Chapter 127 Back home

Chapter 127 Cat helping
EVANDER'S POV
The darkness is absolute. The weight of the creatures is crushing my lungs, their claws digging into my throat. The cold of the grave is seeping into my marrow, and I am ready to succumb.
My vision is narrowing to a pinprick, and I am thinking of Zephyra. of the way her hair catches the light, the phantom weight of the children I will never hold.
Then, the world turns blue.
A sound like a mountain shattering explodes through the mine. The pressure on my chest suddenly evaporates as the creatures are thrown backward by a shockwave of pure, crystalline energy.
I open my eyes, gasping for air, and see a nightmare that rivals the one pinning me down.
A wolf.
Zephyra's wolf.
"Is that..." I hear Fineasta’s voice, a thin, strangled sound as he stares back at the apparition.
She is a titan of celestial light...a creature that has descended from the stars themselves.
Her two heads, terrifying and beautiful, are wreathed in blue flame that turns the very air to ice. The creatures that were, just moments ago, shredding my skin turn toward Cat, their red eyes widening with a primitive, soul-deep fear.
Kade pulls me away from the fray, and we watch the abomination-warriors stop.
They bow. It is a gesture of unnatural submission to a power they cannot comprehend.
Except for six.
One of them,probably the leader, still has his hand gripped around my neck.
I want to move, to reclaim my dignity, but my body is a broken shell, weak and trembling.
Cat lunges. Her movement is so fast it leaves afterimages of frost in the air.
One head snaps forward, catching the leader by the spine and shaking it with a sickening crack before throwing the creature against the cavern wall.
It stands up, its form shifting.
It becomes fully human,or a mockery of one. The face looks familiar, a fog of memory I cannot pierce through the pain.
The creature brings out a dagger of obsidian and lunges toward Cat’s flank.
"Ca..." I start, but her other head opens its maw, releasing a high-frequency, sonic howl that vibrates the entire cavern. The vibration is so intense I feel my own teeth ache.
The human caught in the wave stops, his hand frozen mid-air, skin cracking like dry porcelain.
The other creatures turn to human, then back again, caught in a hideous, forced metamorphosis.

They all fall to the floor, writhing, as Cat continues to howl. A sound that is both a dirge and a command.
She sweeps her tail-a lash of blue, frozen fire. The two remaining standing monsters are caught in the arc, their necks and jaws severed by a blade of pure winter.

"Nooooo!" I scream, reaching out. I don't know why I scream for them, perhaps because they were once men, perhaps because I am witnessing a mercy I do not deserve.
But it is too late. Their blood pools on the concrete floor, black and steaming.
Cat moves toward the leaderd the one who broke my leg and hovered over me.
He is not dead, not yet. I watch as Cat lifts a massive, frost-rimmed paw and places it onto his ribs.
Then, her blue-fire tail curls around his neck.
With a slow, deliberate movement, the creature’s body jolts upward, suspended in the air. A bolt of concentrated, freezing energy slams into the abomination’s chest.
The rot inside it turns to ice instantly, turning the flesh gray, and then, with a sound like a glacier splintering, it explodes into a million glittering, harmless fragments.
The battlefield falls into a deafening, ringing silence.

My men, the Royal soldiers...well, what’s left of them, all stare at Cat with terrified reverence.
Cat turns her two heads toward me. For a second, the starlight in her eyes softens, carrying the warmth and recognition of the woman I love.

She lets out a final, resonant chuff: a sound like the wind through the pines and then begins to dissolve into blue light, fading back into the ether from which she came.
I sink to my knees, my breath hitching in my chest. I am alive. We are alive.
Kade stumbles toward me, his face a mask of awe and relief, his own blood dripping down his arm to mingle with the dust.
"Great. No witness, evidence, or suspect left to hold," I mutter into the air as I watch the remnants of the creatures stop breathing.
Cat’s blue tail had lingered for a second, a final, lingering caress of frost on the ground, before vanishing entirely.
"You saved my life," I whisper to the empty space where she stood.