Page 74 of The Wishing Game

I quickly grab the pouch, though the burns look raw and angry. Slowly getting to my feet, I return to Thea's and Cer's side.

The two of them managed to drive most of the shadows away, but it seems that the main body is creating more. At this rate, he's just going to multiply ad infinitum and we're never going to get to the bottom of it. If we want to end him, we need to limit him somehow...

"I have an idea," I suddenly say, grabbing onto Cer's sleeve. "Are you as fast as him?" I nod to Ze.

"What are you thinking about?"

"What if we cage the demon in? I have the black dust from Ze. If we create a barrier around them, then maybe..."

"It will help Ze tackle them all in one place." Cer nods. "Could be worth a try."

I hand Cer the rest of the pouch, and before I can blink, he's gone.

"Wow," I mutter when a moment later he's back by our side, a circle of black dust in place surrounding the demon.

Ze gives Cer a smirk before he jumps into the circle with the demon.

"Does the barrier work against Ze, too?"

"No." Cer shakes his head. "Hemadethat dust."

"Made?" I frown.

"From his blood."

EIGHTEEN

My mouth drops open in shock, and I turn my head to watch the makeshift cage we created. The space is crammed. There's only Ze and the countless shadows that are now screeching every time they come in contact with the barrier before disintegrating. The more shadows the demon creates, the more they perish as they try to cross over.

"They're not sentient," I note.

"No, they are not. At this point, I doubt the demon itself is too sentient. It's consumed too much energy to be able to think of anything else but the urge to attack—and the desire to feed. It needs to defend itself and find more sources of energy," Cer explains.

"That's why he was coming for me. The demon saw me as his next meal," I add drily.

"Could be."

"Will Ze run out of energy, too?"

"Unlikely," he answers tersely.

He's been fighting relentlessly and only on the defensive. I now see that it was all in an attempt to make the demon weaker because soon, the rate at which he's creating the shadows slows down.

"Are all demons like this?" I inquire, trying to imagine the effort it would take to defeat more of them.

"Ascended ones, yes. This is considered a level one, although he's a very developed level one."

"What's the highest level?"

Cer gives me a side glance—one I take to meando you want to know?

"Twelve."

"What?" I blink repeatedly, thinking I haven't heard him right. If this is only one, then how powerful can a level twelve demon be?

"Level twelve are considered to be the most powerful. There aren't too many of those, and we've never encountered one in a fight so far," Cer explains.

"It's why we have an army dedicated to this problem," Thea interjects. "If these demons were let to roam freely around, there would be no more souls left in the universe."

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