Within moments, he was looking down at a cherubic little girl, her chubby legs dangling from the chair.

Abaddon’s avatar.

“Your face!” Abaddon giggled. “My my, you do care about that silly girl.”

Cade stared, speechless.

Abaddon jumped to the ground, her face contorted with malicious pleasure.

“You must forgive my little joke,” Abaddon said, pointing a pudgy finger at his distraught face. “Or rather, forget it swiftly, and listen well. I will only instruct you once.”

Cade’s heart, already racing, seemed to rattle in his chest in anticipation of the cruel god’s news. Their time of rest was over. From this moment until the timer reset … they would live in terror.

“My little crew of contenders has matured well,” Abaddon said. “But watching you battle here bores me. It is time for you to fly the nest, little bird. To succeed where those before you failed. It is time to attack.”

The girl motioned behind Cade, where the Codex’s flickering timer was replaced by the leaderboard—that pyramid of symbols that denoted where each of the pantheon’s contenders sat within the game.

As before, mankind was represented by a human skull. The red line under the third row delineated where humans and the other species above them would have their home planet destroyed should they fall beneath it.

“You only have one path to attack upward—this species, here.”

The block above the human skull flashed, and a symbol appeared there. To Cade’s surprise, the symbol was not dissimilar to their own—humanlike but for the enormous eyeholes, nonexistent teeth, and an upper skull that was distended like a soccer ball. It was, in a word … alien.

Abaddon paused, as if waiting for Cade to speak.

“What happens if we fail?” Cade managed.

Abaddon giggled.

“I will abandon you in their territory to fend for yourselves. Perhaps you can scratch out some form of existence in their lands. But that is not the real consequence. If you lose, I will not be bringing new contenders to the keep. It will be left undefended, and the next attack from below will find no resistance. Your planet will fall beneath the red line and … poof.”

Abaddon clapped her hands, wiggling her dainty fingers.

“Who are they?” Cade asked. “Are they sentient? Do they have weapons?”

Abaddon tapped her button nose. “Your Roman counterparts garnered little knowledge of this species before failing in their attack.” She chuckled. “It has to be written down for the Codex to record it. Why, they did not even have time to give it a name before they were defeated! But you have the skull as a clue. Be glad you have that, at least.”

“Where will we go?” Cade asked. “And what are the rules?”

Abaddon tossed her golden curls.

“There are no rules, other than that there cannot be a single enemy left alive in their headquarters before the timer runs out. As for where, you will find out soon enough.”