Auric Gods

Chapter Twenty-Seven City of Vorganthian, Kobor, within Terra’s light

The bullet seemed to twist in slow motion. It passed through the nexus of psychic energy that was killing Varogalant and scraped against the finest edge of the Cage in a brief cascade of sparks before it struck the man within in the heart and ended it.

There was no explosion, no flash of energy. It simply stopped, like a turbine starved of power, grinding meekly to a halt.

With a final swipe of Puritas, Adio beheaded the last of the daemonhosts. The wretched creature dwindled to slurry, devouring its stolen body until nothing remained but smoke and charred bone. Breathing hard, he turned. His castellan axe clanged loudly against the ground as he saw what had become of Varogalant.

A skeletal husk poking through broken auramite was all that was left.

The Vexen Cage endured but it no longer turned, its metal spheres dormant once more. The figure inside it held his form for a few seconds before collapsing into ash, only to be scattered away on the air.

Cartovandis stood with difficulty. Gedd looked back at him, exhausted. She unclasped the null-collar, clearly relieved to be free of it. She looked weak, her body and mind at the very limit, but determined not to falter in front of the Custodians.

‘Is it over now?’ she asked him.

He exhaled a long, drawn-out breath and felt the impermanence of his flesh as never before.

‘By the Emperor’s grace, it’s over.’

But nothing would ever be the same again.