The crystal was cold against my chest, its surface pulsing with what I knew was the trapped life force of millions. I could feel them pressing against my fingers, screaming without sound, desperate for release. I glanced away from the crystal, since it was too close to my eyes, and I did not want to be distracted by any unknown vision.
I moved again to the side, and the god's claws carved through the air where my head had been a heartbeat before. I twisted, my feet finding purchase on the stone, and put three rows of corpses between us.
He did not follow the way I expected. His body flowed. That was the only word for it. His limbs bent in directions that had no names, his spine curved, his neck extended. He poured himself across the bodies like oil across water, his talons leaving furrows in the stone beneath.
If there had been food in my stomach, I would have thrown up at the sight of his body as it moved in this unnatural manner.
"You are fast," he hissed. "For a mortal."
