The demonic brutes halted and slowly turned to look at each other.
Keras wasn’t surprised when they launched into a fierce battle against each other rather than moving to defend Nemesis.
Pleasure flitted across Apate’s face as she pulled her spear free and watched them fight. The goddess of deceit always had loved turning allies against each other.
Thanatos spun with Keras, swinging his broadsword at the same time, and Keras released his shadows, smiled as they tore through a female and took her down. He worked with the god of death, keeping his back to the male as they slowly moved towards Nemesis and the others.
When an opening appeared in the fray, he quickly scanned the battlefield, locating his brothers. Marek and Caterina fought back to back like him and Thanatos, and both had sustained injuries. Valen fought near them, blood dripping down the side of his face from a jagged cut across his forehead.
Esher and Cal were working together, battling a valkyrie that was blocking their path to Marinda.
Marinda had managed to get free and was fighting Meadow now, her violet eyes shining brightly as she viciously grappled with the other furie.
Cass and Daimon were ripping through the other remaining valkyrie and a daemon, striking both with spells and ice, barraging them and driving them towards Valen and Marek.
Keras twisted with Thanatos again and ducked as an arrow whizzed past his head and almost struck the god of death. Thanatos was quick to shift to his left though, the arrow flying harmlessly past him to clatter across the black ground.
“Sorry!” a soft female voice called.
Keras shook his head as his gaze landed on the youthful goddess, desperately trying to tell her to keep her distance.
Oizys bounced up to him regardless, all light with her bright blue eyes and shining halo of pale gold hair that had been styled around half a polished silver and blue Corinthian helmet that sat at an angle on top of her head.
The moment she neared him, a heaviness rolled through him, all thoughts about the fact they were clearly going to win this battle turning to doubts.
“Gods, sister, move away,” Thanatos grumbled and levelled a black look on her, blue fire flickering in his silver eyes as he grabbed a male by his head and closed his fist, crushing his skull. “My thoughts are dark enough as it is.”
The goddess of misery pouted.
“Come, sister.” Moros, a towering male with black hair that bled to crimson at the tips and eerie violet eyes, took hold of her arm with one hand and flexed the fingers of his other one around the hilt of his sword.
Rumours had always surrounded the two, tales that only the god of impending doom could withstand her presence without succumbing to depression.
She flicked another longing look at her older brother, Thanatos, before sighing and allowing herself to be led away by Moros.
The highly polished silver shield on her back acted like a mirror, and Keras tried to convince himself not to look into it, because it always showed a darker version of the world, including whoever was reflected in it.
He caught a glimpse of himself as he averted his gaze.
Crimson eyes stared back at him, but other than that, he appeared the same.
He wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
Oizys calmly nocked an arrow and loosed it. It nailed a Hellspawn over one hundred metres away in his head. Moros said something to her and she smiled brightly at him.
Keras left them to it. He mustered his strength as Enyo launched herself at Nemesis, and the goddess readied her whip, brought it back and struck hard. It caught Enyo’s side and her jade eyes glittered with pain as she pushed forwards, raising her sword.
He stepped and appeared before Nemesis, grabbed her and spun her to face him as his shadows shot outwards from under his boots. They were swift to seize hold of the goddess.
“Traitor,” he snarled, all the times she had punished him or one of his brothers flooding his mind, stoking the rage that flowed through him. “You will answer to my father for what you have done.”
To his left, the gate shone in a wave of colour and the power of it hummed in his veins. Nemesis looked at it, a rainbow reflecting in her crimson eyes as she gazed at the rings of the gate.
It was opening.
She brought her arm up and looped her whip around his neck, gripped the other end of it and dragged him forwards. Her forehead cracked against his, pain spiderwebbing over his skull as his ears rang again.
“This is not over,” she hissed in his face and kneed him in the stomach. “We will be the victors.”
Keras growled and commanded his shadows, savoured her shriek as they twisted tightly around her legs and a thousand thorns erupted from them to pierce her flesh. The scent of blood filled the air, goading the darkness as it rose within him again. He snarled as he seized hold of her throat with his right hand and shoved her backwards, wrestling with himself to resist the urge to strike her down as punishment for what she had done.
His father would want her alive, so he could make an example of her.
As much as he wanted to kill her, he had to take her to his father.
He kept telling himself that as he squeezed her throat, as he stared into her wild scarlet eyes as panic filled them.
Cold darkness coiled inside him, seeped into his veins and whispered words of seduction in his ear.
Words that had him tightening his grip.
Relishing the fear that built in her eyes as she struggled for air.
He wanted her dead.
She had to die.
On a vicious roar, he unleashed his shadows.
They burrowed into Nemesis, appearing as jagged black lines beneath her flesh that rapidly spread as she tossed her head back and screamed. When the tips of the tendrils of shadows reached her chest, that scream died on her lips.
And she died with it.
Keras stared at her, pleasure rolling through him, satisfaction beating in every inch of him as he realised she was gone. She had paid for her crime against his family, for her betrayal and her plot against his realm.
Justice had been served.
He dropped her and she crumpled on the ground, the shadows bleeding out of her pores to pool on the black earth beneath her.
“Keras,” Enyo whispered.
His head jerked up, his eyes darting to her where she stood just beyond Nemesis.
With her hand pressed to her side.
The urge to go to her was too strong to resist, the need to know she would be all right consuming and controlling him. He stepped over Nemesis’s body and placed his gauntleted hand over hers.
Her jade eyes remained fixed on his chest.
On Nemesis where she lay behind him.
Dead.
He knew what she wanted to say, knew that he should have spared Nemesis so his father could deal with her, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.
A commotion beyond Enyo caught his eye and he glared at Meadow as the blonde female made a break for it.
Heading for the gate.
He couldn’t let her reach the other side.
He stepped around Enyo and rushed forwards, moving to intercept the furie, an easy task given that she was still over one hundred feet from the gate.
His eyes widened as he noticed that she wasn’t heading for the gate. She was heading for a portal between her and it. The violet-black oval blended with the terrain, visible only because of the sparks of green and purple lightning that chased over its surface.
Cal sprinted after her, hot on her heels.
His youngest brother’s blond hair streamed behind him as he leaped over fallen Hellspawn, hitting the black dirt on the other side without losing his balance. Cal hurled his right hand forwards and wind blasted the bodies in his path, scattering them and leaving a clear run at Meadow.