Emi's blinding light burst like a miniature supernova. The cultists recoiled blindly, screaming, their weapons wavering.
"Kill the intruder!" roared one, his voice distorted by the mask.
"Intruder? How rude!" Emi retorted, and in her hand a spear of solid, vibrant, hot light was born. She smiled. "I'm the heroine."
From the shadows, Alex had already acted. He extended his will like an invisible thread. He activated his ability. It wasn't an explosion, but a constant optimization. The subtle flow of energy was channeled to Emi, honing her reflexes, sharpening her senses, making every muscle respond with perfect efficiency. It was like sharpening an already legendary blade.
Emi moved. It wasn't raw speed; it was lethal precision turned into dance. She dodged a dagger, deflected a club with the shaft of her spear, and with fluid, circular motions, disarmed three attackers in less than three seconds. The cultists fell, dazed but alive.
Then, the largest of them advanced. In his hands he held a black sword that seemed to drink the light from the torches. He charged with a bestial growl.
CLANG!
The light spear intercepted the dark blade. The clash released a wave of force that lifted dust from the floor, a whirlwind of golden and black particles.
"Ooh! This one's got some skill!" Emi exclaimed, forced to give a step, her smile now more focused than playful.
"Focus, Emi," Alex's voice reached her ears, clear and calming despite the distance.
While she held back the giant, two other cultists tried to flank her. Alex, with a mental sigh, abandoned his cover. He wasn't a gleaming warrior, but he was efficient. A dagger appeared in his hand, not by flashy magic, but by pure practicality.
He slid like a shadow. A precise strike to the wrist, a low kick to the back of the knee. Two cultists fell without even seeing him coming, their weapons clattering against the stone.
"Alex, behind you!"
Emi's warning came an instant too late. A cultist, his eyes bloodshot with rage, had launched an orb of dark energy that hissed directly toward Alex's back.
Alex spun. There was no time to think. Instinct.
He raised his hand, not to attack, but to protect. And to his astonishment, a translucent shield, the color of dawn light, materialized before him.
BOOM!
The dark orb crashed against the barrier and disintegrated into black sparks. The shield flickered and vanished.
"What... was that?" Alex murmured, looking at his palm.
"Are you awakening your own magic?! THAT'S AMAZING!" Emi yelled from across the room, dodging another blow from the black sword.
"Not the time, Emi!" he grunted, but a spark of wonder burned in his chest.
That's when Emi ended the dance. With a final, devastating movement, she drove the light spear into the cultist leader's chest. The man fell to his knees.
A heavy silence fell over the cave. The remaining cultists retreated, trembling.
And then, the defeated body of the leader began to laugh.
It was a deep, guttural laugh that didn't come from a human lung. A laugh that froze the blood.
"You thought... it would be that easy?" The voice was now the grinding of rocks.
His body convulsed. His skin darkened and cracked, revealing scales black as obsidian. Bones grew with horrifying crunches, his stature shot up over five meters. Two twisted horns emerged from his forehead, and tattered, membranous wings unfurled from his back, casting a monstrous shadow over the entire altar.
A demon.
"Well, now!" Emi exclaimed, adjusting her grip on her spear, her tone now completely serious. "That's a radical makeover!"
"That... complicates things," murmured Alex, looking up, his mind already calculating angles, weaknesses, energy flows.
The demon roared. The sound was a physical wave of force that shook the cave, raining stones from the ceiling. It raised a massive claw and hurled a vortex of corrupt energy toward them.
Emi leapt in an impossible arc, propelled by Alex's constant enhancement. He, for his part, ducked and summoned another shield, larger this time, to deflect the debris.
"It can't escape!" Alex shouted over the din.
"I don't plan on letting it!" Emi was already counterattacking, a rain of concentrated light darts that impacted the demon's scaly torso, forcing it back.
Enraged, the demon opened its maw. In its throat, a black fire gathered, glowing with an infernal light.
"Emi, NOW!"
She didn't need more. She pushed off a wall, spun in the air over the jet of black flames that scorched the stone where she'd been a second before, and drove her spear into the demon's shoulder.
The creature howled in pain, but didn't fall. It tore out the spear and shattered it into shards of light.
"Alex!" Emi yelled, landing roughly. "Everything! Give me everything!"
Alex didn't think. He closed his eyes and broke his own limits. He stopped being a subtle channel and became an open floodgate. All the energy he could gather, all his support power, flowed toward Emi in a brutal, golden stream.
A solar aura exploded around Emi. Her spear, instantly remade, was no longer just light. It was a fragment of a star in her hands, so bright it hurt to look at.
"THIS IS THE END!!" Emi's cry was pure defiance.
She charged. The demon, blinded, tried to crush her. She slipped between its claws, an unstoppable golden flash.
And with one final, clean, perfect blow, she drove the spear into the center of the demon's chest, right where a heart of shadow pulsed.
For a second, there was silence.
Then, explosion.
An expanding wave of pure light filled the cavern, sweeping away the darkness, dissolving the corrupt symbols, purging the air. The demon's body disintegrated from within, turning into a whirl of black dust that dissipated forever.
When the light faded, Emi was standing in the center, breathing heavily, her figure outlined against the rising smoke. Her spear vanished.
Alex slumped against a rock, exhaustion hitting him like a hammer. He had channeled more power than he thought he had.
"Well, now..." said Emi, walking toward him, her voice hoarse but satisfied. "That was one intense training session."
"Next time..." Alex panted, trying to catch his breath. "...next adventure, I get to choose."
Emi laughed, a clear sound that cut through the heaviness of the place. She sat down beside him.
"I told you. We're a good team."
Alex looked at the demonic dust still floating in the air, then at his own hands, where minutes before he had conjured a shield of his own light. Something had changed. Something had awakened.
"Yeah," he finally admitted, a small, genuine hint of a smile touching his lips. "I guess we are."
But as his smile faded, his eyes settled on the altar. The red glow had gone out... but the black stone now had a deep crack. And from that crack, a faint purple vapor was escaping, snaking toward the floor before disappearing.
Neither of them saw it
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Thanks for reading
The next CHAPTER: Rescue at Shadow River