Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 20]

There wasn't much more time to think as a black beam rushed in toward me. I got Crocea Mors up in time.

Agony.

I slammed back into and through a wall, smoking and choking for air. Why? Why hadn't it blocked the attack? Crocea Mors was still glowing, but she'd done nothing to protect me. I groaned and pushed up on one arm, looking out the wall as Salem prepared another blast with my name on it.

Rune. Seal. Container. I slapped my free hand down onto the blade, over the Rune, and pointed it up at the oncoming attack.

"Purify!"

I felt it deep inside me. A subtle tug and a release – a miasma of black oozing out Crocea Mors and forming a fine mist mere seconds before the beam struck. Purify Object, which removed Demonic Taint from an object, had pushed her previous spell from the `Seal` Rune. The fresh attack struck but this time buckled and warped around Crocea Mors again. I was able to wrench and push it to the side, deflecting it as I had the first.

A third was oncoming.

"Purify!"

The Seal was emptied. Purified. I stood and lunged into the third blast, absorbing it in a matter of seconds and dashing through.

"Purify!"

A fourth, I swung into, cutting it down.

"Purify!"

It was the same as what I'd done in Vacuo. I hadn't destroyed Salem's attack as I first thought; I'd purified the illusion spell contained within the `Seal` Rune on my amulet, making it empty. Salem's attack had been absorbed into the amulet, saving me. It must also have been why she was so insistent on destroying the amulet after that – because she knew she couldn't leave that kind of power in our hands.

"Purify!"

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 20]