61: EPILOGUE

Deep in the heart of the Korthaen Blight, seven streams of light converged over a building in the center of the city. Once called Karolaen, now Kharas Gulgoth, the city was tomb and prison, maintained for one purpose and one purpose only: to chain a corrupted god.

Seven streams of light converged over a building. In the center of that building, a dark god tilted his head as if stretching from a long nap. For the god that had once been, seven rays of light had been enough to keep him imprisoned.

But for the god that now was, those seven rays of light were nothing more than component pieces to a complicated lock.

And Kihrin had grown up a thief.

Vol Karoth performed an act he hadn’t tolerated in all the many millennia or minutes of his existence—instead of absorbing tenyé, he released it. He sent that energy cascading up those seven streams.

In various locations scattered around the world, seven crystals cracked and shattered.

Escape had always been as easy as that.

It had just been impossible while Vol Karoth remained nothing more than a warped version of S’arric.

If anyone had been there, if anyone had dared, they might have seen something unexpected then. That just for a second, the dark god’s shape had flickered. For that second, he had looked like a normal man. Then he remembered himself and became a silhouette again.

He hovered up into the air and laced his hands behind his back.

Vol Karoth, King of Demons, also known as S’arric, more recently known as Kihrin, floated out into the world at a leisurely pace. He wasn’t in a rush, although he did wonder if Relos Var would be happy or upset to see him free and loose upon the world. He wished for the latter but suspected it was probably the former. At the very least, Relos Var would have planned for it. He was, after all, the smartest man in two universes.

Kihrin had work to do and a last game to run. The stakes were everything, the odds were grim, and there would be no second chances. His opponents were both geniuses who wanted to either rule or ruin the universe, and both had the power to make their dreams reality.

Though no one could see it, Kihrin smiled.

It was time to start the most important con of his existence.