making the roots entwined around his legs shoot out towards hers making her scream.
“Your power is mine, do not forget that! NOW GIVE IT TO ME!” Suddenly the witch went rigid as if the essence was being sucked out of her this time, powering straight into Matthias. The force of this blew Clay back, until his body landed with a crash close to mine, as he went skidding along the floor.
Caspian also felt the force of it once he’d had his fill, as light erupted around them, forcing him backwards to the other side of the temple walls, separated from us. The witch slumped forward onto her knees as the ground beneath us began to shake.
Matthias looked beyond pleased with this added power as he grew in size and his eyes started to glow demonically. He then raised both his hands up and with an almighty roar, called up to the ceiling. He moved his arms outwards, creating a huge crack to open up in the ground.
“WHAT IS HE DOING!?” I shouted over to Clay, who stood about ten feet away, as the sound of the earth splitting was near deafening!
“STAY THERE!” he shouted back, a warning I only barely heard as the ground continued to split further and further. This was until it became a giant chasm, forcing two sides of the temple apart. I screamed, falling to my knees, as Clay leapt towards me before I could fall down into the fiery depths below. It gave me enough time to see the river of fire I had once seen before, down in Hell when being on a boat and escaping the Hellhounds.
As for Caspian, he too only managed to escape its flow of lava, as the three of us were split up, with him on one side and me and Clay on the other. Matthias slapped his hands together and the earth stopped moving, and his demonic eyes simmered down to that of his usual colour of black.
The witch barely gained enough strength to lift her head, watching now as Caspian ran towards her, ready for the kill. However, Matthias saw this and threw one boulder after another at his charging form. The first he managed to dodge, along with the second, however with the third, he was not so lucky. Because this one hit its mark, and he was thrown sideways with such force he was knocked off the side of the cliff and into the fiery pits below!
“CASPIAN!” I screamed as pain tore through me at the thought of losing another friend. But as he went out of sight, I closed my eyes tight as the agony overwhelmed me. I thought of Liessa and the pain that she would go through, knowing that she had lost her husband, just the same as Ruto's husband would feel.
Clay saw this, and his demon reacted, growing even more in size before he rose up on his feet and engaged in battle with Matthias. Clay was clearly the stronger of the two as he barrelled towards him before he was close enough to hit his mark. But just as his stinger was about to lash its poison down on him, one of the roots snapped up and grabbed it an inch from Matthias’ face.
Because strength didn’t matter, as the roots he controlled unfortunately tipped the fight in his favour, for every time Clay moved one limb to punch in his face, it was grabbed from behind and held back before he tore it free and tried for another hit. His body was kicked back and with the aid of the rest of the witch’s powers, was pushed even further until he hit the wall, and he lay slumped to the floor, unmoving.
It was at this point that I had hit my limit on being the protected one, as I could finally feel something stirring within me. My anger was growing and growing, as if something up to this point had been restraining it. But it was enough time that the force of the rage beneath my feet was something I could call forth and gain from. The same roots of rage that he was using.
A familiar anger was a welcoming sensation, as I could feel it in my fingers sparking now with an even darker intent, thanks to the Wraith Master’s essence inside of me. And just like I had done in the void when testing my abilities, I lifted my arms up, and between my hands I created a