Chapter 20 Dario
The air around us thickened, heavy with anticipation, as Elena stepped forward, her light a flaming glow under her skin.
Rindais stepped forward, still smiling. “Yes, this ends here,” he said softly. “But not in the way you think.” He shook his head. “You have no idea what I’ve sacrificed,” he said, his voice low, dangerous. “I didn’t come this far to be defeated by the likes of you .”
“Then maybe it’s time you learned the price of overconfidence,” I spat, letting my shadows swell around me, coiling like smoke, eager for a fight.
Rindais laughed, his dark robes billowing around him as he called upon his powers. He glowed a sickly green as he turned to face us.
It was a look I knew well—one that reeked of arrogance, of a man convinced he could not be beaten.
“Do you truly think you both are a match for me?” he said, his voice dripping with mocking amusement, his gaze flicking between Elena and me. “The High Priestess and her pet shadow. How…laughable.”
I took a step forward, feeling the shadows swirl around me, ready to strike, to destroy. “You weren’t laughing when my shadows were choking the life out of you just a few days ago,” I taunted, smirking when he glared at me.
But the torches around the room, the sickly green light that glowed in Rindais’s hands—all of it made me wary.
I had noticed how my shadows dissipated into smoke with each contact with Rindais’s powers, and I knew I had to be careful.
Between the last time we had met and now, this mage had somehow grown more powerful.
He raised a hand, a twisted smile on his face as he summoned a swirling green light that pulsed with an unnatural energy. It looked…almost like the glow that surrounded Elena, but twisted, warped by dark magics.
My rage ignited. Had this bastard used Elena’s blood to make himself more powerful?
“Elena,” Rindais said, his tone a sickly blend of pity and disdain. “You can’t tell me you don’t see it now. This was inevitable.”
Her voice was steady, though I could hear the tightly bound anger underneath. “What was your deal with the Elders?”
“Oh, my dear High Priestess, surely you understand by now,” he said with a smirk, his voice like the hiss of a serpent. “The Elders have no use for you—not as you are. You’re a vessel, a means to an end, carrying a power they’ve dreamed of controlling.”
I took another step forward, my hands clenched, my voice low and deadly. “And what about you , Rindais? What is it you stand to gain?”
He turned his cold, unfeeling gaze on me, and for a brief moment, something dark and twisted flickered in his eyes.
“Power,” he whispered. “I was made for more than this petty existence—to scrape by at the whims of foolish kings and moronic old men,” he spat.
“I was made to rule . And with a phoenix at my disposal, I shall have the continent under my thrall—or they shall die in flames.” He grinned, his eyes shining green.
A chill ran down my spine, a sickening realization settling over me. He was just like I had once been, a mage with a grasp that exceeded his abilities. He wanted power, and he was willing to do anything to get it.
Just as I had been willing to trap a goddess.
“You’re a fool,” I spat. “You think you can control the power of the phoenix, bend it to your will? The Sun God’s power is not meant to be held in mortal hands. It’ll destroy you.”
He laughed, a harsh, mocking sound that echoed off the stone walls. “I won’t be repeating your foolish mistakes,” he said, smirking. “Yes, I know who you are, Dario Morelli, and I am better than you!”
Quick as a snake, Rindais’s magic struck, his eyes glinting with malice as he hurled a bolt of green light at us.
I pushed Elena back just as it struck, the force of it sending me skidding back across the floor, my shadows struggling against the strange, sickly magic that seemed to gnaw at the darkness I controlled.
A surge of heat flared beside me as Elena raised her hand, sending a wave of blinding light in Rindais’s direction, but he deflected it with ease, his laugh echoing through the chamber.
“So, the phoenix finally reveals herself,” he taunted, his tone dripping with mockery. “I can smell the power in you, Elena. Such a waste, tethered to your Sun Temple, to these pathetic Elders.”
“Power you’ll never have,” she shot back, her voice firm, steady. “You are going to die tonight, Rindais.”
“Then come and stop me, shadow and flame,” Rindais sneered, spreading his arms wide, daring us to attack.
We moved as one, Elena and I, a force of shadow and light, lunging forward, our combined powers moving in sync, slamming into our enemy as I unleashed my fury.
Shadows wrapped around his legs, pulling him down as Elena’s light seared across his chest, but he countered with a burst of that sickly green energy, blasting us both back.
The pillars around us shook, the stone cracking under the sheer force of magic that radiated through the room, and I could feel the dark power that surrounded him.
From the far end of the chamber, the Elders watched, their faces twisted with horror and fury as debris began to fall around them, shattered stone and dust filling the air. Kathar, his face contorted with fear, shouted, “Rindais! Stop this madness and protect us!”
Rindais only laughed, his voice dark, mocking.
“Did you really believe I would risk everything for your safety?” He smirked, turning back to us as he unleashed another wave of magic, this one more potent, more destructive, the green light filling the room with an eerie glow.
“Our bargain was simple—I get the powers of the phoenix, and you get your chimaera. Beyond that, your fates are your own concern.”
I felt a bitter satisfaction as the color drained from the Elders’ faces, the dawning horror in their eyes as they realized the depths of his betrayal.
They had conspired against their own city, their own High Priestess, and now they were reaping the cost.
One by one, they tried to run, but chunks of falling stone and the ricochets of the searing blasts from Rindais’s magic began to cut them down, their cries echoing through the chamber.
A twisted laugh escaped me as I watched them scramble, their desperation a fitting end for the lies and manipulation they had wielded.
But there was no time to revel in their downfall—I turned my focus back to Rindais, my shadows rising around me, wrapping me in darkness as I lunged toward him.
He was ready, his hand raised, and with a flick of his wrist, he sent a surge of green light barreling toward me.
It slammed into my shadows, and it was as I had feared. I could feel them wither, dissipating beneath the sickly glow that sapped them of their strength.
“Elena!” I shouted, feeling the desperation in my voice as I struggled to keep my footing, the shadows slipping through my grasp like sand. “His magic—it’s weakening mine!”
But she was already there, moving with deadly grace, her light blazing as she sent another wave of fire toward him, the heat searing across the stone, leaving scorch marks in its wake.
Rindais deflected it with a flick of his hand, but I could see the strain in his eyes, the faint flicker of exhaustion that betrayed him.
“Dario, together !” she called, and I felt a surge of hope as I moved to her side, our magic converging, blending into a force that felt unstoppable.
We attacked as one, a torrent of shadow and light crashing down on him, forcing him back, his defenses faltering under the combined strength of our powers.
But Rindais was far from defeated.
With a furious snarl, he raised both hands, summoning a barrier of green light that blazed with an intensity that forced us back, the air thick with the sickly, acrid scent of his magic.
“You are nothing,” he spat, his voice echoing through the chamber. “Nothing but fools clinging to powers you can’t control.”
And with a final, furious surge of magic, he unleashed a torrent of light that slammed into me, the force of it knocking me to my knees.
A magical array flared to life around me, locking me in place, bringing me to my knees. Pain seared through me, raw and relentless, as the shadows around me flickered, fading under the weight of his magic.
The moment Rindais’s spell struck, I knew I was undone.
The air ignited with a sickly green flare, coils of light snaking around my limbs, burrowing into the hollows of my ribs, my spine, my skull. The bands of green magic constricted, searing through my chest, dragging me to my knees.
The pressure was unbearable, a crushing weight that pinned me to the stone floor and seeped into my very marrow. I clawed at the shadows out of instinct, calling them like I always had—but they came sluggishly, stuttering, then guttered like candles in a gale.
This was not mere light. This was corrosion, designed to consume the very essence of shadow.
I could feel myself unraveling, my form slipping, my strength draining as he bound me with a spell so powerful, so ancient, that it felt like the weight of a thousand suns pressing down on me.
A guttural sound tore from my throat as I fought to hold myself together. My left hand dissolved to smoke before my eyes, only to reform weakly, trembling like a dying flame.
The bastard was dismantling me.
“Ah,” Rindais crooned, voice silken with malice.
“So the great Shadow King does bleed after all.” His mismatched eyes gleamed as he tightened his grip.
“Not blood, of course. But weakness, all the same.” He grinned, his teeth sharp.
“Don’t worry, after I siphon off all your power, I’ll use it as it was meant to be used. ”
My shadows…feeding his power?
I bit back a roar, every fiber of my being straining against the spell. My shadows writhed across the floor like wounded serpents, twitching, retreating, failing me.
For the first time in a hundred years, I felt fear. Real fear.