Flying, slowly drifting into the main sanctuary, I was assaulted on every side by Xerith who could climb walls, fly, or hang from the top of the doorway. Most of their attacks were the lashings of bony tentacles and rebounded off of my armor before those appendages were withered by the fire wreathing me. I hovered higher and scoured the wall with a cone of flame from each hand. Burning Xerith dropped to the floor to die with their comrades. Suddenly I was hit by a blast of lightning that hit my shields and dissipated harmlessly.

  I quickly spun back towards the far wall of the temple to try to find the spellcaster, but I saw nothing beyond the dozens of shapeshifters running at me. Some of them ran with two legs and some ran with four or six legs, but all of them were moving fast. It was one of the scariest things I’d ever seen, and I had to snap myself out of inaction if I wanted to live. Somehow, just then a piece of marble in the shape of a giant hand appeared out of nowhere and hurtled at me with great speed. I lurched to my right and threw my shield up to block. The stone bashed through my magical protective shield and hit my metallic shield with a glancing blow that was still hard enough to knock me spinning through the air to hit the wall above the doors. My head smacked against the stone pretty hard. Even with my armor and the shield against projectiles active, that blow hurt, and my vision spun briefly. Sensing that I was about to be skewered by things that climbed the wall like spiders, I lashed out with a blast of concussive force in all directions. It was powerful enough to crack the massive stones behind me, and when it hit the shapeshifters coming up the wall, they were clubbed down into the floor hard enough to crush their forms into puddles of shapeless flesh. I threw a ball of fire at the base of the wall and blew everything collected there to bits.

  Where did that stone hand come from? Without warning, I quickly flew to my left in case another massive projectile was hurled at me. While moving, I recast my shield spell against projectiles. It was just in time, because a large brazier of burning coals was hurled at me that, once again, had appeared out of nowhere. I deflected the improvised weapon with a telekinetic push and looked more closely at my surroundings. Mordon’s helm showed me that there was an illusion of the far wall about fifty feet closer to me than the wall actually was. It wasn’t easy to see even with Mordon’s helm, but now that I knew what to look for, I could see beyond it. I blinked, thinking maybe my vision was deceiving me.

  There was a massive creature of some kind that was covered in chitinous armor with dozens of huge legs and appendages of various types protruding from its enormous body. It didn’t have a head or anything that obviously directed its movements, but it seemed to know exactly where I was. It broke off the forearm of a gigantic statue behind it and hurled it at me with three of its tentacles. I dodged the stone with difficulty and studied the area more carefully. There was a group of five Xerith clustered to the right side of the hall just on the other side of the illusory wall that were gesturing in a rhythmic pattern. I could feel they were summoning some fell magic to strike me with, so I struck them with the strongest ball of fire I could conjure. They were blown to fiery pieces and their magic dissipated, including the illusory wall. There were only about twenty more Xerith below me, and they were attempting to climb on top of each other like some form of pyramid to strike at me. I focused my will and hurled a ball of lightning into their midst that exploded into a hundred smaller lightning bolts radiating out in all directions. Those smaller lightning bolts burned them a little bit, but more importantly, they stunned all the Xerith that were struck. The stunned shapeshifters became easy targets, and I burned them all to ash with a cone of superheated fire.

  From the ceiling and floors huge, black tentacles suddenly sprouted that were easily long enough to grab me. That’s exactly what they did, too. I felt two of the tentacles grab ahold of me and begin yanking on me in different directions, wrenching my back. They would have torn me in half, but the fiery globe surrounding me was still in full effect, and it burned the tentacles away. I couldn’t see what was happening anywhere else in the room with all the tentacles blocking my view and striking at me, but I could hear great thumping sounds as if a group of giants were running at me. That was trouble for sure. I teleported to a spot just in front of the Overgod’s statue as the gargantuan Xerith crashed into the tentacles and began tearing everything apart. Chunks of the ceiling fell out and stones from the floor were hurled in all directions. I hurled fiery balls at its appendages as quickly as I could. Explosions and heat filled the room, and the monster let out a horrible, many-voiced scream. Blackened tentacles and arms separated and fell off of the monster.

  Undaunted, it reversed direction without turning around and came right back at me. I hurled another two balls of fire at it as it charged, then teleported behind it, close to where the conjured tentacles were just destroyed. The shapeshifting colossus smashed headlong into the statue, knocking it to pieces and smashing through the wall behind it. It roared loudly enough to make my ears ring, and hurled two more lightning bolts at me, both of which dissipated against my protective wards. I strengthened my ward against magic again as I moved towards the side of the sanctuary close to the ceiling. This time it hurled a blast of cold at me trying to put out my flames. I could feel the cold even through my protective shield, so I teleported to the other side of the room to escape it. I flung another ball of fire at it, which burned a small part of its chitinous armor towards the front of the creature. To my surprise, a couple of pieces of the monster, like slices of pie, lost their cohesion where I burned it, and they fell off. The carapace of the monster shrunk a little bit and filled in the gap with undamaged armor. Then I knew. This thing was made of many separate creatures all working together!

  I hit it again with another ball of fire that burned off three of its arms on the left side. It screamed and channeled another blast of cold at me. I teleported away and renewed my shield against magic attacks. When it saw me concentrating on summoning another ball of fire, it stampeded to the side and tried to get away through the archway into the central domed chamber. The colossus seemed to narrow itself a little bit to fit through the opening, but I was not going to let it get away so easily. I teleported right above the monster and showered it with a cone of flame as intense as I could make it. I could see parts of it blacken and fall off as I burned it. When the monster was pulling its last legs through the archway, I ended my deluge of flame, then flew down through the archway to see it moving towards a pit in the center of the floor.

  I had no intention of letting it get away, but I only had enough time to throw one ball of fire at it before it leapt into the open stairwell. I flew into the center of the chamber as even more of the Xerith came from different doorways and began sprouting wings. It took me a couple of minutes of intense fighting to dispose of those enemies with blasts of concussive force and explosive fire, but I got it done before anything else could get me.

  At this point, I was hyper-focused and in such a state of fear that I barely knew what was going on. While hovering there, I took a minute to take deep breaths and try to collect myself. I knew that I had to go down that deep hole, and I really didn’t want to do it. Just like with the earth wyrm, though, I knew I had to deal with this. I didn’t want to. But I had to. My family depended on me.

  Something caught my attention. I was hovering about twenty paces above a large glyph that was carved into the floor and filled with silver. I could see that it had a very powerful aura emanating from it, so I flew down to examine it. I could sense that it was a powerful ward, and I thought that it may be the source of the building’s protection from scrying spells. A closer examination proved me right. I flew up in the air a short way, then hit it with a focused blast of concussive force. The stones cracked around it a little bit, but the ward was still active. I kept hitting it with blasts of force until the stone turned to powder and the silver was warped and misshapen. I could feel when the magic dispersed. When it was already a mess of metal, I hit it with a cone of fire until the silver melted into a puddle, and I moved it around with telekinetic magic just to mix it up.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “That should do it,” I said. Maybe now I can keep an eye on this place without having to be here.” For better or worse, I have a tendency to talk to myself. “All right, Jeron. You can do this.”

  I flew over the staircase, and it looked like a bottomless pit. I could see a good ways down thanks to the magic of Mordon’s helm and the glowing fungus, and the giant monster was nowhere to be seen. I steeled my resolve and began to slowly drift down the hole, alert for danger. I was getting close to halfway down when I noticed one of the passages was getting brighter with a more golden light. Knowing what that was, I headed towards that passage. Sure enough, Bran, Elle, and Mira were walking towards the stairway. I landed at the end of the tunnel.

  “Oh, thank God you’re all right,” I said to Mira.

  “Big thanks to all of you for that,” Mira said.

  Bran moved to the edge of the stairs and looked down into the shaft. There was no railing, but he didn’t seem to be bothered. He’s always been braver than me. “Did all the rest of them go down that hole?”

  “Yep. But in one body. It’s like a big glob of many individuals that work together to make a huge monster,” I said. “It won’t be easy to kill. And it can cast spells.”

  “Spells? Like what?” Mira asked, clearly even more concerned.

  “It can shoot lightning bolts, blasts of cold, and create grabby tentacles and stuff.”

  “So, we need to stay close to Bran and that magic protection bubble Vengeance has,” Elle said.

  “Yeah. Or we die,” Mira said.

  “Who wants it to be easy? That would take all the fun out of it,” Bran said flippantly.

  “Don’t get cocky,” Mira said.

  “I can take it,” Bran said defiantly.

  “You haven’t even seen it. Once you do, you may change your mind,” I warned him.

  “You assume too much of his intelligence,” Mira quipped.

  “Ouch,” Bran said.

  “You ready for this?” I asked. “Are your blessings still active?”

  “Yes, sir,” Bran said. “Now’s as good a time as any to put an end to this.”

  Elle nodded. Mira looked worried.

  “All right. Let’s get this done,” I said. “Hang on.”

  I flew a few feet away from them, then lowered my arms so they could take hold of me. With all the magic power I was holding, I was plenty strong enough to hold each of them, plus my shield, mace, and everything they were carrying. Because of the blessing of strength they had, they were strong enough to hold onto me without falling off. When they had a firm grip, I raised us all up a little, then descended down into the dimly lit shaft. Not wanting to be surprised by anything, I conjured a little ball of light to float below us to light our way. The stair ramp was inset into the side of the shaft, and there were many, many tunnels carved into the walls. Bran’s gaze was fixed farther down, so down we went. I didn’t have to be told that he was trying to sense where the source of evil was.

  At last, the bottom of the shaft came into our sight. The entire floor was littered with bones. I could see they weren’t all human bones, either. Cat, dog, cattle and horse bones were strewn about the place where they were not powdered from the passing of many feet. There was only one way to go, a large tunnel fifty feet in diameter leading slightly downward. Bran simply pointed down the tunnel. We began walking, crunching bones snapping and shifting around our boots the whole way. I was on the lookout for traps and magical wards, and I found one about a hundred feet down the passage. I held up my hand to signal a stop.

  “There’s a magical trap ahead of us,” I said. “It feels like fire magic is waiting there for the unwary. Give me a minute.”

  I walked a little bit closer, but not close enough to set off the trap. It was a powerful enchantment, too. I carefully sensed the magic about it and when I felt certain that I understood the entire working of the spell, I unraveled it permanently. I waved Bran and Elle forward. When they rejoined me, I looked quizzically at Bran.

  Knowing what I didn’t ask, he said, “It’s about a hundred paces down this tunnel, and that’s the only evil thing I can sense right now.”

  “All right,” I said. “I’ll go first and hit it hard in whatever chamber it’s hiding in. It may be best if you guys can hang back in the tunnel here and keep anything from escaping. Agreed?”

  “Better you than me,” Mira said.

  “Be my guest,” Elle said.

  “We’ll be ready here,” Bran said.

  I activated my flying spell again and moved off down the center of the tunnel. When I had gone twenty paces from my friends, I reactivated the fiery aura around me in case the colossus got the bright idea to swat me with something. Trying to be clever, when I could see that I neared the large chamber, I flew down low enough that I almost touched the bone covered ground and sped into the chamber at the bottom right-hand corner of the tunnel, immediately shooting along the right-hand interior wall.

  When I slowed enough to turn and scan the room, I found the colossal Xerith poised above the tunnel exit waiting to pounce. Typical. I conjured a ball of fire near each outstretched fist and hurled them at the monstrous thing as it jumped down from its perch. The explosions rang through the cavern, and more pieces of dead matter fell off of the creature. With massive arms and huge hands, the Xerith began hurling stones at me the size of my entire body. Knowing that a solid hit would hurt me badly, armored or not, I teleported to the other side of the cavern, then flew in erratic directions until it ran out of stones to throw. When it only had two stones left, it started hurling lightning bolts at me. Some of the bolts missed completely, but two of them hit my shields and dissipated harmlessly. I threw a ball of fire at the arms that I thought summoned the lightning and blasted them to ash. The rest of the host altered its shape to compensate for the loss.

  I began hitting it very rapidly with spears of fire that I took from the aura of fire whirling around me, and it began to have an effect. It seemed that the fiery spears were penetrating deeper than a continuous blast of flame or ball of fire could. Pieces of the colossus began falling off, and it began to move much more frantically. Each part of the thing could act independently and had its own eyes, so it flung rocks and handfuls of debris at me even as it tried to move in different directions at the same time. It seemed that fear caused it to lose its coordination. Maybe the different entities in it were following their own instincts rather than one collective action directed by the strongest one. Either way, this was a good indication for us. I kept flinging spears of fire at it from above, and the monster began to shrink as more members of its body died.

  In a sudden and horrific event, the entire colossus burst apart into a hundred horse-sized chunks, and each of those chunks squirmed and shifted into things born of chaos. There was no uniformity of body for anything that came from the monster. Everything sprouted legs, arms, wings, tentacles, claws, spikes and horns in a wave of pure chaos, and then sprang off in different directions. For a second, I didn’t know what to do. Some of them ran immediately for the exit. Others attacked me madly.

  “No!” one of them shouted. “I am the First! Obey me!”

  I saw exactly where that one was and hurled a ball of fire at it that blew it to bits along with at least a dozen of its closest friends. Fortunately, the First was far enough away from the entrance tunnel that my friends were not harmed in the explosion. In the tunnel, Bran, Elle and Mira fought for their lives against a wave of enemies, so I moved into the tunnel over their heads and sent concussive blasts of force in directions where the Xerith were thickest, flinging them away from my friends with great force. I then fired spear after spear of fire into the Xerith, even the ones that were crawling along the ceiling and walls. Bran, Elle, and Mira were side-to-side and began slowly fighting their way toward the stair shaft by some unspoken instinct. When they had a more manageable number of enemies they were fighting, I suddenly flew down the tunnel to catch the ones that were escaping. I didn’t want to risk any of these monsters getting away to wreak more havoc in the world, so I blasted them out of existence, each and every one. I worked my way back to Bran and Elle, and they were just finishing off the last of the Xerith that wanted to fight. I flew over them high enough that I didn’t burn them and began scouring the cave for the rest.

  Even though some changed their coloration and mimicked existing stalagmites, I could clearly see which ones were not rock formations through the magic of Mordon’s helm. I conjured a spear of fire for each one of them, and I didn’t stop until I could find no more. The cavern was hot, smoky, and full of the stench of brimstone when I finished, and I ceased the fiery aura as I flew down to where the others stood panting for breath.

  “They’re all gone,” Bran said. “I can sense no evil here.”

  “Thank God for that,” I said.