Aiden raised his hand and the invisible walls of the space prison expanded outward, stretching to accommodate more room while still maintaining its seal.
He used Void Step and vanished from where he stood, reappearing instantly inside the confined space alongside Cassian.
Now it was just the two of them.
Aiden walked slowly toward the demon. "Now that I’m here," he began, "I can tell you were the one doing the teleportation spell to send both yourself and Lysandra away."
He stopped a few paces from Cassian and tilted his head slightly. "But what I can’t figure out is how long you intended to keep running, to what end, and why Lysandra specifically?"
Cassian said nothing.
His eyes stared forward without eting Aiden’s gaze directly.
Aiden let the silence stretch for a mont before a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Ah, I see how this is going to be."
He sounded almost amused.
Without warning, Aiden raised one hand and began casting. A magic circle ford on the ground beneath Cassian, glowing with intricate runes.
"Psyche Reveal."
Both Aiden’s and Cassian’s eyes glowed for a second which signaled the activation of the spell, but nothing happened.
The magic dissipated harmlessly against an invisible barrier surrounding the demon’s mind, and the spell fizzled out without effect.
Cassian’s lips curled into a smile as he watched Aiden’s expression.
There was a protection spell in place, one specifically designed to shield his mind from exactly this kind of intrusion.
Cassian had once been a Xathian mage who knew Thamoryn’s tactics well. He knew how she operated and what thods she relied on during interrogations.
Of course he had learned to always protect his mind for situations exactly like this.
His smile widened slightly as he stared at Aiden, clearly pleased that the spell had failed.
Aiden smiled back, looking unfazed. "Unfortunately for you," he said, his tone almost coy, "all I have to do is identify that the spell exists."
Cassian’s expression shifted instantly into confusion.
Aiden whispered, "Zero Effect."
The protection effect the spell had beca ineffective.
The invisible barrier around Cassian’s mind dissolved entirely as if it had never been there at all, and the archdemon’s eyes widened in shock.
He tried to move, tried to lunge forward or do anything to stop what was coming next, but the Dragon’s Fear aura pinning him down was too overwhelming.
There was just nothing he could do about it except grit his teeth in frustration and rage.
Aiden raised his hand again and cast without hesitation. "Psyche Reveal." This ti the spell worked perfectly.
Both their eyes glowed and Cassian went silent and just stared blankly.
A series of scenes began playing out before Aiden’s eyes like a fast-forwarded video, each mory pulled directly from Cassian’s mind and displayed with perfect clarity.
He saw Cassian releasing the parasitic leeches into his own guild mbers one by one. This was awhile back in Xathia.
He saw his conversations with Conrad, another who was just as infected with the leeches.
Then he saw Cassian moving through Dragonhold itself, mostly at night, releasing more leeches into guild buildings. The parasites crept into unsuspecting mages as they slept.
There were even a few he had lured out personally, inviting them to et with him before letting the leeches take control of their minds.
The mories then shifted rapidly to another point.
Cassian stood in a hall surrounded by other possessed individuals, all of them wearing those sa black markings along their cheeks.
Then ca another scene: Malachar standing before him, holding out a strange black compass with an expression of satisfaction on her face as she handed it over.
"Use this," she said in the mory. "It will warn you when the dragon approaches."
Cassian nodded and took the compass.
The final mory played out next. This was Cassian’s transformation in a demon.
His body shifting and contorting as demonic energy poured into him. His skin darkened into grey while horns erupted from his skull. His eyes glowed bright blue as flas flickered around him in shades of orange and blue.
Aiden stepped back abruptly with widened eyes that quickly turned into a frown.
Cassian, though hating every mont of having his mind exposed so thoroughly, couldn’t help but smile through gritted teeth before letting out a bitter laugh.
"I guess you’ve seen it all now," he said mockingly.
Aiden stared at him for several long seconds without speaking.
He had seen everything.
This demon standing before him was actually Captain Cassian of the Fractured Stars Guild, and he was responsible for most of what Dragonhold had gone through in the last few days.
There was scheming involved with the demon lords as well, but unfortunately even Cassian didn’t know what the full plan entailed.
What he did know was that Lysandra was ant to be held hostage and used as leverage for whatever this plan required, and it seed like the demon lords needed ti to themselves for their scheming to work properly.
Aiden’s frown deepened as he processed everything he’d just witnessed.
——
anwhile, sowhere at the Edge Of The Universe...
This was a place where reality itself began to unravel.
Space stretched thin here, and the darkness was absolute, with only a handful of dying stars and far-off galaxies.
Strange currents of raw energy drifted through the emptiness, glowing in colors that had no na, and the very fabric of existence felt fragile, as if one wrong move might tear it open.
The nine demon lords floated in formation around a single point in that vast emptiness.
Malachar’s eyes suddenly narrowed as she felt the connection snap. The leech planted within Lysandra’s mind had been destroyed.
She turned toward Morrigan and spoke calmly. "The leech in Lysandra has been destroyed."
Morrigan didn’t react with concern. Instead, she said, "There’s no problem. We’ve finally found her."
She raised one hand and waved it through the air. The space before them rippled and an invisible cover dissolved, revealing what lay beneath.
A prison unlike any other.
It was a massive sphere of condensed light, so bright it should have been blinding but instead appeared muted, as if the darkness around it was actively suppressing its glow.
The surface of the sphere was etched with countless runes that rotated slowly and moved in patterns that never repeated.
The sphere itself hovered in place, held suspended by nothing but the sheer weight of the Laws that had been used to construct it.
Within that sphere floated a woman.
She was barely visible at first, her form blurred by the intensity of the light surrounding her.
But as the concealnt faded, her features beca a bit clearer.
Her black hair drifted weightlessly behind her.
Her face was pale and serene despite her imprisonnt, and though her eyes were closed, there was an undeniable presence radiating from her that made even the demon lords hesitate for just a mont.
This was Lilith.
The Mother of Gods.
And Wife of Adam.
They had been searching for the place of her imprisonnt for a while now, since after their eting to be precise.
Morrigan then turned to the rest of them and said, "I trust every one of you is ready. Breaking her out of that confinent will requirent all of our strength combined"
With that, they all stretched their hands towards the sphere.
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