Sapphire Weapon turned and let out a roar.
“Looks like that’s as far as our luck goes,” Sol muttered indignantly.
This time, she produced a different weapon―one she’d brought along specially for the occasion.
“Time for Tiny to say bye-bye,” she said, grenade launcher steady on her shoulder.
“Yes,” Lunafreya chimed in. “Let us put an end to this. Together.”
Using the sound of the firing projectile as her cue, Lunafreya began a flat-out sprint toward Sapphire Weapon. The grenade explosion shook the cavern but didn’t seem to do much damage to its target. The juggernaut leaned slightly to one side, but that was the extent of the impact.
They’d have to stick with the fundamentals and create an opening for an assault on the core. Hopefully that would prove effective, but if not, they would be forced to try another course of action.
“Sol!” she called out, “Concentrate on the right leg!”
If they could restrict its movement, that might give Lunafreya a location from which to absorb the scourge.
“Heads up!” Sol called back. “Dodge left!”
Lunafreya dove forward and left, flattening herself to the ground. She felt a blast wave wash over her back. Sol’s grenade had found the target exactly where Lunafreya wanted it, exploding on the monster’s right leg.
Sapphire Weapon shook its massive limb, stamping its feet like an enormous toddler. Lunafreya had hoped Sol’s attack might strip away part of the thick carapace shielding the creature’s body. They were making progress, but a single grenade wasn’t going to be sufficient.
“Again!” she called.
She backed off, avoiding the giant, crushing feet, then flung herself against the ground once more. Another explosion. Another hot wave rushing by. This time, the attack elicited an earsplitting, inhuman scream. Sol’s shout confirmed, “It’s working!”
Lunafreya jumped back to her feet and closed in. She saw where the carapace had been ripped away, exposing the inside of the magitek creation’s leg. Flesh the color of rotten meat bulged out from the gash.
This is my chance, Lunafreya thought, and stretched out a palm. She felt the familiar numbness crawl along her right arm, then wham―she was flying backward. When she came to, she was lying on the ground, back stinging from the impact. She coughed.
“Luna!” Sol called. “Are you all right?!”
She held up a hand to halt Sol’s dash forward.
“Keep going! I’m fine!”
Sapphire Weapon’s wounds were already beginning to mend. They couldn’t afford to let up on the assault. Not even for a moment.
“Incoming!” Sol shouted, and Luna rolled onto her stomach, shielding her face. Once the next blast wave had passed, she was up in an instant and running to where the grenade had hit.
This time, she managed to pull out a proper amount of scourge. Fire coursed through her arm. It felt like she might be consumed from the inside out. She grit her teeth against the searing pain and shouted back, “Sol! Don’t stop! Keep firing!”
“Are you nuts?! I might hit you!”
“Just do it!”
Lunafreya’s powers alone weren’t going to be enough to stop Sapphire Weapon. And the monster’s capacity to heal itself wasn’t helping things.
“While I’m keeping it busy down here, aim for the core!” she shouted.
Sapphire Weapon was even stronger than they’d imagined. They’d have to fire on its weak point while simultaneously drawing out its daemonic energies. They didn’t have any other choice.
But Lunafreya found herself flying backward once again, absorption interrupted.
“One more time!” she shouted to Sol.
First, the explosion on the right leg. Then the dash in to start pulling out the scourge―this time even more intensely than before. She had to keep the monster still.
She saw a first, second, then third projectile bound for Sapphire Weapon’s head. While bracing against the impact and quake of the blast, Lunafreya let her power loose to an extent she never had before. Tremendous streams of scourge poured into her body. She couldn’t stop the scream that tore from her throat, and gripping tight onto her consciousness, desperate to keep from fainting, she steeled herself against the torrent. A ceaseless drumming sound like the fall of a hard rain filled the space around her. Her ears rang so loudly she could hardly hear anything else.
As her vision began to cloud over, she saw one more projectile arcing from Sol directly toward the core.
Good, she thought. There’s the fatal blow.
Suddenly, Lunafreya’s body was thrown to the side. The world came back into focus. No, she realized, I wasn’t thrown. I’ve fallen. Her hearing returned, and she found that someone was shouting her name. The numbness receded, and she could feel again. She realized arms were wrapped around her, propping her up.
“Luna! We did it! We finished it off!”
“Wonderful . . . ” Lunafreya replied weakly.
Her breath came shallow, but her body continued to hold against the mass of scourge swarming inside. She’d done it. They’d done it. They’d succeeded in destroying Sapphire Weapon.
“Do not worry about me,” Lunafreya said. “Go. Your mother needs you.”
According to Biggs and Wedge, the order to withdraw was the last communication received from Aranea’s unit. They were somewhere in the farthest depths of the ruins, surrounded by daemons, without any means of escape. They’d not been heard from since. As Lunafreya and Sol were now in the ruin’s deepest chamber, Aranea had to be nearby.
“You must find her. Hurry,” Lunafreya said. She could feel it. More than just a fear of what might be, it was a certainty: if Sol did not find her mother soon, it would be too late.
They’d challenged Sapphire Weapon, and no one else had joined the fray. If Sol’s mother were able, would she not have rushed to her daughter’s aid? The fact that she had not was an ill sign.
But Sol seemed already on the verge of tears.
“Luna,” she said, her shoulders trembling slightly even as she stood straight and tall.
“Look . . . ”
Sol pointed a shaking finger. Luna turned her head to look. The dust had settled, and Sapphire Weapon’s hulking form was deteriorating. The expanse of the cavern was again visible, and there, in the direction indicated by Sol, stood another daemon. It was of height similar to Sol’s, and it was―or at least, it had been―clearly female. On its back was a spear. Silver-white hair adorned the daemon’s head. It was the same color Sol had mentioned when describing her mother’s hair on the way to the ruins.
“It’s Mom . . . ” Sol said, slumping to the ground. “She . . . she’s . . . ”
Lunafreya’s fears had been correct. Before them stood Aranea. Perhaps the mercenary had already known what was happening to her when she gave the order to withdraw and seal the entrance. Perhaps the scourge had been consuming her body even as the words left her mouth.