The Old Chief's limbs moved almost invisibly, parrying the unseen attacks from The Shade. The Four Pups dashed like winds, circling the red-black veiled shadow that was wreaking havoc right in front of them.
Wanwan moved all his limbs as fast as he could, but he was still a long way from reaching Sol. His heart burned. His breath was labored.
Inside his mind, there was nothing else he could do. If his and his siblings' best were not enough to stop Sol from succumbing to his hunger, then what could he do?
He could only hope that his howl at the start of this fight had reached its intended recipient.
—
"Hm!" The Old Chief ducked a slash from The Shade's claw and, swiftly, using his left leg, redirected the attack before it reached Nia. The impact burned the entire house down and carved a thin slice mark upon the face of the mountain, burning with black flames.
Not done, The Old Chief's right hand parried six quick attacks while his left did his best to keep Nia behind his body.
The Shade's structure mutated wildly now, with long, dark, shadowy tendrils that fought on their own against the Four Pups.
Skafl bit one of the tendrils and pulled hard, while Hrida dashed and cut the tendril from Sol's body. It regrew without delay. Both garms' mouths were burned by the heat, but they didn't care.
Drifa and Fonn were busy with three other tendrils on the side. The speed of the tendrils caught Drifa unaware and smacked her hard to the ground.
"I need to do something!" Both of Nia's hands were closed near her chest. She still had options, but she knew that if she did anything other than a restoration spell, she might lose consciousness, or worse. "Anything!"
A great amount of light started to shine from her clasped hands. If she was going down, then she would go down doing what she could do best. Supporting everybody who shed their blood to protect her.
The Shade looked at her with its two golden, beady eyes. It realized something. Perhaps it was using Sol's memories to remember what Nia did inside the Csezul's nest, or perhaps it was its own instincts telling it to shift its attention to the healer on the back line, preparing something undeniably massive. It opened its shadowy, sharp-fanged mouth and screamed.
Every single one of the pups was knocked far back by the force of the burning scream. The Old Chief instinctively jumped to Nia's position, turned his right ear towards The Shade's scream, and covered it forcefully with his right hand, while his left closed both of Nia's ears as she condensed the light in both of her palms.
They got knocked back, but the effect wasn't as dire as what was now being felt by the pups. The impact incapacitated Hrida and Fonn. While Skafl and Drifa were still conscious, they weren't able to rejoin the battle. The extent of the damage they accrued was too big to be ignored.
Wanwan's speed increased. There was nothing that could be seen from him except a white-bluish blur, streaking towards The Shade's position. Luckily, he was just outside of the scream's range, so the intensity of the voice and the impact of the shockwave were diminished heavily.
He blinked. There was no longer a trace of Sol inside The Shade's shape. It was just a wild shadow, wreaking havoc with its four limbs and the many tendrils from its back. Destroying the house. Destroying the face of the mountain. Even the heavy snowstorm that was falling could no longer be seen in the presence of The Shade's invisible heat.
He reached The Shade right after its scream was resolved. With one big bite, Wanwan chomped on The Shade's nape and attempted to throw it away from The Old Chief and Nia.
It didn't react at first. The scream forced it to recover for a bit before continuing its rampage. The throw sent it hurling towards the face of the mountain, but not without consequence. Two out of the twelve tendrils on its back snapped towards Wanwan's position, as if they had their own awareness and consciousness, and tied themselves around Wanwan's right foreleg and right hindleg. The momentum of the throw brought Wanwan together with it.
Both of them crashed on the face of the mountain, shaking the massive stone platform above them, threatening to shower both of them down with the contained landslide from before. Wanwan bared his teeth. The Shade looked at him with its two golden, beady eyes, then shifted its attention towards Nia's position.
The light was condensed successfully. Nia might be able to cast one thing, but what that thing was going to be, she would have to decide. Before that could happen, however, she would have to invoke the memory from within.
"Memoria!" Another Act of Remembrance. She opened both of her hands and let the light shower everything around her. The light took the shape of the book, Lumen Octavum - de Conjuratione Clara, but it stopped in the middle of forming. The Shade was already right next to her, its maw open wide. Nia's eyes moved towards her left. She saw it, yet she couldn't do anything. The Shade was too fast.
A massive right straight fist hit The Shade in its left temple, hurling it down towards the forest far behind the house.
"Work your light, little one." The Old Chief said calmly, before leaping towards The Shade's position and starting to parry the attacks of the tendrils. "Let your elder give you time."
Nia nodded affirmatively.
"Is this... a curse? No, perhaps a condition? What is this? Should I just heal everyone with a Pulse of Life?" She tried to wring all the knowledge that she had in that one opening that The Old Chief gave her. If she wanted to make sure everybody lived through this, she had to choose. "I may never read about this before, but I still have to try!"
"If I healed everybody, I don't know what would happen to Sol. I don't know whether I could take another Pulse of Life." She blinked, sweat beading on her forehead. Her eyes lost focus for a moment. The movements from both The Shade and The Old Chief were too fast for her to follow. "I can use Purificatia, but if it's not a curse..."
Hundreds of trees were destroyed. Both The Old Chief and The Shade tore through the forest left and right with each swing. The Old Chief might have seemed like he was able to contain The Shade for now, but he was losing momentum.
Wanwan passed Nia's position, and dashed to join the battle. Nia's focus was still inside the Act of Remembrance.
"Remedia?" The book made from light stayed right in front of Nia's position. Both her hands still hadn't moved. Her left hand was still at the spine of the book, her right hand was still at the top, waiting for the page it had to open. "I... I don't know!"
A great explosion from the forest sent The Old Chief and Wanwan hurling. The Shade streaked towards her position.
"Choose, Nia! Choose!" She closed her eyes. Her right thumb and middle finger closed together. The book opened and flipped its light pages wildly before almost stopping at the page of Pulsus Vitae. "Choose!"
The Shade was already upon her. Two golden, beady eyes shone right above her. Its right claw was opened wide behind its torso. The twelve tendrils were spread open like skeletal wings, ready to tear her apart.
She opened her eyes and looked at The Shade in the eye. The claw was already moving towards her. If it hit her, she would be gone entirely. Time slowed between both of them.
"..." Nia blinked. "Sol..."
The pages stopped at one spell. She took it out using her right hand. Her right palm opened, spreading the runes all around her body.
"...I'm sorry, please hold on just a little longer!" The runes were traced instantly. She needed something fast, even faster than Pulse of Life.
Her emerald eyes shone with the black luster of The Shade. She knew what she was going to cast. Her mouth opened with the words for the spell.
"Lumen!" In an instant, the runes that circled her shifted behind The Shade's position, spreading open like a cage. "Limita!" The lightrunes shone, and traced light, weaving multiple thread-like lines within each other's presence. Vertical, horizontal, diagonal. Creating an impenetrable, multi-layered lattice.
The light stream caught The Shade's hands, feet, and the tendrils. Just like that, they were cuffed by light from the runes that shone from all around it. They lost their momentum.
Lightstream Chains, a spell that was devised by the Daughters of the Eighth Light in order to safely apprehend the savage monsters that emerged from the afflicted humans after the Final Conflict in Nia's world. A tool for survival, created with hope that a cure would still be found, a way to remove the affliction from the surviving humans. It was able to hold the full charging strength of a Meinos, as Nia had witnessed before when the Mother Archivist saved her and her sisters from the rampaging bull.
"Lumina Claustra!" The light shone brighter. The book started to dissipate from Nia's view. She only had a limited amount of time, and she wasn't sure whether Lightstream Chains would be able to hold The Shade for long. She blinked, and moved her eyes towards The Old Chief and Wanwan, who were moving as fast as they could towards her position.
"Will it hold?" The light started to crack, bit by bit. The Shade was a bit too powerful for Lightstream Chains. "Please! Hold!"
"Please!" She closed her eyes. Blood started to drip from her nose. "Sol!!"
The lightstream from the runes broke like glass. The cage came undone. The shock of losing the spell's concentration threw Nia back some dozen meters. Blood dripped heavily from her nose.
The Shade landed right in its previous position. Seemingly unhurt. Unfazed. Its eyes still locked on its prey.
"Little one!! Step away!!" The Old Chief was still too far. Even with his speed, he wouldn't be able to get there in time to save her.
"WAN!!" Wanwan did his best to get closer. Even if he could be faster than The Old Chief, he still wasn't fast enough.
Skafl and Drifa whimpered, not able to do anything with their condition. They could only watch while The Shade closed on Nia. The other two pups were already passed out from the pain.
Nia looked up. The Shade disappeared, and suddenly, two beady eyes were already upon her, right in front of her face. The heat from the darkness pained her whole presence. Slowly, but surely, the maw opened right in front of her, opening a gateway towards an infinite abyss.
She closed her eyes.
The bite never came.
A sudden breeze of cold swept in, something that should have been blocked by her grace as a priestess. In fact, she should not have been able to feel anything at all. The Lightveil's powers protected her from any extreme change in temperature. Yet she could feel the heat from Sol's shade, and now that heat was gone. It was replaced by a terrible cold.
She opened her eyes.
A white wolf, thrice the size of Wanwan, was standing between her and The Shade.
Snow-white long fur billowed in the harsh winds of the blizzard. The bluish aura it emitted from its chest, joints, and tail flared like blue, cold, bright flames. Its eyes, locked on The Shade, were beautiful. A lighthouse in the middle of the darkness. Two pieces of light-blue sapphire, reflecting the nonexistent light inside the storm.
"BARK!! BARK!!" Wanwan barked, excited. He could not believe what he was seeing. It was his mother, answering his call.
Skafl and Drifa lifted their heads weakly, and tried to push themselves up to see.
The Shade moved back instinctively.
Ephemeral, like a flame, Wanwan's mother was already behind him, standing, waiting. Nia saw nothing from her movement except for a trail of beautiful bluish purple aurora. Crystalline fractures of ice formed in the air, then shattered instantly, reflecting and refracting light. Like a carpet of stars beneath the mesmerizing glow of the northern night sky.
The Shade didn't even have the chance to react. Wanwan's mother stood in silence, still right behind him, observing.
Their eyes met.
Wanwan's mother slowly lowered her head close to The Shade's head, until their eyes were level.
The Shade opened its mouth, but the cold prevented its scream from coming out. It thrashed around. The tendrils tried to move, but the freezing cold held them still. It tried to move away from Wanwan's mother, but it couldn't. Not even the heat from its shadow was able to warm this cold.
The snowstorm around them condensed, and concentrated around The Shade, circling, imprisoning it.
The Snow White Garm just stayed there, watching as The Shade slowly, surely, curled into a fetal position and froze itself close to the ground, encased in beautiful pure white ice.
The Snow White Garm walked closer towards the prison that kept condensing itself inwards, but her advance was interrupted by a sudden movement.
Nia walked forward, still hurt and tired from the amount of restorations and spells she had cast. Her head was light from the blood she had lost. She stopped right between the Snow White Garm and The Shade's curled, frozen body, and opened her arms wide.
"Please..." Nia beseeched her savior, protecting what seemed to be a curled-up ball of shadow, encased in frozen crystal. "...There's no need to hurt him further."
Wanwan's mother looked at her, and lowered her head, sniffing her. She gestured towards The Shade's curled, frozen body, and licked Nia's arm.
"Ow." Nia winced, but she smiled, understanding what Wanwan's mother meant. She wanted Nia to save the small shadow. "Your tongue is as rough as Wanwan's, hehe."
Wanwan stopped his dash. The Old Chief stopped right behind him.
"It appears that the fight is over." He patted Wanwan's head softly. "You and your siblings did well, pup."
"Wan!" Wanwan smiled brightly, tongue fully lolled out.
Nia walked slowly towards The Shade's position. It was curled, weakly, pathetically, as if it was afraid of something, perhaps the cold, perhaps solitude. Like a frozen egg made of Eternal Ice, it stayed where it was. Nia crouched right in front of it, and hugged him tight.
Like a light shining from behind a darkened cloud, the frozen egg encasing the shadow cracked. From within, no longer being enveloped by burning shadows, Sol emerged. Some clumps of his hair had lost their color, shimmering with a silvery luster instead, perhaps as a side effect of the transformation. His horn had grown a tiny bit longer.
The boy opened his eyes weakly.