The dragon fire pressed against Cass's control. It bucked and rolled with an indomitable will, rebuking Elemental Manipulation.

Stamina: 56/141

Focus: 38/549

Health: 70/134

The heat was a force unto itself, scalding her skin and devouring her Stamina. Blisters rose along her palms, but she couldn't break. The dragonlings whimpered behind her.

Cass shoved the flames to either side, forcing Focus through her skill, pressing back with every scrap of Will. And yet, the fire crept forward, the heat increasing with every fraction of an inch.

Stamina: 42/141

Focus: 5/549

She'd spent every sliver of Focus she'd recovered while running from the demon and then some. And it still wasn't enough.

The flames tore at her control, wild and mad and hungry.

She refused to let this be the end. She refused to let them die.

She burned Health.

Stamina: 57/141

Focus: 40/549

Health: 40/134

The fire within burst to life, burning hot and fierce. Hotter than the dragon's flames.

Cass pressed the surge of Focus into Elemental Manipulation, forcing the flames back.

Focus: 34/549

How much longer, Salos?

He was behind her at her feet, his claws scratching at the runes in the floor around the dragonlings. This would be easier if I had opposable thumbs, he muttered.

Should we switch?

The fire flickered out as the dragon turned to bite Alyx.

Cass could leave most of the distracting to Alyx and support in cat form while Salos used her body to finish up the alterations to the seal.

Kohen now held Ahryn on the far side of the room, so there would be no more using him to bait the dragon through the paladin captain. A few of the surviving paladins—how were there still more?—approached them, their eyes glinting with Fairy Fire.

The captain stood again, his shield and armor all faintly glowing red from the heat. How was he alive in that? Fortitude was scary.

Salos grumbled to himself. It might help—

"Pellen, hold the dragon in place!" Alyx shouted across the room.

Pellen jumped, frantically flipping pages of her tome, already chanting the first lines from memory.

Alyx dodged around the dragon's bite, leaping onto his back. "Cass, protect me!"

And then she went limp.

Cass Sprinted across the room.

The dragon thrashed, his head craning around to bite at Alyx on his back.

Cass threw a Tempest Blade ahead of her. The lightning blade arched around to strike the side of his face.

Stolen story; please report.

The dragon roared. The building shook.

To her ordinary eyes, it looked like Alyx had stopped moving. But to whatever sense was showing her the nature of souls, Cass could see more.

Is she binding with the dragon? Cass asked. The two rammed against each other repeatedly, completely out of sync and bouncing off each other in random directions.

Your guess is as good as mine, Salos muttered without looking up. Are we switching or not?

Pellen shouted something, her hand outstretched to the dragon. White bands wrapped up his legs and body, twining up his neck and constricting.

He thrashed against them, but with every additional syllable from Pellen's lips, the binds constricted further.

The dragon roared again, but could not move.

The paladin captain stepped toward Alyx and the dragon, his sword glowing just as much from the heat as the rest of his armor, his eyes fixed on the frozen pair.

I think I'm needed over there, Cass said, Sprinting back to Alyx. Do what you can.

Sure, fine, stop distracting me, Salos said.

Cass appeared in front of the captain.

"You want to die first, demon?" he said.

"I'd rather no one died," Cass replied. "But I'm not going to hope I can convince you of that."

He had tortured the dragon. He wanted to torture the dragonlings—literal children. He had no qualms about killing her or Alyx or Ahryn. Her grip on her dagger tightened.

"Cute." The captain swung at her. She dodged out of the way. The air screamed as the blade cut through the space she'd just occupied. She could dodge, but there was no way she could stop that sword. He had far too much Str for her to take on directly.

He kept up the attack, sword strike after strike. Cass wove between them. With the flick of her wrist, she sent a Wind Tempest blade at his eyes. It left another shallow gash on his cheek.

"That the best you can do?" His sword sliced down at her. She avoided it by a hair's breadth.

This was easier when she could run away. But if he couldn't get her, he'd attack the defenseless Alyx, and she couldn't allow that.

Her head hurt; her body was tired. She was running out of everything.

Stamina: 52/141

Focus: 28/549

But surely, recruiting the dragon would turn this conflict in their favor.

Cass just needed to make sure they lived through the process.

The captain's sword ripped through the air. Cass Dodged, but it clipped the edge of her aura cloak.

At the far side of the room, Kohen had killed the last pair of paladins. Ahryn struggled in his arms, wriggling to get free.

Salos, move the Fairy Fire to the paladin captain, please.

What part of 'don't distract me' do you not understand? Salos grumbled, but the purple flames moved from Ahryn to the captain in an instant.

She didn't need to worry about Kohen eating them if there were no paladin grunts. If he could leave Ahryn alone now and help her, that would be great.

She sidestepped another sword strike. She wanted to return the attack with her own, but her Tempest Blades weren't doing enough damage. It was nothing but a waste of her quickly dwindling Focus.

Luckily, Kohen was more than happy to provide the offense. His lightning blade slammed into the paladin captain's back, and the man staggered forward.

Cass scattered, giving both of them space.

"You want some too?" the captain growled, turning with his momentum to strike Kohen.

Kohen caught the paladin's sword with his lightning blade and said something in that other language in return. The two men clashed for a moment before their swords broke apart.

But not before Kohen summoned a cloud of lightning orbs, throwing them indiscriminately over the room.

Cass planted herself between them and Alyx, grabbing them from the air, one after another with Elemental Manipulation.

Focus: 19/549

Several struck the captain, leaving burned and glowing metal pits where they hit his armor and shield.

"I've had enough of this," the captain growled. He raised his sword, glowing a dark forest green. "Lady of Fortitude, Keeper of Souls, and Overseer of Rightful Death and Final Rest, take the lives lost upon your altar as a sacrifice to your power and grant me a boon to slay the demons defiling your temple."

The air glowed.

No. The powdered souls in the air glowed. They burned with copper light, blindingly bright. They swirled around the paladin captain, coating his armor with their copper sheen.

The silhouette of a person appeared in the glowing particles above the altar in the cathedral's center. They were huge, bigger than the captain by another head, their broad shoulders made broader by full plate armor.

Manifestation of the Divine

[A call for one's divine patron with an offering of unbridled potential.]

A woman's voice echoed through the cathedral. "Your offering has been found wanting."

It was heavy, physically weighing on Cass's shoulders. It was all Cass could do to stay on her feet, even though her entire body begged to fall to her hands and knees. Even the demon, Kohen, quaked in place under its effects. Poor Ahryn collapsed to the floor, his entire body shaking.

"The souls of the faithful are powerful indeed. They are fine fuel for my boon. Yet the boon is unearned without a soul of my enemies among your offering. Slay any of the demons before you, and I shall grant you the full power of the Mountain."

The captain regarded the room, his eyes sliding from Kohen before him to the dragonlings still in their containment field. He smirked and stepped toward them.

Kohen snarled something in his other language, forcing a step after the captain.

Cass couldn't move. The weight was too much. It was like the gravity of the room had increased a hundredfold.

The captain stood at the edge of the containment field. He had his pick of demons, and the defenseless dragonlings were it. But they were still inside the field. Salos hadn't broken it open yet. They were still—

The captain stabbed his sword into the runes of the field's boundary. Energy sparked through the air. Explosions popped along the ring. The dragonlings squealed. Salos hissed.

Ahryn screamed. "NO!"

He just—He just broke it! Salos sputtered. I was almost done. And he just broke it!

Can you stop him? Cass asked.

No. I can't move. But we need to stop him. You could barely handle him as it was. If he gets a goddess's boon, you can forget about escaping, much less escaping with anyone else.

The captain stepped over the destroyed field's boundary. He stood before one of the two dragonlings.

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