Levi stepped inside. The darkness of leaving the sun for the interior fell over him, and he rapidly blinked to adjust his eyes.

  Mutilated bodies draped over the kitchen. Two men sat on the counter, their arms crossed. One wore all black. The other looked edgy as hell.

  “Oh fuck. Abort, abort—”

  Kai rose. Vox snapped his fingers. Black tendrils bound the entrance shut, blocking Isa and Colin from the kitchen.

  Levi put his hands up. “Hey, uh, guys, good to see you all. How’s it going? I’m glad to see the two of you have made such great friends.”

  “Kai and I have come to an understanding,” Vox rumbled.

  “And that’s great and all, and I totally support you two, but I’m just not into you two like that, so—”

  “If I kill one Champion, that prevents the Apocalypse the same as if I kill many. The Goddess of Death is stingy with handing out her favor. The God of War, not so much. Killing you prevents the Apocalypse for the maximum amount of time,” Vox explained.

  Levi nodded. “I see where you’re coming from. It makes a lot of sense.”

  “So, die,” Vox declared. He clenched his fist, and the shadows closed in on Levi.

  Hopping backward, Levi dodged the knot of darkness as it snarled shut. “Don’t wanna.” He raced out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Behind him, the mutilated corpses peeled themselves off the various furniture and grabbed for Vox.

  “You aren’t getting away.” Vox lifted his hand. A shadowy hand reached after Levi, smashing through the wooden house as it reached for him. He scurried upward, racing up the steps faster than the shadow hand could move.

  “Rat!” Vox jumped up, but the bodies lunged at him, pinning him back to the counter. He turned to Kai, who still sat there, casually watching the two of them quarrel. Snarling, he spat, “Get him!”

  Kai nodded. He climbed to his feet and set off leisurely after Levi.

  Levi glanced down. Kai stood at the base of the stairs, gazing up at him. He grinned. “Hey, ol’ buddy ol’ pal. Sorry about that first-village thing, but it worked out for you, didn’t it? I knew you could handle it! What do you say we put the past behind us and take out that Vox guy?”

  “There’s no point in killing a Champion until the Apocalypse begins,” Kai said evenly.

  Levi raised his brows. Wait, hold on. But if that’s the case… “Then…?”

  Kai leaped upward. He landed on the first unruined stair of the staircase with a thump. “But if it takes some time before the Apocalypse begins, and I can grow stronger…”

  “Ahhh. So you are truly ambivalent to good and evil,” Levi said, nodding. Kai isn’t completely sold on what he told Vox, but given the chance, he won’t hesitate to kill me. Truly, the most murderhobo-edgelord answer I could hope for. Playing both sides, but not fully committed to either. He turned and fled again.

  Light poured in one of the upstairs rooms. Levi sheered off of the main hallway and into the room. He made a beeline to the window. “Isa!”

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  Nothing. Both Isa and Colin were nowhere to be seen.

  He sighed. “That’s a relief, but also, I’m fucked.” If Isa could grab him and fly him out of here, he could live to fight another day. But she’d left. While that meant she and Colin survived, it left Levi high and dry.

  “That’s okay. I’m used to making my own way.” He glanced over his shoulder. Kai stood in the doorframe, his huge frame completely blocking the small entryway. Levi whipped around and kicked the window open, then threw himself outside it. He scrambled over the pitched slate tiles, skidding his way toward the end of the roof.

  Kai reached the window. “Where are you going from there?”

  Levi waggled his brows. The Spinal Cord unwound from his body. The sharp edge cut into the wooden beam at the top of the roof, and it spooled him down, lowering him to the ground below.

  Kai snarled. He hopped out of the window and raced toward the Spinal Cord, greatsword raised to slash through the vertebrae.

  Still about ten feet from the ground, Levi gestured. The Spinal Cord yanked itself free seconds before the blade cut through it. Kai’s sword slammed into the roof beam instead. Levi hit the ground, and tile fragments rained down on him, slashing his skin. He turned and ran, spooling the Spinal Cord as he retreated. As quickly as he could, he ducked behind a nearby house, putting that between him and the big house as he ran on.

  Vox appeared at the window. “Where is he?”

  Kai shrugged. “Escaped.”

  “He can’t have gone far,” Vox snapped. “Find him!”

  Kai’s eyes narrowed. His grip on his greatsword tightened. He lowered his head just half an inch and stomped off, back inside and down the stairs.

  Levi raced for the edge of the village. After his killing spree earlier, he knew the exact path back to the wall from here. He reached the nearest gate in no time and sprinted through it, surprising the two large cannibals on the other side. The Armalgam jumped left, and the Spinal Cord took the right. The two of them went down, but only for a moment before they rose again, eyes glowing green and decidedly on Levi’s side.

  A blur of black hurtled through the air, reaching for their throats. At the last second, Isa flinched back. She landed. “Levi? You escaped?”

  “Yeah. They can’t hold down a guy like me. Where’s Colin?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Not far. I was trying to kill the last of the cannibals to trigger the boss battle, hopefully in time to keep you alive. I didn’t want to put him somewhere he couldn’t help, if I succeeded.”

  “That’s good thinking. Better than what I would’ve done.” Levi paused for a minute. He looked at the undead guards. “Er, did you succeed?”

  “At killing the guards? No. There were still these two left…”

  Both of them turned, slowly. The undead guards’ eyes glowed a ghostly green.

  “Uh huh,” Levi said.

  “Oh,” Isa said.

  He clapped. “So… boss time?”

  Isa hopped back. “I’ll go grab Colin.”

  In the distance, a deep roar echoed out. The ground shook. The cannibal village collapsed in on itself as an enormous, pale hand pierced up out of the loam. Pushing houses aside, it clawed at the surface, hauling itself free of the earth. Skin as pale as a mushroom, long, bedraggled fingernails digging troughs in the ground, the massive hand latched on and pulled. A head breeched through the ground, a few sad tendrils of hair still stuck to its scalp. Blind, cataract-covered eyes blinked at the sunlight, and a mouth full of tombstone-sized teeth gnashed at the air. Slowly, a giant climbed free of the dirt.

  Kai and Vox fled from the village and the giant alike, retreating to a safe distance at a slightly different angle than Levi and his party had taken. The two groups watched the giant rise, both of them in a temporary, unspoken truce as it pushed its way free of the dirt.

  “Now that’s a boss,” Levi muttered, half to himself.

  “And a half,” Isa agreed. She flexed her fingers, extending claws. “Be ready. This isn’t an easy fight.”

  Levi eyed the other two. “Kai’s playing both sides, but do you think Vox plays nice here?”

  “He won’t have an option. He’s not high enough level to ignore the giant. He’ll have to fight for his life, if he wants to live,” Isa replied grimly.

  Levi nodded. “That’s what I want to hear.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Ready, Colin?”

  Colin yanked off his tattered gloves and pulled a new pair on. He gave Levi a thumbs up. “As I’ll ever be.”

  “Good. It’s boss time.” Levi thumped his fist into his palm and turned to face the giant. All the undead who’d survived its emergence ran from the town and grouped up around him, ready to fight. Beside him, Isa raised her claws, and Colin gripped his staff tight.