Chapter 114

My spells slammed into her in a relentless barrage - breaking her rhythm, tearing apart her defenses, driving her back step by step.

Then Mirri joined in. Chunks of stone the size of Volkswagens ripped free from the ground and crashed into her, each impact shaking the air like thunder. The goddess staggered under the ****.

A heartbeat later, silver dragonfire swallowed her whole. Serah came down beside me in a rush of wind and heat, huge and majestic, her wings flaring wide as her flames poured over the parchment woman. The fire burned clean and bright, clinging to her like judgment made manifest.

The goddess threw up her hands, her Faith surging outward in a violent pulse that shoved everything back - stone shattered, flame peeled away, the air itself buckling under the ****.

Ashlara vaulted the wall in a single motion, axe already raised, and buried it deep into the goddess’s back before kicking off and clearing the blast radius.

“You will not defeat me!” the parchment woman shrieked, her voice splitting and overlapping with itself. “I am unstoppable! I am the goddess of everything!”

A blur of pink motion cut her off.

Then another.

And another.

The ferals hit her in rapid succession.

They dragged her down in a frenzy of claws and teeth, a writhing storm of bodies that tore at her, shook her, yanked her like starving wolves fighting over the same scrap. They didn’t give her space to think, to act - only pain and motion and relentless, instinctive ****.

Her screams echoed off the walls, raw and animal.

“Enough.” My voice cut through it all. Not loud, but absolute.

The ferals froze instantly. They released her, stepping back in unison, crouched low, ready to spring again at the slightest command.

What lay on the ground between them barely looked like a person anymore.

“It’s over,” I said.

She laughed - or tried to. “No… it’s not.”

Chains exploded up from the earth. They speared through her limbs, wrapped her torso, locked her in place. A slab of metal snapped over her mouth, sealing it shut before she could finish whatever she was trying to say.

I poured everything I had into it. Every scrap of mana I could reach. Every thread my dying Faith left behind.

Mana circuits fell into place. The construct came together in perfect layers of binding, reinforcement, and suppression - weaving into something solid, immovable. It locked down around her, humming with power, holding fast.

Mirri stepped closer, breathing hard. “Wait… we’re not killing her?”

“No,” I said. The word cost me more than it should have. I coughed.

“We can’t just release that much uncontrolled Faith into the world. It would tear things apart worse than this.” I swallowed, forcing the words out. “We bury her. Seal her away until we figure out how to give back what she stole.”

Ashlara wiped blood from her cheek, her eyes still fixed on the bound goddess. “Who even is she?”

“I don’t know.” My voice felt distant, like it was coming from somewhere else. “And it doesn’t matter.”

I looked down at her - at the writhing, bound thing that had nearly ended everything. “No one will remember her. No one will even know she was a threat. She’ll fade into nothing if I had anything to say about it.”

My arm was gone. The burning of my Faith consuming everything I was. I hadn’t really noticed when it happened, but now there was nothing left past my shoulder. My Faith flickered, guttered like a candle in a storm.

Then it started to go out.

I dropped to my knees. The world tilted. Edges blurred. Sound dulled, like I was sinking underwater.

Mirri caught me before I hit the ground.

“Seth - hey - stay with me!” Her voice was sharp, frantic. “Ashie! Lay him down! We gotta stop this burning!”

The ground rushed up to meet me anyway. Cold stone. Distant voices. Hands on me. Everything dimmed. And then there was nothing.