[Trent]After the dim light had faded from the other team heading back to the top, I turned back to our remaining group. I’d tried to convince Spencer to go back with them, but he refused. He was looking at his sword in awe. “How did you manage to pull your sword? You couldn’t earlier,” Ivy said. “When I saw the demon going for Harmony, it was like time slowed. She looks so much like my wife and I thought I was going to lose her again. At that moment, I felt something in my heart. I knew if I tried to pull my sword, it would appear. All I needed to do was trust in it and in myself. Not in my god.” “I thought it was your faith that created your sword.” “It was. I didn’t realize that it was my faith in my god that granted me the sword, but my faith in myself granted the ability to pull the sword. There was nothing I needed to protect as much as the girl who reminded me of my wife, and I was the only one who could do it,” Spencer replied. “And the additional power you got while fighting? Your sword’s glow took on a different light, and I felt like I got some of my energy back,” Rosario said. “Glow?” I asked at the same time as Spencer. Spencer looked over at me, then back at Rosario. “My sword doesn’t glow.” All the fae in the cave looked at each other, then at Spencer as if he were crazy. The two remaining werewolf warriors shook their heads at each other. They linked me and said they didn’t see a glow, either. “It glows to us. That’s odd. Not that it really matters. There was a point where it changed while you were praying and fighting,” Ivy told him. “While I was fighting, I offered some prayers to your goddess to help with the waning strength of everyone there. It was a hard fight and I could see many of you were having difficulty. Then it looked like all of you rallied. It seems I can harness blessings from your goddess through the sword as much as blessings from my god.” “Does that mean you could have healed Mike or some of the other injured?” I asked in a stony tone. “No. Templars can’t heal others unless it’s healing them from possession. We aren’t any different from most other humans, only with blessings that make us stronger, faster, and capable of sheathing our swords inside ourselves,” Spencer explained. “As entertaining as this is,” Forrest interrupted, “I want to get this over with and get out of this place. Mountain trolls don’t belong underground.” “We’re close to the last cavern. I sense someone in there. Two people. Be prepared,” Pyla added. We got into a formation that had the trolls at the front with the werewolves at the back and everyone else in between, obscuring them as well as protecting them. Spencer was in the middle of the group as we moved. He put his sword away while we walked. He might be faster and stronger than a human, but that made him about the strength and speed of an omega wolf. If not for his sword and training, he would be almost entirely useless to us. Though, it made me consider doing training for omega adults in our pack. They couldn’t be warriors, but I didn’t think of how they could protect themselves if they had it. I’d talk to Ben and... Mike. His injuries flashed through my mind. It felt as if a heavy ball formed in my stomach. Mike would survive this. He had to. After years, he was finally getting everything he and Beth had ever wanted. The pups were only a couple of weeks old, and they were already talking about trying for at least one more in a year. Mike and I knew the danger of coming into this ourselves, but as the top two ranked members of our pack, we were among the strongest and best trained. Our duty to our pack required us to lay down our lives, and having families waiting for us couldn't change that. Their lives were among the lives we were trying to save. Goddess, watch over Mike and help him heal. Don’t let my friend die right when it looks like his family might come back together. Now that we knew where his dad was, we might still be able to help them heal. After a while, we stopped. The trolls indicated that this was the place we were heading. Ivy, Rosario, Spencer, and I moved to the front. If he had another demon we didn’t know about, we wanted our demon killer there. The werewolf and fae warriors stayed behind the wall of trolls as we moved in. As we entered the cavern, there was a yowl from deep inside. We stayed with everyone else, not willing to be drawn away from the strongest part of our fighting force. Our dim light illuminated a gruesome scene as we reached the center of the room. The chamber was filled with a variety of runes that seemed to power some sort of ritual. In the center of it all was a tall, white-haired elf, soaked in the blood of a weretiger, who lay on the ground near him. The elf’s eyes glowed as he stared at us, and I could feel the power radiating off of him. “Oberon….” Ivy started forward, but Spencer grabbed her. “No. Don’t move any closer. He’s summoning and just sacrificed that man,” Spencer told her. “Then shouldn’t we interrupt the ritual?” she asked. “No, it’s already completed. If you step into that circle and he kills you, then you become another sacrifice, calling something even more powerful.” “It looks like he’s pretty beat up. He has ripped and dirty clothes. I’ve never seen an elf anything other than pristine,” I said. Rosario pulled a pack off of his back. He set up a black thing by unfolding it, attaching a string on both sides, stepping through it with his leg as a brace, tightening one end of the string to the top, and bending it. It was a collapsible bow. From the pack, he pulled out a dozen arrows. I didn’t know if that was enough or too much, but I wasn’t a weapons fighter. Rosario handed the arrows off to his sister, keeping one and putting it on the bowstring before pulling back and letting it fly. After the first one flew, I barely saw him move, but he kept shooting. Oberon blocked or dodged some of them, but others hit him. He said nothing but growled at us in a very unnatural way. “He wasn’t summoning a demon in its own body...” Spencer whispered. “He’s made a deal with a demon and it lives in him now. Pull back.”As Spencer spoke, it felt like the temperature in the room dropped. The runes around Oberon began to glow, and a deep, guttural voice emanated from his body.“Fools,” the voice boomed. “You think you can stop me? I have the power of a demon at my disposal. You are nothing compared to me.”“How is a fully summoned demon different from a possession deal?” I asked Spencer. “They have more power. If they don’t have to manifest a body and maintain it, then they can conserve all of their power for the person they made the deal with. Depending on how they get here, it can be catastrophic. Most possessions are weak demons that find their way into others who don’t agree to the cohabitation. The summoned demons are entirely different. Not as impulsive or chaotic, it makes their evil even more potent.” Oberon pulled the arrows out of his body and tossed them onto the floor. The entire time, he wasn’t taking his eyes off of Rosario, who had dropped his bow and pulled his sword again. I growled and stepped in front of the young prince. He was the son of one of the queens I was allied with and he was one of my little brother’s best friends. One day, he would take over his mother’s territory and my grandchildren or great-grandchildren would be his ally. I wanted to ensure he was there for that. “You think you can stop me if I want to kill the little wood elf?” Oberon scoffed. “I could end all of you with less effort than stepping on a spider. First, I’m going to kill all of you, then I’m going to find the omega that kicked me off the cliff and the blind bіtch and sacrifice them to call forth more demons.” I growled. Carmen and Austin were members of my pack. They were under my protection, and I would destroy anyone who tried to harm them. Behind me, there were several more frightening growls. Carmen's acceptance by the troll community, after mating with one of their members, had slipped my mind. “You’re not touchin’ our little wolf friends and you’re not killin’ any of us, either,” Forrest rumbled. “He’s hiding like a fuсking coward in that summoning circle,” Elbio said. “Just like a fuсking royal. Getting something powerful to fight your battles and keeping your weak ass safe where no one can reach you.” “Not like all royals. I never thought a ‘high’ elf would be weaker and more cowardly than a fuсking wood elf,” another troll added with a scoff. Oberon’s face twisted in anger at the insults being hurled at him. He growled and took a step forward, but the runes on the ground glowed brighter and pushed him back.“You think you’re so tough with your demon power, but you’re just a puppet,” Spencer said, stepping forward. “The demon is using you to further its own agenda. You don’t even know what it wants.”“Don’t think you know anything about me and the deal I’ve made, human.” Spencer drew his sword out again and said a prayer before driving it into the stone floor where the pattern of the summoning circle met in several places. The glowing pattern faltered, then faded. He drew his sword out of the ground with a smirk at Oberon, who looked shocked. “I know enough, elf. One thing I also know is that supernatural bodies weren’t made from the same things as human bodies. And you are made of far more magic than these supernaturals are. Did none of the demons tell you how they corrupt the goddess’ magic? It’s far worse than when they corrupt the souls of my god’s people. For you, not for those around you. Everyone, take a few steps back. It’s starting,” Spencer ordered. Oberon started to scream and writhe in pain as his body started to twist and contort. His skin shifted from pale white to a deep purple hue, and long claws sprouted from his fingers and toes. His eyes glowed a fiery yellow, and long horns curved out from his temples. He screamed in agony as the demon completely corrupted his body, transforming him into a creature of pure evil.We moved back, making sure we were well out of his range. I’d never seen anything like this. It wasn’t like when we transformed into our wolf or half-wolf form. This was an unnatural transformation. As he changed, his body grew, and we ended up almost back out in the corridor, trying to avoid it. The newly transformed Oberon stood up, his horns scraping against the ceiling. His eyes scanned the room, and a wicked grin spread across his face. He let out a deafening roar, and the room shook as he slammed his massive hands onto the ground.“Spencer, that thing is a lot bigger than the other demon was. Isn’t this weakening the demon inside him?” “No. It’s using his own magic to do this. The demon doesn’t have to use any of its power. A demon corrupting the goddess’ magic is something we never trained for, but spent a lot of time speculating about in the Templar compound. I hope the addition of her blessing to my sword will be enough to defeat it,” he replied. “Is this because you broke the summoning circle?” Ivy asked with a hiss. “Yes, and no. The demon was still gathering all of its strength from its home. You’ll know when that happens because beetles will come with the last of the demon’s energy. I cut it off. I don’t know if that will be enough to help us, though….“He summoned one of the demon generals. I don’t know if I can defeat it on my own. This is something they would send several Templars after. It takes a lot more for humans to summon one and we know enough time in advance.... There’s no time to get them here....”