Chapter 86 Devourer
Chapter 86 Devourer
(Aria’s POV)
The clearing shook as the Devourer’s shadow took shape, its form flickering between smoke and something vaguely humanoid, tall enough to swallow the treetops, wrong enough to make the ground tilt beneath my feet. Every breath dragged knives down my throat, but I didn’t move.
If I moved, I’d run.
If I ran, I’d doom them all.
Moonlight swirled around my hands, unsteady but present. The goddess’s essence unfurled through me, cold as winter and old enough to make my bones feel borrowed.
Stand, she commanded.
Her voice was a blade.
Sharp. Final.
The Devourer reached toward me with a hand made of dissolving night, fingers elongating, dripping shadows like ink.
You took what was mine.
His voice shuddered through the trees, rattling leaves from branches.
“I took nothing,” I said, though my voice strained. “You lost the right to this world when the seals bound you.”
Bound, yes.
A tremor rippled outward as he stepped forward and if it could be called walking.
But not forgotten. And certainly not defeated.
The ground cracked beneath my boots, fissures spreading outward in glowing veins as if the earth itself recoiled from him.
Through the break in the trees, I glimpsed the temple. A faint glow pulsed from within and Lira’s ritual beginning. Kael’s aura flickered with every beat of my heart.
I had to keep the Devourer away long enough for them to finish.
Easy, in theory.
Suicidal, in practice.
Light surged along my arms as the goddess pushed power into me but too much, too fast. I gasped as it tore through me like a river trying to fit through a needle’s eye.
Do not hesitate, she murmured.
If he reaches the vessel, he will consume what remains.
Kael.
The thought of him collapsing again, breath slipping away, the silver-gold threads severing....
No.
I wouldn’t let that happen.
I thrust my hand forward, and a bolt of silver ripped through the air, slicing across the Devourer’s form. The shadow hissed, recoiling as the light burned a gash through the upper half of its torso.
For a moment, I felt triumphant.
Then the wound closed nice and slow but deliberate, threads of darkness knitting themselves back together.
Little light, he rumbled. You wear her skin, but you are no goddess.
I swallowed hard. “No. But I’m the one standing between you and the last seal.”
Light flared at my fingertips, blinding-white.
“And that’s enough.”
He lunged.
The shadow rushed toward me like a tidal wave swallowing the ground. I leapt back, summoning moonlight to my palms, shaping it into a barrier. The wave struck it with a deafening crack, shoving me backward through dirt and leaves. My back slammed into a tree, bark cutting into my shoulders.
Pain flared, but the barrier held.
Barely.
Clever, the Devourer hissed. But temporary. All of your light is borrowed. All of your strength is fragile.
A cold wind spiraled around me, lifting my hair. The clearing dimmed as the Devourer leaned down, its faceless head inches from mine.
I know what you sacrificed. The wolf’s soul still clings to you. I taste it.
My heart lurched.
“Stay out of my mind.”
Your mind? A low, amused sound rippled through the shadow. Child… I am tasting your soul.
I struck without thinking.
Silver exploded outward in a shockwave, tearing a chunk from his form and scattering shadows into the treeline. I stumbled to my knees, breath harsh, vision flickering.
The goddess seethed through me, disapproval sharp.
Do not let him provoke you. Control strengthens the seal. Emotion weakens it.
“He’s trying to get inside my head,” I hissed under my breath.
Then shut your mind and listen.
“To you?”
To survival.
A roar tore across the clearing as the Devourer reformed faster this time, its shape more solid, more defined. Its arm extended, shadows condensing into jagged spikes.
I ducked and just barely, as they shot past, embedding into the earth. The ground quaked violently as the darkness seeped outward, corrupting everything it touched. Trees withered. Leaves curled into ash.
This couldn’t go on.
If Lira didn’t finish soon, there wouldn’t be a forest left.
I surged upward, calling the light back with a force that made my chest ache. Moonfire ignited along my limbs, and beneath my feet, the ground blossomed with silver cracks.
The Devourer paused.
You are awakening. Too quickly. Too chaotically.
“Good,” I panted. “Makes this easier.”
He tilted his head. You say that, and yet your hands shake.
I stilled.
They were shaking.
Not from fear, but from too much power, too fast, and no time to adjust.
He saw it.
He smelled it.
He wanted it.
You will burn yourself hollow. Let me end it quickly. Give me the vessel. Give me the boy.
My vision went white.
Rage erupted through me, sharp enough to draw blood in my throat when I screamed.
Moonlight speared downward from the sky, shattering the Devourer’s legs and driving him to one knee. He howled, the sound splitting the remaining trees like an axe through bone.
But even as he fell, I felt myself weakening. My balance wavered. My breath stuttered.
Enough! the goddess roared inside me. You cannot channel this much. You will destroy yourself.
“I don’t care!”
I do. And if you fall, he wins.
The Devourer began knitting himself back together.
Faster than before.
I could feel Lira’s energy from the temple it was thin, frantic, faltering. She was near her limit. Kael’s pulse in the bond flickered dangerously.
I had seconds.
Not minutes.
Not enough time.
You cannot protect them, the Devourer whispered, rising fully again, towering tall enough to blot out the moon. You cannot even protect yourself.
He reached for me...
But something inside me snapped.
Not with pain.
With clarity.
Storm’s last echo shimmered faintly in my memory and warm, and weightless, soft as breath against my cheek.
Don’t let me go…
I rose slowly to my feet.
Cold. Steady. Resolute.
“No,” I whispered. “I won’t.”
I spread my arms.
Moonlight burst outward, spiraling through the clearing in a radiant cyclone, forcing the Devourer back step by snarling step. His form twisted violently, darkness shredding at the edges as the light carved into him.
He roared but not in anger this time, but in recognition.
You are not only her vessel.
His voice cracked like splitting stone.
You are something new.
I didn’t understand, but didn’t have time to question it. The light surged again, lightning bright, burning the shadows clinging to his form.
He struck back with a blow that sent the world spinning. My body slammed into stone, ribs screaming. Blood filled my mouth. The clearing swam.
Still....
I stood.
Barely.
The Devourer hesitated, just enough for me to sense it.
Fear.
Not of me.
Of what I was becoming.
A sound rose behind us. Lira’s voice, chanting sharply, urgently, words tumbling in an ancient tongue. Power rippled out from the temple, forming a thin barrier of blue light around the breach.
She was sealing it.
The Devourer felt it too.
He surged forward in panic....
And I threw myself between him and the temple.
Over my dead body.
I gathered the last of my strength, moonlight condensing into a single sphere in my palm, thrumming like a heartbeat.
The goddess whispered, low and dangerous.
Strike true.
I hurled it with everything I had left.
The world went white.
A shockwave tore across the clearing, ripping the Devourer’s forming body apart in a burst of light and shadow. His scream cut the sky open as he was shoved backward toward the breach, forced into the narrowing gap as Lira’s seal locked into place.
With a final, thunderous crack, the breach slammed shut.
Silence collapsed around me.
The Devourer’s presence vanished.
The clearing was still.
I fell to my knees, every bone shaking, breath tearing through my lungs in broken fragments.
I’d won.
For now.
The victory tasted like blood and ash.
The goddess whispered, almost gently,
He will return stronger.
“I know,” I whispered.
“And next time…”
My vision wavered.
“…I’ll be ready.”
But as I staggered to my feet, something cold slithered down my spine.
A warning.
A truth I hadn’t seen.
Child, the goddess whispered, almost mournful,
the Devourer did not come for the altar tonight. He came for you.