Echoes of the Abyssal Blade: Path to Free Will-Chapter 58: Zerypha’s Descent
Her voice dropped, and her body glowed with divine energy.
"I am Lenaia of the Vervan Bloodline, Shaman Guardian of Starfall’s will, and you will not leave this field alive." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
She clasped her hands, and the thorns surged into a single towering construct, a titan made of vines, thorns, and druidic stone.
The construct lunged.
Lyneex tried to retreat, but her lower body was already bound. The construct’s fist collided with her shadowy head in a booming impact that made the heavens shudder. Light erupted in every direction, and cracks spread across her colossal form.
"You will die here, Lyneex," Lenaia whispered. "You can then appease your child’s soul in death, like you wished for these mortals of The Wailing City."
A final spell flared in her palm, an orb of compressed green light.
She hurled it towards Lyneex, striking her chest.
The explosion that followed could be seen for miles.
The battlefield lay silent in the wake of the explosion.
Ash and vine petals fluttered down like snowfall, black and green intertwining as they drifted slowly to the ground. The once-lush domain conjured by Lenaia had faded to charred ruin, scorched by the Black Ichor Lyneex had released in her final moments. The sky was leaden, stained by the shadowy mists that clung to the edges of the land like a bruise.
In the center of the shattered landscape lay the remains of Lyneex’s colossal form.
Her immense serpentine body, once a monstrous monument, which was a symbol of grief and fury, was now broken and still, her scales had dulled, many shattered and peeled away by thorn and flame. Massive gashes carved by Lenaia’s sorcery glowed faintly with the last vestiges of dark ichor. Where once her eyes glared with apocalyptic rage, they now stared blankly at the sky, defeated and lethargic.
The ground beneath her was indented, cratered by the force of Lenaia’s final spell. The enormous blow had cracked Lyneex’s form open like an overripe fruit. From that central rupture, strands of shadow attempted to escape, but the vines had rooted themselves deep, coiling and burrowing into the spirit of the Monarch’s being, sealing her powers from ever reforming.
Lenaia stood at the edge of the crater.
Her cloak was torn and singed, blood trailing down the side of her face. Her breathing was steady but heavy, and her limbs shook from exhaustion. Though victorious, her gaze held no satisfaction.
Only bitter resolve.
"It’s done, with this, all the evidence pointing to us will stop," she murmured to herself.
Not far from her, the thorn cocoon holding the mortal girl had withstood the chaos of the battlefield. As Lenaia walked toward it, the protective vines slowly parted like petals. The girl within was unconscious, pale, and trembling, but still alive. Lenaia knelt beside her and pressed a glowing green palm to the girl’s chest, muttering a low incantation.
Light passed from her hand to the girl.
Healing warmth flowed into the child, stabilizing the fragile threads of her spirit. Lenaia could see the residue of Lyneex’s possession still clinging to the girl’s core. It would take time and care to cleanse it entirely, but the bond had been severed.
The girl was safe.
A soft rustle stirred the leaves, and Lenaia looked up sharply. She remained kneeling, though her body tensed as if expecting a second ambush, but there was no enemy, only a presence.
A presence, which halted her very being, she was not only shocked but also stupefied at the one who had appeared before Lyneex’s ruined figure.
It was a female with a busty figure, a thin white veil covered her face, her physique radiated holy energy, she was not someone who could be looked at directly, her most distinguished feature was that she had feathery white wings, they were shimmering with extremely potent power.
Even without looking at her face, it could be seen that she was upset about something. Lenaia had never imagined that, of all people, she would be the one to directly come here.
After all, she wasn’t merely someone Lenaia could fight or dismiss; in front of this person, she would have to bow her head, considering she was one of the heroes, as well as the Matriarch of the Feathered Celestials, who were also called as the Winged Ones by the other races.
Zerypha, the Matriarch of the Feathered Celestials, who was looking at the ruined figure of Lyneex, didn’t move for quite some time, during which Lenaia also did not dare to speak anything in her presence.
After a while, Zerypha moved her hand slightly, conjuring a white holy radiance at Lyneex. Her voice was ethereal and booming, "While this might hurt you, this is the only way for you to survive."
Lenaia, looking at the Monarch getting healed, wanted to protest, but her mouth or even her body couldn’t move.
She could only watch as the white radiance enveloped Lyneex’s broken, colossal form, the holy light seeping into the deep wounds and fissures carved by Lenaia’s spells. The vines tried to resist, shuddering as the sacred power clashed with their natural magic, but one by one they withered, scorched into ash by Zerypha’s brilliance.
Lenaia’s throat tightened as she knelt at the edge of the crater, her limbs heavy with dread. The girl behind her stirred faintly within the cocoon, but Lenaia couldn’t even spare a glance, not while the hero Zerypha was here.
Zerypha stood utterly still, her veil fluttering with an unseen wind, her feathery wings shimmering with a prismatic sheen beneath the leaden skies. The lingering shadows retreated from her presence, the air thickening with oppressive might.
As the last of the healing radiance sank into Lyneex’s body, the Monarch’s form twitched. Her eyes flared open, no longer the apocalyptic glare of earlier, but molten pits of wounded fury, the colossal head slowly lifted, her fanged maw curling into a sneer of pain and hatred.
"I... was nearly... destroyed," Lyneex hissed, her voice a fractured echo across the battered field. "By this vermin! By a mangy hedge witch!"
The earth quaked faintly beneath her tail as she attempted to rise, only to be struck speechless by the sudden, razor-edged words of Zerypha.
"Silence."
The single command was soft — a whisper on the wind — but it carried the weight of absolute authority. The shadows recoiled as though scalded, even the lingering petals in the air halted mid-fall.
Lyneex’s mouth snapped shut, her serpentine form stilling at once, a visible tremor ran through her vast frame, not from pain but from unfiltered fear, it was rare for a Monarch, a beast of her standing, to feel anything approaching terror, yet in this moment, confronted with her, there was no other word for it.
Zerypha’s gaze did not waver, though her expression remained unreadable beneath the thin veil.
"Do not waste my time with your wounded pride," Zerypha continued, her voice now loud enough for the heavens to hear, a crystalline chime that made the air itself vibrate. "You owe your existence to my will, Lyneex, and had you perished here, it would’ve been your own failure."
She drifted a step closer, the ground beneath her feet unmarked, her wings folding neatly behind her. "I did not grant you power so you could waste it in childish tantrums. You were entrusted with the forging of a vessel, a being whose birth would mark the next phase of my experiment, and now, thanks to your incompetence and her interference..." Zerypha’s gaze slid to Lenaia, the weight of it enough to make the Shaman Guardian’s skin crawl. "...it lies in ruin."
Lyneex dared to shift, one clawed hand scraping at the cratered earth. "I... my child was nearly perfect, I felt it — I could have—"
"Enough."
Zerypha’s words cracked like a lash.
"I helped you birth that creature not for your petty vengeance, nor for your grief, it was to fuse the powers of two opposing forces into a living host." Her wings flickered, and a ripple of holy energy cascaded across the land. "And now it’s lost, a perfect experimental material."
Lyneex lowered her gaze, a tremor in her voice. "Forgive me, Matriarch. I... I’ll try to birth another abomination—"
Zerypha’s hand rose.
"No, your failure has already stained this endeavor, and even I am not sure if you can ever give birth to an abomination. It was entirely luck that with my power, you were able to give birth to an abomination, it doesn’t happen. I have tried this with many, Lyneex."
Then she turned fully toward Lenaia.
"As for you..."
Lenaia’s breath stuttered as the crushing pressure of Zerypha’s focus settled upon her. The world seemed to narrow, color draining from the edges of her vision.
"You who has turned my most prized experiment to trash," Zerypha intoned, her palm rising, gathering a sphere of white fire in her grip. It burned soundlessly, light so intense it seared the sky itself.
She stepped closer, raising the sphere higher.
"Your existence has irked me enough."
The sphere flared brighter, its edges trailing streams of holy flame.
Lenaia’s muscles screamed as she tried to move, but she remained kneeling, her body and spirit was shackled by an invisible force. Her teeth clenched, eyes narrowing in defiance even as death loomed.
And then — the air changed.
A sudden heat swept across the ruined field, scorching and wild, countering Zerypha’s cold, celestial power. The clouds above rippled, a low hum reverberating through the heavens.
A voice, casual yet steeped in latent menace, cut through the tension.
"That’s far enough, Zerypha."
