Hope you like the chapter! I hate to delay them like this but there's just a lot of decisions to be made and I don't want to let the quality slip for the sake of rushing it. I'm very pleased with how this turned out now!
Hump turned slowly, his gaze drifting back to the thrones that ringed the chamber, then to the viewing balconies beyond and many windows. Every one of them a place for Karlac to hide or to get in. To wait for when the opportunity struck.
They had beaten him. He wouldn’t go for an obvious contest of power again, no matter how arrogant he was. Which meant they needed to be ready for something far more devious.
“The bastard,” Bud snarled. “Are we really going to let Loften just leave?”
“We can’t stop him,” Emilia said.
“I’m not,” Celaine said, already moving toward the door. “I’m following him, at least we’ll know where he went.”
“Hold on a second, Celaine,” Hump said. “We already have one foe to deal with. Let’s not make another. We need to work quickly if we’re to stop him.”
“What are you thinking?” Dylan asked.
Hump gestured to the bodies upon the thrones around the room. “Every one of these Divine Sparks represents power. If I were a devil, I would want one for myself. Godfrey, Baeklor—all of them. This is what they’re after. Perhaps we can’t stop the old gods from getting out, but we can certainly stop those bastards from claiming these.”
“Are you suggesting we destroy them?” Bud asked. “This is all we have left of the Pantheon! We can’t just destroy them!”
“What alternative do we have?” Hump asked.
“We can’t possibly destroy all of these,” Dylan said. “Essence can’t be destroyed, and divinity is just essence in its purest form. At best we could attempt to dissipate them but I’m not convinced we could do that on any sort of scale.”
Hump scratched at the back of his head and paced. “We can’t let these fall into the hands of warlocks and old gods.”
“I’m not arguing that,” Dylan said. “But we need a way to deal with them.”
“It’s too early to give up yet anyway,” Emilia said. “The old gods aren’t free. Our people are fighting in the other fragment—Loften confirmed as much. Baelkor can still be defeated.”
Hump let out a quiet breath. “We can keep our fingers crossed, but hope won’t stop Karlac taking what’s right in front of him. We must do what we can here.” An idea clicked in him. “The phylactery. We may not be able to destroy them, but we can move them. Store them in the phylactery and leave with them.”
All eyes fell on Hump.
“Is that possible?” Emilia asked.
“One way to find out,” Hump said.
He took a step into the chamber. The air shifted as he moved deeper, the faint glow of lingering divinity casting long, uneven shadows across the marble floor. They stretched farther than they should have, pooling thickly between the tiers of thrones, swallowing the light instead of reflecting it.
It was wrong. Even with divinity surrounding them, the darkness pressed in, heavy and unnatural.
“Wait,” Celaine said. “I think Karlac’s already here.”
Hump stiffened. Emilia’s hand went to her rapier, Bud’s to his sword.
“We need to secure the room,” Hump said. “Celaine—see if you can find Karlac. If he’s already in here with us, I want to know where. And if not, we need to know where he’s coming from.”
Celaine gave a quick nod. “I’m still going to check on Loften. We might need another way out.”
Hump nodded. “Go for it. The others can keep me safe.”
With that, she melted into the shadows without a sound, her presence vanishing as if she’d never been there.
Hump strode down a central aisle that split the tiered seating in two like a theatre. Soon, he stood at the centre of the chamber and gazed around, searching for anywhere Karlac might be lurking.
He was about to pick a spark to begin with, when his eyes fell on the viewing balconies and windows behind the tiers of thrones, and a thought occurred to him. Hump held up his staff, essence streaming from it. With a thought, he willed the stone to expand, covering the balconies and windows, extending the brickwork until there was no way for Karlac to get in without them noticing.
Now in the dark, Hump summoned the sands of Osidium, spreading them out through the room to illuminate the shadows. Karlac wasn’t in here, and they’d know if he made a breach. That was unless the devil was hiding under a throne somewhere.
The thought was almost comedic and brought a smile to his lips.
“What’s so funny?” Bud asked.
“Just imagining Karlac hiding under a throne somewhere.”
Bud snorted. “That is kind of funny. Can you get these open quickly?”
Hump nodded. “Once the fighting starts, I’ll flood the room with light again. That might push back his shadows a bit.”
His gaze returned to the Divine Sparks. Dead gods stared back at him—familiar faces that he’d seen in paintings, in statues, and across the temples of Alveron. Others, he didn’t recognise at all.
It was surreal to be standing there, amongst them. To know what they had been and represented, and what they were now.
The divinity still lingering within them called to him—subtle, insistent. A pull at the edge of his awareness, tempting, probing, as if testing whether he might reach back. He could tell they weren’t for him. They weren’t right. A poor fit for his own soul and power.
Only one was different—Ordana of the Twelve. She possessed the power of fire, and it called to Hump like an old friend, luring him in. His breath caught at the tug of its intent, as if it wanted to be claimed. Of all the sparks in this chamber, this was the only one that resonated with him. Not just as power—but as something he understood. Something that understood him.
For a moment, the noise of the world beyond faded into nothing. He forgot Karlac. Forgot the task at hand.
There was only that pull, and the choice it offered.
“Knowledge can be told but understanding must be discovered,” he heard the old man’s voice repeating the same quote of Nithrand that he’d done a hundred times. “There is no shortcut to power, and those that seek one will find themselves lost along the way.”
Hump swallowed. No. Something in his chest tightened, a quiet certainty settling in his gut.
It would kill him.
‘Will you control the magic, or will the magic control you?’ The old man’s words echoed in his mind again.
This power—the intent behind it—it wasn’t his, and he wasn’t ready for it. He hadn’t even breached the seventh tier. A Soul Domain was beyond his grasp, let alone this.
But he could take them away. He could stop others from claiming them, at least for a time. And perhaps, once he possessed the strength himself, he might be able to gain some of their insight.
Hump went over to the weakest Divine Spark he could find, climbing the steps to one of the upper tiers, right next to where they’d entered the great hall. Standing over the body of the god, his heart raced. He wasn’t sure what to expect now. The phylactery was a powerful artifact, capable of holding both Lich Queen Irila’s soul, and Walt’s, along with at least one plague zombie.
She had been the daughter of a god, but it was a big step up to contain this type of power.
Hump took out the phylactery.
“Walt, are you there?” Hump asked.
“Nah, kid. I’ve gone off for a wander. Of course I’m bloody here! What do you need?”
Hump rolled his eyes. “Well… we’re in Heaven.”
“You’re what?”
“And all the gods of the Pantheon are dead.”
“I—Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. And now we need to collect all the Divine Sparks left behind and store them away so that the bad guys can’t get them.”
“Well best of luck.”
“No, Walt. The only place to put them is in the phylactery.”
“In here? With me?”
“Yep. I’m about to test the first one. As soon as it shows up, get it into the main hall.”
“Hold on a second, kid. Maybe we should talk this through.”
“There’s no time. Do you think it’s possible?”
There was a long pause. “This is just another space. As long as you can focus long enough to get it in here, I don’t think it will collapse the pocket dimension.”
“Then stand by.”
Hump closed his eyes and steadied his breath. The chamber pressed in around him–dead gods watching, their lingering divinity brushing against his senses like a thousand quiet voices. When he opened them again, he reached out and placed his hand upon the chest of the corpse, right above where their core would be.
It was cold. The soul wasn’t there anymore, only a lingering intent so powerful that it self-manifested as the Divine Spark. And it did not welcome him.
Even before he started, he could sense its reluctance to let him in. While weaker than the other sparks, it didn’t lack quality. He sensed raindrops and nature in there, clinging to the body and the throne—to space itself. Hump willed it to move, goading it like he would essence when casting a spell, but it was like trying to move a mountain with his bare hands.
“It’s anchored,” Hump muttered. “Like it doesn't want to leave.”
“Can you do it?” Dylan asked from below.
Hump didn’t answer. He didn’t know.
He raised the phylactery in his other hand.
“Walt,” he said quietly, “I’m going to force it through. Be ready.”
This time, Hump pressed his intent into the spark forcefully. Essence surged from him and into the corpse, the throne, and the structure binding the spark in place. He forced his will into it, tracing the pathways, finding where it was held.
For a moment, he glimpsed a grand formation beneath the chamber—a web of runes and channels that must have been used to kill and capture the sparks of the gods in the first place. The sparks appeared as floating souls caught in the web, flickering gently like flames.
And at the centre, like a radiant star, was the formation that governed it all. Golden essence streamed from it, pouring out far too quickly. It was losing power.
This was what bound the old gods.
Then the glimpse was over. The Divine Spark flared. Light burst from the body beneath his hand, blinding and violent. Hump cried out as something ancient pressed back against him—not a mind, not quite, but a presence. A refusal. Something was holding onto it. He saw it on the spark like a shadow, reminding him of the imprint left behind by Nishari’s mother, the wolf dragon.
Hump forced harder, stretching the bond until it snapped.
The spark tore free. For a moment, it resisted, flaring wildly in the air. The light twisted violently, but Hump grabbed onto it with his will and pulled.
There was only one way to get it into the phylactery. He needed a conduit. A bridge. And that would be him.
It rushed into him, surging through him. Hump screamed as searing pain burnt through his channels. Fire without flame tore through his veins. His vision shattered into fragments of light and heat
He pressed it into the phylactery in his hand, forcing its energy inside. Minutes passed, every second a battle to keep the stream going, but bit by bit, the spark did as he commanded.
The light vanished. Pressure collapsed inward, the violent surge vanishing as if it had never been.
Hump staggered, nearly falling from the tier. He caught himself on the throne, grasping, his entire body trembling.
Silence gribbed the chamber.
Finally, it was done. The phylactery shone bright in his hand.
Below, the others stared up.
“How is it, Walt?” Hump asked.
“Contained,” Walt’s voice came back, quieter this time. “Kid… don’t do that again any time soon.”
Hump let out a shaky breath. “That… was only the first one.” His gaze lifted slowly to the other thrones around them.
“Did it work?” Bud asked.
“It worked,” Hump said. “But at this rate it will take weeks to get them all. And there’s something else. These sparks are trapped in a web—a giant formation that lies beneath this entire chamber. I can only think that if we are to take the divine sparks, it would be as good as setting the old gods free ourselves.”
“Defend yourselves!” Came Celaine’s sudden shout.
Emilia appeared beside him an instant later, just as Hump snapped a Shield into place around himself and Nishari.
He looked up, sensing a dangerous essence above. A sphere floated in place, manifesting out of shadow. It hovered in the centre of the chamber, no larger than a man’s head, yet it bent the air around it. Light and darkness churned within, folding over one another in a constant, violent struggle.
Hump knew it instantly. He’d seen it before in Karlac’s vault.
But realisation did nothing to stop what happened next.
Light and shadow detonated. The blast tore through the chamber with a deafening boom, a shockwave of raw essence that shattered stone and hurled bodies like ragdolls. The thrones trembled. Pillars cracked. The very air howled. Divine energy was stirred up into a rage, exploding through the chamber.
Hump was thrown from his feet, his Shield straining as it absorbed the worst of it. He hit the ground hard, breath driven from his lungs. Nishari cried out as they skidded across the collapsing floor, fragments of marble and gold crashing down around them.
For a moment, there was nothing but darkness and ringing silence. Then the world rushed back in.
Dust choked the air. Debris rained from above. The chamber was coming apart.
Hump forced himself up, vision swimming. Emilia lay beside him, motionless, blood trailing from her temple.
He grabbed her shoulder, shaking her. “Emilia…”
No response.
“Look out!” Celaine’s voice cut through the chaos. Her arrow pierced through the chamber from one of the balconies above, silver streaks twirling around it in a spiral of light.
Hump shook his head, mind still sluggish. He wasn’t processing things properly. Forcing himself into clarity, he activated Accelerated Thought.
The pain was intense. He squinted against the throb in his head, but the world slowed. He could think.
Karlac stood amongst the thrones of the Twelve, but he was not looking at them. His gaze was fixed on a single throne—Ordana. He was beaten. Wounds covered his body. His missing eye bled. Yet if he gained the spark, Hump didn’t know what he would become.
Understanding hit with cold certainty.
The Divine Spark. The devil too had been drawn to the divine flame.
Celaine’s arrow reached him but Karlac battered it aside, the explosion dissipating in his essence. He stepped forward, placing both hands on the throne from behind. His jaw opened as he leaned down and tore into the throat of Ordana.
“No!” Bud screamed.
Flame erupted. Not fire as Hump knew it—but something deeper, purer. A blazing essence of creation and destruction, surging from the throne and swallowing Karlac whole.