Linda breathed. Demeter thought she looked exhausted. Demeter looked at the man in her arms. He spilled blood from the mouth. Linda glanced over at Demeter and said a few words. A bluish halo appeared above the man. Demeter left him on the floor.

She grabbed her discarded swords.

The two feline creatures were intent on taking down Ulysses. The shadow, which pursued Elliot, got more aggressive by the moment. Whether it was a bat or a rat which pursued him, Elliot could not guess. “You two, we’ll hit in together. Come with me!” yelled Linda. She flitted forward, with some red and blue swallows guarding her.

“Why have you changed your mind?” Demeter said, aloud. In front of her, Ulysses ignored the flying lizards and headed for their direction.

“I apologize. My hands moved faster than I could speak. I don’t have faith in you. Let’s call it a truce for now.” Linda was without much remorse.

“You had better explain yourself when this is all over,” Demeter said, shielding one of Linda’s feline creatures from Ulysses’s charge.

“I don’t see any need to obey anything but my own faith. Outsider, you would do well to prepare yourself for now,” Linda said.

“That does not tell me what I need to do then. What’s your plan?” Demeter said. The feline creatures had trouble gaining the upper hand over Ulysses, even with the swallows’ help. She periodically shielded the feline creatures. Her purple barriers emitted a dull glow. On the other hand, Elliot could only evade the shadowy creature that trailed him. Demeter reasoned that counting on Linda’s summons to defeat Ambrosia would result in a stalemate.

“I’ll have you place a seal on her. Come closer,” Linda said.

“It helps that you are being clear. While you are at it, what happens after we seal her?” Demeter said.

“I shall have you apprehended. Then, we talk.”

“I heard you well.” Demeter looked in the direction of her savior. She approached Linda. "How do I seal Ambrosia?”

“I’ll imbue your hands with my magic reserve. Touch her, and we are done.” Linda said.

“You can’t imbue my hands while you are controlling your summons, can you? Besides, I need the breathing room. Imbue my sword instead of my hand,” Demeter said, pointing one sword in her direction.

Linda looked at the blade carefully. “Don’t assume I will forget this affront. Your hand is fine.”

Demeter looked at the tip of her blade. Her eyes brooded. “How thoughtless of me.” Her proffered sword disappeared. “There is no guarantee that your magic reserve will remain imbued in my blade once it is rematerialized.” Linda kept quiet. Demeter put her hand in front of Linda. “Go ahead.”

In the background, Elliot was overwhelmed by pitch-black fangs and claws. These lashed out unending strikes at him. Elliot’s face was terse. Compared to Demeter, he still looked optimistic. And he had overexerted himself. “That thing chasing me keeps getting stronger. I’ll come over if you help me!” Elliot used his poles of light as rungs to change direction. Each time he did, he panted.

Demeter considered the goddess, who appeared to be frosty and sharp, to say the least. Demeter looked at Linda. “I shall assist Elliot. Handle yourself well until then.”

“Needless concern,” Linda said. Demeter used her left-hand sword to project a shield for one feline creature, and barred the shadowy flumes with the other. The shadowy flumes broke the shield, after some slashes. The creature was stronger than Linda’s summons, it seemed.

Was it a rat or a bat? The creature ripped open Elliot’s back. Elliot jumped around at wider angles. He placed consecutive poles of light behind him. Demeter was impressed. The creature clashed onto the column of poles, breaking a few of them before it redressed itself. Illuminated splinters of the poles fell behind the creature. It charged again, narrowly missing Elliot this time. After a couple of seconds, it became clear that the monster had been blinded. Elliot turned back to see red eyes gaping at him. “Aim for his eyes!” Demeter shouted.

The goddess seemed to do nothing, beside freezing the ground about her. ‘I might as well take her out,’ Elliot thought. He clenched his teeth. “Alright, make way, Linda! I’ll dash forward.”

Linda moved her feline creature, and made it pounce on Elliot. Elliot did not notice it. He flitted to a wall. He escalated it, and stomped from its top. A pole of light shone above, ahead of him. Elliot grabbed the pole. He readied himself with a breath, rotated his body up, towards the wall and let go after reversing his direction.

Elliot fell towards the goddess. Linda’s familiar jumped between Elliot and the goddess. Elliot grabbed an airborne pole and steadied himself. He swung forward, before pulling back his legs. He swung back, came to the front, and jumped up, to his back. He used another pole to rotate forward once, before securing his retreat.

“Don’t be reckless!” Linda shouted. The feline creature, with its coal-black eyes, and white jaws, was frozen on track. It had left its final claw imprints on the floor. It became fully encased in ice, which infused into its flesh. The creature became dead meat and crumbled to the ground.

Elliot looked about himself, visibly shaken. He noticed something shining in front of him. “Snow?” Elliot surveyed what was happening; frost center-points formed about him. It got freezing cold. His breathing got hoarse. Fiery swallows dove from the ceiling to try to break the frost center-points. These were likely Linda’s summons. The swallows dug into each frost-ball that formed, like birds caught in some petrification device.

The shadowy creature appeared in front of Elliot’s eyes. Elliot flitted away. As it followed Elliot, the creature inadvertently helped break the frost. The impact was a resounding clang, each time the creature hit a frost center-point, as if the latter were made of steel. The frost center-points slowly reformed after each destruction. Ulysses defeated Linda’s second feline creature.

“Fides[Spiritus]: Lupus”

Faith[Spirit]: Wolf.

A giant wolf, gray in color, replaced the feline creature. Its eyes glinted with silver. It was six feet tall. It went straight for Ulysses’s throat.

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‘These are not the best of circumstances,’ thought Demeter. She looked at Elliot’s half-frozen hands. To the center right of the hall, wind swirled about with crystalline brilliance. As Demeter observed, the swirl became a blizzard and headed towards them. The blizzard swooped and drifted about the room.

Denied his first move, the wolf’s movements slowed. It tactfully avoided Ulysses’s antlers, never pouncing directly at the stag. The air became white, with the mist that prevailed. Linda Eisenberg followed the movements of the wolf with consternation. She had caring eyebrows. It was in contrast to Elliot, who had beruffled, yet straight eyebrows. Linda’s blue hair came to rest on her shoulders.

The air currents in the room were dysfunctional.

The wolf lunged. It latched on Ulysses’s shoulder. Ulysses roared. The wolf gnawed at the stag’s flesh with morbid avidity. It had to get it to go down. The blood lust drove the wolf mad. The stag weakened, and wheezed. It roared again. The wolf was indifferent, seeming to derive its strength from the stag itself.

The wolf sensed the air pressure pull him closer to the stag. The wind sounded like an air stream getting sucked into a cavern. As the pressure intensified, the wolf retreated. The stag was humongous. It froze the air about itself. It changed to appear with a sizzling white coat of fur. The structure gave way to intricate patterns of snowflakes, which made up for armor. Perhaps part of the coat was not fur.

Demeter observed the spectacle that Ulysses was. She laughed dryly. “Doesn’t look like the best joke in my life.” She blinked. She looked in Linda’s direction. Linda was focused on destroying the frost center-points. Linda summoned giant red ants. These spat out magma. They walked rigidly, courting each other’s warmth.

Judging from her posture, Linda seemed to be at her wit’s end. She looked languid.

As for Demeter, she felt pressure build up in her legs. Demeter tensed these legs, to try to bring the welling she felt out of her limbs. She found herself able to move faster. The reason for this improvement perhaps lied in the fact that her feet felt like they stepped on fireworks for each step she took.

“The lethargy of the ice has a decreased effect on me,” she observed, not without excitement. “This is useful.” She felt her palms crunch as she clenched her fist. Demeter felt like her physical spectrum had been enhanced.

“What’s holding you up?” Elliot asked, from a distance. The shadow still trailed him. Demeter wondered why the shadow didn’t try going after her or Linda instead.

“Let me tell you something, Elliot. A dynamite body is pretty dynamic.”

“I don’t understand!” Elliot cried out, darting from side to side as he approached Demeter. He cruised at a fast speed, which Demeter estimated to be at around the 30 km/hour mark. That must be because of his class. Demeter formed a sword and placed an airborne shield to the left of Elliot. The monster, evading Elliot’s pole of light, fell right into the sword.

Demeter caught herself. “I can move faster now! Courtesy of cybernisation skills. Elliot, can you trap this monster?” Demeter said. “Try forming a box with your poles.”

“I think it will just appear somewhere else!” Elliot replied.

“I don’t think so. It is affected by my shield and your poles. If it could materialize anywhere, it would not have to chase you down.”

“That’s true,” Elliot said. “I don’t think I can manage that for now. It is too unpredictable.”

“Okay. Can you make your light poles link a path to Ambrosia? I have been given the means to seal her.”

“So we are not defeating her, huh?” Elliot pondered. “Yeah, I’ll do it.”

Linda speared her swallows into the shadowy creature. “Go ahead then. I’ll hold back Ulysses and Hugh.”

“Got it!” Demeter said. Ulysses’s shoulder was red and blue, with half-frozen blood. The wolf grabbed at the stag’s neck. The latter roared. Linda diverted some giant red ants to Ulysses. They spat out their magma and huddled together, and headed for Ulysses.

Demeter invoked her shield towards a frost center-point. She exploded the shield. Demeter heard something like the sound of a gas canister activating. The frost center-point was destroyed. Demeter ran towards Ambrosia. She became wrapped in an aura of steel-blue. The aura blaringly opened up a path to the goddess. Ambrosia looked Demeter in the eyes, her irises a piercing blue in the blackness that surrounded them. Ambrosia’s hands were ice-freckled. Her hair was blue.

“Hu…!” Demeter was knocked to the side by a rotating pole of light. The goddess froze up the area where Demeter had previously been. Demeter panted and breathed in the cold air.

Elliot nodded at her. Similar to her, his face looked constrained.

Linda sent swallows and flying lizards in Hugh’s direction. However, she could not aggro it. The smoky creature followed Elliot while he sprinted close by. Demeter straightened up, but preferred to keep herself a bit low. Linda diverted the rest of her resources to Ambrosia. Pristine swallows of the deepest blue assaulted the goddess. Combustion followed their pathways. Flying lizards came close to Ambrosia. The army of giant ants melted the ground and approached her.

Demeter judged Linda to be strong. Demeter followed along Elliot’s poles of light, with bursts of movement, her shields clashing onto frost center-points. Icicles zeroed in on her, from the bigger frost center-points. The prevailing blizzard made her movements strenuous. Demeter felt her eyes sting. Her nose itched. The surface of her palm’s skin broke.

She reached the nape of the goddess’s head. She was propelled off target by the blizzard, but got cushioned by Elliot’s poles of light. It hurt her back. Demeter coughed up blood. The icy wind current nicked at her body. Demeter picked herself back up. She used Elliot’s poles of light as scaffolds to push herself towards the goddess.

A few poles broke when she stepped on them. Others did not hold up to the wind. Demeter threw her swords to her front, dematerializing both while invoking their shields. The shields were thick enough to withstand the icicle impacts. Demeter materialized a single sword with a longer blade.

Demeter held back the sword, under these two shields. She bore the brunt of the blizzard, before adjusting her shields. Her steel-blue aura fluctuated. She heaved, and looked forward. Poles of light, with a dull glow, accumulated about her. A few poles detached themselves, as she circled the goddess, now relying on a bigger foothold. Elliot seemed to know what to do.

Demeter felt herself being repelled. She considered that the pressure was like a barrier. That barrier was nascent. Demeter was close enough. She tried a blow from the left. She tried another from up. She made a swooping feint at the legs, and cut the surface of Ambrosia’s skin.

Demeter gasped for air. She had better be fast. More poles of light got blown away.

Demeter could touch Ambrosia if she brought her hand forward. The goddess lifted her own, ice-freckled hand in Demeter’s direction. Icicles gathered in front of Ambrosia. She was halted from proceeding by a concentrated assault of red swallows. Red flared about Ambrosia.

Ulysses gave a shrill bark, similar to the sound a bear would make. The intricate patterns of snowflakes on its white coat were burned and bloodied. Ulysses used its wooden antlers to break free from the wolf’s control, blinding the wolf in the process. It then trampled across the giant red ants. It pounced towards Demeter, before being hindered by Elliot’s poles of light.

Demeter closed up the distance to Ambrosia. Holding her sword in her right hand, she exploded its tip. She threw the sword towards the goddess, exploding it as well. Demeter formed another sword in her left hand. She could see Ambrosia’s face clearly.

Ambrosia issued a wrathful scream. The goddess clenched her fist, breaking Demeter’s shield; a sharp clang was heard, followed by a spontaneous and violent crack. Demeter started to freeze up. She instinctively threw her sword at Ambrosia, exploding it with greater force. This caused a loud reverberation. Demeter shielded herself. The blaring noise resounded throughout the throne hall. She felt like she was in a cave.

A pole of light appeared to Demeter’s right. Demeter put her right hand forward, materializing another sword. She snagged the sword against the pole of light. She used her sword as leverage to haul herself. Ambrosia looked at Demeter with mute expression. Demeter’s face looked furrowed, but kind. Demeter touched Ambrosia’s cheeks.

A seal appeared on the goddess.