Chapter 96 Floodgate Beasts
Chapter 96 Floodgate Beasts
~Alaric's POV~
As I shove the beast away, dusk turned the floodgate perimeter into a nightmare.
More Ethereal beasts poured through the shattered World floodgate in an endless tide, howling with voices that scraped like broken glass against bone.
They clawed at everything in their path with jaws that dripped living claws that tore holes in reality itself.
I still stood at the front like a living wall of muscle and fury, Lira pressed tightly behind me.
Her small hands gripped the back of my jacket as if letting go would mean disappearing into the dark forever.
"Stay close," I ordered, swinging my blade in wide, brutal arcs that cut through the nearest beast's smoky hide, sending black mist spraying into the air.
Suddenly, one creature lunged low, snapping at my legs with teeth like shattered obsidian.
I met it with a heavy kick that sent it flying back into the horde with a screech that echoed across the battlefield.
Another dropped from above, claws aimed straight for Lira. I shifted fast, bones cracking as wolf form surged forward, claws tearing through its underbelly in a spray of dark essence that burned where it touched.
"Not my daughter, never again! You'll have to go through me first!"
Lira's breathing quickened against my back, her voice small but trying desperately to stay brave.
"They're too many, Daddy. I can feel them pulling at me… like they want to drag me through the gate. Never let me go."
"Focus on your power," I said, blocking another strike with my forearm and driving my elbow into a beast's throat with enough force to crush bone.
"Don't fight it, let it steady you. You're stronger than they know. Remember the relic in your blood... use it like I taught you. Let it flow, not explode."
Pressure built around us like a storm about to break, the air thick with the scent of ozone and decay.
Lira's relic aura flared brighter under the chaos, her small hands stopping their shake as the unstable surge smoothed out, turning sharp and controlled for the first time in hours.
She raised one palm and sent a clean wave of light that dissolved three beasts at once, their forms unraveling into harmless mist that scattered on the wind.
I glanced back at her, fierce pride cutting through the fury in my chest. "That's my girl, keep going. We hold this line together... you and me."
Tazira appeared at the edge of the flood, watching from the tree line with narrowed eyes that gleamed with something dark.
When she saw Lira's power stabilize without her help, her face twisted in bitter jealousy that made her look almost feral.
"You'll regret this," she whispered, voice carrying just far enough for me to hear over the howls. "I offered you everything, and you threw it away like it was nothing."
Then she turned and fled into the trees, vanishing completely.
But as she disappeared, her final words carried back on the wind like a curse. "Old obsessions never really die, Alaric."
A strange heat stirred in my chest the moment her voice faded.
Old memories of Elowen flashed sharper than they had in months... the curve of her smile in the firelight, and the way she had once looked at me like I was her entire world.
The pull returned, stronger and more insistent, tugging at thoughts I thought I had buried deep beneath duty and regret.
My steps faltered for half a second as the elixir curse Tazira had whispered earlier reignited, flooding my mind with sudden, overwhelming obsession that made my heart race and my grip tighten on the blade.
I shook my head hard, forcing the images down with sheer will, and kept fighting, blade flashing faster than before.
"We hold this line," I growled to my team, voice rough with the effort of pushing the curse aside. "No matter what, push them back! For Dravenmere! For our families!"
★★★
~Valerian's POV~
The next morning, I moved through the flood like it was my own river, the ethereal beasts swirling around me in a living storm of hunger and rage.
They merged into my form one by one, feeding me their endless appetite until I became one with the horde... larger, darker, stronger, and my body a shifting mass of scale and fang.
Their rage became mine, their insatiable drive a fuel that made my steps shake the ground and crack the earth beneath me.
I tracked the triad to the gate core, a pulsing nexus of raw World energy where multiple paths converged in a wide, glowing circle of ancient stone.
Sylion, Alaric, the matured boy, and Elowen stood ready, weapons drawn, faces set in grim defiance... their bodies still bearing the marks of previous battles.
"Impressive survival," I said, voice layered with the deep growls of the merged beasts, echoing like thunder across the chamber.
"But this ends here. The gate has waited long enough for its true key, and I will not be denied."
The boy stepped forward first, wings half-spread, eyes burning with hybrid fire that matched my own crimson glow.
"You're not taking anyone else. This stops with me, right here!"
I laughed low, the sound rumbling through the merged horde like an earthquake. "Bold words from my blood's echo. Come on then, show me what you've become. Prove you're worthy of the Second World or fall like the rest who dared stand against me."
He attacked without hesitation, wings flaring wide as he launched forward with a roar that shook the air.
Our clash sent shockwaves through the core, cracking the glowing floor beneath us and sending shards of stone flying.
His power met mine... strength drawn from Alaric's grounded wolf, cunning borrowed from Sylion's precision, and raw relic force colliding in a storm of light.
He swung with Alaric's grounded power, dodged with Sylion's fluid grace, and struck with a cunning I recognized as my own twisted gift.
Cracks spidered across the World barrier with every strike, light bleeding together in violent bursts that lit the chamber like lightning.
"You fight like three men in one," I taunted, slamming him back with a clawed fist that sent him skidding across the stone.
"But it won't be enough, the gate wants balance. It will take what it needs from all of you, whether you offer it willingly or not."
The boy roared and drove forward again, wings beating hard to close the distance, his voice ringing with defiance.
"I'm not your echo, I'm more than your blood!"
One final collision split the barrier wide open with a deafening crack that echoed like the end of the world.
The rift widened violently, pulling everything toward it like a hungry maw.
Elowen lost her footing first on the crumbling edge. The rift sucked her through in a rush of violet light, her scream cutting across.
She emerged alone in the core chamber on the other side, facing my true form... tall, ancient, and veins glowing with stolen World energy that pulsed like living stars beneath my skin.
From the original side, the boy's scream tore across the divide. "Mama… choose the gate, or us!"