Up close, Cass could see Kohen under the mutations of the demonic energies. The set of his jaw under the pulsing flesh. The sharpness in the eyes, unmitigated even by the hungry madness. The color of his hair, even streaked with white as it was.

Kohen snarled something. It was unmistakably a complete sentence, but it was in neither English nor Jothi. It was a fast, clipped language, dripping with disdain.

His lightning blade flashed around, twisting to slice at her.

Cass leapt back, yanking her blade from his arm.

Salos, any idea what he's saying?

I am a little busy, Salos replied, his stress leaking across the bond. Fixing things is not as easy as breaking them. I need to concentrate.

Sorry.

But that was Kaldish, a language that was all but dead even in my time. An undercurrent of concern ran under Salos's words. The words themselves are unimportant. Basically, just making fun of you for using lightning against 'one who rules lightning'.

Yeah, maybe using lightning against a Veldor was a bad idea. But, I thought you were focusing?

I am! So stop disrupting me!

Any idea how long it will take?

Not yet.

Kohen lunged at her. Cass Dodged it, the blade flying past her as she twisted out of the way.

Fighting him like this was not to her advantage. She barely kept up with his speed, and only because of her Concept Wind and inhuman levels of Dexterity were speeding her movements.

She darted away from him. Range was her friend.

Range meant he needed to expend Stamina to keep up with her. He needed to use big magic, spending Focus to hit her. Range meant she could attack with Tempest Blade from outside the effective range of his lightning blade.

Paladins moved to surround her, but they were even slower.

Across the room, the dragon roared, his tail knocking half a dozen from their feet as his fire breath burned through another dozen on the opposite side.

The captain threw up another Fortitude's Aegis, protecting another dozen before the flames turned on them.

The dragon stampeded through their fraying lines. Stampeding directly at her.

Right. Fairy Fire.

Cass glanced between the dragon running at her on one side, flames still billowing from his mouth, and the lightning blade of the demon on the other. With the paladins closing in on either side of her, getting out of the way would be difficult.

Hell. From frying pan to fire, huh?

But she could turn this to her advantage.

She skidded to a stop, sliding another yard toward the dragon over the slick glass floors, and Stormstrided straight back at Kohen.

The dragon's flame breath licked at her heels, pulled up into the whirling winds of Stormstride Sprint. The dragon thundered just behind.

Between the demonic madness and the urges of Fairy Fire, Kohen didn't pause to question why his prey might run back. Perhaps his vision had tunneled down on her so tightly he didn't even see the dragon.

He swung his blade.

The dragon lunged.

Cass Dodged around Kohen's blade, sliding past him, the dragon's flames whirling around them.

It burned at his flesh and his clothes.

The dragon's jaws snapped shut just short of Cass. Just directly around Kohen.

The dragon lifted Kohen, thrashing him through the air. Kohen snarled. A twisted hand flipped through a series of gestures at his side. Mana gathered.

Several dozen balls of lightning materialized in the surrounding air.

Lightning Rain

The spell he'd used in his duel with Alyx.

The lightning rained down on the dragon and the paladins unlucky enough to be caught in the spell's radius. Cass danced between them, her heart hammering in her chest.

The very air buzzed with electricity.

Bolts struck the dragon's sides, slicing new tears in his wings and burning new gashes in his scales.

Paladin shields and glimmering, green Fortitude's Protections went up, covering heads. But bolts still blasted through paladin armor, burning flesh within and paralyzing men.

This was many times more powerful than the version he'd used in his duel with Alyx. That version of this spell had threatened to paralyze Alyx. This version threatened to kill. Was that a difference born from intent or raw power?

With a roar, the dragon threw Kohen to the ground. He splatted against the glass, his momentum rolling him several bloody feet before he came to a stop.

The dragon didn't watch. His eyes snapped back to Cass, glistening with Fairy Fire. He roared and charged her again.

Cass Stormstrided into the gathered paladins.

There were a lot of them, and more were still trickling in. Some remained in a tight line between their captain and the rest of the room, but most were scattered around her and the dragon.

One swung his sword at her as she ran past.

She dodged out of the way, the dragon behind her slapping him to the side with a claw as he chased her. His tail thrashed through another pair, knocking them to the ground.

Behind her, Kohen was a mangled mess. Blood pooled around him, gushing from deep punctures where dragon teeth had torn open flesh. Writhing skin hung in tatters. Bones were visibly broken.

His body could only be agony.

And yet, energy still surged in his corrupted soul.

His hand twirled. Mana swelled. Blood from the newly fallen paladins welled and collected and balled. He beckoned it closer, swallowing the blood.

His body twitched as the blood rushed through him with a surge of energy. He staggered up, his skin sealing back together and bone snapping back into place.

His eyes hungrily tracked her as she ran. They burned into the back of her neck.

The dragon's claw slammed down. She Dodged to the side, turning around it to wave at the demon.

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"I'm here! Come get me!" she shouted, Sprinting again past the dragon and through the growing crowds of paladins. He must have burned through Focus or Health to use that healing spell. It cost Health to heal, this couldn't be that different. If she threw him against the dragon a few more times, surely she could wear him down enough to trap him.

I have bad news, Salos interrupted as Cass dodged around another paladin's sword.

What's up? Cass asked.

Whatever they did to this circle to break it, broke it beyond repair. It is completely destroyed. I would need to rework it from scratch to power it again, and you don't have that kind of time.

How much time would you need? Cass asked.

More than a couple of hours, Salos said. And I do not care how much Focus you have, even if you can't keep this up that long.

Cass wanted to argue. Wanted to beg him to find a way to turn hours into minutes. To say that she could last as long as he needed to make this work.

But she didn't have the resources to last.

Stamina: 36/141

Focus: 25/549

Health: 70/134

She had Health she could burn. But that was enough Focus for another skill or two, not for hours more slow attrition while Salos reconstructed the containment field.

We need to kill him, Salos said.

Ahryn's starry eyes reflected in her memory.

There had to be something else she could try.

Killing him couldn't be the only answer left.

Kohen threw himself into the mass of paladins and the chaos of the dragon's wake after her.

Their swords sliced out, looking for her but catching only empty air and Kohen instead. Their blades drew new rends across his body. Blood poured in unrestricted fountains down writhing skin. The dragon's tail thrashed through them all, knocking men to their knees, and slapping Kohen from side to side.

Kohen lunged, his lightning blade dancing out to strike her.

She darted out of the way, watching as he sailed past and into another paladin, skewering him through the chest.

Kohen snarled, his eyes flickering between her and the man he'd impaled. Some calculation twisted behind his purple-glinting eyes, and his phantom hand lashed out into the paladin's chest and fractured the soul within.

The pieces exploded into the air, passing through the solid bodies of the demon and paladins without resistance.

Only the demon's phantom hand could touch it. He plucked a shard from the air, bringing the piece to his mouth. It slipped past his lips, not swallowed like food, but absorbed into his body all the same.

Cass winced at the sight.

Take your share, whispered a perversion of her voice. Why let him eat it all? <<Devour.>>

Kohen's soul surged as the phantom hand shoved the piece down his throat. He grinned, crazed bliss spreading over his lips.

She could have that, too. Power and peace and—

No!

Cass grimaced, forcing herself to look away. This was wrong.

Soul Guard has increased to level 12.

Kohen dropped the lifeless, soulless husk. His skin rippled again. A crimson rash floated over his dark skin as it bulged and contracted.

He bolted at her again, even faster than before. His lightning blade flew past Cass's cheek as she Dodged.

Her heart hammered in her chest. He was so fast. His sword cut through defenses like there were none. If she failed to dodge, would she survive the experience?

The dragon's claw slammed down. Cass darted back, putting it between her and Kohen, skirting under the dragon and out the far side of his body.

Kohen zipped around, his lightning blade swinging.

Cass Dodged around it, only for it to lodge in another paladin's shoulder.

There wasn't a debate this time. The phantom hand shot out into the paladin's chest.

Cass summoned a Tempest Blade. She couldn't let him crush and eat another soul. She threw the mana-infused blade of wind at the phantom wrist.

The hand recoiled like the blade was a hot stove, releasing the soul in its grasp.

Kohen glared at her. The purple of Fairy Fire flickered weakly in the depths of his eyes. The demonic hunger within threatened to devour the Fairy Fire.

"Fight me!" Cass yelled.

Kohen just stared at her, his phantom hand reaching out again. Squeezing tighter around the soul.

The paladin screamed in pain.

Cass threw another blade.

The demon's free hand moved directly into the blade's path. A green Fortitude's Protection appeared between them.

Cass pulled the flying blade wide around the shield at the last second, but the paladin's soul shattered before her attack landed.

She drove the blade of wind into his chest over the core of his soul. The wind sliced through exposed flesh, releasing another fount of blood.

He ignored her as he stuffed his face with more soul shards.

Soul eaten, he lunged again.

She Dodged by a hairsbreadth, the margin she had of speed over him shrinking with every soul he devoured. She drove her dagger into his side as he passed her, leaving a long gash.

But his lightning sword found purchase in a paladin behind her. It stabbed through the man's shield, straight through to the man's chest behind it. The lightning blade cut like the plate armor wasn't even there.

Could she kill him even if she wanted to?

He was stronger than her. And getting stronger.

He was just as fast. And getting faster.

He could heal as long as there were corpses to steal blood from, and there was no end to the bodies he could make into corpses.

She had long since given up fighting him directly. She was out of resources to attempt a battle of attrition.

She couldn't trap him. She couldn't exhaust him. She couldn't kill him.

The demon stabbed another paladin, his phantom hand snaking out for another soul.

Was there some way to separate him from the paladins? If she drew him to the far side of the room? But the paladins would chase her too as long as she was affected by Fairy Fire.

What if she dropped Fairy Fire? No. Then he wouldn't follow her either.

The demon's hand clamped down on the paladin's soul.

Could she stop him this time?

Before he could crush it, a sword cleaved the skewered paladin's head in two.

The paladin captain pulled his blade free of his subordinate's head. The long, wide blade dripped brain matter as it came free.

Cass could only stare as blood and grey matter splattered to the floor.

He'd just—

But that was—

That was his ally. His subordinate.

And he'd killed him.

He killed him.

Cass could already hear the rational explanations. She could see the utility in denying the demon the soul within. She could see the mercy in killing the man rather than letting his soul shatter alive.

And yet.

The blood rolled down the body, trailing down the tabard, crimson on green and copper. Crimson matching the crimson splatter on the captain's tabard, green and copper.

The soul within the new corpse flickered like a candle in the wind. The demon's phantom hand darted out to snatch it, but it slipped through his fingers, floating away and across the room, settling above the altar in the cathedral's center.

The demon snarled, his eyes flicking between Cass and her Fairy Fire, the soul slipping away from him, and the captain who had denied him that soul. The allure of souls warred with the pull of Fairy Fire.

The dragon charged between them, his head snapping after her, breaking the stalemate.

Cass shook herself and darted behind the captain.

He raised his shield, bracing as the dragon slammed into him.

Kohen dashed around them both after her.

Cass ran.

So, Fairy Fire wasn't enough to keep the demon from snacking. They couldn't trap Kohen in a containment field. She didn't see how she could kill him. Or the captain who fought on equal footing with him.

Was that it?

She turned the problems over and over in her head. Something felt wrong with some of them. Which ones were true? Which ones weren't?

Fairy Fire couldn't keep him from eating the paladins he'd killed? That was true. He was snacking on anyone who got between them.

But there were souls he didn't eat. Earlier, when he'd come to Ahryn's defense, he had crushed those souls to a fine powder and hadn't looked at them again.

Why were they different? He wasn't killing them any differently. He was stabbing and decapitating all the same.

Was it just that Ahryn had been in danger?

Was he punishing those who had tried to hurt Ahryn?

It was unbelievable. It ran counter to what she'd been told about the mindless madness of demons. But then, Kohen protecting Ahryn at all went against what she'd been told.

The sketch of a new plan formed in her mind. She could use this to keep Kohen from eating more souls, but was that enough to win?

If they just wanted to kill him, probably.

But they—she—didn't want to kill him.

Kohen leapt at her. She Dodged around another paladin, wincing as lightning skewered the man. As Kohen pulled him in close. As the captain's sword decapitated the unlucky man.

Exhausting Kohen was only half the battle. She still needed to contain him afterward.

Could they lure him into one of the storage rooms and lock the door? Was a locked door enough?

Probably not. It had been trivial for her to break out of their storage room. She doubted Kohen, with all his demonic strength, would have more trouble.

The dragon lunged through a wall of paladins, sending them flying like bowling pins as he tried to snap her up. She leapt into the air, flipping over him as he continued into Kohen and the captain.

The captain braced behind his shield as Kohen jumped over the dragon after her. The dragon slammed into the shield, his jaws crunching down on the plate with the groan of metal and the roar of draconic frustration.

Ahryn shot a debuffing bolt from across the room. He was still by the dragonlings, just outside the second confinement circle, within which they were trapped. His magic struck the captain from behind.

The man had no warning as his Fortitude suddenly gave out under the effects of Ahryn's skill. No warning as his Fortitude-enhanced shield crumpled like wet paper before the dragon's jaws.

The dragon's feral instincts drove it forward, gnawing forward as the obstruction broke. The captain scrambled back, a Fortitude's Aegis springing up between them.

Cass kept running, Kohen close on her heels.

Wait. What about the field the dragonlings are in right now?

Salos groaned. You want me to release them and then reactivate it around the brat?

Yes? What's the problem? Cass asked, again ducking around a sword strike.

Nothing. It is just going to take a while. Not as long a while as fixing the broken one, sure. But a while all the same. How are you planning to protect the dragonlings while fighting the cultists and the demon? Even protecting them from the adult dragon could be difficult.

Well, here's the thing, Cass explained her harebrained scheme.

Salos scowled. I thought you liked the boy.

He'll be perfectly safe. Probably.

Salos rolled his eyes. Of course. Well, not like I particularly care what happens to him.

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