Path of Stars, Ch 36: Bloodsigil Commander (Patreon)

“An Astral Titan? Here?” Elasia’s eyes widened as she turned to Sam and really saw him for the first time. She’d been busy fighting the commander and then talking to Alora. “I haven't seen a Titan since I was a child. I thought they'd all long disappeared. Still, you have to be careful. His abilities corrode everything they touch!”

“He won’t be leaving here,” Sam said as a golden spear appeared in his hand. He pointed it at the demon as a spiral of astral energy gathered around the point. At the same time, runes flowed around him as he shaped a spell that called to the stars above, pulling threads of astral essence into his body faster than usual.

It was a type of spatial bending that he'd just figured out, partly due to this commander's trap. If he wanted to last in this fight, he needed all the endurance he could get. The spell shimmered across his shoulders like a cloak of starlight settling on him. As soon as it was in place, his regeneration increased by about ten percent.

Given where he got the idea, Starlight Vortex would be a good name.

He was slowly coming to realize some of the laws of the Void and the stars through his battles on the Path. Nearly dying in the commander's trap had helped to accelerate it. Now, ideas flickered through his mind as he tried to find a way to kill the commander as quickly as possible. Both of them were already tired from their first exchange.

“You...Titan!” the commander’s words were a dark curse this time as he bared his fangs. They were short but sharp, with four of them each on top and bottom. “You escaped from my Bloodrune Vortex. I spent centuries designing that trap. How did you break the central node?”

“In your case,” Sam replied, “effort does not make up for a lack of talent.” He kept his tone calm as essence surged through his body, pouring out as a ripple of silver light across the grove.

“All of your kind should have died in the war,” the Outsider growled. “Even before I was locked away, I heard of the effort to eliminate you! How did any of you survive the ambush that the lords were planning?”

“You come into my home and ask how we have the ability to survive here?” Sam countered the commander’s question as he shook his head. “You overestimate yourself."

He wasn’t sure what the Outsider was talking about, but he had the feeling it was intimately connected to Aster Fall, the spark of astral chaos he’d inherited, and probably the Vos’Rekan that had damaged the World Core. The Outsiders had lured the thing there. It sounded like they’d had a plan to kill the Astral Titans in the middle of it.

Besides that, the end of the First War was a mystery to him, except that Asenya created the World Seal to separate the two sides. The Will of the Path had never given him the exact details on how it ended either. If the commander wanted to volunteer some information, he would take it.

Unfortunately, that was all the Outsider said before his rage exploded. He’d been using the shadow tendrils and some broad spells to fight against Elasia to slowly wear her out, but now he was serious. The dark blade in his hand glowed as jagged runes along it came to life, and he lashed out at Sam across the meadow.

A dozen arcs of red-black energy coalesced from the blade and tore across the field. Each of them was diamond-tipped and jagged, similar to other Outsider runes. A flicker of familiarity ran through Sam’s mind as he saw them. The commander had built that trap and the runes here matched some of the ones in it.

The pressure from the attack was stronger than any of the Firesail Void Lizards and almost as strong as the energy in the trap. The spell was exerting a spatial pressure along with its other force, which was part of what made the Fourth Evolution different from the Third. Teleporting away from it would be difficult, but he had no intention of that. This close to the Outsider, his own abilities were also at their strongest.

The astral spear in his hand flared with a brilliant point of silver flame as he hurled it toward the commander. As soon as it left his hand, it grew a dozen times larger as it headed across the meadow. It tore across the distance and crashed into the oncoming attack with an earth shattering explosion. The arcs of energy collapsed, crumbling one by one as the spear tore through them, but it only made it halfway before it exploded into a storm of golden motes.

Sam ignored the dissolution of the spear as he charged after it, his body covered in silver light and icy runes. The jagged spell from the commander sliced toward him, the bladed points gleaming with a ferocious light. Another spear formed in his hand and he drew a blinding arc ahead of him to intercept the attacks. Shatter Aura flared outward as he broke through.

An instant later, he was within spear range of the commander and he stabbed forward. An edge of green moonlight sprang up across his spear, infusing the point with brilliant luminescence like it was born from Silvas itself.

After the trap, he’d taken the measure of the commander and he knew the depths of his magic. He also knew what worked against him. The commander was about twice as strong as he was, but he had his own advantages. If he couldn’t crush him directly, then he would target his weak points. The Light of Silvas was one of them.

The commander’s shield was a shadow of vicious red-black energy all around him, but as soon as the green moonlight struck, it crackled like paper in a fire. A massive rift tore through the center of the shield. Sam felt his essence draining away, but he ignored it as he lunged forward, stabbing directly toward the commander’s heart.

His spear point was a glowing forest green as it stabbed into the runesword’s chest and hurled him backward. The Outsider flew for two dozen feet like a broken doll, his body folded around the impact, until he slammed into the hill beside the open gate with a thunderous crack. His chest was smoking as wisps of black runes and healthy green flames warred across the surface.

A howl of agony rose up from him as he threw himself back to his feet. His head was tilted back and his fangs were fully barred. The clothing on his chest was a complete ruin with only shreds remaining around a giant hole, but beneath that there was a layer of dark scaled armor. A deep gouge marked the surface. The edges of it were burning with faint green flames that refused to die out, but his runic blade was still in his hand.

“Titan!” he snarled. His voice was barely understandable, broken on the edge between speech and a furious growl. “It seems I did underestimate you. I won’t make the same mistake again.”

He raised his sword in his right hand as his left clawed at the air. Where his hand passed, trails of spidery runes and shadowy tendrils flew out, quickly forming together into a spell. The pressure from this one far surpassed what he’d cast before. Within moments, the spell was complete and a swirling tornado of runes swept outward around the commander, obscuring his form behind a swiftly growing vortex of spatial energy.

It was strangely similar to the trap he’d made. The pillars of spatial energy there were a lot like this one. The result, however, was different. The commander’s body faded away, disappearing into the spatial flux as the twisting vortex was left behind. The spell drew in wind and energy, devouring it as a spiral of shadows extended outward. A dark sphere formed at the center, and a moment later a massive and ugly form was standing there.

It had four horns stretching back from a fanged snout, a broad forehead with heavy scales, and two deep red eyes that gleamed like rubies. Its body was nearly a hundred feet tall and it was vaguely humanoid, but its neck merged into thick shoulders in a curved mass of muscle that narrowed to a wasp-like waist above two muscular legs. The commander had transformed into some sort of demonic snake hybrid.

The creature held the runic sword in one hand, but it had become much larger than before. It had a dark whip made of shadows in the other and runes floated like glimmering dark beetles through the substance that made it up. The same spatial pressure as before radiated from the thing, covering the area around it with crushing force. Its scales and chest, and in fact nearly every visible area, were engraved with dark and jagged runes that radiated oppression.

Shadows seeped outward from it, filling the meadow with darkness and the scent of coppery blood, along with a sense of aching hunger. As soon as the fog touched the living plants, they began to wilt. Their colors faded as they drooped and then disintegrated, their energy drawn away.

Of all the beasts that Sam had seen so far, this one looked the most like a demon. His gaze traveled around the area, studying all of the effects, and then his eyes hardened as he stepped forward. The sense of oppression around the demon was heavier, weighing down on his shoulders, and it sent a bolt of unaccustomed nervousness across his skin. He shook it away with a toss of his head.

“That will not help you to escape,” he said fiercely. His shoulders grew broader as his own height began to increase. In an instant, he was a hundred feet tall, a little taller than the demon, and his golden spear gleamed in his hand.

Every time he absorbed essence, he grew a bit more, and now he was almost exactly a hundred feet tall, with the last ten feet of it his horns. They arched above his head like two bows framing the stars in the sky. Currents of silver flame spiraled around him, scorching away all of the demon’s shadows that came close, but it was a sharp drain on his essence.

“Astral Titan...” the whisper came from below as Elasia looked up at the two giant figures in her meadow. It sounded like she was reciting an old saying. “And so they guard the stars, their shoulders like the sky. Cross them at your peril, for those who do will die.”

The dryad turned to everyone else nearby and her arms rose as an ocean of green mist gathered around them, picking them and carrying them backward, away from the battle that was taking place. Behind her, the gold and silver patterns on the Wild Tree grew brighter, shining with their own protective light.

Sam’s essence gathered around him as the silver flames around him began to turn moonlight green. The aura of Silvas rose up, curling around his arms and flowing into his spear. At the same time, runes flickered in his aura, ones related to the moons of his home world, the stars, and the power of the Void. This demon wasn’t the only one who understood the inscriptions of the Void.

The Outsider raised its enruned blade and charged forward. Its speed was so fast that it turned into a wedge of darkness, like a ship crashing through the night with a sharpened prow as it split the air. The whip in its opposite hand curled around and struck out like a venomous serpent.

Sam stepped to the side, his spear rising as he sent an arcing slice across the area. He knew better than to engage in a direct attack with the thing. His spear left a trail of moonlight as he spun away. In his other hand, a silver-green Nexus spell flew out, heading for the center of the demon’s chest, where it exploded instantly, consuming the front of the demon’s body in a brilliant silver-green sphere that tore away at its scales and the shadows around it.

It was a small version of the spell, since he had to be careful about the surroundings, but as it began to disappear, he sent a wave of moonlight arrows behind it, each of them an emerald flare that sank into the beast’s chest.

He could already tell that the demon was stronger than him, but he was banking on the commander being exhausted. He had to hope that if he kept the pressure on, its essence would run out. That meant the best thing to do was to shatter the commander’s spells and keep him fighting, forcing him to burn through his energy as quickly as possible. It was a gamble, but it was the best option he had.

At that moment, a wave of attacks from the nagas and the golems flew toward the commander, followed by attacks from Alora and Laimar. The spells and bolts arced across the meadow to slam into the waves of dark energy radiating around the Outsider. His defense held, but his scales rippled from the impacts, bending as they released torrents of shadowy energy before they returned to their original place where they gleamed with darkness.

Sam sent a mental order to his golems to keep up the barrage. They might not be able to break through, but they could definitely help to drain its energy. On the edge of the meadow, Silverbeak launched himself forward, gliding through the air before he dove down like a bolt of silvery blue lightning to release a torrent of wing blades at the demon.

The Outsider roared in response, reaching up with a hand that moved like a striking serpent to grab at the golem. Silverbeak twisted through the air, darting to the side, and barely managed to escape as it tucked its wings sharply. It dived toward the ground and away before its wings snapped open and carried it back up again.

Immediately after, the other eagle golems dived toward the beast, harassing it from above, and more spells flew in from his allies outside. The nagas were sending various elemental attacks, poison spears, acid blasts, and more at the Outsider, trying to break through its defense and help him.

As they worked to distract the thing, Sam continued to shatter the enchantments around him, including the demon’s shadow every time he encountered it. Silvas’s aura was bright in his spells, making his touch like acid to the beast. The result sent up roars of pain as Shatter Aura caused fragmented energy to cascade back toward it.

Each strike made it roar, but the angrier it got, the faster it became, until Sam could barely keep up. Its whip snapped out and curled around his spear, his ankles, and his shoulders, tearing at his body in burning streaks even as he knocked it away. If his battle aura hadn’t enhanced his agility, it would have overwhelmed him in moments, even with the support of his allies.

On the edge of his awareness, he saw Alora attack. The priestess was weaving spells of green bolts and trailing vines that swarmed across the meadow, but as soon as the vines reached the shadowy aura around the demon, they corroded away, turning into grey ash that disintegrated across the meadow. All the vitality had been sucked out of them in an instant.

Laimar’s attack was a hurled spear, a copy of the one he was holding. it separated from its original and shot across the meadow, stabbing toward the monster’s back. It left a small silver scratch on the Outsider’s scales, but as soon as it struck, the mana projection bounced off and shattered into motes that were torn apart by the dark aura.

After a few exchanges, the commander became tired of the smaller attacks raining on him from the outside and ignored Sam for a moment as he turned toward the group of attackers. His blade slashed through the air as a wave of dark diamond-edged runes coalesced and shot forward, heading for the nagas and the Wild Spirits. Each of them was aimed at their hearts and heads.

At that moment, however, Eliasa stepped forward, her hands rising as a verdant mist rose up from the land below and flowed over the attack. It didn’t instantly dissolve the dark blades, but as soon as they were entangled by it, they slowed down like they’d landed in mud. A moment later, green tendrils covered them. Within moments, their surfaces faded and cracked as if they’d been exposed to thousands of years in the ground, and then they shattered into fragments that dissipated into the air.

Eliasa’s body grew paler and she staggered, only catching herself at the last moment. She was already tired from her long battle, but she was still fighting. When she was steady again, she looked up with a calm but determined expression. This time, she stood in front of her descendants and the nagas as they continued to hurl spells at the commander.

In the center of the meadow, Sam could sense the runes that made up the creature as he fought, and he worked at a furious pace to identify them one by one, testing them against the ones he remembered from the vortex trap as he worked to understand the commander’s transformation and how to break it.

Their exchange continued in a cascade of shattered runes, swirling elements, and blazing starlight burning in all directions. Wherever Sam’s spear swept past, a trail of silver flames and blazing moonlight followed. To an onlooker, the fight probably looked majestic, but it was a battle of pure power to see who could kill the other first.

As he brought his spear around for another attack and prepared to shatter the commander’s defenses, he was an instant too slow. The demon’s rune blade swept around, sliding just below the spear he raised to block. The dark edge of the runes struck the layer of icy armor over his hip and sliced through it with a smoky hiss. Then the edge sank into his thigh, cutting deeply toward the bone.

At the same time, the demon’s whip lashed around his ankle, yanking him upward with a massive force that sent him spinning through the air until he crashed into the ground in the distance.

Instantly, the demon was above him, raising its blade to chop down again as it aimed for his neck. Dark runes flared like all-encompassing shadows, swallowing the light around the blade as it descended.

At that moment, Silverbeak swept down from the sky, its silver-edged claws closing tightly as they snatched at the blade. The golem’s wings flared to the sides as it drove the blade down and away. The force was enough to shove the blade off course, but the eagle’s body was open to the demon’s attack at the same time.

The Outsider’s free hand came around with sharp claws trailing blood-red darkness as it tore through Silverbeak’s wings and torso. The impact sent inscribed silver shards of the golem spiraling through the air, the fragments gleaming with icy blue light that flickered as it began to fade.

Only half of Silverbeak’s form was left gripping onto the edge of the blade. Then it toppled away, unable to hold on any longer. Its talons had already been sliced apart from the deadly edge.

Sam rolled across the ground as he pushed himself back to his feet. A burning pain was radiating from his hip where the sword had cut in and his leg was weak. It was difficult to stand, forcing him to use his spear as a brace to get up. All around the wound, a dark energy was trying to invade his body, but a wave of silver essence and moonlight seared it away, purging the effect.

His eyes were ablaze as he looked at the remains of his golem. Silverbeak was the first one ever made and named. A swipe of his hand collected the pieces and stored them away in his cloak for later. Silverbeak’s sacrifice had saved him from a much worse attack. When he rebuilt him, he promised the golem that he would make him even stronger than before.

The commander was growling, his arms raised as the shadows around him swept across the area, searching for things to devour. His essence had to be running low. Blossoms and herbs crumbled as the aura touched them and thin threads of energy flowed toward the monster. Unfortunately for him, he'd already killed all of his own people as sacrifices to power the trap and now he was alone. There was no easy source of blood for him to seize.

Sam took that instant to grab a few auras from his storage and combust them. Essence flowed into him as the starlight cloak on his shoulders intensified it, giving him enough strength to keep going, but the wound on his leg ached like a drum, pulsing with a dark echo in time with his heart. At the same time, he activated half a dozen scrolls that were floating in his aura. A new layer of runic armor flowed across his body and a torrent of icy bolts shot toward the commander, along with a wave of freezing cold that sealed the area around it into a block of ice.

At that moment, he followed the commander’s gaze as the creature’s red eyes locked onto the army of nagas and Wild Spirits, blazing with a fierce hunger. It stomped forward, its claws digging into the earth as it headed in that direction. Blood was a dangerous element and Sam knew exactly what would happen if it got there.

He couldn’t allow it to reach them.

His spear lashed out, crashing against the demon’s blade as he drove him back across the field and closer to the ancient gate, but he couldn’t put much weight on his leg and was nearly thrown off balance again. He wrapped astral energy around the wound, stabilizing the muscles as he spun away.

He was beginning to see some patterns in the runes that made up the commander’s body, including how spatial energy was woven throughout it as armor and to create its size. It was basically a construct made of spatial runes, blood energy, and shadows. As he studied it more closely, the patterns of the Outsider runes began to become more familiar, allowing him to trace their pathways through the spell.

While he was studying the pattern, a claw enhanced by blood red runes swept toward him, dragging trails of spatial energy in its wake. It tore across his shoulder before he could dodge, and its nails were as sharp as spatial edges. His ice armor shattered again and he felt the bones in his shoulder crack halfway through. He was picked up by the force of it and hurled across the field until he slammed into the ground in the distance.

A sensation of death and dissolution came with the attack, as if his body were fading away into the darkness. The commander’s elements were pulling on him, trying to devour his energy, and it took an enormous effort to shove them away. His starry vortex shattered around him, its structure failing.

Wisps of astral energy floated through the air around him, part of the regeneration spell he'd created, but they were scattered where the claw attack had broken through. Now, the shattered runes were floating like will-'o-the-wisps across the field, drawing his foggy gaze.

At the same time, the commander closed the distance between them and more attacks sliced down toward him. The dark edge of the rune blade fell toward him again as three more claw slashes overlapped on one another like rain.

Sam growled as he raised his hand and unleashed a wave of moonlight blades from his bracer. The green edges of crescent moons swirled through the air as they intercepted the attack and sliced onward, overwhelming it with a huge wave of stored energy. They sliced through the beast's defense and picked it up, hurling it across the meadow into the distance.

Behind it, Sam forced himself to his feet, even as he sent another wave of astral energy to wrap around the damaged areas. His wounds were accumulating. The demon was faster than he was, and the longer they fought, the more that would make a difference.

To the onlookers, except perhaps for Elasia, he was certain this battle was nothing more than a blur of silver and black that was filled with sparkling spells and the streak of claw attacks. Their auras were so dense that clearly sensing anything happening inside the shroud of auras would be impossible for someone under the Fourth Evolution. His allies were still trying to help, but their spells had tapered off since they couldn’t see. Now, they were taking shelter under shields and behind stones as they waited for an opportunity.

If he didn't keep the pressure up, they would be the next victims of the commander, their blood drawn away for his power. A wave of anxiety flowed through him at that, and he began to shape another spell. All around the meadow, spatial ripples from the commander were radiating outward in every direction, and he could see Elasia glowing brilliantly as she defended against it. If she let it out, it would tear apart the people behind her.

The Wild Tree seemed to be helping her. The gold and silver patterns on its bark were shining like a vast enchantment, swirling through runes and concepts that Sam felt keenly. They echoed with the Wild Leaf in his mind. Torrents of natural elements poured away from the tree and the roots in the meadow as spells unraveled around them, their energies turning calm and flowing into the earth and the wind.

At that moment, the commander's aura and the Starlight Vortex that he was trying to rebuild suddenly leapt into Sam's mind, the patterns overlaying themselves on the aura of the Wild Leaf as he watched the Wild Tree dissipate the energy. Motes of starlight and darkness were both flowing along its roots as it drew energy from the Void.

A spark of insight flooded through his awareness.

He could see how energy was pulled into the tree from the stars and the dozens of different elements, carefully balanced by the patterns on its bark. The entire process was too complex for him to copy in the battle, but if he focused on just starlight, there was one thing he could do.

Suddenly, the movement of starlight around his body began to shift, flowing in a different pattern as he gathered the vortex back to himself. Up until now, he'd been allowing the commander to slowly pull away his energy, corroding it at the edges, which was exhausting him over time. It was one of the main traits of the blood and darkness elements that the commander favored.

He'd had many encounters with blood-aligned enemies before, but not much with darkness. When he saw how the tree was dealing with the aura, it let him see how it worked. He dodged the commander’s next attack, spinning out of the way as he continued to study the pattern and adjust the Starlight Vortex around him.

His vortex turned brighter as the principles in it grew more profound and simpler at the same time. Shatter Aura infused it on the outside as Intensify Aura infused the center, creating a much stronger rotation. The vortex roared as its force tripled, becoming stronger in an instant and then continued to increase. At the same time, he infused Astral Fire into the vortex, using the purifying nature of it to dissipate the darkness and purify the blood.

All around him, a brilliant silver vortex began to spread outward, hanging just above his head. The edges were like silver blades that tore into the commander's aura. At the center, a burning sphere was constantly roiling, gathering essence and sending it downward. The essence regeneration from the starlight only increased slightly, but the vortex was entirely different than before.

All around him, the commander's dark aura that was filling the area was slowly torn apart, its energies dissipating into the starlight that purified it.

The commander's roar of anger followed immediately as he gathered himself for another attack and crashed back toward Sam, who forced his remaining energy to his command as he threw himself out of the way and continued altering his vortex. The commander had used a vortex to trap him, so there was nothing more appropriate than turning one back on him. The thought sent a grim smile across his face as he dodged again, trying to keep his distance as he finished his work.

The stars shone down in the Void, and darkness was their ally, not their enemy. They existed in it from the beginning of their lives, drawing essence from the darkness and breathing back fire. The version the commander was using was a darkness that consumed everything around it. What he had to do was force it back into its natural path.

Here in the meadow, with the Wild Tree's power drawing energy through everything, it was easier than it would have been anywhere else. The tree's vitality was a massive force already drawing elements back to their roots, and with its help, Sam's vortex began to do the same. The two of them worked together, like two suns pulling on the darkness, as they forced it to spin in accordance to their will.

Up to that point, the commander had held the edge in the battle, pressing Sam around the field and forcing him to dodge or endure, but now the battle began to change. The waves of shadowy aura corroding the meadow were drawn toward Sam, flowing around in a vast and slow spiral as the starlight covering him shone more brightly at the center. It resembled a solar system. His essence regeneration began to accelerate as the meadow became more comfortable for him. Bit by bit, it was becoming his domain.

A pained roar echoed out from the commander. His aura was slowly being pulled apart and threads of red-black essence were leaving his body in wisps and disappearing. On one side, Sam was breaking apart his aura and draining his energy, and on the other, the Wild Tree was pulling it toward its roots.

Sam raced forward as he pressed the advantage. He had to take advantage of the moment to seize an overwhelming victory. Otherwise, he wasn't sure what the commander would do next. With the vortex around him taking up most of his attention now, he abandoned complex tactics and simply attacked. He had to hold the spear in just one hand, since his other was barely functioning after that claw attack, but the spear point blazed with streams of mystic green light that washed across the area as he rained strikes down on the commander.

Each blow was an ethereal green bolt that struck down in a fury.

His leg and shoulder meant he was half hobbling across the field, but he didn’t hold back. Runes across the commander's body sprang up with dark light, creating twisting shields that deflected many of his blows, but he continued. With each attack, the defensive runes grew more noticeable until the commander's entire body was covered in a web of dark sigils. It was the first time he'd been able to see all of them. He kept the pressure on as he did his best to study them, looking for a way to end this.

With all of them in front of him now, he was able to make out some of the patterns. It looked like the runes all flowed to an origin point. As soon as he followed them to the source, a realization sprang into his mind, and instantly, he scanned the area with Astral Focus, paying careful attention to every shadow and ripple.

To distract the demon while he worked, he unleashed the remaining charges in his bracers, driving it back with a storm of astral spears and moonlight blades that crashed into it, shoving it toward the gate. The spells dug into its scales, tearing them away one by one as they drove deeper, and the assault made it howl in pain as it tried to cover itself with its arms. Even as the beast broke free from the storm of spells and charged at him again, its skin smoking, he only paid it half of his attention.

He’d found what he was looking for.

Suddenly, instead of attacking the demon, the charges he had left in his cloak flared to life as he poured out all 20,000 points of essence that he’d stored in it in one massive spell. The area around him froze to stillness as chilly blue-white stars sparkled across the meadow, coating everything in a layer of astral ice.

The world hung frozen in a crystalline silence, echoing to the pulse of his heart.

At the same instant, he spun to the side and stabbed down at a seemingly empty area that was to one side of the open gate. He poured all of his available essence into Shatter Aura, enhancing the ability past even what he’d used to cut open the Outsider fortresses. His spear blazed with light as a storm of green moonlight pierced down, stabbing into the area in a dozen brilliant points.

There was a crackling resistance as he felt a dense barrier shatter in front of him. Then a cry of agony roared outward from the location as the commander’s hidden form became visible. Wounds burning with green flame were apparent all across his body. The attack had left holes in his arms, chest, stomach, and legs. Only his head had managed to dodge them.

The massive demon behind Sam roared as similar wounds appeared all across its body, smoking as they were filled with moonlight. It was still frozen by the ice, but it let out a loud groan that mimicked the commander’s. The commander was still holding his chest where Sam had stabbed him the first time, and his face was pale. He was clearly on his last legs.

“I knew you had to be weakened from that trap. You were drawing it out for too long with the dryad,” Sam growled at him as he held his spear poised for another attack. He was nearly drained as well, but the spear in his hand was still glowing brightly with green moonlight. The battle had been extremely quick, but its conclusion was clear. “Instead you threatened and hid behind a construct, hoping I wouldn’t notice as you snuck away.”

The commander clearly planned to sneak away at some point while Sam was distracted by the battle, but he hadn’t managed it yet, perhaps because he’d needed to maintain control of the demonic construct.

“Damn all of your kind,” the commander snarled, his breath coming in gasps. “Why do you care so much about those weaker than you? They live to serve and die at your will. You’ve nearly exhausted yourself protecting them! You’re barely better off than I am!”

“That’s the difference between us,” Sam replied. “You see others as prey and a weakness, but for me, they are the stars that brighten the sky. The world would be desolate without them.”

With that, he raised his spear and brought it down in a blinding bolt of green lightning, stabbing through the commander’s chest. He felt the remaining armor and the commander’s sternum shatter beneath his attack, and an instant later the spear tore through to the other side, driving into the hill beside the gate.

“The lords...will kill...all of you,” the demon whispered, his voice rough as it grew fainter, but his body was strong enough that he didn’t die immediately. He was still struggling as he coughed, interrupting himself to swear at Sam again. “They will never...give up on...their goals.”

“What do they want?” Sam growled as he stared at the dying commander, willing him to answer the question. He’d originally believed that they were after the essence in the stars, but after a long time of thinking about it, the answer was too thin. There had to be another reason.

“Hah...” The commander laughed, black blood bubbling at his lips. “Ascension...is not...the end. Only...the beginning of...true chaos.” With that, the runes swirling all across his body curled in on themselves and dove inward, concentrating around his heart as energy built up.

Sam barely got his cloak in front of him in time to shield himself as the Outsider’s body exploded into a hail of deadly black fragments. The shards were dark and tipped with a shadowy venom, one last attempt from the commander to take his enemy with him.