Chapter 226: Bearer Of The Golden Wrath
[Music recommendation: Dark Violin Music - Before our Very Eyes]
.
Soon, her bare feet halted before Viva’s crumbling form, and she hissed in a low, ethereal voice, "You have sinned far greater than anyone I have met in two lifetimes. Your greatest sin was attempting to take from me the one man who is everything to me, and that is something I cannot forgive. I can see how dark your soul has become....how corrupt your very core is. There is no god within you....only pure evil resides."
She lifted her sword and pointed it at Viva’s throat, "In the name of my creator, the Divine Goddess of Light, I command you to reveal all your sins to me."
Viva’s blackened eyes widened as she stared at the blinding, ethereal form of Evelyn, the same Evelyn she had once tried to blackmail, then planned to bathe in blood and add to her twisted collection of dolls. Now, facing those golden eyes that seemed to pierce straight through her soul, Viva’s crooked mouth began to twitch, as though trying to move on its own and no longer under her control.
By this time, several of the others who had been fighting atop the roof had descended to the ground, ready to lend their aid to Evelyn and Ivan, even though they knew full well that the pair hardly needed it.
The elites of the Ignis Blades engaged the remaining hellhounds and dead soldiers, while others, Septimus, Solan, Elara, and both council members, Lucian and Amara, moved to the side, positioning themselves closer to the wicked queen. They stood in tense silence, watching closely as events unfolded before them.
Viva, trembling under the divine compulsion, crushing her will, and she could no longer hold back. Her lips twisted, fighting for control, before the truth ripped out of her in a broken scream, "I did it! I did it all! I did it because I wanted the power and beauty denied to us humans! It has always been you! You selfish lumens and vampires! What about us?! Why should we be left behind?! Why should we crawl beneath you?! Why should we be the inferior ones?!"
Eve’s golden eyes blazed with blinding radiance, her voice echoing like a decree from the heavens, "Confess. Confess your sins....every last one of them."
Viva snarled, hatred twisting her features as she summoned a pulsing dark stone into her palm. Its corrupt energy throbbed violently, and she hurled her arm forward to strike, but Eve did not allow it.
In a single, ruthless flash of motion, her sword sliced clean through Viva’s wrist. The severed hand hit the ground with a dull thud, her fingers still curled around the cursed stone. Before anyone could blink, Eve lifted her other hand, and a surge of power exploded from her palm, shattering the stone into glittering fragments of ash.
Gasps rippled through the onlookers.
King Solan, Queen Elara, and Septimus stood frozen, shock etched across their faces. This was not the gentle, soft-spoken Evelyn they had known. This was a celestial warrior wrapped in righteous fury, which was terrifying and magnificent in equal measure. The sheer authority radiating from her sent a cold shiver down their spines.
Lucian and Amara watched silently, making no move to intervene. They were far more interested in hearing the queen confess her crimes; after all, it would spare them a great deal of work when reporting to the High Council.
Dark blood gushed from Viva’s severed arm, and she screamed in agony, but it had little to no effect on Eve, who continued to stare down at her with an unblinking, emotionless gaze.
She pressed the glowing, pointed sword to Viva’s throat and commanded, "Confess, or you will not have your other arm for long. What happened to the missing women of this kingdom?"
Viva’s lips trembled as she glared up at Eve, yet the compulsion forced her mouth to betray her, "I poisoned the king, so that I could rule the lands! Then I let my son use them to his heart’s content before passing them on to me! I needed their blood to stay youthful, just like you lumens and vampires who don’t even need to lift a finger for it! So I bathed in their blood after killing them and preserved their bodies as part of my doll collection!"
Her voice rose into a hysterical scream, "If it weren’t for you lot, I would have continued!"
Eve’s blood burned at the confession, at the thought of innocent women tortured and defiled by this vile queen and her monstrous son; her golden aura flared violently.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she raised her sword and, with a swift, merciless strike, severed Viva’s remaining arm.
Viva’s shriek tore through the battlefield, echoing so loudly that even those at a distance heard it. By now, others had finished dealing with the weakened remnants of the undead army and turned toward the scene, drawn by the queen’s agonised wail.
Eve’s hand shot out, seized a fistful of Viva’s hair, and yanked it back with brutal force. Her voice dropped to a chilling, low whisper, "What did you do to Ivan? Confess."
Black blood poured from Viva’s severed arms, and waves of agony rippled through her body. Overwhelmed by pain and by Eve’s divine compulsion crushing her will, she broke into a maddened, hysterical crackle.
But Eve’s expression did not waver; she tightened her grip and pulled harder, forcing another raw scream from Viva’s throat....a sound that rang like a dark, satisfying music to Eve’s blazing heart.
"Speak!" Eve commanded.
"I-I sent the darkrot after you all when you stayed in that inn before entering Dartmouth! The purpose of possessing that girl was to infect the prince with the poison so his body would succumb to corruption. Then, during lunch in the palace, I had his wine laced with another dark-magic poison so he would grow weak and be unable to use his powers when I used the darkstone on him to corrupt him completely! I would have succeeded if it weren’t for that brooch containing pure light magic that stayed on him even after I destroyed it!"
As soon as Eve realised it had been her gift to Ivan, the brooch she thought had been lost that had protected him, that its lingering power had refused to let him fall into an abyss of irredeemable darkness, something scorching and furious erupted inside her. Her rage lashed out violently. She yanked Viva’s hair even harder, wrenching another agonised scream from the queen’s throat.
"You....do not deserve mercy," Eve hissed, her voice trembling with divine wrath. "Not only did you dare to touch my man with your corrupt, filthy hands, but you inflicted horrors far worse upon those innocent women who suffered and died by your cruelty. You deserve to face justice from every civilian you betrayed....people who placed their faith in the monarch you defiled with your sins."
"Everyone you were meant to protect....you tried to swallow whole for your own selfish desires." Eve tilted her head slightly, her cold eyes boring into Viva’s. "I know exactly what to do with you."
With that, Eve finally released her hair and placed both palms on either side of Viva’s head. A bright golden light surged from her hands as a massive golden circle formed beneath their feet. Her hair billowed in the rising wind as ancient runes ignited around them, the circle expanding rapidly before enveloping both Eve and Viva in radiant brilliance.
Viva’s agonised scream tore through the air as the blinding light consumed her.
Hearing his mother’s shriek, Valen, despite having his limbs brutally torn away by Ivan, turned his monstrous head toward her. With only his grotesque legs remaining, he tried to lunge forward, but Ivan’s flames held him firmly in place, not allowing him to move an inch.
The golden circle widened, spreading outward until it reached Valen as well. Under the divine glow, both Viva’s and Valen’s darkened skin began to sag and peel away. Their jagged, monstrous teeth retreated, reshaping into human form. Their pitch-black eyes shifted back to their pale green, and piece by piece, every trace of darkness they had ever harboured was stripped away, until both mother and son lay before them, returning to their original, fragile human forms.
When Evelyn finished, the massive golden circle slowly faded, allowing everyone to see what she had done. She had stripped both Viva and Valen of every trace of dark magic that had ever run through their veins, reducing them to ordinary humans once more.
Silence settled heavily over the battlefield as everyone stood in stunned disbelief at what Evelyn had done. The divine circle she had summoned had not only purged the dark magic from the two fallen monarchs but had also cleansed the land itself, wiping out the remaining dead soldiers and hellhounds.
Everything was still.
No one spoke as their gazes shifted from the frail, human forms of Valen and Viva to Evelyn, who stood tall, regal, like a true queen who had just delivered judgment.
But for Eve, it was far from enough.
She stepped forward, quiet and purposeful, toward Viva, who lay panting heavily with her severed, blood-soaked arms drawn weakly toward her chest. Now stripped of stolen youth, she looked exactly as a sixty-year-old woman should, wrinkled and saggy like a pitiful mortal.
