Kael's POV
The suffocating weight that had crushed my lungs for the past few days, although it felt like years , was gone.
No venom coursing through my veins. No insidious black tendrils clawing at my heart. No rot decaying my organs from the inside out. For the first time since my fall, my body was entirely mine again.
Holding the Great Core in my palm was like clutching the beating heart of a star. Even unabsorbed, the sheer proximity of my true essence flooded my blood with pure, incandescent power. The ambient dark magic choking the air felt like nothing more than a faint dust particle waiting to be swept away.
Eryn took my silence as submission.
He stood there in his gleaming obsidian armor, his lips curved into that familiar, arrogant sneer—the look of a usurper who truly believed he held the leash to my fate.
"Clock's ticking, Kael," Eryn purred, eyeing the glowing sphere in my hand. "Hand it over, or watch his blood stain the stone."
A slow, terrifying smirk touched my lips.
He really thought I was still weak.
Before Eryn or his men could register the change in the air, I moved.
My massive, midnight blue tail whipped across the cavern floor with blinding, supernatural speed. It moved so fast it shattered the sound barrier, a shockwave of air exploding through the vault.
CRACK.
The two Black Priests pinning Aiden didn't even have time to blink. My tail slammed into them like an iron battering ram, the sickening crunch of their shattering ribs echoing off the walls as they were launched backward, smashing into the solid granite rocks twenty feet away. They fell limp, motionless before they hit the ground.
In the same fluid, unbroken motion, the tip of my tail slid beneath Aiden, gently scooping him up from the cold floor and coiling around his waist in a tight, impenetrable armor of scales. I yanked him back toward me, shielding his body completely behind my massive frame.
"What—?!" Eryn choked out, his eyes widening in sudden, manic panic.
I raised my free hand toward him, my fingers flexed.
A solid, invisible fist of golden mana slammed into Eryn's throat, lifting his heavy, armored body off his feet and pinning him directly against the cavern ceiling. He thrashed violently, clutching at his neck, his legs kicking uselessly in the air as my telekinetic chokehold crushed his windpipe.
"Did you truly believe a few puppets could threaten what belongs to me?" I rasped, my voice echoing with a deep, resonant rumble that shook the bedrock.
I didn't even turn to look at the remaining priests. With a single, sharp contraction of my core's energy, a blinding wave of golden mana erupted from my skin, radiating outward in a expanding ring of destruction.
The divine light swept over the room. The moment it touched the Black Priests, their dark magic dissolved like dry leaves in a furnace. One by one, their eyes rolled back, and every single dark soldier in the vault collapsed dead onto the stone floor, their dark life force utterly snuffed out.
Silence fell over the cavern, broken only by Eryn's desperate, suffocating gasps high above us.
He was trembling. The great, untouchable tyrant was shaking in his boots, suspended in the air, staring down at me with unadulterated, wide-eyed horror.
Leaving Eryn dangling from the ceiling, I turned my attention down to the bundle of scales wrapped securely at my side.
My tail uncoiled slightly, revealing Aiden. He was staring up at me, wide-eyed and breathless, his jaw practically on the floor as he processed the utter annihilation that had taken place in a span of three seconds.
"Kael..." he whispered, his voice trembling in sheer awe.
"Hold still, my heart," I murmured softly, my tone shifting instantly from lethal wrath to profound gentleness.
I placed my palm flat against his chest. Warm, liquid-gold mana flowed effortlessly from my hand into his body. I watched in real-time as the deep, painful bruises along his jaw melted away, the gashes on his face closed without leaving a single scar, and his cracked ribs knitted back together into whole, flawless bone.
Aiden gasped as the ache in his body vanished, replaced by a soothing, golden warmth. He touched his own cheek, looking at his unblemished hands, completely stunned.
Turning my gaze to Arith, who was leaning against a pillar and was staring at me as if she were looking at a god reborn, I extended a wave of gentle energy toward her. The divine mana washed over her drained spirit, instantly refilling her exhausted wellspring and restoring her strength in a heartbeat. She took a deep, clear breath, her silver eyes glowing brightly as she bowed her head in quiet reverence.
"Now," I whispered, looking down at the radiant sphere in my palm. "It is time."
I pressed the Great Core directly into the center of my chest.
THUMMMMM.
The mountain hummed in absolute harmony.
The Great Core merged seamlessly into my soul, dissolving into my heart. The moment the fusion completed, the sheer, boundless volume of my restored mana surged, lifting my massive body off the floor and suspending me in mid-air.
It was the first time since my coronation centuries ago that I felt the true, terrifying extent of the great mana resting within me.
The power overflowed. It spilled from every pore of my skin, casting the dark, jagged subterranean cavern in a blinding, brilliant golden light. The darkness was violently purged, burnt away until not a single shadow remained. My eyes blazed like twin suns, incandescent and terrifyingly majestic.
When I slowly floated back down to the ground, my tail settling heavily over the stone floor, I was in absolute, effortless control. The dark magic that had plagued me completely gone, snuffed out like a tiny candle beneath a tidal wave.
I looked over at Aiden, my golden eyes softening as I met his gaze.
"Aiden," I asked affectionately, stepping closer to him. "Wait for me outside. I will deal with him shortly."
Aiden looked up at Eryn dangling from the ceiling, then crossed his arms over his chest, setting his jaw with stubborn resolve. "Not a chance in hell. I'm not going anywhere."
A faint, fond smirk touched my lips. "Persistent as always."
I turned my full attention back to Eryn. With a flick of my wrist, I dragged his levitating body down through the air, slamming him hard onto his knees directly before me.
Eryn coughed, clutching his throat, his pale violet eyes darting around the gold-drenched cavern like a trapped animal. "Kael... please—"
"You stole my life," I said, my voice dropping to a low, terrifying register that made the air itself vibrate. "You hunted my people. You lusted after what is mine."
I reached out, pressing my fingers flat against Eryn's forehead.
Eryn shrieked as I opened the gates to my core. Instead of incinerating him with fire, I began to draw back everything he had ever taken. I pulled on the ancient tether between our magics, systematically draining every single drop of mana from his body.
"No! NO!" Eryn screamed, his hands clawing uselessly at my wrist.
Bright, corrupted streams of violet and black mana were violently ripped from his chest, flowing into my palm where my golden core instantly purified them into harmless ash. I pulled and pulled, stripping his soul bare, draining his magic down to the very marrow of his bones.
His dark energy was completely snuffed out.
As the last thread of mana left his body, Eryn's illusion shattered. His smooth, beautiful, immortal appearance melted away in seconds. His skin withered and wrinkled, clinging tightly to protruding bones. His dark hair turned into thin, brittle white strands, and his once-striking violet eyes turned milky and hollow.
I released his forehead.
The man who had terrorized an empire collapsed forward onto his face—a frail, trembling, powerless old man, weeping uselessly against the cold stone floor.
I stepped over his ruined body, not granting him another glance.
I extended my hand toward Aiden. The incandescent sun-like glare in my eyes softened into a warm, familiar gold as he reached out, placing his hand firmly in mine.