Page 107 of Mantle

But first there was this.

The battle we were hurtling headlong into.

A battle I’d been jolted awake for from a spark of Kai’s magic, and the two of them standing over my dorm room bed, Kai in that dark and dangerous headspace and struggling with Ariana being in pain and weakened, and Ariana in war mode in spite of it all.

Her plan was inspired.

I was damned impressed and Kai had been also.

Him more so for the magical complexity of what she’d put together.

Me because it was geared toward saving a victim of circumstance, rather than destroying the threat that Corvin and the Celestial Plane had made Ketheron into.

I tensed, bracing myself as we rematerialized via Kai’s teleportation spell, just a few feet back from the property line of the Unity Council building.

Holy damn.

The building was utterly decimated, Hellfire and dragon flame raging wildly through what was now mostly just ash and wreckage.

Kai having Sylas reach out to the Guardian Movement had worked, and there was now a mammoth force circling the area, a crazy lightshow from dozens of magical wielders firing upon Ketheron.

Actually, firing upon the dome that he’d created around himself and Jaxon and Vorzyr, trapping them inside.

Jaxon went flying as Ketheron batted him away, then shot him with a bolt of his golden fire in quick succession, and Jaxon slammed into the inside of the dome and ricocheted off it with a grunt. He was already bloodied and injured as it was, and I saw him struggling severely to push back to his knees, let alone his feet.

Vorzyr intercepted a targeted expulsion of dragon fire from Ketheron headed straight for Jaxon, his own roaring forth from his mouth and battling Ketheron’s. He was in full dragon form, his talons digging into the earth beneath his feet just to maintain his position, even while in his mightiest state.

And through it all, Ketheron was wielding Draco’s sword, Valkrith, its Hellfire shooting through the dome, while the protective nature of the shield still remained intact.

It had Guardian Members dodging out of the way over and over, them forced to give up their position, and even move several feet back while interrupting their magical streams.

Ketheron’s actions were all very strategic.

All very Corvin Morvain.

The one actually causing this and wielding Ketheron’s power and movements like a puppet.

I caught sight of Lucian suddenly in the field using his killer Ancient vamp speed to rush Guardian members out of the line of fire as Ketheron picked up his pace, all while still facing off with Vorzyr.

Ryker wasn’t there, but that was because he was with Warlow, Aegis Watch, and many of Jaxon’s Lupan Stabilization Unit, who’d been specially called in to coordinate a massive strike against the exposed Chimera Circle labs and shut that long-time fucking nightmare down for good.

Lucian blurred past us again, giving a blink-and-you’d-miss-it chin lift to Ariana, then hauling an injured werewolf to safety before she could be impaled by a streak of Hellfire that carved a trench where she’d stood.

I jolted as Jaxon let out a wolf’s battle cry and partially shifted, then ducked and rolled around Ketheron. In the next split second, he leapt up and grabbed Ketheron’s wrist wielding Valkrith. His Alpha wolf and Immortal Descendant strength combined still had him straining, and even as he dug his claws into Ketheron’s skin, they didn’t drive deep enough to cause more than a scratch and aggravation.

He held on, muscles bunching in his tank, his arm shaking as he fought to pry that Hellfire death blade from Ketheron’s hand.

And then Ketheron pulled back his dragon fire.

My eyes shot wide and I heard a joint gasp from Kai and Ariana either side of me, as Vorzyr kept his fire breathing going but it didn’t so much as lightly burn Ketheron. His specially made skin just… repelled it.

Ketheron let out a roar of frustration, then dropped the dome all of a sudden, wrenched Jaxon away from him by grasping hisface, then sent him hurtling into several Guardians, downing them like dominoes, faster than even Lucian could react to spare them. It not only knocked out their magic, the brutality of it knockedthemout.

“Dad!” Ariana screamed, as Jaxon tried and failed to push up from being sprawled out on his front, choking and bleeding.

As if that wasn’t enough, Ketheron burst forward with the vampiric speed of his Polygenus design, snagged Vorzyr’s snout, driving his talons right through his dragon hide and making him cry out as he drew deep, blood dripping down his striking dragon features. Then he hauled him up, swung him around, then sent him careening into more Guardians.

He spun Valkrith, and started sweeping arcs of Hellfire throughout the area, first as a deterrent to keep them all back. But then as some bolts of magic struck him, the insult of it had him moving to direct the Hellfire blasts to those unconscious—to burn them alive where they were sprawled helplessly.

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