Grubbs POV
The walls of the tunnel are vibrating again. It's still widening. In a few minutes, more demons will be free to cross. I hear their excited cries echoing from the universe at the far end. I recall the army we faced when we went in search of Beranabus's soul and flash on a picture of thousands of demons pouring into this cave, obscuring us all, forcing Timas to press his button on the cliff above. Whether nuclear bombs or the crossing demons destroy the planet, it's definitely doomed. Unless…
I pick up Bec and stagger into the pulsing mouth of the tunnel. She stirs in my arms, then squeals and strikes me with blasts of fire. The flames rip up my arms and lick my face, burning my hairs to the roots, then eating deeply into my flesh.
I ignore the pain and focus on Bec. I feel Kernel draw up next to me, then his magic links with mine and we pour it into the struggling girl. I want her to explode in geysers of flesh, bone, blood, and magic. For a moment, as her flesh ripples, I think we're going to succeed. But then she smiles and stops struggling. Our magic flows into her, but instead of bursting through her, it circles within the girl, then returns to us, stronger than before, but having caused no harm.
I try again, but although I pump more power into her than I did the first time, it doesn't hurt Bec, just comes back at me with interest. Lord Loss settles beside me and lays a couple of arms across my shoulders. I glare at him, but he doesn't strike, merely smiles wickedly.
"What's happening?" Kernel yells as more and more energy builds between and around us.
"Time to unleash the full power of the Kah-Gash," Bec gurgles, her teeth red with blood from the pounding she took.
"She's using us," Kernel screams, trying to pull away but held in place by the magic that continues to build. "Kill her, Grubbs, kill her!"
I try, but I can't focus. At least not on Bec. I sense the power fanning out, the Kah-Gash taking over as it did in Carcery Vale when it sent us back into the past and gave us the opportunity to defeat the Demonata. But things are different now. Bec's working for the enemy. There's no telling what will happen this time.
I have to stop this. The Kah-Gash is the ultimate weapon. Our world will fall, no matter what, but if Bec gets her hands on the Kah-Gash, she can annihilate the rest of the universe too. If the best we can do is deny them that victory, we'll have to settle for that.
I start to cut off the power flooding through me, to thwart Bec's plan. But just as I'm about to take my finger off the trigger, Bec catches my eye and… winks.
The wink unnerves me. It didn't look like a mad, victorious, mocking gesture. Bec looked like her old self for a split second. It was a playful wink, the sort you tip to a friend when you have a secret, mischievous plan. The type that says, "Trust me and play along. This'll be fun!"
It's crazy. I should stop this, as I intended. Too much is at stake to gamble recklessly. But the promise in that quick wink… the spark of humanity I thought I saw lurking behind the shadowy veils of Death…
With a desperate, confused, horrified howl, I make what's probably the worst decision of my entire life, or anyone else's. Instead of freeing myself from the clutches of Bec and Lord Loss, I draw even more power from the air, giving the Kah-Gash all the kick it needs to flare into life and wreak universal havoc.
With a sudden, sickening lurch, a ball of raw, all-consuming energy bursts from every pore of my body. Similar balls explode from Kernel and Bec. The three parts of the Kah-Gash join, sizzle in the air, then strike hard at the heart of the tunnel to hell.
Everything hits the fan.
WITH A BANG
WE needed words when we previously unleashed the full power of the Kah-Gash, spells to direct it. Not this time. We've moved beyond that. Grown, matured, fused completely with the weapon. There's no pulsing sky, clouds bursting into flames, melting rocks. Instead we skip straight to the exploding-into-colors stage.
My body shreds and I know instinctively that I'll never have a use for it again. Grubbs Grady is dead and gone. So are Kernel Fleck and Bec. We're the Kah-Gash now, a bodiless force, purer than light, free of all constraints. We didn't go this far the first time. We didn't understand what was happening. We tried to fight the loss of control, the madness. Now we just swing with it, leaving our humanity behind, bursting forward at a speed I can't begin to describe.
We smash through the tunnel, the world shattering behind us, Perseus and Beranabus die instantly, Timas on top of the cliff a moment later, everyone on Earth a second after that. The planet rips apart as Juni predicted, and I'm to blame. But I don't care. I'm caught up in the moment, crazy with power, oblivious to everything except the rush of the now, the here, the us.
We're in a subuniverse of billions of flashing patches of light. We careened from one to another when we entered this realm before, but now the transition is fluid. Patches join and form windows. We shoot through without pause, picking up speed, the windows becoming a blur, sucking the remains of the world after us… other planets… stars… the universe… all matter… even time itself. And not just the human universe—we take from the Demonata's realm too. Everything is sucked along in our wake. BOOOOOM game over
Time has been eradicated. Humanity and their kind are no more and never were. The original order has been restored. Death can function as an unconscious force, the way it was meant to. Demons will live forever, breed, and kill without limits. The Old Creatures will drift along meaninglessly in their otherwise lifeless zones, or be tracked down and slaughtered by demons. The Shadow and the Demonata have won.
The end.
