Up close, the cross was worse than it looked from the square.
It wasn't mounted on the shrine. It was grown through it — black-red material run through the stone like root through soil, and under its surface things moved. Veins. Slow pulses travelling its length, and every pulse that left the cross arrived a half-second later under the Dark Knight's armor in the square below.
"Maeve!" James called. "Brand it!"
"It's at my limit—" Her voice cracked across the distance, and then the brand came anyway, a thread of orange light stretched thin across the whole square, and it touched the base of the cross for one second.
One second was enough.
[HEXLIGHT BRAND APPLIED] [SUCCUBUS CROSS ANCHOR EXPOSED]
A point at the cross's base lit up — a joint where the black-red material entered the stone, thinner than the rest.
James put a Necro Blast into it from three meters.
[NECRO BLAST ACTIVATED] [MANA: 1,360/1,420 → 1,330/1,420] [SUCCUBUS CROSS ANCHOR DAMAGED]
