u/Potential_Being6117

(First half can be found here)

Part 8 - What The Deuce?

More Sanctuaries turn over the globe, with the Kith swarms being dealt with one by one. Several of Ravel's supporters had been ingrained in the Sanctuary so long that they'd already elevated themselves to high positions, with some even being Elders. Ravel's politician friends would smooth over mortal relations as best they could, whilst his friends in the Sanctuaries who'd taken up high positions over the years acted to further Ravel's agenda. He was revealing magic to the world in a way even better than his original plan, and with magic exposed, the Children of the Spiders could come out of hiding, satisfying Mist.

A meeting is held between him and the Spiders to discuss their success, and Deuce and Ghastly find themselves near it, having tailed Ravel since Deuce felt something was off with him. During their meeting, Portia makes a snide remark about Marr and how she'd never suspected she was lying with the traitor she'd been searching for all along, causing Ravel to punch him. Stunned, Deuce and Ghastly move to back away, but are revealed, causing an emotional battle to break out.

Portia, Syc, and Vizor attack whilst Mist hangs back, and Ravel, not wanting to hurt them but unwilling to let Marr's death be in vain, goes for Deuce. Deuce is outraged, asking why he betrayed them, and Ravel argues right back, saying he was stuck in the past. Always telling people to limit themselves for the sake of mortals, but magic wasn't something which should be pushed down. It should be allowed to thrive, open and without shame, no matter the cost. When Deuce asks if that meant his own lover, Ravel says yes. And he'd do the same to his mentor if needed.

Ghastly fights well against two Spiders, but barely manages to keep up. Deuce fights fiercely and manages to kill Syc in an elemental display, though is shortly beaten by Ravel and goes down. Ravel tells him that he'd always been charismatic, and if he escaped, then he couldn't say for sure there wasn't a chance he'd undo all Ravel's work. He couldn't allow that.

"You were like a son to me."

"I know... and I'm sorry."

Ravel ends Deuce. Portia and Vizor are about to kill Ghastly as revenge for Syc, but Ravel stops them, saying he'd be kept prisoner until mortal-magic relations had stabilised and it was too late to do anything. Mist, knowing it wasn't worth it to make enemies of Ravel now, orders them to stand down. Reluctantly, they obey, and when Ghastly demands to know how he could do this, Ravel just says all of them had to make sacrifices for the sake of a better world. He was just making his.

Part 9 - Rising Armaggedon

Darquesse has been feeling unhappy since the confrontation at the pyramid. She sneaks into Roarhaven, knowing she'd be attacked immediately if sighted, and goes to Argeddion's prison near the Accelerator. She couldn't find the Obsidian Blade, but wanted to make sure all threats to her were gone. She meets the Engineer, who is refreshingly unafraid of her, and learns that it was due to explode in mere days. After everything that's happened, she briefly considers entering the Accelerator, since she didn't seem to have anyone left. But the thought is quickly cast aside. She didn't come here to die. She goes to Argeddion, one of the few people who could kill her. He'd let Kitana and her friends run amok, taking countless innocent lives, and with the Accelerator about to explode, his prison wouldn't hold for long. Feeling justified in his death, she burns him up, ending the one person who could stop her once and for all.

Elsewhere, Elsie is in Dublin with the Necromancers, Fletcher, and Razzia, having been tasked with helping slay the Kith forces with her. She's charging a fire stream when suddenly her magic leaves her, and she's swarmed by Kith. Argeddion had died, taking her powers with him. She's about to be torn apart, but is saved by Melancholia at the last second, who shreds every Kith in the area.

Skulduggery goes to the reflection, wanting to know how to stop Darquesse, but she is quick to correct him. He speaks of them like they're different personalities, and Valkyrie just needed to wake up again, but he's wrong. At one point, they were separate, but time and Darquesse's repeated awakenings had caused them to fuse. He asks the reflection how they can save Valkyrie, and the reflection says she doesn't know.

With Sult, he'd returned to America with Brate, only to find his position in the Sanctuary undermined by Zefira Kerias, who was acting under Ravel's orders to end him and take control of the American Sanctuary. She tries to ambush him, but he manages to flee with Whisper's help, leaving her behind as he escapes to Dublin with Brate. However, upon learning that Sult had more-or-less been usurped, Brate realises there was no money in it for him anymore and teleports away. Sult, suspecting that Ravel set things up, steals a car and drives to Roarhaven to confront Ravel himself.

Scapegrace's group, having seen Deuce die and Ghastly be captured, comes forward to the reflection, and thus Skulduggery, who'd been feeling suspicious about Ravel himself. As this is being declared, Sult arrives, having lost everything and wanting to take Ravel down. He makes a deal with Skulduggery to stop Ravel and leaves with Tanith and Sanguine to save Ghastly, jibbing them over the death of Bisahalani. They sneak in to get Ghastly out, reaching his cell. But Ravel had been cautious, and kept Carol on hand along with Vizor just in case Skulduggery put the dots together, counting on his fellow Dead Man's intellect.

Threatened by the Sceptre, Sanguine retreats with an unwilling Tanith, leaving Sult and Skulduggery on their own. Skulduggery tries to reason with Carol, to tell her about Deuce and Marr's deaths, but she knew about his history as Vile, and when added onto what happened with her cousin, she doesn't take his word for it. Sult loses his cool and tries to attack, but is no match for Ravel and a Spider at the same time. He's stabbed in the heart with a dagger made of ice, calling Ravel a filthy bastard before he dies. Ravel doesn't repute him.

Ravel throws Skulduggery in a cell with Ghastly, saying they could leave once things had stabilised. After enduring their verbal wrath, he leaves.

Part 10 - Falling Low

In the cell, Skulduggery tries to make a joke, but Ghastly isn't laughing. The two speak, and everything that Ghastly had been holding back at Skulduggery comes out, until the reflection appears and frees them. She'd snuck in with the help of Weeper, who was enraged by the death of Deuce and Marr, and wanted to help. Along the way, they also reunite with Sanguine and Tanith, who'd come back at her insistence, and even nabbed the Obsidian Blade from its storage in the process. They make to leave and find the other Dead Men to come back and handle Ravel, but find themselves obstructed by Portia, Vizor, the Black Cleaver, and Nye.

Weeper is angered and tries to throw himself at the Black Cleaver, but is swatted aside. Ghastly, Sanguine, and Tanith strike at the Black Cleaver together, who defends Nye, whilst the reflection and Skulduggery handle the Spiders. At first, things are even, but the commotion is great and Ravel soon appears with Carol and Mist at his back. He tells Skulduggery to stand down, and naturally he refuses.

Nye flees and Ghastly, Sanguine, and Tanith engage the Cleaver together in a gnarly three-way duel. It more than holds its own now that it doesn't have to worry about Nye, shadow-walking the three of them away, and once again proves to be too much for them to handle. It beats them all back, the Obsidian Blade leaving Tanith's hand. She says that she loves them, the target of her affection dubious, but for a moment Ghastly sees his Tanith, and not the Remnant-possessed madwoman who'd indirectly started a war. The woman he fell in love with. And then her head is taken off by the Black Cleaver, and his heart breaks all over again.

Ghastly picks up the Obsidian Blade and, with help from Sanguine, shoves it through the Cleaver's chest, absorbing its soul and turning it into a shell that Ghastly burns to ashes. Nye tries to run off, but Sanguine catches up to it with Ghastly. Left cornered, it begs for its life and Ghastly tells it to explain Ravel's plan, recording the whole thing. Ghastly keeps his word, but Sanguine never promised anything, and tunnels his hand into Nye's chest, scrambling its inner organs and leaving it to die slowly.

Skulduggery and Ghastly is with the reflection again Ravel, Carol, and the Spiders, and were losing. Badly. The reflection tries to reason with Carol, who actually hesitates and starts to doubt Ravel, though she's disrupted by Portia, who injures and is about to kill the reflection. In seeing the image of Valkyrie about to be killed, Skulduggery's internal conflict comes to a peak, and he unleashes his shadows, skewering Portia and saving the reflection. Vizor tries to do the same, but is killed, and the same happens to Mist. Carol tries to fire the Sceptre, but the reflection gets in the way of it, and it does nothing.

Vile tries to attack Carol, but Ravel saves her and gets injured himself, forcing the two of them to retreat. The reflection is approached by Vile, but then a grim Sanguine and Ghastly emerge. Ghastly gets in Vile's way, staring him down.

"Will you kill me like you killed my mother, Skulduggery?"

Vile's shadows withdrawn and Skulduggery comes back. He tries to apologise, but Ghastly just tells him to get up. He does, and all of them go after Carol. Whilst this is going on, Carol is dragging Ravel through Roarhaven. As they're running, she questions him. He hesitates, but ultimately lies again. Carol isn't completely fooled, but she also isn't able to accept the mentor she'd been following was a ruthless killer. She chooses to believe him and returns with Ravel to the house where the Edgleys had been staying to recover. She enters to find Darquesse.

Part 11 - Judgement

After killing Argeddion, Darquesse felt low. She wanted reassurance that she was still loved. She sneaks around and goes to see her father, who's with Alice, Beryl and Fergus. Echo-Gordon is there too. She tries to be normal with them, but it's no use. Desmond pleads for her to come home, Fergus and Beryl unleash the anger at her for keeping the death of Crystal from them, and Gordon tries to calm the situation to no avail. Things only gets worse when Carol and Ravel arrive at the house, the both of them wary of Darquesse, adding to her inner turmoil. The arrival of Skulduggery and the others, with him having deduced where Carol was heading, wasn't helping anyone. Everyone is speaking at Darquesse, all in different tones, until she's overwhelmed and black fire starts to creep.

Carol fires a black lightning bolt on reflex, but because it can't harm an Ancient, it does nothing. Nothing except set Darquesse off, that is.

Darquesse takes the Sceptre away from Carol and erases it from existence in a display that destroys the house. The commotion draws attention to Fletcher and many of their other allies, including Saracen and Dexter, the Monster Hunters with Elsie and Razzia, plus Melancholia and Solomon, who'd returned to Roarhaven via teleportation shortly before this. The Kith were largely handled, so they'd left their remaining forces behind to handle the stragglers, wanting to investigate what happened to Argeddion. They see Darquesse and a crowd of citizens forms against her. A hostile one.

Faced with so many people, all of them wanting to attack her, Darquesse reveals that she'd destroyed all the God-Killers and slayed Argeddion, hoping they'd fear her enough to stand down. And this does get the smarter ones to submit, but several citizens of Roarhaven are only enraged further by this and crowd at Darquesse whilst spitting venom, attacking as one. She strikes right back, unwilling to take their resentment lying down, and people start to die as she unleashes a wave of black fire.

Dozens of people are killed. Everyone is looking at Darquesse like she's a monster, and she hates it. She makes this dislike audible, and gets a hole blasted through her by Dexter, who acts in response to her aggression. Orders are being yelled as he moves, the Monster Hunters following, and Fletcher starts to teleport people away, wanting to get them away from Darquesse. As she regenerates, she is hurt. She thought they were friends, but looking around, she realises she had no one left. No one except enemies. She has another outburst that kills Dexter and Donegan, and almost kills Gracious, however Fletcher is able to teleport him out just in time. But his arm was grazed by those flames. Once lit, that fire would spread until it consumed him. He couldn't put them out. Not without a sacrifice. He uses a portal to sever his own arm, leaving him mutilated.

Something inside of Darquesse snaps. She tries to apologise to Fletcher, but he pulls away, and she sees the hatred in Gracious' eyes. When the reflection's group arrives, she sees the looks her family was sending her. That her dad was sending her. Unable to stand them, she feels like the world is against her and wants to teach it a lesson. To teach them never to so much as look at her wrong again. She screams and unleashes an explosion of light follows that flattens Roarhaven.

Part 12 - Remains

Darquesse flies off after destroying Roarhaven, leaving the survivors to pick up the pieces. Melancholia managed to shield those closest to her with a dome of darkness, but hundreds of people were dead. Over a thousand. Ghastly and Sanguine reunite with the main group at last, showing Nye's confession to Ravel's betrayal to the group, causing Carol to realise he'd just been using her. She leaves his side and goes to her parents.

Left alone, Ravel's explanation of having built a city in secret to replace this destroyed one is cut off by Skulduggery shooting him in the chest. He's about to finish the job, but is stopped by Saracen. His betrayal and the death of Deuce is explained, but even then, Saracen still won't let Skulduggery kill Ravel. He'd just lost Dexter, and the idea of losing another Dead Man today was more than he could take. He tells Skulduggery that if he kills Ravel, that was it for them, then leaves to go find Dexter's family and tell them what happened. Skulduggery is about to kill Ravel anyway, but is surprisingly stopped by Ghastly, who tells him that Ravel could still be of use to them with his contacts and the replacement city for Roarhaven. Too much was at stake to just off him. Besides, killing Ravel after all this would be a mercy. Skulduggery puts his gun away.

A clean-up takes place, amongst which is Scapegrace's group. Their pub had been destroyed, but they were eager to help and bring the wounded to Clarabelle, who heals all her patients as best she can. The Necromancers led by Melancholia are also there to offer their aid, and Solomon even thinks about what to do with all of them, given many of them had betrayed their home countries to flock to their Death Bringer's side. He thinks about opening a Temple. High Priest Wreath did have quite a nice ring to it. The mortal ambassadors also arrive to find the city destroyed, and in seeing the hard times their fellow human beings were coming across, call humanitarian aid.

Fletcher is dealing with his loss of limb, though Gracious manages to offer some comfort since he'd lost an eye. He apologises for not saving Donegan too, but Gracious just hugs him. He tells Fletcher that sometimes the best way to help yourself is to help someone else, encouraging him to help with the cleanup, and the two head out to do their part. Elsie joins, despite being mortal again, and Razzia does the same because she doesn't want to be left out. She asks if some of the corpses can be fed to Hansel and Gretel, and gets a resounding no.

The reflection is found by Desmond. Alice is with him. He's not sure how to process what Darquesse had just done, and neither can the reflection. It was a living nightmare. Skulduggery approaches them and says that he was going to handle Darquesse, then goes to Ghastly, who'd assumed command given all the Elders were dead and Ravel was a traitor. He tells Skulduggery that he was going to face punishment for his crimes, both as Vile and for keeping Darquesse a secret. Skulduggery doesn't argue, but instead asks for a chance to fix the mess he'd created, and to give his life to the Accelerator once it was done. He tells Ghastly his plan and is begrudgingly allowed, with Ghastly even giving him the Obsidian Blade for the job. He goes to the Accelerator Room, pushing it to its absolute limit. The Engineer tells him just a few hours were left on its countdown, but he wasn't worried. By then, he planned on being back to offer his own soul.

Part 13 - Until The End

It wasn't hard for Skulduggery to find Darquesse. He knew her too well. He arrives at Gordon's mansion and finds her in the living room. It looked exactly the same as on the day they'd met. The two have one final conversation, where they're almost like normal asides from the building tension, but the illusion comes crashing down when Skulduggery unsheathes the Obsidian Blade. He reminds Valkyrie that he wished he stayed dead when Serpine killed him, before he became Lord Vile, and he was sorry, but he had a promise to fulfil. She is silent, then asks if he hated her like everyone else, and he shakes his head. He could never hate her. She'd always be his partner, right up to the moment he killed her.

"Until the end."

"...until the very end, partner."

Skulduggery transforms into Lord Vile, his armour and magic supercharged by the Accelerator, and with an explosion of shadows that obliterates Gordon's mansion, the two begin a battle to the death. The ground crumbles and shatters, exposing the entrance to the caves below, and during their fight they dive into it, killing countless magical creatures in their proceeding struggle. It was a glorious battle where Vile's undead nature works in his favour, as Darquesse's black flames were useless, and his Necromancy is stronger than ever before. During their fight, a hidden section of the cave is destroyed, and a massive dragon emerges from it and flies into the sky, halting them both for a moment. Magic truly was incredible.

But with an explosion of light, Lord Vile's shadows are tamed, and a battered, bare skeleton is all that remains. Darquesse had beaten Skulduggery. With the Obsidian Blade kicked aside, Darquesse approaches a downed Skulduggery, who asks if she could really destroy the world. She says that at first she didn't think so, but considering all that she'd managed to do at this point, she thinks she could if pushed. And everyone seemed intent on pushing her. If they died, it was their own fault.

She makes to kill him, but before then, the reflection arrives with the help of Fletcher. She picks up the Obsidian Blade and approaches Darquesse, but when their eyes lock, she sees how little light there was inside them. It had been buried by all this destruction, pain, and power. She drops the Obsidian Blade and chooses to hug Darquesse, who is confused, but doesn't push away. The reflection says that she forgives Darquesse, and that she doesn't hate her or want to fight her. They were still friends, despite everything. Darquesse, in looking at Fletcher who'd been mutilated because of her, and Skulduggery who'd tried to kill her, tries to bury the guilt. She tries to push the responsibility onto other people, even blaming 'Darquesse', but the reflection corrects her. They didn't kill those people. Valkyrie did.

Anger flares, but Darquesse quickly breaks down, crying. Realising what she'd done, and as an act of self-loathing, she uses her powers to target the dark power she absorbed all those years ago and destroy it. Along with her magic.

Valkyrie collapses, being left magicless and mortal. Skulduggery asks for Valkyrie to take him to the Accelerator, since it was on the brink, but she leaves him. She goes to Fletcher, who's beyond simply hating her at this point, and asks for him to take them to the Accelerator. She wanted to do something right for once. Wanting to be rid of her, he complies and takes Valkyrie, defying Skulduggery who wanted to go there in her place.

As they go, the reflection links up with them and arrives in the Accelerator room. Knowing that Fletcher would try to stop what she was about to do, the reflection apologises and knocks him out, leaving her and Valkyrie alone. She tells Valkyrie that she wasn't lying when she said she didn't want to let Valkyrie die, and wanted to save her friend no matter what. She planned on being the one to sacrifice herself. Believing she had a soul, she declares that she was no longer just a mere reflection of Valkyrie, but her own person now. A person named Prism.

Valkyrie was touched that the reflection- no, Prism, was willing to save her even after all she'd done. But she also wasn't about to let her only friend and sister die in her place and a magicless brawl breaks out. The two are desperate to save the other, and fight with a brutal lack of restraint, perfect equals. It ends when Valkyrie gets a lucky shot and gets Prism down for the count, limping towards the Accelerator with broken ribs, intent on ending her own and everyone else's torment. But then Desmond emerges.

Desmond tells Valkyrie that Edgleys never took the easy way out. It was unlike them. Yes, she was technically not an Edgley anymore, but semantics. He wasn't letting any of his daughters die. She desperately tries to move him, but she was left too weak. Desmond tells Valkyrie that he loved her, and he'd say hi to their mother for them, and tells Prism she was as much a real person as anyone else, then walks into the Accelerator, shutting it down at the cost of his own life.

Part 14 - Dawn Breaks

The 'death' of Darquesse was spread throughout Roarhaven, but it was a cold comfort. Over a thousand people remained dead. Mortals were working alongside Sorcerers to help the survivors, and the ambassadors were looking for a representative of the Sorcerers to collaborate with and smoothen things over. As a mortal that had close ties to the magical community, Elsie steps up to become that representative, speaking on behalf of both mortal and Sorcerer, given she'd been one for a time.

Guild once more shuts down the Exigency Program, this time permanently, discharging Serrate from service to follow his own path. He's offered to take up the position of Grand Mage again, as he was the only one with experience in this department, but time alone with his daughter, Iris, had tempered him. He declines, wishing to live a quieter, less violent life and be there for his daughter.

With a heavy heart and with nobody else to shoulder the burden, Ghastly steps up as Grand Mage, choosing to install Saracen and Shudder as his Elders, since they were the only Dead Men left alive who he could trust. Their reputation was exactly what was needed to create some order. Creyfon Signate is imprisoned, but like in canon he was oblivious to Ravel's actions and, horrified by what he'd done, cooperates with them and shunts the city they'd been constructing into the Prime Dimension. It was deemed New Roarhaven, and Signate earns his freedom, becoming a Sanctuary agent. A grave is made for Tanith at Ghastly's request, and Sanguine visits it, where him and Ghastly speak about her. After trading insults, he tells Ghastly that if he ever needed a Hitman Deluxe, he was open for business, then tunnels away.

Ravel is shoved into a cell for his crimes, but not executed. His supporters were too numerous to count, and many were in high places. Everything could fall apart if he was killed. Even just his imprisonment angers them, but Ravel orders them to cooperate with Ghastly for the greater good. He'd made his bed, and he deserved to lie in it, even if that bed was in a prison cell. He's visited by Carol, who slaps him and demands to know if he was using her, and with some pushing, he reluctantly answers yes. He tries to assure her that he did care, but Carol leaves, though not before telling him that if people he cared about all ended up like Deuce and Marr, then she preferred just being a pawn to him.

It's not only Ravel that's thrown in prison. Ghastly's conflicted feelings meant that he didn't want Skulduggery dead, but people had been asking for him to be punished for a while, and Ghastly was one of them. Tanith's death had embittered him. He makes good on his earlier words and throws Skulduggery into a cell next to Ravel, saying the traitors could talk amongst themselves, denouncing them as his friends and shutting the door. Skulduggery doesn't resist, though does refuse any and all olive branches offered to him by Ravel.

Following this, Fletcher finds Ghastly. Ghastly assures him that no expense would be paid to get him a prosthetic hand. But it's not that. He wonders how he could have ever loved Valkyrie when she was so twisted deep down. In response, Ghastly states that bitterness and hatred didn't suit him, and Fletcher asks why not, since being considerate had never gotten him anything. Ghastly tells him that was the thought process of a weak man. People like Valkyrie and Skulduggery, despite all their power, were weak because they gave into their darkness. He tells Fletcher not to be weak, and they hug, both shedding tears over their losses.

A funeral is held for Desmond in Haggard, one where Prism is present with Alice, knowing she'd have to take care of her sister on her own from now on. Echo-Gordon is even in attendance, acting as emotional support. Beryl assures Prism that they didn't hold her accountable for Darquesse's actions, stating that Melissa was her best friend. Only friend, since she wasn't really very likeable. Hearing this causes Prism to cry, and she hugs Beryl.

Valkyrie is there too, albeit watching from a distance. She couldn't face her family, but had to be there. But Carol notices her. Valkyrie tells Carol that she was going somewhere far, far away from here, and they'd never have to see her again. Carol, knowing she had little room to judge too harshly given she'd helped Ravel, lets her go and returns to the funeral, choosing not to say anything.

AN: And that's a wrap for the first nine books! Oh man, oh man, what a journey this has been, though I'm not quite done yet. I've had too much of a blast writing this for it to end, and there are still so many loose ends to tie up. No rest for the wicked, and all that.

Book 1(The Last of the Ancients)
Book 2(Dancing with Darkness)
Book 3(The Cursed One)
Book 4(Desolation)
Book 5(Divine Judgement)
Sidestory(Tanith Low)
Book 6(Requiem)
Sidestory(Fletcher Renn)
Book 7(Rise of the Wicked)
Book 8(Fall of a Dead Man)
Sidestory(China Sorrows)
Book 9(Burying the Light)

Alright, this is the end of the 'Judgement Day' trilogy, incorporating elements of LSoDM where I can because I love that book. Whilst there will be one more trilogy after this one, this is technically the canon 'rewrite' since everything after this will be more-or-less original material. A good number of OCs will feature, mostly to spice things up at certain points and to fill roles that aren't there in canon characters, plus a decent bit of Phase 2. Hope you enjoy both parts!

Book 9 - Burying the Light(2013)

(Main Villain: Darquesse)

Part 1 - Goldeneye

The book kicks things off over a month after the end of Fall of a Dead Man, and starts the prologue with a chapter from Ravel's perspective for the first time as himself, and not the man with golden eyes. Ravel is with the Children of the Spiders, led by Mist, and they're discussing their new plan, one which might actually work better than the original. With the Warlocks in no condition to fulfil their role after Charivari's death, they've decided to substitute them with the Kith, and with some help from Nye, they'd managed to track down more of the Kith clusters whilst rigging them to awaken with the flip of a switch. He didn't see Sorcerers as superior, but knew that with advancing technology, the reveal of magic was a question of when, not if, so he hoped that by engineering it himself, he'd at least be able to control and mitigate the fallout. But the Sorcerer world was in no condition to be exposed right now, as the image of war wasn't what needed to be given to them for optimal mortal-magic relations. He planned on fixing that.

The conflict between Ireland and the other Sanctuaries has been simmering, with Darquesse's arrival and Skulduggery being Vile acting like a constantly fog over everyone's mind, on top of the War of the Sanctuaries which had been raging for months now. Instead of being out there in the action, Skulduggery was confined to house arrest. Instead of seeing him, we follow a series of battles between Ireland and the Supreme Council, which mostly consists of European Countries and America, along with some from Africa. General Mantis was as unrelenting as in canon, if not more so, forcing Corrival Deuce to take up the mantle of General once more to counter him.

Saddled with leadership, in some ways above even Ravel, Deuce made the call to pardon Guild from his house arrest and bring him back into the fold, as they needed every asset possible. Guild was a bit hesitant, since being left to raise his daughter by himself for a few years had softened him, and he wasn't looking forward to a life of violence again. He'd lost his spark. But he knew what was at stake and reluctantly gathers whatever scraps remained from the old Exigency Program together. There weren't many given how many years it had been disbanded for, most were dead or had found other lines of work as assassins or mercenaries, but amongst the available was his old second-in-command, Uriah Serrate, a cold, ruthless glaive-wielding Necromancer. With Skulduggery's secret coming out, and Ravel as Grand Mage, Ghastly starts acting as the Dead Men's field leader, corresponding with Guild to sabotage the Supreme Council's efforts behind the scenes.

Fletcher is a central part of Ireland's tactics within the War of the Sanctuaries much like in Last Stand of Dead Men, but in addition to Mantis' forces, an American Teleporter by the name of Adam Brate was hired by Sult to help them, much like he did Whisper. He escaped Batu's Teleporter culling because he was in prison whilst it went on, but after experiencing numerous losses at Fletcher's hand, Sult offered immunity to Brate if he helped the Supreme Council counter Fletcher. Brate accepts for freedom, money, and possibly the chance to kill Fletcher. It was nothing personal, but being the only Teleporter in the world would make his services priceless.

Through Guild's spies, an attack is made on a harbour in New York, where the Supreme Council wanted to dispatch their forces to land in Ireland. Fletcher, Razzia, Dexter, and Saracen sneak by with the aid of Serrate, who helps them by shadow-walking them into the ships with Saracen's help to plant the bombs. It's revealed that Saracen's Discipline gave him X-Ray vision here. He was just a Lynceus. Dexter is a bit underwhelmed, but Fletcher thinks it's kind of cool and pretty handy, earning a high-five. Razzia tactlessly asks if he can see people naked whenever he wants and Saracen refuses to answer that one.

With Saracen's help, they plant the bombs in vulnerable spots to sabotage and sink the ships, but end up being caught in an ambush. Brate is amongst them, along with Whisper, but also Gepard, Adrasdos, and several others. Gepard was put in charge, and tells Dexter to hand over the detonator and escape whilst he had the chance. When he refuses and blows the ships up, setting the council back, Gepard goes for Dexter, who's backed by Saracen and Razzia. Whisper and Adrasdos double-team Serrate, who proves his skill by handling them both single-handed. Brate does his job and engages Fletcher in a Teleporter bout.

"You should know, this is nothing personal kid, just good business."

"And you should know that's not original."

Despite his portal powers and immense talent, Brate's experience shows and he grapples Fletcher. The two of them return to the harbour, and he's about to have his neck snapped, but is saved last second by Razzia, whose Gists bite off a few of his fingers. He teleports away in a rage, swearing to pay her back. Serrate slays Adrasdos, forcing Whisper to retreat, whilst Dexter and Saracen wound and incapacitate Gepard and the rest of his men, but don't kill. It was unnecessary. They manage to escape with Fletcher, but the worst was yet to come.

Part 2 - The Night of Knives

With the reflection, she's been living quietly with Desmond and Alice in Roarhaven as the war raged, even meeting with Scapegrace's group at some point when they went to his pub when she showed him around Roarhaven. He/she joked about having tried to kill Valkyrie once, and Desmond isn't amused. The Engineer is at the pub, working as a bartender in its spare time, though has the nasty habit of asking everyone it meets if they'd like to offer their soul to the Accelerator, putting them off. The reflection believes she has a soul and contemplates offering her own, but is dissuaded from Desmond, who'd grown attached to the reflection and couldn't bear to lose anyone else.

After this, the reflection decides to come clean about another matter that Valkyrie had kept hidden from them: Echo-Gordon. She brings the Echo Stone containing Gordon to her father and Fergus, with him and Beryl having been brought to Roarhaven so the council didn't use them to get to Carol for the Sceptre. The Edgley brothers reunite, and Gordon even gets to finally meet Alice. It's sweet, but the heavy matter of Darquesse is brought up, and Desmond becomes distraught. The reflection promises that she'll do everything she could to bring Valkyrie back to him, not because she was a servant to Valkyrie, but because she was family.

With Brate's help, a mass-attack is orchestrated on the Sensitives of Ireland via assassins, and they manage to do so with the help via a group of Sensitive-linked septuplets called the Seven-As-One, who cause a widespread wave of magic across Ireland that scrambles the powers of all Sensitives temporarily, making them vulnerable in an event which would become known as the "Night of Knives". Finbar, whose an especially powerful Sensitive, manages to survive via a poisoned mug of tea, but the same cannot be said for Cassandra. She's assassinated by Whisper. This was the first time she'd come back to Ireland since she left the Temple. Since she left her despicable father, Craven. In her final moments, Cassandra asks for her eyes to be closed so that it just looked like she was sleeping. Once dead, Whisper complies with that request and leaves.

In light of these losses and the council's additions, Deuce is trying to think of a solution to give them an edge. With China Sorrows missing, he needed the help of a Signum Linguist to stop Roarhaven from being infiltrated, so at the very least an army couldn't just appear in their back garden. He gets into contact with Uther Peccant, who was a sigil master, and after being brought to Roarhaven, Peccant taps into the barrier to create a perimeter that bans Teleportation directly into the city. However, if the barrier was destroyed, all bets would be off. Peccant also goes to Fletcher and carves a sigil onto him that would stop the barrier from keeping him out.

Whilst Peccant is working his magic, Deuce learns that Clarabelle has been secretly supplying Moloch and his Vampires with serum and had built up a bit of a rapport with them. This incites him to go to Moloch, where he strikes a deal to gain the aid of the Vampires by offering them another block of flats once Roarhaven was rebuilt. If that wasn't enough, Mist brings the Children of the Spiders out to help out. Of them is Syc, a Spider who possesses poisoned nails and claws, Portia, who can extend four spider leg-like limbs from her back, and Vizor(OC), who can eject webs from her wrists. Ravel goes over Deuce's head and promises the Spiders that, if they help, they could take residence in Roarhaven out in the open, and given there weren't many options, Deuce is convinced to agree.

Solomon is with Melancholia, routinely checking up on her like had become usual, both out of guilt and her connection to his teacher. But whilst there, Darquesse visits. He's on guard, but it turned out that she was weighed down by the guilt of what she'd done to Melancholia, feeling like her past actions were on her head. She wakes Melancholia up, and after a brief reunion where she explains what happened, she's disappointed to see that even the Death Bringer can't understand her and leaves. Now alone, Solomon apologises to Melancholia and, after a bitter conversation where she learns of her heritage, Solomon comes up with a plan to keep the Irish Sanctuary off her back.

Part 3 - The Darkness of Warfare

The Midnight Hotel is struck by Mantis, but Tanith and Sanguine had infiltrated the American Sanctuary and learn of their plan beforehand. But they're discovered by Sult, who easily recognised his teacher's killers. Tanith is captured whilst Sanguine manages to escape and warn Ireland of Mantis' plans. Mantis was also laying a siege on Roarhaven as this was happening with Brate's help, aiming to attack the Irish from both inside and outside Roarhaven to take the city in a seamless pincer. This forces the Irish to divide their forces.

Fletcher rendezvous with Sanguine along with Shudder, Razzia, and the Monster Hunters, their aim being to take the Midnight Hotel back in America. Gracious brought a bomb in case worse came to worse and they needed to destroy the hotel, but Shudder is vehemently opposed to the idea. Although the circumstances were grave, Shudder takes an interest in Razzia and her Gist-based abilities, though she herself finds his words on restraint and self-control boring. He might've chosen the Discipline and adapted to it, but she was a Natural, born into Gisting, and didn't see an issue with her murderous impulses. This opinion earns the disapproval of Fletcher, and she tries to brush him off, but his words still sting.

Mantis' forces had managed to take control of the Midnight Hotel's shifts with the help of NJ Maverick, who is not China's student like in canon, but a Signum Linguist under the Supreme Council's command. Acting as NJ's bodyguard is yet another mercenary, a rare Arborkinetic named Toxin(OC) who demonstrates the understated power of her Discipline by turning the inside of the hotel into a fortress of vines, thorns, and other fauna. Cadaverous Gant is also being held hostage, and isn't a murderous old man, but a middle-aged receptionist at the Midnight Hotel who had a family back in Roarhaven. Sigils are how the Midnight Hotel shifts to different locations, and NJ managed to hack it, so if the Supreme Council captured it, they'd have a direct path into Roarhaven. With sheer numbers and time against them, Shudder plants and arms Gracious' bomb, heart heavy.

"Goodbye, old friend."

After linking up with Gant and the rest of the group, Fletcher teleports them out a moment before the bomb went off and destroyed the Midnight Hotel.

Roarhaven's barrier is up, but the Supreme Council's numbers, comprised of mages from multiple Sanctuaries, were too great. There were thousands of them. When night fell, Moloch is there with the rest of the Vampires, who enter their true forms and jump off the wall to strike back against the Supreme Council in a vicious rampage. Many of the Supreme Council are killed, but they hold out and several of the Vampires die, though Moloch makes it out. Nobody except Clarabelle is very sad about it. It takes every last bit of strength the Irish have to defend the wall, but eventually the barrier breaks and all hell breaks loose.

A huge battle takes place, with some of it spilling into Roarhaven itself. All the Dead Men, Deuce, Elsie, a Sceptre-wielding Carol, Fletcher, the Monster Hunters, and Peccant, are there and fighting for their lives, with the Spiders joining them back-to-back along with whatever Vampires had chosen to remain in their human forms. But whilst this is going on, a group of enemy mages breach Roarhaven and head for the Accelerator Room with orders to seize it and supercharge themselves, but the reflection and Scapegrace's group get a hint. Desmond leaves Alice with his brother and rushes there with the reflection, unwilling to leave his daughter alone again. They arrive just in time to find the Engineer standing in the way of the council's soldiers.

"Did you know my creators invented me not only to monitor the Accelerator, but also defend it?"

Then, the Engineer arm transformers into a magic-powered cannon and it unleashes a barrage of attacks, alongside pre-programmed karate skills. Once joined by the rest of the group, they manage to defend the Accelerator together, though Desmond is hurt protecting the reflection. He has to be taken to Clarabelle, but regrets nothing.

Elsie is on the battlefield. She's fighting, but very defensively, as despite everything, she couldn't bring herself to take another life. But her hesitation costs her, and in the chaos, Saracen is captured. Brate teleports in a second wave of Sorcerers, and it seems that all hope is lost.

Then, men and women start to drop and Melancholia arrives in a wave of darkness with hundreds of Necromancers at her back. They were from across the globe, rallied together under the name of their messiah and Solomon Wreath. In a valiant, devastating assault that decimates the Supreme Council's forces, they turn the tide and save the day, increasing Melancholia's rapport with the Irish and ensuring that none of the Elders could act against her unless, of course, they wanted every Necromancer in the world out for their blood.

Deuce approaches Solomon after the battle to tell him he knew what he was doing, and would allow it, but warns that if Melancholia proved dangerous, there would be no amount of politics large enough to stop them from cutting her down. After the battle, Melancholia tries to speak with Fletcher, but he makes it clear that he's not forgotten what she did to him and walks away.

Part 4 - Impending Darquesse

With Darquesse, who's been reflecting over the months on whether to destroy the world or not, she decides to visit Skulduggery out of loneliness, and to ask where the Obsidian Blade was being held. But Skulduggery believes that Valkyrie was being suppressed by Darquesse, like all the other times she'd taken control, and asks for his partner back. She tries to tell him that Darquesse was no longer an alter-ego, but he won't listen. He says that if Valkyrie truly was gone, then he knew she wouldn't want this, reminding her that he wished he'd died before he became Lord Vile. He knew she'd be the same.

His words cause Darquesse to have flashbacks to Valkyrie's vision of him killing her when Nye sealed her name. Scared, she reveals that she'd snuck around and destroyed all the God-Killers except for the Obsidian Blade, even teleporting in their shattered remains as proof. She warns him not to act against her, then teleports away.

The next stage of the war involves less all-out warfare Ireland has proven themselves too powerful to handle in a direct confrontation, especially with the backing of the Death Bringer, but Mantis was nothing if not adaptable. Saracen is interrogated and, despite his resistance, he's ultimately not able to keep the Sensitives out. They learn everything, which wasn't much because the Dead Men were very spontaneous, but they learn about Dexter's family before throwing Saracen in a cell. Tanith is his cellmate.

Mantis changes its approach to something more ruthless- it was taking hostages to hold leverage over Ireland's forces. It orders that Dexter's family be taken. When the agents come, Ebony resists with surprising effectiveness, giving Ida and Louise the chance to escape, but is ultimately beaten, captured, and thrown in with Tanith and Saracen, who she bonds with over their connection to Dexter.

After a call from Ida that had Fletcher picking them up, Dexter reunites with his daughter and granddaughter, learning of Ebony's capture. Dexter goes to Ravel and demands they mount a rescue and Ravel, knowing that Dexter won't take no for an answer, has Deuce organise one with the other Dead Men. But just as they're wondering how they'll find Dexter's family, Skulduggery walks in, stating that it sounded like a job for a detective.

Part 5 - Blood-Stained Trickery

The Dead Men finally confront Skulduggery about his lies and actions, and he doesn't defend himself. He was a hypocrite, a liar, and a murderer, but not a coward. When he tells them about Darquesse and shows them the destroyed God-Killers, then offers up the Obsidian Blade, plus with Saracen, Tanith, and Dexter's wife at stake, the Dead Men are delicately willing to accept his help. But they make it clear nothing has been forgotten, let alone forgiven. He doesn't push, instead helping them come up with a plan to save their hostages.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Council is wavering. Many Sanctuaries had lost a lot of people in the siege at Roarhaven, and being reminded of the cost of war, started to cut their losses and withdraw their forces. Sult, having been pressured to enter war by some of them, decries them as cowards. Deuce, in seeing the council's weakness, sends Fletcher and the Monster Hunters to some of the Sanctuaries who'd backed out, one of which is Mozambique, who send a representative. Little do they know, this representative was killed and replaced by Ajouga, who blatantly comes onto Fletcher in an attempt to enamour him.

Witches specialise in laying curses on others, so when Ajouga made casual contact with the three of them, she unknowingly cast a spell on them which muffled their ability to use their magic. Using this, she takes the Monster Hunters off-guard and knocks them out, but Fletcher had his guard up the whole time due to his experience with Myra. When he realises he can't use his powers, he engages her in a magicless brawl, which with his experience and training under Ghastly, was surprisingly effective. It's not enough though, and he goes down after getting Ajouga's veil knocked off and bloodying her nose. Rather than be mad, she just gives him a manic, blood-stained smile, telling him that she liked that he could resist before knocking his lights out.

The Dead Men, Skulduggery, and Sanguine are trekking through Europe with Skulduggery towards the French Sanctuary, knowing where their hostages are being held because Finbar, fuelled by the deaths of his fellow Sensitives, aggressively pushed his powers and gained a vision of the Eiffel Tower. He remained behind with Dexter's family, offering to take them to have a wicked curry with Sharon to take their mind off things. Amazingly, Sanguine isn't the one who's singled out. Several heated discussions about Skulduggery's betrayal are told, with him trying to apologise to Ghastly, but he's not hearing any of it. Skulduggery had killed his mother. There was no letting that go. Even when they wander into a ghost town and Skulduggery manages to save Ghastly's life, he gets no thanks from him.

After heading to Paris, they find Mandat, who is initially mocking of their predicament, but Dexter proceeds to instil the fear of God into him. He agrees to take them to the hostages, though Dexter threatens to blow a hole through his torso if he was deceiving them.

Donegan and Gracious call from Mozambique, informing the Sanctuary of Fletcher's kidnapping. With the other Dead Men gone, Elsie and Razzia decide to hold a rescue mission themselves to get Fletcher back, planning to rendezvous with the Monster Hunters. But before they leave, they're joined by the reflection, who wants to help Fletcher because he'd really helped her during their talk about Valkyrie, and she wanted to return the favour.

In Roarhaven, Nye is finished with its preparations and can place Scapegrace's group into their cloned bodies. It came with a catch, however, because the bodies Nye had given them were technically dead, their magic was just preventing their bodies from rotting and keeping them alive. It was an odd state of being, not too dissimilar to Skulduggery's. They'd be able to continue on as normal for the most part, however, and so they celebrate, with Crux even deciding to stick around at the pub and shave his beard off. He was no longer ashamed of his lacking jawline.

With the other Dead Men gone and the war cooling down for a bit, Ravel decides that it's time to make his move. He gets into contact with Frightening Jones and asks if the English Sanctuary, as neutral ground, could be used as a meeting place for him and Sult to speak, claiming he wanted to get their hostages back and possibly end the war. He promises there won't be issues, nearly begging, and after playing to Jones' righteousness, he gets a yes. Perfect.

Part 6 - Bon Voyage

In Paris, Dexter forces Mandat to bring them to Mantis' prison, which laid under the Eiffel Tower. There, Sanguine sneaks into the prison and lets them slide in, but Mantis' best forces are there to get in his way: Ashione, Regis, and Metric are there, and so is NJ with Toxin as a bodyguard. Mantis threatens Ebony and tells Dexter to turn against the Dead Men or it would kill her. Left with no choice, he reluctantly turns on his friends.

Metric and Regis go for Skulduggery, who isn't backed by the others, and whilst he holds his own for a bit, their teamwork is impeccable, and Metric catches one of his fists and snaps his arm in half. Desperate and alone, he ruthlessly shoves his arm through Metric's eye, then impales Regis. NJ is using several sigil traps to stall Shudder and Ghastly, who are against Mandat and a half-hearted Dexter, but in the chaos Sanguine managed to free Tanith, then free Saracen. Toxin tries to defend NJ, but Saracen and Sanguine manage to beat her back and knock NJ out, forcing her to flee. Mantis moves to threaten Ebony to get Dexter to fight harder, but Tanith is clinging to the wall behind it and slices both its hands off, saving Ebony and kicking the Crenga down, screeching.

Dexter goes to Ebony, and after making sure she was alright, goes to a pained Mantis and blows a hole through its chest. No quips or lightheartedness, just ice-cold rage. But before he could end Mandat in his wrath, he's stopped by Skulduggery because killing a foreign Grand Mage would only lead to further issues. They spare Mandat and leave with a captured NJ in tow as a POW.

Donegan and Gracious lead the reflection and the others to the pyramid where the Brides gathered to rescue Fletcher. After entering, they split up to find him, with the reflection finding Darquesse there, relaxing and trying to lay low after destroying the God-Killers. When the reflection asks for her to come home and gets a negative, she then asks her to at least help save Fletcher, and again, Darquesse is dismissive. He'd made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her, so why would she bother to help him?

Frustrated, the reflection leaves, choosing to keep Darquesse's presence a secret for everyone's sake. The Monster Hunters had been neutralised, captured, and shackled next to Fletcher, and Ajouga reveals her breeding plans for him. He's flattered by the offer, but says no. Ajouga laughs and asks why he thought he had a choice, moving to take off her top, about to ravage him in front of Donegan and Gracious to prove a point. But the reflection emerges and attacks Ajouga before she could finish, winning after a minor tussle because curses couldn't be laid on reflections. She frees the three of them, but they can't use their magic because Ajouga's magic remained in their systems. After reuniting with Elsie and Razzia, they make to leave, but get lost in the pyramid and find themselves surrounded by hundreds of Brides. It was over for them. But then Darquesse reveals herself.

She asks the Brides to step back or she'd kill them all. Slowly. When they don't take her short warning, she mercilessly kills every last Bride with her black flames, arguing she wouldn't be taken seriously if she didn't make good on her threats. She turns to her 'friends' and is confused to see them fearful. Those Brides had been willing to hurt or even kill them, just like Kitana or Glee or Catalysmic, so why was she the bad guy for killing them first?

Razzia tries to lighten the mood with a joke, but it doesn't land. Elsie is horrified. The Monster Hunters condemn Darquesse for her actions, and she gets irritated. Fletcher gets in her way, talking and stalling for time, then tries to teleport them all away the first chance he gets, but Darquesse blocks him. She gets more agitated, asking why they're so afraid of her when she saved them, citing that she didn't want to destroy the world. She just wanted to keep herself safe. The reflection asks her to let them go, and Darquesse reluctantly does. As they leave her behind, she feels well and truly alone.

Part 7 - Reveal of Magic

Ravel arrives in London with Carol at his back and meets up with Jones and Ivy at the English Sanctuary. He's confronted by Sult and several other Grand Mages, standing before them, with Sult not bothering to hide his distain. It was Ravel who'd started this war, and now he claimed that he wanted to end it? During their meeting, a wave of Kith are awakened by Ravel's followers and set on London. A modest batch, a few hundred, but people are terrorised and their attack is public. Too public.

The English Sorcerers are forced to reveal themselves to cut the rampaging Kith down, with Jones and Ivy leading the charge through London. Ravel is fast to join them with Carol by his side, helping quell the threat he'd engineered himself. Lives were lost, yes, but his plan to show the Sorcerers as a positive force was set in motion.

His decades of planning were coming together as magic is revealed to the world, though unlike in canon, Ravel wasn't only friends with Sorcerers. He'd allied with several mortal higher-ups to smooth over magic-mortal relations, and even journalists, so that when his plan came to fruition, he'd be able to control how the news spread. With the help of said allies, a news broadcast at the BBC is held throughout the UK, where Ravel explains magic society to the world on his own terms, telling his fellow Sorcerers that they could hide no longer.

The Dead Men return to Ireland just in time to find Dublin being attacked by Kith. It wasn't only Dublin. All over the world, dozens of Sanctuaries were experiencing these attacks, which were too numerous to cover up, and with horror they realise that magic had been revealed to the mortal world. They fight nonetheless, defending civilians out in the open. The same was happening all over the world.

Ravel is confronted about recent events when he returns along with his news broadcast, since he'd given up any chance of them covering the reveal up, but he fiercely argues that this was a chance for them to come out of hiding. They were out in the open now, and needed to change with the times, or die with the past. He leaves, wanting to prepare for a group of mortal ambassadors that he'd arranged to come to Roarhaven in a few days time.

(Part 2 can be found here)

Funny idea, but what would happen if, during Seasons of War, Skulduggery and the others found Ravel as the Resistance leader rather than Meritorious? Or just encountered him there in general, but because of the state of the world here, he never turned traitor? How do you think that would play out when it comes to interactions and stuff?

I'm sure everyone is curious about what exactly China is doing after the end of Fall of a Dead Man, and you know what, so was I, do this sidestory will be centred around what everyone's favourite bombshell. It'll be pretty short and sweet, probably, but that's basically sidestories in a nutshell. Now, without further ado, let's dive into it.

Sidestory - Burning Wrath

Main Villain(Eliza Scorn)

• Part 1 - China's Sorrows

The prologue is displayed just a few days after the end of Book 8, and shows Eliza Scorn's approaching a gang of American Sorcerers and mercenaries alone at night, which consisted of the following: Samuel, Obloquy, Mercy Charient, and their leader, Vincent Foe. Samuel remains a Vampire and Mercy is an Energy-Master, but Obloquy is a Neroteric who can deal immense pain to others simply by touching them rather than a Sensitive and Foe himself is a fire-specialised Elemental. Unlike in canon, Foe's gang were never sent to prison and broken out by the Supreme Council. They were just a gang of mercs/nihilists. Eliza was now the leader of the church, and whilst none of them were the religious sort, they liked the idea of the Faceless Ones, not as gods, but as world-destroying monsters. When approached by Eliza, they are intrigued and hear her out.

Next, we cut to China approaching the library, still reeling from the fact her greatest secret had been laid bear, and had been losing sleep over it. She had half been expecting Skulduggery to show up one of these days and finish the job, but he'd been isolated to house arrest once him being Vile came out. Though it might end badly, she wanted to visit him, if only so she could receive his judgement. But then, one day when she was opening the library, Eliza showed up by her lonesome.

After an exchange of barbs where Eliza makes sure to gloat, expressing jealousy that Catalysmic had been the one to shatter her pathetic relationship with her old love and not her. She supposed she'd have to make up for that.

It's revealed that after disarming the sigil protections around the library, Eliza had planted a bomb. And the detonator was clasped in her hand. She sets it off, destroying the library in front of China, and leaving her rival even more distraught than ever. Approaching a despairing China, Eliza calls her rival pathetic and, after kicking her several times, spits on her and leaves China to drown in misery. But this wasn't the end. It was barely a start.

Weeks pass, and during them, Eliza used what resources the church had left to viciously target all of China's properties and burn them down. One by one, piece by piece, she took everything that China held dear. China was forced to retreat to a quaint home in the countryside. It wasn't one of hers, but rather an estate own by Bliss. She thought Eliza wouldn't be able to find her there. He'd always been modest, and that worked to her favour as she remained there to hide from the world.

Bliss' tomb is close to the house, and she visits it often, pondering on their family history. The Sorrows family had been hugely influential in the past, but in spite of all their family name meant, all it brought, Bliss chose to forsake it entirely and ran away when he was a teenager, joining the Sanctuaries' side. She'd heard that it had taken immense dedication to prove he wasn't a spy, or a traitor waiting to happen. He'd given up everything he ever knew just to join people who rejected him, all for the sake of doing what he thought was right. It was a level of righteousness which was almost puzzling. At the time, she'd thought he was a fool, and tried to kill him many times, but as she felt the consequences of her past actions and was forced to take shelter in her late brother's home, China had to wonder if she'd been the fool all along.

She leaves Bliss' tomb and goes to bed, but doesn't sleep. That works in her favour, because when the protection sigils she'd built around the house went off, she was wide awake and ready. She goes outside to find Vincent Foe, his arms pulled back, and bolted just in time to avoid a stream of fire that set Bliss' home alight, and China barely leaves before it came crumbling down.

China runs towards the stables nearby, but is blocked by the duo of Mercy and Obloquy. A brief scuffle breaks out, with Mercy firing in a razor-thin stream of energy that carved through tree like paper and nearly took China's head off. She uses a pair of sigil blasts to cast Mercy aside, but Obloquy manages to graze her and she feels a wave of pain so immense that it almost incapacitates her, and is only saved when her horse ran through and kicks Obloquy in the head.

Thanking the horse, she gets on and they start to rush out, but stops when she saw the reason why Foe hadn't given chase. He was under orders from Eliza to destroy everything that China held dear, and follows through with that threat as he sets off a series of explosives, desecrating and ruining Bliss' tomb. She promises to make him pay for that, but is forced to flee as Samuel emerges and tears his skin off, entering his true form and giving chase. Only when her horse takes flight with energy wings is she able to shake him off, fleeing with all her might.

• Part 2 - Rock Bottom

A few weeks follow, where China is constantly avoiding the Foe's gang, whilst her remaining assets were destroyed one by one via Eliza's contacts. Assassins were constantly targeting her, and she barely slept out of paranoia. She barely had anything now, besides the potential for revenge on Eliza, and she grips it with two hands.

She hitches a ride of a ferry to American and arrives in New York, but is attacked by a Necromancer assassin before she can even settle in. As they fight, China quickly recognises the assassin she was fighting. She was a mute assassin by the name of Whisper, who was quite well-known in America, and like in canon she stored her power within a cloak.

After a heated fight, she's injured and forced to jump out the window, landing cleanly on the streets without injury due to her leg sigils. She runs, not even taking the little luggage she'd brought from Ireland with her. She manages to shake Whisper off, but China wasn't given a break. Foe's gang had gotten a hint that she was heading to America, and when she runs into an alleyway to hide, they corner her. He says she looks like shit, then they attack whilst China is weakened.

China fights back, but is wounded, tired, and hungry, and gets burned by Foe's fire and thrown down, his boot pressing her face into a dirty puddle. It was then, as he grounded her down, that she realised she'd truly hit rock-bottom.

Foe takes a moment to gloat, then moves to incinerate her, but a blast of air throws him off and a few different magical attacks rain down on the gang, and China is greeted to Jaron Gallow's face a moment before she passes out.

A meeting is held between Whisper and the one who'd hired her to take down China: Bernard Sult, who is displeased with her failure. He and the Supreme Council were at war with Ireland, and had agents hidden on their grounds. He'd gotten a notice that China was heading for America, and when presented with the chance to take down one of the Irish Sanctuary's best assets, Sult hired Whisper to take her down.

Reading the written report his silent assassin had given him, however, he realises he might've been off the mark, given Vincent Foe's gang were hunting her down. It seemed China Sorrows was wanted dead by more people than just him. He decides to redirect Whisper's services elsewhere, thinking China was done. There was a war to be won, and he wanted to avenge his mentor above all else.

China awakens to find herself clean and uninjured, but weak and very hungry. She reunites with a Gallow upon waking up, who'd managed to aquire a prosthetic since their last encounter, albeit a rather middling-quality one. He'd heard about her trouble in Ireland, and after a brief talk, he cuts to the chase upon her demand. The reason he'd saved her was because he wanted her to join his resistance, as with her skills and family history, she could help them sunder the church once and for all, Eliza included. He even offers to make her his second-in-command. China thinks on it and is tempted, but ultimately declines, saying she was commanded by no one.

Gallow is disappointed, but doesn't push too hard, though offers to shelter her from Foe's gang anyway. He owed her that much. He also adds that a raid on the church was about to occur and asks if she'd join, since Eliza might be there. China, eager for payback, says she'll join him just this once.

• Part 3 - Bringing Sorrow

Raids come down on the remnants of different church branches in America, with China helping plan these assaults to great effect. Amongst Gallow's followers in the resistance, asides from Temper Fray, is his girlfriend Kierre, along with her two siblings Rune and Strosivadian, who are not related to Mevolent's wife, but used to be fanatical followers of the church regardless until Gallow helped them see reason. A few scuffles take place, and with China's help many fights are stopped without even coming to blows thanks to her glamour, but there is no sign of Eliza.

Eliza was in a foul mood due to the Resistance's efforts. She'd fantasised about being the leader of the church for centuries now, but now that she was finally here, everything was falling apart. Catalysmic might've been gone, but the aftermath of his schemes had left the church as a shell of what it once was- with the Faceless Cathedral destroyed and legions of their members turned into Kith. With Gallow and China's efforts to thwart the church, she was at risk of not being a leader of anything.

She receives a call from Abyssinia and the two meet face-to-face. The two talk, where Eliza learns of the Leibniz Dimension and how the Church of the Faceless thrived over there. Abyssinia says she knew the church of this world was crumbling, but this was a chance for Eliza to save it. All she needed to do was let the church here be absorbed into the other one.

A few weeks after joining the Resistance, China grows restless and makes to sneak out of a warehouse where the Resistance was sleeping at night. But Gallow catches her and he argues why she should stay, claiming she'd done a lot of good in a very short amount of time. His words fall on deaf ears, however, before she can leave, Vincent Foe and his gang emerge.

After taunting China about Bliss' body burning up, Vincent sends a fire stream at them, which Gallow blocks using the air and tries to douse Foe with water, but Foe was aware of his weaknesses and burns it away. China goes for Mercy and tries to blast a hole through her, but Samuel enters his true form and saves her, forcing the two of them to work overtime to handle the gang's assault.

The commotion gains the attention of the Resistance is caught, with Temper and Kierre rushing outside. As they join the fight, Foe realises he wouldn't be able to kill China like this and orders a retreat, but not before Obloquy moves to attack China, but Gallow pushes her out of the way, being dealt intense pain and getting knocked out. All of the gang make to leave, except for Samuel, who was blood lusted, and with a heavy heart Foe makes the call to leave him behind and rush away with Gallow.

Samuel's makes to attack Kierre, and to save her, Temper unleashes his Gist to tear him apart. With some soothing from Kierre, Temper's Gist is quelled and he returns to normal, albeit extremely tired. But Gallow was gone. China is confronted about Foe's gang by the Resistance, with Temper and the others being mad their leader was kidnapped. She thinks about just leaving, but feels strangely guilty about what happened to Gallow because of her, and so she decides to take them with her for what happened next to retrieve him alive.

She reveals that she'd snuck a tracking sigil onto Mercy whilst they were fighting, since they were likely taking Gallow to Eliza, since she no doubt had a bone to pick with him too. She rallies the Resistance behind her makes to find Foe and Eliza, intent on making both of them pay.

• Part 4 - Sentenced to the Gallows

Gallow wakes up in the basement of a church to find his one remaining arm chained up, his prosthetic removed. Eliza is there to greet him, and proceeds to torture him magically. She's about to rupture his heart, but stops herself, knowing that killing him would end the fun, and he hadn't suffered enough. Not yet. She painfully inscribes a torture sigil onto his neck that would deal him 23 hours of agony, with a single hour a day to rest, telling him to enjoy as she leaves him behind, screaming.

Foe and his gang are left sullen after Samuel's death. When Eliza comes back to them, having just finished with Gallow. She expresses disappointment to them about having been unable to finish the job, but gives them slack because it's China, though makes the mistake of insulting Samuel, calling him a 'beast' and earning Mercy's anger. She and Samuel had been lovers. Eliza insults and moves to strike Mercy, but Foe gets in her way, saying no one struck his gang and forcing her to back off, but just before situation could escalate further, the Resistance arrives.

The church is attacked by the Resistance, who clash with the member there, with the Unveiled trio being chief amongst them. As this is going on, China sneaks into the church and finds Eliza alone, on a stage where they'd once pray together. The two discuss the past, when China had been like a princess in the church, and how Eliza had been her willing servant and second-in-command as the leader of the Diablerie. They'd been like sisters in more ways than one, both cruel beyond imagination. China had been a true monster.

Eliza says that people cannot change their natures. At best, they change the way they present them on the surface, but not what was underneath. China remained a monster, just one who'd gone soft. Weak. China says that she wrong... she hadn't gone soft. Not one bit. And if Eliza didn't believe her, then she just had to look into China's eyes as she was choking to death on her own blood and try search for that softness she claimed China had earned.

A duel begins between China and Eliza, and the two have it out brutally, knives crossing. Several sigil traps are sprung on China throughout the fight, but she outdoes them all, and manages to blow a hole through Eliza's torso, but as she goes down, Eliza lashes out and slashes her across the centre of her face with a sigil blade. She tells China that at least she got to die beautiful, whilst China had to live with being ugly, then dies with a smirk on her lips.

After the fight, although wounded, China searches and manages to find a screaming Gallow. She breaks his torture sigils, but can't undo his magic-binding cuffs, so is forced to just break the chain and help him walk out. But whilst leaving the dungeons, Foe's gang swoop down. They'd seen her duel with Eliza, but chose not to interfere, smarting over Eliza's comments about Samuel. None of them were getting paid now, but wanted to kill her regardless, and it should be an easier job now that she was tired and beaten.

China just smiles, sets a brutalised Gallow aside and, whilst wiping the blood off her face, tells them that men and women far greater than them had tried and failed before. She liked her odds.

A battle between China and the gang begins, and it's three against one. Using the members of Foe's gang as shields, she takes on Mercy first, bypassing her thin lasers and slitting her throat. Then, when an enraged Obloquy charges at her, she puts two more knives in his stomach, though he manages to use his magic anyway. She screams and ceases up in pain but, powering through, bites into his throat and rips it out, killing him and spitting his flesh out. There was meat between her teeth.

Foe, outraged at the deaths of his friends, aims to attack not China with fire, but Gallow. He wanted to take a friend from China like she had from him. But before he dies, China gets in her way and activates a special, last-resort sigil. It was created in case she was ever cornered, and converted her magic into heat which was being perfectly cycled outwards, acting as a defence and offense rather than burning her, but if kept on for too long then it would cause her to overheat and be burnt from the inside-out. It was called the Supernova sigil.

Blocking the fire with her body, China rushes through it and bear-hugs Foe, turning his own heat against him. She cycled his fire inwards and sent it back, feeling immense pain, but the heat was great enough that she started to burn through even Foe's natural defences. She hugged him until he burnt to death, and only then did she turn the heat down, but by that point she was in too much pain to continue and passes out.

• Part 5 - Sorrow turns to Bliss

Bliss is the first thing China sees when she wakes up. The two talk for a bit, and China tries to seem like her usual self, but is confused. Bliss explains she wasn't dead, just unconscious, and she isn't sure whether to be happy or not. The two speak until she asks him if he's real, or just a figment of her imagination, and he says he wouldn't know. After a brief talk, she apologises to Bliss, and asks if he would ever forgive her. He already had. They hug, and China opens her eyes.

China wakes up to find herself with the Resistance, healed, except for the scar on her face. The flames had cauterised and sealed it shut, marring her beauty. But she doesn't ask if there was a way to remove it, seeing the scar as a reminder to never let things go back to how they were, and to never repeat her past mistakes. It also helps that she doesn't feel too insecure, as the smitten nurse treating her proved that her glamour was unaffected.

After recovering, China speaks with Gallow. After everything she'd gone through, after losing everything, she should've been solemn, but instead she felt resolute. Eliza had taken everything from her, but in the end none of that was what really counted. It only blinded her to what was actually important. She tells Gallow that she'd like to take him up on his past offer, if it still held.

This is yet another 2-parter because Reddit isn't built to hold posts this large. Part 1, which you'll have to ready for the context, can be read here.

Part 6 - Nemesis

In the aftermath, Skulduggery returns to a ruined Roarhaven, silent in the face of destruction. He doesn't tell anyone about China, but does tell them that Nefarian Serpine had returned going by his True Name, and whatever he was going to do next, it would happen in America. He wanted them to go there. It was a trap. Skulduggery didn't much care, and neither did Valkyrie, the Dead Men, or anyone else.

The Engineer informs Scapegrace's group about the prototype of its brain which existed in London, and although telling someone more capable would have been the smart thing, they never claimed to be smart. Thrasher tries to discourage Scapegrace, but Crux is enticed by the idea of saving the day for once instead of Skulduggery, so they end up leaving with Clarabelle and the Engineer coming along for the ride, heading for London.

In America, Catalysmic is basking in the news of Roarhaven's destruction and the lives lost. His enjoyment interrupted by Kitana, who confronts him in front of the team, cocky because of her supercharged powers, which wouldn't fade for almost a month. She tries to stand him up, to which he laughs, then shuts off her magic with a wave of his hand, leaving her mortal. He can do this because Argeddion was providing her with his power via an invisible Sensitive tether, and because he could see magic, and Kitana had never bothered to learn mental defence, cutting it was a simple matter. He proceeds to tear her down in front of the others, telling her to know her place and that Valkyrie Cain was his to kill, not hers.

Myra mocks Kitana as she leaves, then moves over to Nero. She wanted to finish Fletcher, and another Teleporter would go a long way for that. She bats her eyes at him, playing to his ego as she seduces him, and having a score to settle with Fletcher himself, he eagerly complies.

Heading to America was asking for the Supreme Council to take action, and with Roarhaven up in flames, this was a horrible time for war. A group was assembled consisting of the Dead Men, Valkyrie, and Carol, who were going to America to handle Catalysmic. Skulduggery grabs the Obsidian Blade, certain he'd need it to kill his nemesis. Elsie remained behind as a last defence and deterrent, whilst the Monster Hunters and Fletcher would remain as security with the reflection and Alice. Deuce was placed in charge as they were teleported to Washington via Fletcher and left to stop him.

We get some more Dead Men interactions, with Valkyrie and Carol both being made into honorary Dead Men, and with the knowledge that the church had been taken over, they go to one of them seeking further details. Here, they end up encountering Jaron Gallow, who remains the leader of the Resistance, with his second-in-command being a former member of the church who'd become disillusioned just like him: Temper Fray, who greets Shudder, saying he was a fan. Shudder can sense why, but doesn't say anything. When Gallow asks about how China is doing, Skulduggery just says not well, then leaves it at that.

Through him, they learn about Kith, since Gallow had spies in the church. Catalysmic had been stockpiling an army of them to release in America with Nye's help, and all he had to do was press the button, and thousands upon thousands of Kith would awaken, rampaging through entire cities, taking countless lives and exposing magic to the world.

Scapegrace's group arrives at their destination, and they threw a hoodie, a mask, and baggy clothes over the Engineer in a fool's attempt to hide its appearance. The English Sanctuary was neutral ground, so they weren't in hostile territory quite, but it was a close thing, and the Engineer is the voice of reason of the group. It takes them to the Sanctuary, directing them towards its prototype brain in the museum. They get close, but Ivy encounters all of them except Crux, who was hiding, and thrashes Thrasher and Scapegrace without breaking a sweat. Ivy tells the Engineer and Clarabelle to surrender, and they just hold up their arms.

In Roarhaven, Fletcher is going to the reflection and Alice to check up on them. The two talk, and in seeing a chance to get some closure, he asks about Valkyrie's feelings for him. About what he'd actually meant to her. When he learns she never loved him, he's hurt, but accepts it. The reflection doesn't come onto time him like in canon, but she does ask him if he saw her as someone different from Valkyrie. He asks if she wants him to, and she isn't sure how to answer. He tells her that she wasn't Valkyrie, and not to let her connection to Valkyrie define her. He'd made that mistake before, and it nearly killed him. He leaves, and after shutting the door, he returns to his room to rest and finds Razzia waiting for him.

She regards him playfully, and isn't intimidated when he demands to know why she was here. After placating him, she tells him that she'd gotten bored of Italy fast, so she bounced from place to place, and at one point even joined the church when she was in Paris, thinking it would be fun. It wasn't and she found them bland. However, when she tried to leave, she stumbled across a group turning themselves into Kith, following them to find an army of them had been sitting dormant under the capital. A Kith army wasn't just present under America. An army of them was underneath every branch of the Church of the Faceless in the world, in over a dozen Sanctuaries, all set to awaken at any time.

Fletcher is horrified, and when asked why she was helping them, Razzia just tells him that she wasn't heartless. She killed sure, gleefully, but the idea of millions dying and society collapsing wasn't something she wanted. She liked her creature comforts too much. So, from now on, she was a part of his team, whether he liked it or not.

Gallow and Temper lead the group towards another church where Catalysmic was set to make another speech, where they hope to ambush him and have Carol kill him with the Sceptre. Once there, Saracen manages to locate Valkyrie's parents, alone, so she breaks off from the main group to make a bee-line for them with Skulduggery following. But as the others try to follow, several Cleavers teleport in between them and drop into their way via Nero, who is there with Destrier.

A fight breaks out, and Valkyrie decides to leave them to get to her parents. Skulduggery follows, leaving the Dead Men and Carol behind to engage the Cleavers. But something is different about them. Whilst some remain white and showcased enhanced strength, others are red, blue, brown, or green, and showcase the use of different elemental magics based on their colour. All in all, they put up a scarily good offense. Carol is stopped from using the Sceptre via Destrier's time powers. Ravel and a one-armed Gallow try to disrupt his focus with flames, but a red Cleaver gets in their way, blocking the fire.

Nero tries to teleport Ghastly away, but he's used to sparring with Fletcher, who was much more skilled a Teleporter, and predicts him movements. Ghastly breaks Nero's nose. Shudder uses the Cleavers' own weapons against them, Dexter blows holes in them where he could, and Saracen manages to sneak up on Destrier, breaking his focus and letting Carol free, where she proceeded to eviscerate the rest of the Cleavers with the Sceptre. The Neoterics retreat, but they were just a distraction.

Valkyrie and Skulduggery arrive in a room with her restrained parents and Catalysmic. She moves to free them, but the Black Cleaver emerges from the shadows, adorning armour enhancing its strength, and clashes against Skulduggery's Obsidian Blade. When she moves to help him, Catalysmic comes out, applauding her, saying she was as reckless as she was the day they'd met.

She tries to attack him, but he easily beats her down and restrains her. As he does, he starts to ramble, talking about how she'd managed to earn a wrath of his which he thought was only reserved for Skulduggery. An impressive feat. It was only fair that he do to her what had been done to Skulduggery by taking her family away right in front of her.

Catalysmic, as Valkyrie is helpless, turns to Desmond and Melissa and smiles. He proceeds to tell them everything that Valkyrie had been hiding from them. Her life-or-death adventures, the reflection, how she'd barely interacted with them for years on end, and how Fergus died because of her actions. And then, noticing a Sensitive block had been placed on their memories, he undoes it, and it's revealed that Valkyrie had their minds tampered with to keep them ignorant. All the lies come out. Desmond and Melissa are hurt, disappointed, and angry. But it didn't end there.

Cheerfully, Catalysmic tells them not to worry. They wouldn't have to live with the shame of raising a failure of a daughter for much longer. He proceeds to inject them both with the Kith Serum. Luckily for Desmond, he was a Descendant of the Ancients, and had immunity to the Faceless Ones' powers. He doesn't turn into a Kith. The same can't be said for Melissa.

Melissa screams and transforms into a Kith, horrifying Desmond. Valkyrie's heart and mind crack at the sight, and though Catalysmic is confused on why Desmond didn't turn for a moment, he quickly facepalms. Ancient blood. An oversight on his part. He says he was hoping to turn them both and have them tear her apart, but this was possibly better. He orders Kith-Melissa to kill Desmond in front of Valkyrie.

The Kith moves to do so, with both Valkyrie and Skulduggery helpless, but then the Dead Men and Carol kick down the door, arriving. Seeing her uncle about to be killed by a monster, she instantly turns Melissa to dust with a bolt of black lightning. Before the Sceptre can be turned onto Catalysmic, he fires an energy beam and Carol dodges, but before she can strike him again, the Black Cleaver goes for her and knocks the Sceptre out of her hand.

A stand-off occurs, but before anyone can make the fatal move, a commotion is heard as more people enter the church. Catalysmic smiles and reveals to Gallow that he'd been the one to tip him off so that he'd take Valkyrie and Skulduggery here. And he wasn't the only one he'd tipped off. With a flare, he teleports away with the Cleaver, leaving just in time for the American Sorcerers raiding the church to find them alone, with Bernard Sult at its head.

Part 7 - Enemy of my Enemy

Fletcher returns to the Sanctuary with Razzia and the Monster Hunters and tells Deuce about what they'd found out, and he knows all bets are off. This wasn't just about Ireland anymore. He gives them the go-ahead to go to America and help the others, and Elsie comes along too. She asks to enter the Accelerator, since she'd need the extra power to fight Kitana. Deuce, knowing what was at stake, says yes, then after she proceeds to do so, she teleports with the Fletcher's ragtag team of heroes into Washington. But before that, he brings Deuce to London, since Irish Sorcerers had been found trying to steal from a museum and Frightening wanted someone over to handle this.

Deuce meets up with Scapegrace's group in London, angrily asking what they were thinking, then gets the full scope of the situation from the Engineer. He admonishes them for not telling him sooner, going to Jones to explain the situation, but before then, child-Crux sneaks into their cell through the top vent, fitting easily because of how small he was. He'd managed to nick the keys to their cuffs, and after getting the prototype, they make to leave, only to be stopped by Ivy, Jones, and Deuce. A deal is struck to leave all of them except the Engineer and go back, but the Engineer, having grown fond of these idiots, chooses to put his foot down. He won't help if they don't come back with him. Jones, not will to risk the world's safety, backs down and lets them leave with the prototype.

Valkyrie, Carol, the Dead Men, and Desmond are taken into custody by the American Sanctuary, with the Sceptre being taken away from Carol. Desmond is grief-stricken and demands to know how Stephanie could do this to him and Melissa, and Skulduggery tries to intervene and calm him down, but gets scream at. Desmond didn't want to hear anything from him. She wants to explain herself, but words fail her. What could she possibly say to make something like this right?

Whilst in custody, an attack is made on Valkyrie's life by Mr Glee, who'd already received his pay, but offered to do a freebie for Catalysmic because he'd developed a creepy fixation on Valkyrie. He tells her she'd be prettier if she smiled more, then moved to slice her chops open into the shape of one, but then Sanguine tunnels in and punches him away. He'd been hired by Catalysmic to kill Valkyrie's father whilst Glee handled Valkyrie, but in the end she was too close to Tanith, and he didn't want to hurt his girlfriend. His razor meets Glee's knife.

"You might be a hitman, but you're no hitman deluxe."

He fights off Glee and frees Valkyrie, finding little resistance as Glee had killed many guards on his way over for kicks. He does the same to Skulduggery, and reluctantly Ghastly, but then Sult comes along and finds them with Sanguine. Seeing so many guards with their throats cut, he thinks it's Sanguine. He thinks the Irish Sanctuary is working with one of the men who'd killed his mentor. He loses it and calls his troops, but before a fight can break out, they all huddle up with Sanguine as he tunnels them all away. He'd never done it with three other people before, and hopefully would never have to again.

Valkyrie and Ghastly reunite with Tanith at a warehouse in Washington that Sanguine brings them to, but is ultimately too changed for them to accept with open arms, plus her killing Strom and Bisahalani was part of the reason war was near. This hurts Tanith and angers Sanguine. After a debate, Ghastly and Tanith remember the cathedral where they stole the Obsidian Blade, how it was important to the church, and Skulduggery says that Catalysmic was definitely there. He was always a drama queen.

But all of them agree they're in no shape to face a True Name-user, especially since he seemed to have orchestrated the attack on Roarhaven and had the church under his thumb, so they agree to investigate and scout the matter, then return with reinforcements for a proper assault. Then make for the cathedral together.

Whilst this is going on, Sult speaks with Ravel and Marr, and, unsurprisingly, it goes exactly nowhere. Sult wants Ireland to bend the knee to avoid war, but Ravel is unwilling to back down.

But then, Lethe, Smoke, Nero, Destrier, Myra, and Kitana attack with several of Serpine's upgraded Cleavers, with the aim of their strike to be to talk control of Sult and the American Sanctuary, along with the Supreme Council due to him being their designated leader, to finish the job Glee began by killing Valkyrie's father, and to slay the Dead Men on top of that. Fortunately, Fletcher's group had heard word of the Irish Grand Mage being captured and went to the American Sanctuary to free them just as the attack struck. A battle begins and Sult, knowing there was a bigger issue at hand, frees Ravel and the other Dead Men to help whilst Carol protected Desmond.

Elsie goes right for Kitana, the two being supercharged thanks to the Accelerator, equals in power, but Elsie had the benefit of Ghastly's training. She asks Kitana if she was feeling lonely again, taunting her as they fight with excessive strength, neither backing down.

On the ground, the Monster Hunters go for Smoke, but he was hiding behind Lethe, who'd seen them fight before and gets the upper hand. But Gracious and Donegan were a good team, and are determined, so together they manage to hold Lethe off and keep him guessing.

Myra is soloing Fletcher and Myra. She recognises Razzia, and not in a good way. She orders Nero to keep Fletcher occupied whilst she handles the other Australian girl. He does so, but proves to be all talent and no training, whilst Fletcher is a master Teleporter at this point. After a tussle, the two land in the Sahara, where Fletcher makes his first kill since Caelan by snapping Nero's neck, and returns after insulting Nero's hair one last time. He finds Razzia bloody and beaten, being held by the hair as Myra prepared to finish her off, but then he opened a portal and threw her own punch back at her face, staggering her and freeing Razzia. Seeing that Nero failed, she calls him useless, then proceeds to continue fighting, gaining the upper hand, but is surprisingly betrayed by Destrier, whose doubts about continuing to serve Smoke had reached their peak and he decided to turn coat. With his help, Razzia had Hansel and Gretel pierce Myra's skull, ending her. She proceeds to rob her corpse of the skintight suit she'd been wearing, thinking it would be handy.

Lethe and Smoke cut their loses and leave with Kitana, who'd been unable to get the upper hand on Elsie, but her opponent hesitated to make the killing blow, leading to Kitana bolting it and fleeing when the fight turned.

When things calm down, Sult, having been saved by Ireland's forces, is more willing to hear them out. After getting the full scope of the situation from Ravel, he decides enough was enough and agrees to give them all the help he could give. But only if he agrees that Ireland submit to the council after this. He'd held off the rest of the Grand Mages for as long as he could, but they were a hair's width away from defying him. War would break out if Ravel didn't agree. He says that he does, and with their animosity laid to rest, they shake hands and make preparations to stop Catalysmic, as Destrier knew the location of his fortress.

Valkyrie's group arrive at the cathedral and sneak into it with Sanguine's help, barely avoiding the Black Cleaver walking the halls and walking into a laboratory where Nye is present, exhausted and having been forced to work by Catalysmic more-or-less around the clock since its capture. They interrogate Nye, who immediately folds to save itself, and explains Catalysmic's plan regarding the Kith, his plans to unleash them upon the world, and whilst it didn't know the exact location of where the Kith were being held, it did know there were dozens of clusters of them hidden around the different Sanctuaries, each one consisting of members of the church who'd transformed themselves, and random mortals who Catalysmic had kidnapped to bolster their numbers.

After making a deal to help them stop Catalsymic, they take Nye with them and make to leave, on their way running into Eliza, but she doesn't stop them. Catalysmic had butchered the church's teachings for his own gains, spitting in the face of her gods by acting like he was one, and so she lets them by unmolested, saying she was going to sneak out by herself and finish her business with China.

It seems like they'd escape without Catalysmic noticing, but he'd counted that his rival would track him down and came prepared. He's at the head of his remaining forces, which consist of his religious zealots, Cleavers, Kitana, Smoke, Lethe, and even Mr Glee. It seems like they're horribly outnumbered, this was the end for them, but then a series of portals opened behind them. Ravel and Sult step through with the Dead Men, Fletcher's team, and countless American Sorcerers, coming to their back and facing down them down, army-to-army. Two men who'd defied death were facing each other, the heads of their armies. One would stand, one would fall.

Part 8 - Catalyst of Darkness

An all-out battle breaks out. Most of the followers of the Faceless scream their mantra and transform themselves into Kith, however some of them had since become disillusioned with Catalysmic's claims and don't turn themselves, and thus get attacked by the Kith who transform near them, but a handful are saved by Gallow and Temper, who rally and turns them against Catalysmic.

Unconcerned, Catalysmic commands the remaining Kith to strike and tear his foes apart, meeting the American Sorcerers and the Dead Men. Temper steps forward, but is held back by Shudder, who unleashes his Gist to meet them as the other Dead Men join him in crowd control.

Catalysmic tells Skulduggery to say goodbye to his friends, raising a hand to annihilate them all. Skulduggery, left with little choice to face his nemesis, transforms into Vile and raises a wall of shadows to block the oncoming attack and protect his friends. Everyone witnesses this, Sult, Marr, the Dead Men, and Ghastly. Lord Vile, the Obsidian Blade on hand, charges and meets his nemesis is a glorious clash that sends them soaring to the top of the cathedral to engage their bout uninterrupted.

The Monster Hunters, Fletcher, and Razzia, are facing down Smoke and Lethe, with the former essentially only doing this because he was in too deep with Catalysmic, and he tries to plead with them to just let him go free, but unlike in Australia, he gets no mercy. Several Cleavers are being controlled by Smoke and used as fodders, but Donegan picks them off with Fletcher's help whilst a one-eyed Gracious faces Lethe, trying to leverage his greater strength. But Lethe had faced Gracious before and outdoes him in spite of his enhanced strength, making to kill him with a dropped Cleaver's scythe. But Destrier, who needed to prove himself to the Sanctuary, saves Gracious and gives him the chance to knock Lethe out, though doesn't kill him for Savant's sake. Then, with no more underlings and surrounded by only enemies, they move onto a lone Smoke. He tries to run and pleads when that fails, though nobody says anything as Razzia finally gets her dearest wish and feeds Smoke's heart to her Gists.

Kitana and Elsie meet in one final clash with Carol at her back. The two seem like equals, but when Kitana promises to kill all Elsie's friends, her mercy breaks and she starts to fight with a viciousness she didn't know she had, impaling her and casting her down. Carol approaches a broken Kitana, tells her to rot in hell, then uses the Sceptre to turn her to dust, avenging Crystal.

Valkyrie advances into the cathedral with Tanith, Sanguine, and Ghastly, but a group of elemental Cleavers, one of each element, stood in their way. After a short fight, where each of the Cleavers have the weaknesses of their sole elements exploited, they move on, coming near the top of the cathedral. But the Black Cleaver stands between them, and when given the choice to stay behind and face it with the rest of the group, or help Skulduggery, she chooses Skulduggery, thinking they could handle themselves.

The Black Cleaver proves to be too strong and slashes Ghastly's side, then moves to kill him, but he's surprisingly saved by Sanguine, who's razor is deflected and he also goes down. Before it can finish them off, Tanith faces the Cleaver one-on-one with the God-Killer Sword, but lowers her guard when she lands a slice, thinking it was done. But the Black Cleaver was made to return from death, and not even the sword could kill it. It recovers and strikes Tanith, but before it can make the killing blow, Ghastly and Sanguine jump in and force it back, forgetting their differences for a short moment. Seeing that, Tanith forces herself to get up, and after Sanguine tunnels and trapping its legs in the floor, she proceeds to shove the God-Killer Sword through its body and, whilst it was stunned, throw it off the Cathedral's roof. Wounded, they made a run for it whilst the Cleaver was down, aiming to aid Valkyrie.

Valkyrie finally arrives at the top, where she's greeted to the sight of Vile being sent flying by Catalysmic. As strong as he was, Vile was no match for a True Name-user, and though he'd dealt some vicious wounds, his nemesis beat him back into a skeleton. Catalysmic mocks him, saying he'd revealed his big secret for nothing, then raises a hand and proceeds to torture Skulduggery by inflicting cracks onto his whole body. Before Valkyrie can intervene, a knife jabs into her back and she goes down. Mr Glee looked like he was a hair's width away from licking his lips as he unveiled himself and closed in, wrestling with a wounded Valkyrie and proceeding to stab her multiple times, toying with her before finally going for the kill.

But she's saved, not by Skulduggery, but Desmond. He'd refused to leave his daughter behind as she went to battle, believing he'd failed to protect her enough, so despite all Valkyrie had done, he courageously followed the Sanctuary forces. He takes Glee's knife and sinks it into his throat, telling him to keep his hands off his daughter before throwing him down to choke on his own blood.

Desmond helps Valkyrie up, but then Catalysmic decides that he's done playing with Skulduggery and throws him aside, turning his eyes onto the Edgleys. He says to Desmond that he couldn't seem to leave well enough alone, and it seemed to run in the family. Catalysmic tells Desmond to give Gordon his warmest regards. He raises his hand and, unwilling to lose another parent, Valkyrie gives into the darkness.

Darquesse engages Catalysmic as Desmond watches on in concern, amazement, and horror. Ghastly, Tanith, and Sanguine arrive, watching on as the calamity wearing Valkyrie's face did battle, and Ghastly drags a beaten Skulduggery over to get him away from the aftermath. The fight is glorious, with Darquesse fighting using black flames, but it ends when she reaches into his chest. She'd been observing Argeddion when he went to unseal her True Name, and does the same to Catalysmic as she breaks the sigils over his heart down, then slams him through the cathedral until they reach the bottom floor. Then, in front of everyone, Darquesse controls Catalysmic and orders him to kill himself with his own hand. He dies screaming.

Darquesse proceeds to announce her identity to her friends and allies, giving an impassioned speech which she admits to a profound desire for destruction that she'd felt ever since she was first born, but over time, as the line between her and Valkyrie blurred, the resolve she'd once had to destroy the world had wavered. She was confused and was undecided, so for now she'd search for the answer and to deliver judgement. All of them could wait for her answer, since their lives were in her hands.

Desmond tries to reach 'Stephanie' and all of Valkyrie's friends, like Tanith, Ghastly, Elsie, Carol, Ravel, and of course Skulduggery do the same, but it doesn't work. She tells them that she's still herself, just even more herself than ever, then leaves.

Part 9 - Backstabber

There was a sense of defeat even after the Sanctuary's supposed victory. All the Irish Sorcerers return to Ireland with Fletcher's help, proceed to come back to find Deuce looking grim. The Engineer had been fixed by Clarabelle, and with its help, they had a deadline of a single month to shut the Accelerator down by feeding a soul to it. This news doesn't lighten their spirits. The Black Cleaver went to Nye after the death of Catalysmic, as it was tampered with to act as its bodyguard, whilst Nye itself was ordered to be put to work at the Sanctuary by Ravel, who argues that tough days were ahead of them, since he had no plan on handing Ireland over. They'd need all the help they can get.

Fletcher returns to Australia with Razzia, where Savant reunites with Melior. He asks Razzia if she wants to go home, since he had a feeling things were only going to get more ugly from here, but she refuses, stating that he was her closest human friend and she wanted to stick close to him since the world might ends soon. He thinks about the morality of being friends with a killer, but he'd taken life himself, and all of them might die any day now. He says yes, but affirms that she couldn't just kill people whenever she felt like it if she wanted to stay. After stating that he drove a hard bargain, they shook hands and went back, with her asking if he'd make her a new tuxedo in honour of their new friendship, since if she was dying, she wanted to go out with style.

Skulduggery is confronted by Ravel, the only one of the Dead Men who was able to speak with him face-to-face after the truth came out. Ravel tells him sadly that after him being Lord Vile had come to light, the news had spread like wildfire, and people were out for his blood. He tells Skulduggery that he's under house arrest, and any breach or violation of this order will result in severe punishment. He tells Skulduggery that, for what it's worth, he still considers him one of the Dead Men before walking away. It was a cold comfort.

The reflection talks with Desmond when he returns. After learning of what a reflection was and what Valkyrie had done, he wasn't sure how to treat her, especially since she looked identical to his daughter. He thanks her for taking care of Alice, and after learning of the circumstances which led to her gaining sentience, she confesses to feeling unsure if he'd even love her if he knew the truth. He hugs tthe reflection, saying that he's sorry for never noticing, but he still considered her a part of the family. The two cry together.

Sult is left seething when Ravel goes back on his word. He'd looked Sult in the eye and swore, only to say no later, and after losing so many of his men in the battle against Catalysmic, a man who the Irish Sanctuary let go, his thinning patience finally snapped. Ireland had spit in his face for the last time. He rallies the council together and declares war.

Ravel is present in Dublin, underneath it where a legion of Kith, likely transported in by Nero. They were dormant, but could go off at any moment. Marr had led him to it, having caught a vision of the Kith. Whilst Marr is speaking, a knife is shoved into her back by Ravel. She topples over, and Ravel kneels to finish the job, heartbroken. He apologises, but doesn't stop. If someone else knew where the Kith were lurking besides him, then his plan wouldn't be salvageable now that the Warlocks were gone. He says sorry again with tears in his eyes and shoves his knife into Marr's throat, and as she dies, she stares into Ravel's eyes with an expression of pure betrayal. Into those beautiful eyes which she could get lost in for hours. Those golden eyes.

Book 1(The Last of the Ancients)
Book 2(Dancing with Darkness)
Book 3(The Cursed One)
Book 4(Desolation)
Book 5(Divine Judgement)
Sidestory(Tanith Low)
Book 6(Requiem)
Sidestory(Fletcher Renn)
Book 7(Rise of the Wicked)
Book 8(Fall of a Dead Man)

This is technically an original book, since the plot of this one takes place between the events of Kingdom of the Wicked and Last Stand of Dead Men. I did this because, in my opinion, LSoDM was more-or-less where Phase 1 peaked, which is why TDoTL felt a bit underwhelming to me, because it was following such a huge climax. I'm not ripping on the last book, it was great, but it felt like its highs didn't reach its predecessor's, with a lower word count, some dissatisfying conclusions, etcetera.

So, consider this one a prelude to the Sanctuary war if you will, with it being a prelude to the end of the series!

Book 8 - Fall of a Dead Man(2013)

(Main Villain: Catalysmic[Nefarian Serpine])

Part 1 - Tide of War

The prologue is shown from Nye's point of view. He's been kidnapped and strong-armed into working for Catalysmic, being forced to seal his True Name, and help him with various experiments. Despite everything, even through his distain for Catalysmic, Nye still found himself fascinated academically.

After taking over the church and masquerading as Creed, Catalysmic had almost endless resources at their disposal, and so did Nye. They'd colluded together and started a number of projects to aid with his master plan, and not only that, but he'd been getting a group together to make his revenge as excruciating as possible, and planned to take everything and everyone that Skulduggery and Valkyrie held close and dear. A whole year had been devoted to this plan, and it was almost ready.

Catalysmic's scheme was horrible. Even Nye, a soulless creature, couldn't help but pity them. They didn't know what was about to strike.

Valkyrie and Skulduggery are in Dublin, investigating an American killer named Shakespeare Gleeman, otherwise known as Mr Glee. He remains the same twisted sicko as in Phase 2, and when they finally catch up to him, he locks onto Valkyrie. After separating Valkyrie from Skulduggery, he turns invisible and gives several light brushes of his knife's face against her skin whilst invisible, expressing a desire to strip her down and slice her up all over.

But despite his invisibility, Valkyrie had been getting better at reading the air currents, and manages to get a lucky shot with a shadow-enhanced punch and Glee goes down. Valkyrie violently pummels him without mercy, but unlike in canon, Darquesse hadn't been getting louder and egging her on, in fact she'd been getting quieter. But as she did, Valkyrie started to have those violent thoughts on her own. She'd become brutal when engaging criminals, using excessive force even by Skulduggery's standards.

Shadows spike over her fist and moves to cave Glee's skull in, but then Skulduggery arrives and grabs her arm, telling her that was enough. He didn't do it for Glee's sake. She didn't want to go there.

After throwing Glee into a cell, they report back to Ravel, who over the past year has been trying to ease tensions with the Supreme Council to no avail. Bisahalani's death had emboldened them, and they would only accept utter submission on their end. Frankly, he was surprised that outright war hadn't broken out yet, but tells them to be ready. It was on the horizon, and Ravel didn't think he'd be able to stop it, and a recent visit by Illori Reticent regarding the Accelerator wasn't helping his worries at all.

Skulduggery and Valkyrie stop by China's library, but as they're entering, a sour-looking man is exiting, holding a book. He stops when he sees Skulduggery, and vice-versa. With a glare he greets Skulduggery, who greets Uther Peccant back. There was tension in the air and Valkyrie asks if he's got a problem. He says he does, then walks past Skulduggery, goes over to a Mercedes, then drives off.

As they enter, Valkyrie asks about Peccant, and just receives the answer that he was an old friend. One who didn't want anything to do with him, and was right to. Before she can push, they meet China, who'd been trading books with Peccant, who she hadn't been able to scam him with her glamour and drove a hard bargain. She seemed happy about that for some reason.

The two speak with China about the upcoming war, as Ravel wanted Ireland's foremost expert on sigils on their side if worse came to worse. She thinks about it, and surprisingly agrees to lend them her aid, unwilling to let Skulduggery and Valkyrie fight alone. She also congratulates Valkyrie on turning eighteen tomorrow, which was her birthday. She'd remembered.

Part 2 - Refusing to Cave

With Scapegrace's group, they'd started running his old bar again, mostly going about their lives as normally as they could in their new bodies, though always made stops at Clarabelle's hospital regularly to see if she'd made any progress on her research into their bodies. Unfortunately, she hadn't had much time to do that, since she'd been working on restoring a broken old robot that Kenspeckle had stashed away in his supply closet. He'd mentioned it one time when talking about his old projects, and she found some old notes of his, saying it was important for the Accelerator. All the other scientific experts they had on hand were studying the Accelerator itself, and told her to do the same, but Clarabelle ignored them. It felt like it was important.

She was mostly done with the Engineer, but its power core was missing a rare kind of magic-infused gemstone that helped it run without traditional energy and made it autonomous. She needed either a new crystal, or something equivalent. Crux, remembering that the Sceptre was powered by a special crystal too, suggests it could be used as a substitute, and they resolve to take the Rust Bucket and return to the caves under Gordon's mansion.

When it comes to Carol, over the past year she'd been hard at work whilst the reflection lived her mortal life for her. Ravel himself had been acting as the Grand Mage, so he didn't have the time to fully devote himself to their training, but he was a popular man with many friends who were skilled instructors. Normally a single year wouldn't be enough to get Carol ready, but a Shunter friend of Ravel's had access to another dimension like he did in canon, but because their timestreams differed, a day in the Prime Dimension was five days in this other world. She'd technically spent years in this other world, getting into shape and learning how to use magic, and when introduced to the huge city that resided in that dimension, she was told that it was built in case of an emergency where Roarhaven was destroyed.

It was gruelling work, but driven by a desire to get revenge on Kitana, Carol endured and her Surge came, locking her in as an Elementalist. She was training in this dimension when she got a mission to fix the Sceptre because of the war on the horizon, and Ravel wanted them to be as ready as possible. Marr goes with Carol to keep her safe, the two of them being well-acquainted due to their connections to Ravel. She'd been unable to find the one who destroyed the old Sanctuary, and felt like she'd hit a dead end, and Ravel soothes her because of this, directing her to do some good work elsewhere.

Skulduggery, Marr, Carol, and Valkyrie go down to the cave under Gordon's and retrieve another crystal. A few monsters come at them, and Carol shows off some impressive skills, dispatching them with notable ease. This doesn't escape the others' notice. With some clever wordplay, Marr learns about Ravel's Shunter friend and the other dimension, which was why Carol had grown so much in a 'short' amount of time, though Carol omits the fact a city was being constructed there. Marr is confused about why her boyfriend would hide this from her and the rest of his friends.

At one point, Valkyrie and Carol are separated from the detectives during a cave-in and have to advance alone, nicking more than one crystal together just so they wouldn't have to come back down to the cave again. But as they're leaving, they come across Anathem Mire, who wished to finish the job he hadn't been able to years ago. He almost succeeds, but Scapegrace's group are there to help them, buying enough time for Carol to shove the crystal into the Sceptre and smite him down. After explaining their situation, and as thanks for helping them, they give Scapegrace one of their crystals, which they leave with to take to Clarabelle.

In America, Sult is addressing the rest of the council in a meeting, which includes Wahrheit and Mandat. All of them have separate issues with the Irish Sanctuary for varying reasons, one of which includes Mandat currently having conflict with the Warlocks, who assumed that he gave away their location and had started picking off French Sorcerers at the borders. Sult had succeeded his teacher as Supreme Leader of the council, and despite everything, he was trying to placate them. He reminds them all of the cost of war, and yes, maybe they could defeat Ireland together, but asks what the price for that would be. All the blood and bone they'd have to trudge through to do so on both sides. He tells them to be patient. They are Sorcerers, and even if war is inevitable, they are in no rush. He adjourns the meeting.

Elsewhere in America, Fletcher is with Donegan and Gracious in Washington. It had taken a while, but they'd managed to finally pin Smoke down and follow him into a church, which they infiltrate to ambush him, but they stumble into a room where a skinless man, Catalysmic, was giving a speech. He'd taken to doing so in his skinless form, as he was selling the message that he was a prophet of the Faceless Ones themselves, sent from on high to deliver justice on the ones who struck down their gods, and the worst sinner of all: Valkyrie Cain. He talks about how those in the church would be given the chance to not only worship chaos, but become chaos itself through transforming into Kith, the Spawn of the Faceless, making a show of having it sound like a grand, noble sacrifice, rather than a grotesque, painful transformation into a monster.

Fletcher listens to this, then notices that Gracious was gone, and spots Nero, who runs when he sees Fletcher. It had been a trap, set by Smoke. He teleports out to the corridor, punching Nero and pinning him down, demanding he teleport to where Gracious is, threatening to break his arm. They move to a dark alleyway, where he finds Gracious on the floor, beaten with a gouged out eye. He barely turns in time to avoid a knife coming for his neck, and find the face of Myra, who was wearing a strange bodysuit covered in sigils.

A short fight takes place, but something is wrong with Myra. She was meant to be a mortal, but she was being enhanced by that bodysuit to a level which rivalled Gracious' strength. She splinters his ribs and nearly guts him. He's forced to flee with Gracious in tow, returning to Donegan and teleporting back.

Part 3 - Shattered Mirror

Elsie is with Ghastly in his shop, having been taken on as an apprentice by him. She'd changed a lot in build, demeanour, and clothes, donning a spiffy tuxedo, but remained the same sweet girl as ever. She'd taken to sewing well, but not fighting. It just wasn't her nature. Ghastly mentioned that she reminded him a bit of Fletcher, and before she can ask about him, the man himself teleports in with Donegan and Gracious, injured. Speak of the devil.

Smoke is at a table, and Catalysmic sat at its head, the Black Cleaver at his back. Asides from the Neoterics, Lethe, Nero, and Destrier, there were more people who'd been selected to be part of his team. Nye is there, the gangly thing sneering at everyone, unhappy to be here but having no choice, though it does take some pride in the work its done. After killing Creed, the two of them had stolen Mevolent's armour, which Creed had inherited in addition to the Obsidian Blade and still possessed, and managed to reverse-engineer it, though doing so was time-consuming and the results weren't as good as the original. Nevertheless, the copy suited Myra just fine, who despite being mortal was able to tussle with Gracious and come out on top.

Other than her, there was Eliza, who sneered at Myra and was sneered at in return. She hated not being in control and that Catalysmic was selling bullshit to the church for his own plans, but was willing to follow him to ruin China, plus she was his second-in-command. Otherwise, there was Kitana Kellaway, still wearing Valkyrie's red jacket, who'd joined up with Catalysmic when he approached her and offered a plan to pay Valkyrie back and sew carnage.

At the head, Catalysmic steals the scene, gesturing to Eliza and Myra that some of them might not like each other, but all of them had a common goal in mind: revenge, and petty grievances needed to be put aside to settle their pettier grievances. He points them all out, swaying their minds and uniting them. The time has come to spread chaos.

Valkyrie returns to her home, where she speaks with her family and a growing Alice, who was three now. Desmond gives her the Oompa lumpa for her birthday, and the whole family would be going out for dinner tonight. Desmond gets emotional, because she was an adult now and he wouldn't be able to protect her as much anymore, and Crystal's sudden demise reminded him of how fragile life is. She assures him that he'd protected her well, and she'd always need his help, then afterwards goes up to her room and receives a call from Skulduggery. She needed to go.

The reflection comes out of the mirror, and she shows disapproval of Valkyrie for blowing her parents off like this at Skulduggery word, but she waves her off, saying this was a good thing since the reflection would get to spend more time with her family. The reflection tries to argue more, but Valkyrie leaves out the window to find Skulduggery, who was waiting outside in the Bentley, where they drive and have a meet-up with Solomon.

After a typical standoff between him and Skulduggery, he gets unusually serious and tells them about an encounter he'd had with a few stray worshippers of the Faceless Ones, and he needed their help to investigate them. After this, he takes them to the church in question, where they sneak in and go through their supplies, finding a huge supply of injections, which unknown to them was a perfected version of the Kith Serum.

A church member notices them, however, and they seem to seethe with hatred and anger when they see Valkyrie, and a fight takes place where Valkyrie is on the ground being kicked around. Skulduggery and Solomon work together for once and unleash a barrage of shadows and bullets, laying them all down, but aren't able to take any of them prisoner because they activate suicide sigils branded onto their nicks, reciting the term 'all is chaos' before dying and taking any explanation down with them.

The three head to the infirmary in Roarhaven, intent on getting the injection analysed, where Fletcher is being treated along with Gracious, who'd lost an eye. Donegan explains the situation, how Smoke was working with the church and they were targeting Valkyrie in their speech. The church might've been driven out of Ireland, but he tells her to keep her guard up, because they sure as hell would be.

Valkyrie doesn't go to Fletcher, who'd made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her. Instead, after Skulduggery and Solomon go to Reverie to get the serum analysed, she speaks with Elsie, who shows worry for Fletcher, since the two of them had become close through Ghastly, and couldn't help but question her own pacificist stance. She wanted to help her friends, but didn't want to hurt anyone. In return, Valkyrie says that if she wanted something in life, she had to take it, and sometimes that meant violence. She tells Elsie about Glee, how the world would be better off without people like him, and asks if she'd let Fletcher get hurt to spare people like him or Kitana. Elsie isn't able to answer, and Valkyrie pushes until Ghastly interrupts, telling Valkyrie she'd said enough. Seeing the way he sided with Elsie over her hurt. Everyone seemed to be growing distant from her, and she felt like she had no one except Skulduggery in her corner. Well, him and the reflection.

The reflection is returning from dinner with Valkyrie's family. Fergus and Beryl had been present, along with Carol's reflection, with them all having grown closer after Crystal died. She felt horrible about not telling them about what actually happened to their daughter, but couldn't speak out. Despite everything, she was still a reflection, and couldn't disobey Valkyrie.

The reflection takes off her shoes, then goes to her bedroom. She notices something is off, then a knife slashes over her eye, blinding her.

Mr Glee reveals himself, thinking she's Valkyrie, but realises she was just a reflection. His glee is soured a bit, but he still licks the end of his blade, saying she'd do, as he'd been hired to kidnap her family anyway. Plus, he could still have his fun.

The commotion draws her parents' attention, however. Desmond tries to attack Glee, but is swiftly knocked down. He gets cocky, believing mortals to be helpless. Then Melissa steps in and breaks a vase over his face, sending him staggering into the mirror, shattering it. She tells the reflection to run with Alice, and she does, sprinting through Haggard with a crying Alice and no shoes.

Part 4 - The Truth Comes Out

Valkyrie gets a call from the reflection, and answers, learning of its situation. She gets over her fear of a healed Fletcher and pleads for his help, which he gives without being told twice because, despite everything, a part of him still cared about Valkyrie, plus her family were innocents. They teleport into Haggard and take the reflection and Alice in, where it's healed but blinded, left without an iris in her right eye. Valkyrie tries to create a new mirror for it to go into, but the usual sigils for a reflection aren't work, and the reflection wasn't able to go back into the mirror. The reflection could no longer act as a reflection.

Gracious tries to look on the bright side by saying they match, but fails to get a smile, and the reflection is left despondent and quiet. What was her purpose now? In seeing the reflection wounded so badly, and learning that Glee, the man she'd let live, was the culprit, Valkyrie swears that next time he was at her mercy, she'd cut him down.

The results for the serum come back, and Reverie tells them it was a mixture of something they can't identify and Valkyrie's blood. This was a perfected version of the Kith Serum, which was made by mixing the Grotesquery's blood with Valkyrie's to heighten the purity of the Faceless Ones' DNA inside of it, resulting in the strongest Kith possible. Upon learning what it was, Skulduggery deduces what it did due to his time with the Faceless Ones, and now his suspicions were confirmed. The church were up to something. He goes to China to ask if she heard something, but Valkyrie chooses to stay behind with the reflection and Alice, unwilling to leave them alone.

Skulduggery goes to find China at the library, wanting to ask about the Kith Serum and what the church might be up to, and the two speak when he arrives, but are interrupted by the arrival of Catalysmic. He'd tracked down and studied his old rival, and now that the stage was set, his beautiful revenge could commence.

"Don't tell me you thought death would be enough to keep me away from you, Skulduggery. It certainly didn't keep you from me."

The two have a heated discussion, where Serpine flickers into his real, skinless form, saying they'd both been disfigured by their rebirth, before flickering back. He and Skulduggery trade barbs, then he proceeds to unveil the horrible truth that China had helped him kill Skulduggery's family. It had been just the two of them involved, and with Serpine dead China though the truth would stay buried for good.

Catalysmic mocks Skulduggery for being capable of loving the one who'd gotten his family killed, but doesn't move to kill him. The time for their final showdown wasn't quite nigh. He tells Skulduggery to linger on what he'd learned, but to know this was only the start, then teleports away.

Skulduggery refuses to look at China, who tries to speak with him, but then he started to shake with rage. She backs away as the shadows curl around him, and for a moment she thought he was going to transform into Vile and tear her apart. But after a moment, he forced the shadows to reign themselves. He tells China never to get within his sights again, then walks away, leaving her all by herself.

Part 5 - The Siege

In Roarhaven, the worshippers of the Faceless Ones emerged, planted there by Nero. All of them were given a syringe of Kith Serum. All of the followers here were from Ireland, and volunteered to do this because Catalysmic wanted them to cleanse Ireland. One by one, they start to shout 'all is chaos!' and inject themselves, turning into Kith and rampaging in the streets, killing everything in sight.

Clarabelle has managed to edit the Engineer's power core enough for it to accommodate for the black crystal's energy rather than its usual one. It boots up, then informs them of its purpose being to shut down the Accelerator in case it began to overload, explaining it was an unintentional doomsday device. Unlike in canon, its memory processor remains intact, so it can get to work right away. But then a Kith finds them and attacks, and whilst the Engineer isn't destroyed, its memory processor is damaged when it strikes. Scapegrace, Thrasher, and Crux save Clarabelle just in time for Donegan to arrive with Fletcher, and they slay the Kith, but the Engineer was damaged.

People die, and Sorcerers try to act, but as they do, an army appears outside of Roarhaven. An army of Warlocks, also teleported in by Nero. Charivari was a part of Catalysmic's team because he was promised the chance to end the Irish Sanctuary, and after learning one of their Sorcerers were behind his peoples' death, he was out for blood and was willing to partner with an outsider to get it. Marr hadn't given the justice she promised, so he laid siege to Roarhaven, willing to drown the city in blood just to get to his killer. The Dead Men and Ravel rally their Sorcerers together and counterattack both the Kith and Warlocks. The reflection is told to keep Alice safe by Valkyrie as she leaves, joining the fight and killing the Kith, who seem to be unsure of how to regard her. It was unsettling, but she uses the chance to slay them. Elsie is there, who'd since her talk with Valkyrie re-evaluated her pacifistic stance. Thinking about Argeddion, what he wanted to do and was willing to let slide for the sake of pacificism, she ultimately dumps her old ideology and attacks the Kith, saving countless lives.

The Kith are culled, the Warlocks are in the middle of being beaten back, and things start to look up. Then, in the Accelerator Room, Kitana emerges and kills a few guards, going up to a Cube-entrapped Argeddion. After mocking him, she walks into the Accelerator and emerged supercharged. Catalysmic had given the simple order to supercharge herself and rampage, killing as many people as possible, and she was happy to comply. After exiting the Accelerator, she went to the surface and destroyed rows of buildings and legions of Sorcerers and civilians, relishing the pain and death she was causing, and the looks on Valkyrie and Elsie's faces.

"This is what happens when you don't finish the job, Valkyrie."

A fight occurs between the three of them. Valkyrie isn't able to fight for long, lacking the raw power to keep up. Elsie tackles Kitana. She remembers her lesson with Ghastly and throws mean punches, but unlike Kitana, she isn't supercharged. Still, she fights with everything she has, knowing she was the only one who could put up a fight, and gets brutalised in response.

Outside Roarhaven, Ravel is fighting Charivari and the Warlocks with the Dead Men, Fletcher, and the Monster Hunters. There are no organic Hollow Men here, it's just Sorcerers against Warlocks. Marr is fighting at Ravel's side, and they confront Charivari together, who's disappointed to know she hadn't found the traitor and calls her a liar, moving to kill her, but Ravel saves her at the last moment.

Then Carol shows up with the Sceptre, killing dozens of his men. He strikes at her, wishing to slay her for ending his brothers. But Marr jumps on him from behind and grabs his head, choosing to attack him mentally rather than physically, and manages to out-will Charivari, shredding his mind and turning him into a vegetable. And then, when he's down, she unleashes a round of her gun into his head for good measure, firing until the bullets are spent.

Elsie is on the ground, being strangled by Kitana. As she starts to lose consciousness, Kitana starts to rant and confesses to Elsie that she'd been feeling lonely since Sean and Doran died, and now, with Elsie gone, she'd be completely alone. And that made her sad. She was her own biggest victim. Kitana tells Elsie to take her weakness down with her, then tightens her grip, but Carol shows up, pointing the Sceptre at Kitana.

A standoff happens where Kitana uses Elsie as a human shield, causing Carol to hesitate. More Sorcerers start to appear, and Kitana realises she's outnumbered. She throws Elsie at Carol to block her and uses the chance to leave, flying off into the distance at breakneck speeds, leaving a destroyed city in her wake.

(Part 2 can be read here)