Kai was sailing from it next in the same direction as Vorzyr.
I saw Vorzyr roll with a pained grunt and catch Kai at the last second so he didn’t hit the rocks at brutal force. He didn’t have dragon hide to protect him like V did.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
A blindingly bright explosion of silver power shot from the base, and then Ariana rose from it, her golden wings out.
Midnight-blue light erupted right in front of her, and then Ruxnoth was there, hovering with his own wings outstretched, a shimmering blue and gold. He had that fancy old world coat on, his chest on display, and his skin was almost covered entirely in blue veins.
Ariana fired two silver streams at him, her power so immense that it sent him spinning out away from her.
But that relief was short-lived. She only just managed to check on two of her loves in V and Kai, before Ruxnoth was bursting back into the fray.
She fired again.
But this time, one of her streams turned to… glitter? Just tiny sparks raining down on the snow below, not touching him anymore, not driving into him.
Oh fuck, he’d just transmuted her stream.
At her shock, he moved in, grabbed her other still live palm and forced it to his chest.
She tried to pull away, but he wrenched her to him with his free hand and clamped down on her shoulder.
A scream escaped her, while a cry of ecstasy sounded from him—he was siphoning her!
“Yes… there it is. How very thoughtful of you. I did need a top-up, Ariana.”
Collective panic broke out among our ranks, and I saw Dad and Grandma exchanging a grave look.
This was beyond bad.
I heard Dad start strategizing with Flame as to how we could intervene without being wiped out instantly.
“You should have brought the Celestial children along to see me,” Ruxnoth taunted Ariana. “That would have been a glorious power infusion. Well, there’s still time for that, isn’t there, pretty angel?”
“You’re not touching them,” she seethed.
“Do you really have much say in that?”
She grunted as he obviously pulled harder, drawing on more of her True Celestial magic. “Your power is truly colossal. Unfortunately a little too pure for me. It means you get to live. Although, soon you’ll kneel to me like all the rest.”
I caught sight of Kai on the ground below, staggering to his feet across the snow. Vorzyr was now passed out.
With a spark of magic, that Aetherbound Scepter of his materialized in his hand, the thing that could battle against Celestial magic—even True Celestial magic.
“Motherfucker!” he roared, as he slammed it into the ground right underneath where Ariana and Ruxnoth were hovering.
Silver, gold, and white light shot from it and struck Ruxnoth, breaking his siphoning connection to Ariana.
As he blew backward, Ariana’s eyes fluttered closed and she dropped, but Kai enveloped her with his magic, bringing her now unconscious form down safely.
Another shot of silver light tore into the area, and then Cornelius Martel was arriving on scene. He grimaced at the sight of his unconscious granddaughter, then went to attack Ruxnoth who’d already recovered from Kai’s blow.
“No!” Kai called out. “He’ll just siphon you. No more Celestials here. Get out of here.” He gestured at Ariana and Vorzyr. “Get them out of here.”
“You’re not staying here to fight against him.”
“Ambrose is still recovering, but I’ll have him lend me some of his magic, create a protection spell around this realm, one Ruxnoth can’t penetrate, and I’ll use it to force him out. What’s Ryker’s status? To pull this off fast enough, I need likeminded help. If not him, send me Gabriel Morgan.”
