Chapter 219: The Last Breath Before Dawn
[Music recommendation: Secession Studios - The End of It All]
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Zevran didn’t respond, continuing to glare at her with unwavering fury. If he had still been alive, he would have cut down the vile creature before him without hesitation, the woman who had dared to place his divinity in such peril in the first place.
She burst into another bout of wicked laughter as she realised she was right and rasped, "So I am right! Well then, since you’ve done your little part, I don’t have time to deal with some ancient ghost."
Raising her hands once more, she prepared to launch another attack when two powerful beams of pure white and pale green light shot toward her, forcing her to dodge them instantly.
Thrown off balance, she dropped closer to the ground.
Letting out a furious curse, she whirled around to see who had dared interrupt her, only to find two tall lumens glaring straight at her. Her eyes widened at the sight of Septimus and Lucian. She tried to summon her powers and propel herself back into the sky, but they didn’t give her the chance.
They unleashed a second combined blast, sending her crashing violently into one of the nearby trees.
The vampiress Amara launched herself forward to attack her, but Viva called upon the dark stone again, shrouding herself in a menacing wave of dark magic. Sensing danger, Amara halted instantly and pulled away swiftly to avoid being touched by it.
With a furious shriek, Viva unleashed a massive burst of dark magic, obliterating everything it touched. As those who were attacking her momentarily retreated, letting her seize the opportunity to launch herself back into the sky and shoot straight toward Ivan.
She wasted no time in muttering a spell under her breath and hurled the attack at the destructive tornado surrounding Ivan, making everyone hold their breath at what she had done. Zevran attempted to stop the spell again, but with his remaining strength utterly spent, he could no longer intervene. The dark attack shot past him and, with a deafening blast, collided with the raging tornado.
Cece, who had just reached the top in her frantic search for Ivan, froze as the sight unfolded before her widening eyes. And she felt her heart drop to her stomach.
Slowly, her gaze shifted from the point where Viva’s attack had struck the raging tornado of darkness....to Ivan, at its centre. The attack had pierced the swirling vortex and hit him directly, smothering him in a thick, rolling cloud of pure, ominous black.
Then the world....stopped.
The raging winds froze mid-whirl, suspended unnaturally in the air. The dark clouds halted their violent churn. The thunder and lightning that had been tearing the sky apart only moments ago fell silent.
Everything halted....just as every single person witnessing this did.
A fragile, breathless whisper slipped from Cece’s lips, "No..."
She stood frozen, her mind spiralling. ’Were they too late? What happens now?’ Her cousin, someone as dear to her as her real brother, the boy she had grown up with, the man who had always protected those he loved in his own quiet, fierce way....was now swallowed by a darkness born from pure evil, a force that sought to erase him completely.
Cece strained her ears, desperate for even the faintest heartbeat within the suspended chaos. When she heard nothing....not a whisper of life, her widening eyes blurred with tears. Her legs gave out beneath her, and she dropped to her knees, staring at Ivan’s veiled form with a look of utter devastation, as if the world had stolen something precious from her.
She was not the only one frozen in shock; everyone present stood the same, their wide, disbelieving eyes fixed on the centre of the stillness. The air itself felt eerie, suspended, as if the world were holding its breath.
All of them shared the same terrifying thought: Were they too late?
Viva, who had managed to land the attack on Ivan, stood equally stunned at the unnatural silence. Then a thought crept into her dazed mind. Did she do it? Did she finally do it? Had she actually managed to kill the strongest man alive? She did....didn’t she?
Her dark eyes swept around, taking in the shocked faces of everyone else.
And then she heard it....a sharp, anguished scream ripping through the silence from a woman’s lips, "Noooooooo!!!"
Viva’s eyes snapped toward the source of the scream and spotted the blond vampiress, the prince’s cousin. ’Ah! She finally did it, didn’t she? She killed the formidable Ivan Ignia De Ashen!’ At that gleeful thought, she burst into another maniacal laugh, the sound echoing even louder in the pin-drop silence that hung in the air.
Alex and Caleb, who had managed to heal just enough to sit up, stared ahead with eyes that filled with raw pain and disbelief. They could no longer hear their prince’s heartbeat.
Viva’s shrill laughter fractured the silence like broken glass. She threw her head back, hysteria twisting her features into something monstrous.
"I killed him!" she screeched. "I killed the strongest man alive! I killed Prince Ivan Ignia De Ashen!"
She lifted her arms high, fingers clawing at the sky as if claiming it for herself, "Let history remember me," she snarled, her voice dripping with madness, "the one who brought the great Ivan to his knees."
Her lips curled into a grotesque grin, "But wait..." she whispered. "He wasn’t that formidable after all, was he? In the end....he died rather pathetically." Her crackling laughter rose again, more deranged than before, spilling through the still air like a curse.
Alex, who heard the madwoman spitting vile mockery at his prince, snapped. Wrath flooded his mind, burning through the pain in his battered body. "I’ll kill you, you evil witch!" he roared, and even in his injured state, he hurled his sword with deadly intent, aiming straight for her throat.
Viva darted aside, swift as a shadow, but not swift enough. The blade grazed her neck, slicing her skin and sending a streak of thick, black blood splattering across the ground.
She hissed through gritted teeth, eyes blazing with murderous rage, "You will pay for this."
"Omraya asmatus decara," she whispered the spell of the dead, and once more the fallen began to rise from the ground. Those who had never witnessed her use this magic felt their eyes widen in horror as the dark soldiers clawed their way back to stand at her command.
Zevran’s eyes widened as well at the sight of such forbidden magic, a cold dread settling in his fading form as one grim thought crossed his mind: was this the end....and the beginning of another dark era?
And before Viva could command them to attack.....
Boom!
An explosion so massive echoed nearby that it jolted everyone out of their first shock. Those at the top turned toward the sound and saw a colossal sphere of golden light swelling in size so vast that it resembled a second sun rising from the land itself.
Viva’s eyes widened, freezing in stunned silence, as the enormous globe ascended from the ground, flooding the world in blinding radiance until it felt like daylight had returned.
Cece, who had been wailing in grief for her brother, turned towards the light as well. Her breath hitched at the familiar warmth washing over them...the warmth that could only belong to one person.
Trembling, she whispered, "Evelyn..."
Soon, the once-still air began to stir again. The black clouds, which had frozen mid-churn, started to twist and spiral like a vast whirlpool in the sea. Thunder and lightning that were silent only moments ago resumed their furious dance as if Mother Nature herself commanded the heavens to rise and welcome a phoenix reborn.
By now, everyone who had been fighting inside the corridor rushed out to join Cece and the others. Every single human present, every member of the Ignis Blade....vampire, lumen or human, stood frozen as they witnessed the extraordinary phenomenon unfolding before their eyes.
Solan, who could feel the familiar warmth of the light, remembered the first moment he had held Evelyn in his arms, and he murmured in a breathless whisper beside Septimus, "What....is that?"
Septimus, who was just as stunned, tore his gaze away from the sight long enough to glance at the king beside him. "It is the reality you refused to acknowledge for far too long."
Solan was left speechless, his wide blue eyes fixed on the colossal golden sphere rising not far from them.
Back where Damien and Edward had been thrown by the blast, they took a moment to steady themselves. It had been Edward’s quick action of raising a barrier at the last second that prevented them from being blown to smithereens.
Slowly, they lifted their eyes toward the sphere of blazing radiance above them. The wind howled so fiercely around them that they struggled to keep their eyes open. The explosion had blown the roof clean off the building, exposing the churning dark clouds of the night sky directly overhead.
Edward gasped for air and murmured, "Lord Damien, tell me, am I dreaming?"
Damien turned his dark crimson eyes toward him and replied, "If the pain ripping through your body isn’t enough to tell you what’s real, then I don’t know what will."
