moment she’d reached the ancient city and offered to help in exchange for her sons, but this was a whole new level of devious, even for her. The Darklings were sacrificing their own people—those they claimed to protect—to build death magic bombs against us. They had to be stopped.
Amane
All hell broke loose in the blink of an eye.
Ridan and I emptied our pulverizer clips first. We missed a couple of times, destroying parts of a wall and some of the furniture, but we managed to take out several of the Darklings who’d surrounded us.
Trev went straight for Danika’s head. Despite her metal hands, the Lady Supreme was still fast and agile, moving like a shadow as she avoided his attacks. He lost the pulverizer weapon the moment he aimed it at her, so he only had his claws and fangs left. Danika was not the type to accept physical offense, and she was swift in her retaliation.
I tried to reload, but two Darklings came at me, so I took out my twin blades and started cutting left and right, drawing blood wherever I could. They were faster than I was, but I could at least slow them down before going for their heads. My time spent in the jungle wilderness of Cerix had taught me a thing or two.
Kelara and Soul fought back to back against the rest of the Darklings, but the cabin was getting crowded fast. The ghouls circled each of the skirmishes, their beady eyes wide, their fangs ready to snap and chomp at whatever crossed their paths. One by one, the Darklings fell, heads rolling across the floor.
Danika set Ramus’s heart aside, and I kept my eyes on it as I fought off a Knight Ghoul. It was a big creature that hungered for my flesh, but I hadn’t come to Visio to die in this forsaken cabin in the middle of some snowy woods. I’d come here to protect my sister and my friends, and to make sure that no one took advantage of death magic ever again. The Darklings had plunged this world into chaos, and its natural balance had to be restored. Too many people were in danger, including those I loved and respected.
“If you think you’re walking out of here alive, you’ve got another thing coming,” Danika hissed, casting a spell against Trev. He tried to dodge it, but the shimmering pulse hit him in the abdomen. He was thrown into the wall, and I could hear his bones breaking as he collapsed.
She sauntered toward him, eager to finish the job, but I couldn’t let that happen. I swerved past the ghoul and directed my blades at Danika. She saw me from the corner of her eye and pointed the scythe at me, metal hands firmly gripping its handle. The ghoul hurled itself at me from behind, so I ducked. The pulse from Danika’s scythe shot over my head and hit the creature. Danika cursed under her breath before going for another attack, but I brought one of my blades up. Metal hit metal, and sparks flew. I didn’t do much damage to the hand, but I managed to shove it to the side, releasing the third pulse into the floor, which blasted into bits and pieces to reveal the cellar.
Before I could react, Danika sneered and kicked me in the stomach. I fell into the room below, landing on my back. Every bone in my body hurt, and I stilled on the cold stone and tried to catch my breath. I listened to the sounds above. Roars and growls, whispered spells, and glass breaking. Trev snarled. Shadows moved in the limited view I had from my prone position.
“Amane!” Ridan shouted. Fire roared, and its blue light flooded the cellar. Several Darklings screamed in agony. Their bodies rolled on the floor above, thumping and squirming, desperate to shake off the strange, azure flames. That had to be Reaper mojo, since Ridan’s fire was natural, and it only came from his dragon form. He’d yet to make such a move, but I doubted he’d hold out as a human for much longer.
“I’m okay!” I yelled.
Moments later, I managed to get myself back up. A ruptured structure beam was within my reach. My long knives were nearby, so I grabbed and sheathed them. I climbed back up, my joints aching as I struggled to grip the floor above to leverage my way out of the cellar because it was coated with blood and hellishly