Chapter 174 Break the Pact

Chapter 174 Break the Pact


The victory at the barricade was short lived. Just two days later, darkness swept like smoke through the streets of Tenebrous.
It was not just the darkness of the night. It was something colder, darker and made entirely from pure evil as it whispered through alleyways and crawled across rooftops, coiling around buildings and choking the air. The moon above was red–blood red, and casting an evil glow over the city.
Maverick and Elara had finally released their secret weapon.
The Blood Witch.
Maverick was at the edge of an abandoned ancient coven ground, with Elara beside him, watching their evil handiwork with a crooked smile. Floating above a ritual altar that was marked with forbidden seals was their evil creation.
The Blood Witch.
Her hair was black as ink, floating around her head like liquid shadow. Her skin was pale but covered with veins brimming red with dark magic, and her eyes–her eyes were pools of endless hate, and bloodlust.
When she opened her mouth to speak, her voice was not hers alone–It echoed with those of the many souls she had claimed across centuries, bound souls doomed to an eternity of anguish and suffering.
“I–am hungry.”
Maverick laughed wickedly and nodded in satisfaction. “Feed, my pet. Take them all.”
She flew without a sound, a shadow made of darkness and forbidden energy. And when she attacked, she did not just kill anyone unlucky enough to be caught in her path–she devoured. Her evil and dark magic powers melted supernatural shields, cracked bones, and sucked the life out of entire squads in seconds.
Within an hour of her release, the small squads of supernaturals and humans guarding the outer districts were wiped out, and Maverick's remobilized army surged forward once again.
Alex and the others arrived too late at the barricade to stop the first wave of attacks. The enemy had struck savagely, and slaughtered with remorse. He stood over the bodies of Marlboro’s men–officers, detectives, and brave volunteer fighters. Dozens of them were lying still, their faces frozen in terror. Some had no single wound or burns on their body, it was as if they were simply drained of their life essence.
“She did not stab them,” Jessica whispered, watching the handwork of the witch in horror. “She ripped away their souls.”
Rufus crouched beside one of the fallen. “What kind of magic does that?”
“Old blood magic,” Melora answered quietly. “It was banned in every realm for a reason.”
Alex’s eyes were dark. “Maverick and Elara have just broken every rule of this war.”
The news spread quickly throughout the resistance army, and soldiers began to grow restless. Fear suddenly turned to panic.
“She is too strong.”
“We cannot fight that!”
“She walked through our patrols like a fog! They had no chance.”
Even the supernatural creatures that possessed powers of their own–wolves, vampires, fairies, and warlocks were afraid. The Blood Witch was not like the other diabolical creatures Maverick had been unleashing into the war, she was a curse that simply wiped out anything within its reach. She had no purpose or aim whatsoever, only to feed her emptiness with stolen souls–And with every single soul she took, she was growing stronger and stronger.
“We are losing the men,” Avery lamented, anxiously gripping the edge of the table she was standing beside.
“Avery's right,” Simon said. “If we don’t stop her now, we won’t have a city left by morning.”
But no one had an answer.
Until Marlboro spoke up. “Jacob has something for us.”
He had been seated quietly in the room beside one of his men, a young warlock who had been working in the police force as hacker and pretending to be human. Marlboro had discovered his true identity during the war, and had recommended him earlier to work alongside Simon and the rest of the tech and magical network experts. Jacob–the quiet hacker was hunched in front of a screen, from which he had been working behind the scenes for a few days.
“I have been watching Elara’s spells for a while now,” Jacob said suddenly. “Her magic has been working in a particular pattern like a computer code, detailed and neatly structured, and channeled through a central source to amplify its effect and power.”
Avery exchanged a quick look with Alex, and then turned to Jacob. “Wait a minute, are you saying all her spells are linked?”
“Yes. She is managing Maverick’s entire army using magical communication lines–like battlefield Wi-Fi. Every one of their summoning, their creations are all linked through something that is being called the blood pact. Even the seemingly unstoppable witch is tied to it also.
Jessica’s eyes lit up with sudden hope. “So if we can manage to break that link-”
“We succeeded in breaking the blood pact,” Melora whispered.
Jacob nodded in confirmation. “I can try to locate where it is all connected to, but it could be very dangerous and unstable using your powers to breach it.”
Alex stepped forward solemnly. “Do it. Let us know whatever you need.”
The plan was dangerous.
They needed to use Elara’s own magical network to send a counter attack, and a binding spell was the only way, but it had to be done by those tied to both light and life magic. That meant only three people could do it–Avery, Jessica And Melora.
With the go ahead given by Alex, the three women stood in a triangle, inside a circle of magical runes Simon had helped Jacob carve into the floor. Magical nodes–small devices made by Alex's supernatural division were used to boost Jacob’s system, helping him to triangulate and pinpoint the exact location Elara and Maverick's spell was coming from. All they had to do now was successfully complete the binding spell.
“If you do this,” Jacob warned, “There is a high possibility that she will know.”
“She already wants us dead,” Avery said. “Let’s give her a reason.”
Jessica raised her hands. “I am ready.”
Melora closed her eyes. “Let’s begin.”
They spoke together, chanting old and powerful words–words that had not been spoken into existence since the time of the first realms on earth. As they chanted in growing voices, the nodes began to glow slowly, with the entire estate trembling all around them.
“You are in. Feeding through the magical grid now, find the source!”

Elara suddenly screamed and fell heavily from where she had been standing, pulled down by the power of the binding spell Avery and the others had used to get into her own spells. “What was that?” she muttered, rubbing her head in confusion.
Maverick looked up quickly. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” she hissed at him in irritation. “Something is inside the grid–the chalice? They are going for the chalice.”
Before she could speak further, the magical cursed seals on her body began to glow dangerously, and then suddenly fell away.
All across the city, Maverick’s army suddenly paused in their tracks. Summoned creatures froze mid-attack, and twisted shifters dropped their weapons. Magic links that had been held together by the blood pact between Maverick and his rogue supernatural alliance suddenly crumbled–And in the center of it all, the Blood Witch who had been floating over the city like death itself screamed in agony.
She clawed at her chest.
“They–broke–the bond!”
Her body began to fade into nothing, and multitudes of lost souls trapped within her began to emerge as she continued screaming wildly till her end.
Avery and her friends had used the binding spell to access Elara's connection to the chalice which held the blood pact, and they had overloaded it with a combination of their own magical energy until they shattered and destroyed the chalice.
Without the blood pact holding them together, chaos spread like wildfire amongst Maverick’s once united army. They suddenly became nothing more than a collection of unstable monsters and enemies of each other. The darker creatures turned on themselves. Some tried to flee, while others simply went mad.
A group of rogue vampires attacked their own allies. The cursed shifters began fighting each other for dominance. Even the forbidden summoning collapsed without command.
At the estate, Avery dropped to her knees, exhausted. Jessica and Melora collapsed beside her, both pale and sweating.
They had done it.
The spell had worked.
“They are fighting each other now,” Jacob said, looking up from the screen. “The blood pact is broken.”
Alex rushed in, pulling Avery to her feet and holding her close. “You did it.”
“We all did,” she whispered.
Jessica leaned against the wall. “Let’s hope it is enough.”
Melora smiled faintly. “It will be.”
“You girls may have just won us this war,” Alex said with a sigh of relief.

The fires had stopped, and all the screaming had gone quiet. The barricade still stood, and Rufus who had led the defense there was reporting back to them at the estate.

“Whatever your lot did over there seemed to have worked out beautifully,” he announced proudly, paying no attention to his bruised and bleeding body.

“You have fought a good fight, Rufus my friend,” Alex said through the communication line. “This was not your fight, but you have risked it all for us.”

Rufus laughed loudly on the line. “The appreciation can wait, my Alpha, let's find those two miscreants first.”

What they did not know at that moment, was that the two miscreants were already at each other's throats.

“You let them into my altar to destroy my chalice!” Maverick roared, shifting instantly to his wolf form and attacking Elara like a savage beast.
Stripped of her acquired dark witch powers, Elara reverted to her natural supernatural identity and also shifted to her wolf form. “You said it was unbreakable!” Elara yelled back, raising her paws to block his attack.
They fought without restraint, tearing furs and snarling in pain and fury as fang and claw connected to their targets multiple times.
“You have always wanted to be in control,” Maverick snarled. “You think you are smarter than me!”
“I am smarter!” she snapped back. “You just pretend to be a god, but you have no idea about how to rule!”
Maverick struck again, harder this time.
Elara fell back, coughing blood.
Five figures watched them in silence as they fought. Lysandra, Vargas, Silas, Nico and Dumas. They had all seen their people turn on each other and died out at the hands of Alex's army, and they had hoped Maverick had a plan to save the already failing campaign. But the sorry sight of him and Elara's conflict dissapointed them.
“Fools,” Lysandra hissed as they melted off into the shadows.