Chapter 36 — Rise of the Chosen One
Damon's anger was indeed waning, and helplessness was slowly taking its place. He felt as if all his life energy was leaving him along with anger, and when became like a normal demon again, he fell to his knees, completely exhausted. At this moment one of Alistair's troops moved to attack him. Damon knew he was too weak to defend himself, so he closed his eyes and suddenly felt someone grab his hand, then as if he felt nothing for a few seconds. When Damon opened his eyes two minutes later, he was lying on the bed in the makeshift hospital, Selene was holding his hand, crying, and Maria raised her hands over his body. He clearly felt some power begin to spread over his body. Damon slowly began to regain his strength, and Selene, seeing him awake, beamed as she wiped away her tears.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice still apprehensive.
"Okay." Damon replied, and Selene sighed with relief. "But how did I get here? The last thing I remember is an army of demons pouncing on me," he added, stroking her cheek and looking questioningly at Alice, who was standing a little ways away, and Johnathan, who was sitting with Isabelle on a bench nearby.
"Eleazar grabbed your hand at the last moment and teleport you here, to our hospital." Maria replied, smiling a little. "I'm very proud of him, after all you were his rival." she added appreciatively.
"That's awesome, I'll have to thank him." Damon said, pleasantly surprised. "Where is he?" he asked then, looking around.
"He had to go back to the battlefield. You know, there are a lot of wounded that Eleazar has to teleport here, and besides, he had to bring the healed back too." Maria answered him.
"How good that you're feeling better." Selene said to him, changing the subject.
"Your presence alone is soothing to me." Damon gave her a charming smile. "I want to apologize for what you had to watch in the meadow." he added after a while.
"That's okay, you've got nothing to apologize for, it's not your fault, after all. How were you supposed to know you were capable of such an attack? You didn't even knew you were half Fallen Angel." Selene replied, smiling slightly.
"How do you know about this?" Damon asked, looking at her in surprise.
"Marco told me what was going on with you." Selene explained.
"And you're not scared?" Damon continued asking, studying her closely.
"No, I'm not. After all, you defended me and the others, didn't you?" Selene replied with a smile.
Damon, hearing her words, despite his continued weakness, rose slightly on the bed and kissed Selene gently.
A little bit later, about ten minutes before midnight, as Damon was slowly recovering, Alice said:
"Alistair wants to visit us... He is coming here. The crucial moment is approaching." she announced.
So Selene left the hospital tent with her to prepare for the final showdown.
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About five minutes before midnight, Alistair appeared in the meadow outside Maria's "hospital". Selene looked at him with a slight fear, for he looked exactly like in her nightmares. Fortunately, Alice and Rita were beside, which cheered her up a lot. Rita was the first to meet him.
"Well, well, who do we have here... Young miss Spencer. Nice to see you again." Alistair spoke up, seeing her in front of him.
"So you remember me after all? I thought that your father completely brainwashed you... But even if you remember me, I don't know if I should be happy about it." Rita replied coldly.
Then they both looked at each other. Selene was terrified. She was now looking at a couple who had once had a relationship and now fought like bitter enemies. Once before Selene was afraid that Damon might become the same enemy for her. She couldn't understand how Rita was able to fight so fiercely with someone she still loved. There could be one reason: Rita understood through empathy that she was not the only one suffering, so made a conscious choice and preferred to defend the "chosen one" for the public good, although she knew that then would lose Alistair forever. For Rita, however, her own feelings no longer mattered. She could suffer, as long as the whole world around her didn't suffer.
Unfortunately, Alistair defeated Rita in less than three minutes and, unconscious, threw her into the woods. Alice lunged at him then, but he defeated her after about one minute. As he started walking toward Selene, the clock in the tower of the distant monastery began to chime, to inform about approaching midnight. Alistair smiled broadly.
"Don't be afraid... I will kill you quickly." he said, and a burning ball appeared in his hands.
Selene had to stay alive at all costs during this short time. The awareness of how close she is to the fulfillment of destiny caused that a new force entered her. Selene decided she couldn't give up now, so when Alistair threw the ball of fire at her, she focused on it. The fact that this ball was made of fire gave her an advantage. Selene, using her gift, smashed the fireball into thousands of sparks, which she pushed back towards Alistair. Unfortunately, he avoided every spark with remarkable accuracy and, seeing that nothing could be done with fireballs, went into hand-to-hand combat. However, Selene avoided his punches nicely, using all the tricks Marco had taught her.
Rita and Alice woke up and made it back to the meadow about few seconds before midnight. They watched anxiously as Selene and Alistair fought, Rita even wanted to help, but Alice stopped her.
"It's her fight now. It will be midnight soon." she said, pointing to her watch, which she had on the wrist.
Then Alistair grabbed Selene by the throat and began to choke her, but Alice's watch already showed 12 o'clock. Selene's eyes turned completely white and her body was covered in blinding light. Alistair jumped away from her because suddenly she was all on fire. Then, in turn, Selene dissolved into a stream, turned into a gust of wind, and finally into a tree, from which she returned to her human form. Alistair felt his end was near, but wasn't about to die without a fight, so he started throwing fireballs at Selene indifferently, but she turned into a fiery form and began to absorb every fireball.
The eyes of everyone, from the army of wizards and demons, turned to this meadow. Elisabeth, Meredith, Teresa, and Eleonore, with Eleazar's help, made their way up the hill quickly. The light that emanated from Selene's body made it as bright as daytime, despite the late hour.
Alistair fought very hard, not wanting to give up. He fought until the last minute and their duel ended at exactly 12:59. Then, the great king of the Underworld, lord of demons, a descendant of the strongest royal family, son of Sariel, fell in the fight with the "chosen one" after 5.000 years of life, and his body burned to ash.
Johann, seeing this, withdrew an army that was only 80.000 anyway, and only demons themselves, all other beings either escaped or died. He couldn't expose himself to greater losses, especially since none of the dead could be resurrected by Alistair because of his death, including Johann's older brother, Salvatore. Now he was the ruler, as the sole representative of the royal family and Alistair's cousin. Johann made the wisest choice he could make and returned quickly to the Underworld with the rest of the army.
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Elisabeth collected the ashes left over from Alistair and went on a journey to scatter them all over the world. Everyone thought he couldn't resurrect himself, but the Council preferred to be 100% sure. Alistair was too dangerous an enemy to ignore, even after his death. Nothing could be certain, since Alistair's gift was precisely to resurrect demons. Who knows, maybe it worked for him too?
All the fighters returned to their homes, cheering for the victory and the angels also flew up to heaven, saying goodbye to Maria. Losses to their army were minor thanks to the hard work of the healers in the makeshift hospital. Mainly the groups of fairies, elves, and dwarves thinned out, as they, being weaker by nature, often died way before Eleazar and the other teleport wizards could reach them and take to the "hospital" to heal.
Damon regained his strength and soon, together with Selene, they discovered their new possibilities. Each of them underwent a transformation and tried to understand the enormous power inside. Everyone agreed that Selene and Damon were a powerful couple and their relationship definitely changed the world of magic.