They ran through the gates of Skyhold, boots pounding stone and gravel. The wind had turned bitter, tasting of ozone and the Fade, as if the world had already started unravelling. And overhead...
"Shit," Holli whispered.
Up the mountainside, framed by jagged peaks and the crumbled bones of old ruins, a new Breach had torn through the sky. It pulsed like an open wound, green and reddish and endless, the lightning from it carving wild, unnatural shapes across the clouds. It was bigger than the last one had been. More raw. Like the Veil wasn't just thin here; it was gone.
She could feel it through the mark, like a second spine trying to push out through her skin. Like her blood was boiling with every pulse of that sky.
And the worst part? The army wasn't back yet.
The bulk of their forces were still somewhere in the Arbor Wilds, slogging through jungle and mud and the Wardens' mess. All that was left—the Inquisition's scraps—had trooped up the mountain in desperation.
Holli stopped, breathing hard, as they crested the lower ridge. She stared up at the unnatural storm.
"How the fuck am I supposed to close it without Templars?" She asked aloud. Her voice came out too thin, too small. She could hear how young she sounded and hated it.
She looked to Hawke. He looked like he wanted to make a joke - he always looked like that - but this time his eyes were dark, almost soft beneath the bravado. "I don't know," he said honestly. "Let's just… get up there. See if we can kill Corypheus for good this time, and then worry about the hole in the sky, hm?"
She nodded. Because what else could she do?
They were already gathering around her, Fenris with his ghost-light markings, face grim. Cassandra buckling her gauntlet with stiff precision, while Dorian fussed with his cuffs like it mattered. Vivienne was as regal and unreadable as ever. Sera was staring up at the Breach with what almost looked like a pout. Varric was loading Bianca, and Bull cracked his neck. Blackwall was checking his armour over. And Solas… Solas was watching the sky like it was his.
They started the climb. The wind howled through the narrow pass, thick with dust and magic and the burn of Fade energy; at least she thought it was Fade energy, she didn't really know what else to call it. They moved in silence, the scrape of boots on stone, the soft clatter of armour. No one asked if they were ready. Wouldn't really matter if they weren't she supposed.
Cole walked beside her. He didn't speak; he just reached for her hand and held it. No ask, no words, just her hand in his. She gripped it like a lifeline.
Ahead, the ruins loomed, the last place they'd ever be, maybe. The place Corypheus would end it. This was it. Maybe. He died, or they did.
The wind sharpened, and she shuddered at the cold, it got louder, like the world itself had started to scream. The sky was cracking open ahead, black-green and pulsing, rimmed in a sickly goldish red. Lightning tore jagged lines across it, not from storms, but from whatever Corypheus had done, whatever hole he'd ripped through the world this time. Piece of shit.
And still Cole held her hand. His fingers were warm, even as hers were shaking.
The ruins were up ahead, speared against the sky like broken teeth. The others had spread out in a quiet formation. And then Cole squeezed her hand. She looked up, and he was watching the sky. His voice was quiet but not tentative.
"If this ends with fire and sky tearing open, I'll still be thinking of your mouth on mine, of your breath. Of how you touched me like I was real."
It knocked the breath from her. Her chest twisted so sharply she didn't even think; she just moved. Her arms were around his neck in an instant, burying herself in him, needing the weight and shape of him against her. She held him tightly, so tightly, like she could hold off the end of the world.
"You are real, Cole," she whispered, her voice fierce in the crook of his neck. "I promise."
He hugged her back. No hesitation. His hands against her back, his heartbeat steady and calm where her chest was rattling with adrenaline and fear. They stood like that a moment longer, a moment that felt like it might be their last bit of peace.
Then a pulse surged from the Breach. Her hand flared, searing pain racing up her arm. Holli hissed and let go, clenching her jaw as it flashed and faded. Cole was watching her, worried, but she shook her head. They had to move. She pushed forward, taking his hand again, and they caught up to the others just as the ground sloped up toward the shattered stone archway ahead.
They'd be fine. Whatever happened, they'd be fine. She hoped.
The air grew colder the higher they climbed, but it wasn't the wind that raised goosebumps on her skin; it was the red lyrium. Crystals jutted out of the mountainside, pulsing and humming. Some were small, spiked shards littering the path; others were massive growths, splitting the rock open like ribs bursting from a corpse. They glowed from within with that terrible red light, and even looking at them too long made her stomach churn.
They had to cut through demons to reach him. The group moved like one, Cassandra and Fenris at the front, Bull and Solas flanking, Vivienne commanding ice storms, and Dorian flinging lightning like it was second nature. Hawke darted through them all with that arrogant grace that made it look like a game.
Cole moved beside her in perfect sync, almost dancing. Holli burnt a path through them with every crack of her mark, her hand glowing too bright. It was really starting to hurt now. A real, deep ache under her skin. But she was getting better with it.
Then they saw him up ahead. Corypheus stood on the plateau, all gross and twisted and towering, more corpse than person.
"I knew you would come," he said.
The words weren't loud, but she heard them in her bones. They grated against them; it was kind of uncomfortable.
Beside her, Hawke gave a neat little bow, casual as anything. His voice was light. "You practically invited us."
A twitch of a snarl curled Corypheus's lip. His hands rose and began to glow. Then everything started to shake. He didn't summon a spell. He just... tore the world open.
The tops of the mountains - like, the literal fucking mountains - shuddered, cracked, and broke free. With a scream of stone and sky, the ground beneath their feet lifted.
One moment Holli was standing on solid rock. The next, the world was falling away, except the chunk they were on, which was rising, shooting into the air like it had been caught in an invisible hand.
She stumbled hard. "Shit-!"
Cole grabbed her arm, steady and sure, pulling her upright as the ground tilted. She clung to him, eyes wide, staring as the clouds came closer and the peak they'd been climbing dropped away below.
The sky was above, below, everywhere. "Holy fuck…" she breathed.
The Breach blazed overhead, wide and raw, its light searing into the red lyrium, making everything scream.
And Corypheus was waiting on a floating throne of rock and madness, with the world unravelling around him, and her mark pulsing like it was going to split her hand open from the inside out. It hadn't felt like this since it first happened.
They'd mostly steadied themselves, no one screaming, no one vomiting from altitude or existential dread. Yet.
"You have been most successful in foiling my plans," he said. Then his grotesque gaze slid to her. "And you - the thief in the wrong place at the wrong time. An interloper. A gnat."
Holli scoffed, her voice dry and low. "Still fucked your shit up, though."
She always figured her last words might be something smart assey, and maybe the reason someone killed her in the first place.
Hawke's lips twitched. That was as good as applause, coming from him. "For a gnat, you've got quite the mouth."
Corypheus narrowed his eyes, all offence and no self-awareness. Like someone had dared step on his tail and not burst into flames.
"We will prove here, once and for all, which of us is worthy of godhood."
"I don't want to be a god," Holli said, glancing over at Hawke. "Do you?"
"Not in the slightest," he answered blithely.
That earned him another glower from Corypheus, but Holli had stopped being scared of Corypheus himself a while ago. It was everything he could do - the tears in the sky, the rifts, the red lyrium bleeding out of the world like it had cut itself open - that fucking terrified her. But the man himself was a prick.
From the ruins behind him, his dragon rose like a goddamn nightmare given wings. Its scales glistened with blighted corruption, its mouth a gaping furnace. She immediately regretted not dying a nice quiet death in the Dales that one time.
Everyone else readied for the fight, weapons drawn, magic at fingertips, battle stances locked in. Holli didn't think she'd be much help here. She could maybe zap the dragon. Maybe. Now and again. If it held still and didn't breathe at her.
And just when it launched itself forward, another dragon swooped out of the clouds and smashed into it mid-flight, knocking the corrupted beast sideways with a bellowing roar. The two of them went tumbling over the edge in a tangle of wings, claws, and fire.
"What the fuck," Holli muttered, mouth open.
Morrigan! That bitch could turn into a dragon!?
Without thinking, she glanced at Solas. He was already watching her. Just a flick of her brows. A silent Seriously? Solas held her gaze, unreadable. Then, just barely, a tilt of his head. A Yes, but no.
She huffed and looked back over at Morrigan. Dragon...
How many of her own problems could she have solved far more easily if she were a giant fire-breathing dragon?
Holli looked to Cole, just to remind herself he was still there. That was the dragon out of the way; now they had to deal with Corypheus.