KA-BOOM! BUNG!


    KABOOM!


    BOOM— KABOOM!


    THWACK! She landed flatly against the hard granite, then rolled her body to disperse the momentum, confident that the mantle would absorb any scrapes and breakages. Against her body, she felt the heat lick the silicone-like skin of the Vampiric Abjuration. Perhaps against another enemy, she could have made use of their lifeblood, or if she were cruel and without conscience, that of the hostages— but that was a dilemma for another time.


    CRASH!


    CRASH! Caliban''s bullet-shaped head penetrated through the ceiling, crushing in-ward the stoneworks. When it opened its faceless maw, a flood of Void-tinged digestive juices, together with writing tentacles hidden in the tenebrous goo, tore into the hidden chambers as sticky tongues of an ant-eaters fishing for larvae.


    Gracie! An unorthodox scheme ignited in her mind, one so absurd and ridiculous she just knew it had to work.


    Clang!"


    YE GODS! LET IT OUT!


    FUCK OFF! Came a second cry, her voice, more clarified than the first, and with it came Almudj''s restorative Essence, overwhelming and powerful, washing over the white-hot fire with the force of a noontide, soothing her soul, smothering everything with the cerulean blue waters of Lake Eyre.