From the heart of the lingering smoke, lightning laced with violet and gold tore through the dust- and the cult leader emerged.
Walking slowly through the thinning smoke, past fallen bodies and shattered ground, until she came upon the two remaining cultists- wounded and trembling.
She stopped before them, her gaze burning into their skulls.
"What happened here?" she said coldly, her voice like cracking ice laced with venom.
The first cultist staggered forward, bowing his head in shame as blood trailed down his hand.
"We… didn't expect it," he spoke, his voice undertone with disbelief, "That creature- the hyena- it deciphered the runes mid-battle. It found a way to manually detonate the runes on us…"
He looked up, eyes haunted, "He turned our sacrifice into a weapon."
Hearing that, the leader's jaw clenched as she processed their words, disbelief and fury twisting across her face. Her eyes narrowed into slits as she turned her head towards Ash.
