We reached the hill base just as another explosion rocked the entire city from beneath. It came as a surprise, and it prompted me to look at Vesta, who seemed just as shocked as I was. Instinctively, I shifted my focus to Velnias, who was grinning ear to ear.

“The pacifists,” he said. “They finally did it.”

We all slowed down and turned around to look at the city of Kerentrith. The sea of daemons behind us had stopped running, too. Vesta frowned and waved the smoke curtain away to reveal the trembling mass of white marble buildings, just as a second bang erupted below.

“What’s happening?” I asked, noticing the daemons as they came to a halt, most of them no longer bothered by their companions on the front line writhing in agony as the blue flames of Druid fire consumed them.

Caia shot another Death Claw down. The creature landed somewhere to our right, its bones crushed upon impact. A third explosion tore through the underground, and we all gathered and took several steps back. I could hear the murmurs and gasps of daemons, all of them stunned and wide-eyed as they realized what was happening in Draconis below.

“The pacifists are sabotaging the support structures of the prison,” Velnias said, narrowing his eyes at the crowd of confused daemons. “What you’re looking at now is a bunch of confused idiots who don’t know whether they should keep chasing after us or go back down and see what’s going on.”

“Well, what exactly is going on?” I asked, wiping the sweat and soot from my face.

“We’ve always had this plan, you see,” Velnias said. “As long as we knew it wouldn’t all end with mass arrests and a botched rebellion, we were ready to do it. We rigged the four support pillars of Draconis a long time ago. There are hundreds of pounds of explosives embedded in the columns. We took turns hiding them and connecting the wires. It took decades to have it go unnoticed. Once you people came in and told me what your plans were, I knew… I knew it was time to do this. The one thing we’ve been waiting for.”

The fourth explosion startled us. It came from the underground pillars that were closest to our location. The ground shuddered beneath us, prompting me to grab Caspian’s shoulder for support. It was then that I understood the length to which the daemon pacifists were willing to go for the sake of a new world that didn’t involve eating souls and tormenting innocent creatures. They were bringing their entire city down, in the name of freedom.

They were ready to kill scores of their own, as long as they had the guarantee, or at least enough faith, that someone would help them bring the entire regime of King Shaytan and the Exiled Maras down. We were the outside force they’d been waiting for.

“And now, we need to go,” Velnias added, staring at the daemons. “They’re about to find out the speed with which an underground city can collapse in on itself.”

We didn’t wait for him to say that again. We darted off to the right, running along the base of the hill, as the entire city of Kerentrith crumbled, all at once, like a majestic sandcastle suddenly left without a beach to stand on.

I could hear Draconis howling underneath as its domed ceiling came down. I could only imagine what it must look like from up close. The surface daemons roared with fury and dread, struggling to reach the base but failing miserably as the stone pavement cracked under their feet, then opened up and swallowed them whole.

We kept running, with some surviving daemons stumbling onto the ground level and scrambling to get to us, though the smoke made it difficult for them to figure out where we’d gone. They were probably in shock, anyway. Their entire city had been blown apart, from top to bottom. I doubted they had any mental strength left to come after us. And, if they did, they were far too enraged to try to take us alive. They were bound to ache for revenge, and rage was something that always made it easier for me to kill them. Rage made them reckless and predictable.

“Most of us went to prison before we could link the pillars to the main detonator,” Velnias continued. “Once Cayn interrupted us the other day, and my identity as a pacifist was revealed, I had to finish the job before they got to me. I didn’t think you crazy kids would come back, though. Imagine my surprise when I saw this little vampire sneaking into Zane’s cell, just as I was about to do the same,” he chuckled, pointing at Fiona. “I knew then that you’d set up base somewhere close in that palace library, so I left word with the others and went upstairs, only to find Vesta and Laughlan fumbling with fuses.”

“Were there any escape routes for the prisoners?” Hansa asked, running closely behind me. “The city is surrounded by lava lakes. If they have nowhere to go when the city comes down—”

“There are three tunnels leading out of Draconis, beneath the lava lakes,” Velnias replied. “We’ve had centuries to think it all through.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the destruction unfolding to our left, as the collapse spurted giant rolls of dust and ashes all around the hill.

“They probably got as many of them out as they could before we detonated the tunnel,” Velnias added. “I didn’t have time to warn the pacifists about it, as I’d already come to the surface and both Laughlan and Vesta needed some help with the wiring, but they figured it out. We were always ready to sacrifice ourselves and the others, anyway. We’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but we had to. They had to. We couldn’t let Draconis come after you.”

My stomach churned painfully, thinking about the prisoners who most likely didn’t make it. From what I could remember about the city’s layout, the outer meranium boxes were probably going to survive the collapse. Most of them, anyway, depending on the force with which the ceiling came down on them.

The central penitentiary was doomed, as it stood in the middle. The ceiling was at its highest point above it, and, by the basic laws of gravity, that height gave it time to increase its speed in the fall. The building was bound to crumble beneath the chunks of black stone.

“Are there any mechanisms in place to evacuate the penitentiary?” I asked.

“There should be,” Zane interjected. “All prisons have them, including the small one in Infernis. But it won’t guarantee that they’ll all survive. Many are too weak to move, anyway, after having their souls nibbled on. Besides, there wasn’t enough time to evacuate everyone.”

If they spent so long planning for such an uprising, I had to hope that they’d also planned their escape routes from the prison cells to the three tunnels beneath the lava lake. It was the only thought that gave me some sort of comfort as we made our way back to the western gate.

“One thing I can guarantee is that the pacifists will have definitely tried to get as many creatures out as possible,” Zane added, noticing my furrowed brow.

“This really was our best shot to secure your escape from Draconis,” Velnias said, though I could hear the sadness in his voice. He wasn’t pleased with the choices he’d had to make, but we were at war here. Unpopular decisions had to be made. Some people had to be left to die in order to ensure the survival of the many.

Once we got Lumi out, everything would change for Neraka and we’d be able to go back home. As bad as it felt in that moment, I took my sadness and turned it into strength and determination. “No one will have died in vain, I promise you that,” I muttered. “We will free this world and end this reign of terror.”

Blue flames exploded behind us as Laughlan and Ryker took out several of the surviving daemons still chasing after us.

“I’ve got to give them credit,” Laughlan said, slightly amused. “They’re really persistent.”

“That will change once the king falls,” Velnias replied. “They’re all brainwashed into thinking there is no life without eating souls. That the weak must suffer and die, while the strong will thrive and live forever. It needs to stop. It’s time we stop it.”

“Oh, rest assured,” I scoffed, “this ends with us, one way or another!”

The whole of Kerentrith finally came down then, with the sound of a thousand thunders banging as the city was utterly destroyed. The fires were swallowed by ashes and dust, with black clouds billowing from beneath. Rays of orange light pierced through the mass of rubble, flickers from the lava lakes below that consumed every pebble and every chunk of Kerentrith freefalling in the process.

The dark blue sky above was covered in smoke, the myriad of stars and the first moon vanishing beneath the blackness, while we kept running. It truly was a sight to behold, though not a cause for celebration, but rather a reminder that even the mightiest could fall, if hit in the right spots.

Kerentrith had sacrificed itself for us.

I had every intention to make sure it wasn’t for nothing.