Chapter 358: The Ritual’s Missing Piece
[Music recommendation: RŌHKI - VERMILLION]
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Slowly, Solan looked down at his shaking hands. A lone tear escaped his eyes as he saw his palms now stained with blood. To be precise, it was his daughter’s blood. Evelyn’s blood.
His heart felt even more hollow as he realised how depraved he had become for a woman, and how miserably he had failed as a father to his only child. Now that she was gone, the gods had not even granted him the grace to apologise to her. He wondered if he even could apologize after everything that had happened.
"You don’t deserve to live," his own voice echoed in his mind. "Selene is right. You are no different from her. You both murdered your own daughter. While you trampled mercilessly on her spirit, she simply took that damaged soul from her body, finally ending her misery."
As each second passed, his thoughts turned more morbid. "You deserve to burn in hell, Solan. That is a fact not only you know, but your people know as well. Like a cowardly king, you only hid behind your status and the glory of your ancestors while letting your own daughter be tortured in a dark corner of the very palace that was supposed to be the symbol of your power."
With that thought, Solan’s vacant, moist eyes moved toward the rift he was still standing near. His feet began to move on their own until he stood at the edge of the crack once again.
’I deserve this.....I don’t deserve to live after what has happened to her anymore.’ With that last thought, just as he took one final step to fall into the burning pits of hell, a strong punch landed on his face.
Solan fell backwards, crashing to the ground like a pathetic, broken man. He tasted the metallic tang of blood in his mouth before slowly raising his head. He looked up only to find Septimus glaring down at him, his powers still radiating from his form.
"What do you think you were going to do?" Septimus’s voice boomed. His anger attracted the attention of the king’s guards and the other Lumen soldiers who had been too busy fighting to notice what Solan was about to do just moments ago.
"Did you think falling into that pit would relieve you of the sins committed against your daughter? Did you think her soul would forgive you if you took this one cowardly step forward to end everything?" Septimus roared.
The sheer intensity of his anger shocked the others. They had never seen the ever-calm and composed High Priest speak this way to anyone, let alone yell at their King.
But Septimus didn’t care anymore and continued. "No, King Solan! Death is not the answer that will make your daughter forgive you! You don’t deserve it! You deserve to live a long life and repent if you ever seek forgiveness from your daughter’s soul or the Goddess herself! You see that woman?" Septimus pointed at Selene, who was attacking Iskara in an attempt to destroy his blood giants.
"If you want forgiveness, you need to start by dealing with the woman who started all of this. The one who truly deserves every painful torture to be inflicted upon her for destroying the lives of every single person she’s come across!"
"Wake up, King Solan! It’s time for you to stand up and, for once in your miserable life, do something right! Do something for your people and for the world that your daughter tried to protect in her two lives! You owe it to her and to your people who are still shedding blood not only for you but their families as well!"
Septimus’s words were harsh, but they struck Solan like a powerful blow that jolted his spirit out of his despair. As Solan processed every word Septimus had shouted at him, he saw Septimus extend his hand and ask,
"So what will it be? Will you continue to be a coward, or will you finally act like the king that you are?"
Solan’s eyes widened as they shifted to Septimus’s extended hand. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he finally opened them, their colour changed from blue to glowing white.
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he silently extended his hand and grasped Septimus’s to pull himself to his feet. Then both men turned their attention back to the wicked demoness before them.
"This is for my daughter, you witch!" Solan raised his hands and blasted a powerful burst of light magic from his palm towards the levitating Selene.
Selene saw it coming and immediately released her own dark magic to defend herself.
"Oh? I see someone is high-spirited again. Did the priest give you a comforting speech so you could forgive yourself for killing your daughter?" Selene rasped in a crooked voice as she tilted her head to look at Solan and Septimus.
Solan stepped forward, not to fall into the pit this time, but to rise with vengeance burning in his blood. He glared at Selene and replied, "No, not forgiveness. This is me doing something for my daughter for the first time in my life!"
With that, he launched himself into the air toward Selene.
His sword pulsed with power as he bypassed the five giant demons clashing with Iskara’s blood-creatures. While the blood-giants were starting to be overpowered by the demons from hell, Solan’s focus remained fixed on Selene.
Selene’s hands transformed into black swords, and she blocked his attack with her own blades, for a powerful collision of light and dark sent shockwaves through the air.
Just like that, the two people who were once husband and wife were finally locked in a duel of life and death.
While Selene and Solan continued to fight mid-air, two of the creatures created by Iskara were crushed by the hell demons. This forced everyone on the ground to turn their attention toward the two giant hell demons as well.
A fierce battle raged on all three fronts. High above, Solan clashed with Selene, while Ivan fought Azrath in another devastating aerial battle. On the ground, everyone else struggled against the demons pouring out of the rifts.
Utter chaos consumed the battlefield, just as it had thousands of years ago during the great war between good and evil.
But evil was powerful, and it slowly began to overpower those fighting against it. The warriors on the ground were growing exhausted and overwhelmed by the endless wave of enemies emerging from the rifts. Meanwhile, Selene continued drawing strength from the thick darkness surrounding Azrath, allowing her to gradually overpower Solan.
And far above them all, the battle between Ivan and Azrath had become so ferocious that it was draining the last remnants of Ivan’s strength as he continued striking blow after blow.
Eventually, Ivan moved away, breathing heavily as his energy began to deplete rapidly. The fight itself was exhausting him, but so was the fact that Kai remained in the sky, assisting him only occasionally whenever Ivan found himself in a dangerous position.
For the most part, the dragon kept its distance from the destructive clash, ensuring that Azrath’s focus remained solely on Ivan rather than shifting toward Kai.
Meanwhile, even as Azrath kept his gaze fixed on Ivan, he continued to wonder why his barrier kept fluctuating from time to time when he knew he had absorbed Evelyn’s blood completely. This made him suspect that something had gone wrong during the ritual.
At that thought, he skimmed through Zafira’s memories from before his revival and paused at the exact moment when Ivan had pulled Evelyn’s body away, just as it was meant to be swallowed by the lava.
In that instant, Azrath realised that in order to gain complete control over her power, he needed to merge with her body as well to complete the ritual.
However, he had not found her body anywhere when he scanned the battlefield earlier. So he hurried through the rest of the memory and finally saw where her body had been taken.
With that, a sly grin slowly spread across Azrath’s face. In that instant, he finally understood why Ivan had avoided involving the dragon directly in their battle until now, even though doing so would have given him a greater advantage.
Without revealing his intentions, Azrath launched another devastating attack at Ivan, pouring immense power into the strike. And just as he anticipated, Ivan responded immediately, calling upon the dragon’s assistance to counter the destructive force.
The moment the dragon moved close enough to shield him, Azrath made his move.
With lightning speed, he unleashed another sudden strike, this time aimed precisely at the dragon’s paw where Evelyn had been held all this time.
The impact made Kai roar in pain, and in that split second, his massive claws loosened. Evelyn’s body slipped free and began to fall through the air.
Ivan’s breath caught in his chest.
"No!"
He shot forward like a blazing comet, racing to catch her before she could fall any further.
But he was not alone.
Azrath’s twisted tentacles lashed out through the air, stretching toward her falling body, determined to seize her before Ivan could reach her.
And just as both men were about to grab her....something completely unexpected happened.
