He caught a glimpse of the Deathless turning a corner, and sprinted after him.

This was stupid. This was amazingly dumb. What did he know about fighting a god? But he had no choice. There was no one else around to do it. There was no one he could turn to for help. This had to be him. He had to try. The fate of the world depended on him. His parents, his sisters, everyone he loved depended on him.

A small set of stairs led to a door that was just swinging closed. Adedayo charged up, clicking his fingers until he had a small ball of flame in his hand. He burst out on to the roof of the Old House. The Deathless stood on the roof’s edge, his back to him.

Adedayo hurled the fireball. It barely made it halfway before going out.

He tried pushing at the air, but all he could manage was a slight breeze.

The Deathless turned to him slowly. Adedayo had one chance left. One slim chance.

“Má şi àpótí!” he shouted.

The Deathless raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

Adedayo frowned, wondering if he’d got the pronunciation wrong. “Má şi àpótí,” he repeated, a lot quieter this time.

The Deathless didn’t react. The spell didn’t work.

Adedayo realised his fists were clenched. He unclenched them. “Please don’t do it,” he said.

The Deathless gazed at the orb in his hand. “I promise you, what awaits your soul in death is far greater than what this life has had to offer you.”

“Maybe it is, but I don’t want that yet. Barely anyone does. You’re robbing us, all of us, all of humanity, of who we are.”

“Who you are is wonderful,” said the Deathless, looking at him, “but ultimately unimportant. Your soul is eternal, Adedayo, or as close to eternal as can be. By contrast, you, your memories, your personality – these things exist for so brief a time that it could be argued they don’t exist at all.”

Adedayo took a step forward. “But they exist now. I exist now. I’m right here. I’m talking to you. I’m asking you not to destroy us.”

The orb started to pulse with a soft glow. “It is ready,” said the Deathless. “It is time.”

“Wait! Please wait! I get that you think I’m unimportant, that humanity is unimportant, but who are you to decide this?”

“I’m a god,” said the Deathless.

That was, admittedly, a good point. “OK, right, you’re a god, so I’m asking you to be a merciful god. You want to destroy the Faceless Ones because they wiped out your race. But what are you about to do? You’re going to kill my race the same way the Faceless Ones killed yours.”

“I am fully aware of the hypocrisy of my stance.”

“Then be better than them. Isn’t that the least you can do, after what happened? Isn’t that how you defeat them?”

“We are under no illusion, Adedayo. We have long since lost this battle.” He raised his hand, preparing to hurl the orb to the ground.

“Not yet you haven’t,” Adedayo said quickly. “Not while you’re still alive. Yeah, they murdered your race, they murdered the Cythraul’s race and the Sathariel’s race – but they couldn’t kill you, could they? They could only trap you. You know what that says to me? It says they’re scared. It says they feared you getting out. And now what? Now that you’re out, instead of fighting them, you’re going to end yourselves to spoil their food source? I don’t know anything about what’s out there on other planets or in other dimensions – but what’s to stop the Faceless Ones from finding another world full of worshippers with souls they can eat?”

The Deathless hesitated. “This is still their home.”

“So you’re going to ruin it just to spite them?”

“I don’t expect you to understand.”

“But if you can’t make me understand, maybe that’s not a fault with me. Maybe that’s a fault with your argument.”

The Deathless said nothing.

“I don’t know what the best thing to do is, but Skulduggery and Valkyrie, and other sorcerers like them, I’m sure they’ll have plans. You don’t have to be the bad guys here. You could be the heroes. You could do your races proud.”

“You are a good boy, Adedayo. A good human. It is a pity it has come to this.”

“But I’m not alone,” Adedayo responded. “I’m not the only one. The human race, we have our problems, we do, but there are plenty more good people in this world than there are bad. Give us a chance, please.”

“A chance to do what? To poison your planet further? To kill yourselves your own way?”

“At least give us the chance to decide our own fate – a chance the Deathless were never given.”

“You are trying to convince me that humanity is worth sparing – even though I have already looked inside your mind. I know about their petty cruelties.”

“You can’t judge us by the idiots, though. Judge us by the nice people. That’s what you do, isn’t it? Sit in judgement? All those other gods, they trusted your kind to be fair. That’s all I’m asking now. Just be fair.”

“This accord between my kind, the Cythrauls, and the Sathariels has long been in motion.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to see it through. You can change your mind. You can focus on helping us instead of hurting us. The Faceless Ones are still out there somewhere. Don’t you want to fight back? I know you do. You can deny it, if that makes you feel better, but I saw it when you let me look inside your mind. You want to fight. Not like we fight, not like humans fight, but you want to …” He searched for the right words. “You want to be better than them. You want to prove that you’re better than them. And for you that doesn’t mean beating them physically. It doesn’t even mean ruining their home. It simply means that you beat them by being better than they are. You could do what you’re planning to do. I can’t stop you. But it’s just … it’s revenge. That’s all it is.”

“Revenge,” said the Deathless, “is all we have left.”

“That’s not true, though. You’ve got so much more because you are so much more. You’re talking to me. You’re hearing my side of the argument. The Faceless Ones wouldn’t listen to a word I said – but you’re not them. You’re listening. You are better than they are. Or, at least … you can be. But taking revenge on someone, on anyone, that just brings you even with them, doesn’t it? It means you’re operating on the same level.”

The Deathless raised an eyebrow slightly. “And you want us to operate on a higher level?”

“I do. And so do you, I think. You could have the revenge that you planned, right now, by smashing that orb thing. Or you could choose not to. You could pass over it. You could let it go. And be better than them.”

The Deathless smiled sadly. “You are wise, Adedayo Akinde.”

“I am?”

“I will consider your words. If I decide that you are right, then we will return to our confinement. It was, if nothing else, peaceful in there. If, however, I decide that I am more right than you, that our plan is truly the way to proceed, then I hope your death is swift and painless.”

Adedayo hesitated. “Cool.”

The Deathless inclined his head ever so slightly, and Adedayo fainted.