Chapter 40 #2
The Thunder Lizard roared and snapped its tail. A beam of crackling lightning flew up at Eclavistra, who smacked it away with a slap of her hand, but this opened enough of an advantage for Brianna to lunge and thrust Wyrmfall into the demon’s side.
The blade bit deep, and Eclavistra jerked herself back and off the blade, white eyes wide as she stared at the wound across her ribs.
“You cut me,” she protested in something akin to confusion.
Brianna laughed and hammered another blow down upon the demon.
Then another.
Then another.
The Well was now drinking enough power from Eclavistra that it equaled in a second what he’d drained from the Thunder Lizard over the course of their whole battle. His vision darkened and a wave of vertigo washed over him.
Too much.
But Beacon of Hope steadied him, and when he saw Sam rise to her feet, bloodied but unbowed, he felt, for the first time, that they might actually win this fight.
Eclavistra hurled herself into the battle with Brianna, loosing blast after blast and blow after blow at the knight, who parried and riposted.
But time was on Brianna’s side. Each swing was more powerful than the last. She remained at peak physical condition.
Alert, nimble, and with all the strength of her combined Artifacts and levels.
Sam unleashed another Light of Censure. Was she also growing more powerful? The beam, somehow, was broader and brighter both, massive as an avenue. Eclavistra sought to flit away, but was caught, and this time her shield shattered under the pressure.
Crucible. Sam’s new Passive. The more darkness she absorbed, the more powerful her light became.
And she’d absorbed all of Eclavistra’s stolen power so far.
Her eyes were blazing with white fire once more, and white flames had formed a permanent corona around her. Her expression had turned from a frown into a rictus of pain, but still she glared up at the demon queen, and loosed another Light of Censure.
Eclavistra swooped aside and was struck by a blast from the Thunder Lizard, which played over her like leaping snakes of virulent blue light.
The Thunder Lizard shouldn’t have had a chance in hell to hurt the demon queen, but Well of Starless Dominion had been empowering it all this time, and now it was swollen to nearly half again as large in size.
It roared and stomped its front legs on the ground in fury, causing the ground to shake.
Brianna swung Wyrmfall, unstoppable, building to a crescendo, and now each swing left behind a livid arc of light that hung in the air like an afterimage.
Eclavistra was speaking insistently to the knight, her words tumbling over themselves as she kept backing away, but Brianna was insensate to reason.
Harald felt himself burning up. Smoke was burning off his shadowed flesh in an excess of power, and he could barely think.
He had to release power. It was too much.
Abyssal Imperium had now shaded the air to night. The bronze ocean of flames had become the palest copper, and the silver rain from the Bastion fell like a benediction.
Harald willed the hunger of the abyss to consume Eclavistra continuously and never cease.
Where before the shadowed blades would appear but a moment around the demon queen, now they manifested and remained. Cutting, slashing, a storm that didn’t dissipate even as Brianna continued to hammer at her with ever more mighty blows.
Void shards cut through Eclavistra’s flesh with ever more assurance so that her nubile form was now crisscrossed in wounds, and physical power flowed down to Harald even as he drank from her innermost reserves.
Sam sank to one knee with a low moan, her form nearly lost within her own pyre of holy light.
The Starfire Bastion blazed overhead, patterns surging across its surface.
If it fell for but a moment, Eclavistra would eradicate them.
But even as she placed a palm on the floor to steady herself, Sam managed to continue channeling her Archon Numina, or whatever it was that fueled her powers.
“No,” called out Eclavistra, and the word was bereft of supernatural power and charms. “No. This can’t happen. I’m… this… you all are but mortals…”
Brianna, sensing something, hesitated.
Eclavistra banished her spiked club, crossed her arms over her chest, and closed her eyes.
“Brace yourselves—” barked Brianna from on high.
Eclavistra released a titanic blast of raw demonic power.
Brianna raised Wyrmfall before her face but was pushed back with mounting pressure. Her disc of white fire flared ever brighter, then snapped, and the Dragonslayer Knight was hurled away, head over heels, into the night.
The detonation pressed the Thunder Lizard to the ground, flayed it of its hide, then flensed the flesh from its bones, and collapsed its skeleton to the ground just before it vanished.
Sam cried out, a sharp, high sound, and collapsed.
The Starfire Bastion went dark, the loss of silver light so sudden Harald thought himself struck blind.
He was driven to one knee.
The assault was continuous, a burning ablation of his will, his mind, his body, his defenses.
But he had grown strong.
With each passing second, he had grown strong from his stolen essence, and Form of the Black Throne now kept him upright. His skin turned black as abyssal essence rose to the surface, turning his hide into armor, and though he bowed his head, he did not fall.