Ether hadn’t finished collecting everyone.

  “That didn’t take long.” She picked up one of the Scarlets and began carrying them over.

  “You can stop.” I closed my eyes and looked away. I didn’t want her to see the grief on my face as I tried to think of a way to explain to her what I was about to do.

  “Atlas.” Ether put down the Scarlet and ran over to me. “What’s wrong? What did they say?”

  “We lost.” I swallowed, but the lump in my throat didn’t go away. “You and I aren’t going to be able to hold off the demons until Justia wakes up and can close the Mantle. And even if she does, we still won’t be able to free everyone as long as this thing is attached to Mive.” I kicked the throne the kitsune was sitting on.

  “What are you saying?” Ether backed up and I could see in her eyes that she knew what I was about to tell her.

  I closed my eyes. “They told me to Desolate Mive.”

  I heard her gasp and pressed my eyes tighter shut. I didn’t want to see the disappointment and horror on her face.

  “B-bu-but, that will kill everyone!”

  “The Godkin will survive.” I had to press my thumb and index finger against my eyes to hold in the tears as my mind started to list just how many of our friends I was going to have to kill.

  “That’s only…” I could hear Ether listing people under her breath. “There has to be another way.”

  I opened my eyes and saw the horrified face that I’d dreaded looking back at me. “They already ran the math. If we don’t stop the demons here, then they are going to spread over the whole world and kill millions.” I shook my head. “And you and I aren’t enough to hold them off until Justia wakes up. Which means our friends die by my hands and we save the world, or we fight and our friends' lives fall into the hands of the demons that we fought against.” I had to breathe in waves because my lungs weren’t wanting to work. My hands were getting cold as I tried to focus on getting a sword in my hands.

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  “Atlas…” Ether touched my arm.

  “Ether, I don’t want…”

  “No.” She turned my head to look at the wall to my right. A dark green hand was pushing its way through the black scar on the wall.

  The sword in my hand vanished and I had to focus on my hands to get it to reappear. I was starting to feel lightheaded, but I wasn’t going to ask Ether to do this. I couldn’t protect everyone else, but I could at least protect her from this.

  I pulled the sword back over my head and started to swing, but stopped myself. Something that Mive had said had been bouncing around in my head. He’s said that if he wasn’t attached to it anymore, then the tendrils would die. No one here was strong enough to cut through it, but I was strong enough to kill Mive. And if I was strong enough to kill Mive, then I could separate him from the curse.

  I swung again, but this time I aimed for his knee instead of his neck. The sword bit into the throne as the leg fell down. I released the weapon so that I could catch the kitsune as he fell forward, the magic that had been holding him in place, gone.

  “What did you..?” Ether stared at me as I pulled Mive out of the throne.

  “If this doesn’t work, I can still kill him!” I couldn’t stop the smile from parting my lips as the tendrils began drying up. “But I think this is working!”

  I laid Mive down, but kept him away from everyone else. I wasn’t sure why I was able to touch him without entering into a deathmatch for his mantle, but that was a question for later. Right now, I didn’t want to chance it with anyone else.

  I turned to Ether. “See if you can wake Justia up so she can get us out of here!” I felt weak, but I couldn’t stop yet. Someone was going to have to hold the demons back until Justia woke up.

  I started to stand up, but felt really dizzy. Someone grabbed me as I fell backwards.

  “You need to…” I looked up and realized that it wasn’t Ether who had caught me.

  “You need to sit down.” Klix guided me to the floor. “I’ll handle this.”

  The ivory Goddess vanished, then appeared next to the wall, a short sword in either hand and she moved faster than my eyes could follow as she chopped off demon appendages.

  The chill started to subside as a green aura covered my body. I turned and saw that almost everyone was standing up. There were two Roots and Gesai that were still on the ground, as well as Whisper, Justia, and Mive, but everyone who had been captured had been freed. I smiled as I let myself lay down on the floor. Everyone else could handle the demons now, I was going to take a break and maybe a short nap.

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