138

138
Malachi’s POV

I stood on the hill, my hands crossed behind my back, watching the battle unfold below. The steel rang, soldiers screamed and lights flashed when explosions ripped the midnight sky to pieces. It was a grotesque spectacle. And I loved every second of it. But it was wrong. My generals were standing beside me, equally watchful and I felt the tension in their bodies. Something was going wrong.

“Our people should have it,” stated Korvin carefully. “It’s the northern force, sir. What savaged it I cannot understand and yet…” The man trailed off, and I smiled without humor.

“The witch and werewolf coordination is variously improved. It’s not how I imagined them to move,” I whispered. When the werewolf had to charge, witches were to cover. When the witches cast a spell, werewolves were ready to leap between them and enemies. It was an organism fighting as one, not two separate flacks. Of course, it was. Clever girl. She had learned well.

“Our northern force should be there soon,” reported Commander Thresh. My secondary force started from the forest north, as planned. Hundreds of my best forces has enhanced with dark magic, ready to end the life on Diana’s northern flank. It didn’t go like that.

Powerful witches from hidden positions on both the north and south flank took their bows and, waiting for their signal, started their own offensive. She’d had read my mind, the intelligent hag. My secondary force between her main body and two of the surrounded, slaughtered. Had rage boiling in my chest that evening. How dared she outplayed me? How dared this obscure halfbreed?

“My lord, perhaps we should send reinforcements,” General Korvin’s voice was hesitant and uneasy.

“No. This is not necessary. I will personally solve this problem,” I replied coldly.

I stepped forward, feeling the power of the dark magic that ran through my veins. All of the shadow crystals I’d placed around the battlefield lit up, filling me with their energy. I felt it surge through me, granting me strength no ordinary mortal could ever have.

“You should stay,” I told the generals. “Today you will see how true absolute power looks.”

I started walking down the hill, and everyone else parted before me. The soldiers from both my and the enemy’s armies knew me by the power being exerted from me alone. The darkness that covered me like a cloak was enough for everyone to sense it.

A foolish allied witch was stupid enough to throw a spell my way – fire rushed toward my face. I didn’t even slow down. I raised one of my hands, and the fire inexplicably vanished; it was simply absorbed into the all-encompassing force around me. The witch’s eyes widened in fear. Good. I flicked my wrist, and dark magic shot from my fingertips. It hit her chest, and she screamed as her life was sucked from her body. She aged fifty years within seconds, her hair turning white, her skin wrinkling, and then she collapsed, dead.

Despite the display, more allied soldiers ran toward me: werewolves in their bestial forms, with extended claws and bared teeth. Witches with staves from which magic was now surging out, even a few vampires moving as fast as shadows.

I halted and raised both of my hands above my head.

“Foolish children,” I scolded them. “Shall I demonstrate to you the difference between the true mastery of the dark arts and the borrowed power you possess?”

The moment my hands descended, a wave of black energy erupted from my body, sweeping out across the battlefield like a death tsunamis. Everything it contacted was already dead. Grass burned to ashes, trees exploded into dust, and dozens of soldiers blinked out of existence. The wave spread fifty feet in all directions before finally fading away. There was nothing where before a fierce battle had been. Two armies stood motionless in a field of post-apocalyptic death. The ground was seeded with smoking corpses. The action is done. The wave is over.

“Can you repeat once more how far away your record-keeper is from me?” I kept walking, leaving a trail of death and destruction in my wake. No soldier dared to challenge me. Anyone who did died in a blink of an eye. My magic was too potent, too pure. Years of study and hard sacrifices transformed me into something more than a mortal. There she was. Diana. In the distance, on a specially built square stand, glowing blue hands shone massive. Even at that distance, I could feel the power coming out of them. Not bad for a youngling who received little to no training. But not enough to go toe-to-toe with me.

I changed the angle and moved straight in her direction. Soldiers, cladded in gleaming metal armor, tried to stop me and failed. When blue barriers appeared on my path, I shattered them like glass. The Wizard noticed me coming. She said something to those around subsequently descents onto the battlefield. We both walked for a while and met halfway. Twenty feet from each other, I stopped and looked at my old enemy. She had grown since our last encounter. She was older, colder, and more powerful. The blue eyes burned with indignation barely restrained.

“Malachi,” she said, and I flatted out my lips automatically.

“Diana. Or should I say Luna Diana? The other side must be proud to see how far their omegade has risen. From daughter of a whore to queen of the witch bitches.” Her jawline tightened as she swallowed her anger and twisted it into a serene smile.

“This ends tonight. Your brief reign of terror ends here.” I laughed, a real, full belly laugh.

“My reign? My child, my reign hasn’t even begun. And when I am through here, I shall rule over all the realms. Werewolf, witch, vampire, they shall all bow before me.”

“You’re insane.”

“No, Lady. I have ambition.” We began to circle each other, me to the right and sclera to the left. This was a tasked dance, predator to prey and td ingrained from the dawn of time.

“How does it feel to know your mother suffered for years because of you, Diana?” I asked casually. “How does it feel to know she was tortured and broken, all for the crime of falling in love with a werewolf, and bearing his mongrel child?”

“My mother’s suffering was not my fault,” Diana stated firmly. “It was my father’s fault. And yours, too, for capitalizing on that suffering.”

“Oh, but if you had never been born, she would have been freed,” I said. “She could have stayed in the witch realm, lived the life of luxury and respect she deserved. Instead, she was worked to the bone as a slave, all because of you.”

I saw the flare of pain in her eyes. Good, I was making her angry. “And your children!” I re-engaged. “Three little mongrels, just like you. Half-witch, half-wolf, consigned to a miserable existence between two worlds. They will never be welcomed in either. What kind of life is that?”

“My children are perfect,” Diana snarled, the hands in front of her now glowing even fiercer. “And they will grow up in a world free of brutal monsters like you!”

“Such touching love for your offspring,” I responded. “Will they feel the same about you when you are dead? Will they praise your name when they are grown, or will they curse it for throwing your life away on a war that should never have happened?”

“I am not the one who is going to die tonight,” Diana stated.

My mocking failed.... “You seem very sure of that,” I chimed in before stepping across to confront her. I stopped circling her and faced her head-on. “You are so damned confident of yourself. I have to give you that Diana. Your spirit is admirable. In a different life, you may have made a good apprentice for me....But your loyalties are placed wrong.”

“There should be no sides,” Diana responded, still not making a move to fight. “There is only the right and the wrong side. The free and the slave. The light and the shadow. And you stand opposed to all of them.”

“Naive. It’s not that simple, child. Power is all that matters. Either you have it and rule, or not, and you serve. That’s the only natural order.”

“I will break that order.”

“You can try.” Both me and Diana raised out hands simultaneously. Blue magic and black magic started mixing in the air, the strength was building. Our powers cracked the air around us, the ground under our feet started cracking open. “Last chance. Kneel before me now, and I will spare your children. Stand against me, and I will hunt them down. They will watch as I destroy everything you love.”

“Never.”

“So be it.”

With one final push we released out powers. Blue lightning clashed against black fire in the middle between us, make explosion after explosion. The entire battlefield lit up. Soldiers from both sides were thrown to they keys. For a few minutes our powers were evenly matched. Her face was stony. I smiled. Then I drew more power from the shadow crystals hidden around the battlefield. Dark energy flooded me, and my attack reached new power levels. Diana’s magic started dissipating, being literally pushed back inch after inch. She started sweating. Her hands started trembling. She refused to give up ground.

“Impressive. You are stronger than I have anticipated. But strength alone is not enough”. I draw even more energy into my attack. Diana screamed. She started sliding back, blood from her nose dripped onto the ground. Both my armies and hers stopped fighting, watching us like a stage play.

Diana’s magic flickered – it was close to failing completely. I gathered the darkness around me, preparing to give the final push..and an unmistakable whisper reached me. A presence – faint, weak, but familiar. I smiled a slow, twisted smile.

“You know,” I said to Diana, watching me with horror in her eyes, “you fight bravely. You fight for your people. Your children. Your precious mate. But let me remind you, that there is one person you forgot,”

I drew out a communication crystal and spoke into it. “Bring her out.” At the edge of the field my guards emerged from the woods. Between them, they dragged a woman. Thin, weak, ragged clothes, heavily battered face. But I knew her immediately. It was her mother. Diana’s eyes widen, her concentration wavered and I struck her immediately.

My own magic surged forward, catching her off guard and flung, sending her spinning back. She

“If you give yourself and your children up to me,” I said, “if you swear loyalty and submission, I will spare your mother. “

Diana said in a low voice, “No.”

“No?” Then look at her.

I raised my hand, and dark energy began to gather in it. I could kill Diana’s mother with one gesture. Diana covered her face with her hands because it was as if they were herself in this situation. Everything depended on her choice. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she could not even wipe them away because her hands trembled. The battlefield was absolutely silent around: everyone was silent, I was silent, and even the wind itself stopped. Should I wait just a few seconds? What would she choose?

I interrupted this endless waiting, “Well, what, Diana? What to choose? Your freedom or your mother’s life! Your destiny or her death! Time is running out.”