The Golden Kingdom's army didn't retreat.
Darian had expectedâhopedâthat the loss of their fragment-bearers would force a withdrawal, that commanders would hesitate to proceed without magical support. Instead, the column pressed forward with renewed urgency, their discipline holding despite the devastating blow.
*They're more committed than I anticipated*, Varian observed as Darian watched the army's approach through the wards' enhanced perception. *Or more afraid of what happens if they return empty-handed.*
"King Midas doesn't tolerate failure," Senna said quietly. She'd joined him at the kingdom's edge, watching the distant torches that marked the enemy's position. "The commanders know that turning back means execution. Their only hope is success."
"Then we'll have to convince them success is impossible."
The army reached the cursed lands' border at dawn.
Darian watched from a hidden position as the first soldiers tested the boundary, their golden armor gleaming in the strange twilight that passed for daylight in Obsidian's territory. The wards resistedâhe could feel them pushing back against the intrusionâbut without active opposition, they weren't designed to stop a sustained assault.
And then the cage opened.
The creature that emerged was wrong in ways that defied description. It walked on too many legs, looked back at the army with too many eyes, and radiated power that made Darian's newly enhanced senses scream in warning. This wasn't a fragment-bearer. This wasn't even human.
*Dimensional breach*, Varian said, his mental voice carrying horror that Darian had never heard before. *They've captured something from beyond the barrier. Something that should never have been brought into this world.*
"What is it?"
*I don't know. But I know what it meansâMalchus. Only the Bone King has the knowledge to breach dimensional barriers, and only he would be mad enough to try. The Golden Kingdom thinks they've found a weapon, but they've actually acquired a leash around their own necks.*
The creature approached the wards, and where it touched them, the protections didn't just weakenâthey *fled*. Obsidian's ancient magic recoiled from contact with something that existed outside the rules it was designed to enforce.
*We can't stop it*, Varian said grimly. *Not with direct force. That thing is partially immune to shadow magicâit exists in a state that our powers weren't designed to affect.*
"Then what do we do?"
*The summoner. Someone has to be maintaining the binding that keeps it under control. Find them, kill them, and the creature will either return to its home dimension or go berserk and destroy everything around it.*
"Including the army that brought it?"
*Almost certainly. These things don't distinguish between enemies and allies. The binding is the only thing keeping it focused on its target.*
Darian scanned the enemy formation with his void sight, searching for the signature of dimensional magic. Thereânear the back of the column, surrounded by guards who weren't wearing Golden Kingdom colors. A figure in robes of bone-white, holding a staff that pulsed with power from somewhere else.
*Ivory Kingdom*, Varian confirmed. *Malchus sent one of his disciples to ensure the weapon performed correctly. This was never just a Golden Kingdom operation.*
The pieces fell into place with horrible clarity. The seven kingdoms had united against Obsidian once before. Now, it seemed, they were doing so againânot as a formal alliance, but through subtle cooperation. The Golden King's army. The Bone King's monster. And who knew what other resources were being committed behind the scenes.
"I need to reach that summoner," Darian said.
"Through five hundred soldiers and a dimensional horror?" Senna's voice was flat. "That's suicide."
"Not through. Around." He was already mapping routes in his mind, calculating angles and timing. "The Undercity. I can use the network to emerge behind their lines, strike the summoner, and escape before the creature can react."
"And if the summoner has protections? If you can't kill them in one strike?"
"Then I improvise." Darian turned to face her, and something in his expression made her step back. "Senna, that thing is tearing through our wards. In an hourâmaybe lessâit'll reach the city. If I don't stop it, everyone dies. Everyone."
She stared at him for a long moment. Then, slowly, she nodded.
"Don't die."
"I'll try."
---
The Undercity passage was narrow and unstable this close to the cursed lands' edge.
Darian navigated by instinct, feeling his way through darkness that pressed against him with almost physical weight. The dimensional creature's presence was bleeding through the barriers between realms, corrupting the very fabric of shadow magic that made the network function.
*Quickly*, Varian urged. *The longer that thing remains in our world, the more damage it does to the underlying structure of reality.*
Darian emerged behind the enemy lines, in a small depression between rocks that provided temporary cover. The Ivory Kingdom summoner was perhaps fifty yards away, surrounded by guards who bore the Bone King's skull-and-crown insignia.
*The staff*, Varian said. *The binding is focused through the staff. Destroy it, and the creature's leash snaps.*
Fifty yards. A dozen guards. And a summoner whose power came from somewhere beyond mortal comprehension.
Darian reached for the void walker's memoriesâthe things it had known about dimensional beings, about the spaces between worlds. There, buried among alien concepts, he found what he needed.
The creature wasn't immune to shadow magic. It was immune to shadow magic *as mortals used it*. But the void walkers weren't mortal. Their technique of shadow manipulation operated on principles that predated humanity's existence.
He'd absorbed one of them. Their knowledge was his now.
*What are youâ*
Darian stepped into shadow, but not the shadow of the Undercity. This was differentâdeeper, older, a darkness that existed before light was created. The void walker called it the True Dark, the space that underlaid all reality.
He moved through it like a fish through water.
The summoner's guards never saw him coming. One moment, empty space; the next, shadow incarnate erupting in their midst, blades of True Dark slicing through flesh and bone with contemptuous ease.
The summoner had perhaps half a second to realize what was happening.
His staff shattered under Darian's strike, fragments of bone and power scattering across the rocky ground.
And in the distance, the dimensional creature *screamed*.
---
The army broke.
Not from the loss of their fragment-bearers, not from the hostile terrain, but from watching their ultimate weapon turn on them. The creature, freed from its binding, didn't return to its home dimensionâit was too angry for that, too eager to punish the beings that had dared to cage it.
Soldiers fled in every direction, discipline forgotten, survival the only impulse that remained. The creature pursued, its too-many legs carrying it with terrible speed, its too-many eyes tracking targets with inhuman precision.
Darian watched from within the True Dark, safely hidden from the carnage he'd unleashed.
*That was dangerous*, Varian said quietly. *The True Dark isn't meant for mortal minds. Stay there too long, and it begins to consume your sense of self.*
"I know." He could feel itâthe seductive emptiness, the whispered invitation to simply let go, to become one with the infinite darkness. "I'm coming back now."
He stepped out of the True Dark and into normal shadow, then from shadow into the physical world. His legs buckled, exhaustion hitting him like a physical blow. Using void walker techniques on top of everything else he'd doneâ
*Rest*, Varian commanded. *The battle is over. Rest while you can.*
But it wasn't quite over.
The dimensional creature had finished with the Golden Kingdom's forcesâhundreds dead, the survivors scattered beyond any hope of regrouping. Now it turned toward the cursed lands, toward the source of shadow magic that had always been its greatest enemy.
Toward Darian.
*It knows*, Varian said grimly. *It sensed you in the True Dark. It knows what you are.*
The creature approached, its impossible body crossing the distance with predatory patience. Darian tried to summon his shadow blade, but his reserves were empty. Tried to reach for the True Dark again, but his mind flinched away from the strain.
He was defenseless.
*Not entirely*, Varian said. *There's one option left. Dangerous, butâ*
"Tell me."
*The throne. If you can reach the throne room, you can draw on the kingdom's reserves directly. It might be enough to drive the creature back.*
"The throne room is a mile away."
*Then you'd better run.*
Darian ran.
Behind him, the creature followed.
And across the realm, in seven different kingdoms, seven different Monarchs sensed the disturbance and began to pay very close attention.
