Chapter 224: An Abomination From Hell
[Music recommendation: Secession Studios - Enter Maximus]
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Ivan’s tall, unyielding form remained exactly where he stood, his cold, molten-orange eyes tracking Valen’s pitiful crash with the gaze of a predator relishing the promise of a hunt. His mind burned with every wound he had memorised, each one inflicted on his Eve, and he vowed to repay them a hundredfold.
Power surged through him so fiercely that he could reduce Valen to ash in mere seconds. But death would be far too merciful for a man who had dared to lay his filthy hands on the love of his life. And Ivan had not forgotten the way Valen had ogled her that first time they met at the Rosemount Hotel, raking his gaze over her in front of Ivan as though he owned the right to look.
The more he thought about everything they had endured since entering this kingdom, the more the inferno within Ivan roared. He lifted his hand, flames erupting from his palm before launching straight towards Valen. They twisted into the shape of a rope and snapped around Valen’s leg, drawing another agonised scream from him as Ivan’s divine fire scorched his flesh. Ivan couldn’t have cared less if it burned him to the bone.
With a sharp flick of his wrist, the fiery tether tightened and yanked, dragging Valen back across the ground and depositing him right at Ivan’s feet once more.
As Valen writhed in agony, Ivan spoke in a low, deathly calm voice that slithered through the air, "I might have granted you an easy death....had your crimes ended with choosing the darkness." He paused, then fisted a handful of Valen’s hair and yanked him upright with effortless strength. "But you...." his voice dropped further, colder, "....you committed the greatest sin of your wretched existence. You dared to lay a hand on the woman who is mine in every essence. And that is something....I will never forgive."
His grip tightened until Valen felt his scalp tear, "So now," Ivan murmured, his molten eyes blazing with lethal promise, "it becomes my sacred duty to deliver a torment so slow, so devastating, that you will beg for a death I will not grant."
With that, Ivan took hold of Valen’s wrist, ready to snap it, when Valen suddenly drove his infected claws into Ivan’s own wrist, just as Lora had once done under the dark influence, desperate to corrupt him again.
Instead of pulling away, a cold smile settled on Ivan’s lips as he watched Valen attempt to corrupt him again. He clicked his tongue in quiet displeasure and, releasing Valen’s hair, pried the clawed hand free from his wrist, letting fresh blood spill onto the ground.
Dark roots spread around the area Valen had just pierced. Noticing this, Valen let out a triumphant crackle, convinced Ivan had been corrupted again. But Ivan merely looked at his wrist for a moment, then back at Valen, who was clearly delighted by the sight of the infected wound.
But Ivan just stood there in silence before every vein in his body began to glow beneath his skin, as though molten lava flowed through him instead of blood. When that scorching heat reached the open wound, a sharp sizzling sound erupted on contact with the corrupted flesh.
Valen’s laughter died instantly as he watched the dark roots around the punctures sizzle and vanish, burned away completely. And as the corruption dissipated, the wound sealed itself and closed without leaving a single mark.
His hollow red eyes widened in shock, and he looked at Ivan in disbelief. "You....how did you-"
"You see, I don’t speak to pests," Ivan cut in coldly. In the same breath, he seized Valen’s hand once more and, with a single fluid motion, snapped all his fingers, drawing another raw, agonised scream from Valen’s throat.
Valen clutched his shattered hand to his chest and began crawling backwards, desperate to put as much distance between himself and Ivan as possible. After his earlier battle with Damien and the devastating impact of the golden sphere’s blast, he had little strength left in him, certainly not enough to fight Ivan, especially knowing that even if he tried, it would be a losing battle. Ivan watched him scuttle away like the frightened little rat that he was and approached with slow, small steps. As those steps drew nearer, Valen’s mind raced, scrambling for anything, any plan, any scrap of power that might save him from the doom looming before him.
Suddenly, another agonised shriek split the air, followed by a heavy crash not far from where Valen crawled. His head snapped towards the fresh crater, terror prickling down his spine. Ivan’s eyes shifted in the same direction before a smirk tugged at his lips as he had sensed her presence the moment she arrived. He didn’t need to turn to know who had just descended behind him with such effortless grace. He simply extended his hand, and a delicate golden one rested on his without hesitation. Only then did she step beside him. Ivan finally looked at her, and his blazing eyes softened as they met her radiant golden gaze.
A soft smile broke across Evelyn’s lips when she saw him, and she heard him say, "Looks like you decided to shift your fight here. Missed me?"
"Always," she replied softly.
At the sound of her voice, Valen’s hollow red eyes snapped towards her. She stood beside Ivan, gazing at him with such warmth that jealousy and fury churned through Valen’s corrupted blood. He bared his teeth in a snarl.
"Mother!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, drawing their attention back to where he sat on the ground, clutching his shattered hand.
At Valen’s scream, Viva, who had crashed to the ground not far away, scrambled to her feet. Darkness surged around her as she conjured her heavy powers and shot towards her son. In a heartbeat, she was behind him. She extended her hands, placing them on either side of Valen’s head, and whispered a forbidden incantation, "Inudo amaratas helas beastia."
A dark purple magic circle pulsed beneath them, and Valen’s red eyes turned pitch-black. Thick black smog coiled around their bodies as the air grew suffocatingly heavy. Above them, storm clouds churned violently, gathering with unnatural speed.
A guttural screech tore from Valen’s throat just before a blinding flash lit the sky and a bolt of lightning struck him directly, disappearing into the mass of dark smog that enveloped him.
Soon, a guttural snarl tore from Valen’s throat as his body convulsed, bending in ways no human form could have endured. Darkness spilled from his pores like living smoke, thickening and twisting until it swallowed his silhouette whole. His bones cracked, making a sickening sound before elongating, and split as tendrils of shadow erupted from his spine, wrapping around him like serpents. His chest heaved once, twice and then burst open in a flare of crimson light, revealing embers burning red where a heart should have been.
His face stretched into a monstrous grin lined with jagged, infernal teeth, while a wild mane of writhing blackness replaced his hair. The ground trembled as his limbs distorted and lengthened, merging with the shadows until he stood towering and unrecognisable, a creature straight from hell. When he finally straightened, Valen was gone, replaced by a colossal, hell-born abomination that radiated pure malice.
Eve and Ivan watched the grotesque creature before them with grim expressions. The sight stirred the same image they had seen in their dreams and in the newly resurfaced fragments of memories of their past lives....memories of battles fought against beings just like this. They knew exactly what Valen had become: a demon from hell. One of the very same creatures that had served in the dark lord’s army, the ones they had once faced as celestial beings.....Nocthrax.
An inhumane, ear-splitting screech reverberated from Valen, drawing the attention of those still fighting atop the shattered roof.
Councilman Lucian’s brows pulled together as he stared at the massive, grotesque creature that looked as though it had never belonged to the mortal realm. "Just what in God’s name is that thing?"
"I have no bloody clue," Almara muttered, striking down another dead soldier.
"Looks like an abomination straight from hell," Septimus said as he blasted two more corpses away with his light magic.
"You are not wrong there," came a calm voice from Zevran’s apparition, standing at the edge of the ruined structure with his hands folded behind his back, watching the creature with unsettling composure.
"What?" Damien’s head snapped towards Zevran just after he felled another soldier.
"He is a creature from hell. They are called Nocthrax. The Divine Ones, alongside myself and many others, fought such beasts long ago," Zevran replied evenly.
Even Solan paused mid-strike at that. "What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what you heard, King Solan." Zevran’s pale green eyes shifted to meet the king’s blue ones before he continued, "If it has not yet registered with you, allow me to repeat it."
He turned his gaze back to the couple standing before the creature.
"Those two are not your average vampire and lumen. They are the very same celestial beings who once fought in the Great War of Ruins."
