Chapter 49: Death to all
Lilith stared at the magical circle that had formed above her head. The next moment, chains made of light shot from the ground and latched onto Lilith. They bound her tight and refused to allow her to make a single movement.
"Hmm, interesting," Lilith muttered. She looked at Silva.
"This is the spell we got our hands on from your dungeon. To think that we would have to use it against you first," Silva said.
Lilith felt the chains tighten around her. She tested them, pulling against them, but they did not budge.
"Interesting," she muttered again.
The magical circle above her head began to spin. It started slow and then picked up speed fast, pulling mana from every direction with so much force that everyone around was forced to stop and look. The circle gathered more and more until it could not hold any longer, and then a massive beam of light shot down, slamming into Lilith with so much force and brightness that no one could even see her standing there.
The beam held for a few seconds before it finally ended.
The dust slowly cleared from the crater that had formed. Everyone expected to see nothing left of her. She should have been burned away completely.
Lilith stood there.
A black aura surrounded her body, and her eyes had turned completely dragon-like, slitted and gold against black. She looked over at Silva and Cleo, who stood there completely stunned at the sight of her.
"You forced me to use more power than I expected," Lilith said.
She lifted her sword. Something shifted in the air around her.
She moved.
She closed the distance in less than a second, her blade already swinging before Silva could even register the movement. Silva barely managed to bring her sword up in time, and the impact of the clash sent her skidding back several feet, her boots tearing into the ground.
Lilith was already there again.
She came with a flurry of strikes, fast and precise, each one aimed to kill. Silva blocked the first three, the Valkyrie’s armor flaring with every impact, but the fourth slipped past her guard and cut across her shoulder. She gritted her teeth and pushed back, swinging her sword in a wide arc.
Lilith did not even bother to block it. She tilted her head and let it pass an inch from her face, then countered with a thrust that Silva barely twisted away from.
"You are fast," Lilith said, almost bored. "But fast is not enough."
Cleo threw a spell from the side, a blast of compressed light aimed directly at Lilith’s back.
Lilith did not turn. She simply swung her sword behind her without looking, and the blast split in two and dissipated harmlessly on either side of her.
"Impossible," Cleo whispered.
Silva used the opening to attack again, calling more of the Valkyrie’s power into her blade, the light around her blazing brighter than before. She swung with everything she had, a strike meant to end the fight in one motion.
Lilith caught the blade between two fingers.
She held it there for a moment, looking at Silva with something that almost resembled pity, and then she twisted her wrist, and the sword was ripped from Silva’s grip entirely, spinning through the air before clattering to the ground several feet away.
Silva stared at her empty hands in disbelief.
She summoned a new blade from the Valkyrie’s light immediately, refusing to stop, and charged again. Lilith met her this time, blade against blade, and the force of the collision sent a shockwave rolling outward that knocked Cleo off her feet.
Silva pressed everything into the exchange, strike after strike, the Valkyrie’s armor cracking and reforming with each clash, sweat and blood mixing on her face. She was fighting with everything a human body could give.
It still was not enough.
Lilith read every single strike before it landed. She blocked, parried, and countered, each motion clean and economical, never wasting a single movement, while Silva poured out everything she had just to keep up.
"You fight like someone who has already accepted she might lose," Lilith said, deflecting another strike with ease. "But you keep going anyway."
"I have to," Silva said through gritted teeth, swinging again.
Lilith caught that blade too, this time with her bare palm, and she squeezed until the metal groaned under the pressure.
"Admirable," she said. "Wasted, but admirable."
She kicked Silva square in the chest, sending her flying back into the ground hard enough to crack the stone beneath her. Silva coughed, blood at the corner of her mouth, but she rose again, calling on the very last of the Valkyrie’s power, the light around her flickering weakly now, barely holding together.
She charged one final time.
Lilith stepped through the attack like it was nothing, closing the distance in an instant, and drove her blade straight through Silva’s chest.
The light of the Valkyrie died around her immediately.
Silva’s eyes went wide. She looked down at the blade buried in her, then up at Lilith, and then her body went still.
She fell.
Cleo screamed, the sound raw and broken, and she charged at Lilith with nothing left but fury, abandoning every spell, every ounce of strategy, just running straight at her with bare hands.
Lilith turned and ended it with one clean sword strike.
Cleo dropped beside Silva.
Both bodies lay there, unmoving, the square completely silent.
Lilith looked down at them for a long moment. The black aura around her slowly began to fade, her eyes shifting back toward something closer to normal. She said nothing. She sheathed her sword and turned, walking away from where they had fallen.
Silva’s finger twitched.
[...]
Violet made it to the town center, her chest heaving from the run. She saw William still tied to the pole, blood running down his body, barely conscious. Robert stood beside him with his sword drawn.
"Stop!" Violet yelled.
Robert turned and smiled when he saw her.
"There you are," he said. "I was wondering when you would show up."
He raised his sword toward William’s throat.
Violet’s hands lit up, fire and lightning crackling between her fingers.
"Touch him," she said, "and I will end you."
