Chapter 42: The Rainbow Awakens

BOOM!

The tunnels beneath the Citadel trembled as Pink, in her full beast form, tore through a crowd of armed Kin. The odds were stacked—one against dozens. Their weapons gleamed with rune sigils, corrupted by years of entrapment and vengeance.

She roared—her voice a thundering ripple through stone.

A vine lashed toward her. She caught it mid-air, twisted, and spun, using the Kin attached like a mace. The crashing bodies echoed through the dark chamber as two more crumbled under the force.

Her strength was monstrous, but her movement—sluggish.

The seal above dimmed her core. She could fight, but not forever.

**

Elsewhere in the tunnel—

Noah was losing.

Sweat ran down his brow as he ducked, dodged, and blinked through the dark corridors using the Neverwhere Scaff. The cloak was keeping him alive—barely. His attacker, a humanoid Kin built like a knight of bark and bone, slashed wildly with its rune sword, each swing carving stone walls into dust.

Noah tripped. A wrong turn. A dead end.

The Kin's carved mouth twisted into a grin. It raised its blade and struck downward.

Noah flinched—too slow to vanish.

CLANG!

He gasped. Two enormous cloth-like hands appeared, crossed above him in a shield. They shimmered with black embroidery, absorbing the blow.

"What… was that?" he whispered.

The cloak moved again.

His thoughts… were being mirrored.

He clenched his fists. The cloak's black hands clenched with him.

He widened his stance. The shadow hands flexed, mimicking.

The Kin, startled, lunged again.

Noah swung his arm in a wide arc.

WHAM!

The cloak-hand punched air—and the Kin was knocked flying.

Noah's eyes widened. "No way…"

Grinning, he slammed one fist into his palm. "Time for round two."

The Kin staggered, rising just as Noah launched himself upward with a swipe at the ground. He soared high into the tunnel's ceiling and descended like a missile, the cloth-fist above him.

"EAT THIS!" he shouted.

BOOM!

The Kin barely blocked in time, but the impact shattered the floor, launching shockwaves throughout the chamber. The Kin skidded back, roots unfurling in panic.

Noah sprinted past, ignoring the mayhem behind him. He didn't even look toward Pink—crushed under a mountain of writhing Kin and roots, her body barely visible.

He raced straight to the center altar where the Rainbow Hammer stood—its energy humming with sealed magic.

The humanoid Kin roared behind him and fired roots like spears.

Noah thrust his cloth-hand forward.

It shot ahead and gripped the hammer, dragging Noah forward. He skidded through the runes and grabbed it—

SHRAAAAAAKKKKK!

An ear-splitting explosion of light tore through the chamber—brilliant, overwhelming. The tunnels were painted in radiance, a storm of seven-color energy pulsing from the weapon like a pulsewave.

---

The Plaza, Above

Moments earlier.

Mrs. White knelt beneath a cocoon of barbed roots, pinned and bleeding, her ghostly white dress soaked in her eerie blue blood.

The Queen, seated on her throne of bark, sneered down at her.

"Had you followed the Sovereign, Sundawn would never have chased us from our world," she hissed. "You betrayed us—trapped us in this cursed forest!"

The crowd of Kin roared with hatred.

"That wasn't protection. It was punishment."

But the White Witch… laughed.

"The convergence was inevitable," she whispered.

Silence rippled across the plaza.

The Queen's barked voice cracked. "What nonsense are you speaking?"

Mrs. White looked up slowly. No face. No eyes. But power in her posture.

"You remember what I studied—Convergence and Divergence. Time and World Layers. Our world was just a grain in the sandbox. Something out there was playing with worlds. Shuffling them. Merging them."

"Stop talking—!"

"When I discovered this, our world began converging—being pressed by another reality. A world of light. That's when Sundawn arrived."

The Kin stirred.

"He's not a god. He's a refugee." she spat. "His world was burned away by the collapse of a dwarf star… The same star that destroyed every world of the old Sovereigns."

She paused.

"And now, Sundawn builds a weapon—hoping to rise above the next collapse. But his presence draws the attention of the Beyond. Of the one we cannot name."

The Queen was trembling. "Why… are you saying this now?"

Mrs. White grinned. "you wouldn't be part of it."

BOOOOM!

A tremor shook the plaza. Kin stumbled. Roots cracked. The Queen's throne lurched.

Ezra gasped as rainbow light poured from the cracks in the earth. So did Mongragore.

From below, the seal was shattering.

The Queen screamed, "You wretched whelp! You tricked us!"

The White Witch's bindings shattered.

"Your mistake," she said softly.

She rose.

All around the plaza—rainbow light erupted.

The Kin screamed.