The battle on the summit was a storm of impossible forces. The skeletal Void God and the purple-armored Gatekeeper were beings from a different reality, their every blow a cataclysm of splintered space and unraveling magic. Serian was a mouse caught between two warring dragons, able to do nothing but huddle behind a rock and try not to be erased by the aftershocks.
But her attention wasn't on the cosmic brawl. It was on Nox.
He was still unconscious, but the golden light emanating from his chest was growing brighter, the pulsing from the divine egg now a steady, powerful heartbeat that seemed to push back against the oppressive aura of the god-fight.
'It's hatching,' she realized, a thrill of hope and terror shooting through her. 'Here? Now?'
The Void God seemed to feel it too. It blasted the Gatekeeper back with a wave of pure, negative energy and turned its burning, star-filled sockets toward Nox.
