Chapter 145 Breaking Through
The moment their skin touched, the bond flared again, pulsing with light. Gavriel’s eyes snapped open, and his power, once unstable and suppressed, suddenly surged back.
Dark mist exploded outward, tearing through the storm like a wave, forcing the sand to retreat in all directions. The desert shook beneath them, and the air finally calmed.
Uriel and Gustav moved closer, while Candice and Osman appeared beside them, ready for battle.
Zander’s laughter echoed faintly through. Gavriel rose to his feet, eyes burning with fury.
“Show yourself!” Gavriel roared, his eyes glowing.
Zander appeared several feet away, standing atop a rising dune of sand. His white cloak billowed in the storm, and his smirk widened. “You still don’t understand, do you? This place belongs to me. Every grain of sand here moves by my will.”
“Then I’ll destroy your world with you in it,” Gavriel growled.
He charged forward, his claws slicing through the air. The sandstorm howled, but he pushed through it, hitting Zander hard in the chest. The impact sent the man flying, sand spraying everywhere. For a moment, it seemed like Gavriel had won until Zander’s form flickered and vanished.
“Stop struggling,” Zander’s voice taunted from behind him. “You can’t fight me here.”
“Watch me.” Gavriel’s voice was low, his rage barely contained.
He slammed his fist into the sand, sending a shockwave that broke the bindings for a second but the ground reformed again, faster than before. Zander appeared in front of him, raising his hand, and the storm grew stronger, swallowing them both in a swirl of gold and black dust.
Althea’s heart raced as she watched. “Lord Uriel, we have to help him!”
Uriel gritted his teeth. “I’m trying, but I can’t use my magic!”
“Mine too. This man is powerful, and since we’re inside the world he created, nothing will work here in our favor—only his,” Candice interrupted. She turned to Osman and added, “The two of us will be useless here, so we should return.”
“What?! Are you suggesting we just leave them?” Osman protested.
“Candice is right. You two should leave since Candice needs to hold the portal Lady Althea created to keep it stable on the other side. Besides, too many people inside this world will only make that bastard stronger. He could draw energy from us,” Uriel explained.
“Just move!” Candice hissed impatiently and pushed Osman back toward the flickering portal Althea had created.
Althea frowned as she looked around, then at Gavriel, who was still struggling to fight the man. Everyone else couldn’t use their abilities, yet Gavriel could—though his power was unstable and weak. But she had managed to create a portal, so maybe her magic could still work.
She didn’t wait another second. Althea shut her eyes tightly and took a deep breath. She could still feel the lingering pull of the spell around them, thick and suffocating like a living thing. Her pulse raced as she raised her hands, trying to remember how she had connected to Gavriel through their bond earlier.
“Please,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “Let this work.”
A faint light began to glow around her palms, soft at first, then brighter as her energy gathered. The ground beneath her feet vibrated, reacting to her power. Uriel, and Gustav backed away, shielding their faces from the sudden gust of wind that burst outward from her.
“What is she doing?” Gustav shouted over the roaring storm.
“She’s breaking the spell,” Uriel replied, eyes wide as he felt the surge of magic in the air. “She’s using her own energy to fight it!”
The entire place began to shake. Sand lifted into the air, spinning violently as if the world itself was rejecting her presence. The spell Zander had cast—his vortex—flared up, forming a dome of light that tried to close in on them.
But Althea didn’t stop. She could feel the strange rhythm of the spell, the pulse of its core, and she focused all her energy on that point. The silver light around her exploded, spreading through the sand like rippling water. The symbols etched in the air by Zander’s magic began to flicker, then slowly break apart one by one.
Zander’s disembodied voice echoed across the collapsing realm. “Foolish girl! You’re burning your own life force for him!”
“I don’t care!” she shouted back, her voice shaking but fierce. “He’s my mate and I’ll never let you hurt him!”
The light expanded again, brighter than before. Gavriel, now half-buried in the sand, felt the pull of her power. He forced himself up, his eyes blazing as Chaos’s energy burst free to join hers. He had never experienced anything like it before. Althea’s power was flowing within him too, foreign yet familiar, bound to him through the mate bond that connected them.
Together, their powers clashed with Zander’s spell, and the air cracked with a deafening sound. The sandstorm halted midair, suspended in glowing fragments.
Uriel looked around in awe. “She’s actually breaking through! This is—” His lips parted and his eyes widened as he watched everything unfolded.
A final burst of light erupted, shattering the spell completely. The dome around them crumbled, and Zander’s voice faded into the wind with a frustrated roar.
When the light cleared, Gavriel was on his knees, breathing heavily. Behind them, the desert cracked and vanished in a flash of gold and white. They were back in the forest. The night air was cold, and the ground felt real again. Althea ran to him, collapsing beside him and touching his face.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” Althea asked, her eyes frantically scanning Gavriel’s body.
He looked at her, a small smile tugging at his lips before he let out a quiet chuckle. “You seriously asked me that? Even if I’m hurt… I’ll heal easily.”
Tears streamed down Althea’s cheeks as she threw her arms around him, holding him tightly. “I was so worried…” she whispered.
She didn’t care anymore—she just wanted to feel him close, to let him know how much she feared losing him.
“I know. I’m sorry for making you worry,” Gavriel murmured, wrapping his arms around her just as tightly. His breath came heavy and uneven, but he refused to let her go.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he noticed Zander beginning to stir. Gavriel’s expression hardened in an instant. “Uriel! Get that bastard—now!” he growled in his sharp and commanding voice.