The creatures beneath Zod vanished into black holes. It happened so suddenly—he hadn’t even heard a sound, and his left eye could see nothing.

  Sade, the sorcerer, had snatched away those mindless monsters with ease. They were neither smart enough to run nor strong enough to resist his pull. He wasn’t going to store them for future use as he did with monsters from the Veil. The fragment’s departure would have destroyed them anyway. He simply needed them gone so he could focus on the mortal standing before him. The one with the long swelling across his face.

  The dark figure in the corner of Zod’s one good eye made him turn. The sorcerer now gave him his full attention. Somehow, the being who had been yards away was suddenly right before him.

  Zod stepped back, his pulse racing. He barely noticed that no new monsters were rising from the ground. All he cared about was whether the sorcerer would blast him with lightning again. If he did, Zod was sure he could dodge it that time. He pressed his feet harder into the ground in anticipation.

  A red vortex opened beside Sade, swirling and expanding until it was large enough for him to walk through. But he didn’t move toward it. Instead, he began moving his hands in slow, deliberate motions, as though stretching an invisible bubble of gum. Zod held his breath.

  Purple symbols flared to life along Sade’s black sleeves, climbing up his arms. He pulled his hands apart.

  The eternal darkness that had been driving Saeda mad fractured. A small light appeared and grew until it could fit her entire body. She was numb, unable to move, yet some unseen force drew her toward it. The sudden brightness sent her mind spiraling. Overwhelmed, she screamed—a raw cry that broke through her controller’s hold.

  Zod couldn’t hear the roar that reverberated through the space. His hearing still hadn’t returned. But when the creature stepped through the red vortex, he stumbled back almost out of his skin. It was the girl with jaw-length, curly black hair—the one he hadn’t seen in three weeks. Saeda.

  Tee heard the sound, but she couldn’t afford to turn. Her sword clashed against Lilith’s—metal shattering, sparks flying.

  Miko had escaped the crown monster and heard it too, but she didn’t think it mattered compared to what she’d just survived. By the time her racing mind calmed, she couldn’t tell where the sound had come from. She was about to turn back to help Tee when something else caught her eye.

  The temperature rose. More monsters were forming—not from the ground, but from the air itself. They were larger and many had wings.

  One of them made her skin crawl at a glance. Its metal head burrowed into the ground, popping up ahead before diving back down, its long body tunneling in and out of the earth.

  Then Miko spotted a white cloth drifting peacefully through the air. For a moment, she thought she was hallucinating. Her eyes narrowed, following it as it floated closer. She didn’t blink once—and that’s why she saw the tiny mouth split open, filled with sharp teeth, just before it lunged for her face. She slashed it away with one swing of her sword.

  She moved too fast for most of the monsters to reach her. But then a jolt shot through her chest, and she almost stumbled. A dark shape dove into her path—then slammed into her face.

  She screamed. The large, hairy creature clung to her, flapping its many wings wildly. Its shriek was deafening. Dozens of eyes blinked in rapid, erratic rhythms, and she felt every one of them moving against her skin. She raised her knee and kicked it high into the air, barely catching her breath as she passed beneath it.

  Kie, on the other hand, had learned something. He kept his feet on the back of a dead monster like it was a carpet. No creatures emerged from beneath it. With that small discovery, he cleared the area of the ones that had managed to reach him.

  Then came a sharp crick-crack above. Kie looked up and saw the dome surrounding him—a dome of skeletons. He didn’t need a genius to tell him Legion had made it. Turning to one side, he froze. Whatever he saw happening where Legion stood made his sword drop from his hand.

  Meanwhile, the monster-infested zone was darkening. The wind began to howl. The massive whirlpool had long since drained, leaving behind a deep, gaping hole in the earth. Light began to pierce the darkness at its center, shining from something drawing closer from far below.

  Lilith pressed harder against Tee’s defenses. Her strikes came faster, heavier. Each blow broke another summoned sword, sending shards flying. Tee’s mind struggled to keep up—split between dodging and watching Lilith’s rapid movements.

  The vibration from their clashes numbed her hands. Pain was next. She couldn’t stop summoning new swords. One pause and she’d be cut in half. Whether the next strike would end her or keep her conscious long enough to suffer, she didn’t know.

  Sparks exploded with every clash. Fire from Lilith’s blade leapt onto Tee’s before flaring out and burning the ground where they landed.

  Tee fought with everything she had, but Lilith’s strength only grew. Now she understood what Kie meant when he said, “We’re out of our league.” He hadn’t been kidding.

  Tears welled in her dry eyes. She stopped swinging and lifted her swords just to block, desperate to protect her face. But Lilith didn’t stop. Each strike slammed against Tee’s guard, the impact splitting her forehead. Still, her fingers twitched—summoning more blades, refusing to give in.

  Flames from Lilith’s sword scorched Tee’s skin. The air around her shimmered with heat. Her face felt like it was being cooked, and she knew the boils forming beneath her skin would soon burst. She wanted to scream for a time-out.

  Miko’s heart pounded. She didn’t dare look back at whatever was chasing her. Still, she couldn’t help staring at one monster that stood out among the rest.

  Maybe it was its calm, pink color. Maybe it was its oddly slim limbs and tail. It looked harmless. But no—that wasn’t it. What caught her attention was that it wasn’t attacking. While all the others rampaged, that one stumbled forward, slow and clumsy, like it was drunk.

  She tore her eyes away, wondering where all those monsters were coming from. Could something like that even survive on the other side of the Veil?

  She didn’t notice the white glowing symbols around the pink creature’s head—symbols that cracked, one after another.

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  “Free me!” the monster cried.

  Miko blinked hard. She was certain she was imagining things.

  “Free me!” it screamed again.

  Then, from across the field, Tee heard a high-pitched shriek—not from any of her teammates. Lilith froze mid-swing, her flaming sword halted in the air.

  Tee finally caught a break and realized how much darker the place had become. Monster blood dripped from her eyebrows and ran past her eyes, stinging. Her hands felt like they were about to fall off, and steam rose from every part of her body.

  Her self-esteem had been trampled and left to die on the battlefield. When she looked around to find who had yelled, the sight of the ever-growing crowd of monsters made her heart sink.

  They were appearing from everywhere—not just from the ground that felt pressure from contact. She turned to check her other side, but her head froze. Lilith was staring at one of the untouched monsters.

  Was she searching for the source of the human voice that had shouted in clean, terrified English? When the large lump on top of the monster’s body shook, and she heard a faint, “Please… help me,” Tee’s cracked lips parted and her jaw dropped.

  “What the—?”

  She refused to believe that the monster they were both staring at was the one that had spoken.

  Looking closer, Tee saw that it was a soft, pink color with slender limbs that looked like they had never done a day of work. It didn’t belong in a war zone. It looked like a creature that had wandered out of a dream.

  Then its slim tail slid from behind its back and wrapped itself around the lump they assumed was its head. It tightened, veins bursting, blood dribbling down. The monster began smashing its head into the ground, over and over. Tee swore she was dreaming. Some twisted nightmare brought on by exhaustion.

  Lilith turned and flicked her sword twice, cutting down two approaching creatures in smooth motions. Then, to Tee’s surprise, Lilith didn’t aim her sword at her next—but at the dying monster that had just bashed itself lifeless.

  “Behold,” said Lilith, her voice calm but commanding. “This is what awaits our world, and everything that draws life from the planet.”

  When Tee realized Lilith was speaking to her, something shifted behind her eyes. It was as if the world muted, every other sound falling away.

  “Life that was never designed for our realm, yet exists they do,” Lilith continued. “Only those of high intelligence can break free of the Seal—” her white pupil darted toward Tee “—set by the creators… though only temporarily.”

  What?

  Was Lilith talking about beings from across the Veil? What was that about creators again?

  Tee blinked several times, confirming she wasn’t paralyzed. But her body wouldn’t move, and her mind fought to make sense of what she’d heard.

  Lilith’s expression didn’t change. Her pale face was as unreadable as ever. She turned away from the dead monster and fixed her gaze on the young mortal. Then she began walking toward her, slashing through the monsters that leapt into her path.

  Tee’s breath hitched. She watched Lilith’s pale lips move as her own legs began stepping backward on instinct.

  “Child,” Lilith said, “soon you will see you fight a lost cause.”

  A shriek cut the air as another monster met the end of her long blade.

  “No matter how many Sentinels this planet produces, it will not stop the inevitable. Foolish are those who think they can save this world.”

  Her voice grew louder, so sharp it nearly rang in Tee’s ears.

  “Your powers are being wasted in a meaningless battle, just like every fool that came before you. Judgment will bring this world a new beginning—or deliver us from an eternity of suffering.”

  Then her tone softened, almost sorrowful. The shift made Tee’s heart skip.

  “Sadly, you are still too blinded by the light to see it. But soon, my child… you will awaken.”

  Lilith swung her sword one last time. A fine line of heat tore across Tee’s body. Her eyes slammed shut as the world went black and the force threw her backward.

  Her scream echoed in her skull as her elbows hit the hard ground. The pain was blinding, her eyes fluttering rapidly. But then something grabbed her right hand.

  Her gaze darted down.

  A shadow—impossible, unnatural—spread from beneath her hand. It crawled outward, then climbed her body like living vines of black smoke. Her blood seemed to drain away beneath her skin.

  Lilith clenched her free hand into a fist, and the darkness surged. Tee was swallowed whole, encased in a cocoon of solid shadow.

  Her scream—loud, desperate—never reached the air. Even Lilith, standing only a few feet away, heard nothing.

  Inside the suffocating darkness, Tee cried out, certain they were sealing her away like Saeda. She wanted to beg, to plead for freedom—but it was too late. Her wounds gave out, her breath faltered, and she slipped into a deep, lifeless sleep.

  Lilith hadn’t trapped her for punishment. Tee simply wasn’t ready to fulfill her destiny. Until that time, she would remain on the other side.

  Lilith walked away, cutting down monsters with effortless grace. All she needed were black shades to complete the look. She was already dressed head to toe in darkness like a boss.

  A monster with wings large enough to belong to a dragon swooped toward her. Lilith looked up, locking eyes with it. Its wings froze midbeat, and its body plummeted, crashing headfirst into the ground. The impact carved a path through lesser monsters until it stopped inches from the black cocoon.

  Immediately, other creatures swarmed it—biting, clawing, gnawing at the surface, desperate to reach the mortal inside. They ignored the blazing light in the distance that rose toward the sky, consuming everything in its path.

  But wait.

  Was Lilith really about to leave Tee there? And where did that destructive light come from?

  Everything rewound. The world spun backward, moments unraveling—back to when Lilith had left Tee in the cocoon… back to when the bandaged one vanished into black smoke.

  Legion tilted his head back, and a swarm of dark, winged creatures burst from his hood. Kie dropped his swords at the sight. Thousands of them filled the air, shrieking so violently that his entire body shook.

  He dug his heels into the ground, ready to run—but froze. One of the skeletal figures forming the dome stood before him. Its red eyes blazed, and the sight alone paralyzed him.

  He couldn’t move as the flying creatures dove on him, tearing and pulling at his flesh until he was covered in them. His scream vanished quickly as he fell into a deep, forced sleep. His last thought flickered. Something about godlike power, and a will that surpassed mortal comprehension.

  When the chaos cleared, no trace of Kie remained. Legion hadn’t moved an inch since seeing the lifeless body of Silva. That was why he despised using that technique—it ended things too quickly. He preferred when enemies lingered long enough for him to move, to stretch, to watch their fear. But the mortals had crossed a line. And he wanted them gone for good.

  Of course, Legion and his kind weren’t hunting the fragments for sport. One held the true prize. The one that had teleported away wasn’t it. The vessel—that was the key to freeing the Omega Stone. But the time wasn’t right. Not yet.

  Meanwhile, Miko had long passed the pink monster. She saw no trace of Tee’s white hair and wondered if she had somehow missed her. She didn’t know Tee’s hair was soaked in monster blood, dark enough to blend with the shadows.

  She also didn’t notice the massive dome in the distance, black from her angle, as she ran past it. The once-white sky had turned gray, and the world grew darker—dark enough for her to notice the bright light beaming from the massive hole ahead.

  She wanted to stop and stare, but then she saw Zod. He was facing the sorcerer—and beside him stood a girl with longer hair than before, her face unmistakable.

  Saeda.

  Miko’s breath caught.

  A monster leapt into her path, jaws wide, ready to bite her head clean off.

  She didn’t hesitate. With one clean swing, she sliced it down and summoned her Ether blade, glowing at her side.

  Nothing was going to stop her from getting her friend back.