The tether connecting Raven and Brother Blood snapped like a guitar string, lines of invisible energy twisting this way and that. I saw Brother Blood go down, and Shelim buried a clawed hand in his chest. A black bolt descended from a stormy cloud overhead burning a patch of the forest. Gina followed up by finally expanding her domain.
My attention turned back to the shield in front of me, still holding Raven. It'd gotten substantially weaker after Brother Blood's collapse, and I looked closer at the underlying structure.
Like before, the point of weaknesses screamed out to me, and I took advantage.
Sever after Sever poured out of me. Just one a second at first until I reached a crescendo of fifty. There were over ten layers of spell wards, each one requiring even more severs. I was shaking violently and bleeding from every orifice when I was done, but I'd managed it—Raven was free.
RCT flowed through me, healing all of the damage I'd done to myself, and I drew in a deep steadying breath. I could almost taste the mystical energy wafting through the air. It suddenly spiked when Raven roused awake. Her eyes were orbs of solid black that wisped out demonic energy, and a tight aura enveloped her.
If Brother Blood had been a massive lake of mystical energy compared to my pond, then Raven was a bloody dam. The sheer amount of energy I was sensing boggled my mind.
And it was why I almost didn't notice the look of fear and recognition in her eyes. Before I could open my mouth to speak and reassure her, she attacked.
A wave of telekinesis slammed into me and vanished thanks to my innate technique. The room around me came apart. The pillars fractured into hundreds of pieces. The blood pool exploded, sending waves of magic-infused blood sloshing upwards. Cracks spread through the amphitheater, climbing high into the high stone ceiling. And small pieces of magically manipulated masonry started raining down.
There was a loud crack as a massive chunk slid out of place, and then another and another. The entire structure was coming down, and from the look on Raven's face, I could tell she hadn't meant for it to happen.
"I know the red eyes, white hair and mystical powers don't inspire a lot of confidence," I began, "but—"
"You're Omen!" she blurted out, and my brows hiked up.
It was my least favorite alias the media had cooked up post-New York. I thought Butcher was better on the account of, you know, actually butchering Ade.
Maybe changing my face before she woke up would've made this process smoother, but then again, I was standing over her in an underground temple of a blood cult.
"I'm not marrying your crazy leader!" she yelled and pointed at me. Her hand glowed black, and I clapped, switching her for a block of stone facing the wall before she could get off her spell. A bar of black energy cut through the stone like it was butter, destabilizing the entire structure. A fracturing slice of the wall pitched back.
Raven scampered back, summoning a dark aura around her legs to propel her out of the way but not quickly enough.
Clap.
Suddenly, she was behind me, shooting towards a wall, trying to steady herself. She fired bolt after bolt, all of which I dodged easily with lazy steps, most of my mind occupied by the temple coming down around us.
"We could keep doing this and die here or we could go outside and talk this out," I said.
"Why would I believe a word you say?" she demanded.
I clapped again, switching out a falling piece of the ceiling for a small pebble. It fell past her shoulder, and she blinked, taken completely off guard, and raised her hand in defense, the black aura surrounding them intensifying.
"Somebody sent me here to stop that asshole, Sebastian Blood, from starting the end of the world by summoning your father," I said. "You're welcome, by the way."
That seemed to get through to her somewhat. "Who?"
"John Constanine," I said.
"Never heard of him," she said.
That was surprising. But to be fair, a year ago, I was very much the same.
"Well, let's just say he's a powerful magician who has a vested interest in keeping the earth rotating." I took a quick step to the left as a massive crack opened up in the earth. "So, you want to get out of here?"
She looked conflicted. "The last time I trusted a boy, he drugged me and strapped me to an altar with magic."
"Would transforming into a woman make this process go any faster?" I asked, almost chuckling. "Unless you have a teleportation spell in your back pocket. I'm your only way out of this."
Slowly, her hands came down, and her magical aura faded. "What do you need me to do?"
I clapped twice, and suddenly, we were falling into a massive crater the size of a town. At the center was a small, solid orb of darkness. On the outskirts of the crater, I spotted half-destroyed buildings, bits of masonry, and half-collapsed septic systems. No townie had survived the battle.
Raven screamed at first, hands flapping before she caught herself with a flash of magic-infused telekinesis. I caught myself with body control, gently lowering myself, even as she screamed at me.
"You could've warned me!"
"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission," I said. Case, in point, the hospital, which was some ways away from the crater, collapsed rather loudly, sending shockwaves sweeping through the surrounding forest. Raven's head whipped in that direction and then back at me as we touched down.
"You're welcome by the way," I said offhandedly as I approached the Domain Shell with some measure of concern.
"What's wrong?" she asked, some panic creeping into her voice.
"It's taking too long," I said.
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