Damien yawned as he guided the platform through the predawn sky. The three of them had been up half the night decoding all the messages they’d found, and when they finished they ended up with seven unique locations.

Considering how many scraps of paper there’d been in the second pouch he considered them lucky to only have seven to scout. If every piece had led to a different location it would have taken the rest of the summer to check them all out. As it was they should be able to roll them up in half a week, assuming no major resistance.

After four hours’ sleep they’d headed out to the nearest meeting place, a circle of standing stones three hundred miles north of the village. The stones appeared plunked down in a random clearing in the forest, even further into the wilderness than the druid village he and Jen had visited. If they found a single cultist there Damien would be shocked.

“Talk about the middle of nowhere.” Jen leaned over the rail and looked down at the passing trees. “Who in their right mind would have a gathering out here?”

“We’re hunting a cult that worships demons and wants to bring about the end of the world. I’m not sure ‘in their right mind’ would describe any of them.” Damien kept a watchful eye on the thick trees below. They were getting close to the location described in the ledger. A circle of standing stones wouldn’t be easy to spot in all this wilderness.

Marie-Bell brought her white horse up alongside him. She pointed with her hammer to a spot about a mile ahead. “Do you feel it?”

Damien had been focusing so hard on what he saw that he’d let his sorcerous senses lapse. When he concentrated the queasy feeling of corruption washed over him. “I do now, that must be our target.”

“I’ll go in first.” Marie-Bell’s mount raced ahead of them.

“Wait!”

Too late. She streaked like a pale comet to the source of corruption. Damien accelerated the platform to try and keep up. From this distance he couldn't tell if there was an active source of corruption like a demon or if it was something old like a former ritual site. Whatever waited down there he didn’t want the paladin to face it alone. He also didn’t want her to destroy anything that might give them a clue about what they were dealing with.

“It’s no wonder the other paladins let her go off on her own,” Jen said. “She has no sense of tactics or teamwork.”

Damien grinned. “She should have been a sorcerer. Marie-Bell would fit right in at The Tower.”

An explosion shook the air. Both the corruption and Marie-Bell’s holy aura had ramped up by three or four times. Whatever she’d found down there, it wasn’t an old ritual site.

A stream of hellfire shot past the platform, missing them by a foot. Damien swerved to avoid the next blast. He raced toward the ground. Two black shapes like ravens the size of horses rushed to meet them.

“I’ll help Marie-Bell.” Jen leapt over the rail and plummeted the remaining fifty feet to the ground.

Damien shook his head and let the platform vanish. That short a fall wouldn’t bother Jen, he just wished he knew what she faced.

He drew Lizzy from the sheath on his back. This would be the first time they’d fought a proper battle together and he was anxious to see what they could do.

The giant bird demons breathed hellfire at him. He dodged the clumsy attack and surrounded Lizzy with a chunk of his soul force. Her power merged with his as she read his mind and learned what he had planned.

He swung her at the nearest demon. A curved blast of gold and gray soul force swept out, annihilating the demon in an instant. The attack continued on, hammering into the ground, scattering trees, and blowing a thirty-foot crater in the ground.

Damien winced. Looked like he still needed practice modulating their combined power.

Hellfire shattered against a gray barrier.

Focus on the battle. There’s still one left.

Right. Damien orientated on the monster diving toward him, curved black talons extended. Lizzy’s blade burned with gray fire. This time Damien added just enough of his own soul force to give it the shape he wanted.

He slashed and a serpent of gray fire struck at the demon, crushing and rending it in a fang-filled maw. The demon vanished.

With the skies clear Damien turned his attention to the ground. He still sensed corruption, weaker now, but still active.

Damien drifted in the sky above the battle. How best to help? With Jen and Marie-Bell down there any sort of heavy attack would blow them away as well. Maybe if he used Lizzy the same way Dad did, as a sword…

You’re not a warlord, Damien. Fighting like your father will only get you killed.

“Not just like Dad. If I pierce the demon then release external soul force I can blow it to pieces with minimal overflow.”

Damien dove toward the battle. “Until we improve at combining our power and controlling the results I think it’s the safest course.”

The serpent you made worked pretty well.

“Yes, constructs are an excellent way to use our power. When I was first learning to use soul force Ann suggested I focus on creating constructs to use in battle.”

Twenty feet from the ground Damien spotted Jen and Marie-Bell battling a dwarf with a beard made of black quills, wearing black armor similar to Mikhail’s and carrying a red ax that pulsed with corrupt energy. Damien was probably the only one that saw the swirling tendrils of energy running from the dwarf to the standing stones surrounding it.

The dwarf staggered and dents appeared in its armor as if from no where. The women moved so fast Damien could only make out hints of their positions. The dwarf swung, hitting nothing. It appeared the creature couldn’t keep up with Jen and Marie-Bell’s speed, but by the same token as far as Damien could see they hadn’t accomplished anything beyond denting its armor.

Damien turned his attention to the standing stones. Deeply incised runes covered them from top to bottom. He didn’t know if he could read them, but he also didn’t want to destroy them before he tried.

“New plan. We’re going to encase the stones in a barrier. That should cut off the dwarf’s energy source. We also won’t risk hurting Jen with an attack.”

Damien leveled Lizzy at the megaliths and an instant later a shifting, gray and gold shield appeared around them. All the tendrils of corrupt energy vanished.

The next crash revealed Jen’s sword piercing through the dwarf’s chest followed an instant later by Marie-Bell crushing its head with her glowing hammer.

Jen looked up and Damien waved. He landed between the girls a few feet from the dwarf. “I’d best deal with the body before I release the barrier. I’d hate to have that thing come back to life.”

Jen nodded, but Marie-Bell said, “Can I do it? I’ve been wanting to try a purification technique, but haven’t had a chance.”

Damien waved at the corpse. “Be my guest.”

She smiled and did a little dance that brought a corresponding smile to Damien’s face. He loved how excited she got. When he’d first discovered his powers, after the initial nerves wore off, Damien had felt the same sense of excitement. He still felt the excitement, but a constant fear of what might happen if he lost his concentration mixed with it.

Damien and Jen moved a few steps away when Marie-Bell raised her hammer. The glow surrounding the head grew until the light devoured her figure. When the light became so bright he had to squint a resounding crash sounded.

The light vanished along with the dwarf and all its gear. Not bad and it spared Damien from having to use any more of his power.

“Good job,” Damien said.

She beamed. “Thanks. It’s a hard thing to use in battle as it takes a while to build up the energy.”

With no vessel remaining to receive their corrupt energy Damien lowered the barrier around the standing stones. Dark power swirled around them, making Damien a little sick, but nothing worse.

Marie-Bell made gagging noises and ran for the bushes outside the circle. When she’d collected herself she said, “I can’t stay in there. The darkness is too thick.”

“That’s fine. I just want to see if I can decipher any of these runes then we’ll get out of here.”

The paladin conjured her mount and galloped into the air away from the sickening corruption. Beside him Jen muttered, “It doesn’t seem that bad to me.”

Damien traced a rune that resembled a twisted vine. “As a paladin she’s probably more sensitive to corruption than we are. It makes her a good hunter, but if she can’t learn to block it out she may get into trouble one day. Lizzy, do you recognize any of these runes?”

Some of them are the personal sigils of various demon lords. The majority appear to be crude pictographs used by savage tribes. The rest I’ve never seen before.

Damien grimaced. This site could be a valuable resource to The Tower’s scholars. It also seethed with demonic energy. If anything with ill intentions wandered in now that they’d destroyed the circle’s guardian they might end up having to eliminate another monster before they could study the markings. Should he level the place or leave it for now?

Even if another guardian should be born, it will be bound to the circle just like the first one. The risk to the area is minimal.

“Good point. We’ll leave it for now.” Damien turned to his sister. “Ready?”

She nodded. “We’ve wasted enough time here.”