The massive bone-doors of the Hall of Whispers didn't just open; they were blasted inward by a surge of white-hot lightning and a shoulder-charge from Seraphina.
"Clara!" Alaric’s voice echoed through the cathedral of rot.
But the greeting he received was not one of relief. It was a wall of Vitreous Black water, traveling at the speed of a physical projectile. Seraphina barely got her shield up in time. The impact felt like being hit by a galloping horse, the dark water sizzling against her silver-steel armor with an acidic hiss.
The Heartbreak of the Aegis
As the mist cleared, the team saw her. Clara stood at the top of the bone-stairs, her white eyes glowing, her tattered silks fluttering.
"Trespassers," she said, her voice devoid of its usual warmth. "You disturb the Master’s peace. You try to take me from the love I have found."
"Clara, look at me!" Alaric shouted, stepping forward. "It’s Alaric! We’re here to take you home!"
Clara’s only response was to raise her staff. "Abyssal Art: Black Tide!"
The moisture in the air condensed into thousands of needles made of dark, necrotic ice. With a flick of her wrist, she sent them screaming toward the group.
"Shields up!" Seraphina roared. Jace stepped forward, planting his tower shield beside her. The sound of the ice needles hitting the metal was like a hail of bullets. "Don't retaliate with lethal force! We’re here to disable, not destroy!"
A Lethal Dance
The fight was a nightmare of restraint. Kaelen tried to use his scout speed to circle around her, hoping to knock her unconscious with the pommel of his dagger. But Clara was no longer fighting like a support mage. She was a hurricane.
Without looking, she swirled her hand, and a whip of black water caught Kaelen mid-air, slamming him against a jagged obsidian pillar.
"She’s too fast," Kaelen groaned, coughing up blood. "She’s not holding back... why isn't she holding back?"
"Because she thinks she’s protecting her 'home'!" Seraphina shouted. She charged forward, using Vanguard Dash to close the distance. She aimed a heavy gauntlet at Clara’s stomach, intending to knock the wind out of her.
But Clara didn't flinch. She leaned back with a haunting grace, the gold chains on her ankles jingling. She grabbed Seraphina’s wrist—her touch was ice-cold—and whispered, "The Master says you are the source of my pain. He says you are the shadow that tried to drown me."
With a surge of mana, she blasted Seraphina backward with a point-blank explosion of pressurized water.
The Prince’s Struggle
Alaric watched in horror as his friends were picked apart. He saw the way Clara looked at the shadows behind the throne—the way she looked for Marek’s approval.
"Marek, you coward!" Alaric screamed, his body erupting in a violent aura of lightning. "Face us yourself! Stop using her!"
From the darkness of the throne, Marek’s dry, rattling laughter echoed. "Why would I move, Prince? She loves me. She is my sword, my shield, and my heart. Every blow you strike against her is a blow against your own soul. Go on... hurt her. Show her how much 'heroes' care."
Clara began to chant, her voice rising in a dissonant, haunting melody. The entire Hall of Whispers began to tremble as she summoned a Leviathan of the Void—a massive dragon made of black, suffocating water that filled the ceiling of the cathedral.
"We can't keep this up, Seraphina!" Jace yelled, his shield arm trembling as the floor beneath him began to flood. "If she drops that dragon on us, we’re dead!"
Seraphina stood up, her shoulder bleeding where an ice shard had pierced the joint. She looked at Clara—her best friend, her sister—and saw the vacant, "happy" smile still plastered on her face.
"We don't have a choice," Seraphina whispered, her eyes hardening into something cold and terrifying. "Alaric, Jace, Kaelen... keep that dragon busy. I'm going for the source."
"Seraphina, no!" Alaric realized what she meant. "If you charge the throne, Clara will kill you!"
"Then let her try," Seraphina growled, her claymore beginning to glow with a dull, silver light. "I’m not leaving her in this grave."
ns216.73.216.1da2
and then Add to home screen.