Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

MORDRED

Realm of Shadow Falls

Shadow Falls burned.

Mordred had been one of the first through the realm gate in Atlantis once it was ready to be activated. It had taken less than an hour, and in that time, Mordred had wanted nothing more than to tell people to hurry up. It wouldn't have helped.

Mordred ran out of the temple with hundreds of people behind him, right into the fray with a horde of snarling creatures, their jaws snapping over and over as they tried to get to him. He used light magic to drive them back, but even in Shadow Falls—where magic was wild and unpredictable, much more powerful than in any other realm—the creatures continued to come.

Mordred cut through them with Excalibur and was relieved to discover that even if magic wasn't as potent against them as he'd like, at least a sharp sword still did the trick.

Hades, Persephone, and dozens of others helped Mordred and those who had come with him to push the creatures back down the hill toward the city, killing many of them with swords, axes—any weapons that they could get their hands on—only to have them replaced with more. A seemingly never-ending line of death.

Mordred stabbed one creature in the chest and activated Excalibur's power, and the creature bucked and screamed.

"There's got to be a better way than this," Mordred said, using Excalibur to decapitate another creature as Hel used her necromancy to tear another apart, then threw a dagger that caught a second in the throat. It died clawing at its own neck in an effort to try to get the blade out.

"They don't like silver," Hel said. "And they don't like necromancy."

"Both are useful to know," Mordred said, and soon anyone with necromancy powers was flinging them around at the enemy with aplomb.

"At least they stay dead," Diana said, in full werebear beast form, as she threw the head of one creature at an incoming second. The head bounced off its face, leaving a bloody mark, but otherwise did little to slow it down. Diana dived at the creature, ripping it apart with her massive claws.

"They die, but they just keep coming," Mordred said and spotted the flash of red armor belonging to the Horsemen as they moved toward the palace.

Hel placed a hand on his arm. "What did you see?" she asked.

"Arthur's Horsemen are going for the palace," Mordred said. "He wants to bury this realm. It stood against him last time—it's always been a beacon of anti-Avalon life, but it's also the one place he's never come close to conquering. Galahad lost his life to stop them the last time Arthur was here; I'm not going to let my friend have died in vain."

Diana turned back to them both. "I'm coming with you," she said, ignoring the dagger that whirled past her head into the eye of a creature. Medusa calmly walked over and removed it, crushing the skull of another creature beneath her boot.

"We going to kill them all, yes?" Medusa asked.

Diana nodded. "That's the plan, yes," she said.

"Good, let's go," Medusa said.

Twelve soldiers joined Mordred, Hel, Medusa, and Diana as they carved their way through the city of Solomon. They were soon joined by Olivia, who fought alongside Diana and Medusa at the front of the group, killing everything that came toward them.

Mordred had always thought that Olivia was an accomplished fighter, but seeing her there, now, was something else. She was rage given form, seemingly unstoppable as she let out her anger and frustration on anything stupid enough to get in her way.

The streets of Solomon were drenched in blood by the time they'd gotten even halfway through, and more than one contained the remains of those civilians who had lived here in peace. Mordred caught a glimpse of Harry and Kase, back to back, fighting off a large troll-like creature, and Olivia flew into a rage, racing over toward them both and helping them kill the giant beast.

They reached the stairs to the palace, killing their way through dozens of creatures on the way, only to find a hundred Horsemen standing at the top of the stairs, looking down on Mordred and his allies.

"You got a plan?" Hel asked.

"Hoped you would," he said. Mordred looked up at the griffins that were flying over the city, dive-bombing the enemy to tear off heads and limbs with their huge talons before taking to the skies again.

A few of them flew close to the palace, and the Horsemen readied themselves as Mordred and his allies began the run up the stairs.

It was a longer run than would be considered a good idea if intending to fight people who had the high ground, but the griffins distracted the Horsemen, diving at them and dragging their talons across the red armor.

By the time Mordred's team reached them, the Horsemen were already engaged and had killed two of the griffins by dragging them to the ground and ripping off their wings.

Mordred carved through two of the Horsemen with Excalibur, drove the tip of the sword into the helmet of one enemy, and left it there as the dead Horseman toppled back, leaving Mordred to use his magic. Ice exploded all across the top of the stairs, impaling several of the Horsemen and encasing two in ice.

Hel threw one Horseman down the steps, and Olivia froze it in place before Hel tossed a small amount of pure necromancy at it, ripping it in half.

The battle was short and bloody, and more than one of Mordred's soldiers succumbed to wounds, but when it was over and the ground ran slick with the blood of the Horsemen, Mordred and his people were victorious.

Mordred pushed a dead Horseman down the stairs and looked out across the burning city. His city. There were still tens of thousands of the creatures down there, and he'd seen more of his people dead than he ever wanted to see again, but they would continue to fight until their last breath, and even from the distance between them, Mordred saw the steady stream of new people coming through the mouth of the realm gate temple.

Mordred looked away and headed into the palace. Something felt wrong. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he'd expected more of the creatures and Horsemen than he'd actually seen. Certainly more of the Horsemen. But apart from those who were dead on the floor, there'd been little in the way of actual resistance from them.

"You okay?" Hel asked.

Mordred nodded, and while he wanted to give voice to his concerns, he needed to be ready for Arthur. He had Excalibur; he was ready. Or as ready as he'd ever be.

Before they reached the throne room, a large part of the doorway and corridor beyond it was torn apart in a blast of light. A Horseman was thrown into the hallway as everyone readied their weapons, and Judgement walked out, brushing herself down.

"It's empty," she said, looking back into the room. "Well, it's a bit of a mess."

"How'd you get here so fast?" Hel asked.

"Griffin dropped me on the roof," Judgement said. "There are no way near enough creatures here to destroy Shadow Falls."

"We've been set up," Hel said. "Arthur lied. He never sent half of his forces here, but he knew we'd divide our forces if we thought that he had, just to stop those we care about from being killed."

Mordred ran back through the palace to the front entrance and looked out over the battle of Shadow Falls. "We need to get to Washington, DC. Now."

"Hey," Hel said, coming to stand beside Mordred as the realm gate temple exploded in a ball of flame.

There were screams throughout the city, and Mordred ran toward the sound of the explosion just as a second one rang out. Mordred looked across the city to see the realm gate temple collapsing down the hill as thousands of the creatures ascended it, all of them standing between the destroyed temple and the city.

"What the fuck?" Judgement shouted.

"He wanted to keep us here," Mordred said. "That's why he wanted us to come. If trapping us in Atlantis failed, then he'd trap us here. He told my dad that he was sending people here, but he didn't tell him everything. Arthur doesn't trust anyone. I should have known that."

Diana, Medusa, and the soldiers all ran past, down into the fighting in the city. Olivia arrived. "I need to help," she said.

"We need to get the temples open and operating," Mordred said. "We need to get to DC now."

"He can't possibly think that this is a long-term way to stop us," Hel said.

"It's not," Mordred said. "But it's a short-term way for him to get to Earth and get however many Avalon people are there to rise up and kill those opposing them. By the time we get to the Earth realm, a lot of humans will be dead. He knows there's going to be a bigger battle—a lot of them; he just wants a head start."

No one else said anything, and Mordred took off at a sprint, running through the streets that had been crawling with enemies not long ago and now contained only their bodies and the bodies of those who had died fighting them.

Hel and Olivia joined Mordred, and the three of them reached the bottom of the stairs that led to the realm gate temple, which was now nothing more than rubble. The forces of Shadow Falls had already begun the assault on the creatures, who numbered in the thousands. Every time one was killed, two took its place.

Mordred and the others dived into the fight, killing anything that moved, but it was like fighting against the inevitable. The stairs were slick with blood and bodies of the fallen, and soon the number of dead Horsemen made it harder and harder for the defenders of the city to get to the realm gate.

Magic burned and froze Horsemen in equal turn; the earth ripped apart beneath the feet of the seemingly endless creatures. Lightning smashed into them, and huge stone golems tore through their ranks, and still they kept coming.

They were joined by the magically resistant creatures, who cut through anyone too close to them, and after what felt to Mordred like a lifetime, there were still hundreds more to kill before they got to the realm gate.

Mordred shouted to get back, using his air magic to carry his words as far as he could along his line. People stepped back, but the creatures didn't follow; they were there to stop the ascent, not hunt those who moved away.

A faint white glow appeared around Mordred's hands, moving over his body as the enemy before him snarled. Any hint of their once being human was long gone. They were abominations now, closer in Mordred's mind to ghouls and blood elves than anything with humanity in it.

Mordred unleashed the pure magic he'd built up, aiming it directly at the baying mob of Horsemen in front of him. It obliterated everything between him and the realm gate. Hundreds of Horsemen died, only to be replaced by more as they willingly walked into the beam of pure magic, with seemingly no interest in their own preservation.

Mordred moved the pure magic in an arc in front of him until he was completely spent and dropped to one knee as his allies roared and charged forward into the remaining creatures.

The battle was easier, but it still took some time to clear out the monsters that were there. The Horsemen had been all but obliterated, and any remaining eventually died too. Mordred got involved in the fight again and killed two himself before running into the remains of the temple.

The bodies of a dozen rebellion soldiers littered the remains of the temple. The realm gate was seriously damaged, and though it was healing itself, it would be out of use for some time. At the far end of the temple, part of the rock crumbled away, revealing Leonardo, Antonio, and three soldiers, all of whom were badly injured but alive.

"Those things killed themselves," Leonardo said, his voice hoarse. "Blew themselves up to destroy the temple."

"They've done the same to the other dwarven gate," Mordred said. "The elven gate too."

"We are trapped here," Antonio said. "For now, at least."

"It's never ending, isn't it?" Mordred said with a shake of his head as Hel helped the rebellion soldiers out of the realm gate.

"So what do we do?" Hel asked.

"We finish clearing out these bastards," Mordred said. "We get these gates working, and we try to figure out how we get to Washington and find Arthur. We're going to end this, and there's no way Arthur is going to get away."

"Can we somehow get word to Nate and Tommy?" Judgement asked.

"There are still a lot of people in Atlantis who aren't here," Hel said. "They need to be told."

Mordred considered it for a moment. "Find me Orfeda," he said. "We're going to see if we can make a summoning circle."

Mordred glanced back up at the realm gate temple, the hill before it littered with the bodies of enemies and his allies.

"You okay?" Hel whispered.

Mordred shook his head. "I wanted this to be the big fight. Good versus evil. Me finally getting to put Arthur down. He took so much from me, including my eye the last time we fought; I wanted to be able to say I stopped him. I know that's a bit selfish, and it's not about me, but I almost needed to have another shot. And he's played us all. And no one knows where he is or what he's doing, but whatever it is, he wanted us out of the way for it."

"You might still get your chance," Hel said. "He still needs to be stopped."

Mordred nodded. "I know. I just hope we can stop him before he gets whatever he's after."