Chapter 67 Cursed Reunion 2
Chapter 67 Cursed Reunion 2
She wiped the blood from her cheek with the back of her sleeve, leaving a dark red smear across her skin.
The sting of the cut was intense, but the adrenaline pulsing through her veins completely drowned out the pain. She flared the Nocturnis Fan wide again. The purple steel edges crackled with dark, volatile electricity, answering her anger.
From the pavilion below, the heavy sounds of rushing footsteps echoed. The upper-tier elites were finally moving.
"Ravelyn! Get away from her!" Lucius yelled. His pristine white uniform blurred as he dashed toward the base of the platform, his celestial silver sword already drawn and glowing with a blinding, holy light.
On the other side of the pavilion, Kieran was moving even faster. His shadow mana surged around his boots like a dark vortex, his expression completely lethal as he locked his target onto Kaelie.
"Don't touch her!" Kieran snarled, his voice booming through the colossal labyrinth of the vault.
Kaelie didn't seem to care about the two high-tier noble boys rushing her position. She kept her blank, deadpan eyes glued to Ravelyn. With another terrifying burst of speed, she lunged forward, her talons aiming straight for Ravelyn's chest.
Ravelyn didn't back down. She brought the obsidian fans up, parrying the strike with a loud, metallic clang.
Sparks flew wildly between them, a mix of midnight-purple dark energy and the oily, corrupted aura bleeding off Kaelie's skin.
The sheer force of the collision pushed Ravelyn back an inch, her boots skidding against the dust-covered stone. Kaelie's strength was completely off the charts, way stronger than she had ever been before she disappeared.
"What did they do to you, Kaelie?" Ravelyn hissed, straining against the pressure of the talons pushing down on her weapons.
Kaelie didn't answer. She just pushed harder, her face mere inches from Ravelyn's. The metallic smell of copper and dead flowers was suffocating.
"You shouldn't have been born with them," Kaelie hissed, her voice a synchronized, creepy echo that sounded like three different people speaking at the exact same time.
With a sudden twist of her wrists, Ravelyn deflected the talons and swiped the edge of her fan upward.
The sharp purple steel grazed Kaelie's forearm, ripping right through her uniform sleeve.
But nothing happened.
No blood came out of the wound. There was no tear of flesh. Beneath the ripped fabric, Kaelie’s skin was completely gray, lined with strange, pulsing black veins that looked like liquid shadow trapped beneath her skin.
Ravelyn’s breath hitched. She isn't even alive.
Before Ravelyn could recover from the shock, Kaelie spun around, delivering a brutal, spinning kick straight to Ravelyn's ribs. The impact was heavy, knocking the wind right out of her lungs.
Ravelyn stumbled back over the edge of the platform, losing her footing completely.
She went airborne, plunging toward the hard marble floor of the pavilion below. The wind rushed past her ears as the high ceiling spun out of control.
"Ravelyn!" Nina screamed from somewhere near the exits.
But before Ravelyn could hit the ground, a pair of strong, solid arms caught her mid-air, absorbing the entire force of the fall. The heavy scent of cold cedar and sharp ozone filled her senses.
She looked up, blinking through the haze of adrenaline.
Lucius was holding her, his bright, piercing blue eyes scanning her face with an expression that was entirely done with academy politics. He set her down on her feet gently but quickly, his grip lingering on her shoulder for a split second to make sure she wouldn't collapse.
"Stay behind me," Lucius ordered flatly, his silver blade humming with an intense, protective celestial energy.
"I can fight," Ravelyn gritted out, clutching her bruised ribs.
"You're bleeding, Rav," Lucius said, his gaze briefly cutting to the deep slash on her cheek before snapping back up to the platform. "Let us handle this."
Above them, Kieran had already reached the platform. He materialized directly out of the shadows behind Kaelie, his dark broadsword coming down in a brutal, crushing arc meant to pin her to the ground.
Boom!
The stone platform shattered under the weight of Kieran's shadow pressure, sending chunks of obsidian rock raining down into the pavilion. Kaelie flipped backward into the air with impossible agility, landing gracefully on a floating stone pillar ten feet away.
She perched on top of it like a predatory bird, her fingers twitching as she looked down at the three of them.
The vault's automated defense sirens were screaming at a deafening pitch now, the high ceilings flashing a violent, continuous red. The heavy iron double doors at the main entrance were beginning to grind shut, the academy's emergency lockdown sequence fully activating.
"We need to move her out of the vault," Kieran called down, his voice echoing from the ruined platform. He didn't look back at Ravelyn, but his posture was completely rigid, his shadow mana flaring defensively.
"The elders are going to seal this entire sector in less than two minutes."
"She's not trying to escape," Ravelyn said, her voice shaking slightly as she held the Nocturnis Fan tight against her side.
"What do you mean?" Lucius asked, not breaking his battle stance.
"Look at her," Ravelyn whispered, her mismatched eyes locked onto the creepy figure on the pillar. "She doesn't care about the doors. She's only looking at me. Seems like she came here specifically for these fans."
On top of the pillar, Kaelie let out another low, rattling laugh. The black veins beneath her gray skin began to pulse faster, glowing with a faint, sickening purple light that matched the edges of Ravelyn's new weapons.
She raised her hands, her long black talons clicking together in a slow, rhythmic pattern.
"Two minutes," Kaelie droned, her sadistic smile widening until it looked like her jaw might unhinge.
"That's plenty of time to take what I want, Rav."
Before the lockdown gates could slam shut completely, Kaelie dropped from the pillar, descending straight toward them like a falling stone.