Some kind of red-and-black aura expanded from Wolfbrand’s body. Simultaneously, Sheminith raised his harp and plucked at the strings, summoning a golden aura that covered all of us—including Jonah, who had rushed over to join us even before Wolfbrand unleashed his spell.

  Wolfbrand’s bloody aura slammed into Sheminith’s golden aura, which managed to withstand the bloody aura. Based on the sweat running down Sheminith’s forehead, however, it seemed to take a lot of effort to keep up.

  But that didn’t stop Wolfbrand’s aura from spreading across the rest of the clearing like a dark rain cloud.

  The tree limbs restraining the bandits withered and died, cracking apart and turning into dust as soon as the aura touched them. Barlow suddenly started moving again, blinking in confusion as it looked around, but just as clearly no longer affected by Sheminith’s Divine Order.

  The bloody aura didn’t just undo Sheminith’s spells, however. When it touched the bandits, they cried out, clutching their heads and falling to their knees like they had been struck with terrible headaches.

  “What is going on out there?” asked Ruth, trembling as we all stared at the oppressive red-and-black aura from within Sheminith’s aura. “Is Wolfbrand hurting his own minions?”

  Sheminith wiped sweat from his forehead. “This spell … it would seem I have underestimated Wolfbrand. He is no mere bandit. He’s a—”

  The cracking of dead tree limbs interrupted Sheminith. The tree limbs wrapped around Wolfbrand’s body faded gray and crumbled to dust. This corrosive effect then spread back across the entire tree, withering the entire tree and turning it into a gray, dead-looking tree until it suddenly collapsed into a huge pile of gray dust. The collapse of the tree created a thick gray dust cloud that briefly obscured both Wolfbrand and Barlow from view, though we could still see the other struggling bandits quite well.

  But then Wolfbrand’s glowing, blood-red eyes gleamed through the dust cloud, higher off the ground than they had been before …

  And then Wolfbrand, riding atop Barlow, emerged from the dust cloud.

  Wolfbrand looked largely the same, aside from his glowing red eyes and crackling electric aura. His hook hand, which fastened a collar around Barlow’s neck that I hadn’t noticed before, glowed the same red-and-black color as the rest of his aura.

  For that matter, Barlow shared Wolfbrand’s deadly aura, snorting and growling as he pawed at the ground with claws that looked even thicker and longer than before. Wolfbrand’s unnatural spell had clearly affected Barlow as well.

  My jaw dropped. “What the Sheol happened to him?”

  “I’d ask the same about his bandits,” said Jonah. He gestured with his trident. “Look at them.”

  I looked at the nearest bandit, who happened to be the one that Sheminith had knocked out, and realized Jonah was right.

  The bandit, who had been unconscious, jerked when Wolfbrand’s oppressive aura washed over his body. He gasped, and his eyes shot open, though now they appeared to be filled with blood, making him look insane.

  His fingers cracked as bony claws broke through the tips of his fingers and ripped through the toes of his boot on his remaining leg. As for his missing leg, a new, bony lower leg and foot with clawed toes erupted from the stump like a sword through a man’s chest.

  As for his face, his skin became ashen gray, and his cheeks deep and hollow. His screams gradually changed into inhuman screeching, which didn’t stop even as he rose to his feet. Devil-like horns sprouted out of his head, twisting and curling and sparking with flame.

  The same unnatural transformation had affected all of the bandits. They had been transformed from human bandits into bizarre creatures that appeared to be straight out of the nightmare of a madman, like something you’d only hear about in tales told around campfires in the middle of the night.

  I pointed my portable at the nearest bandit and scanned it:

  Codex Wight [Transformed Human]

  Species: Codex Wight [Formerly: Human]

  This creature was once a human, only to be corrupted by the dark glyphs and forbidden logic of the Wyrdbinder Discipline. In exchange for its free will and intelligence, the creature has gained superhuman strength, speed, and unwavering loyalty to the Wyrdbinder who created it. Stronger Codex Wights can even disrupt spells.

  Codex Wights also have a severe lack of care for their own life and safety. They exist only to serve the bloody wishes of their forbidden masters and will willingly risk their very lives if it means obeying their master’s wicked will.

  The newly transformed Codex Wight shrieked and hurled itself bodily at Sheminith’s aura. But the Codex Wight just bounced off the barrier-like aura without hurting us. That didn’t stop it from slamming itself against the barrier over and over again, however, as if attempting to knock down the barrier through sheer bloody-minded persistence. The barrier flashed gold every time the Codex Wight struck it, causing the barrier to flicker rapidly like a light show.

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  The other Codex Wights were coming over to join us. Some continued to wield the weapons they had carried as bandits, but others had abandoned their weapons in favor of their claws and teeth. They formed a tight circle around us, clattering teeth and shrieking noises coming from their mouths as they slashed at the barrier with their claws and swords or, like the first Wight, threw themselves bodily against the barrier again and again.

  “Codex Wights?” Ruth looked paler than the full moon standing beside me, having apparently also scanned them with her portable. “I thought those were just myths.”

  Wolfbrand laughed, though his laughter sounded more … glitched, somehow, as if he was an unstable Arcane Simulation himself. “There are worse nightmares than that crawling across this vast continent of ours, girl! Perhaps in Sheol, you will see some of them yourself.”

  I had no idea what Wolfbrand had done to his bandits or what kind of forbidden spells he was using to pull this off, but I figured that Sheminith, at least, had to have answers.

  So I looked at Sheminith and asked, “How are we going to stop him, Sheminith?”

  Sheminith then looked at me and smiled. “Very simple: You four are going to run as soon as I give you the order to do so. And then I’ll deal with Wolfbrand alone.”

  “What?” Jonah said. He pushed me aside and glared up at Sheminith. “No way, Sheminith. Silver Swords don’t abandon each other. That’s one of our creeds.”

  Sheminith smiled sadly at Jonah. “I’m glad you’ve learned that lesson in our brief time together, but you don’t understand. Wolfbrand will slaughter all of you if you try to fight him. Your best bet is to run while I hold him off.”

  Wolfbrand laughed again. “Run? Where? My Wights have you surrounded on all sides. There is no place in this forest where any of you can hide from me.”

  Nimbus grimaced and looked around while still sitting in Ruth’s arms. “Hate to admit it, but the crazy Wyrdbinder has a point. We can’t run anywhere without running into some of those disgusting Wights. At the very least, we’d have to fight through them, which I am not looking forward to.”

  “That’s why we have to stay and fight.” Jonah planted the butt of his trident into the ground and glared defiantly at Wolfbrand. “Like true warriors of the Silver Swords.”

  Sheminith rolled his eyes. “There is one escape route you could take, one that the boy and the girl know about.”

  Ruth and I exchanged puzzled looks before I looked at Sheminith again. “What are you talking about? What escape route?”

  Sheminith gestured with his head behind him, still looking at me directly, as if he didn’t want to say it aloud for Wolfbrand to hear. It was weird that he was trying to communicate that to me instead of Jonah, but I followed Sheminith’s gesture anyway to try to get an idea about what he was trying to tell me without using words.

  At first, I thought that Sheminith was referring to what appeared to be a small gap between some of the Codex Wights behind us. That gap would take us deeper into the forest, but I didn’t understand how that would get us to safety. As Wolfbrand himself had just said, there weren’t many places around here where we could hide from him. We couldn’t even return to the temporary Research Center because all of the researchers were dead, thanks, of course, to Wolfbrand and his bandits.

  But then my gaze lingered on a specific wooden door that had popped out of the ground, and I realized what Sheminith was trying to communicate to us.

  Yet I couldn’t say that aloud without Wolfbrand overhearing and sending his Wights to block off the door. We would just have to move very quickly.

  I looked at Ruth, Nimbus, and Jonah. “I know what Sheminith is talking about. But you are going to have to trust me, okay?”

  Jonah scowled at me like I had suggested we get down on our knees and beg Wolfbrand for mercy. “If you think I’m just going to follow you without knowing what your plan is—”

  “Listen to the boy, Jonah,” said Sheminith. He glanced at me with his glowing golden eyes. “I believe he is about to do what I would do in this situation.”

  Jonah bit his lower lip but finally nodded. He didn’t look at all happy about having to abandon Sheminith, but at least he had stopped arguing with him about it.

  That was good. We were going to need Jonah’s help to get through the Codex Wights and reach the dungeon entrance in time. It also looked like Jonah’s cheek injury had already healed, though I wasn’t sure how, seeing as I hadn’t seen Ruth cast any healing spells on him, nor had I seen him drink any healing potions. Did Sheminith’s aura heal him?

  Wolfbrand’s voice was cruel and mocking. “You are very silly children if you think you can just plan in front of me as if I don’t know what you are doing! Though even if I don’t know your exact plans, I don’t need to. Barlow, attack!”

  Barlow lunged forward with a roar and slashed one of his claws across Sheminith’s barrier.

  At the last second, Barlow’s claws glowed red and black and smashed through the barrier, making it collapse into pieces.

  But Sheminith immediately plucked several strings on his harp in a complicated pattern, and I suddenly got this notification in my vision:

  Hymnist of the Radiant Word Sheminith has cast Divine Blessing on you and Nimbus the cloud rabbit! You are now protected from the spell negation effects of Wolfbrand’s Hex Field for the next three minutes.

  A soft golden glow appeared over my robes, and a glance at Ruth, Nimbus, and Jonah revealed that they were also now glowing golden, having apparently gotten the same buff from Sheminith. It looked like an individualized version of the golden protective barrier that Sheminith had used to protect all of us at once.

  But I didn’t have time to analyze it because Barlow was barreling toward us, smashing aside the handful of Codex Wights that had been unfortunate enough to be in his way. Barlow let out another roar and brought his paw down on us …

  … only for Sheminith to appear between us and Barlow with a flash of light and raise his harp to block the attack. Sheminith was muttering something that sounded like a religious chant under his breath, but I couldn’t tell what it was—especially once Barlow’s claw made contact with his harp.

  If you have ever wondered whether a bear would be able to play a harp with its claws, then you would have probably been excited to see Barlow’s claw smash through Sheminith’s harp like it was a toy made of string and wood.

  But for the rest of us—or at least for me—it was a terrifying sight.

  At the same time, however, when Sheminith’s harp exploded, it unleashed a blast of golden light that burned Barlow’s paw. Barlow roared in pain and staggered backward, nearly throwing Wolfbrand off his back. The bandit leader had to clutch onto Barlow’s back tightly to avoid falling off, a look of annoyance and surprise on his face.

  The blast of golden light also triggered a golden explosion that knocked down several of the Codex Wights around us. They cried out in pain as the divine light burned their skin, filling the area with the stench of burning dead flesh.

  Yet Sheminith still turned toward us and yelled, in a panicky voice, “Run!”

  None of us argued with Sheminith. We all turned and ran, with me in the lead, straight toward our only hope of escape:

  The closed entrance to the recently discovered Node Dungeon.

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