Page 164 of Rose and Shadows
But it wasn’t supposed to be that concentrated.
Gregor had spent his time in hiding creating this cloaked in such heavy secrecy that none of us had known about it, not even The Shadowed or even Ambrose, those out on the fringes and clued into absolutely everything.
Kai called out to the Guardians, “Deploy!”
In the next moment, I watched as fifty Guardians among the three hundred here materialized Bastion Gauntlets with their power and slid them onto their right hands.
They’d been created by Arcanum Order. They were right-hand gauntlets made of bronze with reinforced knuckles and moving joints that had the ability to replicate Celestial power. Only fifty had been sanctioned because of the dangers of that sort of power existing should it fall into the wrong hands.
The members in their signature hooded robes teleported into the fray, past Gregor, battling against those two dozen assholes who’d hurt Cornelius wielding Celestial power.
Another fortyPuritasmembers began firing Celestial magic, trying to overwhelm the Guardians.
Fuck, they were definitely outnumbering them.
As they closed in around them, Cassius made a move to intervene, but I snatched his wrist. “You need to obtain the energy signatures. If you’re hit… you can’t, Cassius.”
“She’s right,” Kai said. “The plan is working, they’re starting to use their power. Now the final push to provoke themallinto using it.” He looked up at the sky and called out, “V! Now!”
In the next moment, Vorzyr dropped down from the sky, somehow shifting back in the midst of it.
As he hit the ground, he clothed himself in a pair of maroon leather pants and boots and left it at that.
Then a red glow began emanating from him.
He thrust his hands out either side and it swept into thePuritasmembers wielding Celestial power.
The power started petering out, struggling to maintain, streams being forced back or even cut into.
“Primal Celestial Resonance for the win,” Nyx exclaimed.
“Destroy them! Take them all!” Gregor roared.
The rest of his army then charged at the volunteers.
Two vampire-sorcerer hybrids gathered Cornelius and Warlow and burst them over to us, giving us chin lifts, before returning to formation.
Cassius moved in quickly and started to pour his white power into Cornelius.
“Hades,” he uttered when the wound didn’t heal.
“The black magic could be complicating it,” Kai said, skidding to his knees in the next second and running his glowing rose-gold hand over the wound as Cornelius lay on his side, spluttering and swallowing his pained groans.
Cassius moved back and transported us with his magic off to the side of the heart of battle as the two armies clashed brutally,while the Celestial battle and Vorzyr raged further forward. And Gregor stood there looking psychotically gleeful.
Kai started uttering an ancient incantation that drew my attention back to Cornelius. I stroked Warlow’s shoulder and he was frantic, his hands shaking as he fought to stop the bleeding on one side, while Kai healed from the other.
The wound started to close, but only a little.
Kai grunted and strained.
“It’s not enough,” Nyx told him.
Kai shot a look out at Vorzyr and grimaced. “I can’t pull him out. They’ll all die. Everyone here will die.” He rose to his feet, pressing his fingers to his temple. “We need Ari.”
Cornelius grasped his ankle. “She’s needed… being pulled here… set back the… siphoning. Will lose… our one… chance to… end this.”
“Cor,” Warlow eked out, stroking his hair.
