For those not up to date, I wasn't happy with Chapter 548s original version and have had to do a rewrite. For more details, check the Magic Hedges Community Chat.
Briefly - The chapter starts off mostly the same as before for the first 600 words or so. After that this is basically a brand new chapter and a normal chapter's length of content. To summarise the issue, the old ending received feedback that it was anticlimactic, which I agreed with.
Major change in Chapter 546 - For those that want to read it for themselves search for "Even as he spoke, the chamber trembled again."
For the rest - Hump gives Owalyn her divine spark at the end of the chapter. She must absorb it and in the meantime Hump and co must keep Baelkor in place.
Sorry for all the confusion but I hope you agree this is the beginning of a much better ending to Book 7. I owe you another chapter which will probably be finished tomorrow.
The hair on the back of Hump’s neck tingled as he stood inside the golden gates of the Great Palace, Marcela and her family before him, and an entire army of Chosen, demons, warlocks, strange plant-creatures, and Baelkor gawked at him. He could sense Owalyn’s presence at his back—she radiated her Divine Spark’s intent now that she was in the process of absorbing it. Hump used his domain to block the gateway as he stood there, obscuring Owalyn’s presence with his own. Yet having perhaps the deadliest hunter to ever exist at his back did nothing to put him at ease.
Baelkor couldn’t realise.
It was his role to buy time, and he would do everything he could to make sure that happened. The fate of Alveron depended on this moment. If his people were to escape this place before the Old Gods arrived, they needed Owalyn’s help, and they needed Baelkor dead.
Hump swallowed as his eyes roamed over the thousand-odd faces staring back at him. No pressure.
Behind him, footsteps sounded as the rest of his party emerged from inside the palace. Nishari growled low, fire puffing from her mouth.
As they reached his side, Hump spoke quietly. “Stay behind me this time.”
“You’re a wizard,” Bud said. “I’m not going to hide behind you.”
Dylan took Bud by the arm before he could move on ahead. “It’s different this time. Hump’s undergone a qualitative change. We’ll do what we can to support.”
Hump nodded, then took a step forward, crossing the threshold of the gates to stand in front of Marcela and her family. Count Daston stared at him with wide eyes, masking the pain of his missing arm well. Countess Daston had her long, curved sword in hand and stood beside her husband, while Marcela lay on the floor behind them. It was strange to see three people he respected stare at him in such a way—disbelief and wonder mixed in their eyes. The weight of a thousand other gazes remained upon him too. Chosen, warlocks, demons, even dragons and their keepers.
His attention fixed onto the servant of Uvdar. Until now, the giant of a man had always been a distant figure glimpsed through rifts or visions. Standing before him was different. Baelkor was twice as tall as a man. His eyes were white, but for the purple veins that spread across them. The bark armour the covered his muscular frame seemed alive with poisonous roots that threaded through it, pulsing with essence. Decay clung to him, his flesh blackened and cracked beneath the bark. His staff was grown from a twisted tree and pulsed with the same dark power that transformed the world around him. He made Hump think of rot and death.
Instinctively, Hump’s Soul Domain expanded around him, encompassing the gate like a bubble. White fire drifted through the air around him like ash on the wind. The ground cracked beneath his feet—only slightly, but enough for the molten heat of lava to seep up around him. And as his domain spread, so too did the Authority of the White Flame, revealing the workings of essence all around him.
What it showed made his stomach plummet.
Baelkor was drowned in power. Poisonous essence clung to him like a cloud of green-black mist. Every spell cast against him had to travel through that cloud first. Every blessing, every spell, and strike was weakened by that power before it could even reach him. His will soaked into the battlefield itself, speaking of death and some imitation of life. It wove its way through the air of Hump’s domain like thorned vines. They etched countless runes and channels across the battlefield. From this magic, poison spread, and with it, so too did Baelkor’s authority.
No wonder they were losing.
Even the strongest of the Chosen fighting in this domain would find their power fade. It took everything just to keep it from seeping into Hump’s domain.
Hump surveyed the rest of the elite force around him. His eyes went to Vivi first—she stared at Dylan with elation, but she didn’t look all too surprised to see them. He gave her a small smile when he caught her eye, then turned to Wizard Aldric and Melissa of the Three Eyes. Hump’s heart sunk to see Wizard Charles dead on the floor beside them—the man had been his instructor in Elenvine. There were more dead—Chosen that Hump didn’t recognise beyond being part of General Korteg’s retinue. He didn’t want to think of everyone else that might have died today. Far too many.
“Answer me,” Baelkor demanded, his voice shaking the very ground upon which they stood. His voice alone pressed Hump’s domain, stabbing at it like a knife, but it could not pierce him, nor the others protected by him. “Who are you to stand before me?”
“You don’t recognise me?” Hump asked. “Perhaps this will jog your memory.”
He hammered his staff into the ground, White Flame erupting from the focus. The Book of Infinite Pages tore free from his belt and rose into the air. Brilliant lines of essence spiralled between book and staff, illuminating the battlefield with its light.
A deep chuckle escaped Baelkor. “You are the Bearer of Infinity. I see now why Karlac ran ahead. He deserved a fate worse than death.” The poison around him stirred. “You are the wizard that defied me when the Seal of Osidium first fell.” A smile spread across his face, wide and showing far too many teeth to seem human. “I have been wanting to meet you.”
“I can’t say the sentiment is mutual,” Hump said. “Why don’t you just make this easy for both of us. There are no gods here, and their sparks are gone too. There’s nothing left for you.”
Demon Lord Draevor hovered in the sky above. It seemed as if the world darkened around him. Hump had witnessed his power in the Infernal Halls—power that even Count Daston had not been able to stop before it had wiped out hundreds of soldiers, obliterating them entirely.
“Does he speak true?” Draevor demanded. “If the deal is broken—”
“Tricks, Draevor!” Baelkor declared. “Wizards always have their tricks. Do not listen.”
“Then where are they?” Draevor asked. “The fate of the old gods means nothing to me. I came here for one thing. One thing! You will make an enemy of demon-kind yet if you betray me.”
Baelkor’s expression darkened.
Hump saw his moment and took it. If he could turn the demons against Baelkor… that could only be a good thing. “I destroyed them,” Hump said, staring up at Draevor. “They were part of a grand formation that is no more. Surely you can sense the world crumbling around us. The intent that holds Heaven together is gone.”
“Lies!” Baelkor roared. “Do not think your tricks will get past me.” His voice rolled across the battlefield. “I can sense the sparks on you. I do not know where you hid them, but you reek of divinity. Already Heaven crumbles. My lord returns, and I shall ensure a feast awaits him. Hand them over, and I may yet grant you a swift death.”
Hump leaned toward Bud. “What do you think?”
“Doesn’t sound like a great deal, does it?” Bud said.
“Exactly what I was thinking.” Hump nodded. “You, Celaine?”
“I just want to fill him with arrows.”
“What is this buffoonery?” Baelkor snarled.
“You’re just not really selling us on the idea,” Hump said. “Dead is dead, swift or not. If you’re just going to kill us anyway, I’d much rather kill you first.”
“Enough!” Baelkor planted his staff against the ground. Poisonous essence erupted from him in a wave, darkening the courtyard and causing fresh roots to burst through the stone. “You are an ant before a giant. Remember this moment when you beg for death. Remember that I offered mercy.”
He lashed out with his poison at terrifying speed. The green-black essence surged forwardlike a wave, carrying decay with it. Corpses rotted in its wake. Even stone blackened. Plant life erupted from cracks in the ground only to turn to mulch. The very air seemed to curdle beneath its passage, a stench like death coming with it.
Hump fixed his intent on the edge of his domain.
White fire drifted across the boundary of his authority, illuminating the countless runes and channels hidden within the poison. He saw the truth of it then—the corruption woven through every strand of essence, the false imitation of life that Baelkor imposed upon the world.
The poison struck the white fire and stopped. For a heartbeat, the two authorities collided. Hump sensed Baelkor’s authority attempt to invade his own, twisting his essence to its reality.
Then the corruption unravelled. White fire spread through the poisonous essence, revealing its true nature and burning it away. The green-black tide collapsed into harmless wisps of smoke that drifted through the air before vanishing entirely.
Nothing could get through. It was more than a barrier, it was law.
And Baelkor’s poison broke against it.
As it cleared, Baelkor leered at him from beyond, his staff still aimed at him. A murmur spread through the battlefield as his power failed to advance.
“The wizard holds the sparks, Draevor,” Baelkor called from beyond. “I can sense them in him—do you not feel his divinity?”
“I do.”
“Then fight! Kill the wizard. Kill the Chosen! And take what is yours from the blood.”
Above, Draevor’s power descended with such ferocity that Hump wasn’t sure he could stop it—an orb of darkness and blood, swirling in its power like a cyclone trapped in a sphere.
Before he could form a barrier, General Korteg appeared before Hump then, charging with enough speed and power to tear up the stone of the courtyard. He raised his greatsword overhead and brought it down in a two-handed strike. Blood-red essence erupted from the blade in the shape of a colossal executioner’s blade that split the orb in half, its two halves detonating in the air with a great boom. The blast of wind that followed flattened half the armies nearby.
Within Hump’s domain, it did nothing but billow his cloak.
“Over our dead bodies,” General Korteg roared. The blood-red essence of war spread across the battlefield, his voice carried in it. “We stand with the White Flame!”
The response came instantly.
“The White Flame!”
“To the palace!” another shouted. “To the White Flame!”
Hundreds of voices joined the cry as Alveron’s army returned to their feet. Chosen, soldiers, adventurers, and wounded alike. The sound rolled across the battlefield with such force that Hump felt it in his chest. The ground shook with it. The air was like thunder. The army that had been on the verge of collapse moments ago surged forward with renewed purpose, driving into the demons and plant beasts.
Spells gathered over Baelkor’s head, woven into the fabric of the world and brought out by Hump’s domain for all to see. Complex, multi-layered spell formations. Baelkor wasn’t just a poison master, but a wizard of deep and quite possibly unmatched knowledge. With Master Dorn dead, there were no allied wizards left that could possibly rival him. Seeing the mural of runes in the sky made that all the more clear.
But Baelkor was a wizard all the same. His body had been changed—morphed into a plant by some dark magic, but a wizard nonetheless. He was no god.
No god, Hump thought. But the very peak of what a mortal can be. If he even counts as mortal after a millennium sealed away.
And what was there for him to do but master his magic?
As he studied the formations, Hump flicked his staff. White fire lanced across the battlefield, burning away a patch of creeping roots that had wrapped around a fallen soldier. The man stumbled free and continued running toward the palace.
For a moment, Baelkor and Draevor were distracted as the onslaught of spells and blessings struck them at once. Around Baelkor, warlocks clustered together, their leader a woman Hump didn’t recognise who suddenly looked concerned.
The moment there was a break in the onslaught, Baelkor emerged within a Shield, perfectly protected by the dome of pure essence.
“The dead are rising!” came a shout.
And Hump turned to see small fungi emerging from corpses as demons and humans alike stood once more, vines and roots contorting their bodies like puppets as they joined the battle. Baelkor’s plant creatures were terrifying—the emerged from the ground, erupting through the stone like a sapling, only to come up with razor leaves slashing. Then they could sink into the earth again.
Every few moments he redirected his white fire, burning away at Baelkor’s poison and creating an avenue for Alveron’s army to push through. The plant creatures that got too close underground were exposed, their magic following them like a storm cloud where soldiers were ready on the surface. Soon, the two separate Alveronian forces connected and a proper line began to take form.
Celaine's bowstring thrummed.
Three arrows flashed through the battlefield. Each struck a corpse as it rose, pinning it to the ground before the roots could fully take hold. Bud strode forward to the edge of the domain, ice spreading from his boots. Every few seconds another demon or plant creature reached the boundary only to be met by a sword of Frostfire through the chest.
Nisha prowled restlessly around the edge of the domain, white-gold fire dripping from her jaws. Whenever one of Baelkor's creatures burst from the ground she was upon it immediately, reducing it to ash before it could press into Hump’s domain.
Hump sensed a foreign intent attempting to get closer and recognised it—Wizard Aldric. He let it through his domain and heard a splash. A puddle appeared on the ground that hadn’t been there a moment ago. Silver flashed within, like a mirror catching the sun, and Aldric stood before him, cane in hand. He swigged his flask and let out a gasp, barely masking his pain.
“Alive after all, Hump,” Aldric said. “I thought you would be.”
“Wizard Aldric.” Hump smiled.
“Tell me you know something the rest of us don’t,” the man said.
“Yes, but there’s no time to explain. If we can get the wounded into the palace, I can keep Baelkor’s poison at bay. I can kill him. I only need time.”
“The gods won’t mind us intruding?” Aldric asked, the cynicism in his voice hard to miss.
Hump shook his head. “They won’t be minding much of anything.”
“You can really kill him?” Korteg asked. Even as he spoke, Korteg pointed toward different sections of the battlefield, his officers relaying orders instantly. Chosen broke formation to escort the wounded while fresh troops emerged from portals or carried in the air by Chosen of Seres to fill the gaps.
“Yes,” Hump said.
The general gave a nod, then his eyes went to Count Daston, who Dylan was tending. “Ben, how are you?”
“I’ll live,” Count Daston said.
“Leave the fight to us,” Korteg said. “Take charge of the wounded. Get them inside.”
“Yes, General.”
“Whatever you’re planning to do, Wizard, do it quickly,” General Korteg said. “This world is deteriorating almost as quickly as the battle.”
As the general rejoined the fight, Count Daston turned to his family. “Marcela, Justine, return to your squads.”
“Quickly, Hump,” Marcela said. “I found Mav’s sister. She’s alive, and they’re together. It’s good to see you.”
Hump couldn’t help but smile. “Marcela, that’s the best news I’ve heard for a long time.”