The Forsaken Hero

Borealis tucked in his wings and hurtled toward the valley like a shooting star. A seventh-level fireball rose to greet us, launched from a towering fire demon with horns as long as its lanky, ape-like body. Fate diverged around us, and the meteor struck a golden echo of Borealis instead of the real one.

I could sense Verity’s surprise, and knew what she wanted to ask, but I was too busy fighting to keep my heart from coming out of my throat to answer.

Borealis leveled out less than fifty feet from the ground, moving at supersonic speeds. Demons were tossed in our wake, literally exploding into fine mists of blood in the shock waves ripping behind us. He oriented back, his talons stretching toward the fire demon. And then I was airborne, held tightly in Verity’s arms. Fable rose beneath us as we reached the zenith of her leap, and we settled gently on his back. A fraction of a second later, the demons collided.

Borealis’s bulk carried him straight into a defensive wall of fire, but it barely slowed him. His talons punched through a half-dozen feet of sooty hide and plated armor. Molten blood sprayed across the small hillock, carried by the extraordinary shockwave released by the impact. The forests had withered in the presence of so much infernal mana, and they were now uprooted and flung into the roving packs.

The fire demon screeched in agony as Borealis’s momentum carried them both into the face of a mountain. The cliffs caved in, and literal mountains of rubble rained atop them. Borealis rose from the ashes, his wings beating furiously, raising the demon out of the debris. With a sickening tearing sound, he tore chunks of the demon’s torso out with his talons, flinging house-sized chunks of demon viscera away. He pecked at its face, plucking out a glowing red eye, slashing a wingtip with feathers as sharp as any sword across its throat.

The demon was bigger than Borealis pound for pound by a factor of two, but a subsonic impact from something of the fate demon’s size had stunned it past the point of recovery. It died in seconds, before it had even registered what was happening.

Borealis screeched in triumph, ripping the fire demon’s head from its body and crushing it in its talons. We touched down a moment later, finding a small hill amid the rivers of molten blood and raging fires. Only then did I finally find my voice and scream, clutching Verity.

"We already made it," Verity said. The grin in her voice made me flush red.

She vanished, reappearing on the ground with her sword in hand. I fell back against Fabe’s fur, scrambling into a proper mounted position just in time to see her move. She flitted among a pack of demons who had set their eyes on us, drawing a silver ribbon with the tip of her sword. It wove from demon to demon, effortlessly slicing through scale and armor. She was at my side before I had registered the cold left in her wake, her sword already returned to its sheath. Twenty demons collapsed behind her.

"Come, I can sense the Water Hero," she said, leading the way. Fable bounded after her, content to let her slaughter the demons in our path. It was amazing, watching how easily she took to her new form, using its insubstantial properties to teleport anywhere my stars fell, and strike from any angle.

Soon, the towering silhouette of the Curse Demon dominated the sky, swinging its swords about at the little fireflies that could only be Gayron. The waves of demons crashing against Verity’s light had subsided, now flowing toward a crater boring into the side of a mountain. In seconds, we had overtaken them, and I caught a whiff of Korra’s aura as we reached the rim. I cleared the air with a blast of my aura, revealing a bloodied, battered body lying in the shattered earth.

"Verity, Fable, keep them back," I said, sliding off Fable’s back and running to her. "Korra, can you hear me? Korra?"

Her eyelids fluttered at the sound of my voice, and she groaned softly. She was barely conscious, but there was so much blood. The demon’s sword must have broken her arm, because there was a deep cut running from her knee across her body to just beneath her ribs. Had it managed to leverage just a little more force, it might have cut her in two.

I let out a choked sob, biting back tears and gathering her crumpled body in my arms. The bleeding had already slowed, but she was too weak to regenerate from such a previous wound on her own.

"Y-you came back...? Why...?" She mumbled, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

She didn’t know? She hadn’t even realized Alex had ambushed me?

The realization was a bucket of cold water over my head. Korra had been fighting since the moment Luke and Rash’alon had begun this war. Over a full day of blood and death. I didn’t care how much of a battle maniac she was. Why hadn’t they retreated!

"Shh, don’t try and talk," I said, mustering a swell of life mana. "Restoration."

The fifth-circle spell wasn’t sufficient for her wounds, but it staunched the flow of blood and brought back a spark to her eyes.

"Damn, was this close to..." More coughs, more blood. "Barely nicked me."

"Barely?" My lips twitched. "Korra..."

"I know, I know...but you should have seen us! We killed so many...thousands..."

"You did great," I murmured, gathering more mana. This time, reassured that she was alive, I took the time to craft a seventh-level healing spell.

Korra’s breathing eased as it took effect, and she began to wiggle.

"H-Hey! Stay still!" I protested, struggling to hold her. The effort was more sentimental, given that even in her weakened state, she probably wouldn’t even notice my strength no matter how hard I held her. At least she calmed down, content to let the magic work.

"Where’s Gayron?" she asked, clearing her lungs with a slightly less violent cough.

"Still fighting. I’m sure he would have come for you if he could."

Hearing that would have made me nod and feel warm inside. That was why I said it, hoping to comfort her. But Korra managed a scoff. "He better not have. That bastard’s tough, and he needs all the help he can get. Even if it’s just more of him doing the helping."

Relieved to see her with enough strength to bicker, I wove her into my spells, finally initiating a True Nexus. She gasped as Celestial Grace flowed through her body, jerking upright. She was on her feet in a second, and then hovering a few inches off the ground.

"Gods, I missed hits," she said, staring at her hands. Slender ribbons of water twisted about her forearms, flecked with little threads of gold and green. "You always keep the best stuff for last."

"Wait, you’re no--"

"Am too. Gayron needs me. He can’t do anything on his own.

I resisted the urge to point out she was the one who had, until seconds ago, been lying in a pool of her own blood. "Just...be careful, okay?"

"Hah, in a place like this?"

I pursed my lips, sensing a hint of weariness behind her bravado. Celestial Grace was powerful, but she wasn’t merely tired after a sprint. More than a full day of constantly exerting her every muscle and fiber of her soul had taken its toll. There were some things even magic couldn’t fully wash away.

But that was Korra. Even though the corners of her mouth tightened slightly, and she was still favoring her side, she flew away again, leaving me with a wisp of water vapor that quickly evaporated in the heat of battle.

"She’s gone? Already?" Verity asked, materializing beside me.

I jumped slightly, my tail flicking. "D-Don’t do that..."

"Right. Sorry. What now? Should we help them slay that demon?"

Earnest and apologetic. Why couldn’t the other heroes be more like Verity?

"No," I said, shaking my head. "We have to find Fyren. I have a bad feeling about that demon he was fighting. A demon lord of Death, I think. But...I’ve never heard of that attribute."

"There was an undead hero. Connor, remember?" she said as I mounted Fable again.

"Yes, but he’s been gone too long. Haven hadn’t seen him, but...what kind of demon could fight Fyren like that?"

She was quiet for a moment, trailing behind as we bounded away. Fable moved without guidance from my Primordial Mark, familiar enough with Fyren’s aura to trace it through a battlefield of millions.

"You have a lot of faith in this demon. The church knew nothing about him. I get the sense you don’t either?"

I bit my lip, closing my eyes against the sudden flare of a seventh-level fire technique. It lit the sky as if it weren’t already midday.

"No, but...I trust him. Fyren means more to me than any other demon. Even Borealis. He was there when I needed him, when Soltair held my heart in his hands, and slowly began to squeeze. If he needs help now, if he’s in trouble, I’ll be there for him too. No matter what it takes."

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