Gripping his staff tight, Theo called on the dawn light swirling inside him. A matching heat spilled beneath his feet, piercing the night with its brilliant pink glow.
To his right, a mint green diagram glowed beneath Sam. To his left, Ryan and Meg stood atop their own diagrams of forest green and scarlet light. All of them were channeling their Levia into the strongest elemental spells they knew.
Sweat trickled down the back of Theo's neck. With this, they had to destroy the machine.
They'd cleared out the guards around the machine, and Fia was helping the captured townspeople to safety, but there was no telling when reinforcements would arrive. This might be their only shot.
So better make it count. Gritting his teeth, Theo swung the staff forward.
Aglow with their respective spells, the familiars charged. Zenith pointed his sword, blasting beam after beam of white light at the machine. Ryllis landed atop it, driving her burning spear into the metal. Lodo sliced with claws as long and sharp as knives.
And to crown it off, Avia fired six arrows at once. The other familiars jumped out of the way as the arrows struck, one after another in blinding flashes of green light. Each impact thudded through Theo's bones, making him stumble backward.
When the light cleared, he blinked hard and saw smoke billowing from the machine. And – his heart flipped – its poisonous glow had dulled into a faint flicker in its core.
"Did we do it?" Sam gasped.
They got their answer when the core flared brighter. Just a little, barely an ember, but it made Theo groan. Even after all that, the machine wasn't broken for good?
"One more try," he shouted. "We're definitely close. Just one more attack ought to do it."
"Well said, Theo!" Meg flashed him a thumbs up, though Theo couldn't miss how her chest was heaving.
Even with the Star's enhancement, Theo's head was starting to pound and a heavy exhaustion dragged down his limbs. He couldn't imagine how the others must be faring.
Ryan made his answer clear when he yelled, "You just leave it to me!" It was all Theo could do not to roll his eyes. If he thought about it, Ryan had probably used more of his Levia than anyone else.
Well, they wouldn't have to stick around for much longer. Theo faced the machine, once more gathering his Levia. Across the contract, he felt Zenith's Levia spark with fierce resolve.
But just as Theo began to picture the spell in his mind, a wave of power swept over him with the force of a sudden squall. A heavy dark power, hitting him like a punch to the gut. Before he could stop himself, he tumbled to his knees.
And he couldn't get up, not through the waves of Levia still pouring over him. Growing stronger with every mad throb of his heart.
This Levia – it was so familiar Theo's chest seized. For one wild moment, he thought he might find himself engulfed in an Infernal Legion arena, but the ground remained hard and rocky beneath his knees and the icy rain didn't stop lashing his shoulders.
And wait...beneath the smothering darkness, he sensed something else. The scent of damp earth. The clear sharpness of new growth. And a heavy musk that made him think of a wild, untamed forest.
The Levia crept over his skin, stroking like hundreds of squirming vines. Nausea gripped Theo's throat.
Then it retreated, releasing him. Gasping for breath, Theo lifted his head.
Someone had appeared atop the machine. A man, inhumanly tall and broad-shouldered. Antler-like horns cut a stark silhouette against the night sky, while his coat whipped back and forth in the gale. Rain trickled in rivulets down his rippling muscles, dotting his reddish-purple hair like dew.
He looked down, fixing pitch-black eyes on Theo. The force of his stare struck Theo like a knife to the heart. If he'd been able to summon any strength in his arms, he would have scampered away.
Not because he wanted to – of course not. But every instinct in him was screaming to retreat, like a prey animal before a predator.
"Look what you've done to my extraction machine." The man's smooth, deep voice rumbled in his chest. "I'll have to punish you naughty children."
Ryllis took a trembling step forward, her armor creaking. "Who the hell are you?"
"You don't know? Well, I suppose I can honor you with the name of the one who will kill you. I am General Hellebore of the Infernal Legion."
General Hellebore. So this demon had to be the one in charge of the machine, the skycraft, the entire invasion. One of the Four Grand Generals.
Theo's stomach flipped. Deep in his bones, he knew they'd never faced an opponent like this before. All the others, even Greisen, might as well have been flies in comparison.
But beneath the icy terror gripping his insides, he felt a sudden flare of light. Much fainter than General Hellebore's power, but edged with a resolve even he couldn't match.
As his Levia brightened, Zenith stepped forward with sword and shield raised.
That was right. Who cared how strong this Hellebore might be. Right now, he was the enemy they needed to defeat.
Tightening his grip around the staff, Theo rose to his feet. His Levia sparked inside the crystal like a pink star.
The other wizards stood as well, diagrams blazing beneath their feet. It didn't take much for Theo to summon a spell of his own.
Armed with the elemental spell, Zenith charged.
Ryllis and Lodo got to Hellebore first, however. Ryllis blasted fire at his chest while Lodo leaped onto his back, metal claws gleaming.
With a lazy sweep of his arm, Hellebore scattered Ryllis' flames into embers. His other hand reached behind and closed around Lodo's throat.
"Lodo!" Meg screamed. As Lodo thrashed, Ryllis lunged at Hellebore again.
He didn't even look at her. A flick of his wrist and a vine curled around his arm before leaping at Ryllis like a striking snake. Ryllis rolled to dodge it, but the vine swerved around midair. Thorns burst from it, each almost twice as long as her spear point. Ryllis flung up her spear to block.
Theo expected her flames to burn the vine to a crisp. Instead, the vine struck metal with a resounding clang and once again, the fire hissed away into nothing. Gasping, Ryllis lurched back.
"No!" Sam raced toward her familiar, a new diagram blazing beneath her. "Ryllis, come on – "
But the moment the diagram appeared around Ryllis, Hellebore's vine struck her square in the stomach. She flew backward, shedding scraps of rust-red armor. The impact wouldn't stop echoing in Theo's ears, a sickening thud.
Until Sam's shriek drowned it out. She had reached Ryllis, falling to her knees beside her prone familiar. Even as Sam shook her, Ryllis didn't so much as twitch a finger.
Nausea swirled in Theo's stomach, but he couldn't lose focus. Zenith, give all his strength to Zenith –
The moment Zenith swung his sword at Hellebore, someone grabbed Theo's arm. Alarmed, he whirled toward the person as the diagram went up in sparks around him.
'Shit, cast it again – ' but all thought fled his mind when he found himself staring into Fia's huge black eyes.
"Theo, we – we have to run. We can't take him," Fia squeaked out. "Please, before everyone – "
"There's no choice!" When a clang echoed through the night, Theo whirled back toward the machine. His heart lodged in his throat; Zenith had flung up his shield, barely fending off a thorned vine that had erupted from the rock beneath him.
Hellebore was still holding up the weakly struggling Lodo. With a contemptuous jerk of his shoulder, he flung the werecat behind him.
Screaming, Meg cast a shield spell. Judging by the red glow behind the machine, it must've caught Lodo.
How many spells did she have left? And would Lodo be in any condition to fight? Panic squeezed Theo's chest like an icy fist.
Looked like it was all up to him and Ryan.