Chapter 49
Kalon de Somnium
He once thought that the eclipse of darkness descended the heaviest when loss consumed the heart.
But he was wrong.
It doesn’t just descend. It consumes. It annihilates. It slowly eats from within without mercy, changing a person and burning through their very soul. It makes happiness transmute into velvet voids of despair, suffocating the joy you believed you had.
But love. Love transcends. It doesn’t just end when things change or loved ones pass; it continues to smolder.
When you finally open your eyes, that small spark’s metamorphosis finds its tinder and spreads like a forest fire, burning through the tops of trees and fighting to compete against the mighty sun’s wrath.
That’s what Seda was to him before she sacrificed herself.
That’s what she brought into his dark world over a thousand years ago.
But when she left, he allowed the ease of darkness to return and consume him. For twenty years, he allowed his own evil urges to resurface once more, only granting himself the breath of fresh air—of hope—when he thought she might someday return.
That wasn’t what love was supposed to be. Love wasn’t selfish; it wasn’t only about allowing yourself to find that spark within when it benefited you.
Something sinister was stirring, something they believed had disappeared long ago. It was more than just this Monster King and this city. He could sense it deep inside him; he could feel it in the way the tattoo on his neck called him northward.
The sanctity of their world rested on all the guardians’ unity, bound as one in a harmony of good and evil, nature and divinity. The civilization and army he had created for her would soon become essential.
But not yet.
He had changed, and he saw that now. He was light with or without Seda’s embrace, with or without her love to wrap around his heart and ease the pain.
And in the here and now, he caught his guiding light in his arms before her body made contact with the crumbling bricks of the Palatium’s battlement, staring down at the crimson glow of the Dark Stones’ power radiating through her and highlighting his olive skin in a scarlet glow.
He didn’t let her go.
Not even as wild fury burned through his stomach, and his gaze shifted toward Tievel.
Tievel clenched his fist tighter around the stone, and Seda started to pulse with angry waves of crimson.
Her eyes flared open, and she snarled at Kalon like a beast, raking her nails across his face and drawing blood from her fingers.
But he held her tightly, not allowing her to succumb further to the dark power.
“You think you can defeat me? I have become the darkness that breathes. I will become a god, the first to be ascended in history! I may not be able to control you with this magic, but I can command her fury! And through her you will die! You will finally fucking die!” Teivel shrieked as his sickening, wicked grin spread wider across his face.
Seda began to writhe in his arms, storm clouds churning and brewing above her as bright flashes lit up their faces.
“I won’t let that happen,” Kalon replied coolly.
He didn’t let her go as lightning descended and hit him in the shoulder.
He held her body tightly against his as he fell to his knees against the edge, pain flaring through his body, vibrating through every nerve.
Through the pain, he clenched his fist and poured the last bit of his magic into a pain-filled nightmare, channeling it into the Monster King.
The Monster King’s eyes widened before he fell backwards, emitting a scream that tore across the land, funneling through the dark, oil-slicked magic and shaking the earth.
He didn’t let her go as the stone slipped from Tievel’s hands, landing and turning a dull shade of gray.
His own smile crested his once-evil lips as he saw the megalomaniac Monster King on the floor, writhing in convulsing waves.
He didn’t let go as the electrical shocks receded and Seda’s radiance changed from crimson to violet starlight, and her burning eyes met the pain-filled tears dripping down his face.
He did finally let go when she shifted out of his arms and turned her slitted gaze toward Tievel, lightning sliding up and down her form.
Seda unleashed her divine electrical storm upon the man. Her fury focused on him as she watched his burning body thrash and his back arch off the floor in a mix of Kalon’s nightmares and her own rage.
With her magic, Seda lifted his body high into the sky, over the Palatium battlement’s edge, and released him, allowing the charred body to fall to the rocky ground below.
Kalon gasped at his weakened state when he pulled back his magic, as if the last tendrils were a flickering candle, clinging to nothing but the wick as the wax had evaporated into thin air.
His vision blurred, and his body gave out, toppling backward and falling over the battlement’s edge. The air enveloped him as his body fell, and he watched himself drift farther from the divine being from the heavens who had absolved him long ago.
Kalon closed his eyes, waiting for the impact that would finally claim him.
He heard a roar and felt himself land on something warm. As the warmth spread through his body, he cracked open his eyes and saw Elco’s burning red scales, rescuing him—a man who had given up hope to see another day, a man who barely deserved to inhale the air around him.
Elco dropped him back onto the battlement, and Seda rushed to him, kneeling by his side. Her exhausted eyes met his, and she held him tightly in her arms. He allowed the wholeness to swell in his heart as he inhaled her lilac scent, his nose brushing against the top of her head.
“I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Not today and not a millennium ago,” she choked out, pulling away and brushing her hand across his bloody face. “Thank you for never giving up.” Her words were soft, but he could feel the love in each syllable—something he believed had vanished long ago.
He watched as she nodded to Elco before brushing away a tear, and glanced at the stone. The dark, pulsating magic beckoned his weakened body forward, flaming through his dark tattoo, and urging him to succumb to the darkness’s addiction once more.
He looked away as she picked it up.