Erith and Cerus released Mura at the same instant—Erith's a sweeping arc that cut the air like a dark crescent, Cerus's several narrow bands streaking low across the field toward Amun as he sprinted for the Kaida canister.

Erith's hand snapped outward.

A surge of Kaida erupted from him, forming a thick translucent barrier between Amun and the incoming bands. Each band struck the Kaida, flashing white-hot as they slowed, dissolving into drifting smoke before they could reach him.

But the one Cerus intended to land pierced above Erith's knee.

Pain lanced through him. His leg buckled and he staggered to keep his footing.

He threw another one?

The realization hit as sharply as the wound.

A strip of black smoke jutted from his thigh, unraveling. When it vanished, blood welled from the puncture and trickled warm down his leg.

He limped toward Amun.

Cerus stepped forward at an unhurried, almost casual pace.

"To wield that much Kaida at once, even to protect a single life, is a feat I would have called impossible mere weeks ago," Cerus said, reverence threading through his every word.

"No gem could hold such power. No ordinary body could survive being its conduit."

His head tilted, awe and confirmation balancing behind his eyes.

"No... you draw from nothing mortal. You need no gem, no crafted vessel. You have been shaped by divinity."

He smiled, cold and certain.

"You are Velora's gift."

The sudden outpour of Kaida behind him dragged Erith's attention away. He glanced over his shoulder. Amun was twisting the valve on the Kaida container, pulsing the flow of Kaida. As Erith's gaze swung back to Cerus, he caught the blur of movement.

An apprentice crouched beside the wounded elder, and Maeric stood rigid, staring at Erith with a look of absolute wonder—stunned, almost terrified.

Cerus's smile widened. The reverence vanished, replaced with menace.

His hand flicked forward.

Several bolts of Mura tore loose, whistling through the air. They arced outward, curving not toward Erith, but around him, streaking straight for Amun.

A sphere of Kaida pulsed outward from Erith.

Erith forced it wider, thicker, bracing as the first bolts struck. The barrage didn't relent. Cerus conjured dart after dart, Mura slamming into the Kaida sphere, splintering into smoke.

Behind Erith, the Kaida pulses from Amun's container battered through his barrier, blowing it apart with each outpour.

"Erith!" Amun shouted over the crackling of Mura meeting Kaida. "I think that thing's started to take notice of us."

Wood splintered across the field.

A massive crash followed.

Heavy, deliberate footsteps pounded closer, shaking the earth beneath them.

"Moons," Erith said through gritted teeth, forcing the Kaida sphere tighter around them both, "when it's in the field, leave the container open and run wide. Get Rhymera, and go. Just go."

His muscles trembled, every part of him fighting to hold the barrier together through Cerus's onslaught, the strain of his injured leg throbbing with each breath.

Amun let out an exasperated, panicked breath. "We're not leaving without you."

"And we're not leaving without Rhymera, Moons. Go!" His voice cracked, urgent and strained.

Dirt kicked up as Amun sprinted into the field, running wide around the towering Murasi and the Illuminary apprentices clustering beneath its looming shadow, each of them scrambling to draw the creature's attention again.

Erith braced for what was coming.

He flung his Kaida outward, blanketing Amun's path with a widening barrier, deflecting the streaks of Mura Cerus sent after him. He held the protective sphere as long as he could, but the sweeping band of Cerus cast directly toward Erith struck with overwhelming force.

It collided with the Kaida sphere and shattered through it.

The blast swept Erith off his feet.

He hit the ground head-first, the impact jolting his vision into a haze of black and white spots.

"Afraid to fight back, Erith?" Cerus jeered. "Was the Mura you took in enough to sustain you, or are you worried about nearing your limits?"

The Murasi had its back to him now, towering in the center of the field as it fended off the appearances encircling it.

Erith dragged himself upright, clutching his thigh, forcing weight onto his injured leg as he rose.

Cerus ran his hand along the smooth white sheen of a massive fragment of the ruined tower, half-buried in the dirt. His fingers drifted lazily across the surface, admiring the ancient destruction.

"The choice was yours, Erith."

He paced a few steps toward him, grass crunching below his boots.

"Instead, you have created this."

He gestured toward Amun, darting between the patches of tall grass and wreckage, toward the encampment.

"The boy and his mother could have lived," Cerus continued, his tone dipped into a mockery of disappointment. "But once I've finished with you... they will serve best as a lesson for your disobedience."

He lifted his hand.

Mura began gathering at his fingertips, coiling like black lightning.

But before Cerus could act, Erith threw himself forward.

An immensely deep thread of Mura ripped out of him, shooting wide across the field.

Cerus reacted instantly. Kaida flared from the gem underneath his robe, distorting the air in front of him, but the Mura did not connect with Cerus—it drilled into the tower fragment beside him. The long, dark line sank straight into the stone's core until the stone swallowed it entirely.

Then the fractures emerged. Cracks raced across the entire surface, followed by a howling eruption.

The enormous fragment exploded outward.

Hunks of stone—huge, jagged— hurtled toward Cerus. He barely had time to crouch, weaving Mura and Kaida around him in a defensive shell.

The largest chunks slammed past him, ripping gashes into the earth, but the barrier was too much to sustain for more than a fleeting few seconds. Smaller fragments peppered him, slicing through exposed skin, driving him backward into the ground.

Erith stormed toward him, the pain in his thigh dulled beneath the blind rage roaring through his veins.

Cerus lay half-sprawled in the dirt, bracing a hand against the ground as he tried to rise from the wake of the blast—but Erith was already over him, shadow cast across his crumpled form.

He raised his head, meeting the wrath carved across Erith's face.

In Erith's clenched fist, a blade of brilliantly deep Mura ignited into form, and he dropped to one knee before Cerus.

His hand trembled.

He leaned in closer—

—and was met with a force that slammed into him.

It lifted him clean off the ground, flinging him backward as though he had struck an invisible wall. The force stole the breath from his lungs.

He sailed through the field and crashed hard, rolling across dirt and stone before skidding to a stop.

He pressed a hand to the ground and dragged his head upright.

Blood poured from his nose, dripping into a pool that soaked into the dirt beneath him.

Behind Cerus's body stood Maeric, hand outstretched.

He was pale. Horrified at what he had done.

"You..." Maeric choked, voice quivering.

"You are not a killer, Erith."

Erith closed his eyes and spat blood.

A broken, exhausted laugh slipped through him.

"And what are you, Maeric?"

Shouts from the apprentices and the thunderous stomps of the Murasi echoed through the field as its claws sheared through trenches of earth.

"I'm trying to help..." Maeric stammered, the words barely holding shape. "To help this world... to help us."

"No." Erith coughed, breath hitching. "Don't say us."

He let his head fall back against the ground, the cold pool of blood smearing against his cheek.

Hooves clattered in the distance.

The world narrowed...

Shouting, stomping, the distant rush of riders...

And then silence creeping over the edges of his mind.

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