Everyone on the battlefield that was capable of attacking it unleashed their powers at the Avatar as it was in the process of being created, but a flare of divine darkness stopped them in their tracks. The power enveloped the woman’s body completely, and she began to transform. It began with her head. Her face shifted, becoming more and more serpentine, until it was like I was staring down a serpent beastfolk, with a sharp, diamond-shaped skull. The scales rushed down her neck, spreading across her chest and arms, where they grew larger and thicker, as if she wore plate armor. Her fingers transformed into fang-like shapes, then her bones cracked and splintered in a different direction. They grew longer and longer, until they were more like the blades of a longsword. The transformation melted her legs together, fusing them into a long serpentine tail.

  My curse magic wove into her as well, stopping every motion. Runes etched themselves into each scale, and sealing magic stopped the divine power flowing off her. She punched through it, but the seal kept re-forming, woven into the very magic that was powering her.

  “How in the name of the endless hells did you manage to cast an Erudite level spell?” Saint Hykym muttered from where he stood next to me. “No wonder your spirit feels like someone set off a bomb in it.”

  Even as he spoke, he raised his hands and began to compress the golden light around them. The light shuddered and flickered, compressing into tight sparks of divine energy around his hands, and he focused his attention back on her, preparing to defend and attack as soon as the barrier was gone. I let out a whistle and my summoned creatures pulled back, re-grouping around us, while both of my friends stepped closer warily. Neither Salem nor Jackson looked to be in the best shape, as they were covered in cuts and bruises, but both were alive, and it wasn’t anything a healer couldn’t fix. Jackson’s golden armor was cracked and had gaps in a dozen spots, while Salem’s threads were flickering in his hands. Jackson’s hand tightened on the grip of his golden sword.

  “How much more power do we have?” he asked.

  “I’ve got a little bit of fire, enough for one good blow,” I said. “Other than that, my summons should mostly counter hers, but don’t expect them to be that much help.”

  “I’m nearly at the peak of what I can do without Effervesce investing more directly,” saint Hykym said. “There are no more innocents to be hurt around us, though, so he is limited in what he can do. His power is already focused in the city to heal people. If she were still a cultivator priest, I’d say I can win, but…”

  The silence hung in the air until Salem broke it.

  “I’ve been generating threads an’ tying all sorts of temporary knots, but I’m running really low on ether.”

  “My armor and sword have a minute or so left, and my ether pool is at about a quarter drained,” Jackson said.

  The remainder of the Shé clan limped toward us then. Martha had lost an arm, and had clearly cauterized it with some form of fire magic, while Rui was covered in cuts. Yushin looked fine, physically, but I thought that she was likely far worse mentally and emotionally. She had a sort of vacant feeling in her eyes, and even as she tried to focus on us, she seemed to be looking a million miles away.

  “My core is nearly empty,” Rui said. “Martha’s pool has enough for maybe one more spell. Yushin?”

  Yushin didn’t say anything, until Rui gently shook her shoulder, at which point she blinked and looked around.

  “Core bloodline gone,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “Ether pool okay. But everyone is dead.”

  I stepped over and hugged her, but she didn’t do anything. She didn’t even seem to realize that I’d done it. As I stepped away, I reached into my locker and tried to look for any more spells that I’d missed, when my ring clinked against a jar, and two ideas sparked at once. I pulled out the jar with the remaining healing water that the moles had given us. It wasn’t much, but it would help.

  “Hykym, drink,” I said, shoving the jar at him. “You’re our strongest fighter bar none. You could – should – be the most healed.”

  He took a long draft, then passed it back to me.

  “Give some to Shé Rui and Jackson. They’re in the worst shape,” he said. I didn’t argue, passing it over and starting to explain what little of my plan I had time to put together.

  “You can’t!” Salem protested once I finished. “You’ve exceeded your limit for spells that you can safely cast already!”

  “I know, but unless anyone has any other options, I don’t know what we can do to kill this thing,” I said, shaking my head. Yushin’s eyes shot to me, and she seemed to focus. There was still a vacancy in her, but she’d pulled herself together for a moment.

  “Let me,” she said. “Opening volley. Or. No. After Hykym? Yes.”

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  Then she spread her hands, and ether began to rush from her. A second later, she vanished, and I pursed my lips. I wished she’d been coherent enough to elaborate, but I was just glad she was starting to put herself back together, even if only in the heat of the moment.

  “We can hope Yushin is enough, but I’m going to prepare, just in case she isn’t.”

  We turned to face the protective dome as the Avatar continued its work and the war between summons raged in the air around us. I took several steps back to let the others get a clear shot, then pulled two books from my locker – my grimoire, and one that was far newer. As everyone else built their attacks for the Avatar’s release, I removed a pen and ink, leaned down, and began to write, while still stealing glances up every once in a while. It took what felt like hours for the protective dome to fade, though couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds, as Jackson’s armor hadn’t faded. But as soon as it was gone, the Avatar strode forth.

  Power exploded through the air, humming like the arrival of dawn after a long night. I didn’t have ethersight cast, but I didn’t need it. I could smell it, taste it… this creature was clearly on a level comparable to someone like the Erudite, or perhaps even a half-step divine, like the Dreki matriarch had been. And through the linking, my curse had grown as well. The power flickered back and forth, sealing away the dark god’s Avatar, and then breaking, then sealing again, then breaking. Back and forth, over and over, a cycle as clear as yin and yang.

  The Avatar spread its claw-like hands, and a bolt of purple shadow, shaped like an arrow, erupted from its hand and tore forward at saint Hykym. The old man released all of the magic he’d been building, launching himself forward. A shield of golden light formed, only for the darkness arrow to punch through. A second shield, then a third, and a fourth, until the arrow finally broke on the fifth. Hykym unleashed streams of light from his hands, like an entire swarm of arcane missiles, but the Avatar’s blades cut through them. A handful landed, digging into her scales and drawing a few drops of blood, but nothing more. She fired two more arrows, and Hykym’s body turned into a bolt of light, vanishing and appearing behind her, only for her to turn and slash with her fang-claw-sword things.

  I snapped my focus back down to my writing and worked furiously. I had to get this down, it had to work. I was only torn out of my work by a thick, bloody sound. I looked up to see Hykym, impaled on the Avatar’s hand. He began to fade away, his essence returning to Effervesce’s realm, where his true body was. As he did, I heard him whisper one last prayer.

  “And he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil ones…”

  At his words, his body exploded, and golden armor enveloped everyone in the battlefield, including me. The Avatar hissed in annoyance, and though it had sustained several injuries, it was still standing. It launched arrows that slammed against each of us. Cracks splintered through the golden armor, but the armor didn’t fade, and I let out a breath, writing as fast as I could. Now it was Jackson and Salem’s turn, unless Yushin was–

  As if on cue, a razor thin rapier of shadow erupted from the chest of the Avatar. The blow had been timed perfectly to correspond to the instant where the curse was at the peak of its power. What had to be Yushin’s entire ether pool emptied into the spell, her assassin affinity working perfectly for this, and the hole tore even larger. The Avatar slumped into the dirt, and Yushin sprinted to hide behind Shé Rui.

  Then the Avatar’s heart started to reform, and as it pumped, the serpentine Avatar pulled itself back to its feet and launched forward. Yushin had hurt it pretty bad – her affinity specialized in killing things, and even something this powerful hadn’t gotten away unscathed. But it hadn’t been enough to kill the Avatar.

  Jackson and Salem leapt forward, Salem throwing all of his remaining power into freezing her for a single instant. She paused, and Jackson raised his sword, then used a technique that I hadn’t seen in a while. The giant version of the blade that he’d struck an ember roc with forged itself in the air and slammed into the Avatar. As it did, flames poured down the blade, filling the Avatar like hot wax. I kept writing frantically, flicking my eyes between the fight and my grimoire and reference text.

  Shé Rui and Martha moved in now, Martha raising her staff and pointing. She had already chanted her spell while we waited, and everything went into this blow. In the same instant, Rui’s hand thrust out, and he infused the Dao of Family into every last drop of his chi, working to protect his wife, Yushin, and those that had helped protect her. A needle of wind shot forward, empowered by the best combat spell Martha knew: wind lance. Together they tore a hole in the throat of the Avatar, but the accursed thing kept stepping forward. Its power shimmered, and it formed a new windpipe for itself, before surging forward again. It formed more arrows, but I leapt forward, blazing with the full might of my bloodline, and the Avatar’s attention focused on me.

  The arrows shot forward, and I raised my right hand, chanting. Saint Hykym’s armor evaporated under the assault, and the Avatar raised its hand to conjure more, which was when I grabbed a handful of ether dust. Rather than using it as a component, I used the dust for its most basic function – fueling my spell. It rushed into the curse I muttered, as I raised my ring, and unleashed a spell. My spirit tore, and I let out a howling scream, but didn’t stop. I threw in the last bits of fire that I had into the curse.

  Almost a year ago, the Erudite had placed a disintegration spell in my ring. A sixth circle spell, backed by the raw ether density and power of the Erudite.

  My curse magic had always had a multiplicative effect when applied to those sorts of spells. When the right suffering curse was applied to erode matter, it went from slowly breaking down wood to turning it to ash. It took desiccate from a useful combat spell to one of the strongest in my arsenal. And now, it was doing the same to disintegrate.

  Right at the peak of my seal’s power, the spell struck the Avatar in the heart. Then, following the blood flow in the body, it raced upward, and began to dissolve all of its flesh. The Avatar had immense power, but limited healing ability. It had reformed its heart and windpipe, but not its skin or muscle around these parts. It clearly had some mix of biology and magic to allow it to operate as it was semi-reliant on these organs, but only had a limited ability to heal.

  All of these – an Erudite class disintegrate spell, a curse built to multiply the spell’s effect, the power of my curse to seal a god’s divine power from acting on this world, and the biological factor of the Avatar – came together at once.

  And the Avatar was left as nothing but dust and bones.

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