The throne room of Nathaniel was a paradoxical masterpiece. A place where time seemed to both stand still and race forward simultaneously. The walls had an iridescent glow, shifting between hues of crimson and obsidian.
Massive screens floated throughout the chamber, each displaying fragments of countless worlds. Some were peaceful, others were chaotic. But they were all governed by the immutable laws of fate.
At the center of it all sat Nathaniel himself, reclining on a grand throne carved from what appeared to be solidified starlight. Beside him were three of his wives.
On one of the floating screens before him was Ashwick. Nathaniel smirked faintly while raising a glass of wine to his lips,
"How predictable. Mortals always believe they can rewrite the script of their lives. That they can defy the threads of fate woven long before their first breaths."
"Yet here we are again, watching another pawn stumble blindly toward the inevitable."
The screen then showed Sebastian coming down with a punch which exploded upon impact and engulfing the area with black flames.
"You struggle well, Aric. I'll give you that. A man from another world, wearing the skin of another, clawing to protect a world that never wanted him."
"They mock you. Fear you. Hate you. And still, you reach for them."
"But did you truly believe redemption would bend the arc of fate? That your pitiful attempts at redemption would somehow alter the course set before you? Oh, how quaint."
"You cling to hope the way a drowning man clings to airless depths—desperate, blind, noble. You dream of change. Of salvation."
Nathaniel chuckled, "But hope is not a virtue. You thought you understood the vision. That the future was written in your scars. And because of that, you may think you are able to rewrite your story but I am the architect of outcomes."
"Ashwick must burn to restore balance. Callista's awakening is uncertain now but Seraphina's awakening? I can make that inevitable. Evelyn, her best friend, must die alongside the people of Ashwick."
"Only then will Seraphina finally embrace her true self."
He rose from his seat and spread his arms like a preacher before his congregation,
"All of this was shaped by my hand. This is my design."
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Sebastian may have obliterated the fountain upon landing but Seraphina protected everyone by expanding her tendril like a dome and absorbed the impact.
"UGH!"
"WHAT THE HELL? BLACK FLAMES!?" Evelyn said while making sure everyone was safe.
Seraphina replied while pouring mana into her dome,
"He must've made a pact with a demon! There's no way he obtained forbidden magic by normal means. Especially, black flames when it has been lost for hundreds of years!"
When the impact subside, Seraphina release her dome to see Sebastian standing across them with a new disformed figure. He had black wings behind his back, muscular and was now significantly taller as well.
"You praise Lord Vayne when it was me who took care of you?"
From the crowd, Linda cried out, "You're the one who ruined our lives! Why are you still doing this?! Wasn't it enough?!"
"Shut up bitch." as he instantly throw black flame ball at her which Seraphina deflected it.
"I was the one who kept Ashwick standing all this time. So what if I indulged a little? No one died, right? A bit of suffering is fine—I was the one who kept you fed, clothed, sheltered."
"Not Seraphina. Definitely not Vayne. And Callista? She never gave a damn about you."
"I did all the work. I made the sacrifices. So I deserve it all!"
Aric's eye twitched, Fucking annoying bastard.
Without hesitation, he fired a shot at Sebastian—only for it to ricochet harmlessly off a passive barrier cloaking him.
"I saw you fight Leone, Vayne. Parlor tricks. Illusions of strength."
Sebastian now flew up to the sky and manifested huge black flames ball capable of engulfing the entire area,
"Don't worry, my people." he said, "I'll take care of these parasites. Ashwick belongs to us… belongs to me."
Aric ran away to find a building with a high vantage point to shoot Sebastian with a sniper.
"ARIC, WAIT!" Seraphina shouted, but it was already too late. Aric's newly enhanced stats let him move faster than ever before.
"JUST FIGHT HIM! I'LL SHOOT THIS FUCKER DOWN!" he yelled over his shoulder as he darted toward an apartment complex.
He ran the stairs to get a vantage point but then,
BOOM!
The ball of black flame caused an explosion so intense that it obliterated everything within a kilometer radius as the shockwave tore through Ashwick.
Seraphina acted without hesitation by expanding her tendril even more until they formed an impenetrable dome over the townsfolk.
"God fucking dammit!"
The darkness absorbed the brunt of the explosion, shielding thousands from certain death.
But not everyone had been protected.
Aric had been caught mid-ascent, unaware of the blast's scale. The shockwave hit him like a freight train, launching his body through the air.
"WHAT THE F—"
He was launched through a crumbling wall, his body ricocheting off a concrete pillar before vanishing into debris. The entire building collapsed.
And beneath it all, Aric lay unconscious.
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The black flames came faster than sound now. The burst of infernal energy struck her dome hard enough to level the town if it wasn't for Seraphina.
This was only 20% of her strength and she could hold this barrier indefinitely if needed—but even so, Sebastian's transformation and new found power had caught her off guard.
"Evelyn." Seraphina told loudly, cutting through the cacophony of destruction.
"Penelope. Get everyone out of here. Now."
Evelyn looked at her confused, "What are you talking about? We're not leaving you to fight this alone!"
"I'm serious, Eve. Once I release this cloak, use your speed and ice magic to get everyone out of town. You can protect them while they retreat. We'll rebuild later—we have to survive first."
"No! I won't leave you dammit! We don't abandon each other."
"Listen to me. I can't fight him while risking all of you okay? I need to some ground to go all out against him and also, where is Aric?"
She looked around to find Aric. A small part of her clung to the hope that he might still be inside the barrier, despite knowing full well that he had run off earlier.
"Vayne!? Where's Vayne? FIND HIM!" She told loudly for everyone to hear. Everyone turned to look at her, then quickly began searching frantically among themselves. But no matter how hard they looked, there was no trace of him.
"He's not here..." Penelope said in a quite tone.
Seraphina's composure was falling apart now, FUCK! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!? DAMMIT!
She took a deep breathe to calm herself since the situation is dire,
"Just go Evelyn! That's an order!"
She pointed east, "I'll open a gap in the dome over there. There's an escape route. Take Penelope, take everyone and get them out!"
"I will find him later. For now, get everyone out of here. Please."
Before either Evelyn or Penelope could respond, another explosion shook the dome.
"Go!"
Reluctantly, Evelyn nodded. She grabbed Penelope's hand and turned to the crowd,
"EVERYONE! MOVE! FOLLOW ME! EAST SIDE, NOW!"
As they rushed out through the narrow opening Seraphina made, Sebastian made a wall of black flames at the small opening which Evelyn slammed her palms together and said,
"Winter's Wall."
Ice coalesced into a towering barrier, colliding headfirst into the black flames.
The moment the two forces met, steam exploded outward in a violent hiss, masking the battlefield in a blinding fog of boiling mist and freezing wind.
Seraphina saw this and use the advantage now to undo the domain and face Sebastian head on. She still kept the entire eastern area covered in her tendril dome but she manifested her sword of darkness and slash Sebastian.
SWHING!
Sebastian's torso was slashed across but it regenerated instantly.
"Huh. I never knew demonic power was this good." as he now manifest a barrage of black flame lance at Seraphina where she parried relentlessly.
Clang. Clang. FWOOSH.
"Come on Seraphina. You know you can't fight me properly if you have to defend everyone."
Just as the last lance fizzled out against her cloak, her tendrils lashed forward, wrapping tightly around Sebastian's limbs midair.
"You talk too much."
Her tendrils began to pulse, siphoning the corrupted mana from his body in waves of dark light. Sebastian's eyes widened slightly as he felt his power begin to drain.
He ignited a black flame barrier around himself, burning away the tendrils with a violent burst of heat. Freed, he soared higher into the sky, wanting to gather his power into a singular, massive orb.
But Seraphina wasn't having it.
With a sharp flick of her wrist, her tendrils lashed out once more and yanked him downward mid-charge.
"You persistent bitch!" he snarled, hurling a salvo of black fireballs in retaliation.
Seraphina snapped her fingers and summoned her Cocoon of Darkness. The fireballs smashed against it and dispersed harmlessly.
"And you're a parasite, you know that, Sebastian?"
The tendrils wrapped around him began to morph into jagged spikes.
Schk! Schk! Schk!
"UGH!" he choked, blood spraying from his mouth as the spikes drove into him.
With a grunt, Seraphina slammed him into the earth.
BOOM!
Before he could move, she chanted, "Dark Coffin."
A cascade of shadows folded in from every direction, forming a monolithic black casket around his body to seal him.
But before it could seal entirely—
Crack...
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!!
The coffin exploded in a pillar of dark fire, debris and tendrils disintegrating as Sebastian emerged. He was burned, bleeding but he was laughing like a maniac.
"HAHAHAHA THIS IS FUN SERAPHINA! HEY SERAPHINA, LETS PLAY EVEN MORE!"
"You want to be a hero Seraphina? You want to protect them all, Seraphina?"
"Then do it."
He snapped his fingers.
Above them—a vortex of black flame ignited the heavens. Thousands of meteors made of black fire and cursed mana spiraled down from the sky, circling like a burning halo of death around Ashwick.