"No!" Caelira screamed, her voice cracking with despair as tears streamed from her eyes. Her body was broken, blood still dripping from her mouth, but her arms reached forward as if she could stop the beams with nothing but a mother's love.
Max's father, still kneeling and gasping for breath, clenched his fists as he watched in silence, helpless. His eyes dimmed, not from pain—but from hopelessness, watching the attack that would take his son away before his very eyes.
But just before the beams could reach Max—a brilliant golden dome exploded into existence around him. A forcefield made of glowing runes and divine light surrounded both him and Freya, humming with a power that didn't belong to this world.
The beams of attack were all deflected away by the forcefield and some shattered.
