Dozens dropped to their knees before shattered statues, worshipping frantically, begging for forgiveness.
A mother slapped her child's mouth shut and whispered prayers.
A man tore his shirt and bled across an altar.
A gang of zealots chanted half-remembered hymns and set fire to their own hair.
The second bell hadn't even tolled yet.
Then finally Lilith's footsteps faded. She moved on, no longer certain they were the same figures she'd sensed above her.
Capricorn exhaled. Barely.
They emerged again atop another roof shadows in motion.
"She seems shady," Aries muttered. "Want me to light her path?"
"No," Capricorn replied. "We observe. That's all."
Aries turned in a hurry.
She lifted a glowing finger toward the Slums. Soel energy spiraled in tight rings from her arm an Indrithal mark, energy looping like a whirlpool collapsing in on itself. The air shimmered.
Capricorn turned just in time to see her grin.
"Then this one's for fun."
The blast was almost beautiful—a needle of red-gold light, bending midair, stabbing into a crumbling house like divine punishment. The building didn't explode.
It folded in on itself.
Inverted. Consumed.
Flames rippled upward like silk in water.
Screams followed a heartbeat later sharp, pleading, distant.
"Ah, the screams of mercy," Aries said softly. "Filthy place. I'm doing it a favor."
The priest gasped. "Be careful not to hit a statue of the gods!"
Aries rolled her eyes. "Your gods, maybe. Mine don't cry over stone."