Cass breathed with relief as the paladin captain staggered under Alyx's blade and slumped to the ground with a crash of metal on glass.

As he collapsed, the air burst, no longer contained within a small subsection of the temple, the pressure inside and outside equalizing with an outward rush. The seal had broken. She was finally free.

But so was Kohen.

He knelt over the goddess's manifestation, his hands tearing into her body and pulling away ectoplasmic globs of flesh.

The goddess screamed. Mostly profanity, cursing his mother and his lineage and his already cursed soul. All of it pained. All of it defiant, despite her inability to do a thing about it.

He shoved the globs into his mouth, entirely ignoring all else. Most of it dripped down his face, but too much still trickled down his throat and into his soul. Cass could see his pulsing core swelling with every bite.

All the energy she'd forced him to burn regenerating his body was back. Back and then some.

The goddess flickered, opaque one moment, translucent and fading the next, her integrity failing either from Kohen's feasting or her captain's defeat.

"You demons shall pay for this," she shouted through her pain. "I shall wipe your ilk from the skies and crush your souls to nothing. You shall know oblivion, and it will be too good for you."

And then she was gone, dissolved in a mist of green energy.

And Kohen was no longer occupied.

He stared at his hand, now empty. His eyes were dilated. Slowly, his head turned across the cathedral.

Cass's skin prickled as his eyes carried over her.

This was not how this was supposed to go. The captain was not supposed to be the first to fall. But it had been him or Alyx.

Alyx leaned against her dragon. The dragonlings huddled together by the door with Pellen. Ahryn swayed on his feet, the silver of his soul dimming with every passing second.

Uncountable paladin corpses lay scattered around them, their blood pooling in lakes, empty eyes staring blankly at their cathedral's ceiling. Cass tried not to think about them. The cult was dead.

Nothing was left to distract Kohen with. Nothing remained to hold him down here.

All that remained between him and a feast of souls across the city above were Cass and Alyx.

What are the chances you've thought of a new way to fix the containment fields? Cass asked Salos.

Kohen stood and pulled his lightning blade from the glass floor. Blood rose from the pools around him. He swallowed it, his skin rippling as torn muscle and flesh reformed around him, uninjured.

I have not. Those will take an hour or more to re-enable and even longer to draw up from scratch, if it's possible at all. Besides, look at him. He's absorbed so much potential from that goddess manifestation. I doubt the containment fields would hold him now, even if we tried that.

She was afraid of that. With Alyx and the dragon, they could burn through his energy again. There were no more souls for him to recover it with.

But then what? Could Pellen hold him?

Pellen leaned against the wall, her eyes closed, her breathing ragged. Maybe she could. But not for long. And then what?

She still didn't have an answer to that question. What did she do with him if they captured him?

Kohen walked toward the doors. Or the dragonlings. Or both.

We need to kill him, Salos said. If he gets out into the city, it will be a massacre that will not end at the walls of Velillia.

Cass stepped in between him and the door, raising her dagger. There had to be something else she could try. They'd gotten this far.

He snarled, raising his sword in turn. He said something in Kaldish.

He demands we step aside, Salos translated.

Cass shook her head. She couldn't do that.

Alyx joined Cass, the dragon following close behind. She glared at the demon, her aura armor glowing bright amber. "What's next, Cass?"

Would that glare be as intense if Alyx knew it was Kohen she was staring at? Or would it be worse? Would she celebrate knowing her brother—the brother who had tried and failed to kill her—was a demon now? Or would she look at him with the same, desperately hopeful eyes as Ahryn?

"You said not to kill it, but—" Alyx left the rest unsaid. She didn't need to say more.

He was a demon.

He was drenched in blood. His hands were claws. His face distorted. He was everything Alyx had warned her about Salos.

"Kohen." Ahryn teetered forward hesitantly.

The demon turned, an eyebrow raised.

"We're safe now." Ahryn took another staggering step toward the demon. "You don't have to keep protecting me." His voice was weak. The light within him flickered. "Alyx and Miss Cass saved us." He took another step forward. "You—You can stop now."

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"Kohen?" Alyx asked. Her eyes glanced to Cass for an explanation.

The demon opened his mouth, a snarl already on his lips.

But Ahryn reached out to him. "Please, Kohen. Let's go home."

No sound left the demon's lips. His expression softened.

Ahryn staggered toward him. One step. Two. Only to crumple to with the third, his legs giving out and his body falling. The light within him fading to the barest flicker.

"Ahryn!" three voices shouted simultaneously: Alyx, one of the two dragonlings, and Kohen. All three, plus Cass, darted for the boy.

The demon was closest.

He caught the boy as he fell.

His arm curled protectively around Ahryn even as he shot a glare at the rest of the room. He snarled something with enough force both Cass and Alyx stopped short.

Was that a threat? Cass asked Salos.

No, it was an order that we stay back, Salos said. His existence is the threat.

He looked down at Ahryn in his arms. His red eyes stared past the boy's skin and into his core. Or what remained of it. It was a tattered, broken thing, burned out and strained beyond measure.

The demon's phantom hand touched Ahryn, prodding at the broken soul within. Almost tenderly. Like a nurse examining an open wound before she cleaned and dressed it.

Or like a gourmand inspecting his plate for the best place to begin his meal.

Hell.

Salos, Fairy Fire me, Cass said.

Are you sure that's wise? Salos asked.

Salos, Cass repeated. That one word was both warning and plea.

Salos sighed. Fine.

The fires sprang up along her skin.

The demon's red eyes flicked up toward her. His skin pulsed and writhed as they made eye contact. Red splotches swirled over his dark skin, bulging and deflating like waves over a pool.

The phantom hand froze over the boy.

Cass put her hands up slowly. Her voice was as soft as she could manage. "Hey. Hey. It's okay."

The demon's head tilted slowly. His phantom hand twitched. His eyes stared at her, his pupils dilating.

Cass, I do not think that's working.

"Why don't you put Ahryn down?" Cass continued anyway. "He needs help. You want to help him, right?"

Kohen spoke. The words were sharp and fast. But Cass didn't need to speak the language to tell it was filled to overflowing with disdain.

What's he saying?

'Filthy Jothan, I will take my prize as I please. Leave before I sacrifice you to his health,' is more or less what he's saying.

Any idea what that's supposed to mean? Cass asked.

It's just depraved demon ramblings. Whatever pieces he's absorbed of others are merging into something unstable and confused. Kill him.

He has Ahryn. I can't just attack him, Cass said as a body ran past her.

"Leave Ahryn alone!" the dragonling shouted, her voice high and shrill despite her pony-size, as she careened past Cass and Alyx for the demon.

Kohen snarled and threw Ahryn over one shoulder. His sword materialized in his free hand.

The dragonling did not slow, her head down with her horns pointed at the demon.

Hell. What was she doing?

Cass Sprinted after her.

Kohen swung his lightning sword.

The dragonling's eyes squeezed shut, her legs pumping all the harder as she ran blindly at the demon.

Please tell me that dragonlings are electricity-proof, Cass begged Salos.

They are not.

Cass cursed a dozen times under her breath and leapt to the dragonling's side.

Salos, swap, Cass yelled across their bond as she activated Shifting Minds.

The world shifted as she found herself in the dragon's shadow.

Salos in her body met Kohen's sword, lightning and steel clashing. His muscles strained under the demon's strength. This is more than I can redirect.

Time slowed as Salos was pressed back. As the demon's blade twisted around Salos's.

Should she switch back? If she did, could she use Elemental Manipulation to redirect his sword? That hadn't worked last time.

She ran down her list of skills, rejecting each one after another. She didn't have the Focus for wild experiments. She didn't have the time.

The lightning blade slipped closer with every fraction of a second.

What else could she do?

1. Salos was hit. His Frt was less than hers. Could he survive it?

2. They dodged; the dragonling was hit. The child died.

3. Cass swapped back in and took the hit. What would happen to her?

Option 2 was unacceptable. Options 1 and 3 had similar results. Her body had to withstand Kohen's blade, whether it was her or Salos piloting it. The only difference was who felt the pain and whose Frt they attempted to resist the strike with.

Put like that, the answer was simple.

Shifting Minds.

Space shifted around her. She gripped the dagger in her hands, Kohen's strength slamming through her arm.

What are you doing? Salos shouted. Get out of there!

But she couldn't. She was all that was between the dragonling—a literal child—and the lightning blade.

His blade shoved her dagger aside. Lightning sliced through her chest, leaving a long gash from shoulder to hip. A wave of jolting energy ripped through her muscles up and down her body.

She convulsed, crumpling to the floor as she lost all control of her body.

Salos manifested on her chest, howling. "CASS!"

The dragonling swung her head at the demon, her horns slashing through the air. He stepped out of her way with ease, a perplexed expression flickering over his face.

"Emenie!" the other dragonling screamed from the door. "Get back!"

Cass needed to stand. She had to stand back up. But the riotous electricity overrode every impulse she sent to her legs.

"Cass, get out of here," Salos hissed at her side.

Working on it, Cass said. Protect the dragonling.

"What about you?" He nudged her shoulder with his feline forehead. His concern overflowed into her.

Salos, please. There wasn't time for more argument. Ahryn and the dragon Emenie were both in danger. She didn't have time to convince him.

The dragon kept thrashing. It was a clumsy attack. The demon dodged her slashing horns and claws with ease. He raised his lightning blade repeatedly, yet every time it was lowered again as he dodged another slash.

Fine, he grumbled, leaping into a shadow and appearing again behind the demon. His claws dug into the demon's ankles.

The demon staggered, his head whipping around to find Salos, just as Emenie slammed her horns into his body.

The demon didn't even flinch. He said something in Kaldish and Salos hissed back.

Alyx and her dragon hurried to catch up. Her dragon swiped at Kohen. He parried with a swipe of his lightning sword. Alyx attacked from the opposite side, her blade stabbing his abdomen and drawing blood, but he barely seemed to notice.

Cass tried to stand again. Her entire body was numb to the instruction.

She didn't have time for this. Salos needed her. Emenie and Ahryn needed her.

Hearth burned in her chest, demanding that she act. That she save them. That she protect them.

Wind gusted around her. How could she let something as fleeting as lightning hold her down?

But neither had a solution. Neither could change what had already happened.

Why did lightning even affect this body? It was a spirit. Impaling her shoulder hadn't stopped her from using that arm when, by all rights, it should have. She had lungs, but she did not need to breathe, taking in air or not as was convenient. She had a stomach, but filling it with food did not sustain her.

This physical form was just what she believed it should be. None of it worked like a human's.

Because it wasn't a human's.

It was a slyphid.

And slyphids were spirits of storms.

Trait Awakened: Body of Storms

[The slyphid are spirits born of Aether and Storms, not yet set in their path. Their bodies are flesh coalesced from their overflowing potential and desire to be a part of this physical realm.

Your desires resonate with Storms.

Fly on the wind. Dance through the cold and the heat. Play in lightning and sing with thunder.

- Increased affinity with Storms]

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