Lucia clenched her fists tightly, her eyes glowing with a terrifying crimson light. She would not allow the angels to kill another precious person. She would not accept losing again.
"Don't touch him," her voice echoed through the hall with overwhelming force.
The sacred hall trembled as Lucia's magic exploded like a crimson wave. Thick red vines covered in thorns sprang from nowhere, tearing through the golden walls of the cathedral and entwining themselves around the angels. Every wing was immobilized, every chanting voice silenced by screams as the thorns pierced their immortal flesh.
The battlefield, once flooded with blinding light, was now stained in scarlet, as if the blood of the earth itself had risen to protect Liam.
Gabriel, who until then had observed with cold and serene eyes, finally moved. The most powerful of the archangels spread his majestic wings, and his mere presence was enough to make the air grow heavy, as if gravity itself had increased.
