Rise Of The Lesser-Blood

The darkness gathering around Voss thickened until the edges of her figure began to blur. Thomas watched it coil over her shoulders and arms, swallowing the black markings that had spread across her skin during the first transformation. For a moment, the golden cage still held its shape around her. Its runes burned in ordered lines, while Seth’s threads stretched between them, tightening whenever Voss shifted.

Then something moved inside the darkness.

It was not a limb. Thomas could make out no clear shape at first, only a narrow distortion that slid across the surface of the cage. His Eye of Khepri caught the flow of energy gathering there, but the pattern refused to settle into anything familiar. The darkness did not behave like ordinary mana. It seemed to gather, separate, and gather again, as though several currents were moving beneath one surface.

Voss raised her head.

The change began at her horns. Their tips lengthened, curving backwards from her skull, while dark ridges formed along their surface. The markings on her neck spread across her jaw and down her arms, hardening into overlapping plates that resembled armour grown directly from her body. Her fingers narrowed, the nails extending into black claws. Her crimson eyes remained fixed on the two deacons, but their pupils had become thin, vertical slits.

A pressure rolled through the clearing. Thomas felt it against his skin, a weight that made the air seem denser. Behind Voss, the darkness rose in several long shapes. They had no fixed form. One narrowed into a spear, another widened into a hooked claw, while two more twisted like thick tendrils. They hovered around her without touching the ground.

Mina shifted closer to Lina, keeping her body between the unconscious girl and the battle. Ryan had managed to sit upright, though his injured arm remained limp against his side. Julian stood a little farther forward, his attention fixed on Voss. None of them moved to intervene. After the fight with the Swamp Thallophyte, they had little strength left to offer.

Seth’s threads tightened.

The golden runes brightened, and the cage contracted from every side. Thomas saw the threads draw taut around Voss’s arms and torso. The deacon’s spell was still active, and he was trying to contain her before the transformation could finish.

One of the dark shapes snapped forward.

It struck the cage with a sound like a heavy blade hitting stone. The runes flared at the point of impact. A second manifestation followed, then a third, each hitting a different section of the structure. The cage shuddered. Seth raised his free hand, and more golden lines appeared between the existing runes, reinforcing the weakened sections.

The darkness struck again.

This time, it did not hit the same places. The spear-shaped manifestation pierced between two glowing runes, while the hooked shape dragged across the upper edge. A crack of golden light travelled through the cage. Seth’s threads pulled tight, some of them snapping under the pressure.

Eider moved.

He drove forward, his fist aimed at Voss’s head. The distance between them vanished in an instant, but the blow did not travel along the path Thomas expected. Eider’s arm shifted at the last moment, his strike bending around one of the dark manifestations as though the force behind it had been redirected. The fist slipped through the gap and connected with Voss’s cheek.

Her head turned slightly.

Thomas’s attention sharpened. Eider had used his Talent to alter the direction of his own attack, slipping past the defence rather than trying to overpower it. Before Voss could answer, Eider twisted his body and sent a second strike towards her ribs.

A dark claw appeared between them.

Eider’s fist collided with it. The impact sent a ripple through the manifestation, but the force did not throw it aside. Instead, the claw bent away from the blow and curled around his forearm. Another shape rose behind Eider, its edge narrowing into a blade.

He changed the direction of the force carrying his body. His feet left the ground, and he was pulled sideways just as the blade cut through the space where his back had been. He landed several steps away, already turning to face her again.

The cage broke.

Golden fragments scattered across the clearing and faded before they touched the ground. Seth stepped back, his threads recoiling towards his hands. The spell had contained Voss for only a few moments, but those moments had given the deacons time to coordinate their attack. Now they had to fight without the cage holding her in place.

Seth’s fingers moved.

Thin threads flashed through the air, almost invisible until they caught the light. They spread around Voss in a widening net, crossing above and below one another. At the same time, he began another incantation. Golden symbols formed beneath his feet, then appeared in a ring around Voss. Thomas recognised the structure as rune magic, though he could not identify the spell.

Eider attacked as the symbols began to glow.

He came in low, forcing Voss to respond to the immediate threat. A manifestation swept towards him from her right, but he changed its trajectory with a sharp motion of his hand. The dark shape veered away and struck the ground. Eider used the opening to close the remaining distance, driving a knee towards her stomach.

Voss barely moved.

A second manifestation rose beneath Eider’s leg and struck it from the side. His knee was forced off course. Before he could regain his balance, another dark shape lashed across his chest. He redirected part of the impact, but the blow still sent him skidding backwards. His boots carved two lines through the dirt.

The golden symbols ignited.

Light rose in narrow pillars around Voss, connecting overhead into a dome. Seth’s threads followed, winding around the pillars and crossing through the gaps. The combination was different from the first cage. Rather than simply closing around her, the spell created several layers of restraint, each supported by the threads that Seth controlled.

Voss stepped forward.

The first manifestation struck a pillar. The light bent but held. A second slammed into another section, and a third curled around the dome, searching for a weakness. Seth’s expression tightened. He moved both hands, drawing the threads into new positions. The net shifted with him, pulling against the darkness whenever it tried to gather in one place.

For a few seconds, the two forces held each other in place.

Thomas followed the currents through his Eye. Seth’s spell had a structure he could almost understand: the runes formed the boundaries, while the threads reinforced the points where the energy was most likely to break. But Voss’s manifestations did not remain fixed long enough for him to study them. They stretched, narrowed, and divided, then reappeared at different angles. He could see the energy moving, but not the principle governing it.

Eider used those seconds to attack again.

He struck from the left, then changed direction halfway through his movement. His first blow was a feint; the second came from an angle that should have been blocked by one of the dark shapes. The force behind his fist shifted twice, allowing him to slip past the manifestation and drive his shoulder into Voss.

This time, she moved.

Voss gave ground by half a step. Eider pressed the advantage, sending a series of strikes towards her head and torso. Each one came from an unexpected angle, his Talent changing the direction and strength of the force behind his movements. One blow glanced off the dark armour covering her shoulder. Another was stopped by a claw that formed beside her face.

Then the darkness behind Voss divided.

Several manifestations rose at once. One caught Eider’s wrist, another swept towards his legs, and a third struck his side. He redirected the first, twisted away from the second, and took the third across his ribs. The impact lifted him from the ground and sent him crashing into the remains of a tree.

The tree split.

”Eider!” Seth called.

The threads around Voss tightened. Seth pulled both hands together, and the golden pillars drew inward. The dome contracted, forcing the manifestations to fold back towards her. For an instant, Thomas thought the spell might hold.

Voss spread her fingers.

The darkness around her moved in several directions at once. One manifestation drove down into the ground, another pierced through the golden light, and two more struck the pillars from opposite sides. The structure buckled. Seth’s threads snapped one after another, each break sending a brief flash of gold through the clearing.

Voss walked through the collapsing spell.

A manifestation swept towards Seth. He crossed his arms, and a golden rune flashed in front of him. The dark shape struck the barrier and forced him back several steps. Before he could steady himself, another tendril curved around the barrier’s edge. Seth twisted aside, but its tip caught his shoulder and tore through his robe.

He staggered. Blood darkened the fabric.

Eider pushed himself out of the broken tree. One arm hung lower than the other, but he raised his hand towards Voss. The air around her seemed to shift. Thomas saw the movement in the dust first: it changed direction, circling her before rushing inward. Eider was trying to redirect the force around her, perhaps to pin her in place or turn her own movements against her.

Voss’s manifestations struck the ground.

The impacts broke the forming current apart. Dust burst upwards around her, and Eider’s control faltered. A dark tendril shot through the cloud and caught him around the waist. Another coiled around his injured arm. He altered the force pulling him forward, but the restraints tightened from different directions, leaving him unable to escape without worsening his injuries.

Seth raised one hand. The remaining threads gathered around his fingers, glowing faintly. He began another incantation, slower than before. The runes forming beneath him were more complex, their lines overlapping in patterns Thomas could not follow.

Voss turned towards him.

The darkness around her gathered into several sharpened points. Thomas felt the pressure in the clearing rise again. Even from where he stood, he could tell the next exchange would be different. Seth’s spell was taking longer to form, and Eider was trapped. Whatever they were preparing, it was likely their strongest remaining move.

Thomas kept his eyes on the deacons. The Eye of Khepri showed the energy accumulating around Seth, but the pattern was incomplete. He could not tell what the spell would do, only that Seth was gathering everything he had left.

Voss’s manifestations drew back, hovering around her like a cluster of poised blades.

Seth finished the first line of his incantation.

Eider, still caught in the darkness, lifted his head. The two deacons exchanged a brief look. Then the runes beneath Seth’s feet flared brighter than before, and the air around them began to tremble.