“Give it back,” the Revenant wheezed, its entire body twitching and jerking like a glitching game avatar. The vertical seam splitting the monster’s body undulated. Gossamer thread spilled out from the churning blue maw within it. “Give it back.”

“Don’t worry,” Derek growled, lowering his stance and tightening his grip on the axe in his hands. “I’ve got this.”

He blurred, a single step launching him forward like a missile. The berserker let out a roar as he closed the distance between himself and the Forsaken Revenant in a flash. His axe transformed into a blurred streak of gray.

The Revenant didn’t even try to dodge. It barely even seemed aware that Derek was charging at it until the man’s large weapon slammed into its body with a resounding crunch and a crack. Fragments of shadowy armor plate spun through the air.

Derek continued spinning, staggering and nearly losing his balance. Then he looked down at his hands. He still clenched the haft of his axe tightly within them — but its bladed head was now lodged about a foot into the Forsaken Revenant’s body.

“Oh,” Derek said. “That’s unfortunate. You don’t mind if I take that back, do you? It was my favorite axe.”

He grabbed the head of the axe and gave it a tug. The hunk of metal didn’t even budge. Claire and Alex stared at him. Even the Revenant didn’t respond. It just stood there, twitching and frothing threads, gaze still locked directly on Alex.

Derek tugged the axe head again. It didn’t budge. He let out a curse and tossed the haft to the side, grabbing onto the remainder of his axe with both hands and pulling it again. The weapon didn’t move an inch. It was completely lodged into the Revenant’s body.

“Oh, come on,” Derek growled, straining and gritting his teeth. “How is this so—”

The Revenant’s arm blurred, and the rest of Derek’s sentence was lost to a loud crunch. He flew back, smashing into the wall at the far side of the room and dropping to the ground with a pained groan. The Revenant grabbed the axe lodged in its arm and yanked it out, tossing the piece of metal to the side.

Not once did its eyes leave Alex.

“On second thought, I don’t got this,” Derek wheezed. He pushed himself back up to his feet and drew two swords free from where they were lodged within his body. “Maybe give it back the thing you stole, Alex.”

“I don’t even know what it is I stole,” Alex replied, his head spinning as he tried to figure out what the Revenant could have possibly been going on about. He was pretty sure he hadn’t stolen anything from it. Alex was a lot of things, but he wasn’t straight up suicidal.

Wait. There’s no way the Revenant is pissed off that I killed one of the Blacktongue Dredges that were in the Mirrorlands way back when I first ran into this thing, right? What kind of deranged weirdo would chase somebody for this long just for stealing a kill?

“You know,” the Revenant hissed. The jittery twitches coursing through its body all snapped to a stop as one. It froze, head tilted exactly ninety degrees to the side, eyes still boring into Alex. “That which is of the Mirrorlands will always be of the Mirrorlands. It does not matter how far you run. It will be reclaimed. In every world, in every dimension, in every reality, We will find you. The treasure will be—”

A deafening roar split the air as a tongue of brilliant energy screamed over Alex’s shoulder. It obliterated the Revenant’s head, tearing through the shadow like it were made out of wet paper and leaving behind nothing but a smoking trail where it had once been.

Alex spun.

Coils of shimmering steam twisted up from the barrel of Wess’ massive gun. The man gave him a crooked grin as he lowered his Soul Manifestation.

“What?” Wess asked. “Nobody ever said you had to scream ‘Soul Manifestation’ out loud when you’re using it. I mean, I won’t deny that it feels satisfying, but whispering works just as well. You’re welcome, by the way. You can say thank you whenever you feel like it. I figured I should take advantage of…”

He trailed off.

Alex looked back to the Forsaken Revenant. The monster’s neck bubbled with shadow as strands twisted back together, pulling back into the shape of the monster’s head. It reformed within seconds, just as it had been before Wess had shot it.

“I think we’ll save the appreciation for a bit longer,” Claire said. “And we never stole anything from the Revenant. I have no idea what it’s talking about.”

“Give it back,” the Revenant whispered.

Then it blurred.

Alex yanked on the heavy white chain attached to his wrist. The Singularity Core within him activated with a rumble, and the anchor lurched backward. He dropped to the ground as the huge weapon tore through the air.

It caught the Revenant in the back and tore the tall, slender monster off the ground, sending both itself and the shadowy creature hurtling through the air toward the other side of the room.

The chain on Alex’s wrist snapped taut — but the anchor hadn’t found a wall yet. Alex only had an instant to brace himself before he was yanked into the air by his own weapon. The force of the tug was enough to tear his shoulder right out of its socket.

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Wind sliced into his eyes as pain burned in his arm. Princess’ magic spun to life as it pulled him back together, but Alex didn’t have the liberty to pay it any mind. He was too busy hurtling through the air like a flag.

The anchor finally slammed into the far wall with a loud crunch, temporarily pinning the Revenant to the stone along with itself. That would have been a very fortuitous position to have the monster in if Alex weren’t flying straight toward it.

Alex gritted his teeth as the wind sliced past his face. Flinging himself face-first right into the Revenant was the last thing he wanted to do. There was only one way he could re-direct himself.

It’s a damn good thing I figured out how to use the Anchor the last time I fought with it.

He banished the chains binding his wrist. That, in turn, sent the Anchor straight back into Alex’s Soul Palace and freed the Revenant from the wall. The monster was moving almost instantly — but it wasn’t faster than thought.

Alex activated his domain.

He vanished, reforming on the ground beside Claire just in time to see gossamer blue threads slice through the air where he’d been an instant before. The Revenant spun toward Alex, a hiss rising up from the depths of the blue vortex within it.

Alyssa let out a strangled hiss as she, too, finally tore herself free of the Forsaken Revenant’s oppressive presence. She brought her huge paintbrush up before herself, face pale as a ghost.

“This is what you meant by slightly more difficult?” Alyssa asked in a taut tone. “What the fuck is this?”

“Working on figuring that out,” Alex replied, watching the Forsaken Revenant warily. It had stopped moving again. Something was odd about the way the monster carried itself. It could move with blinding speed and attack near instantly with its threads. “

If it just attacked us with a relentless assault, I don’t know if we’d be able to do shit against it. We can barely even hurt this thing. It could totally just ignore our blows and kill us one by one.

But, for some reason, it kept pausing between attacks.

A chuckle rolled through the back of Alex’s mind.

You seem to be having a little trouble.

Not helping, Berith. Unless you have something useful to add, screw off.

Alex exchanged a glance with Claire, but she looked just as confused as he felt. The Revenant’s actions made no sense. He didn’t understand what it was here for, and he didn’t know what was wrong with it in the first place.

It definitely wasn’t this clunky the first time we fought it. We got chased all the way through the Mirrorlands and back to 274-50. But now it’s just standing around and letting Derek randomly wail on it. Is it possible it works Derek does? If we damage it enough, will it eventually just collapse and run out of regeneration?

Berith snorted.

Naïve. It’s not regeneration. You never hurt it in the first place. This monster’s body isn’t corporeal. Not in the way yours is. You need a different way to hurt it. A well-placed soul attack would suffice.

The Forsaken Revenant’s head twitched, but it still didn’t make any moves forward. It almost looked like the monster was buffering.

“We need a soul attack,” Alex said sharply. He didn’t question why Berith was helping him. There would be time for that later. “Anyone have something like that?”

“The hell is that?” Wess asked. “I can shoot it. With a gun.”

“I’ve got some pointy things,” Derek said. He held up the lower half of his axe — the bit that no longer had a blade attached to it. “I don’t think those count.”

“Nothing,” Claire said. “I can’t drain that thing to use any of my stronger abilities. Have I ever mentioned I hate Mirrorlands monsters?”

“I’ve never heard of a soul attack either,” Alyssa said grimly. “I’ve never even heard of it.”

Yeah, me neither.

Of course not. You’re still too fresh. But I could help. For a price.

Alex’s eyes narrowed. So that

was why Berith had decided to speak up. He wanted something. A grin crawled across his lips.

There was no way Berith would interfere for just some small favor — and certainly not like this. The demon was never this interested in Alex’s wellbeing, and they’d far from lost the fight.

Berith wanted him to take the offer before they managed to figure out a different way to beat the Revenant.

Hell no. Screw off. I’m not giving up my fight so you can ruin my rewards and make me pay something else on top of that. What kind of idiot would accept that?

Berith snorted — and then his presence was gone again, nothing but a fading whisper in Alex’s mind.

“We could try attacking at once,” Claire said. “If we destroy enough of its body, the Revenant might not be able to reform.”

“Hold on,” Alex said. His frown deepened as he ran back through everything he could recall about the Revenant. “Wait. Be ready, but wait.”

“For what?” Wess asked.

Alex ignored him. He took a step forward, watching the Revenant warily and readying himself to activate the Singularity Core at a moment’s notice.

Something is wrong here. This whole fight doesn’t make much sense at all. It’s almost like…

“You want something back,” Alex said, eyes narrow. He took a step toward the Revenant. Then another. “But I don’t even know what it is you think I stole. Tell me what it is. And, if you do, I’ll give it back. But I can’t give anything back if I’m dead, can I?”

The Revenant’s entire body locked up. The seam splitting it down the middle undulated. Alex took yet another slow step in the monster’s direction.

It didn’t move from its spot. His words seemed to have frozen it in place. The monster just sat there.

Almost like it were trying to communicate with something.

And, by the complete lack of a response… it seemed like it wasn’t working.

Alex came to a stop just a few feet away from the Forsaken Revenant. Every single one of his senses screamed at him to run, but he ignored them all. Alex just looked up at the monster looming over him.

“Tell me what you’re looking for,” Alex said again. “Unless, of course, you can’t. You’re too far from your main body, aren’t you? You don’t even know what your task is. And you can’t risk killing me if you don’t know what it is you’re supposed to retrieve.”

I really hope I’m right here. Because, if I’m not, I’m about to be in a hell of a lot of trouble.

But I’m pretty damn sure I read this thing right. That’s the only explanation as to why it hasn’t tried to finish me off yet.

The Revenant stared down at Alex. For several tense seconds, there was nothing but silence.

Then the huge monster spoke.

“I do not know the target of my search,” the Revenant said. “But I know you have it. Thus — I will take you alive.”

All the smug satisfaction evaporated from Alex in an instant.

Shit.