I tightened my grip on the spear as the forest came alive.
One corpse stumbled out after another, arms hanging at odd angles, flesh bloated and pale under the moonlight. The air was thick with rot and death.
"Alright," I muttered under my breath, setting my stance. "Round two."
The first one lunged. I twisted to the side and drove the spear through its gut, then kicked it back into the pack. The body didn't even scream, just fell, limbs twitching. Another came from the left; I parried, sliced through its shoulder, and pivoted, using momentum to hurl the spear into the next one's skull.
The divine essence flowing through Aron's body flared hotter. Muscles burned, bones creaked. He wasn't built for this much energy. I'd have to be careful.
A third corpse rushed from behind, catching me off guard. I ducked low and spun, summoning a second spear of light and letting it sing through the air, it sliced clean through two of them before dissipating. The burst lit the field like a lightning strike, revealing dozens more staggering out of the woods.
"Yeah, great," I muttered. "Just what I needed, an undead night parade."
They came faster now, growling and snapping their jaws. I pushed more essence into Aron's limbs, feeling his heartbeat strain, but there was no choice. My strikes turned sharper, light spears flashing, slicing, bursting in golden arcs. Every time I landed a blow, the air cracked like thunder.
Minutes blurred into one another. The smell of blood mixed with dirt. Undead fell one after another, but they just kept coming. For every one I cut down, two more stumbled out. I could feel the fatigue creeping up, not mine, but Aron's. His lungs burned, muscles trembled.
"Hold on, buddy," I murmured. "We're almost there."
And then… silence.
The last of them fell with a gurgling hiss, the body twitching on the grass. I exhaled slowly, lowering the spear. The night was eerily still again. The only sound was the faint breeze rustling through the cornfields.
Something wasn't right.
I turned toward the forest. The darkness there felt… alive. Watching. Breathing.
"Guess we're not done yet," I whispered, stepping forward. The spear flickered back into existence in my hand, its light barely illuminating the path ahead.
The deeper I went, the colder it got. The air pressed heavily on my chest. Then, there. In a small clearing ahead, a faint green glow pulsed from the ground.
A magic circle.
Its light pulsed like a heartbeat, and from it, something began to crawl out, an undead head pushing through, snapping its teeth as the rest of its body tried to follow.
"Not today," I muttered.
I swung the spear down, cleaving the head clean off just as the neck emerged. The severed piece hit the dirt with a wet thud, and I drove the spear into the ground where the glowing circle pulsed. The light flickered violently before shattering like glass, fragments of green scattering and fading into nothing.
Then came the pulse, silent but vast, rippling outward through the forest. I felt it move, not through air but through everything. And almost immediately, I felt them.
Something pressed down on me, like invisible hands gripping my shoulders. Dozens of heavy presences turned their attention toward me. I couldn't see them, but I could feel them watching, curious and uncomfortably close.
Five of them I recognised instantly, Ramona and the beastkin gods. The rest… I didn't know. Most weren't hostile, but a few radiated power so thick it made the air itself feel heavier.
I cut my connection to Aron instantly.
The forest melted away, the world blurring into motion, and when I blinked, I was sitting back in my living room. My hand was still resting on the mirror's surface, its ripples slowly fading under my fingers.
I exhaled shakily, leaning back against the table. The weight of those gazes hadn't fully vanished, they lingered, watching me still. Then, one by one, they faded.
When the last finally left, I slumped into my chair.
"Holy hell…" I muttered, rubbing my temples. "That's one way to get attention."
A knock sounded at the door.
I frowned. "Come in."
The door opened before I finished speaking. Ramona stepped inside, her eyes sharp and stormy, her blond hair slightly dishevelled as if she'd hurried here. She didn't greet me right away. Her gaze swept over the room, the faint golden light still flickering from the mirror, the scorch marks on the floor, and probably the exhaustion written all over my face.
Then she frowned. "You felt it, didn't you?"
I leaned back, exhaling. "If 'it' means several divine eyes trying to peel me open like a fruit, then yeah, I felt it."
Her jaw tightened. "Adam I'm serious"
"You stumbled onto something terrible that we all thought long sealed. And when you did, every power in heaven couldn't help but look your way."
"I didn't exactly have a choice," I said with a shrug. "A man prayed for help, I answered. You know, 'god of protection' and all that. Kind of comes with the job description."
She gave me a look, then sighed. "I'm not blaming you, Adam. I'm saying you may have uncovered something the heavens thought sealed away."
"Well," I said dryly, "for what it's worth, the farmer's alive. The zombies are not. That's a win in my book."
"Adam." Her voice lowered. "We have a problem. A huge one. Much more serious than what you have faced."
I stared at her for a beat, then sighed. "You mean bigger than the zombie apocalypse we just had?"
Her expression didn't waver. "Much bigger. Those other presences you felt?"
"Yeah?"
Ramona nodded slowly. "Every pantheon saw what you did. The Council won't ignore it I'm sure. But the others, the ones I didn't recognise…" Her gaze darkened.
"They weren't gods of the heavenly city."
That got my attention. I straightened in my chair. "Then what the hell were they?"
She hesitated, eyes flicking to the mirror behind me before she spoke.
"I think they were something we believed sealed away a long time ago."
I frowned. "Sealed away?"
"Who?"
"Chaos," she said quietly.