With a course set of "Killing the God King," our heroes set off to do just that. How and with what army is answered quickly (thankfully for them) when the come across Batal the Beast flayed open and yet still alive being paraded across all of Yesenre to remind all of Vaan's foes what happens to rebels. Nick, Lesya, and Violette free him from his shackles and discover that he is so much more than they ever thought. A native citizen of Yesenre and yet far more powerful than even they are as other worlders, and he knows about the levels. Reluctantly, Lesya and Violette agree to ally themselves with the Beast even knowing to do so will spread the flames of war.

Omg this was amazing! I genuinely don't even know where to start. Every new revelation is more exciting (in Lesya's case extremely despressing) than the last one, and oh man, were there a ton of them, and ALL of them are spoilers. So I'm going to keep it minimal on that level, so here goes the short of it: Nick's an idiot but maybe not really? He definitely becomes a bonafied badass in this volume, so there is that, and I think he's finally gotten past his whole "girls I'm attracted to are scary" thing. I'm proud of him there. My heart is so broken over everything we find out about Lesya's past and what she has to do, but oddly enough given what is going on in my own personal life her story was one I needed and gave me more strength to do what I needed to do. There's something up with Violette. There is just no way she's "just a scholar," I call bs. Cateloger, oh my girl, Cateloger. Finally, I want more sorrow.

Now the fight scenes cause yeah, sure, there's this giant Behemoth on the cover, and that battle is *nothing* compared to the final solo battles Nick and Lesya fight. They were both just epic. Nick gains not one but TWO badass spells in the last battle and the last one he picks up? It was like Ramuh raining down Thunder from FFXV. It was perfection, and it was glorious. It made me want to play FFXV 😂 Sviatt (who I hate) was also just an excellent opponent for both Nick and Batal. Batal may be OP, but he is in such a way that there is still very much tension that he could actually die, and I loved that. Writing a character who can crush people's skulls with a single punch but still have the reader understand he is vulnerable, especially when compared to Nick, Lesya, and Violette, is a monumental feat.

Dalglish blew it out of the park with this one. although so help me every god ever if Cataloger goes the way of a certain beloved character in Keepers my rage will know no bounds 😅

As always, thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for the eArcs!