Hello my lovely readers!
This Chapter is dedicated to all who have been sending power stones and golden tickets my way! Hope you enjoy this last arc!
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[Music recomndation: Secession Studios - The Power of Epic Orchestral Music Made by Humans.]
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On hearing her bitter words, rage flared within him. He spat the blood from his mouth, and in the very next instant, his hand shot forward, wrapping around her neck with terrifying speed.
His grip tightened as he leaned in, closing the distance until his nose brushed against hers.
Grinning like a maniac, he whispered, "That was a reckless move, my dear Evelyn. If you still believe you can escape , then you are sorely mistaken. Just look at you, pinned to the wall like a helpless maiden....exactly to my liking." He licked his lips lasciviously, his gaze dark with twisted satisfaction.
"I had intended to be gentle with you, to take my ti savouring every mont, but that luxury is now gone, Princess."
With that, his fingers constricted further around her throat, forcing a sharp gasp from Eve as he crushed his lips against hers.
Eve’s entire being froze for a split second before revulsion and anger surged within her so violently that her body flared with a sudden golden glow. Without hesitation, she bit into his lips with force so hard that a scream erupted through the once silent chamber.
Drake stumbled backwards, crashing hard onto the floor as he clutched his mouth, shock and searing pain flooding his features.
At that very mont, the chamber door burst open.
A figure cloaked in red stepped inside, their presence instantly commanding the room.
Drake snapped out of his daze at the sight of his master.
He slowly turned his gaze back to Evelyn, only to find her glaring at him with such vicious intensity that it sent a chill racing through his veins.
And though the golden glow had faded from her body, her restraints now burned brightly, their oga symbols blazing as her eyes flickered erratically between gold and blue, as though even the enchanted bindings were struggling to suppress the sheer force of her power.
When his gaze drifted to her lips, a thin trail of blood ran down her skin, and he knew instantly. It was not hers.
Removing his hand from his mouth, he hesitantly reached for his lips, his fingers trembling as they brushed against the wound. That was when the true horror struck him.
A portion of his lower lip was missing.
He knew she hadn’t physically ripped it away from her teeth, so how was this possible?
He tried to quickly regenerate the tissue with his newfound powers, but for so reason, they would not respond. The wound remained raw and bleeding.
Shocked by the failure of his magic, he pointed a trembling finger at her. "You! You bitch! What did you do to ?!"
But Eve was far too consud by rage to respond with her usual wit. She spat the blood from her mouth as if she had tasted sothing absolutely disgusting. Her entire body shook with a deep, primal desire to brutally kill the man who had tried to defile her.
"How dare you!" she sneered, her voice so chilled and nacing that Drake recoiled. "How dare you try that with ! Why don’t you co closer and find out exactly what I did to you!"
It was a voice so dark that Drake found himself wondering if this was truly the sa woman he had been obsessed with for so long.
But she had wounded his ego far too deeply, and he was not a man who endured such humiliation lightly. Rising unsteadily to his feet, fury burning in his eyes, he attempted to approach her once more.
That was when the voice of the cloaked figure finally cut through the chamber.
"Do not attempt it again, Viremont, unless you wish to be lted beyond the point of regeneration... or worse, killed."
Drake’s anger-filled gaze snapped towards the figure in red, shock crashing over him. It was not rely the warning that unsettled him, but the voice itself.
For the first ti, he was hearing the one they all referred to as the Master....and it was a woman!
When he stood there frozen and utterly dumbstruck, the woman in the red cloak moved further into the chamber and continued, "Although she is bound by restraints forged from sothing far more ancient, should you continue to provoke her, I fear even those bindings will fail to contain the leakage of her power. The mont that happens, you would lt upon contact."
Her voice remained calm, yet every word carried a quiet nace.
"You seem to forget that you are one of us now, Viremont. When sothing tainted cos into contact with magic as pure as light, it is bound to burn... even at the slightest touch."
She stepped closer and finally stopped before Evelyn.
"Especially when she wields the purest form of light magic," the woman added softly, "as the daughter of the goddess herself."
Drake continued to stare at the cloaked figure, his voice barely a whisper. "You... you are a woman."
The woman scoffed. "So? Do you have a problem with that? Go sowhere else. I need to have a chat with the Princess now."
At her words, he snapped out of this daze. "No! You promised I could have her once I fulfilled the mission!" Drake protested. He did not like being dismissed so lightly after he had waited so patiently for so long.
The woman suddenly burst into a wicked and unsettling laughter.
"Well, you did try to claim her, did you not? And look what it earned you. A missing lower lip." Sharp and cruel amusent lingered in her voice, "I am afraid not even your new transformation will help you recover that. Now leave, while I am still being patient."
Her voice was almost lodious, yet the threat beneath it was impossible to miss.
Drake gritted his teeth, his fists clenching tightly as fury burned through him. He cast one venomous glare at the Master before turning it upon Evelyn, who continued to glare at him with undiluted hatred despite her obvious weakened state.
"I will return to claim what was promised to ," he snarled.
With that, he turned around to leave, but just as he reached the doorway, Evelyn’s voice cut through the chamber.
"Mark my words, you repulsive rat! I swear to my Goddess that I will end you with my own hands. I will tear you apart slowly, painfully, into so many pieces until you beg for death."
Drake paused.
He glanced back over his shoulder, a nacing grin stretching across his face, making him look grotesque with half his lip gone.
"I will return for you," he said coldly. "Let us see whether you will still speak so boldly once I am finished with you."
Then, without another word, he turned and disappeared from the chamber.
Once the door slamd shut behind him with a resounding bang, the woman in the red cloak slowly turned her attention back to Evelyn. Her face remained hidden beneath the heavy hood, while the lower half was concealed by a black mask, rendering her appearance shrouded entirely in mystery.
Yet the mont the woman spoke, every fibre of Evelyn’s being reacted instinctively. An involuntary shiver ran through her, as though sothing deep within her recognised that voice despite the figure’s concealed appearance.
Until now, her focus had been directed wholly on Drake, but with the cloaked woman standing before her alone, that anger montarily faltered. Her voice echoed in her mind, hauntingly familiar, stirring mories she had long buried.
There was only one person it could possibly resemble.
The one she had loved with all her heart. But Evelyn refused to allow the thought to take shape.
No! Never!
She would not let herself believe sothing so impossible.
"I must admit, you are quite impressive, Princess Evelyn. Look at you... how much you have grown over the past few years since I last saw you," the woman spoke again.
As the words settled into the chamber, Eve’s gaze remained locked upon the concealed figure. Though she could not see the woman’s face, the voice was impossible to ignore.
Panting heavily from the strain of the power she had instinctively unleashed during Drake’s assault, Evelyn felt what little strength remained in her body begin to fade. Sweat trickled down her face as she fought to remain conscious, forcing herself to stay alert despite the relentless burning pain radiating from the restraints clamped against her raw skin.
With visible effort, she managed to speak.
"Who... are you?"
"Who am I?" the woman repeated, her voice laced with quiet amusent.
She stepped closer, though still far enough to remain beyond Evelyn’s reach. Slowly, she lifted her hands, slender fingers curling around the edge of the crimson hood.
"I am surprised you even need to ask that, my little Eve."
Eve’s breath hitched.
Her eyes widened at the familiar nickna, disbelief crashing through her as she watched the woman pull back the hood, letting it fall behind her shoulders. Then, slowly, the woman reached for the black mask concealing the lower half of her face.
And removed it.
The world seed to tilt.
Eve felt as though the very air had been knocked out of her lungs as she stared, frozen, at the face before her.
A face she knew.
A face she had never forgotten.
Her lips trembled as a broken whisper escaped.
"Mother?"
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