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Everyone was moving now. The dozens of other Rainlords all around them were already either opening fire from a distance or rushing in to provide upfront support. Rayen Merlo’s flesh was in turns vanishing and reappearing, but always with a faintly violet glow. And Zeff, of course, was launching a storm of frozen spikes toward Sanko.

But it was Octavia who got to the woman first. The white blade shuddered visibly, and Zeff saw light bend around Sanko’s torso, distorting like a bubble in space itself. It was similar to the destruction type abilities, but this was a single point, not a path, and the sound was different. This was the rushing of wind past his ears. He felt the violent shift in gravity, as well, pulling him and everyone else suddenly forward.

In an instant, he watched as Sanko’s body imploded, sucked into the bubble and spaghettified.

And just like that, the bubble was gone again, disappeared into thin air, leaving a small crater in the ground along with the dusty remains of Sanko’s body.

But there was no blood--no bits of flesh, even though a few busted stones lay where Sanko’s feet should have been.

She was not dead, rather obviously. The Rainlords needed no assurances on that point. Even if they had believed that the Gargoyle could be defeated so easily, there was still the matter of that oppressive presence having not diminished whatsoever.

It was common enough knowledge that the Gargoyle’s power involved earth in some way, but if not for Axiolis’ memories, Zeff would have lacked any genuine details. Instead, he was able to recall tales from half a century ago about Sanko’s fearsome control of integration.

Hers was an ability type most often relegated to the supporting role, but she had lived long enough to become an exception. She’d used pan-rozum to do more than simply fuse elements together. She’d learned to fuse herself into them, to become an entity of dirt and rock and stone. Integration may not have allowed her to create her own elements, even with pan-rozum, but that was a small price to pay when she could wield almost every element of every type of ground in the world as an extension of her body.

Everything beneath the Rainlords’ feet belonged to the Gargoyle now. Axiolis didn’t know what her maximum range was, but anything less than a kilometer was just wishful thinking, Zeff knew.

And it was no surprise when the ground began to tremble.