Still holding the beam against her father, Issari took a deep, shaky breath. Her blood dripped. Her legs shook. But still she stood, shining her light.

"I worship more than Taal," she whispered. "I worship the stars of Requiem. I'm no longer your daughter, Raem, but I'm still—am always—a daughter of starlight."

She opened her left palm.

Please, stars of Requiem, she prayed silently. Find me even here, even underground, even in darkness. Shine your light through me.

Her hand thrummed, and a light began to glow there, growing stronger, not the pure light of Taal but a soft light of stars. Strands of starlight flowed out from that hand, wispy, forming dancing mottles no larger than doves.

Raem laughed above her. His wings spread out to crash against the cavern walls. His horns cracked the ceiling. Stones rained. "Do you think just a few strands of starlight can hurt me?"

He blasted down his fire again.

Issari raised her palm higher.

Flow through me, starlight. Flow through me, light of Requiem.

The light blasted out from her left palm, a great glow of starlight, forming a shield before her. The demonic fire cascaded against the disk of light, washing aside like waves around a boulder. Raem screamed, blinded by the light, and fell a step backward. He crashed against a wall, cracking it, and more bricks fell.

"Dragons of Requiem, slay him!" Jeid's cry rose somewhere in the distance. Issari thought she could glimpse the forms of dragons—they seemed so small next to Raem—blowing their fire, lashing their claws, cutting the Demon King. Raem's blood spilled, but still he fought, slamming the dragons aside.

"Send more light through me," Issari prayed. "Stars of Requiem, send all your might through the shard in my palm."

A voice seemed to speak in her mind, an angelic voice, kind and soft. Child of Requiem! Too much light would sear through all flesh. We cannot give you more.

"Send more light!" she cried out. "Send out the light of the constellation. Let me be a conduit to the stars."

The voice inside her seemed to weep. But the stars answered her prayer. The light grew, blasting out. It slammed against Raem, cracking the demon's scales, burning into the flesh. The strands of starlight climbed up Issari's arm, turning her all to silvery light. She hovered in the air, lifted upon the stars, consumed with radiance, until all her body became nothing but starlight. The beam now moved not through the shard on her palm but through all of her; she rose as a star herself, casting her beam, lighting the Abyss.

Requiem, she thought and wept. I have found your stars.

The light coalesced and blasted out from her chest. It shot forward with new vigor, brilliant and blue and silver, and drove into Raem, shattering the demon's chest, crashing through the rotted heart within, and burning out the unholiness like heated metal cauterizing a wound.