Spiders, Wolves, Serpents and all assortment of creepy crawlies and creatures from nightmares leapt into the air, clawing at Astra as she floated in the air. Her body suspended in the air by the tethers of lightning connecting her to the heavens above, tethers that had grown thinner and were starting to falter as she drained all of the energy out of the storm.

It was never going to be endless power, but it was close enough that, for at least a few minutes, Astra could let loose and not have to worry about draining herself. If she couldn't eliminate the entire enemy army, as her lightning wouldn't be able to attack those engaged in close combat with her own forces, without also obliterating said forces.

Then at the very least she could drive a stake of fear into their hearts and make them doubt their false god. Seth had briefly explained to her the concept of the tangible force of Worship, and his suspicions of the Lightbringers abilities and their ties to his followers beliefs.

So fear was good, doubt was even better. And by the looks of her own twisted, devilish clones being mixed into the crowd of Nightmare monsters alongside some killer clowns, creatures made of pure darkness and a few very mad ex-girlfriends, the goal of driving fear into their hearts was working perfectly.

She swept her hand, sending another herd of roaring lightning dragons through the crowd of Nightmares as they foamed at the mouth and tried to drag her down, quickly reducing them to nothing but black smoke as the lightning dissolved them on contact.

However despite the seemingly effortless destruction of so many of the Nightmare creatures, an irritated frown creased Astra's forehead as she watched more of the creatures form from black smoke, replacing those that were lost.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the creatures were smart. They started to attack her own people, ganging up on them or simply infesting her lines and sowing chaos. Not just to ruin her forces chances of survival, but to boost their own.

It seemed they, or whatever was controlling them, had figured out her weakness even when powered up like this. Crowds.

So if she couldn't take out the main forces, she would simply cut the head from the snake. She should have simply done it in the first place, but she lost herself in the joy of seemingly unlimited power.

It was truly intoxicating.

But it was time to stop playing around and put an end to this.

***

Within the fort, Paladin Phobus let out a grunt of pain as the bones of his leg crunched and cracked, before the leg untwisted itself and snapped into the correct position. The golden glow emanating from the healers hands died down, as beads of sweat dripped form the healers forehead.

Phobus raised his head, looking down at his legs and wiggled his toes, barely able to feel it but the fact he could feel anything at all, other than pain, was a good sign.

"Hurry up and heal my arms, I want to be the one that deals the finishing blow to that wretched abomination. Her head deserves to be mounted on a pike, and my blade should be the one that removes it from her shoulders."

"Sire... I need time to regain my energy before I can-"

"Time?! Does it look like we have time for you to sit around on your lazy ass? We are in the middle of a war, so hurry up and heal me before one of those heretics-"

He never got the chance to finish that sentence, as the wall in front of him, which contained the window he had been watching the battle from, promptly exploded in a hail of rock fragments that pelted against the rooms occupants. One of the mortal attendants took one to the head, causing him to crumple to the ground like a sack of bricks as blood oozed from his temple, while the others managed to get away with little more than bruises and cuts on their bodies.

A figure wreathed in crackling lightning drifted into the room like a true goddess. Her head was held high, her arms were outstretched to the side as if she was demanding those inside the room to worship her for her appearance.

The woman wore nothing but what looked like a skin tight black suit that only exentuated her divine figure, with curvy hips and a modest chest. Features that many of the men found themselves inexplicably drawn to, as if that was the sole purpose of the outfit that she wore.

Her feet touched gently down onto the stone floor as she gracefully descended from the air. She observed the members of the room with a cold, neutral expression. Her eyes were orbs of pure, white light that showed no emotion, while her face was fixed in a naturally annoyed looking scowl, as if she was disgusted by everything before her and knew that it was all beneath her.

The mortal attendants in the room had varying reactions. Some broke down into tears, others released another bodily fluid into their pants. Some collapsed and shook with fear while others simply stayed completely still, as if hoping her vision was based on movement.

The Storm Goddess glanced past the mortal attendants as if they didn't exist and instead focused on the two individuals that stood out amongst the black robed individuals. One was wearing a simple flowing white robe while the other was dressed in regular clothing.

The latter wouldn't have been strange, but the clothing he wore was far too clean. It was untarnished and proper, as if it had been freshly worn this very morning and had no seen a hundred different battles or had been stuffed underneath armour dozens of times.

"You are Phobus?"

He was, and at the sound of the question being asked in that cold, emotionless tone, a shiver went down his spine. He turned to the healer, panic layered in his voice as he practically screamed,

"HEAL ME! HURRY UP AND-"

That was as far as he got before his shrill begging turned into a sharp cry of pain, as lightning arced from Astra's fingertips and struck the freshly healed body of Phobus. The healer yelped in shock, staggering back as the man he had spent so much energy healing twitched and writhed, as he rapidly turned to nothing more than a spasming pile of charcoaled flesh in the shape of a human.

His head whipped towards the Storm Goddess, wondering if he was going to be next and whether it would even be worth it to beg for his life. Who knows if she would accept such a plea from the enemy. They knew nothing about these heretics, but why would heretics be anything but scum and evil without the grace of their God to guide them towards goodness?

He watched her as she stared silently at the body she had so mercilessly killed, wracking his brains for what the right thing to do was. If only he knew what was going through her head, surely it would help him make the right decision, right?

But could he handle the mental burden of such vile, heretical thoughts?

***

'Sigh, I miss it already. Oh well... I'll just have to hope for another storm some day. At least I got some in Seth's stupid little bottle.'

Astra sighed in her mind, lamenting the loss of her infinite power generator as she had drained the last of the storm's energy to make her dramatic entrance. Now she was back to her own reserves, which were still close to overflowing from how much she absorbed.

But 'close to overflowing' was a stark difference from actually overflowing, and just the thought that she couldn't instantly refill herself was making her sad. It was like when you got cut off despite it being an 'all you can eat buffet' because you stuffed a chicken or two into your purse.

It just wasn't fair.

Now that her power was back to being limited, all she could think about was how much energy each action was taking. She didn't have to electrocute him. She could have probably just cut off his head with her sword and...

Where was her sword?

Astra frowned softly as she thought about it, a frown that to the people in the room looked like a deep set scowl of dreadful anger and which sent shivers down their spine.

'Oh yeah, I dropped it earlier. Don't want to lose that, It was a gift after all. Easy fix though, come to momma.'

Reaching out her hand, lightning crackled around her fingers for a few seconds before a sword came rocketing out from the battlefield and into her hand, returning eagerly to its master like the hammer of Thor.

At the appearance of the sword, the man in the white robes immediately burst into tears and dropped to his knees, pressing his forehead against the ground as he let out pathetic whimpers.

"Pleasepleaseplease don't kill me! I'll do whatever you want. Please just tell me what you want and I'll give it to you. If you want my blood to drink I'll give it willingly, you don't need to kill me. Please!"

'Huh? Drink his blood? Ew, Gross... What the hell is he talking about?'

Astra twisted her face into an expression of disgust on reflex when she heard the repulsive suggestion, which caused the white robed healer to shiver and let out more whimpers.

Worrying what he might say next, Astra spoke up before he could make anymore strange and disgusting suggestions.

"Where is the monolith?"