Chapter 110 Strike
Chapter 110 Strike
Aria’s POV
The column of liquid midnight shot into the sky like a pillar of black oil, separating me from Kael with a wall of pure, anti-magic energy. Through the thick, murky dark, I could see his terrifying silhouette. He was throwing his entire massive body against the barrier, his six-foot broadsword slamming into the black wall over and over. Every strike unleashed a massive shockwave of emerald fire, but the liquid shadow just absorbed the heat, reforming instantly with a thick, heavy hiss.
“Aria!” His roar didn't reach my ears through the physical air; it slammed directly into my brain through our blood-bond, raw, bleeding, and frantic with an absolute, feral terror.
Inside the barrier, the ground was a web of glowing violet and crimson fractures. The anti-magic was suffocating, a heavy weight that made the elite guards around me drop to their knees, their silver armor cracking as their vampire essence was forcibly drained into the soil. Commander Kenneth was fighting to stand, his eyes bloodshot, his hands trembling as he used his sword to balance himself.
I was the only one standing perfectly straight.
The twins inside me weren't panicking anymore. The frantic flutters had settled into a heavy, rhythmic throb that pulsed in perfect sync with the silver Sage rune on my right hand. The anti-magic wasn't draining me; it was feeding the core.
The unbroken bloodline of the Creators inside my veins was waking up, a bright, white starlight heat that expanded outward from my stomach, creating a three-foot bubble of pure warmth that kept the liquid shadow from touching my skin.
"Look at you," a voice rasped from the center of the crimson light.
Julian’s possessed body drifted forward across the frozen red clay, his boots not even touching the snow. The glowing gold runes of possession on his face and chest were burning so hot his skin was blistering, smoking with a foul, ancient heat. Malakor’s dead, incandescent gold eyes stared down at my stomach, a horrifying look of hunger crossing his borrowed features.
"The blood of the First Sages, preserved in a fragile, human shell," the old king mocked through Julian’s throat, his voice a collective, demonic echo. "My foolish son thinks he is a protector. He does not see that you are a key, little hybrid. With your blood, the Cult of the Eclipse will not just break the mountain wards. We will tear down the veil between this world and the primordial void."
"You're a ghost, Malakor," I said, my voice carrying a sudden, resonant volume that made the liquid midnight wall vibrate. I took a step forward, my hand resting flat over the prominent curve of my belly. "You died five hundred years ago. You’re nothing but a parasitic rot hiding in your own son's skin because you're too weak to face the light."
Julian’s face twisted into a grotesque, jagged snarl. "I am the eternal shadow of the Draven line! And your children belong to the dark!"
With a sudden, violent flick of his wrist, Malakor unleashed a wave of dark, needle-sharp shadow spikes straight at my chest.
I didn't run. I didn't try to blur-step away.
Instinctively, I lifted my right hand, palm facing outward. The silver Sage rune beneath my skin didn't just flare—it exploded. A blinding torrent of pure, colorless white starlight shot from my palm, hitting the shadow spikes in mid-air. The moment the creator's magic touched the old king's darkness, the spikes didn't just break; they dissolved into clear, harmless water that splashed into the red mud.
The white light from my hand didn't stop. It traveled straight up the array lines, hitting the liquid midnight pillar that separated me from Kael.
CRACK.
The absolute barrier shattered like cheap glass. The anti-magic pressure vanished instantly, and the fifty elite guards who had been pinned to the floor let out a collective gasp as the air rushed back into their lungs.
Through the clearing mist, Kael didn't just move—he transcended speed.
He was a blur of black obsidian armor and blazing emerald fire. Before Malakor could even register the collapse of his array, Kael was right in front of him. His left hand, entirely transformed into three feet of solid, smoking midnight energy, clamped around Julian’s throat in a crushing grip, lifting the possessed prince three feet off the ground.
The six-foot silver broadsword in Kael’s right hand was pressed directly against Julian’s chest, the emerald fire singing the gold runes of possession.
"Get out of my brother's flesh," Kael whispered, his voice a low, sub-zero monotone that made the entire canyon go dead silent. His molten gold eye was a raging sun, his emerald eye a swirling vortex of absolute slaughter. "Or I will burn his soul container into ash with you inside it."
The Final Warning
Malakor didn't scream in fear. Even with Kael’s shadow claws crushing Julian’s windpipe, the old king let out a hollow, bloody laugh through his vessel’s lips. Blood began to pour from Julian’s nose and eyes, the physical body failing under the massive pressure of the possession.
"You cannot save him, Kael," Malakor choked out, the golden light in his eyes flickering violently as my white Sage magic continued to hum in the air, actively melting the crimson array on the floor. "And you cannot save her. The solstice alignment has already begun in the East. The core has tasted her blood through this soil. We know where you sleep, High Sovereign."
With a sudden, terrifying snap, the golden light in Julian’s eyes completely vanished.
His body went limp, his head dropping forward as the spirit of Malakor abandoned the vessel, leaving behind nothing but a heavily scarred, unconscious young vampire. Kael caught his brother's falling body, dropping his sword into the snow as he lowered Julian onto the red clay.
The vanguard was dead. The horde was ash. But as Kael stood up, his obsidian armor covered in frost, his gold and emerald eyes locked onto my pale face, the true horror of the war hit us. Malakor hadn't come to kill me today. He had come to activate the connection—and my own power had just given him the location of our sanctuary.