Chapter 379: Promise
Neither Luke nor the demons under his command had a chance to react to my spell., soulcast as it was. By the time they knew I’d even cast it, his soul was wrapped in the threads of my mana. He stumbled back and clutched his head with a single hand as his eyes turned gold and dozens of stars began drifting through his pupils.
"Damn it, filthblood!" Gayron shouted, raising his hand and charging another technique. "You dare launch an underhanded strike at a time like this?"
This time, he seemed intent on directly killing us, using a sixth-circle magical technique to bypass my resistance. Korra leaped in front of me, channeling one of her defensive magic arts to soak the attack, but the world slowed before the attack left his hand.
My soul shuddered at the sudden agony of supporting the full strength of the Oracle of Eternity, but I endured it as the stars of fate winked into sight around us. The entire world was still, the screams and explosions of the war lost in the timelessness of fate. Only myself, Fable, and Luke existed in this world of our own.
The black-haired demonkin stared around in wonder, not at all concerned for his forces frozen all around him. I suffered in silence for a few seconds, letting him adjust to the timeless state, before a stab of pain caused me to stumble to Fable’s side. Luke looked over as I coughed up a mouthful of blood, his brow creasing in concern.
"Xiviyah, are you...?" His tail swayed with worry as he came toward us, stopping only as Fable curled his lips in a growl.
"I’m fine," I managed, wiping a line of blood from the corner of my mouth. "I can handle this much, for a little at least."
He hesitated, his tail twitching back and forth, and I smiled faintly despite my pain. His tail only seemed to show his true feelings when speaking about the gods or where I was concerned, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was the only thing he felt strongly enough about to express. My own tail was a thousand times more willful than his though, and he at least seemed to have a level of control over his emotions. Were we in a different place, and had a different relationship, I might have been tempted to ask for advice.
But there wasn’t time for that, and I couldn’t waste the precious seconds we had alone on such frivolous thoughts. I had to show him who I really was, that he could afford to let us go.