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After another moment, he noticed people in the crater. They were gathered together at the bottom, looking around with apparent confusion.

Kerikos recognized their soul signatures as that of the Abolishers who’d just been in the area. They’d been spared from the blast--or whatever it was that had made the crater.

More disturbingly, Kerikos could not sense any of the castle guards who those Abolishers had just been fighting. Which could only mean one thing.

This crater was undoubtedly the work of Abolish. Perhaps their leader, even. So there was nothing to prevent another crater from appearing on top of Vito and Kerikos, right now.

They had to move. Barnabas and the other Abolishers were looking similarly befuddled, so Vito decided to take the opening to flee before they came back to their senses. This fight wasn’t important. Only the Prince’s safety was.

Kerikos had a bead on Prince David’s position. Vito bolted through the corridor, bounding over rubble and weaving between more fights going on along the way. He spared a blanket of flaming lutetium for another group of attackers as he passed, but that was it. The remaining castle guards would have to fend for themselves.

Another problem arose when he sensed some of the previous Abolishers in pursuit. The last thing he wanted to do was bring hostiles closer to the Prince, but another brief quake cut that concern short, and Vito saw another gaping hole in the castle on his left. Where entire rooms had been, now only open air remained.

The pursuers were the lesser worry now, he felt. He had to get Prince David away from these vaporizing blasts first. The pursuers could be dealt with later.

More running. Dodging. Weaving through mayhem. A tall window offered a shortcut, and he took it, crashing through to reach the outer edge of the castle grounds. He had eyes on Prince David now, scrambling through an enormous garden among a crowd of other non-combatants. They’d nearly reached the castle’s eastern exit. Would that be far enough away from the danger? Probably not, Vito felt.

Then his vision went white, and his mind blanked out. When he regained awareness, he was flat on his back in the grass.

What in the world was that? Had he gotten hit? Was he hit? Where was he hit? Where? He couldn’t feel--

The left half of his body was missing. No arm. No leg. He still had both eyes, though.