Back when Skulduggery had been Lord Vile, he'd had a weapon. A Necromancy technique that, as far as he knew, no one else ever even came close to touching, let alone learning. It was, he'd recently worked out, probably how the Temple expected their Death Bringer to kill three billion people at once. A field, a... bubble, of sorts. Not quite of death, but of awareness. Vile extended that awareness out, further and further each time his power grew, and then retracted it - along with the life of every person that field had touched. It was powerful, it was deadly, and it was how Vile could kill hundreds in the same second.
It was also exactly what Solomon had just tried to do.
Probably not knowingly. Probably not deliberately. The very first time Vile used it, it hadn't been deliberate then either. Solomon's attempt might not even have worked, since he'd given up the magic of Necromancy completely. But that didn't much matter in the split second Skulduggery could feel, all too well, Solomon reaching out for the lives around him. The same way Vile had so many times.
All those years, and of course Vile never tried to find a way to defend against it. He didn't need to. Why learn how to stop an ability when you were the only one to possess it? There was no need. If Gabe hadn't been there to bar Solomon from it... what then? Would everyone in the room be dead? Or would something even worse have happened to Solomon?
Somewhere deep in a hidden part of his mind, a part which Skulduggery didn't like to visit very often, something leaped at the feeling. They wouldn't all be dead, Skulduggery corrected himself. He would have given in to the temptation and turned the power back on Solomon. And thanks to whatever Landel had done, he wouldn't think twice about doing so. Or about failing to rescue any of the others.
Jaw clenched tight and one hand gripping the handle of his gun, Skulduggery fought it - hard. And in the swirl of darkness that had grown so familiar since that night in the Institute, Skulduggery barely had time to wonder how on Earth Solomon was able to do this before it all abruptly stopped.
With the Cleaver disintegrated, and Solomon reeling away from the presence of the angels and Merlin, Erskine had stepped forward to catch the ex-Necromancer before he crashed into something. The contact did something, somehow; Solomon snapped out of it, sank to the floor, and Skulduggery was overwhelmingly grateful that everyone's attention would be focused on him.
Of course, in Gabe's case, it wouldn't matter. Focusing, for angels, was different. It wouldn't stop him from knowing what Skulduggery had just gone through.
Deep breath. Hold it. Exhale. Skulduggery looked down at the remains of the unsuspecting Cleaver, and pulled his usual cloak back over himself. "Well, I think it's safe to say Bliss is definitely in there."
How exactly that caused the Cleaver's immediate and total destruction, Skulduggery was still trying to work out.
"What happened?" Valkyrie asked. Her voice was shaking. "Why did he...? I thought he was just supposed to look."
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It was also exactly what Solomon had just tried to do.
Probably not knowingly. Probably not deliberately. The very first time Vile used it, it hadn't been deliberate then either. Solomon's attempt might not even have worked, since he'd given up the magic of Necromancy completely. But that didn't much matter in the split second Skulduggery could feel, all too well, Solomon reaching out for the lives around him. The same way Vile had so many times.
All those years, and of course Vile never tried to find a way to defend against it. He didn't need to. Why learn how to stop an ability when you were the only one to possess it? There was no need. If Gabe hadn't been there to bar Solomon from it... what then? Would everyone in the room be dead? Or would something even worse have happened to Solomon?
Somewhere deep in a hidden part of his mind, a part which Skulduggery didn't like to visit very often, something leaped at the feeling. They wouldn't all be dead, Skulduggery corrected himself. He would have given in to the temptation and turned the power back on Solomon. And thanks to whatever Landel had done, he wouldn't think twice about doing so. Or about failing to rescue any of the others.
Jaw clenched tight and one hand gripping the handle of his gun, Skulduggery fought it - hard. And in the swirl of darkness that had grown so familiar since that night in the Institute, Skulduggery barely had time to wonder how on Earth Solomon was able to do this before it all abruptly stopped.
With the Cleaver disintegrated, and Solomon reeling away from the presence of the angels and Merlin, Erskine had stepped forward to catch the ex-Necromancer before he crashed into something. The contact did something, somehow; Solomon snapped out of it, sank to the floor, and Skulduggery was overwhelmingly grateful that everyone's attention would be focused on him.
Of course, in Gabe's case, it wouldn't matter. Focusing, for angels, was different. It wouldn't stop him from knowing what Skulduggery had just gone through.
Deep breath. Hold it. Exhale. Skulduggery looked down at the remains of the unsuspecting Cleaver, and pulled his usual cloak back over himself. "Well, I think it's safe to say Bliss is definitely in there."
How exactly that caused the Cleaver's immediate and total destruction, Skulduggery was still trying to work out.
"What happened?" Valkyrie asked. Her voice was shaking. "Why did he...? I thought he was just supposed to look."