Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 21]

Salem hovered fifty feet or so up, her good hand held above her head and black light coruscating around it.

"You are insects without number, and I shall treat you as such. Let's see how many of you stand after this!"

Instead of a single attack, numerous orbs of power appeared around her, spinning lazily in the air. Each crackled with untold power, shimmering and burning the very air around it. They continued to grow as well, bulging dangerously as she fed more and more power into it.

There was no doubting the force behind those spells. If she was strong enough to destroy buildings and kill people with but half a second of casting time, how powerful would this spell that she had to prepare for be?

"She's going to kill us all!" Ren yelled. "We can't survive that blast!"

"Jaune, make another shield!" Pyrrha said.

"I can't!" I stared up in horror. "She's using multiple attacks. I can only Seal one away before the rest hit." Even as I said that I was building a dome of Ironwood around us, not that I expected it to do a thing.

Salem knew how the Seals worked of course and had planned her final blow accordingly. The first would be blocked, the second would destroy whatever shield I made and the ten or so more would incinerate all of us. And if they didn't, well, she could keep casting over and over from her position high above.

"This is the end!" Salem said, laughing wildly. "I shall say I'd miss you all but that would be a lie. Die knowing your best was and never would be enough!" She brought her hand up above her head, black energy in the form of ten orbs spinning wildly around it. "Goodbye!"

"No!"

I slammed my will forward, trying to build an Ironwood shield despite how useless I knew it would be. The silver metal had just begun to form into the shape of a dome when I saw it – the brief flicker and tear behind Salem, opening into a jagged and hazy portal.

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 21]