Chapter 65
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Sweat and dirt and blood painted Theo’s brow.
The sea of undead syren hounds was never-ending as they continued to hurtle over that distant peak.
Bodily fluids were washed away in the savage rain just to be replaced with more carnage as he slaughtered another scaled body.
Every lightning strike that erupted from the sky exposed a sea of blue sheen blanketing the mountain.
They were outnumbered by thousands. Theo kept searching for an opportunity to go after Dolion—each and every time he got close, the hounds would overwhelm Callum, bringing him back into the fray.
Callum was leaping frantically through space, disappearing as he jumped to reappear above another snarling opponent, driving his long sword through their skulls, slicing into their rough hides, severing as many heads as he could.
Over and over he shifted, too nimble for any of them to touch.
The second their jaws tried to connect with flesh, he was gone.
By the time one would notice him and attempt to strike out with its claws, he would be atop its back with a feral growl of his own, slicing deep and deadly.
His captain came from the sky, guiding his hands toward the remaining torchlights and aiming the fire at the carcasses, burning their decapitated bodies.
Theo knew they couldn’t outlast the onslaught of demon dogs much longer. A few were already nearly slipping past their defenses. They needed a barrier—a wall—to protect the hypnotized soldiers behind them.
He called to his power as he reached for the tree line in the distance.
A guttural roar resonated from his throat as he strained to bring down the gargantuan trees.
Boom after deafening boom, colossal redwoods fell to the forest floor, submitting to his will.
The thick trunks slid as if being dragged, stacking into place.
Soon a wall of branches and bark encircled the Divine, safely harboring them in the canyon.
Theo called upon every torchlight within reach, manipulating their embers, and set that entire wall ablaze. Even the heavy storm couldn’t put out the thrashing flames.
Theo’s wings carried him through the skies as he turned his focus and raw energy on groups of hounds.
Dozens at a time stopped dead in their tracks, hacking and gasping for air.
With a single look and a clench of his fist, Theo narrowed their throats until no air could pass, crushed their spines until they broke apart.
He squeezed so hard their heads separated, shredding bone and tissue like it was paper.
On a phantom wind, he willed the corpses into the burning trees.
Howls fell silent as his dark magic brought them down. He swooped closer to the ground. The feral beasts tried to leap and catch him by his wings as he passed, their snapping jaws competing with the sound of thunderclaps above.
“your left!” Callum shouted from below while driving his blade through a beast’s eye, then moving for its throat.
Theo didn’t even look, just slashed his sword in the direction Callum had indicated.
Many met the end of Theo’s blade, detaching those menacing wolf heads from their long torsos.
Blood sprayed and intestines rained down.
The bodies piled up outside the barrier.
The dark blood and rain collected below, creating a slurry of muck on the battlefield.
Callum and Theo maintained the defenses for hours, delivering killing blow after killing blow, two versus an entire army. They worked in tandem, protecting their own.
But no matter how many they cut down, more emerged from that mountaintop. Those they thought to be dead that they had not burned were healing and coming back anew to rejoin the fight, like they had never been slain.
They were losing. If the army of hounds didn’t relent soon, they would be drained. Dolion had to know that, it had to be his plan, sending in hound after hound until their power source was empty.
The beasts began trickling past them, starting their ascent into the fallen flaming trees. They climbed upward one at a time through the embers, not a scar or burn to be seen upon their scales.
“callum! the wall!” Theo shouted as he passed, severing the heads of a dozen more hounds. The bodies dropped like sandbags.
Callum’s dark eyes were already on the enemy. Chest heaving from the fight, he disappeared, and in a billow of smoke he manifested on the other side of the stacks.
Aaron was within these trees. His brother—his life.
With violence painted on his face, he roared as he leaped from hound to hound, continuing his unrelenting butchering, tossing them into the awaiting fire.
His face was scratched and bloodied, but he refused to stop.
“that’s enough,” a grotesque voice called from inside the barrier.
Lightning struck, and the light illuminated Benon, fully encased in armor that matched the hounds’ gleaming scales. He held a knife to a helpless Aaron’s throat. The captain and his lieutenant had been so focused on the battle, they did not see the undead male sneaking in.
“Dolion told me this was your brother, teleporter. Where’s mine?” Benon asked.
Callum let his fierce eyes say it all.
Benon’s hold tightened. “Eye for an eye then. Let the hounds through, and I’ll make it a quick death. You won’t get the same bargain from the hounds.”
Callum made a move like he might leap through space and rip out Benon’s spine with his bare hands. Then he saw the well-placed helmet, the gorget. Every inch of Benon’s body was covered. Aaron would be dead before Callum could inflict lethal damage.
“Let him go,” Callum gritted out between clenched teeth.
“Or what?” Benon taunted with smug satisfaction.
Callum heard Theo still fighting in the winds behind him. The sound of his sword connecting with scaled flesh. His shouts of pure rage.
Theo couldn’t hold them alone. No matter who or what he was, no being could keep an undead horde at bay by themselves. Without Callum, the hounds would breach the barrier soon.
Aaron’s glazed eyes remained toward the sky, helpless as blood began to trickle from the blade at his throat.
Callum didn’t move. He swallowed as he glanced around, searching for any option—anything he could do.
If he kept fighting, his brother would fall.
If he tried to save Aaron, they’d all be dead.
The hounds were already rising above the burning trees, ready to descend toward his soldiers, his friends—his family.
Callum hung his head, the shameful defeat clear in his face.
He brought his head back up for one last look at his brother, the words I’m sorry on his mind. When he saw what was approaching, the words never left his lips.