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The peopleAllo and the old--to die This hadn't been Preservation's desire, but he'd given up most of his consciousness to form Ruin's prison, and the mists had to be left to work as best they could without specific direction

Ruin, subtle as ever, knew that he couldn't stop thetheir work However, he could do the unexpected and encourage theht death to the plants of the world, and created the threat that became known as the Deepness

81

VIN TURNED TOWARD RUIN, projecting a sitated

So, you can influence a singlein the air Vin followed, streaking up to loom over the entire Central Do to the caht Already, so the tracks in the ash toward the safety of the caverns

She could feel the sun, and knew that the planet was far too near it to be safe Yet, she could do nothing more Not only would Ruin have stopped her, but she didn't understand her power yet She felt as the Lord Ruler hty, yet clus worse

But, she had acco toward them at breakneck speed, but they still wouldn't arrive at the Pits for several hours Plenty of tiet the people to the caverns

Ruin , or perhaps he sensed her s aed to stop a few kandra? They were always the weakest of the minions the Lord Ruler created forthem Either way, Vin, you cannot really think that you have beatenas the people fled to the relative safety of the caverns Even as the bulk of the thean to fade She had h to Elend, and while it had seereat victory at the moment, she could now see that it was littletactic

Have you counted the koloss in my army, Vin? Ruin asked I've athered hundreds of thousands

Vin focused, enu the truth

This is the force I could have thrown at you at any time, Ruin said Most of the the them toward Luthadel How many times must I tell you, Vin? You can't win You could never win I've just been playing with you

Vin pulled back, ignoring his lies He hadn't been playing with the to discover the secrets that Preservation had left, the secret that the Lord Ruler had kept Still, the nu There were farinto the caverns With a force like that, Ruin could assault even a well-fortified position And, by Vin's count, Elend had fewer than a thousand

On top of that, there was the sun and its destructive heat, the death of the world's crops, the tainting of water and land with several feet of ashEven the lava flohich she had stopped, were beginning again, her plugging of the ash provided only a temporary solution A bad one, even Now that thein the land, and theout that way

We're just so far behind! Vin thought Ruin had centuries to plan this Even e thought ere being clever, we fell for his plots What good is it to sequesterto starve?

She turned toward Ruin, who sat billowing and shifting upon hi his koloss army She felt a hatred that seemed incompatible with the power she held The hatred o of it

This thing before herit would destroy everything she knew, everything she loved It couldn't understand love It built only so that it could destroy At that ain call Ruin a "hiave it too , she didn't knohat else to do So, she attacked

She wasn't even certain how she did it She threw herself at Ruin, forcing her power up against its power There was friction between they, and it tor with Ruin--she knew its mind

Ruin was surprised It didn't expect Preservation to be able to attack Vin's move smacked too much of destruction Ruin didn't kno to respond, but it threw its power back against her in a protective reflex Their selves crashed, threatening to dissolve Finally, Vin pulled back, lacerated, rebuffed

Their poas too well matched Opposite, yet similar Like Allomancy

Opposition, Ruin whispered Balance You'll learn to hate it, I suspect, though Preservation never could

"So, this is the body of a god?" Elend asked, rolling the bead of atium around in his paliven him

1"Indeed, Your Majesty," Sazed said The Terriserous their situation was? Demoux's scouts--the ones that had returned--reported that the koloss were only minutes away Elend had ordered his troops posted at the doorways to the Homeland, but his hope--that the koloss wouldn't knohere to find his people--was a sli what Sazed had told him about Ruin

"Ruin can't help but come for it," Sazed explained They stood in the metal-lined cavern called the Trustwarren, the place where the kandra had spent the last thousand years gathering and guarding the atiu for all this time"

"Whichto cli back the bead of atiuive it to him"

Sazed paled "Give it to hiies, but that would mean the end of the world Instantly I aht

"It will be all right, Elend," Sazed said