Chapter 119: The War’s End
Melissa’s POV
The battleground had changed. The sheer power struggle between Darius and me had burnt the once-proud land, leaving it nothing but ash and ruin. There was something dreadful and limitless beyond the sky, which had broken open. As though the heavens themselves were terrified of what was happening, lightning roared and struck the ground.
My body was burning, throbbing, and shaking with strength I could hardly comprehend as I stood in the middle of it all. With his dark-wrapped physique and glittering eyes that glowed like a hurricane poised to eat up the earth, Darius towered over me.
“Madela, it’s too late.” He had a deep, ancient growl in his voice. “I can’t stop right now.”
My breath was labored, and I balled my fists. I sensed it. The solution I had been looking for since the start of this battle, the truth that was hidden deep inside me. It whispered in my bones and sang in my blood.
“Darius, I’m not here to stop you.” Even though there was a conflict going on all around us, I spoke steadily. “My purpose is to kill you.”
The ground shook under us as Darius chuckled softly. I hardly had time to protect myself before his power struck, slicing out like a wildfire. My feet dug into the ground as I slipped back, but I resisted the need to fall.
Darius snarled, “You don’t understand, little girl.” “I can’t be killed. I am eternal, regardless of your position of authority or seeming strength.
With my power sparking like white fire, I clenched my teeth and charged forward. The battlefield was rocked by the burst of light and darkness that resulted from the collision of our powers. I could hear the cries of the injured and the screams of the warriors, but I was unable to concentrate on them now.
It was this. The last conflict.
I launched an energy burst directly toward Darius’s chest. He took it all in stride, a grin spreading across his face as he struck back with a blow so strong it sent me reeling to the ground. My eyesight briefly blurred as pain tore through my body.
“You sense that?” Darius took a step closer and whispered. The universe is bowing to my will in that way. You were stupid for ever believing you could defeat me.
Blood streaming from my lips, I pushed myself to my feet. “And you were stupid for assuming I didn’t already know that.”
Darius paused for the first time.
I wiped the blood from my face and gave him a real look. Yes, he was strong. He was dreadful. However, he was also mistaken.
I muttered, “You were never intended to lose.” “You weren’t supposed to be made.”
For a brief moment, Darius’s eyes widened before his face twisted in rage.
He yelled, “Lies!” and charged at me with such force that the ground broke under us.
However, I was prepared.
And I wasn’t scared this time.
My surroundings changed. The battleground was no longer visible to me. Rather, images raced through my head-memories I had never experienced, but somehow they belonged to me.
I saw a young Darius standing in front of a shadowy figure with its hands on his shoulders. His cries and cries for freedom were audible to me.
I had a glimpse of the world before the conflict, before the mayhem, when everything was intact.
Then I saw myself-as something other than who I was today. Something more ancient. Something more.
Darius did not have his power.
He was merely a vessel. A weapon made by another entity.
And the secret to defeating him was me.
My hands trembled as I gasped, and the visions vanished. The truth became ingrained in my spirit.
“Elissa!” Kane’s voice broke the commotion.
He was fighting his way toward me as I turned around. He was tired and wounded, but he was still upright. Still engaged in combat.
For the first time since this war started, I felt dread in his eyes when they met mine.
Not for himself.
For me.
“Listen to me, Melissa! Don’t do anything you’re considering! He yelled.
Darius chuckled.
“Now, don’t you see?” He remarked, taking a step forward. “I was never intended to be defeated, therefore you can’t beat me. I was made to eat.
I gave a headshake. “No,” I answered in a firm voice. “Your purpose was to destroy.”
Darius growled inhumanly and lunged at me, but I remained motionless.
I permitted him to enter.
I grabbed him first when his hands reached for me.
And everything changed the instant our skin met.
Pure energy burst from Darius’s core, causing his entire body to convulse as he shouted. Like burning paper, his darkness peeled away, exposing nothing beneath.
A hollow shell. A power construct without a real form.
Kane came over and took hold of my arm. “Hey, Melissa! What are you doing?
“Now I know who I am,” I muttered.
Darius’s shape flickered like a dying flame as his shouts became louder.
My chest tightened as I turned to face Kane. “Fighting him was never my destiny. I was supposed to destroy him.
Kane’s hold on me became more firm. “You might not return if you do this.”
Everything around us was disintegrating. The ground split open, and the sky darkened.
Darius cried out in agony one last time as his body fell to the ground.
And then…
The cosmos fell silent.
With shaking hands, I inhaled slowly.
Kane’s chest was rising and falling heavily as he stared at me. I couldn’t identify the feelings that burned in his eyes.
Then, as I believed it was finished-
The earth rumbled beneath us.
Through the wind came a voice, old and invisible.
“This is not the end.”
Then-
The sky broke.
Where Darius had stood, there was a wide emptiness that swirled with the remains of his broken spirit. The battlefield was in shambles, with weapons shattered, bodies strewn everywhere, and the sky still splintered open like a wounded animal.
There was no fighting for the first time in what seemed like forever.
Not a scream.
No conflict.
Just silence.
My body was shaking from exertion, and I released a slow, shaky breath. It was done.
I believed it to be, however.
Before I could fall, Kane’s powerful hands grabbed my arms and held me in place. His golden eyes, brimming with feelings too intense to put into words, scanned mine.
He exhaled, his voice rough with incredulity, “You did it.” “He is no longer there.”
With a dry throat, I swallowed. Was he?
A wave of vertigo hit me before I could respond. Just when my legs gave way, Kane grabbed me and lowered me to the scarred ground.
“Elissa!” His tone was anxious and urgent.
My tongue felt heavy as I tried to speak. My vision became hazy.
There was a problem.
I was also being unraveled by the power I had used to obliterate Darius.
Cradling me against his chest, Kane muttered curses. I was grounded by his warmth, but I still felt like I was being pulled away.
“I don’t-” My fingers gripped his tunic as I gasped. “I don’t feel well.”
With his forehead on mine, he muttered, “Stay with me.” “Hear me out, Melissa? Remain.
I desired to. I had to.
However, everything around me was vanishing, becoming only shadow and light.
And then, far away-
A voice.
Haunting, familiar, and soft.
“Melissa…”
My heart stopped beating.
That voice seemed familiar to me.
Mom.
Around me, everything turned white. Kane, the ruins, and the battlefield are all gone.
Alone in a limitless emptiness, I stood. I felt as though I existed outside of time itself; my body was weightless, and my breathing was steady but strange.
Then she showed up.
A woman with long hair that flowed like liquid moonlight, clothed in celestial silver. Mom.
Even though I had never seen her before, I knew that this was her.
My chest constricted. “Mom?”
She grinned, but her bright eyes were clouded by grief. “My dear girl,” she muttered. “You’ve made such progress.”
My eyes were scorched by tears. How could this have happened?
I stutteringly said, “I don’t understand.” “I- I prevailed. We prevailed. Darius is no longer there, yet something is wrong. I sense it.
She let out a sigh and moved in closer, her warmth spilling over me like a forgotten hug.
She whispered, “This battle was never meant to be fought by you alone.” “But you have to choose now.”
I felt a chill creep down my back.
“What option?”
Suddenly, two roads appeared in the space as my mother raised her hand.
One was a dazzling light that led to something incomprehensible to me-something tranquil, limitless, and pure.
The other led back to the world I had just left and was a shadowy, cracked door.
“Your story isn’t over, even though the war may be,” she remarked quietly. You will find calm if you move forward and into the light. Real peace.
I took a deep breath. Calm?
“However, if you take a different route… Her gaze grew gloomy. “The world you left behind will be your return home. However, keep in mind that Darius was merely a piece of something bigger.
A shiver went through my body.
“Is there more?” I muttered.
She gave a nod.
Out of nowhere, I heard it.
A murmur. Soft, but with enough edge to cut right through my soul.
“This is not the end…”
I made a sudden turn into the shadows. It breathed, surged, shivered.
There was more waiting for me.
A worse thing.
My eyes returned to my mother as she touched my cheek tenderly.
She muttered, “What will you pick, Melissa?”
I gazed at the pair of pathways.
One brought about peace.
The other-I might not make it through another battle.
The shadows moved behind me. Once more the voice whispered.
“Return… We’re not done yet.
With my heart beating, I balled my fists.
I knew the answer.
I inhaled deeply and slowly-
And moved in the direction of the shadows.