Morvane's blood sword froze above Ethan's head, hovering there—refusing to fall.
The king's massive body started to tremble.
The power he'd just swallowed stopped growing in a steady climb. Instead, it slammed around inside him from every direction. White lightning tore through the black fog, and purple-red afterglow kept leaking from his chest and abdomen like cracks in a failing seal.
Morvane tried to tighten his grip on the hilt.
His arm wouldn't respond.
His body had already swollen to its limit. There was nowhere left to put that much energy.
Ethan looked up at him.
It was over. The ending had already been decided.
The next instant, a muffled blast sounded from inside Morvane's body.
BOOM!
That enormous frame ruptured from within.
The towering blood sword shattered with it.
Morvane broke apart into countless multicolored motes of light, drifting down over the entire island from high above—like rain at last, rain that didn't carry the stink of death.
