Ethan joined the fight, too.
He rose from the mountaintop and floated into the air, the power of the four little girls inside him spinning up at the same time. Different auras braided together deep in his body—no clashes, no backlash. Each one slid neatly into the position it belonged, steadying him like a perfectly balanced framework.
In his left hand, white lightning gathered slowly.
To his right, a gray-blue sphere of light hovered in silence.
The surface of that sphere was almost unnervingly smooth, but inside, layers of heavy force rolled and circulated with a sluggish, crushing rhythm. Ethan looked down at the bottom of the pit. The massive goat was still thrashing, roaring at the sky, magma-breath blasting from its mouth and nostrils as its huge forelimbs clawed at the crater walls, trying to haul itself out.
It managed to climb a short distance—
And the ground around it suddenly heaved and folded back in, as if some invisible hand had decided the pit should close.
