Page 3697

He climbed to his knees and finally regained a proper sense of environmental awareness as his vision cleared. And yet he felt more confused than ever, because he could hardly understand what he was looking at.

The entire world was on fire. Everything around him. Ablaze.

Even himself. All up his arms and legs and chest. But these weren’t the reddish flames of his lutetium.

And strangest of all, they didn’t hurt, either. Because of numbness? No. The flames weren’t burning him. Not cooking his flesh.

If anything, he was feeling somewhat better, actually. Invigorated. This was the intense heat that he felt before. It wasn’t painful. It was like a deeply warm embrace, covering his entire body.

But he could see other things burning around him, too. Smoke and damage. Craters in the ground. Burning men running across his vision. Screaming.

What the hell was happening here?

Kerikos stirred within his grasp. ‘Ogh...’

‘Kerikos!’ thought Vito. ‘You’re conscious?!’

‘Mgh... I don’t... what...?’

Before he could question the reaper any further, however, a blinding light in the sky stole his attention, and he had to shield his eyes. When it abated, he saw a great fireball suspended there, looking not unlike a meteor, but it was just hung there in midair, seemingly not moving.

And then it clicked for him. Could that be Jackson up there?

Vito had heard that the Radiant Sentinel, the Star of the West, had gone mysteriously missing after a terrible battle with the Mad Demon in the Uego Desert. Theories abounded about what might have become of him, but one of the more popular ones had been that he was recovering here in Intar.

If that was really him, then perhaps the situation wasn’t so--

Agh, he was getting distracted, Vito realized. He needed to find Prince David again. In all this chaos, that was going to be difficult. He needed a reaper’s senses.

‘Kerikos, can you hear me?’

‘Rgh...’

‘Kerikos!’

No response, this time.

Shit.

He tucked the reaper under his arm as he looked around. The flames all over his body had diminished, but they weren’t entirely vanishing, and the same could be said for those covering the courtyard. It was a bit easier to see, at least. And he recalled the general direction in which the Prince had been fleeing.

So he started running.

Whatever else was going on around him, whatever this mad battle was and whatever big names might be involved in it, Vito Sebolt knew his task. And he was going to see it done.

Next page at noon

Just a little more time. Thanks, everyone.

Page 3696

Something was pushing down on him now. As if gravity had suddenly quadrupled. He could feel it there on his back. The added pressure. Almost like the foot of a giant. Was it real? An actual giant pinning him down?

He discarded the questions as soon as they entered his mind. Distractions. Unimportant. Didn’t matter if it was real or not. Didn’t matter if the Mad Demon himself was sitting on his back, right now.

The only thing that mattered was reaching Kerikos.

His muscles ached. Fatigue struck.

But so what?

His body didn’t want to listen to him?

So what? He was in charge, not his body.

He could hardly think straight?

So what? There was only one thing to think about, anyway.

Time stretching away from him?

So what? Time could stretch for a thousand years. Vito would crawl for a thousand and one.

The entire world was unraveling around him? Peeling away from his vision like a torn painting?

So. What.

He crawled. And kept crawling. Ignoring all the rest. Everything else.

And finally, he reached his reaper. With his lone hand, he grabbed the lump of soul power that was Kerikos and pulled him close.

And he breathed. He didn’t know what to do now, but that was fine. For the moment, that was fine. He could figure that out later.

Ground shaking.

Whatever.

Kerikos was alive. But just barely. Completely unconscious. Unable to reinitiate the hyperstate. Problem? Mm. Maybe for the best. Might not have been able to maintain it for much longer, anyway.

Tired.

Absurdly so.

Not sure he’d ever felt so tired before. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t recall. Wanted to slip off. To sleep. To rest. Deserved it, didn’t he? Such a long day. Time to let go.

...Except.

Bother. There was a bother. Still. Somehow. Somewhere.

Back of his mind. Couldn’t grasp it. But it was there. Scratching at him. Yelling at him. Familiar faces with familiar voices. So familiar. And yet, he felt certain that he’d never seen them before. How could that be?

They were reaching out to him. And he heard what they were saying. Just a bit. Just enough.

“Not yet.”

His palm found the hard earth. And after a moment, his other palm found it, too. Regrown. Still regenerating. Slow but steady.

His bare skin felt the grass again. And the cool air.

No. Not cool, actually. Extremely warm. An intense heat. Had he set himself on fire again? That didn’t seem right.