Kaan barely made it to the end of the corridor when Thorin appeared in front of him, claws bared—thick, gleaming, and deadly. With a swift swing, Thorin raked his claws across Kaan’s cheek. The emperor jerked backward just in ti, the claws slicing the air where his throat had been a mont earlier.
Staggering to regain his balance, Kaan moved to summon his power—but before he could, a hand clamped around his ankle and yanked hard.
He crashed to the ground with a heavy thud. Spinning around onto his back, he looked up and found Puck standing over him, breathing heavily, eyes burning with determination.
Kaan thrust his hand upward, summoning a wave of deadly particles. But Puck reacted fast—he sprang back, kicked off the wall in a rolling arc through the air, and landed neatly beside Thorin, ready for the next attack.
They clashed once more, but this battle was fiercer than before.
Kaan, now racing against ti, fought with a sharpened edge, the rumble of the earthquake amplifying his sense of urgency and confinent.
The werewolves, attuned to the emperor’s desperation, pushed back with relentless force, determined to halt his every advance.
Then, without warning, Emperor Kaan froze. His body jerked violently, though no one had touched him. Thorin and Puck exchanged bewildered glances — who, or what, had struck him? Kaan convulsed uncontrollably until he collapsed onto the ground.
"What’s happening?" Thorin demanded, turning to Puck, who was usually the first to know.
But this ti, Puck only shook his head, just as lost as he was.
While Kaan writhed on the floor, locked in a seizure, Thorin knew it was ti to act.
"We need to move Riona’s body — now. Before he cos to," he said urgently.
He had no idea what had struck Kaan down, nor how long the emperor would stay incapacitated. But he couldn’t afford to waste the chance. First priority: keep Riona safe. Second: find and save Florian.
Thorin glanced up. The ceiling had cracked wide open, exposing the dark sky above, and the floor beneath him was starting to tilt dangerously, threatening to give way.
"I’ll look for Riona. You find Florian. We can’t leave him behind. This place could collapse any second," he ordered Puck, already moving.
With no obstacles in their way, they quickly found what they were searching for. When they reunited at the eting point, Thorin cradled Riona’s lifeless body in his arms, while Puck carried Florian’s limp form slung over his back.
The Alpha gave a solemn nod—no words needed—and together, they leapt from the crumbling third floor.
***
Kaan’s hands flailed blindly through the darkness, clawing at the empty air, desperate to grab hold of sothing—anything—solid. But there was nothing.
He was suspended in the void, weightless. He couldn’t see his hands, his feet, the ground—nothing. Yet he knew he was floating, carried along by invisible gusts that tugged at him like a leaf in a storm.
Still, deep down, he understood what was happening. It had happened once before, and that ti, he had given permission.
This ti, he hadn’t.
"Leave alone!" Kaan scread into the void. "Get out!!"
The cold, choking sensation tightening around his throat was horribly familiar. It was stronger now, but unmistakable—the touch of an ancestor trying to force their way into his body.
"What are you doing?!" he shouted into the blackness. "I thought you needed my permission!"
It was true. Technically, Thessara needed permission to enter a mortal’s body. And even then, possession alone didn’t grant her the right to wield power; that required a second, deeper consent. In Kaan’s case, she had neither.
Just as the Fallen One had forced his way into Florian’s body, Thessara had resorted to the sa forbidden practice. By doing so, both had forfeited their chance to return to the Spiritual Circle.
Yet their reasons couldn’t have been more different. The Fallen One had acted out of desperation—a last, frantic attempt to save the world and atone for his sins. Thessara’s motives were far more primal: sheer survival.
After her battle against the Fallen One and the binding of the Chain of Light, she had been left weakened, stripped of much of her strength.
Even before becoming a disgraced ancestor and kicked off his seat, the Fallen One had been far stronger, and fighting him openly had drained her nearly to nothing. Worse still, other ancestors had interfered, worsening her condition.
Now, if Thessara couldn’t find a host to feed on, she would simply cease to exist—vanish into nothingness.
It was a cri of the highest order for ancestral beings and spirits to feed on mortals. Only demons, native to Valhalla, could do so freely, without fear of the dire consequences Thessara now faced.
But Thessara had no choice. It was either this or risk fading from existence before she could watch the world fall—and Thessara would never accept that. She was the kind of spirit who would endure anything, cross any line, just to satisfy her bitter resentnt.
The only thing she had never been able to punish was the world itself. Once that was done, she was ready to face whatever ca next—tornt, annihilation, it didn’t matter.
"Get out of my body!" Kaan roared.
It was a battle of wills, and for once, Kaan had the advantage. His rejection, combined with Thessara’s lack of true permission, gave him just enough strength to push back.
Slowly, the darkness of his subconscious began to lift. Shapes erged. He could see his body again — and hers, looming before him.
Kaan raised his hands and unleashed a surge of deadly particles, aiming to reduce the arrogant ancestor to nothing but ash. But Thessara reacted swiftly. Thick walls burst from the unseen ground, roots twisting upward to form a solid barricade of tree trunks.
"You’re no match for ," she declared coldly.
She was right, but only because she was dead, an ancestor with access to powers beyond the living. Had she faced Kaan in life, she wouldn’t have stood a chance against the genius emperor.
The wooden wall dissolved into glittering dots, vanishing into the air. As the view cleared, their eyes locked. Kaan was already smirking, his palm wide open, where the particles flew out.
"Are you forgetting sothing?" he said. "This is my body. My mind. My rules. There’s no way you can overpower here."
And he was right.
Reviews
All reviews (0)