Chapter 131: The Sky Is Broken

Chapter 131: The Sky Is Broken

Melissa's POV

A loud crack shattered the heavens. The whole battlefield shook beneath me before I could even react. Thick with magic and, worse, something ancient, the air became heavy.

With his golden eyes searching the sky, Kane hurried to join me. "Melissa, what did you do?"

"I don't know," I said, my heart racing. "I just… I used my power."

The heavens had broken like glass over us. Tendrils of dark mist coiled and slithered through the air as strange, whirling voids opened. Stars flickered in and out of existence. The sun wavered. Even time appeared to falter.

Lydia gripped her head tightly. "This isn't magic; something's not right. It's reality-breaking."

Zephyr cursed. "I've read about this in old texts… the Fractured Sky. It only happens when a power too great is unleashed at once."

A thunderous laugh resonated throughout the battlefield. I turned just in time to see the dark god, his hollow eyes shining with laughter, still standing despite his wounds.

Sneering, "You foolish child," "You thought you could defeat me with that?"

I tightened my jaw. "You're in pain. I see it.

"Perhaps," he said. "But you, little queen, have done something far worse than you realize."

He raised a hand to the heavens. The blackness deepened as the swirling fissures pulsed. Monstrous creatures with no faces, limbs twisted at strange angles, and voices that said quietly in whispers that made my skin crawl suddenly started to emerge from the crevices.

Everything was crumbling.

The stern words, "We have to move," came from Kane. "Now!"

A fierce wind swept across the battlefield, splintering stone and tearing trees from the ground. The power jerked me off my feet before I could even shield my face.

As the world whirled, I let out a scream. My name was called by Kane, but the roaring storm overpowered his voice. Then-darkness.

I was off the battlefield when I opened my eyes.

I forced myself to stand, coughing as my lungs filled with dust. There were shimmering runes on the fractured stone ground underneath me. Around me, the ruins-ancient buildings, half-collapsed, covered in vines that pulsed like living veins-were illuminated by a faint, unsettling blue light.

I wasn't alone myself.

A few feet away, Kane winced and pushed himself up, groaning. Lydia and Zephyr were sprawled close, sleepy but alive.

"Where… are we?" Lydia touched her head and whispered.

Zephyr's gaze expanded. "This location... The Forgotten Realm is it.

I looked over at him. "What does that mean?"

It's a location that lies in between reality and time. A jail for things that shouldn't exist."

I shuddered. "And we're here why?"

The air shook before Zephyr could respond. Through the wreckage, a voice slithered-a sound that chilled my blood.

"Because, little queen, you broke the sky. And I'm going to break you immediately."

I spun around just in time to see him-the dark god, standing tall, his form shifting, twisting. Despite his dark ichor bleeding, he smiled rather than became weaker. He was fueled and transformed by the cracks in the sky above us.

His form became monstrous as his body stretched and his limbs distorted. His fingers grew into vicious claws, and horns twisted from his skull. His eyes burned with an unearthly glow.

Kane reached for his sword. "Melissa, we need to-"

The ground underneath us trembled as the power of the dark deity exploded.

I had already battled him. But when I looked into his brilliant, soulless eyes, I understood that this was more than simply a god.

He had changed into something much worse.

He smiled as his gigantic form loomed above us.

"Now," he said, his voice brimming with dreadful joy. "Let's finish this properly."

The blackness lunged.

The air around me buzzed with dark energy, pressing down on my chest like a crushing weight. Above us loomed the monstrous form of the dark god, his body shifting and twisting as the sky's fissures continued to pour into him. I got shivers from his chuckle.

"You cannot stop what has already begun, little queen," he chided. "You broke the very fabric of reality. Now, you will watch while I change it."

I felt the golden light rushing through my veins as I tightened my hands. "I won't let you win!"

I screamed and sprang forward, calling forth my blade from the light. I cut at him, but he quickly deflected my blade with his hideous arm. The ancient ruins surrounding us trembled as the collision sent shockwaves across the earth.

In a flash, Kane was at my side, his Alpha strength illuminating his blade. Growling, "We fight together," he said.

With their abilities igniting, Zephyr and Lydia flanked us. The dark god was struck from all sides by the four of us as we charged. The battlefield blazed with unadulterated energy as light and shadow clashed.

He hardly flinched, though.

With a single swipe of his massive claw, he sent us flying. I fell into a stone pillar, moaning as pain rushed through my ribs. Lydia fell hard next to me and cried out sharply.

Kane yelled, jumping back to his feet, but the dark god grasped him by the throat, lifting him effortlessly. It was "pathetic," he growled.

My heart was racing. No! Not Kane!

Golden flames swirled about me as I forced myself to stand. "Let him go!"

The dark god's hideous face stretched into an unnatural grin as he turned to face me. "Make me."

I had a few seconds to reflect. Despite Kane's struggles and his claws burrowing into the dark god's arm, the monster creature made no move to let him go.

Lydia got up with a stutter. "Melissa, we need to hit him all at once."

Zephyr wiped blood off his lip. "He's gathering power from the split sky. If we sever that connection-"

"Then he'll weaken," I found out.

However, how?

He was fed by the pulsing fissures in the sky. We had previously witnessed what happened when the heavens broke, so destroying them was not an option. However, if I could refocus the energy...

I looked Lydia in the eyes. "Cover me."

I rushed ahead without waiting, my body exploding with strength. I leaped into the air, reaching for the spinning fissures above us, and the dark deity hardly responded.

A voice whispered in my mind, "Let me in." You can't win by yourself.

I hesitated. The voice was the same one I'd heard before-the force that had been waiting inside me, lurking, observing.

I was brought back to reality by Kane's strangled gasp.

There was nothing I could do.

I closed my eyes. Alright. Take what you require.

My body erupted with golden flames. My energy wrapped around the cracks in the sky, causing them to twist and crackle in response. I was shaping them to my will, not destroying them.

The head of the black deity jerked in my direction, his smile wavering. "What are you doing?"

"Taking back control."

Light spilled from my hands, pushing toward the fissures. The sky trembled as golden threads wrapped around the fractures, sucking their vitality away from the dark deity.

His hideous form shuddered. He relaxed his hold on Kane.

Zephyr yelled, "It's working! Keep going!"

The dark deity let forth a violent growl and surged toward me.

But this time, I was ready.

Unfazed, I looked into his lifeless, burning eyes.

I said, "Your reign is over,"

I gave it one last shove and tore the cracks from him. The dark energy surrounding him shattered as the sky howled.

His hideous body started to shatter.

As the darkness fell about him, he screamed in fear and wrath.

However, there was a problem.

Rather than going missing...

The broken energy came rushing back, right into me.

Everything was engulfed by a dazzling glow.