Chapter 46
Shaking off my shock, I sprinted out of the temple.
Straight into a world consumed by fire.
Flames raged in every direction, pouring from a massive creature standing in the center of the chaos.
Its bloated body was coated in soot, barely concealing the deep burgundy color of its skin. Curved black horns crowned its head, while bright yellow eyes with slit pupils gleamed with unsettling amusement.
My gaze immediately searched for familiar figures, desperate to make sure they were alive.
Seris stood with a dome of blue fire shielding himself and Pria while she launched attack after attack.
None of her lightning seemed to affect the monster.
It simply stood there, lazily sweeping its thick paws through the air, scattering flames in every direction, smiling as though her efforts entertained it.
With every new strike, fresh cuts split open across its body.
Instead of blood, fire burst from the wounds, spreading even farther around us.
"Damn it!" Pria cursed, finally lowering her hands.
Nearby, Loretta had woven a barricade out of shadows, shielding herself and Kaeron behind it.
I ran toward them—they were closer.
"What is that?" I asked. "Is this part of the trial?"
"No idea." Loretta reinforced the shadow barrier as the previous one caught fire beneath another wave of flames. "Nothing like this has ever happened before."
"Has anyone else tried attacking it?" I asked quickly, already calculating the best angle from which I could strike it with my own fire.
"Only Pria." Loretta didn't take her eyes off the creature. "Looks like her lightning is more like food to it."
"Maybe I just need to hit it harder?" Pria suggested.
"Exactly," Kaeron replied dryly. "Give it an even bigger advantage."
"Then what is that thing?" I repeated.
"A demon that was sealed inside the Temple of Morod," Seris answered, nearly jumping aside as one of the demon's flaming arrows slammed into his fire shield.
"If it only feeds on lightning, then..." Kaeron trailed off before turning to Seris. "Try hitting it with your fire. Pria, put up a shield."
Both of them nodded without hesitation.
Pria raised a thin disc of crackling lightning in front of them just as Seris fired.
For a single heartbeat, his blue flames collided with the demon's crimson fire.
The two forces seemed to merge—
and then vanished.
"What the hell was that supposed to mean?" Pria exclaimed, widening her lightning shield just in time to block the creature's retaliation.
The demon's flames swallowed the barrier almost instantly.
A wall of shadows rose in its place.
Seconds later, the cracks covering the monster's body split even farther apart, and the fire surrounding it surged higher.
Wider.
Deadlier.
"Get over here!" Loretta shouted. "I can't keep the shield up at that distance for long."
"So lightning's off the table," Kaeron concluded.
"So I'm just supposed to stand here?" Pria scoffed as she rushed toward us.
"I can't imagine how difficult that must be for you," Loretta replied, her voice dripping with dry sarcasm.
"Did anyone notice that it hasn't moved?" Kaeron asked.
He was right.
Despite unleashing dozens of attacks, the demon hadn't taken a single step.
"You know, some of us had more important things to focus on," Pria muttered.
But Kaeron wasn't looking at her anymore.
His eyes found mine.
He gave me a small nod.
I let out a slow breath.
I knew exactly what he wanted me to do.
Anastasia Lang's POV
My hands were still trembling.
My body hadn't recovered from that cursed encounter with my true self, but I couldn't afford to dwell on it.
A demon stood before us.
Somehow, it had broken free from its prison, and now...
It was impossible to tell what it intended to do.
It wasn't moving.
It simply watched us.
Waited.
But every instinct in my body screamed that danger was closing in.
"Has anything like this ever happened during the Selection before?" Rosalie asked, keeping close behind Taylor's back.
"You think this is part of the trial?" I arched a brow. "Does anyone even know what kind of demon that is?"
"I've never seen one like it," Azalia admitted.
"It's not an elemental demon," Aaron said, his eyes never leaving the creature. "Its abilities are probably tied to mental magic."
"How can you tell?" I asked, turning toward him.
"That's an odd question to ask someone from the Realm of Death." Aaron offered a crooked smile.
I stayed silent, not having connected his blood magic to that realm at all. I still struggled to remember which forms of magic came from which worlds—especially when the differences between them were so subtle.
"As a rule, mental demons have wider nostrils, thin legs, and rather fragile bodies."
My gaze shifted back to the demon, searching for confirmation.
He seemed to be listening to our conversation just as calmly as we were studying him, remaining perfectly still while observing us from a distance.
"Any idea what kind of mental magic it has?" Taylor asked.
"I've got a few questions about your magic too," I shot back, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
He winked.
"Easy there, sweetheart. We've got plenty of time to get to know each other."
I snorted and looked away.
"Then why is it just standing there?" Rosalie asked, cautiously stepping out from behind Taylor.
"It's almost like it's waiting for something," Azalia murmured.
I looked back at the monster's enormous, empty eyes.
There were no pupils.
No spark of life.
Nothing.
As if...
A thought hit me so suddenly that I blurted it out before I could stop myself.
"What if it's already doing something to our magic?"
Aaron's gaze snapped back to the demon, studying it more carefully.
"Those eyes..." I continued. "They should be dead like that."
"Damn," he muttered under his breath.
His voice had changed.
"Does anyone feel anything?"
"Like what?" Azalia asked, her voice rising an octave.
Instead of answering, Aaron pulled the earring from his pierced ear and drove it straight through his palm.
"What are you doing?"
I instinctively stepped toward him, reaching for his hand to stop him from hurting himself—
then froze.
There was no blood.
The earring had pierced his hand clean through, yet not a single drop appeared.
"Someone... summon your magic," he said quietly.
His voice remained calm, but I caught the almost imperceptible tremor in his hands.
I opened my palm, searching for the familiar voice of my magic—the one that always lingered somewhere between my mind and my body.
Silence.
I closed my eyes, concentrating harder.
Nothing.
"I don't understand..." Rosalie whispered.
Her lips pressed into a thin line.
"I don't even know how to check."
"Didn't your mentor teach you how to do that?" I asked, turning to Rosalie.
"He taught me how to dissolve my magical currents," she replied.
My gaze shifted to Taylor, who looked far too calm for the situation.
"What about you?" I asked. "Can you still feel your magic?"
God, I wanted to know what kind of magic he actually possessed.
"I can."
He nodded, drawing all of our attention.
"But without your physical abilities, it's useless here."
I let out a quiet hum.
"So you figured out what kind of demon it is?" I turned back to Aaron. "Do you know how we're supposed to fight it?"
He didn't answer right away.
I watched the muscles in his jaw tighten.
"We won't be able to use magic as long as it's holding it."
He paused for a brief moment.
"We'll have to fight it without it."
His words landed at the exact same moment my heart lurched heavily in my chest.
It had understood the truth long before my mind finally caught up.
Illariana Arden's POV
And, of course, at the worst possible moment, my fire stopped listening to me.
I reached for it.
Called to it.
But it felt as though it had shut me out completely.
As though it had abandoned me.
I took a deep breath and clenched my fists until they ached.
Panicking wouldn't help.
Neither would tearing myself apart.
Loretta's shadow shield blocked another wave of flames, and Pria spoke sharply.
"Let's stop dwelling on that and figure out how to combine our abilities."
"Your magic won't be of any use today," Kaeron reminded her.
He looked even grimmer than usual.
Without realizing it, he'd naturally stepped into the role of leader.
The discussion continued, but I drifted into my own thoughts.
I was still the weakest link.
Just like always.
My eyes never left the demon.
I studied every movement it made, trying to notice something—anything—we had missed.
If I couldn't help with magic, then I had to be useful some other way.
The demon's legs seemed rooted to the ground.
Its upper body moved freely.
Its arms attacked relentlessly.
But its feet never shifted.
What if...
My eyes snapped to Kaeron, who was silently listening to Pria as she animatedly gestured through another plan.
"I could be wrong..." I said, raising my voice just enough to keep them from talking over me. "But it hasn't moved once."
I pointed toward the demon.
"What if its legs are the only part it can't protect?"
"What if we try knocking them out from under it? Maybe with shadow magic... and density?"
Silence.
I tried not to let it get to me, but...
Damn it.
"Let's try it," Kaeron said at last.
He exchanged a glance with Loretta, who immediately turned to Seris.
"Put a shield up in front of us."
I instantly remembered how the demon's flames had reacted to Seris's blue fire.
My hands tightened into fists.
Please.
Just this once.
Please answer me.
I prayed my fire would return when I needed it most.
"Get ready," Loretta said quietly.
It remained silent.
Frustration began to boil beneath my skin.
I could feel my irritation growing hotter with every passing second.
Then—
Damn.
I felt the faintest response.
Without thinking, I reached for it with everything I had.
"Now!"
This time...
I caught it.
Fire erupted into my palms with a fierce, newborn power.
The instant Loretta's shadows fused with Kaeron's density magic, binding the demon's legs in place, I hurled my flames forward.
"Now!" Loretta shouted.
I couldn't see what was happening beyond the wall of fire surrounding us.
The flames kept rising.
The demon's fire devoured mine—
but mine fought back just as fiercely.
Two seemingly identical elements tore into one another, each refusing to yield.
I unleashed another blast.
Then another.
I thought victory would belong to whichever fire claimed more ground.
It didn't.
The struggle continued beneath the demon's deafening roar.
"You and Seris—attack together!" Kaeron ordered.
Everything happened in a heartbeat.
Seris and I drew in our power at the exact same moment.
Released it together.
The collision was so violent that Loretta and Kaeron had to reinforce the shield, hissing sounds erupting as our flames met the demon's.
For one fleeting instant...
it looked as though Seris's fire and mine were actually consuming the demon's power.
For the first time, the crimson flames faltered.
They recoiled.
For one brief second, relief flooded through me.
We did it.
We actually—
"Seris!"
My head snapped toward him.
Horror seized my chest as I watched his own flames drag him forward—
straight into the heart of the inferno.