Damien sensed Jen’s soul force surge and a moment later the clash of weapons filled the tunnel. Damn it! She’d been discovered.

He conjured light spheres and Marie-Bell sent holy energy into her hammer’s head. The paladin accelerated to warlord speed. Damien rushed after her, drawing Lizzy as he went.

Let’s try something different. Lizzy’s power surged into his core, mingling with his soul force. Try wielding our combined power just like you would your own. Maybe it will give you better control.

Damien skidded to a stop beside Marie-Bell who from the looks of it had just smashed one of the cultists’ heads in. Jen glanced back and smiled. She always seemed happiest just before a fight.

Ahead of them three more figures in black robes blocked their path. All three had strong internal soul force.

“Some poor son of a bitch is about to be sacrificed in there,” Jen said. “Marie-Bell and I can handle these three. Get going.”

Jen vanished and one of the guards was knocked to the left. Marie-Bell did the same, knocking the center guard into the one on the right. Trusting his sister’s battle judgment, Damien flew through the gap.

He entered a cavern with an amphitheater in the floor. Robed cultists streamed toward three other tunnels like cockroaches before a torch. Damien slammed barriers into place, stopping the exodus.

Damien didn’t know how many had escaped, but no one else would be joining them. Down on the floor masked cultists reeking of corruption surrounded an altar where a naked man struggled against hellfire bonds. The four leaders argued back and forth, seeming unaware of Damien’s arrival. That confirmed to him that he wasn’t dealing with warlocks or any other creature capable of sensing soul force.

Damien shattered the prisoner’s bindings, wrapped him in a soul force bubble and sent him up near the cavern roof to keep him out of harm’s way. The leaders stared up at him. One raised a hand wreathed in hellfire.

A stream of black flames shot toward Damien. He conjured an angled shield that sent the blast safely into the cavern wall. Stone shattered and fell to the walkway.

The other leaders had drawn their weapons, two black daggers and a skull-topped iron rod. Hellfire swirled around all three items. The rod shook in the cultist’s hand.

Maybe he could end this without further loss of life. Damien amplified his voice with soul force. “Lay down your weapons and surrender. Comply now and you will not be harmed.”

As he hoped the iron rod clattered to the stone floor and the holder fell to his knees. Damien turned his gaze on the other three.

“Coward!” One of the knife bearers, a woman judging from the voice, stepped behind the leader on his knees and cut his throat.

The hellfire surrounding her weapon blazed hotter. She swung toward Damien and a torrent of black flame rushed at him. The two survivors joined their power to the woman’s, making the stream of fire a river. Damien raced toward the ceiling, swinging wide of the intended sacrifice. Chunks of stone crashed into the cultists below him.

Damien grimaced. At this rate there wouldn’t be anyone left alive to question. He couldn’t say if that’s what the leaders had in mind or if they just didn’t care who else they killed as long as they blasted Damien.

Either way he needed to end this quickly. Damien sent his own blast down at the leaders. The cultist without a weapon shifted the flow of hellfire, forming a shield around the three of them while the other two continued to try and burn Damien to a crisp.

He flew too fast and their control wasn’t sufficient for them to do anything beyond wave at him with their flames. It was a standoff and he couldn’t break it without using a lot stronger of an attack than the first one he tried.

There was nothing for it. He drew ten times the power he used the first time, shaped it into a spear, and hurled it at the cultist maintaining the shield.

The gold and gray construct pierced the barrier like it was made of paper and kept going through the cultist’s chest. The force of the attack drove the robed figure into the wall and pinned them there for an instant before Damien detonated the energy contained in the spear.

The explosion shook the cavern. The cult leaders lay in small, smoking pieces, their weapons reduced to twisted metal. The ordinary cultists that had been pounding on his barriers to try and escape all fell to their knees and raised their hands. Damien let out a sigh of relief. Only a small group of cultists had gotten crushed by falling rock. There should be plenty of survivors to interrogate. It would have been nice to capture at least one of the leaders alive, but when dealing with fanatics you couldn’t always get what you wanted.

Jen and Marie-Bell stepped out onto the walkway and Damien landed beside them. Neither of them bore any wounds.

“Are you okay?” Jen asked.

“I’m fine, but the leaders refused to surrender. I hope we can get something useful out of the regular members.”

Marie-Bell looked left and right. “There certainly are a lot of them.”

“Did you save the sacrifice?” Jen asked.

“I forgot all about him.” Damien gestured and the bubble descended from the ceiling. When it settled on the walkway beside him Damien shifted it into a simple smock to cover the naked man. He had a gaunt, almost skeletal frame and long stringy brown hair that hadn’t been washed in days if not weeks. Bruises covered the left side of his face. “Are you all right, sir?”

“Thanks to you, young man.” The prisoner’s voice sounded surprisingly strong considering the state of him. “You have my most sincere gratitude.”

“You’re welcome, sir. We’d like to discuss this matter further with you, but right now we need to get these prisoners to the city jail.”

“You didn’t mention your name,” Jen said.

“Pardon my manners. I’m Giovanni Blackman.”