The spell continued to rampage but Ciaran had no more control over it. It would do him little to no good if he got more souls from the thing, so when he cast the spell, he made it run on autopilot.
The spell took everything he had and then some, so the boy was on the verge of collapsing. Diana picked him up in a princess carry and hid him in their little broom closet.
"Sleep! When you wake up, I will be right here, ready to kick your ass." She said as she laid him in their bed.
Ciaran was tired, but he sneaked in a peck on her cheek, wishing her good luck, and telling her to stay safe. Then he passed out, his soul devoid of all energy.
She tucked him in and went back out to the fight. Both sides were still going at it hard, but no one could ignore the giant tornado eating at the beasts in the middle of it all.
"Diana, who is that man?" She heard a familiar voice.
When she turned around she saw an old woman in gold robes looking at her.
"My partner Aunty. Ask Gramps, he arranged the marriage." She told her, and the old woman raised an eyebrow.
She knew Diana since she was little, as she did with all the royal children, no matter if they were recognized as such or not. She was one of the thirteen Archmages of the Empire, nicknamed Soothing Light.
"My, I would have expected protest from that, but here you are sounding pleased. Congratulations girl." The old woman said as she vanished as quickly as she came.
Diana wanted to curse out, but she held it in. Of the thirteen, she is lucky to have Soothing Light be the one assigned here. The rest were far more annoying to deal with.
She was contemplating asking to go to the front to vent her frustrations, but just then the vanguard was breached, and some beasts broke through.
"Defend the Mages, don't let them die." The General ordered.
Diana took out her warglaves and started dancing. She was fed up with watching and was ready to see some action herself. She split any beast she touched in half, and the ones who were fast enough to dodge she sliced in more pieces with her Moonlight.
She and the other Hunters were more than holding on, they were crushing any beast that dared approach them. But then Diana got smacked out of nowhere. A Swallow had managed to sneak past the defenses and landed on the stronghold.
It was a Rank Five, and it clearly had the Wind element. It was not interested in the Mages, or the Hunters, it wanted the Silver Knight.
Without Diana helping them, the Hunters would fall, so she had to end the fight fast, but her partner had once been Wind, and she knew the bird wanted a quick exchange as well.
"Let's go already; my partner would appreciate fried chicken when he wakes up," Diana said, as she pounced at the bird.
She then decided to try out her weapon art Moonlight Vortex, on the pesky bird. She had to at least kill a Rank Five today, or Ciaran would never let her hear the end of it.
She spun and spun creating a sphere of light around herself. Then the bird as well as everything else around her started to get sucked into the deadly vortex. The sphere moved, and inside it, Diana started spinning more and more.
The bird tried to break the sphere but the moment its talons touched it, it got sucked in and lost one leg. It screamed in pain as it flew backward.
Diana didn't stop, and spun even harder, starting to create a second sphere around the first. Before she could though, she lost control, and all the Moonlight was released around her. It killed the bird, more animals, and even some of the Hunters.
The others finished up with their opponents as well. It was sad to see their fellow Hunters be chopped down in a friendly fire, but they didn't blame the girl. Her opponent was fast and deadly, anything else might have resulted in more casualties.
Whit the backline secured once again, the Mages could continue to bombard the front. Franklin had lost more than half of his knights, and he himself had suffered a lot of injuries.
Unlike Diana, he had to fight opponents that not only outnumbered him and his crew but ones that were also stronger than him. Wolves, foxes, bears, and even oxen, they fought them all. His light started to dim, and his eyes started to get cloudy.
He regretted what he had done, and cursed his own hubris, but it was too late. With every new beast he slew he became slower. With every new pack that climbed the wall, one of his knights died.
Finally, a tiger showed up and clawed two of his men to death. He was about to tell the rest to back off, but when he turned he saw that the tiger had brought its friends and that all of his knights were dead.
There were only nine tigers, but they were all in the Seventh Rank. Franklin did not stand a chance, but he did not run, he lifted up his sword and prepared himself for the worst.
"Come!" He said as he was ready to join his subjects in death and apologize to them for eternity.
Before the tigers could get to him, however, a dim light showered the whole wall, and all the animals, stopped, bathed in it, and calmly laid down.
The humans questioned why the beasts fell asleep, but the next moment they found out the beasts were dead.
"Enough of this farce.
Let's start the real fight shall we?" Soothing Light asked, and soon the cat from before appeared in front of them.
"This could be avoided, just let us through to the lands you don't even use, and we can stop fighting right now." It said, in a friendly tone.
The old woman responded with a smile and her light spread, laying to rest any animal it touched.
"Have it your way." The cat said, and the space around it bent.
The next moment a Wormhole appeared right beside the wall and started sucking in soldiers along with the light.
When a soldier went it, they were immediately thrown out, but everything about them was rearranged. Franklin was no exception. The cat had noticed the old woman wanted to protect him, and it exclusively targeted him.
The Archmage wasn't fast enough to save him, and he touched the black hole.
What was spit out was still alive, but it could hardly be called a human anymore. His nose was now stuck on his right foot where his big toe showed have been. His ribcage was in place of his hair. All of his fingers were replaced by intestines, and in place of his eyes stood his balls.
Those were some of the many things wrong with Franklin, but the cat had made his new body functional if barely. He could somehow still breathe, and it would be hours before he died.
This enraged the old woman, and she unleashed all of her Light. The once calm and soothing light had become hostile and dangerous. She flew into the black hole that the cat had become and unleashed her full power.
No one could see what was happening due to the nature of the fight, but it was over in seconds. The cat had lost three of its paws, and the soldiers cheered.
Then they looked at their champion, the Soothing Light, and they were horrified. She looked much, much worse than the Royal, and her whole body was crashing down under its own, imbalanced weight.
The next moment, she was back to normal, and the cat had new limbs.
"Are we going to play all day or are we fighting for real?" It asked.
She looked at it and extended her arm.
"We always need a new space user. If you agree to follow a few restrictions, you, and only you can pass." She said, shocking the human side. She was more or less admitting defeat.
The cat looked her in the eyes and sneered.
"You think I would abandon my brothers and sisters for an easier life in the warmer climates of the South? You're goddamn right I am." It said as it reversed Franklin back to his original self.
It looked at the woman, and it shooed it away, toward the Empire.
It ran off, and with it gone so was the threat the beast represented to this stronghold. Sure there were other Rank Eights, but not of them could deal with the old woman. They knew that, so they ordered all of their packs to back off.
Like that, this battle of the second day was about to be over. But the tornado was still going strong, even when the other Mages were told to stop.
The beasts were pissed, but not at the spell, but at humanity for taking advantage of the situation to kill more of them. So much so, that the spell was crushed by a giant tail that came out of nowhere.
A Rank Ten snow snake was done staying out of it, and if any of the humans dared to challenge it, it would not wait for the third day, to end them all.