Crossing her arms and slowly turning around, Eva watched for anything amiss. The first time they had activated this half of the ritual, lightning had been raining down on them and bringing with it a whole load of monsters. The avatar’s fire had kept it all at bay. This time, if everyone else wound up kneeling permanently, Eva might be the only defense for a while. Though perhaps with Juliana’s help. Eva still didn’t want Juliana directly interacting with the ritual. She was perfectly capable of ejecting anything dangerous from the area.
But nothing dangerous was happening. A lightning bolt struck far off in the distance. The earth rumbled—only a little, barely enough to make Eva need to widen her stance. Still nothing actually touched the ritual circle itself. The avatars stayed dormant and the portals overhead remained stable.
Just as she was about to try to shut down the ritual in order to further confer with Catherine and Zoe, a thin beam of light struck Vektul.
The mass of flesh immediately started stirring. The tiny stubs where Eva had chopped off tentacles twisted around impotently on the body, just reinforcing her decision to remove the limbs. More flesh started growing outwards from the nubs.
Eva hadn’t started the ritual unprepared.
A clap of her hands exploded a small portion of the avatar. Prepared spheres of blood covered its mass of flesh, each primed and ready to go off. It wouldn’t last forever, but maybe long enough to finish the ritual.
Glancing over her shoulder, Eva started scowling. While the Avatar of Life was growing active, the Avatar of Void was not. It remained in its spot where it hadn’t moved since the ritual collapsed. Two legs and two arms propped it up while its head stared straight at its foe, though its eyes were still empty. No light. No life.
A scream tore Eva’s attention back in front of her. One tentacle stretched out across the ritual circle. This one was not aimed at her. She clapped her hands together almost reflexively, detonating a series of her spheres around one tentacle nub. She made it in time to keep the tentacle that had grown from reaching Shalise. But the explosion didn’t stop it completely. The dismembered
Serena, still dressed in her poofy winter gear, darted across the ritual circle. Her feet didn’t even touch the ground until she crossed half the distance to Shalise. Then, she touched once to keep up her momentum.
Eva wasn’t entirely sure what she should do. She had been somewhat nervous about having Serena close to the ritual. She was an enemy of the Elysium Order and, therefore, likely an ally or agent of Life. The only reason Eva had agreed to her presence was because they were summoning Void. If a Power couldn’t handle one little vampire, they were in dire straights indeed.
Only now, her Power was taking a nap while they needed it.
Attacking Serena didn’t quite sit right with Eva. Serena was one of those few who she would protect first. Not
Eva’s hesitation took the choice out of her hands.
Serena sailed straight over the top of Shalise, grabbing hold of the tentacle and stopping it mere centimeters from Shalise’s face. Her feet touched down just on the inside edge of Shalise’s circle. The second her feet hit the stone, she spun around and flung the snake-like tentacle right towards Eva.
Raising one of her bone-shaped wings, Eva caught the tentacle like a pencil might catch a straw. As the tip of her wing passed through the tentacle’s body, she left several deposits of blood. A clap of her hands vaporized the entire thing.
Back near Shalise, Serena collapsed with one arm propping her up and the other curled across her chest. Right where her coat was torn from being tossed into a tree. It looked at first like she had been forced to kneel. Eva quickly spotted the gash in the vampire’s puffy coat sleeve. A fine gray powder leaked out from inside. She didn’t stay down for long. A second or two later, she dashed off, making haste in removing herself from the ritual circle.
Eva found herself grinding her teeth together. That answered that question. Serena was her own person and she would be on their side for the foreseeable future. She had even gotten injured doing so. Some sunlight must have made it through her coat. The dust was ash.
Bradley Twillie’s magizoology classes only covered vampires lightly. Eva hadn’t signed up for more in-depth classes as she chose golemancy and warding as her electives. As such, she wasn’t sure how well Serena could heal from sunlight damage. Hopefully well enough with time and blood. If not, Eva might consider chopping off her own arm and seeing how well it grafted onto a vampire. Just as thanks. As a soon-to-be full demon, a severed arm should only be an inconvenience for a short time.
