Outside, chaos cracked through the sky like thunder.
The demon froze mid-lunge as the barrier containing the cadets, its prize, flickered and vanished before its eyes. Its yellow pupils dilated in disbelief.
"Impossible," it growled, voice low and unsteady.
It tore through the air to the nearest decoy barrier, nothing. Another, still nothing. One after the other, the barriers it targeted were empty, hollow illusions. Not a single cadet remained.
Panic began to rise in the demon's chest like bile. It spread its senses across the area, casting its awareness like a net. The cadets it had sensed earlier were slipping away, blinking out one by one. One moment they were there. The next, gone, as if reality itself rejected its hunger.
"What is happening?!" the demon roared, claws raking through trees and stone.
And then, crack!
