"Kai!" Aoife's scream was muffled by the waves that quickly covered .
Pain jolted throughout my body as I slowly sank into the depths. It took a mont before I could move. I tried to swim up, back to the surface as the waves tried to pull away from the shore. My lungs burned as I tried to reach the surface. My entire body ached, though my spell had already started healing .
When I finally broke through the surface of the water, my vision had already begun to blur from the lack of air. I swam to the black sand shore, then crawled my way away from the water.
I forced myself to stand up despite my shaky legs. As soon as I did so, I felt magic up above.
I didn't need to even glance there. I knew it was Rohir. He knew this fall wouldn't kill , so he had waited for to crawl to the shore.
"You're just like them, crawling back up whenever we try to rush you."
I ignored his words and took a shaky, uneven step towards the cliff wall. Three ters – it was this close. I glanced at Rohir. A blade made of light hovered high up in the air above his raised hand. With his wicked smile and glowing golden eyes, he looked more like a demon than the Keeper did most of the ti.
"We will rid this world of your kind, and then we will once again thrive – you can not hope to stop us!" He raised his voice as he spoke. I hesitated. "You kind is weak, no different than animals. You have no magic, no power," He continued.
I furrowed my brows. Was he monologuing? He was, wasn't he? It was almost comical, he was spending my weakest mont just speaking. I did nothing to stop him, I allowed myself to fix my breathing and by then, whatever pain I felt had disappeared too.
I prepared myself as the Divine continued speaking, the blade of light still hovering up in the air. He could have killed , perhaps. If I were a mont too slow to dodge, a split second too late to escape, I would have been dead. But now, I was ready dodge, and even strike back.
"Thus, I sentence you to death!" He shouted. I hadn't listened to most of what he said, so I wasn't sure what his superficial reasons for sentencing to death were, and I didn't care either. As he lowered his arm, the blade of light descended upon .
Fallen Grace empowered my body as I leapt up and away from it's trajectory with grace, then responded with an attack of my own. My scythe was nowhere to be seen, but I didn't need to rely on it.
A volley of dark bolts leapt up from my hands, heading towards him.
His eyes widened. I had already shattered his barrier before, he had nothing protecting him right now. He raised his arms to protect himself in a mont of shock, and the satisfying sound of him, grunting sounded. I grinned as I landed back down on the strip of black sandy beach.
"You little demon!" Rohir suddenly shouted. His eyes glimred with wrath as the sky rumbled. I didn't mind his threatening voice. Another volley of bolts leapt up towards him, and he grunted again as he had to stop casting whatever spell he was preparing to throw at . A new barrier ford around him.
I didn't let him just cast that though. While I couldn't fly, I had plenty of ways of harassing him. Purple and black flas flared up around , and then burst up towards him. As they clung on to his shield, slowly depleting it's strength and, in turn, his mana, I grinned.
As he was busy trying to extinguish my flas, all I did was feed them more power. Along with the flas, I sent several more dark bolts his way. He grunted and reinforced his shield, rendering most of my attacks useless.
I gritted my teeth. Despite his limited mana, he was still very strong, and I was slowly beginning to feel the effects of exhaustion, despite Fallen Grace's effects. As he was busy getting rid of my flas, I forced myself to pause and think. Did I really have an opportunity to kill Rohir now?
The answer was no. Even if I depleted his mana almost completely, he could just fly away. I had no way of exerting pressure – he was simply out of my reach. I would never be able to kill him.
But I knew soone who could. I glanced at the mark on the cliff wall. The Keeper hadn't told how to activate it, or what to do with it, but I already had a faint guess.
I shot another volley of dark bolts towards the Divine, then dashed to the cliff wall. Reaching it in the blink of an eye, I touched the mark on the cliff.
Nothing happened, naturally. But the Divine's annoyed grunts stopped, and he drew a sharp breath.
"What- no!" He shouted, and I felt his mana form above . He didn't do anything flashy like summoning swords and trying to strike with them. Instead, he beat his wings and dashed down, towards . My eyes widened as I poured whatever mana I had into the mark in the wall.
"You little-!" His voice cracked as he shouted. A blade made from golden light appeared in his extended hand. I poured more of my mana into the mark – I regretted not asking the Keeper what the hell I was supposed to do with this mark.
I felt sothing change – the earth rumbled, and the cliff shook. Mana began gathering on the mark as it began emitting a faint glow.
"I won't let you open the gate!" The Divine shouted.
Could I pull my hand away from the cliff now? I wasn't sure. I hesitated, and high up above, at the top of the cliff, noticed the pale face of Aoife.
I couldn't die here. Not now, not like this. I threw myself aside, avoiding the Divine's blow just in ti.
Behind , sothing flashed, and a cool breeze blew my hair forward.
The familiar sll of starsnatchers filled my nostrils.
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