I dropped under my shield as white arrows rained down from the storm-dark skies. Any demons who hadn’t fled the field screamed, as white-feathered shafts found their marks. Kasmodeus roared, but his cry was no armor. A white arrow pierced his chest, another his left arm, several more striking his stomach and legs. A radiant light spread out from the arrow wounds, while Kasmodeus lurched back in surprised dismay.

Several arrows thunked against my shield.

Then an arrow hit true, spearing me through the leg.

The pain was beyond anything I had ever experienced, and I had thought myself jaded to agony. Searing fire spread out from the injury; I had to grind my teeth to keep from crying out. It felt as though fire was burning my leg from the inside out, blazing beneath my skin.

But I couldn’t lower my shield. The rain of arrows hadn’t slackened.

I saw Kasmodeus take an arrow through the neck, another through his right eye. His whole body pulsed with light from a dozen sources.

His muscles began to flake away, glowing fragments floating away on the wind.

I looked down at my leg and saw flakes of light there too, smaller but still excruciating. More arrows impacted my shield. One managed to pierce the wood, stopping just a scant hairsbreadth from my face.

I started laughing.

I was going to die there. Truly die.

I didn’t embrace the idea. There was so much I hadn’t done with my life. On some level, I had the childish thought dying would be allowing the man who’d pushed me from my home to win. That I’d be letting Sir Oreth do as he wished with my canton and people.

Yet …

And yet. I’d stopped a Hellmarch here. Thousands would live because of that.

Not so bad a way to end one’s days.

I lowered my shield then, because I wanted to see the faces of my slayers.

Unlike the normal gray elephants who lifted timber or helped around villages and towns throughout the empire, these elephants glowed white and stood twice their size. Their eyes sparked as red as my own.

This was appropriate. White and red, Thaena’s sacred colors. Of course her elephants were white and red. They were dressed in the most beautiful and ornate silver armor too, intricately engraved with roses, entwined branches, their goddess’s sharp-edged thorns.

Men and women rode their backs like hidden shadows, overwhelmed by their mounts’ glowing brilliance. They dressed in dark colors, armed with bows and arrows—shadows raining down death’s justice on those who deserved it.

One last arrow pierced my chest. I didn’t scream; rather, I let out a soft whimper. A glory of icy fire spread over me, something so far beyond understanding my soul stopped trying to communicate the damage. The whole world darkened. The woods fell silent.

The arrow fall stopped.