Annabel's mind raced as she stepped out from behind her cover. Spell after spell flashed through her thoughts—incantations she knew, combinations she had used before, and entirely new structures she could assemble on the spot. She needed something that could reach the sky and wipe out Nilus and the cherubs together.
Her thoughts finally settled on one.
Lightning gathered between her palms, coiling into a bright sphere of crackling energy. Inside it, she compressed something more volatile—thunder, trapped and bound within the shell of lightning like pressure inside a sealed vessel. The ball pulsed brighter and brighter as the energies inside it strained against each other.
Annabel narrowed her eyes.
Then she hurled the spell skyward.
The sphere of lightning shot upward at blinding speed, streaking straight toward the airspace above Nilus and the cluster of veinblood cherubs. Nilus saw the incoming attack immediately. His gaze sharpened and one of his hands lifted toward it, telekinetic force rushing outward to seize control of the spell.
At the same time, he kept his other hand angled downward toward the battlefield, continuing his assault. Sections of nearby buildings tore free under his telekinetic grip, great slabs of masonry ripping loose as he sent them crashing down toward the mages below.
His free hand reached the lightning sphere.
The moment his power made contact with it, the ball began pulsing violently.
Annabel's eyes widened.
"Everyone take cover! And also cover your ears!" she shouted.
A barrier snapped into place around her body as she shielded herself. Amara reacted just as quickly, raising her own protective barrier.
Clara couldn't make a barrier. She simply ducked and braced, covering her head as best she could, hoping her fire armor would protect her.
Calvinel was in far too much pain to react at all. He lay where he had fallen, barely able to move, leaving both himself and the Guard Commander completely exposed.
Ercale let out a quiet sigh from the rooftop.
A moment later, a barrier of crackling lightning appeared around the two men on the ground. As it formed, Ercale himself slipped into a nearby shadow, vanishing from the rooftop just before the spell detonated.
The sphere exploded.
Nilus managed to shield himself from the lightning itself, wrapping his telekinetic power tightly around his body and forcing the electrical discharge away from him.
Then the thunder erupted.
The sonic boom that followed was catastrophic.
Even through the telekinetic bubble protecting him, the force of the blast hurled Nilus violently upward through the sky. The delicate porcelain bodies of the cherubs shattered instantly, their forms breaking apart under the crushing shockwave.
Across the battlefield, the surrounding buildings fared little better. Walls warped and buckled as the pressure wave ripped across them, stone and timber practically liquefying before disintegrating into clouds of pulverized dust.
When the barriers finally lowered, silence hung in the air for a moment.
Ercale stepped back out of a shadow nearby just as Nilus stabilized himself high above them.
Below, everyone looked around.
The cherubs were gone.
Nothing remained of them but fragments scattered through the drifting dust, and entire sections of the surrounding buildings had simply ceased to exist—reduced to little more than drifting debris.
"That takes care of the annoyances," Amara remarked, brushing dust from her shoulder.
Then she looked up toward the sky.
"But he's still a problem."
Everyone followed her gaze.
High above them, Nilus exhaled slowly before beginning to descend.
Clara, Amara, and Annabel all reacted at once.
Clara conjured a rapid-fire crossbow and unleashed a barrage of flaming bolts skyward. Amara followed with a roaring torrent of fire that surged upward like a column of living flame. Annabel hurled spears of ice in rapid succession, each spike streaking through the air with lethal speed.
Every attack struck the same invisible surface.
A dense barrier of telekinetic power surrounded Nilus completely, the spells shattering harmlessly against it as he continued lowering himself toward the battlefield.
"What is he doing?" Clara muttered, confused by the fact that he was getting closer instead of staying out of reach.
Meanwhile, Ercale simply raised a hand and gave a casual wave as he turned away.
"I've had enough of helping you all," he said flatly. "Handle this yourself. I can't fully tire myself out yet."
He already knew what was about to happen.
With a brief flash of movement, he vanished.
"He just leaves?" Amara said, glaring at the spot where he had been standing.
Nilus descended until he hovered just above the battlefield. Slowly, deliberately, he brought his hands together in front of him.
"The fact that you were able to make me feel like I have to do this," he said calmly, "should do wonders for your egos."
The moment the words left his mouth, everyone understood.
"Sir Calvinel!" the Guard Commander shouted, leaning down toward the wounded knight. "Please—you have to defend us against this!"
The other three mages turned toward him as well.
There was no one else.
Calvinel was the only one who could stop it.
Calvinel panted heavily, pain coursing through his body from the destroyed leg as he lay on the ground.
"I—I'll try," he whispered.
With shaking arms, he slowly raised his hands.
At the same moment, Nilus began to chant.
Both voices spoke at once.
"Hellscape/Soul Chamber, Crushing Authority/Torch Bearer."