Alden heard Rachel call his name and almost froze up. He almost didn't go out through the forest. She'd told him they were both safe, but he'd seen what those golems could do first-hand, and he'd been face-to-face with Jackson. Alden had never felt such a deep seated terror before in his life, and he certainly never wanted to feel it again. It would have been so easy to just turn around and run away.
Alden rushed forward through the trees, having no idea what to expect. He saw the golems lined up and chasing the three greycloaks through the field, and he saw Ruby holding Cinza in her arms and shouting something he couldn't make out. He saw the streaks of blood already washing down into the flooding stream.
He saw Omega standing at the entrance to a small cabin, right in front of him, just beginning to turn around. In a split-second, Alden would see those terrible eyes again.
Alden reached for the pool of energy inside him and broke the edges entirely, letting everything he could flow out into this one spell. Energy from the gemstones spilling out of his fists rocketed through his core like a bolt of lightning. He launched the sphere away like a baseball pitcher, putting even his physical strength into it with a desperate shout.
It landed right where he wanted it to.
Jackson had just started to move when he was suddenly slowed down. He was still turning toward Alden, but so slowly that he would never make it. Alden had a brief moment to wonder why this spell affected him, when nothing else ever could, before his vision started to go black.
He couldn't keep this up. In only a few moments, he'd black out—and no matter Rachel's reassurances, he fully believed he would die.
Rachel walked forward. Her mind was totally calm. She didn't have time to think about anything. Every single part of her brain was focused on the piece of metal and plastic tucked in her hand. Her strides were long and confident across the wet grass.
She lifted the pistol up and squeezed the trigger. The gun kicked. Once. Twice. Again. She lost count.
The trigger clicked. The magazine was spent. She tossed the gun aside.
The golems melted away, whatever material they were composed of breaking apart like dust in the rain. Alden managed to release the spell before he fainted. He fell onto the wet grass and held still, trying to hold back a pounding migraine.
Rachel fell to her knees, heedless of the mud and the rain pouring over her. She stared straight ahead, her mind still empty even as her heart pumped furiously and her chest felt like it would explode.
Jackson was dead. Omega was dead.
Up by the cabin, just barely audible over the rainwater pouring off the roof, they heard a faint female voice sobbing from where Jackson's body had fallen.
It was over.