Chapter 80: BEFORE THE WALLS COLLAPSE

Xender's POV

I sat directly opposite her, listening to everything she had to say. But from her very first word to her last, it felt like I was listening to some wild fantasy story read straight from a webnovel platform. It didn't make a shred of logical sense, even though the evidence was staring me right in the face.

“So, let me get this straight,” I began, my voice dropping into a hollow, dangerous register. “Seth pushed you off a cliff... and you died?”

Even as the word death left my lips, it felt like I was completely going nuts.

She simply nodded in response, her wide, desperate gaze practically begging me to believe her.

“Then an elf spirit princess possessed your body because she needed to save herself from disappearing, and now you two are somewhat stuck together, helping each other?” I spat the words out fast, trying to force my own brain to decide whether to believe the absolute absurdity of it.

“Yes! Xender, I am telling you, that is all that happened,” Alda pleaded. She leaned forward, her eyes locked onto mine, waiting for me to acknowledge that I was truly listening. “The first time you found me gone—when you couldn't find me outside your house—it was because we were able to open a portal to her realm. The crystal stones you saw last night are gemstones. They are the source of the very power every princess needs to obtain to sit as the next queen. We are on the verge of losing them to her evil sister, and we have to stop her before that happens.”

All the while she spoke, I kept my hand flat over my phone on the table. The recorder was on. A cold knot twisted in my chest; I needed evidence to call Mike. I was becoming convinced that Alda was mentally unstable, and the sheer weight of it was beginning to take a heavy, exhausting toll on me.

“Xender, you have to believe me,” she finally said, her voice cracking as she bared her soul. “I’m not making this up.”

I stared back at her, entirely paralyzed. I didn't even know what to say. Should I just pretend to believe her until Mike got here to intervene?

“Alda... Alda, this is insane,” I said, shaking my head as a bitter laugh escaped me. “You dying? The elf princess spirit presence? It’s completely absurd. How can you expect me to believe any of this is real when you’re right in front of me, breathing and alive? I think... I think we both need to see Mike for a thorough evaluation.”

The second those words left my mouth, something shifted drastically in her eyes. The hope shattered, replaced by total, devastating disappointment.

“You don't believe me,” she said, her voice dropping to a deadly, quiet whisper. “How can you literally see her presence and still deny it? And do you think I was lying when I said that fucking monster pushed me off a cliff?!”

Her voice suddenly exploded into a shout as she stormed to her feet, raw, unfiltered fury making her entire frame tremble.

“You promised you would trust me! I don't care if you see her and pretend you don't. I don't care if you can see the green behind my eyes and deny it, but I do know one thing—Seth will pay for everything he has done to me! For killing my parents, I will make him pay twice over. I will push him off that exact same cliff a million times, and I will personally make sure he feels every single agonizing pain I felt as my bones broke into a million pieces!”

As the pure rage took over, her eyes flared into a brilliant, glowing green. The elemental light grew darker, feeding off the toxicity of her anger.

With that, she turned and stormed out of the room. But right before she disappeared out the door, I saw it again. The figure Alda had described as the elf princess. Her body and face weren't entirely clear, but her burning eyes lingered directly on mine for one terrifying second before she vanished after Alda.

She left me standing completely alone in my own hollow shell, feeling more devastated and broken than I have ever felt in my entire life.

Alda's POV

“Alda, you need to calm down,” Siofra’s voice echoed gently in my mind, but I didn't want to calm down. I just wanted to escape. I wanted to be completely removed from the suffocating walls of this house, away from every sound, away from him.

“I’m not even angry that he doesn't believe me,” I choked out, a bitter sob tearing from my throat. “I'm angry because I feel completely invisible. I feel so choked up right now that all I want to do is scream until my lungs burst. And I’m angry because... because I’m already starting to find myself leaning on him. I'm terrified of letting myself care for him when I know my days are already numbered.”

My gaze traveled down to the ring on my finger, the heavy weight of reality settling over me.

“What do you mean by that, Alda?” Siofra asked, her spirit manifesting before me with deep concern.

I looked up at her, forcing a small, broken smile through the tears streaming down my face. “You and I both know the truth, Siofra. The next portal we cross might very well be my last. Once your physical body is found—which I'm sure is happening right now—I will just become what I was before you found me. A corpse.”

The dam broke, and I could no longer hold back the tears.

“Alda, that is not true,” Siofra said, her voice laced with fierce, protective emotion. She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around me. “I am not leaving you behind. I will not let you disappear until I find a way to save us both. We both have a battle to finish. We both have people waiting for us to come home. I am not leaving you behind.”

The last of my emotional defenses shattered. I wept openly into her shoulder, clutching her tight. “Siofra... I just want to live a little longer. Just long enough to fix things the way they were meant to be.”

“I know,” she whispered, pulling back slightly to look at me, nodding firmly. “And I’m not planning on leaving your side until we find a way to keep us both alive.”

Suddenly, a brilliant, booming smile broke across her elven features, cutting through the heavy grief in the room. “Guess what?”

I sniffled, wiping my eyes. “What?”

“My teleportation magic... it's gotten significantly stronger. Let's just get the hell out of here,” she said, extending her hand toward me.

Without a second thought, I took it.

“Where do you want to go?” she asked softly.

“To my parents' house,” I whispered, a profound ache in my chest. “I miss them so much.”

Elba's POV

While the rest of the camp was fast asleep, restlessness kept me awake. The very air felt heavy, like the night itself was deeply troubled.

I climbed the highest tree bordering the stone walls of our cave hideout, settling onto a thick branch to keep watch. The moon was a faint, watery sliver, completely swallowed by dense, moving clouds. There was a heavy storm brewing. I could feel it in my bones—the exact kind of tempest where the sea rattles with thunder and the rain violently beats the surface of the earth. It was a chaotic rhythm I had grown deeply used to during my exile underwater.

But up here, there was only the biting, chilly breeze pressing against my skin. Exhaustion finally began to chip away at my alertness, and I closed my eyes, preparing to take a brief nap.

BOOM.

A deafening crack of thunder violently shook the very branches I was resting in. I startled awake, my foot slipping entirely off the bark. I gasped, tumbling downward through the leaves before my instincts kicked in, and I managed to desperately grab a lower branch, swinging myself to a shaky halt.

I looked up, and my breath caught in my throat.

“Bring those walls to the ground if you have to!” a vicious, familiar voice roared through the sky. “Find me Siofra's body, and slaughter every single elf who stands in your way!”

A terrified gasp escaped my lips. Flying high above the tree line was Alma. She was riding the massive, grotesque dragon—a beast she had forcibly molded from my own stolen sea pets. Behind her were her enormous army of animated rock soldiers marching forward as they launched a brutal assault to collapse the ancient stone walls protecting our hideout.

That psychopathic bitch. How on earth had she tracked us all the way out here?

Groaning in pure fury, I dropped from the tree and sprinted back into the cave system. I bolted from hut to hut, violently waking the sleeping elves awake and screaming for them to move. Within minutes, the cavern was a sea of panic. Eldarion, Albina, and the elderly elf rushed to my side as we tried to herd the civilians together.

“How on earth did she find this place?!” Albina yelled over the crashing sounds of the crumbling exterior walls.

“I think this is what led her here,” the elderly elf said, her voice grave as she raised the heavy Black Book. “She already shares an intimate, dark bond with the book It responds directly to her call.”

“What's the plan then? What do we do?!” I asked, the vibrations of the dragon's fire shaking the dust from the cave ceiling.

The elder turned to me, a solemn, knowing smile touching her ancient face. “Take the princess's body, Elba, and protect it with your very life. I believe every soul has a predetermined purpose... and perhaps this is yours. The redemption of the great Almaruda.”

My heart dropped. The look in her eyes told me she was about to do something incredibly stupid and sacrificial.

“I believe you know the underwater paths well enough to get everyone out safely,” the elder continued, pressing a book page into my hands. “Keep this secure as well, until Siofra returns to us.”

“We are not leaving this cave without you!” Eldarion interjected fiercely before I could even process what was happening.

“Don't worry about me, I will be right behind you,” the elder lied beautifully, giving us one final, commanding look. “Just go. Now!”

I locked eyes with her for one agonizing second, then turned to Eldarion, who was tightly clutching Siofra’s limp physical body in his arms. I motioned for him to run.

“Let's go,” I gritted out, the walls cracking around us. “We don't have any time left.”