Hiro nodded. “But...I thought they couldn’t die...”
“There’s a way. Just one. But first...” Surtr wrenched Longinus from his chest, spat out a gout of blood, and turned to face the Demiurgos. “I owe this bastard some payback.”
Rage darkened his face, and his shape began to change. His back bulged outward, bursting through his clothing in a blur of jagged scales. His skin turned black and his mouth enlarged, sprouting fangs. Hiro could only watch in awe as Surtr transformed into a great black dragon. The Lord of the Skies opened his cavernous maw and unleashed a deafening roar.
“Tell me, what do you know of despair?”
What followed was a battle of gods, a titanic contest that cast the world in its dread shadow. The heavens turned, the earth convulsed, and calamities befell the people of the land. Cities were razed. Nations fell. Towns were wiped from the map. Yet their struggle knew no end. A Lord could not slay another Lord. By their very nature, the greatest and most terrible could not harm the weakest. So what recourse was there?
“It’s easy, brat. Usurp them. The name of Surtr is yours now.”
Once upon a time, a great black dragon, the loftiest and most dreadful of all the Lords, bequeathed his wisdom to a young boy and was usurped and slain. Having claimed the power he sought, the boy crafted the five Drakeblades from the dragon’s corpse and declared war upon the Lords of Heaven. Yet in the end, he fell short of his ambitions. He found his wings, yet he never soared. And defeat left him with nothing—with all he held dear lost and his vow to Surtr unfulfilled.
“I failed you once, but please...grant me your strength once more.”
Hiro opened his eyes upon the encroaching horde. He surged forward, Excalibur clutched in his right hand, Dáinsleif ready in his left.
“Now dance with me.”
With a feral grin, he charged fearlessly into overwhelming odds—into the midst of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of foes. His allies had fully fallen back now, but still he sprinted toward the churning horde, flying over corpses lying in the muck.
“I’ll show you despair.”
He closed in on an ogul and swung. His blade flashed, tearing through the ogul’s distended stomach with prodigious force. In a blink, he turned the assault on the monsters nearby. A web of gleaming blade-trails cut them down at blinding speed. Blood blossomed across the blue sky. Head after head smacked gruesomely to earth. All living creatures were born with survival instincts, and monsters were no exception. As they realized what they were fighting, they broke and began to flee.
“Don’t run. You’ll only make this harder.”
He held one arm out to the side. Countless rents appeared in the air behind him, from which the hilts of swords emerged. A silver shimmer played along Excalibur, and Hiro vanished. A rushing of wind filled the air, a discordant cacophony that grew steadily louder. The spirit weapons shot forth with fearsome speed—one, three, eight, more—striking home among the monsters in sprays of gore. Silver streaks ricocheted around the field, growing ever faster. They were a hundred motes of light, a thousand bonfires, a million shooting stars. Lucifer, the pride and privilege of Excalibur’s chosen, opened its maw to devour its foes.
Divine Lightning—Liegegrezalt.
A storm of steel tore through the monsters at light speed, a definitive refutation of the superiority of numbers. Ogres keeled over with shattered skulls. Decapitated oguls thudded into the mud. With overwhelming power, lethal precision, and an utter lack of mercy, Hiro showed his foes terror. Even after he finally reappeared, the monsters kept their distance. They formed a circle around him but came no closer. Yet other creatures forced their way through their ranks.
“Archons,” Hiro murmured to himself. “The yaldabaoth’s mindless foot soldiers.”
Wailing shrieks tore from their throats as they fell on him with simian agility. They were duller than oguls, but far stronger, and their potent regenerative abilities meant their wounds quickly closed. Using their formidable vigor, they pinned him down. They clung to him like lions pouncing on their prey, seizing his limbs, mounting his back, sinking their teeth into his neck. He twisted at the waist, and the Black Camellia fluttered. Its cloth transformed into black spears that flung the archons free. Yet they still managed to hold him in place for a crucial moment...
And Longinus descended like a thunderbolt.
Hiro grunted in surprise as the spear struck home. It pierced clean through the Black Camellia and into the flesh beneath. Nausea surged up his throat, and he threw up across the ground. He glanced behind him. Longinus stood tall in the middle of a smoking crater.
“Finally joining the battle yourself, are you?”
Hiro’s fiendish regeneration immediately set to work, but the hole in his chest was unusually slow to mend. It was no normal wound. He rocked on his feet, breathing shallowly. The monsters realized he was incapacitated and advanced with spears at the ready. He felt himself run through from behind and lifted high. His feet left the ground, and the sky came into view.
“Get out of my way.”
He grasped the spear blade protruding from his belly, gritted his teeth, and snapped it off. Landing on one knee, he glared around. The monsters quailed at the intensity of his fury.
“Tell me—what do you know of despair?”
The heavens churned. The clouds swirled. The earth trembled and fractured as if screaming with a vast throat.
“Weep for spirits broken. Shed tears for hope lost. Wear with pride futures undone.”
Space buckled beneath the weight of his power. The air tore asunder and despair bled through the cracks, blanketing the earth like a great carpet. Silence fell upon the field. All sound was gone, all heartbeats stilled. Dread might reigned over a world painted black.
“I am Surtr, the Black-Winged Lord.”
The monsters’ heads caved in beneath the pressure. One by one, they toppled in sprays of brain matter. His very presence was a violence none could escape. And as the dark extended its invitation, he raised Dáinsleif level.
“He who beckons all lives equally to nothingness.”
Mortal Terror—Muspell.
Time halted in its tracks. All who lived fell free from time’s flow and succumbed to death, their heartbeats snuffed out. The grass wilted. The flowers shriveled. The earth rotted. The sky fell in.
“Come. Fall into despair.”
Deathly Stillness—Schwartzwald.
The black dragon’s maw yawned wide, falling shut upon the world like a deluge of curses. It struck the ground and burst apart, flooding the land with darkness that grasped the monsters’ feet and dragged them down into nothingness. At last, light returned to the world...and Hiro looked around to see the horde barely diminished. He smiled ruefully. A human army would have broken and run, but it seemed monsters were not so obliging.
He took off again, sprinting toward his goal. He could not stop now. Oguls moved to stand in his way, and he struck them down. Archons pounced on him and he cut them in twain. Arrows rained down on him, but he kept to his course. Even as blades thrust through his breast, he forged on. His life was a small price to pay for the prize he pursued.
After I lost you, Rey...I couldn’t...
With her death, he had ceased to feel. His heart had grown cold, black, and dead. He had fought to tread water, but leaden fetters had dragged him down. In time, he had forgotten how to fight at all, accepting his fate as he sank to the bottom of a deep, dark ocean. But then...
But then I met her. A girl who could have been your twin.
And a flame had kindled once more in his heart.
Maybe now I can atone for what I’ve done.
It was his fault this world had come into being. Liz’s tragic destiny was his doing. For her sake, he would not fail again. He would set her free to live a life of her choosing.
She’s your legacy. Your final hope.
He would give anything to keep her safe. His miserable life was a small price to pay to atone for his sins, to keep the flame of hope alive. His only fear was losing her. The threat of death held no sting. If it would bring her happiness...
“I will slay even the gods.”
There was no way back now. No way forward. No hope of survival.
“This time, I’ll keep my promise.”
With one leg dragging, Hiro burst clear of the ring of monsters and into open space. A golden-haired man spread his arms wide in greeting, a rapturous smile painted across his face.
“And so you come before me. Magnificent. Magnificent!”
Hiro’s vision wavered, but he reached out nonetheless with a handless stump. Yet just as his goal seemed within reach, an arrow pierced his knee and a spear skewered his shoulder. He fell to his knees.
“You are too sentimental, Surtr. That was always your undoing. Had you only left those lesser creatures to their fate, you could have escaped with ease.”
“So, all this time... This was just a ploy to draw me out?”
“And long in the making. You always did prize your friends too highly. Without the resolve to change the rules, what could you do but come here, to me?” The Demiurgos grasped Hiro’s head in both hands, leaning in so close that their noses almost touched. “And now, at long last, I have you. My vessel is finally mine to claim.”
His voice was ecstatic, but bitter tears flowed from his eyes even as a smile filled his face. Grinding his teeth as if biting back shame, he stared through Hiro’s eyes to someone else deep within.
“Now only the Spirit King remains.”
He pressed Hiro against the ground. Ipetam appeared in his hand, its scarlet blade glistening with bloodlust.
“At last, Surtr, you shall become part of me.”
The Demiurgos had waited a thousand years for this moment. He did not hesitate to seize it. His blade descended without a hint of mercy. Powerless to resist, Hiro looked down at his own bloodstained hands and smiled.
“You can’t stop the sun from rising.”
This was just punishment, nothing more. A fair price for the sins he had committed. He had no more regrets. He closed his eyes. Was he pleased or displeased, satisfied or disappointed? His face was unreadable, but the answer would soon become clear.
“Don’t you dare touch him.”
A voice rang out, clear as a bell.
And the world burst into crimson bloom.