather than flesh. Through a gap in the fires, more fiends evaporated, their bodies turning to smoke and fading from sight. Draeken’s eyes widened in shock.
“What is this?” he demanded.
“Serak told us his secret,” Elenyr said from nearby. “He threaded the Dark Gate with magic that linked to every fiend, and when the Gate is destroyed, they are drawn back to Kelindor.”
Draeken’s eyes widened and he spun. “Where is the fragment of Fire?”
“Destroying your Gate,” Shadow said.
Shadow darted into view and drove a dagger into Draeken’s stomach. Draeken snarled and kicked Shadow, sending him tumbling away. Shadow cried out as he collided with a stray kraka blade, the weapon shearing through his shoulder and taking his arm. Draeken turned his baleful gaze on Mind and reached into a pouch at his side, to withdraw a small mirror.
“Looks like I have an infestation to eradicate. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Draeken turned his eyes away from Mind and to the mirror, his thumb rising to press the rune that would open a Gate to Xshaltheria. Mind recognized the moment as his final chance to stop Draeken, to prevent him from killing Fire and returning to destroy them all. Draeken still had his hand around his throat, his fingers like an iron vice.
Mind reached into his magic and saw Draeken for what he was, a being of almost pure magic. He was the fragment of Power, his body and flesh infused with four energies, that of the fragments. Including Mind’s.
Mind reached his hand toward Draeken and connected to the power that had once been his. Like an old friend, it turned and reached back. Draeken grimaced as if he’d been struck, and dropped Mind to the ground. The small mirror tumbled from his grip and fell into a pile of ash.
Draeken touched his chest, and his eyes snapped to Mind. “What did you do?”
Mind clenched a fist and stepped in, driving his fist into Draeken’s chest with all his might. At the point of impact, he summoned the piece of mind magic inside Draeken’s soul. Draeken threw his head back and screamed, the sound of mortal pain. Mind clenched his fist and pulled, wrenching the mind magic from Draeken’s soul. Threads of purple light were torn from Draeken, the light gradually fading to white as it hardened in Mind’s hand.
Draeken fell to his knees, staring in horror at the black hole in his chest, where the magic of mind had been rent from his body. Groaning, he looked up at Mind, who stood over him with the pulsing orb of white in his hand.
“You think to take back my power?” Draeken demanded.
“Never,” Mind said, sensing the power in his palm. “But this amplious can empower anyone. And if I fall, another will wield it.”
A great swelling of sound erupted across the battlefield, and more swaths of fiends disappeared. Inside the city, tens of thousands simply evaporated, leaving stunned defenders with empty streets. Draeken swept his eyes about and saw the truth. His army was being taken before his eyes.
War turned and fled, sprinting to a gap in the firewall. Belrisa stepped on the hilt of an obsidian blade and it spun upward. She caught the hilt and tossed it to Rynda, who stood behind the fleeing general. The rock troll queen leaned forward and hurled the obsidian blade at War’s back. The giant blade plunged into War, piercing the armor and dropping the rock troll to the ground. He bellowed as his armor disintegrated, his body crumbling to dust. Belrisa grinned at Rynda, who nodded in satisfaction.
“Are females stronger than males on this world,” she looked to Tardoq, who laughed.
As the final general died, Draeken gasped and fell to his knees. His generals were dead, his Gate was falling, and the fragment of Mind advanced upon him with a piece of his own power. Draeken gasped for breath, his features frozen in disbelief.
“You would kill your own brother?” he asked.
“You were never my brother,” Mind said.
