PreCursive

  It was difficult to even describe the thing that rested in the ruins of Fort Duality as a monster. For the very first time since I had learned about the existence of Camity’s ba the Thorny Reef, I uood the cultural fear that the Veredenese had about them.

  This was more than monster.

  It was more akin to an a god.

  Even though it was reing in the ruins of the near castle that was Fort Duality, from its freakish feet to the tip of its head, it had to be over four hundred feet tall at the very least. The creature was, in a way, almost remi of the smaller Revenants that it arently spawning. It was bipedal instead of quadrupedal like its children, aained some of the same features of both lizards and bats that they did.

  But that was where the simirities ended.

  The Godbound had the basic shape of most humanoid creatures, with two digitigrade legs and two almost human like arms, mostly dark green scales and tipped in taler than city buses from Earth. However, there was an odd pattern of crimson scales that were visible all over its body, f peared to be runes in the same eldritch script that Nerexxa had been using.

  Only these were writ much, much rger. They hurt to look at, making my eyes burn to focus upon them.

  It was heavily muscled, as well, thick of body and limb, giving it a powerful seeming physique. While the smaller Revenants had only two malformed bde-like wiending from its back, this thing had more. In a way almost remi of Nerexxa, it had three pairs of bat-like wings curled on its bad csped on its chest, almost like aended cloak. But these weren’t flightless fighting appendages like the Revenants I had seen had. These were fully webbed, which horrified me.

  This thing could potentially fly?

  Two wide, sharp ears extended above its batlike head, that twitched ever so slightly in pce. However, its eyes and mouth were oddly closed, giving it a near-resting-like appearance.

  But it very obviously was doing something.

  From iween its thighs, a massive swirling n of smoke had enveloped something that had once resided within the ruined Fort Duality. It spiraled into the sky, and seemed to be the in of the cloudy murk that had artificially turned day into night.

  That…that had to be the Portal Stone.

  Tzo had been right.

  The Godbound had already started to attu to the location of its mistress.

  Baldric must have realized this as well, because he cursed. “Let’s go,” He said urgently to Liora and I. “We have to make it to that thing before it’s too te.”

  I tore my horrified gaze away from the titanister at the ter of the twin cities, and started to nod along with Liora. But something else caught my attention.

  A Revenant was swooping down at us from the sky. This one wasn’t just falling fully formed from the corrupted Aether that was suffusing the area, though. No, instead, it had funal wings instead.

  The Revenants were starting to evolve.

  To fly

  And one was nearly upon us.

  “Look o-!” I started to shout, pointing to the beast with its taloended in our dire hungrily.

  I have bothered.

  With a furious snarl, Baldric whirled around and sshed out at the desding monster with one wind-coated hooked dagger. A visible bde of razor-sharp wind exploded from the edge and raced up to meet the Revenant, easily slig the thing into two pieces that fell to the street below.

  But there were more of them. Winging their way through the sky were more and more winged Rhazalian Revenants, where only moments ago they had been falling to the ground like stones.

  It wasn’t safe up high anymore.

  Liora didn’t waste any time. “We have to get off the roofs,” She said quickly. “We’re easy prey up here.” Almost before she was finished speaking, she leaped off of the edge of the roof we were on, and into the alleyway below.

  Baldric cursed but obviously agreed, as he followed after her.

  I did the same, after o dread-filled g the Godbound on the horizon.

  On the pavement of Ttec, I saw that Liora and Baldric were peeking out around the er of the alleyway at the street outside. I hurried to join them, and when I did, I saw that the fighting was…goier than expected. The introdu of Tzo’s undead forces was turning the tide for the battle on the ground, but I didn’t know how long that would st with the introdu of fliers. Already I could see flying versions of the Revenants swooping down and scooping up either Orcs or their undead versions. This didn’t always turn out the best for them, as sometimes their captives would simply sy the monsters and fall back to the pavement. But not always, and attrition would already be eating away at the guards of Ttec if it wasn’t for an almost endless stream of uhat had started to pour out of the entrao Tzo’s underground b.

  The e was that the Revenant hordes were being pushed back, but slowly.

  Too slow for our purposes. It would take too long to fight through the Revenants, if we wao get to the ruins of Fort Duality any time soon.

  “We’ll have to take the back streets,” Baldric said grimly, only barely loud enough to be heard over the fighting. “I lead us to the bridge ected to the Fort. Follow me.” At that, the dwarf turned around and walked away from the entra into the street. Liora and I followed him.

  …………………………………..

  An ued be that I didn’t think of, following Baldric through these back streets, was that they were too narrow for the Revenants to squeeze into. The regur citizens of Tctec, though, seemed to have realized that before I did. This appeared to be the pce that the guards who weren’t involved in the fighting were evacuating their charges to. We passed more than one group of Orcish civilians huddling in scared groups in the back alleys, overseen by grim and paranoid Tte guards. They eyed us with suspi when we hurried past, but didn’t try and stop us.

  Probably because, although it was a bit suspicious to find non-Or the city, we weren’t literal bloodthirsty monsters.

  But…

  I wasn’t sure how long they could keep hiding in here.

  I saw more than one Revenant notice the civilians from overheard, and try to scrabble their way iween the gaps in stohe guards were easily able to hahis, but the stonework kept getting more and more damaged on the buildings we were passing. Not only that, but I swear I heard Revenants breaking into buildings and trying to dig their way through the back walls to the scared people oher side. We stopped to help whenever we could, but we had bigger problems, as callous as that sounded.

  We had to hurry.

  Eventually, we reached the line of buildings that y he border of the al that separated Tcted Elderwyck. Through the gap in the alleyway that we were hiding within, I could see the bridge that led to the ruins of Fort Duality that rested iweewin cities. The titani of the Godbound domihe horizon with its dread power, with its resting legs alone being taller than the buildings we hid between. There roblem, however.

  The entrao the bridge was absolutely swarming with Revenants. There must be hundreds of the things milling about he demolished guard checkpoints that used to block the path over the bridge. Not only that, but the ereet extending as far as we could see on both sides was filled with untable numbers of Revenants. There didn’t look to be a way forward, to my eyes. But they weren’t ag like I had seen from them elsewhere iy. They were almost calm, with a form of enhanced intelligend watchful eyes that were exhibited in both the waiting fliers and the ground-bound.

  And I think I knew why.

  There looked to be an evolved form of the Revenants leading them.

  It was twice as tall as a human man, and that was because it stood upright like its progenitor, although in a hunched-over position. The bat-like lizard thing watched the world with forward-fag eyes on its digitigrade legs with its ow of wings draped over its shoulders. I didn’t dare to use Observe on it in case the thihe Skill, but it was very obviously more powerful than its brethren. It radiated a strength that I could feel all the way from where I was hiding.

  I swear, I swear, I could feel a Mantle radiating off of the thing, even at this distance.

  The rest of the Revenants crowded around the thing, ag like loyal and watchful hounds at its bed call.

  There was no easy way around any of them.

  Uedly, Baldric sighed from his positioo Liora and I. We were all cautiously peering out of the exit out into the street, trying to figure out a way that we were going to reach the isnd. “We’re not all getting through there,” He said, almost peacefully.

  I cut my eyes his way. “What?” I asked, not uanding his meaning. “What do you mean, all?”

  "If we try a past that thing," Baldric said calmly. "It's just going to follow. Alone, I could stealth us attention, but not with the two of you. It's guarding more than just the bridge, too. I feel its attention watg the whole of the border with the al. I'm going to have to do something...else, instead."

  Else? What else?

  But Liora seemed to uand. She uedly crouched down and looked the dwarf in the eyes. “Please don’t,” She said quietly, almost pleading with him. “Please…I…I ’t…”

  Fondly, the spymaster of the Noe Division reached out and cradled the Gnoll woman’s hands. He rubbed his thumbs almost fly over her furred knuckles before meeting her eyes. “You know I have to,” He said calmly, causing Liora to look away briefly. Baldric reached up, though, to cup her furred cheek in his rough hand tenderly to look her in the eye. “You do. You’re a smart girl. You know almost more than I do what we signed up for, in the Division.”

  “I do,” Liora whispered, ying her hand over his on her cheek. “But…I don’t know if I could survive losing anyone else.” For the first time since I’d ever knowhe woman I had known as Dusk for so long souo be ears. “I’m…not strong enough.”

  A smile stretched its way over Baldric's craggy, bearded face. “You are,” He said fidently. “I know you are. I’ve only ever held you back from your true potential, Liora Valen.”

  By now, I was starting to uand what the Florensian dwarf was intending. It…was hard not to.

  There was only one person here, that could potentially take on that evolved Revenant and distract it long enough. But not even Baldric could fight both that evolved Revenant, and the hordes that surrou alone.

  He was going to sacrifice himself, so we could reach the Godbound.

  God, I felt like a piece of shit voyeur, for intruding on this farewell.

  “When I’m gone,” Baldric said, causing a short, sharp sob to escape Liora. He used a thumb to wipe away one of the tears that was esg Liora’s apricot-colored eyes, and smiled. “I want more for you than this life. You could be so much more than just another bde in the dark, Liora. Join the Academy, and build something for yourself. Grey owes us both for this. He won’t raise a stink. Promise me, Liora. Promise me you’ll do it.”

  Her head lowered, Liave a small nod. “I promise,” She breathed, before lunging forward and ing Baldri a hug. “I promise.”

  A measure of tension escaped Baldric then, and the dwarf almost looked to be at peace. The two of them separated slowly, and then Baldriexpectedly turo face me. “Afraid I’m not going to be able to tinue your training, Hart,” He said wryly. “You stick to the pn we made, listen to Grey, and you’ll go far. Hell, you could even bee one of the greats, if you put your mind to it.”

  I took deep breath and did my best to smile at the dwarf. “I’ll do that. Thank you, Baldric. Thank you for…everything.”

  Baldriorted. “Don’t worry about it. You might not have been in the Division long, but you were a det Agent,” He said, before reag up to his ned withdrawing something from uhis vest. As it was exposed to open air, I saw that it endant of all things. Actually, I think it was a locket, with a stylized version of the House Florens crest on the front. He u and then ha to me. “Here. Give this to Azarus, will you? I…always inteo talk to the boy and hash things out, but. Well. Old habits die hard, wouldn’t you say?” He gave a gallows chuckle. “Apologize to him for me. If I had just stuck around…maybe he wouldn’t have to go and live with the Savoy.”

  I Baldrid slipped the pendant around my own neck for safekeeping, tug into my worn-down, blood-encrusted Loyalist armor. “I will. I promise I will,” I swore.

  If I survived.

  At that, Baldric seemed to have finished his final goodbyes. With a lingering gween him and Liora, he approached the exit of the alleyway. “Once I get started,” He said without turning, with his back to us. “You’ll have to jump into the river when I have their attention. There’s a batrao Fort Duality at the bottom of the al, and that should still be intact. Ohere, make your …and do what you have to.”

  He drew the two hooked daggers that he had retained hold of through everything that had happeo us.

  His namesake.

  “Goodbye…papus…” Liora whispered o me, before Baldric could leave forever.

  Baldric looked over his shoulder and smiled. “Goodbye, suki.”

  At that, the spymaster of the Noe Division, Baldric of House Florens, turned around and…

  Stepped into the street.

  He immediately drew the attention of every Revenant that y out there, by exploding forward into a swirling morass of razor-sharp winds. Dozens and dozens of them died instantly, but her Liora or I were ined to waste this ce.

  We sprinted out into the street, onto the gore-covered cobblestones of Tted dove over the side of the railing that separated the twin cities.

  As I fell, I could see Baldrigage with the form of the evolved Rhazalian Revenant.

  Strangely, there was a smile on his face.