33. Chapter 33

Author Notes: Sup guys. Hope you're doing well. I'm still Hero, since I've taken Siege's story hostage. And I still have a couple more chapters to go through before I give him his baby back. Don't be scared though: this one's a juicy, long one, but the following chapters will be shorter and just as entertaining. I hope. I tend to get pretty wordy with my chapters hehe.

I made some mistakes last time that some readers caught upon. Apparently, I misunderstood Age of Ultron's scene, and the cuttlefish isn't the same as an anglerfish. I assumed it was an anglerfish; cuttlefish are way less scary, and now I've lost respect for Andy Serkis. Grow up, man, they're cute little squids.

F14M3RZ also brought up Jungian psychology which I, in fact, was referencing in the last chapter, and something that Auto and I are both interested/fascinated by and that has clearly influenced the entire story. And yes, the right term was "collective unconscious", not subconscious. Thanks for the correction.

Some people also seemed confused as to why what Diablo wants to do with the world is bad. Some even seemed to agree with what he said. I can tell some were cheeky about it, but some seemed serious lol To those, I say: even if we hate what someone else has to say, if we care about freedom, we should fight for their right to say that stupid stuff. I don't think annihilating the human race is a viable solution to end all Twitter drama.

And I'm pretty happy with the reception so far. Luan is one of my least favorite sisters to write, so starting off with this arc that I hadn't even set up was quite a difficult task. It's one of the reasons why I've selfishly indulged in an obscene amount of Diablo 2 references. It's one of my all-time favorite games and it's so, so much fun to write about runewords, items, and characters from it lol I know it might be annoying to some, but I try to keep it as a fun set of references.

Enough chit-chat though, let's get started with the chapter!

When he stared helplessly at his soul in the process of being ripped from his body, Lincoln tried to make peace with the fact that he was probably going to die. And in what seemed like his final moments, he wondered what he could have done differently to avoid reaching that point.

Aside from accidentally releasing an ancient demon of unrivaled power, he didn't think he'd done much to actively worsen his situation. The moment the hordes of ghosts filled the streets, he'd done the only rational, sane thing there was to do.

Scream bloody hell and run away as fast as his legs could carry him.

Perhaps he could have attempted to genre shift one more time. Maybe try his best to think back to his experience with Leni or Luna, and draw power from within to turn into someone who could do something for himself and those around him. But alas he didn't try. His attempts at genre-shifting without his sisters in the proximity had been futile, and after two failed tries with Luan, he'd lost hope of using it reliably. He couldn't count on it, and right then, with spooky souls ravishing the streets, he just couldn't risk it.

He ran just like everyone around him did. Unfortunately, as the ghosts began to swarm down onto the fleeting bystanders, he became the closest target. Several of the ethereal-looking figures flew right at him, and their speed severely outclassed that of his mortal, couch-potato self.

He would have been caught by them if Charlie hadn't begun to spark like a ball of crackling energy, shooting around him faster than he could follow with his eyes, crashing onto every ghost in the vicinity and dissolving them into smoke.

"Thank you!" Lincoln yelled, continuing to run as the orb kept him safe from all harm.

The same couldn't be said for other bystanders. The boy watched with guilt and uneasiness how people screamed as they tried their best to escape from the unrelenting forces of Hell. He saw a woman in her thirties tripping as she ran, and a ghost above her noticing her vulnerable situation.

Lincoln tried to warn the woman, but he could only stare helplessly as the ghost dived down towards her…

ZAP!

Only for a lightning bolt to turn the entity into dust.

"Keep running!" A new voice yelled from the other end of the street. "I'll keep them at bay!"

The woman quickly stood up and did so as Lincoln looked at the newly arrived person. A stout, burly man with a trimmed, full beard and a scowl on his face. On his head, he wore a yellow, construction helmet, and his whole body was hidden under an XXL blue hardin overall.

For a moment he wondered what that man was doing running to the ghosts with his short legs, but when he stopped and drew an arc with his arms before shooting an impressive lightning chain that cleared half the street from ghosts, he realized he had to be someone with an Electrician subtype of the Tradesmen archetype.

"I got this, boy!" The man said when he noticed the way Lincoln stared at him. "Just keep running! The Combat Archetypes will get here soon!"

A new wave of ghosts emerged from the rifts, and the Electrician clapped his hands. He slowly extended them, and arcs of lightning began to run from the tip of his fingers, crossing the air towards the other hand. He kept extending it until it formed a baseball-sized sphere of lightning and then threw it at the ghosts. It crossed the street, shooting powerful arcs of electricity into all the specters, banishing them back to the realm where they came from.

Lincoln, beginning to feel his feeble leg muscles burning with exhaustion, allowed himself a glimmer of hope. If just one person with a relatively common Archetype could cause so much trouble for the ghosts, then maybe things weren't as dire as he thought. Like the man said, surely the city would issue an emergency warning for more combat archetypes to head there. Things could begin to look brighter for them.

Of course, just as he finished that thought he heard a boom in the air. He looked up to see that Diablo had finished one more magical circle, and as he did so, he let out a maniacal laugh that magically echoed in the street.

"That shall keep Sanctuary busy for a while," he said, somehow loud enough for Lincoln to hear. "By the time they get here, I'll have taken control over my new body and Archetype, and then it'll be too late for them to stop me."

To the Electrician's credit, the dude wasted no time asking for explanations. He seemed to be ready to kick ass and take names and didn't hesitate to shoot a new lightning bolt towards Diablo.

Dozens of ghosts were destroyed as the electric javelin crossed the air and impacted right on Diablo's chest.

Lincoln stopped running, worried for a second as he remembered that the body still belonged to Sid, but he quickly realized he had nothing to worry about. And when he said "nothing to worry about", he meant "Oh God, we're so gonna die today", since the strong attack seemed to not even tickle the Lord of Destruction.

"Cute," the demon said, looking with a wicked grin at the Electrician. "I respect your courage. If you kneel before me and delete your Twitter account, I might spare your life."

The Electrician tried to charge up a new bolt of energy, but Diablo merely twirled a finger, and five pillars of bones emerged from the Earth, trapping the man in a cage and making him lose balance for a second.

That second was enough for three ghosts to dive right into him. Three spectral pairs of hands dug inside his body, and they quickly pulled up, dragging with them a spectral orb similar to Charlie. Lincoln watched with horror as the ghosts took the orb back into the closest rift. The poltergeist next to him seemed to vibrate in dread, still trying its best to keep Lincoln safe.

"Another one bites the dust," Diablo said nonchalantly, before waving his fingers in the air once again.

The bone prison retracted back to the ground, and Lincoln saw how the former Electrician was now but an empty casket of himself, his skin paling by the second, standing with his eyes lost, his limbs quivering, now turned into a brand new Soulless.

Around him, more people fell victim to the ghosts, having their immortal souls ripped from their bodies and carried to the depths of the Earth. He felt like throwing up, and worst of all, he held himself responsible for every Soulless that appeared before him.

"Consume all life! Every soul we collect is a new addition to our forces! Bring chaos to this forsaken world! Soon, all social media shall crumble, and an era of peace will begin!" He then turned his head, his four eyes set on Lincoln. "And now, the time has come for us to become one."

Spreading his wings, the demon launched himself through the air towards the white-haired boy. He couldn't run. His blood seemed to freeze, and his lungs wouldn't let air in. He could only stare as the possessed body of Sid Chang spread its claws, ready to… what? Cut his throat? Take his soul? He didn't know, but there was nothing he could do. His body wouldn't even react to his commands, keeping him in place instead of running away like he oh-so-wanted to do.

Luckily for him, Charlie didn't seem as scared as him, or at the very least they hadn't lost the will to protect him. With a flash of light, the poltergeist slammed into Diablo right when the red-skinned devil was about to reach Lincoln.

"Charlie!" Lincoln yelled, gaining control over his voice.

"Ugh!" Diablo complained, spreading his wings to stabilize himself in the air, and staring at the small, bright orb of light that stood between him and Lincoln. "I've never met a more annoying poltergeist in my entire life. And you threw a refrigerator at me! This insolence can't be allowed to continue!"

With a roar, Diablo spread its claw and charged towards Charlie. The orb began to sparkle with more crackling energy and flew to meet Diablo halfway through. The two collided with enough force to create a small shockwave that threw Lincoln back to his bum and shattered the windows on the stores around them. They bounced back into a new collision a bit higher this time, and then another one, and Lincoln saw Diablo's toothy grin growing as the battle continued to elevate them into the sky.

He also felt an invisible force tugging his clothes, putting him back into his feet.

"Charlie!" He screamed once he could stand up. He wanted to help the small orb, but he was as helpless as a Bystander. Diablo and the poltergeist continued their brawl, with the Lord of Destruction taking swings with his claws, and Charlie trying his best to ram into the demon.

He tried to keep his eyes on the two of them, but soon the wailing of souls fast approaching reminded him that as worried as he was for his ghastly friend, he most likely wouldn't be able to help solve the problem he'd created if he died.

So he tried to turn and run away from the ghosts, but he came to the grim realization that he was surrounded when he saw more ghosts coming from behind. He frantically looked for an exit, an open alley he could run into, but he found nothing.

He began to hyperventilate, and in a last-ditch effort, he stretched both arms towards the nearest ghost, tried his best to focus, and channeled his Harem King powers.

"LINCOLN BLAST! MAXIMUM POWER!" He yelled, remembering what Lola had tried to do earlier that day. He felt his insides stirring like he was trying to reach something from the bottom of the ocean. His chest started to itch, with a familiar, tingling sensation, like a small spark trying to ignite…

The fire wouldn't be allowed to get lit, however, as a ghost reached him before anything could happen. The two ghostly hands sunk into his skin, grabbing him by his shoulders. He screamed in pain, as every inch of those hands phasing into his body felt like icy knives stabbing his nerves, making him colder than he'd ever been.

The ghost began to pull him up, lifting him one foot from the ground. And then, to his horror, he saw how gravity tried to pull his body down, allowing the ghost to ever-so-slowly drag the soul out of his body.

It looked like a second version of himself, one almost entirely transparent and ethereal stayed in place as his body inched closer to the ground. As it did, he lost track of time, of sounds, of any stimuli his mortal body could have felt. He began to wonder who he was, what he was doing there. In a moment of clarity, his life passed right before his eyes, and for a brief second, he realized what was happening.

They were taking his soul. His body would turn into a Soulless, and he'd basically die in every meaningful way. He'd never envisioned himself dying so young, especially not in such a helpless, lonely way. Lincoln was terrified. Scared senseless of the unknown destiny ahead of him, but also painfully aware of what he was leaving behind. He felt like he had so much more to give, so much left to live for. Getting his first kiss, growing up, traveling. Taking care of his sisters.

Oh, God, his sisters. If he died there, they would kill him. They'd be heartbroken. And with that thought, as he saw his own ethereal face in front of his eyes and his mind began to go blank, he dedicated his last few seconds of consciousness to the memories of his sisters…

SKADOOSH!

The first thing he felt was a warm wave washing over him. Then, the pain of falling on his back on the ground, and the air returning to his lungs as his eyes opened. For a moment, nothing made sense. He just saw flashes of red light, ghosts disappearing left and right, and finally, an angel staring down at him.

And then the angel slapped him in the face hard enough to push the last bit of his soul back into his body, and the world regained focus. He was still alive, he was still in a street-turned-battlefield, and most importantly, the angel was not the kind of angel he thought she was.

"Baby bro!" She said, bringing him in for a tight hug.

"Lynn!" He said, feeling a sense of relief that pushed away the desperation and despair that had flooded his heart moments earlier. He hugged her back, and the emotional whiplash brought him to the edge of tears. "Lynn! You couldn't have gotten here at a better time."

She snickered, pulling away from him but keeping her hands on his shoulders. "You think I'm gonna let a stupid ghost turn my bro into a Soulless?"

"Lynn, you gotta help me, there's a—"

With speed far greater than his eyes could follow, Lynn turned around with a round kick, hitting a ghost right on the torso and sending it straight to a group of other spirits, knocking them down like she's just gotten a perfect score in bowling.

He hadn't even noticed a ghost had sneaked up on them, but now that he was alert, he saw a new wave of ghosts quickly approaching. He stood up.

"Linc, just run," Lynn said, adopting a fighting stance with the faintest red glow emanating from her every pore. "I'll handle these."

"There's too many of them!" He complained, boldly taking a step forward to stand by her side.

The hordes of ghosts bawled in agony like a cacophony of pain. Lincoln took a step back behind his older sister.

"You can't possibly fight them alone!"

Lynn seemed slightly offended by his words, and she turned to look at him with a cocky grin. Before she could say anything, however, their eyes caught some movement, and they saw a crackling sphere of emerald energy soaring through the air towards the ghosts. They barely had time to close their eyes before the sphere exploded into a huge dome of destruction, consuming all the ghosts that tried to approach them.

"She's not alone!"

Flying down from the air, wearing her full outfit and winged boots, Leni landed between her siblings.

"Leni! You're here too?" Lincoln asked, pleasantly surprised by the arrival of a second sister.

"Duh! Of course!" She replied, giving him a quick Leni-hug that almost squeezed his soul out of his body.

"For the record, I could have definitely handed those ghosts," Lynn mentioned, looking angrily and disapproving at the way Leni pressed Lincoln into her voluptuous chest.

"You can punchy-punch those Soulless over there," Leni said, pointing with her wand at the recently-turned Soulless that approached them from the side of the street.

"No!" Lincoln said, escaping from Leni's grasp with a flustered face. How much of it was because of the lack of oxygen and how much was because of… other things, was still to be determined. "Those aren't Soulless! They were Bystanders, but some ghosts stole their souls!"

Lynn and Leni blinked twice.

"So… they're Soulless," Lynn mentioned.

"No!"

"Do they have souls?" Leni asked.

"No, I don't think so."

"So, in other words, you could say they currently lack souls, right?" Asked Lynn.

"...yes."

The two sisters stared at each other and nodded.

"Soulless," they confirmed with each other.

"No!" He complained, frantically waving his arms in the air. "Look! They've just been turned! Maybe if we can find a way to stop the guy leading this thing, they can go back to normal!"

"Sorry bro," Lynn said, showing him her knuckles, "these babies are trained to wreck, and I'm pretty pissed with these bad guys that tried to kill my brother. I need to punch their butts back to wherever they came from."

"Then punch the ghosts!"

"And what do we do with the Soulless, huh?"

"You can leave that to me."

Seconds after hearing that voice, a cold wind erupted from the sky above, hitting the limping Soulless and freezing their legs to the ground. The three Louds looked up just in time to see the oldest of their siblings finishing blowing her freezing breath.

"Lori?" Lincoln said as the leotard-wearing girl did an unnecessarily but admittedly cool-looking superhero landing in front of them. He tried really hard not to stare at the costume, and instead voiced the first thing that popped into his mind. "Guys, how are you all here? Did the Mayor make the emergency call so fast?"

"Nope," Lynn simply replied, quickly scanning the battlefield to take mental notes on where all the enemies were, and finally frowning when she set eyes in the sky. Presumably on Diablo, but Lincoln was still trying to process everything to pay attention to what exactly she was looking at.

"We got a text from Luan," Leni said.

"She told us you were in danger," Lori explained, looking at Lincoln to make sure he wasn't hurt. "We came here as fast as we could."

"And I got here first," Lynn said, turning back to smile smugly at Lori. "Someone's getting slow, huh?"

"Shut up! I was the one using my Super Hearing to figure out where Lincoln was! You just rushed over before I could narrow it down!"

"I just needed a general direction. No need to waste time."

"I wasn't wasting time!" Lori complained. "I was trying to understand the situation!"

"And I was trying to save our bro!"

"I was just flying around here and looking at how pretty the sky looks," Leni nonchalantly mentioned. "But then I got the text and came as fast as I could."

"I could've gotten here faster than you," Lori said, pouting at Lynn and crossing her arms under her chest. "You just cheated and left the house earlier."

"And you should thank me for doing that! I got here barely in time to save the dork from getting his soul ripped from his body!"

Lincoln was about to point out that she went from calling him baby bro to the dork in less than a minute, but the worrisome look on Lori's face stopped him from hurting Lynn's ego.

"You what?!" Lori asked, frantically patting his arms to make sure he was still there.

"I-It doesn't matter! I'm okay!"

"Thanks to me."

"Guys!" He yelled before they continued their silly banter. He took a deep breath and prepared to come clean. "Look, we have a huge problem. I… I messed up."

The three girls stared at Lincoln.

"What do you mean?" Lori asked him.

"This… this is all my fault," he admitted, feeling the weight of his failure pushing down on him. "I tried to help Luan, but my stupid Archetype wouldn't work. And she was counting on me, I couldn't let her down! So I, I took Mr. Coconuts and tried to use him instead of my Archetype, and I accidentally released a crazy demon."

"The one over there fighting with the glowy firefly?" Leni asked, pointing at Diablo. Who was, in fact, shooting an immense column of fire towards Charlie, who barely had time to shield themselves.

"Yes! That one!" He said, beginning to feel his eyes tearing up. "He tried to take my body, and my friend Sid had to save me! But now he's possessing her, and he's so, so powerful! I can't… I can't do anything, but I need to stop him, and I need to save her!"

His frustration was starting to get the better part of him. He felt so useless and helpless, but he couldn't just run away and leave everything to his sisters. He needed to fix the problem he himself had released, to seal the evil back into Pandora's box.

"Don't worry, Lincoln," Lori told him with a reassuring smile.

"We'll stop him," Leni said, gripping her wand tightly and nodding her head with a confident smile.

"No one gets to take my brother's body except me," Lynn mentioned, punching her open palm.

Before Lincoln could ask what she meant by that, Diablo's voice echoed in the city once again.

"ENOUGH!"

The four siblings looked up just in time to see Diablo aiming both hands forward. The entire sky seemed to darken for a second like the Sun had decided to set itself on power-saving mode. Shortly after, Diablo released a red lightning hose, so big and menacing that it put the Electrician to shame.

The poltergeist raised his blue barrier, but it only managed to hold on for a few seconds before the continuing flow of hellish energy shattered it and hit the orb.

"Charlie!" Lincoln yelled, watching in horror as the orb took the hit before it began to fall to the ground like a meteor.

Acting fast, Lynn casually jumped eighty feet in the air and caught Charlie like she would catch a baseball, before landing back with her siblings. Lincoln leaned over the orb, who was still crackling with some red sparks.

"Charlie! Are you okay?" He asked. The orb didn't respond, but its glowing dimmed like a low-battery flashlight. Lincoln tried to grab it, but unlike Lynn's, his hands phased through the immaterial orb.

"Lynn, you might wanna put that ghost aside," Lori said, stepping in front of Lincoln. "I think we're gonna need both of your hands for this."

Lincoln looked up to see that Diablo was now slowly hovering down, his bat-like wings moving eerily, and giving the three Loud sisters an amused look. Leni took a step to the left of Lori, her wand glowing with an emerald light, and Lynn carefully placed Charlie on the ground before stepping to the right of her oldest sister. The three Combat Archetypes stood between Diablo and their brother, ready to defend him to their last breath.

"Impressive," Diablo gleefully said, his combination of many voices added to Sid's. "Such strong Archetypes. Oh, your souls will become powerful assets once I've captured the strongest of yours."

"Good luck with that," both Lori and Lynn said, before looking at each other with a "Seriously?" expression on their faces.

Diablo began to laugh. "Oh, how mistaken you are, little ones. You're powerful, yes, but no Martial Artist or Superhero Archetype could match the hidden power the boy carries."

The three girls slowly turned their heads to give a surprised and worried glance at Lincoln.

"Like I said, he wants me," he simply responded, not knowing how to justify what Diablo had just said. He clearly was the only one helpless right there.

The three girls turned angrily at the Lord of Destruction. Leni planted her feet and aimed her wand at Diablo, her wand now shaking with the charged-up power she was prepared to release. Lynn adopted a fighting stance and her whole body was surrounded with a halo of red energy, with small pebbles and the tips of her bangs defying gravity by being pulled up. Lori hovered a few inches over the ground, closing her fists and pulling her elbows back, ready to brawl.

"This is your final warning," Lori said. "Leave that girl's body and go back to wherever you came from."

"Oh, that's sweet. You think you can beat me?" Diablo laughed, extending its wings and arms. "I am entropy! I am death! I am Diablo, Lord of Terror!"

"If you don't leave my brother alone, I'm gonna make you the Lord of Broken Teeth," Lynn threatened.

"Yeah, and Lord of Mixing Red Skin With Blue Blouses! Yuck! That's so last year!"

"Ah, I see what you are," Diablo said, pointing a crooked finger at Leni. "You're one of those girls that follow trends. Someone who lets the masses decide what's good and bad for you, because you can't live without the approval of other people. You, the Magical Girl that wants everyone to like her, that follows fashion like a religion. You, the Martial Artist that won't let anyone steal the spotlight from her. And you, the Superhero that craves attention and all eyes on her. You're all nothing but showoffs."

"I'm not a showoff!" Lori yelled.

"You flew down twenty feet to do a superhero landing," Diablo deadpanned.

Lynn looked at Lori. "He kinda got you there."

"Yeah, that was totes unnecessary."

"Shut up, you two!"

"I think it looked cool," Lincoln offered up, to Lori's delight.

"All three of you are part of what I want to eradicate from the face of this pathetic planet," Diablo said, finally landing sixty yards from them. "And all I need is your brother's Archetype. I'm sure it'll be easy to take it from him after I destroy your souls."

Diablo then began to draw more runes in the air in front of him.

"Vex, Lo, Ber, Jah, Ko."

Reality itself seemed to shatter in front of him, with spider-web-like cracks expanding on the air like a broken mirror, before a spiraling blast of red energy was shot at them. Lincoln took a step back, scared and angry at himself for needing to hide behind his sisters. Their bodies tensed, and they were about to try to stop Diablo's attack.

However, he saw a flash of white light, and in an instant, Luan had materialized in front of the four of them carrying a long cedar bow and wearing her miko outfit. Lincoln had never seen or even heard of Luan having the ability to teleport, and it took him a second to process what his eyes were seeing.

She didn't waste an instant, and with one swift movement, she nocked and shot a regular, feeble arrow that barely had time to travel the air. Lincoln quickly realized that she must have put some of her power into that arrow, since the moment it impacted Diablo's attack, the infernal flames disappeared, seemingly absorbed by the projectile that continued its trajectory with a renewed red glow.

Diablo opened both palms and created a red barrier, not unlike the ones Charlie used to protect them. The moment the bolt hit it, a flash of light and electricity blasted from the point of impact.

The arrow didn't stop its momentum. Instead, like it had some sort of magical propulsion, it continued to press against the shield, increasing the brightness of the light it radiated and the size of the lightning arcs it spawned. Seconds later, the barrier shattered, and the arrow continued to move, hitting Diablo in the chest and propelling him hundreds of yards and into a building.

Luan, not even phased by seemingly taking out the Lord of Destruction, conjured a magical cylinder of energy around herself and her family. Like moths attracted to light, the ghost in the street tried to go through it, but the divine force disintegrated them at once.

She sighed and turned to look at her siblings. "Alright. That should buy us some time."

"How did you get here so fast?" Lynn wondered, stepping forward to stare at her older sister.

"Were you just teleporting?" Lori also asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I got some help," she quickly mentioned, pointing a finger at the three glowing runes on her robes. "It won't last too long, but it should be enough for me to take him down."

Her eyes met Lincoln's, and for a second, he felt terrified. He thought he'd see her face turning into a scowl of anger. He readied himself to get the lecture of his life. When she began to pace towards him, as Lori and Leni stepped aside, he closed his eyes and prepared his left cheek to feel the sting of a slap, but instead found himself held tight in a warm embrace.

He let out a shaky breath as his arms surrounded her.

"I was so scared," she said.

"Luan, I'm so sorry," he began, not wasting time before jumping into his apologies. "I lied to you. My Genre Shift didn't work. I couldn't help Sid, I couldn't stop the poltergeist. I didn't want to let you down, I wanted you to live your dream. So I lied, and I took Mr. Coconuts to try to capture the orb, but I messed up and now that… thing took over my friend's body."

"And he said he wants Linky's Archetype," Leni added.

Luan shivered in fear. Her face became thoughtful and focused, looking down to the ground as she lost herself in her machinations. Only then did she notice the dim glow of a (re)dying poltergeist, lying still on the ground.

"Is that the orb you tried to exorcise?" She asked.

"Yeah. But they're not bad, honestly. They saved my life."

"Aw, thanks for keeping our brother safe," Leni thanked the orb. "You're the nicest firefly ever."

Luan knelt next to Charlie, closed her eyes for silent prayer, and then touched the orb with a glowing hand. Within seconds, Charlie levitated up in the air, and Lincoln saw the same characteristic glow coming back to it.

"Charlie, are you alright?" He asked, stepping next to Luan to look at it.

As always, it didn't say anything, but the way it swung in the air seemed to indicate it was fine. It moved closer to Lincoln, hovering almost face to face to him, vibrating and changing the intensity of its light.

"Charlie says we need to save Sid," Luan translated.

"You can talk to them?" Lori asked.

"Well, yeah, it's part of my job."

Charlie then moved to Luan and continued to speak in a language of slight rotations, vibrations, and dimming its glow. The Exorcist listened to it carefully, nodding and replying every now and then.

"I see. So he looked different, but he didn't have any powers." Lincoln gulped, looking embarrassed at his own feet. "Oh, yeah, Diablo can mess with someone's mind. Aha. Yeah. Oh. Oh, that's bad. The key to his plan? Oof. Hidden power? I see. Oh, really? Does she?"

Luan turned to look at Lincoln with a raised eyebrow and a smug smile. Charlie kept communicating.

"Okay, I gotcha. Then we should— Yeah, exactly. Alright, can you do that? You sure? Perfect; sounds like a plan."

"Uh, can you translate for the rest of us that don't speak with ghosts?" Lynn asked, slightly annoyed at being left out.

Luan stood up, taking her quiver off her back and leaving it on the ground next to her bow.

"Alright, so, uh, I know I don't usually fight with you three… But I have a plan, and, and… And I need you to trust me," she asked, looking embarrassedly at her siblings.

"Of course we trust you," Leni reassured her.

"Luan, fighting ghosts and demons is your thing," Lori said, smiling at the brunette. "You call the shots. What's the plan here?"

The Exorcist sighed, a smile of relief spreading on her face before going back to a serious expression. "Alright, so there's a lot going on, and we don't have much time before things get worse, so we can't count on more Combat Archetypes coming in to help. Diablo is a powerful demon, so don't try to fight him. Leave him to me."

"What?!" Lincoln exclaimed. "Luan, that's super dangerous! You can't fight him alone!"

"Yeah, wouldn't it be faster if we all just ganged up on him?" Lynn asked, cocking her hips and cracking her knuckles.

"You know you're all strong… but trust me, this is different. He's not from this world. Things like punches or laser beams can't really hurt him. Only divine powers can have any sort of effect on him."

"Aw, man, so I can't even kick him?"

"No, Lynn. But your aura attacks can definitely hurt the ghosts, and you're super fast. So we need you to make sure the ghosts don't get too far into the city. Try to keep them contained in this neighborhood. Can you do that?"

"Pfft, can I?" She said fixing her hair-buns. "Don't worry; I'll be fine."

"Great. Then Leni," Luan said, looking at the Magical Girl. "You see all the Soulless that appeared? They've lost their souls, but we can still get them back after we beat Diablo. Just make sure to use your Leni Barrier to keep them locked so they don't attack other Bystanders."

"So, like, I shouldn't hurt them?"

"No."

"So no Leni Blast?"

"No, no boom-booms."

"Okay!"

"So what do I do?" Lori wondered. "I can't exactly punch ghosts."

"You," Luan mentioned, pointing a finger at Lori, only then to move it to Lincoln, "need to take him as far away from here as possible. Keep him safe."

"What?!" Lincoln complained. "No way I'm leaving you guys behind!"

"Lincoln, Charlie says Diablo wants your Archetype to conquer the world. That means he wants to take over your body like he's doing with your friend right now. Only he's only temporarily using her; he wants you permanently. We can't risk that."

"But Luan, maybe I could—"

"Lincoln," she interrupted him, "we have this covered. Charlie's gonna get Mr. Coconuts for me. Once I have him, I can seal Diablo back. I've done it before. I'm strong. But we'll all do our work better if you're out of trouble. So please, just go somewhere safe."

"And just leave you guys to stay here risking your lives? For something I caused?"

"We risk our lives every day," Lynn said.

He gave her a defiant look. "And I worry every day."

"Look, you're the one Diablo wants, and I'm the one that can fight him," Luan sentenced. "Even if you weren't our little brother, it only makes sense to keep you out of trouble."

The argument came to a stop when they all heard a mighty roar, and in the distance, they could spot Diablo coming out of the rubble, spreading its wings and rocketing straight to them.

"Everyone! Go!"

Charlie floated away. Lynn disappeared faster than the eye could see. Leni tapped her heels, getting her wings on her boots and flying to the side. And, much to his dismay, Lori held Lincoln in a bridal carry and began to distance themselves from their sister.

"Luan!" He shouted, trying in vain to escape Lori's gentle but firm, iron-like grip.

"I'll be fine!" She said, smiling one last time to calm him, before standing in the middle of the radiant circle she'd conjured on the ground, planting her feet and crossing her arms over her chest.

She squint her eyes, measuring the speed Diablo was approaching her at, waiting until the very last second. Once he was close enough and she could see the vicious smile on his face, she quickly extended her arms.

And not a second too soon, the cylinder of light that emanated from the magic circle closed into a tiny right, closing itself around Diablo's torso and stopping his claws inches from Luan's face.

"Luan Loud," Diablo said with his multiple voices, not really trying to break the radiant hold that kept him locked in place. "We meet again, at last."

"I hoped I wouldn't have to see your ugly face for at least a couple more years," she coldly mentioned.

"I'm not the one wearing ugly braces," he snapped back right away. "Tell me, have you found love yet? Or are you still as hopelessly single as the last time we met?"

She clenched her jaw but otherwise tried to show no weakness against the manipulative demon.

"What? Do you want a go at me? Is that why you turned into a succubus?"

That remark wiped Diablo's grin off his face. "I'm not a succubus."

"Could've fooled me."

"Shut up. I'm the Lord of Destruction, herald of doom!"

"Look at that forked tongue. We all know what deadly sin that's aiming for."

Diablo open his mouth to angrily retort but the realization hit him, and he then smiled once again.

"You're just stalling for time!" He said, laughing. "Oh, Luan. So naive. You think you have a plan? You think there's anything you can do to stop me this time? Feel free to try, but I'm not worried about any trick you think you can pull."

"The only thing you should worry about is how much stronger I've gotten in the past year."

"Why yes, I've noticed," he casually mentioned, glancing at the ring that surrounded him. "I spent my whole time in that wooden prison of yours wondering how a sixteen year old could be strong enough to face me. But today I learned."

Luan sensed Diablo's power increasing, and she clenched her fists, tightening the magical hold on him.

"Had I known about your brother's Archetype, I would've gone after him much sooner. That power... You've all been misusing it. Once I get it, I'll unleash it, and not even you will be able to stop me then."

With a roar, Diablo broke the magical circle that stopped him, shattering the divine energy into motes of light. He then tried to swing his claws at Luan, but she teleported just in time to avoid it, appearing right behind the demon. She opened her palm, and a burst of golden flames spewed in his direction.

Diablo covered himself with his wings, wincing at the sheer power and volume of Luan's holy fire. With a mid-air twirl, he rolled to a side and his four eyes shone with a hellish red. The Exorcist sensed danger and instinctively teleported herself twenty feet behind. Just in time before a fissure opened right where she had been standing, and a wall of lava erupted up.

Luan thought back to her training. Christian forms of divine powers were good enough to banish demons back to Hell, but Diablo was too strong to be simply exorcised away from this plane of existence. She felt more comfortable fighting with Paladin skills, but those were designed neither to control nor to banish. They were meant to vanquish.

And while she would usually not care about obliterating demons, Diablo had taken over an innocent girl's body. She couldn't just annihilate him. That meant she needed to change her strategy and fight with Oriental techniques. They were, after all, the masters of subduing and imprisoning supernatural entities.

Coincidentally, she just happened to be wearing her miko outfit. Convenient classes are convenient, she thought.

Reaching under the collar of her robes, she took out her mala necklace. A hundred and eight beads to channel the divine powers. She just needed to make sure her fight would be quick enough where she didn't have to spend more than a hundred and eight charges.

Diablo opened his mouth, with the jaw dislocating from the skull for some extra inches, and a cloud of infernal locusts flew from it towards Luan. She held the mala tight with one hand, and with the other drew a circle. One of the red beads turned black, and a blue circle appeared in the air seven feet in front of her. The moment the locusts went through the circle, they turned into butterflies, harmlessly flying away in all directions.

"Many tricks up your sleeve," Diablo pointed out with a smile, his jaw coming back into place. "How long do you think you'll be able to hold me down before I manage to destroy you?"

She didn't say anything. Instead, she just made a mudra gesture with her hands. Another bead blackened, and several tiny motes of light appeared around Luan, forming a constellation. Then, with a hand motion, they one by one were shot at Diablo, who began to move around the air to dodge them.

"Just gotta keep him busy… Everything'll be fine," Luan thought.

She tried not to show how scared she truly was.

"We can't leave!"

"You heard Luan; she's got it covered. And we need to keep you safe."

"But—!"

"Lincoln, I know you worry about us," Lori told him, moving to the top of a nearby building, keeping her brother away from all the action, but still close enough where she could keep an eye on their sisters. "I'm also worried about them, and I wish I could do something here. But in order for us to do our jobs, we need to trust each other. And I trust them. I know they're strong enough to do their part and be okay. Do you trust them?"

He looked beneath. It was hard to miss the main battle between Luan and Diablo, with how many explosions, powers, and spells were cast. He could also quickly spot the big, emerald domes of energy that Leni kept creating to control the Soulless. Lynn, on the other hand, was hard to actually see. Much like with black holes, she was invisible to the human eye, but one could spot her through the effect she had on the environment. In that case, it meant following the ghosts that were punched back to the afterlife before they could get far away from the epicenter.

"I… Of course I trust them," he mentioned, leaning back into Lori's chest, too worried to even think about her softness. "But I hate it when you guys are risking your lives. If only I could help… If I could fight with you…"

"We know," she said, gently caressing his hair. "Trust me, we know. We don't like worrying you, but…"

"But you have amazing powers. And you're amazing at what you do. You should be out there helping those that can't help themselves."

"Exactly." Lori then smiled at him. "Isn't that what you always wanted from us? Isn't that what you like about us?"

"That's just a small part of what I like about you guys," He casually said, completely ignorant as to just how hard his words made her heart beat. "And I wanna be like you. I would love to be able to help others. But… But sometimes I'm also really selfish. And I wish none of you had to put yourselves in danger."

As much as she would have loved to keep holding him close the way she was, she decided to put him down on the floor, kneeling to be at eye-level with him.

"Lincoln. I'm sure you'll be able to control your Archetype soon. And if you can fight the way Leni and Sam said you can, then I'm sure you'll be more than capable of standing your ground next to us."

His face lit up at her words.

"But until then, you need to understand that there's nothing we care more about than making sure you and the rest of our family are safe. That's why we fight, Linc. To make sure the town we live in is safe enough for you."

He knew it.

He just wished there was anything he could do to keep them safe.

Luan thought she had it under control for a second. She'd only spent twenty beads, and Diablo was already in trouble.

The teleportation she got from Akara's runeword on her robes had proven to be a gamechanger. The ability to immediately reposition herself away from harm and into advantage points to attack Diablo had skewered the odds in her favor. She'd managed to so far neutralize his attacks, and had even landed a few of her own.

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. She'd grown much more powerful than the last time they fought, and yet she didn't seem to be doing nearly as well as she should have been. Had Diablo grown in power as well? As much as she excelled in her Exorcist practices, she was far from a scholar. Perhaps there was a key component she was missing.

If that was the case, then she couldn't hold back. She needed to preemptively end the fight before it turned dire. And when she sensed the presence of a poltergeist approaching from the right, she knew it was time to bring out the big guns.

"We're not doing anything here," Lincoln complained, pacing back and forth on the rooftop. "We should be over there, not over here."

"You know, I entertained you the first two times cause I get how you're feeling," Lori said, her hands on her hips. "But I really don't feel like having the same conversation for the third time."

"They could use our help!"

"I'm useless against ghosts, and you're the main target the evil demon from Hell is after. Sorry, but we're staying here."

"How can you be so calm about this?!"

"I'm not!" She sternly said. "Do you think it's easy for me to feel like I can't do anything to help?! Don't you think I'd love to be in the frontlines fighting instead of babysitting?!"

He felt a pang of guilt and pain in his heart, and all the anger that filled his insides was turned into frustration and shame. Lori realized what she said, and she covered her mouth with one hand.

"Lincoln… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"No… It's fine. It's true."

He turned his back on her.

"All I do cause is trouble."

When Diablo tried to once again launch himself at her, she teleported. Instead of moving behind him or to a side, she changed her strategy, instead appearing several feet in the air over him. She then spread her mala and closed her eyes, channeling as much divine power as she could.

A single beam turned dark, and a lightning bolt shot from her hands towards Diablo. The demon raised a barrier to deflect it, but the strike proved to be too powerful, and the shield couldn't stop it from reaching him. The demon let out a howl as he got hit with a holy bolt, with the electricity staying in place around him, circling through his body over and over again, leaving him a quivering mess on the ground.

Luan took advantage of the opening and teleported ten feet in front of Diablo. With a hand gesture, another bead turned black, and tree straight lines appeared as a sigil on the ground. She teleported to the opposite side and did another mudra. One less red bead, one more sigil. She repeated the process six times, teleporting to different positions and quickly enchanting magical scriptures on the ground. After the eighth one was finished, she spent a ninth bead to create a yin-yang circle right under Diablo and in the center of the eight trigrams, completing her Ba Gua.

The moment she finished it, the sigils and the yin-yang circle began to glow. The lightning enveloping Diablo disappeared, but the demon was instead pushed down to the ground like the gravity in that area had multiplied tenfold for him. He tried to stand up, but five lassos grew from a pentagram within the octagon. One made out of clay, one made out of metal, one out of water, one out of fire, one out of wood. They held Diablo immobile from each limb and his head, forcing him to stay on his knees, looking up at a calmly approaching Luan.

"Impressive," the demon acknowledged. "Not many can conjure the Ten-Thousand-Things Taoist Talisman Trap."

"Fewer can say that out loud five times in a row," she said, looking at her mala. She was down to forty beads. The fight had gone on far longer than she'd expected. "It's over."

"Is it?" Diablo asked.

Just then, Charlie returned, carrying the wooden form of Mr. Coconuts floating next to them. Luan picked it up and thanked the poltergeist with a gentle nod of her head.

"It is," she replied, stepping into the Ba Gua and approaching the demon.

Charlie seemed to doubt for a second, but then it cautiously floated inside the circle. It glowed bright, probably happy for not turning into stone or dissolving into aether.

Diablo cocked his head as much as he could with as little movement as the lasso allowed him and showed her a knowing grin. "Is it?"

"You're trapped. You can't move. I have my Soul Cage. I can exorcise you from that body and send you back to your prison," Luan pointed out. "Yeah, I'd say it's over."

"You might trap me in there, but so what? I'm an immortal, undying concept that will stay alive as long as humanity goes on. I'll never be truly gone. Time is not a limitation for me as it is for you. It is merely a way to measure my progress before burning this world to its core. One day you'll grow old and weak, and what then? Who will stop me?"

"Many stopped you before me. I'm sure more will come after as well. In the meantime, if you have the balls to try to come out again, I'll be here to beat you into submission like I've done. Twice."

Diablo began to laugh. "Oh, Luan, don't fool yourself. Your brother told me the truth: you don't even want to be an Exorcist."

She showed no emotion, but her silence was enough for Diablo to continue.

"Your Archetype doesn't represent you. You only do it to please others. You don't feel the call to action. Your heart isn't into it. You have selfish needs and interests."

Charlie flew next to her head, trying to tell her to stop paying attention to him, to focus on what she had to do.

"I still showed up to stop you," she said, ignoring their warnings.

"You only showed up to save your brother. And guess what? Even if you save him today, you can't keep him safe from me forever."

She was too angry to notice how Diablo slowly began to turn his right hand, trying to get his palm to face her.

"Now that I know his Archetype, I won't stop until I get my hands on it."

"I'll never let you!" She roared, stepping closer. Charlie tried to stop her, but she dismissed him with the back of her hand.

"You can't stop me. You can't keep an eye on him at all times. All it takes is one slip-up, one distraction, and he'll be mine."

"No. Shut up. Shut up!"

"I'll consume his soul," he continued, raising his voice with a wicked laugh, like thousands of voices mocking her at the same time.

"You think I'll let you?!"

"I'll take over his body, get ahold of the power of his Archetype, but I won't destroy his conscience. I'll make sure he stays awake inside, unable to do anything but watch as I kill every single one of his sisters with his own powers. His wailing soul will fuel my rage as I unleash it upon you! And then, once you're all dead, I will be kind enough to let his essence die and join your soul in the void of Tartarus!"

Fueled with rage, Luan took one step closer to him, ready to punch his laughing face.

Just in range for the blade to come out of his palm.

"Lincoln, come on," Lori begged, trying to get him to look at her. "That's not true!"

"Everywhere I go, all I do is make you guys worry about me. Cause I'm a stupid, helpless Harem King that just makes everything worse."

"Literally false!"

"Then how come you don't trust me?!"

She used her superspeed to put herself right in front of him. "Of course I trust you!"

"Then let me go there to help Luan!"

"How?!" She screamed, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Lincoln, it's not that I don't trust you! But I can't let you risk your life for nothing!"

"It's not for nothing!" He said, staring at her with pleading eyes. "I couldn't… I couldn't Genre Shift with her. I don't know why. But I don't need to do that to be helpful! Remember when I powered you up? I can do that! I can help her become strong enough to beat the bad guys!"

"And what if you can't? What if your Archetype doesn't react in time?"

"It will," he told her. "It worked every time my sisters were in trouble. It's gonna work now, too."

"What if it doesn't?" She repeated.

He put a hand over hers and looked at her straight in the eye. "It will. Trust me."

He could see her mind thinking fast, looking at it from all angles. Trying to find the flaw in his logic, to find a way to challenge him without perpetuating the lie that she didn't trust him. She did. He knew she did. He just needed her to show it.

The sound of screaming from the streets below reached them.

"I can take care of myself. I can go to Luan and help her," he said, trying to reassure her. "Those people out there, the Bystanders, they need a hero. Go help them, and let me help Luan."

She shook her head, but her troubled expression showed her conflict, and how she was trying to come up to terms with the fact that she'd made up her mind.

"Alright," she said, at last, sighing and giving him a worried smile. "I trust you."

Luan pressed both of her palms against the sides of her chest, trying to keep the wound from bleeding as she tripped back.

Hadn't it been for Charlie quickly pulling her back, the sword that came out of Diablo's hand would have pierced her right through her heart. As it was, it had slashed her torso and tore the front of her robe with the second swing. The sharp pain hit her skull like a nail, and she could barely hold her breath to stop a scream from escaping her throat. She looked at one of her hands and paled when she saw how tainted with her own blood it was.

The Ba Gua trembled, her focus and energy escaping her like the blood from her wound. Diablo laughed and took advantage of the weakened state of his prison to cut the lassos with his sword. He then stood up and impaled the ground with his weapon. Rifts opened, breaking the seal.

Luan tried to teleport herself out of the way, but to her horror, she realized that the runes in her robes had been cut in half. Once again, it was Charlie who saved her from certain death, carrying her away from the openings in the ground.

"T-Thank you," she said, finding it hard to talk as she tried to stand up.

"You fool," Diablo said, stepping closer to her. "You let your rage blind you. Didn't you know I'd possessed an Assassin Archetype?"

"Well, that certainly explains how he was able to materialize a sword out of thin air," Luan thought.

"You weren't wrong. It could have been over. You had the opportunity to seal me and stop my plans for a while," he mentioned, continuing to step forward, dragging the tip of his sword on the ground, making it create sparks. "But you let your feelings get in the way. And now… you'll pay the price."

He pointed to the ground with his chin, and Luan realized that he was standing right in front of Mr. Coconuts.

"No!" She yelled, grabbing her mala, but feeling too weak to conjure anything.

"Let the souls of the wicked join me!" He declared, before raising his sword and stabbing it right in the middle of the puppet's chest.

The wood cracked, and red winds spewed from the inside, a mini-tornado surrounding Diablo. Luan watched in horror as the souls of her many enemies flew around, before one by one they all entered the Lord of Terror's open maw, from Abaddon the Destroyer to Conan O'Brien.

The red figure of Diablo began to change. He became bigger, more swollen. His teeth turned sharper and longer, and a pair of twisted horns grew from his forehead. The sword he was holding erupted in flames, and when he looked at Luan and spoke, it was like the Earth trembled.

"Not even death can save you from me now."

Lori left him a few blocks away from the big circle of magic that Luan had trapped Diablo inside of.

"Don't even think about getting caught, you hear me?" She warned him.

"I'll be okay! Don't worry!" He said, trying to reassure her.

"You know I'll worry," she simply responded before rushing away to help Bystanders.

Lincoln wasted no time before he began to run. No ghosts came his way. They were all, apparently, way too busy trying to stop the brunette fury that kept wrecking through them like a supersonic Tasmanian devil, punching them to oblivion.

His lungs weren't used to him doing this kind of physical effort, but he wouldn't let his body give up. He needed to get to Luan, and he needed to give her as much power as she needed to finish this apocalyptic nightmare as fast as possible. He pushed through his tiredness, ignoring the burning sensation on his legs and the aching pain on the side of his stomach. The only thing that mattered was to find Luan and do anything. To be helpful.

Deep down, he knew she didn't need him. She was an exorbitantly powerful Exorcist. He was a stupid Harem King, and he didn't even know what that truly meant yet. She was an accomplished teenager with a resume of success. He had nothing but a long list of failures. She had a clear goal in mind for her life. He didn't really know what he wanted.

He just knew that he needed to help his sisters.

He tripped when the ground shook, and he scraped his knees with some rocks. He winced but recovered as fast as he could, continuing to run. He turned a corner, the final corner, and his heart and legs stopped dead when he saw what transpired ahead.

Diablo looked even more horrifying and dangerous than before, as he swung a mighty sword covered in fire at Luan. Lincoln almost fainted when he saw Luan's robes covered in a red that wasn't there last he saw her. Even worse was to witness the way she seemed to struggle to repel Diablo's attacks as she walked back.

She seemed to have a collar of some kind in her hands, filled with mostly black beads and a couple of red ones. He saw her make a hand gesture and one of those red beads turn black. A magic circle appeared to the left of Diablo and a colossal stony fist pushed through it like a truck.

The demon stopped the giant hand with his left arm, his feet breaking the asphalt with the force of his resistance, being dragged a few inches back. He roared like thunder and hit the hand with his sword, shattering it to pebbles.

Luan did another hand gesture and a lightning bolt fell from the sky, strong enough to power up an entire city, but Diablo caught it with his hand and shot it Luan. Lincoln screamed her name, thinking she would get hit, but Charlie intercepted the hit and was propelled away from his field of view.

Luan turned her head and her eyes met Lincoln's for an instant.

"Dol, Um, Ber, Ist!"

Diablo drew four runes in the air, and from the ground, red chains flung at Luan, surrounding her body and pressing her arms against her torso. She cried in agony and fell to her knees right before the demon.

Diablo doused the flames of her sword and placed the tip under Luan's chin, lifting her head before looking at Lincoln.

"Beware, Harem King," he roared, and though the distance between them was vast, Lincoln could hear him nonetheless. "Your experienced older sister was unable to stop me. What chance do you think you would have, in your powerless state? Come to me, surrender your soul, and I will spare the lives of the rest of your sisters."

He felt an icy hand grabbing his heart, trying to stop it from beating.

"Don't do it!" Luan yelled. "Just run!"

Diablo snickered and pressed the blade against her neck, making her gasp in shock and fear.

"NO!" Lincoln yelled, stepping closer and looking at his sister's pleading eyes through the tears that began to form on his own. "DON'T HURT HER!"

They shared a silent conversation. Lincoln apologized for everything. For being an idiot. For releasing a demon. For getting everyone to that position. For putting her in danger.

She tried to tell him everything would be fine. That she didn't blame him. That he should run. That even right then, trapped and with a demonic sword against her throat, she only cared about his safety.

Diablo, unfortunately, wasn't in the mood to let them communicate through looks.

"It is not her life that's at stake here, boy," he said maliciously. "It's the rest of your sisters that I'm willing to spare."

"NO! STOP!" He said, beginning to run towards the demon, not knowing what he could do, but literally anything would be better than just standing helplessly a hundred feet away.

"I must kill her to show you that I'm serious," Diablo mentioned before looking at Luan. "It's nothing personal. You were a worthy opponent."

He raised his sword above his head.

"Lincoln! I love you!" She yelled with tears in her eyes.

"LUAN!" He screamed to the top of his lungs.

He stretched his hand at her, almost wishing he could grab her and pull her into him to save her from the demon.

She looked at him, feeling her end nearing, and she dedicated what she thought would be her last thought to pray that her brother would get out of there alive and grow to become the great, brave men she knew he was.

Just as she finished that thought, she felt something different. Her pain subsided, replaced with a warm, electric feeling that seemed to spark in every cell of her body.

On the other side of the battlefield, Lincoln saw an invisible light that was only there in his head. He saw what seemed like Luan shining like a star. A beacon of hope, right where his hand was extended to. Without time to think, he closed his fist around it, and then it was him who was covered in light.

At the same time, Diablo set his sword aflame once more.

"Your soul shall fuel the Hellforge!" He roared, before bringing it down towards Luan.

SWOOSH! KLA-CLANG!

The air left Luan's lungs and her mind went blank.

Diablo stared in disbelief, his confident, evil expression turning into one of shock, as his arm shook with the effort of trying to bring his sword down.

But even with demonic strength, he wasn't able to even budge the sword of an infuriated, fully clothed, Genre-Shifted Lincoln.