...Just when Emma was scanning the battlefield for a way out, her mind calculating paths, distances, obstacles, she caught a glimpse of sothing... or rather, soone.
Cassian.
He stood not far from her, clad in the familiar half-armored regalia of the Temperance bloodline, his hair fluttering in the wind. He was calmly watching the chaos as if none of it concerned him.
Emma’s eyes narrowed. That wasn’t Cassian.
She knew. That was Chiron’s clone. The Blood Shadow forged from the true Cassian’s essence, the one Chiron had created back when he’d taken him hostage. Selene had failed to notice the swap.
The clone t Emma’s gaze from across the field. He gave the subtlest nod, then slowly took a few steps back, just enough to set the next stage in motion.
Selene remained unaware. Her focus was entirely on Emma. She and her remaining silver ranked knights were slowly encircling her, their weapons glowing with holy light, their formation tightening like a noose.
In Selene’s mind, the only reason she hadn’t ordered an imdiate strike was because of caution—the shadow of Chiron’s unpredictability looming in her thoughts.
’He must be nearby,’ she thought. ’Waiting and Watching.’
She had scanned for him. Stretched her spiritual sense across the region. But nothing. No flicker of that dreaded aura. It was infuriating.
Still, the woman had once led three hundred holy missions—and fear was not in her blood. She clenched her teeth and made her decision.
"Attack her. Now! Before she escapes."
The mont her words rang out, a deafening boom erupted behind them.
KA-BOOOOM!!
Selene spun around.
Her eyes widened.
One of the ships, the flying crystalline command platforms used by the Holy Church, had exploded on one side and was spinning in the air, crashing toward the water in a flaming trail of smoke and debris.
Another explosion followed.
Then a third.
BOOM! BOOM!!
Selene’s soldiers panicked. Fire and fragnts fell from the sky. She whipped her head back and scread:
"CHIRON! HE’S BEHIND US!"
But she was wrong.
It was the clone. Cassian’s clone had planted the destruction, and his stoic expression never changed as he turned away, calm amidst the inferno.
Emma’s gaze sharpened like a predator who’d just been given a gift.
"Thank you," she whispered.
And then she let it loose.
"Uncaged Desires."
FWOOOOM!!!
A pulsing pink fog exploded outward from her body like a blooming flower made of sin, coating everything in a fifty-ter radius with warm, sticky, perfud smoke that shimred like it was alive.
It had co right from her skin.
Selene turned in horror. "She’s trying to escape!" she barked. "Stop her!"
Several knights lunged into the mist after her.
And then... the screaming started.
"Uaaaggh! Get off ! You’re stabbing—!!"
"W-Why are you—aghh! Stop!"
"This isn’t real—this isn’t—!"
Inside the pink haze, visions twisted. Desires were unshackled. Paladins turned on one another, their minds had been inflad with hallucinations and urges they could no longer resist. So began fighting with unholy passion, others stabbing comrades who had suddenly seed like rivals in love or lust. A few tore off armor, weeping, clawing at their own bodies.
This was the dangerous part about Emma’s abilities. It was not a respecter of power and rank. As long as the person had desires, they could be taken advantage of.
One knight scread as he hacked through his own squad, his mouth stretched in an ecstasy-maddened grin. Another curled up in the grass, sobbing with laughter, drooling, stabbing at phantoms in the air.
"Back away!" a paladin captain shouted, his eyes bloodshot. "It’s aphrodesmoke—a demon’s breath! It’s manipulating us—!"
But it was too late.
Chaos ruled.
And Emma? She was already dashing through the smoke, her lithe body weaving like a phantom, her breath was asured, her path morized. A trickle of sweat ran down her temple—but she was grinning.
Selene saw her escaping and cursed aloud. "I’ll go myself!"
But just then—
"Mother!!" a familiar voice rang out.
Selene snapped her head toward the second tesseract, now spinning as it sank from the sky. On the edge of the platform stood Cassian—her son—waving frantically.
"Chiron is here!! He’s coming for again!!"
Selene’s soul nearly left her body.
"No—NO!" she shouted.
Abandoning the pursuit, she blasted into the air like a lightning bolt, screaming toward the collapsing tesseract. She couldn’t let him fall into Chiron’s hands again.
Her heart thundered.
Behind her, only a few gold-ranked knights remained—enough to chase but not corner Emma. But even they hesitated now.
"What... what’s happening?" one muttered.
"We’re being played," another said, grimly.
Emma was already gone, dashing through the underbrush toward the ridge—Chiron’s sigil glowing faintly in her palm.
A few of the Holy Church knights, those with stronger resistance to Emma’s demonic mist, had managed to break through the smoke and chased her relentlessly across the ravaged forest.
"She’s almost at the ridge! Don’t let her escape!"
Emma’s breath burned in her lungs. Her vision blurred, but her goal remained clear—the narrow stone ridge that Chiron had pointed out, a jagged path that overlooked the cliffs and the churning ocean below.
She stumbled forward—every footfall calculated, even as her muscles scread.
And then, there it was.
She reached the ridge. Her hand trembled, covered in sweat and soot, but she lifted her forearm and bit into the skin above the branded sigil of Chiron.
"By your mark, I live..."
Her blood sizzled against the runes carved into her flesh, feeding the seal.
A deep rumble answered from the forest.
The ground shook.
Suddenly, from beneath the roots, from within twisting hollows, and out of shattered crevices, they erged.
Serpents.
Massive ones.
One burst from the earth—a hulking snake with scales like molten obsidian and a mane of ember-like spines down its back, its fangs dripping with green necro-venom that hissed and lted stone on contact.
These were tricks Chiron had learnt from Manu’s mories.
Another slithered across the ridge like a living shadow, eyes of purple fire, its long tail tipped with a serrated blade that whipped through air like thunderclaps.
A third, ethereal and mist-like, phased through the trees, its form constantly shifting, as if made of illusions and death itself—every soldier who looked upon it began seeing hallucinations, their will cracking.
"W-What are these things—?!"
"MONSTERS—!!"
The serpents struck with terrifying speed. One coiled around a paladin and crushed his armor like paper, bones snapping like twigs beneath the weight. Another slamd into a group, its massive body breaking trees like toothpicks, sending knights flying in bloodied arcs.
Emma didn’t look back.
She leapt from the ridge, diving toward the ocean below.
But just as her feet left solid ground—
> Shhhhk!
A silver-edged blade sliced through the air with unnatural precision, hurled by a knight in desperation.
"Got her—!"
The blade cut deep into her left arm—severing it completely at the shoulder.
Blood sprayed.
Her scream echoed once, before the wind swallowed it.
Then—
> SPLAAASH!!!
Emma’s body disappeared beneath the dark waters.
Only her blood remained in the air, staining the ridge behind her, as the serpents roared and tore into the remaining pursuers.
....
While Emma had just experienced a lot, the other slaves of Chiron were also having their own unique experiences...
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