Chapter 24 ~Winter~ #3
A cry from Evira had us looking out to see Ruxnoth using his warping ability to cut into her streams, turning them to mist.
She staggered back, seething at him, and he moved to strike her.
A rumble reverberated all around, then part of the chamber wall was decimated to shit.
I choked as Vax burst through it, his vibrational resonance radiating out in violent pulses as he passed through the rubble like it was nothing, snagged Ruxnoth by the collar of his coat, then tossed him through the hole, sending him spinning out into the distance.
He and Evira rushed to me then.
“Come on, let’s get you out of here before he gets back,” Evira urged, grimacing as she took in the sight of me.
“Seconds,” Vax said. “We have only seconds.”
“No, we can’t move him like this,” Zayn told them. “Look. Fucking look.”
Even Vax had to avert his eyes, as he stroked my hair.
An eruption of potent power caught our attention, so immense that I thought it was Ruxnoth for a second, already returning.
But then gold light filled my vision, a moment before Ketheron materialized.
He looked absolutely distraught as he rapidly took in the situation—took in me.
He swallowed thickly, then jumped into action, skidding to his knees beside me. “Take your leave,” he told my loves. “I can heal him. To hasten the process, it requires Celestial intervention.”
None of them made a move to leave my side. Of course not.
“He is coming,” Ketheron warned. But then as he started sweeping his power over me, there was a glint in his eye as he told them, “However, so is Ambrose.”
Not only him either as I felt a very familiar roll of power.
Ruxnoth burst back into the chamber through the hole.
But what I’d felt wasn’t him.
A second later, crimson magic erupted, and Dad materialized. Flanked by my six necromancer friends.
Dad looked over at me, and I’d never seen him so pained ever. It twisted my gut.
He let out a roar, then thrust streams of his magic forward. They drove into Ruxnoth’s chest and he was screaming then as his skin started desiccating rapidly.
Dad should’ve only been able to perform Desiccation Curse on the death-touched, unless wielding corrupted power, but because of my infection in Ruxnoth’s system there was a loophole, one he’d of course recognized.
“You fucking dare to lay hands on my son!” Dad thundered.
Ruxnoth sneered as he pushed his power against Dad’s with shaking hands. “I will do a great deal more to you.” He zoned in on Rex. “And you will receive special attention for standing against me after all that I did for you.”
“Yeah, I don’t consider you using me and my fear of my mental state as you helping me out. You manipulative shit.”
With a snarl, Ruxnoth moved to send a bolt of magic at my dad.
But the necromancers stepped in with collective force, their magic enveloping him and levitating him a foot off the ground, trapping him in Undead Domination.
“Nice work, Win,” Dad called over to me, knowing it was my death state infection allowing it to be possible when Ruxnoth wasn’t a vampire or other death-touched being.
I smiled back. And I actually could smile without so much effort now because Ketheron’s magic had almost fully healed me.
With a groan and a bit of effort, and help from my loves, I was even able to sit up.
Below my waist was all healed up now, just some damage to my chest that Ketheron was still working on. He held my shoulder gently to keep me steady, beaming at me as he continued. “Almost there, tiny god. Almost there.”
“Thank you, gentle god.”
Zayn and Evira stroked my hair and Vax held my hand through it, while his other was primed with his citrine power, watching the scene a few feet away.
Because Ruxnoth was pushing at the binds of Undead Domination.
With a roar, his right arm broke free.
He lashed out at Dad and I screamed as a bolt of midnight-blue power cut out his Desiccation Curse and blew him into the wall, taking a chunk out of it, a cry spilling from his throat as he landed on his hands and knees.
Thank fuck he was a badass motherfucker, because he lifted his head right after, eyes blazing with necromantic fury.
As he staggered back to his feet, Ruxnoth went to strike him again.
Vax and Evira jumped into the fray, Evira about to throw up one of her hardcore ice walls, Vax looking to deliver a vibrational blast.
But then black tendrils shot through the hole in the chamber and lashed at Ruxnoth’s hand, making him hiss and draw it back.
In the next second, the tendrils were wrapping around his throat.
Ambrose levitated through the debris, his power erupting around him wildly.
And he held the Spiral Thorn in his hand.
He twisted his other hand and his tendrils tightened around Ruxnoth’s throat, yanking his head back.
“No, you didn’t,” Ruxnoth spluttered as he gazed at the Spiral Thorn. “Inverting it… impossible.”
Ambrose didn’t verbally engage.
As he passed through Undead Domination holding Ruxnoth, without it impacting at all, Ruxnoth renewed his struggles to break free.
A choked sound escaped me as I felt Ketheron’s healing complete.
He stroked my cheek, then rose to his feet and watched the scene carefully, intense focus on Ambrose, obviously worried for him as he drew so close to Ruxnoth.
My loves helped me to my feet and we looked on as Ambrose wrenched Ruxnoth’s hands behind his back, binding them with his tendrils.
His head was still forced back, but he was writhing, not fully held by the necromancers.
I saw Dad at the ready again, power flaring on both palms, prepared to intervene if it was breached.
And then Ambrose made his move, bringing the Spiral Thorn down toward Ruxnoth’s heart.
He was trying to do it all in one go.
The Spiral Thorn could penetrate Ruxnoth’s flesh anywhere to freeze his warping ability and also make killing a Celestial without an actual Celestial weapon possible long enough for us to then deliver a death blow.
We all jolted as, at the last second, Ruxnoth freed his left knee and thrust it into Ambrose’s wrist.
Ambrose grunted, but reacted quickly as the Spiral Thorn fell from his grip, and he used his magic to catch it, then take any shot he could, especially as Ruxnoth then started to free his other leg as well.
It ended up with the Spiral Thorn driving into his stomach instead.
Ambrose jolted back as Ruxnoth bellowed and snapped the binds confining his wrists.
I saw sparks of blue traveling all over him, the work of the Spiral Thorn.
It had done its job.
All that was needed now was to bring about his death, which would send him to the Valley of the Dead.
Shrieking, Ruxnoth used everything he had left to then send out a shockwave of his power that broke through Undead Domination, sent the necromancers staggering back, and knocked Ambrose away.
Then he staggered toward the hole in the chamber.
No.
He was not getting away again.
I used my teleportation to burst forward in an instant and rematerialize in front of him, blocking his path.
But then Dad’s power erupted right between us, startling me.
With a glowing crimson hand, he made a sharp twisting motion and snapped Ruxnoth’s neck.
Killing him.
Delivering the death blow instead of me.
As Ruxnoth dropped, Dad eyed me, a heavy look filling his eyes. “You’re not carrying that. Not our son.”
I sucked in a stuttering breath as I took his words in, then stared down at Ruxnoth’s crumpled form.
Everything started blurring around me as I just stared and stared, trying to reconcile that it was really over, that the motherfucker was gone.
I heard the necromancers confirming to Dad that Ruxnoth had been dragged into the Valley, warping ability neutralized, meaning the Valley wouldn’t be harmed.
He was just dead.
Forever.
Done.
It really was finished.
My loves came to me and wrapped me up, and I sank into them.
Their touches and care had me finally able to look away from that bastard, and I found myself smiling out at them.
Just fucking smiling, and unable to stop.
All of this today, it had lifted a crushing weight off me.
And now… now… I felt free.
At peace.