Round 72

The bathroom air crackled with energy that had nothing to do with electricity or human fear. The wardstone's response was immediate—its power pulsed through the walls in waves that made the very structure of the building scream. Abby pressed herself against the tile, her wide brown eyes reflecting the chaos in the mirror behind her. Water from the broken shower swirled around her ankles like a rising tide. Jeane grabbed Hera by the wrist, pulling her back from the door with a strength born of pure protective instinct. The succubus woman's crimson eyes were fixed on the barrier between them and whatever hellish thing Silra was approaching.

"We don't touch it," she snapped, voice tight with barely controlled panic. "That thing is why this building is coming down around our ears. We find another way." The wardstone pulsed again, slower now but somehow more menacing—each beat sent fresh cracks racing through the ceiling above them. The building groaned like a dying beast, and Abby could feel the floor vibrate beneath her feet. They were trapped in a wet death-trap of the...