"Run."

The single word from Catherine's mouth hangs in the air, the force of it staggering the surrounding humans. The horrible cries of the monster have grown so deafeningly loud in just the last few moments, and yet the power of her voice drowns it out entirely.

Catherine stands tall, but it's clearly not her. Not like it was before. Her blue eyes are wide, glowing impossibly bright. Every gaze is drawn automatically to her chest. There, it's visible. The brilliant green curves of a beautiful, leafy tree, branded on her soul.

The Tree Mark.

It's perfectly visible, radiating out from the skin of Catherine's entire torso. Even with her armor on. It doesn't make a single bit of sense, but no one can even think to question it, because when her lips part for the second time, the full weight of Hurena's Authority hits the battlefield like the crash of a hammer.

"Flee."

The word is like magic. - I don't know, maybe it is magic. Every man present turns and runs. Not from the monster, but from the angel. One of Catherine's own men charges straight into the castle wall, apparently knocking enough sense into himself to actually retreat down the road afterward.

Myra, Avara, and Gram are no different. Their souls shake, suddenly trying to obey a command placed inside by someone else. They only make it a step, about to run in whatever direction will take them as far away from the angel as possible, before I can hit them with all of my will. I'm forced to frantically whip their mana wells about, scrambling their entire consciousness for a few moments just to clear away the impossible command, so they can think again.

Shaking themselves, the magical creatures all turn back to meet the gaze of the angel. She seems confused for just a moment, before she ignores them, intent on the monster instead. After sizing it up briefly, she rushes forward, into its flailing mass of limbs. Unlike last time, her sword moves so fast we can barely see it. Flesh and stone flies in every direction until she stands before the monster's main body and brings one huge slash straight down its center.

The screaming cuts out, but it's just for an instant, before it comes back, worse. It pitches up into an ear-piercing shriek, doubling and tripling in volume. If not for the danger, it would have everyone covering their ears with their paws in an attempt to block it out. But they all know it wouldn't help at all. It's audible halfway across the city, where I'm still sitting in the garrison, the guards around me looking around in confusion and fear.

Doing her best to ignore her painfully vibrating bones, Avara dashes forward to help Catherine, the others following a step behind. The monster, nearly split in half after the glowing angel's strike, is expanding again, and the following blur of slashes from the angel have no effect. Its gooey surface is vibrating, sloshing over itself as her blade passes through repeatedly, blowing up like a bubble, about to burst.

Then Catherine thrusts a powerful hand out, as if to shove the bubbling monster. But on contact, she's the one who staggers back. She looks down at her hand, and for the first time, she visibly wavers. She looks back up when the monster reaches her size again, and the horrible, crashing-grinding death sound hits some sort of tipping point.

The danger in the air suddenly changes. All three magical creatures' instincts scream out to flee, and it takes all of our determination to continue forward. Then they see it. Right in front of their eyes, the glowing Tree Mark blazing out from the angel flares... and vanishes. The woman full-body flinches. Right in front of the monster, the strength goes out of her and she drops, armored knees hitting the stone street with a heavy clash.

Did Hurena just...?

They reach Catherine in the next moment, Myra latching onto the neck of her armor from behind and whipping her around, behind Gram and herself. They huddle close over the stunned woman, while Avara takes the front. Whatever the monster is doing, everyone knows this will be the end.

Something so dangerous that a god abandoned her angel and fled.

Staring into the rippling surface of inky black stone, the disgusting bubble bursts. Rocky sludge splatters over the ground, leaving a single crystal surface. It's right there, standing at Avara's size, just before the huddled group, but it's somehow... hard to look at. We can hardly even tell the shape of it. Between the sight and screaming danger, a memory suddenly surfaces, flashing through our minds.

It's Reena's voice, from when I told her about monsters. She said, "Be extremely wary of those evil stones. They are far more dangerous than you can possibly imagine."

Terror grips at our hearts. The stone doesn't so much move as it just... becomes closer. It takes all of our wills together to stop Avara from panicking outright, and she channels every last drop of free mana into her fur to defend. But that's not enough. She draws deep from all three of their mana wells, sucking up the mana from all of them. Her barrier begins screaming, but she doesn't care, because that's when the stone stretches out in every direction, like a huge, looming mouth. Avara stands her ground. Tells herself that she's the one who takes the hits the others can't.

And it hits.

Instead of meeting something solid, it's like she's passing through - like diving down into water. But beneath the surface, there's nothing. Just pure emptiness. But that emptiness immediately begins sucking away her... everything. Her flesh, her thoughts, her mana, her being itself. All of it dissolved away into the pure, hungry nothingness.

Avara struggles against the feeling, but nothing helps. She has a ton of mana channeled into her fur, and it stands up well, but the entire space feels like it's chomping down on the rest of her, sucking the life out of her. That same evil mana hitting her all over. She lashes out at it, but the moment she does, there's nothing. Just soul-sucking emptiness.

Avara kicks into a long, loping run, feet flying over the nonexistent ground. Whatever this space is, it must be the evil stone. She's inside it, or it's inside her, or something. It doesn't matter, we just have to find the stone and destroy it. Just like always. But how do we do that...?

Our search is no good. No matter where Avara goes, nothing changes. It's like she's running in place. Her barrier strains painfully, both against the excess mana she's still carrying, and against the constant attack from the evil mana outside. Yet no matter how many times she strikes back against it, it's like... it somehow isn't there. Like it can touch her, but she can't touch it back.

She finally stops, panting heavily. Her fur is still holding, it feels like the only thing that's staying strong. The rest of her is getting heavy and sick, her thoughts fuzzy. So she tries to reinforce herself with all the extra mana she's holding, sending it to her barrier, like a defensive layer to stand against the evil mana. It helps, providing some relief from the constant attacks.

Running with the thought, she condenses the mana together and tries striking again. She can feel all the evil mana now, flowing around her attacks, like swinging through air, or water. Soon she pulls back, to protect herself when the swirl of evil mana continues hitting her all over. It keeps chipping away at her a tiny bit at a time.

"What do I do...?" she wonders, barely holding down her fear. Nothing is working. It's like this entire space is trying to eat her whole. Is there any way to escape? Regroup with the others?-

That's when we realize we're alone. The others, their thoughts and souls always in the background of our thoughts, they're just... gone. Whatever this thing did, it's cut Avara off from everyone else. I can't even feel myself. Which is even weirder, but I have no time to think about that now.

Given the situation, we're forced to discard the idea of getting back to the others. How could she possibly get out when this emptiness stretches on forever, and she can't even seem to move? No, what she has to do is find a way to beat the evil mana.

That's when she has an idea. If it's surrounding her to try and eat her, she'll do the same. Reaching out once more, she creates a whole, wide surface of mana, connecting it into a big bubble of her own, encircling whatever evil mana is inside. She sucks it back in and squeezes for all she's worth, crushing the evil mana down into nothing.

"There! How's that?!" she calls into the void, reinforcing her defenses again when it strikes back. She throws out another big surface to enclose more, but this time, the evil mana piles inside. She draws it back, squeezing down, but it won't work. There's too much. Instead of crushing it, the evil mana is too strong, and tears through her own mana instead, and she loses a whole chunk of it at once, the mana burning up and warping into more evil mana that immediately turns around and begins attacking her too.

Growling, she's forced back on defense. When she beats the evil mana, it disappears, but when it beats her, it converts hers. Why? What's the difference between that mana and her own? Why can't it be swallowed and converted like every other type of mana? She desperately questions that, trying to find some clue how to win, but her defenses are weakening as her entire body and soul begins to give in under the weight. Avara's spirit sinks, and she wonders again, "What do I do...?"

Avara's thoughts continue to slow as her body and mind are consumed. Despite her best effort to slow it down, there's no stopping it. As everything is beginning to fall away little by little into the dark, it highlights further how her fur still glows bright and strong. Every attack directed at it bounces off. Why?

"Is there some way I can use it?" Avara thinks desperately. "Some way I can overcome this? But why my fur? What's special about that?"

That it has mana channeled into it, obviously, I respond.

Avara comes right back, shaking her head frantically. "So I, what, channel mana into... me? Mana doesn't work like that!"

But it doesn't matter, she tries it anyway. She has no other ideas after all. She just shoves all the mana she has, into everything that is her.

And... it works. Neither of us have any idea how, but the mana channels into everything she shoves it at. Every different part of her body and mind she dumps it into. It sinks inside, and all at once, she grows stronger. Brighter. The evil mana does less damage when it hits her.

She draws up even more from her well, everything she has, and dumps it into her self too. And with it, her entire being flares up, her existence itself bright and powerful, and the endless void shrinks back. Avara presses her advantage for everything it's worth, reaching out once more, striking into the dark with every last bit of mana and willpower she has left. The evil mana sears away on contact, and she rapidly shreds her way through it, a race against time, before her power and the last dregs of remaining mana run dry. The entire empty void begins rapidly shrinking. The more damage she does, the more fragile it becomes, until the endless expanse feels like nothing more than an ordinary room, the core of it all resting within arms reach beside her.

Avara has next to nothing left to give, but she gives it anyway. She smashes down on the core, crushing it into nothing.

With a boom of shattering crystal and a sudden, sucking rush of wind, the entire world returns, and we're aware of ourselves again, all of us at once. That entire thing- not even an instant passed. The evil stone touched Avara, and shattered on contact when she won the battle.

On the suddenly quiet battlefield, the dark crystal surface falls, pieces fading and winking out of existence before they even hit the ground. The road ahead, previously covered end to end in that horrible black blood, is clean. Like the others before it, the blood burned itself away with the monster gone. Unlike the others, this one didn't even leave behind mangled bodies of the things it ate.

All that's left is the damage to the surroundings. The wrecked houses, and seriously torn up castle wall. And strangely, the street directly in front of Avara. There's... it's like a perfect sphere, centered on a spot barely a meter in front of Avara, where the ground is simply gone. Like whatever that monster did when it tried to eat her, it ate the ground too. That stops directly level with Avara, where the stone shattered on contact with her.

A few long ticks pass in near-silence as Avara looks over the field. She... feels different. Whatever she did, whatever she spent all that mana on to win, she feels more powerful because of it. That strength is fading pretty quickly though. But for now, Gram and Myra actually have some trouble just looking at her. It's not like she's bright or she glows or anything, she's just... difficult to focus on for some reason.

Whatever that all was, I rapidly retrace the thoughts and feelings, so I can try it out again later. Besides being obviously useful, it gives me more to learn about. Later. When we're not all ready to collapse. And when the three of them aren't completely out of mana. Avara seriously spent everything to win that last battle. They barely have a few drops left between all three of them. It's just enough to keep them conscious, they can't even use magic like this.

Since the area seems safe for now, they all slowly turn back to Catherine as she starts to recover. She looks around in a daze, seeing the clear street, and seems relieved. But before she gets any further, her blue eyes widen, attention snapping onto herself. She drops her sword and presses her hands to her armor, up and down in a panic, before she suddenly starts struggling her way out of it. We all just watch, confused, until the magical breastplate clatters to the ground. She pulls up her undershirt, staring down at her own belly.

It's just as we thought earlier. Her mark is gone. "Why...?" she mutters, but doesn't voice anything else, before she begins... flailing around? That just leaves us all even more confused, until the oddly specific motions of her hands finally makes it click. A swearing sigil? It's not quite the same as the one I learned for Reena, involving more motions with her hands out at her sides. But otherwise, the movements all appear just as meaningless and random. "I pray to Hurena," she says to finish the sigil, hands pressing to her chest, eyes closed. So it's for praying, not making a swear? Is there even a difference?

Catherine is silent briefly, eyebrows furrowing. Hurena must be speaking to her with telepathy. Then there's a flash, and her mark reappears, bright green lines glowing out of her skin again, before they dim slightly. It is still somewhat visible, even though her shirt.

Everyone's eyes narrow at the sight of it. Hurena abandoned her angel when things got bad, then just marked her again when the danger passed? I can't not be reminded of Mister Fredricson... Reena was right, the other gods don't treat their angels very well at all... Those thoughts give way to a prickle of worry, when the huge woman opens her eyes again, piercing blue gaze focusing straight down on the group of magical creatures.

Her moment of vulnerability long gone, Catherine picks up her huge sword in one hand and stands once more. From up close, it's clear the entire weapon was carved out of bone. Maybe one huge one, or a few smaller bones put together, it's hard to tell. Despite the brutal battle, it barely shows more damage than a few chips taken out of the edge. Her grip tightens on the handle, and everyone crouches closer to the ground, in case she suddenly starts swinging again. After the tense pause, she speaks up. "Thank you for the help." That has us relax. "However." And we all go on alert again. "We can handle the rest." Oh, ok...

She gestures westward, the motion telling them to go. It doesn't exactly look like a threat, but part of me fills in the an unspoken 'go before Hurena tells me to kill you after all.' No desire to keep fighting, especially weakened as they are, they begin to do as they're told, before Myra grabs Avara and Gram from behind with her paws.

"Wait, hold on. What about Hilde?" she asks. She's clearly thinking the clearest between them, because it takes a few long moments for the other two to come to the same realization. Hilde's also injured and can't fly well right now. He could be in serious danger if anyone decides to attack him. Even without their magic, they have little to fear from ordinary humans. We can't say the same for Hilde.

Still treating the injured from the huge battle, Hilde chips in too, mentioning that he has enough mana to spare for them all, so they won't be running totally empty.

That decides it. Myra turns back to Catherine and gives a definitive shake of her head. Dumbfounded, the woman raises her sword slightly in a halfhearted warning. Myra looks her up and down warily, which gives her an idea. She ducks down and picks up the angel's discarded armor from the ground in her mouth and gives Catherine a look, the closest she can to raising an eyebrow. She doesn't need words to express the 'you really want to do this now?'

Looking down at herself, entire torso completely unarmored in front of three powerful magical creatures, Catherine knows how that would go. Especially since she doesn't know they can't use magic right now. She sighs out and lets the tip of her sword return to the ground with a dull thud. "Thought so," Myra huffs. She tosses aside the armor and walks past Catherine with the others. They trudge down the road, toward the thrown together clinic.

The trip is painfully slow. With the insane battle frenzy over, the numerous wounds all over their bodies are starting to throb horribly. The single battle has them more drained than the entire morning of fighting. Especially since they lost all their colored mana. Now they aren't even recovering from their wounds or exhaustion with ridiculous magical speed like usual. They're about as far from fighting shape as they've ever been.

While they're on their way, I explain the basics of the battle to Frank. How there was a huge monster, and that Catherine Lundrum, the castle guard, and a group of helpful magical creatures defeated it. I don't get into any more detail really, and just return to helping him organize the town's forces efficiently, while much of my attention stays fixed on the south.

Back with my friends, they pass many of the castle guards and Catherine's soldiers, running back toward where Catherine had to stop to put her armor back on. I guess now that they've recovered their senses, they're trying to help out again, even though the monster is clearly gone. Others are heading toward the clinic too, and spare a few long looks at the magical creatures. One particular man is dragging himself in the same direction as the others, his ankle visibly broken.

Since no one else has gotten to him yet, Myra takes pity on the man and helps him out. She scoops him up and throws him over her back. He barely even responds, just flopping limply across her in utter exhaustion. When they finally make it down the few long blocks to the clinic, they're about ready to fall over themselves. The few doctors present are rushing around to treat the injured, their numbers including far more than just the men from the big battle. So besides the stares, barely anyone even reacts to the magical creatures.

There are a couple guards who move in threateningly, before they realize no one else is following. They look around at all the others - everyone else clearly recognizes the magical creatures from the other clinic earlier, or from the battle. The couple guards stand awkwardly, before someone else comes by to explain things and drag them off.

Of course, Myra, Gram, and Avara barely pay any attention to that as it plays out on their way into the open plaza. They stagger over near Beth. With her help, Myra tries to shrug the man off her back as gently as possible, before the three of them shuffle over to an empty patch of ground nearby, and fall into a pile.