The paladins the captain had left to contain the dragon had entirely broken. Cass chose not to count the number of melted corpses or ripped open stomachs or shattered shields in his wake. Those that remained ran, scattering before the dragon’s might, every man for himself.
Are you sure this is a good idea? Salos asked.
The dragon writhed toward her, clawing his way down the too-small corridors of the Temple, his maw gnashing.
It’s worked up to now, Cass said.
I hate that, Salos grumbled.
And I’m still not hearing a better plan.
Salos let out a long, growling sigh as purple flames licked up Cass’s body.
She grinned. Thank you.
He grumbled in reply.
The dragon’s eyes snapped on her. For a moment, the wild madness settled into something like clarity.
Only for it to surge toward her with new and renewed madness a moment later. Its jaws snapped at her as she leapt back. “AH!”
RUN! Salos screamed. Cass didn’t need the instruction. She was already Stormstriding away.
The dragon was fast, though. Much faster than a creature of his size should be able to move through hallways barely bigger than him. He roared and snarled behind her, hissing and growling as he tried and failed to reach her.
Until he wasn’t.
Cass glanced over her shoulder. An enemy suddenly going quiet couldn’t be good news.
Mana accumulated around the dragon as he inhaled.
It glowed red hot. Cass didn’t need the Liminal part of Mana Sense to guess what he was charging. Or to know she needed to be out of its path when he exhaled.
She darted around a corner as the flames burst down the hall. They spilled into the side passages, chasing her and growing as he grew closer. The heat was blistering. Her skin dried and cracked.
She kept running.
He turned the corner after her, his flames still rolling hot and heavy. They surged after her.
But the cathedral was just ahead.
She could see the open doors now. Fortitude’s statue stared through them, fully armored yet glaring her down all the same.
There was screaming.
Some of it was paladins and priests failing to get out of the path of the flames in time. But some of it came from ahead.
An increasing amount came from ahead.
Flames licked at her heels. The gusts from Stormstride picked them up, catching and carrying embers of lethal heat into her orbit. They flew past her face, around her hair.
A group of priests ran from the cathedral. One skidded to a stop at the sight of Cass, his wide eyes flicking between her and the dragon and whatever had sent him running toward her. The other two ran in opposite directions, terror the only thing remaining in their heads.
Cass let them all go. They weren’t the target.
She had one and only one goal. Salos, as soon as the dragon is in the cathedral, swap Fairy Fire from me to the captain. Let’s see how long he can handle the dragon’s undivided attention.
Happily, Salos said.
Best case, the captain broke quickly, ending the skill sealing the space to flee from the incarnation of wrath which was the fire-breathing beast behind her. Failing that, the dragon killed the man, and the skill ended with his life. Either way, the captain wouldn’t have time to sacrifice children to gods while fighting the dragon.
There was a chance the captain would kill the dragon. The possibility tugged at her conscience. This wasn’t the same as throwing the assassin at the boar in Uvana. It mattered greatly to Cass which combatant lived and which died. But death was what the dragon had asked her for.
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She shook her head. She was going to do everything to stack the deck in the dragon’s favor. And how could any mortal survive a straight fight with the fire storm behind her? There was a reason this city all but worshiped the dragons.
Cass stormed into the cathedral, fire and gust, dragon on her heels. Only for the smell of blood to hit her like a wall.
Blood and an overwhelming feeling of dread.
Alacrity spun her mind to max speed, and Perception pulled up every scrap of detail as Cass tried to make sense of the scene before her.
The captain’s sword was pressed against a glimmering green force field. A lightning blade was stabbed through the captain’s side. Below him, a monster twisted the lightning blade in one gnarled hand while the other projected the force field.
It was a humanoid thing, with flesh that seemed to roll over its underlying skeletal structure, like its very body was unsure what form it should take. Patches of maroon pulsed over its dark skin, shifting like an octopus flaring bright colors in warning. Its purple hair was streaked with silver.
Demon of Blood and Lightning
Lvl ???
[A beast born of pride and desire. Devour it and gain its power for your own.]
A demon?
A real demon?
Salos’s panic flashed hot across their bond as he Identified the creature before them. Perhaps he didn’t need to. Perhaps he had needed to only look at the beast and know what it was.
This was everything Alyx had warned her about.
Everything Salos had warned her he should be.
Hungry. Desperate. Mad.
Was that her future? Salos’s future?
Its hands were long, clawed things, vaguely human the way dragons could be said to be lizards. In one of those hands, the demon held a sword made of lightning. Over the other, a glowing green shield floated.
Concept Blade
[A blade manifested from one of the user’s Concepts. This one burns with Lightning.]
Fortitude’s Protection
[A spell created by the faithful of Fortitude to protect their cause.]
That shield was an Order of the Copper Crescent’s spell. How was a demon using that?
The high priestess lay on the floor by the altar behind the captain. Her chest was ripped open, like a beast had torn into her. Her entrails lay in bloody piles around her, oozing across the floor.
Demons were amalgamations of souls. Broken souls desperately shoving over broken pieces into the gaps in futile attempts to make themselves whole.
Would it not make sense for those pieces to come with snippets of their victims’ skills?
Cass looked around the room. Paladin and priest corpses lay scattered across the cathedral. All with lightning burns. Many with the marks of a beast’s claws.
How many had this creature already devoured?
More paladins and priests rushed through the room. Many out of it, running past her, with little regard for the dragon fire still at her heels, wild panic overriding any other reasonable fears. Others ran toward their captain and the demon, shields and swords ready, some charging Aura Bashes, others preparing Fortitude’s Protection, others still just swinging their blade wildly at the monster.
In their shadow, Ahryn stumbled away from the altar, clutching his chest in pain and covered in blood. What was he doing here?
The dragonlings stood in a containment field on one side of the room, their bodies pressed desperately against their confinement. One pressed against the invisible barrier, screeching in distress. The other shook beside her, frozen in fear or shock or both. She needed to get them out of here. Or were they safer there for now?
The captain ignored the blade in his side with barely a grimace. Did he even feel it with his Fortitude? Or was the pain of flesh something so distantly behind a being like him?
He pressed against the demon’s force field, all of his Strength and the blade’s massive weight pushing against the demon’s magic. Fractures splintered along the field.
A third, crimson hand stretched from the demon’s chest.
It was a phantom thing, glowing and pulsing in her sight. More than mana. Less than flesh.
It reached for the captain. Reached for the core in the captain’s chest.
Had she seen that there a moment before?
The core was no more physical than the hand. More so than mana, less than flesh. More real than both.
They were not visible in the conventional sense. Not the way light was visible. Not the way the air whispered its secrets to her. Not the way mana and magic glowed.
It was a different sense altogether.
And yet, exactly the way light was visible. Exactly the way the air spoke. Exactly like how mana—how potential—glowed.
Naturally. Inherently. Obviously.
The hand squeezed around the captain’s core. Cass’s stomach clenched, empathetic pain rolling through her. Cracks appeared along the core’s otherwise smooth surface.
And then the impervious paladin captain—with all his Fortitude and blessings of the same goddess—screamed.
Pieces of the captain’s core—of his soul—fractured off, flying into the air. The phantom hand snatched slivers from the air and drew them to its mouth.
They slid down its throat, combining in its chest with the demon’s core, a misshapen pulsing thing, glowing purple and red with swirling green marbling its surface. It swelled with power.
Her stomach growled at the sight.
<
NO! Cass toggled Soul Guard on, her mind snapping back to focus, her heart pounding in her chest.
Salos, you still with me? Cass asked.
A dazed feeling pinged along their bond. Yes, I think so. I was consumed by hunger for a moment, but… Did you do something?
Soul Guard, Cass explained. Was it protecting him, too? Why? Because they were connected? Had it done that before?
The captain crumpled to his knees, his sword falling from his hand, his screaming continuing.
That needs to die, Salos hissed in her ears. If the demon gets out of this sealed space—a shiver ran down his spine and across their bond. It will rip through the souls of this city and leave nothing but destruction in its wake.
Easier said than done. If it had so effortlessly killed this many, if it so easily fought the level 40 Paladin Captain to his knees, what could Cass do about it?
The dragon behind her roared as he charged into the cathedral.
Well, that was an answer, wasn’t it?