Considering Shannon had just succeeded in manifesting her tenth tail, drawing so heavily on her domain's power was beginning to wear on her.
When she looked up at the array, now fully formed above her, she couldn't bring herself to stop. Unwilling to let it end there, she turned toward Benjamin beside her.
"Help me, Ben."
The moment their eyes met, Benjamin understood her. With a flash of golden light, he appeared behind her.
Then, reaching forward, he mirrored her mudras with one hand, pressing gently against the back of her own.
As the twin spells lit up in golden light and fused into one, the massive array above the domain blazed brilliantly to life. The radiant gold spread outward, flooding the entire domain in golden light.
Even the black demonic souls, born of concentrated malice, seemed to be cast in a golden sheen.
Witnessing the scene unfold, Vlad turned another shade paler. Just as he was about to act, the massive array overhead had fully activated.
With the last of her supernatural power, Shannon formed a single word of command. "Refine!"
The word echoed like a divine decree.
At once, the array erupted in blinding supernatural light, a blend of gold and foxfire. In an instant, it began drawing in every trace of malice released by the demonic souls.
Before their eyes, waves of black malice began to weaken visibly. Even the black demonic souls below, now exposed to the array's power, were pulled into the formation.
In the blink of an eye, the once-overwhelming tide of demonic souls had been cut down by more than half.
Just when everyone thought Shannon's array was merely meant to absorb the malice and convert it into swamp terrain, it became clear that she wasn't finished yet.
As most of the scattered malice was drawn in, she swiftly changed her mudra again. Above her, the sigil within the array began to shift and rotate in sync with her movements.
Then, countless tongues of heavenly fire burst forth from the black hole, like a grand, golden meteor shower, each streak trailing blazing golden flame, as they descended in a sweeping cascade toward Vlad's position.
The meteorfire rained down, striking the black demonic souls encircling Vlad. At the moment of impact, each soul seemed to rupture with a gaping hole torn through their essence.
Golden light, laced with phoenix flame, seared through those openings, but the fire didn't stop. Instead, they continued to burn, eating away at the souls and expanding the damage with each passing second.
As the outer ring of demonic souls was shattered one by one, those in the inner circle let out a sudden, guttural howl. In response, layers of black barriers surged upward with a roar, desperate to resist the heavenly fire.
However, the meteorfire collided with the shields, triggering explosion after explosion across the domain.
Everyone watched in stunned silence at the might of Shannon's devastating attack, while only Louise kept her eyes fixed on the meteorfire raining from the black hole in the sky.
Somehow, she found the scene before her rather… familiar.
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