Golden Egg

“That’s the egg from my vision!” Milena pointed at the unnaturally large Golden Egg.

“D-Debilmir… I couldn’t take them down…!”

“Zduhach!”

The half-god’s face was swollen beyond recognition.

“Let Daddy handle the conversation.” Dazhbog pushed Zduhach’s head deeper into the soil. “Did you see how I single-handedly took care of my son?”

“Indeed. You’re strong,” Perun acknowledged.

“Why didn’t you stay put, miss bohatier?” Radegast turned to Milena. “We were giving you the chance to be the one who survives.”

“Spreading fairy tales isn’t my calling!” Milena still held the axe from Radegast’s house. “I didn’t come to be given chances by you lot! I want to free my mother and avenge my father and my friend!”

“That Domovoy, huh?” Perun asked. “Shkrat, I believe.”

“Don’t you dare take his name in your mouth!”

“Calm down, Milena. This isn’t going to be easy.” He pulled her closer and whispered into her ear. “The Golden Egg is actually the original goddess, Rohd. To write a Commandment, you have to touch her, or that shell, and give up a dusha.”

“What?” Milena whispered back. “How do you know that?”

“No time to explain. You have only one dusha left. I have one from Levoslav. If ours is used, we die.” His eyes shifted toward Zduhach. “He still has both.”

Milena looked at the battered half-god.

Dragomir turned back to the gods. “Why are you lined up like this… bohatiers?”

Perun’s expression hardened. “I’m not sure how you know about that. But your provocation is pointless.”

Lightning gathered beneath him, twisting into a throne. Perun sat directly before the Golden Egg, his axe resting across his knees.

“Whatever you are planning to do, I won’t let you.”

“We tried to stop that Jarilo guy after he destroyed Alatyr, but he said he would definitely return for the Twelfth Commandment,” Dazhbog explained. “We weren’t strong enough to overcome that stupid Lada’s ring, so we headed back here.”

“Quit yapping! You sound like Lada!” Radegast shouted.

“Say, God of Sun!” Dragomir raised his voice. “How did you manage to defeat a god?”

“It was quite easy!” Dazhbog spread his arms, accidentally, or perhaps deliberately, smacking Zduhach’s head in the process. “I asked for a fair fight. But first, I had to make sure none of my fellow bohatiers could take my place.”

His grin widened.

“So I killed them.”

Milena and Dragomir both gritted their teeth.

“Then I challenged one of the gods. No weapons. No abilities. Just our own two hands.”

“Little did we know,” Radegast interrupted, “people from the Far East were trained in hand-to-hand combat. So this moron won quite easily.”

“Oh?” Dragomir kept his eyes on Dazhbog. “And which god did you defeat?”

Milena leaned closer. “Isn’t this the wrong time for chit-chat?”

“Just a little longer,” he whispered.

“Perun, of course!” Dazhbog slapped his chest. “I went for the strongest one!”

“Technically, I am the God of War, so I should be the strongest-” Radegast got cut off by Dazhbog.

“I could handle any opponent with my bare hands!”

Perun sighed. “He challenged my pride. And I accepted.”

“And lost!” Dazhbog laughed.

Perun’s fingers tightened around his axe. “We needed him to write the Tenth Commandment. But he…”

“I told the Golden Egg to make me a god!” Dazhbog grinned. “Simple as that!”

He slapped Zduhach’s head.

“Hey, you’ve been awfully quiet. You didn’t die already, did you?”

Dazhbog grabbed his hair and pulled his head out of the soil.

But Zduhach… snored.

“Yes! Finally!” Dragomir triumphantly clenched his fists.

“Huh?” Dazhbog looked down.

An arrow had pierced his forearm.

Zduhach’s warm dusha hovered high above them on his trusted stallion, his skin blazing with a fiery aura.

“Aahhh!”

Dazhbog released Zduhach’s body as pain tore through his arm.

“Is this your grand plan? Letting them talk until Zduhach fell asleep?” Milena side-eyed Dragomir.

He simply nodded, his smile not wavering.

“You all managed to gather here before me?” Jarilo approached from behind them, a hammer in each hand.

Perun sprang to his feet. “You…”

High above the battlefield, atop the rocky cliff, Veles gazed down at them. Jarilo’s dusha remained tethered to his wrist. Five candles swirled above the Negotiator’s head.

“This guy…” Dragomir rolled his eyes.

“I’ll stop him!” Milena dashed around the cliff, searching for a way up. “Even I can handle the weakest god!”

“Stop him from what?” Dragomir shouted after her.

“Whatever he might be scheming!” she shouted back. “Oh, and one of them probably stole a powerful artifact from me, so be careful!”

Above them, Zduhach unleashed another volley at Dazhbog.

Dazhbog answered with arrows of fire.

Three collided midair and burst apart. Two slipped through.

Dazhbog twisted aside at the last second. “You really are strong!”

Jarilo broke into a sprint toward the Golden Egg.

“With Alatyr gone, gods and new spirits can’t reach humans! And once I command this thing, humans who suffer the same fate as my siblings will never be defenseless again!”

The voices of honesty whispered inside Dragomir’s head.

Jarilo truly meant it.

In his own twisted way, despite hating them, he wanted to protect humans.

“No, you don’t!” Radegast intercepted Jarilo with his hammer and axe.

Iron crashed against iron. Sparks scattered across the battlefield.

Perun’s eyes met Dragomir’s. “Looks like it’s you and me, young bohatier.”

“Let’s help Jarilo!” Dragomir shouted. “He’s about to write a Commandment that could give us a huge advantage!”

A thunderbolt crashed into Dragomir’s shoulder.

He recoiled…

…then smiled.

Lada’s ring had protected him.

Perun charged.

Veles, meanwhile, already had the blade of Milena’s axe pressed against his throat. “My, my… what do we have here?” He smirked.

Jarilo brought one hammer down hard.

CRACK!

Radegast’s hammer split.

Jarilo’s second hammer slammed into the boar hat.

The fangs snapped as the impact drove the boar hat into Radegast’s skull. Something cracked underneath.

Radegast crumpled to the ground, barely conscious.

Jarilo left him behind and sprinted for the Golden Egg.

“You fool!” Perun shouted.

He locked hands with Dragomir, forcing the edge of his axe toward the bohatier’s neck.

“Veles already has one of your dushe! If you write another Commandment, you will die!” Perun yelled.

“That’s the price I’m willing to pay for a better world!”

“Pay attention to your opponent!” Dragomir kicked Perun’s ankle.

The god’s balance shifted.

Just enough.

Dragomir ripped the axe from his grasp.

SLASH!

Perun’s arm hit the ground.

Perun clicked his tongue and calmly sat down, clutching the stump as blood poured between his fingers.

Above them, father and son exchanged arrows.

Zduhach’s stallion gave him the advantage. He circled Dazhbog and buried two arrows deep into his thighs.

Dazhbog collapsed, panting.

Zduhach drew again.

“So this is what I get in return for loving your mother, eh?”

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Radegast gurgled.

His unfocused eyes swept across the battlefield.

The bohatiers were winning.

“No… this can’t be… happening…”

He reached weakly for his axe. His fingers closed around the handle, but when he tried to lift it, his trembling arm gave out.

Dragomir raised Perun’s weapon. “This is the only thing in the world that can reliably kill you.” His grip tightened around the handle. “This is for Milena’s family!”

Perun’s eyes shifted toward Radegast.

The God of War had turned his axe blade upward.

Slowly, painfully, he dragged himself into position above it.

Perun understood.

“I see…”

Radegast looked back at him.

“Thank you, Radegast.”

“Being sentimental at the end, huh?” Dragomir swung.

Perun reached into his pocket and pulled out something familiar.

The pocket watch.

“Protection by Death!”

It began ticking.

Dragomir’s eyes widened.

A figure materialized between them.

CLANG!

Dragomir froze.

“You…?”

Morena’s staff had caught the axe.

Before he could react, Morena pressed one hand against Perun’s bleeding stump.

Ice swallowed the wound.

She glanced at his missing arm.

“Welcome to the one-arm club.”

Tick…

Radegast grinned through the blood in his mouth.

“Strength doesn’t always win the battle…”

He raised himself as high as his failing body allowed, positioning his neck directly above the upturned blade.

“War strategy does!”

Then he let himself fall.

His throat landed squarely on the edge of his own axe.

Radegast went limp.

Above Veles, one candle burned out as the other four flared brighter.

The final tick sounded.

Morena vanished.

Thunder rumbled overhead.

BOOM!

Lightning struck Jarilo just as his fingers reached for the Golden Egg.

The stench of burnt flesh filled the air.

Jarilo’s skin blackened.

Lada’s ring shattered.

At the same instant, the ring on Dragomir’s hand exploded.

The blast tore off his ring finger.

“Aaargh!”

“Dragomir!” Milena shouted from the cliff.

Charred and barely able to move, Jarilo felt himself falling backward.

With the last of his strength, he threw his weight forward instead.

His burning body collapsed against the Golden Egg.

“I… command you…”

His voice was barely audible.

“Turn every dusha of a murdered human… into a vengeful spirit immediately.”

Chapter 46: END