Kurt's lips, stained with blood, curled into a thin, victorious smile. Despite Lilith's threads around his throat, his eyes blazed with an almost fanatical light.
"You fell for it," he whispered. "I wanted you close."
Lilith's eyes widened.
Light erupted from Kurt's body. A sphere of pure, blinding radiance expanded outward in all directions, consuming everything in its path. The cobblestones beneath them vaporized. The buildings nearby crumbled. The soldiers who had been watching from the edges of the street screamed as the light swallowed them.
Lilith's threads snapped up, weaving a cocoon around her body. Layers upon layers of silk, dense and shadow-touched, wrapped around her just as the light struck.
[Silk Sovereign: Umbral Cocoon].
The light pressed against the cocoon, searing the outer layers, turning silk to ash. Lilith felt the heat, even through her defenses. She curled tighter, her threads thickening, reinforcing, as the explosion raged around her.
