Ensnaring his Dark Moon-Chapter 176: It’s time

Aleister gritted his teeth, trying to hold his breath.

His powers seemed to be exploding. This has been happening to him for who knows how long.

Aleister felt it the day he overexerted himself in the library when Ruby fought with him. He has been feeling it since he was young.

Whenever he overused his powers, there was this feeling of being overwhelmed by his own powers. Like they would kill him at any moment.

And when he started looking into its mystery, it took him some time to discover that the golden magic that he possessed were divine powers that only existed in myths.

And for a human to possess that... the only fate was an untimely death.

This was the only reason that he held back... Held back on having Esme in every way he wanted. On getting married to her, on telling her what she meant to him, on...on having her body and when she confessed to him about his feelings, he held back on accepting her heart.

But with each passing day, it kept getting difficult to stay from her just as difficult as it was to keep his powers sane.

Aleister was dying, little by little every day.

But he had never felt his death up so close.

As the woman stepped towards him, every organ in his body felt like it was being ripped apart by some mysterious force.

’’Do you feel it, boy?" Marilyn asked, stopping at a distance from him, ’’I know you do. You feel the pain...’’ she tilted her head to the side, a sardonic smile etched on her face, ’’I felt it too when my husband...your father went to your mother, instead of coming to me. But look, I have the situation under control. Ironically, your mother trusted me. She used to look at me as a friend until the day she died. It was not until the very last moment that she realized what I was, who I was to her.’’

Standing behind them, Cardan looked at Aleister who was on the ground, struggling to breathe, his palm pressed on his heart. Something flashed in his eyes—something that resembled struggle, a hint of sadness, a look of worry but it disappeared as soon as his gaze landed on his mother.

He closed his eyes and his fingers curled into a fist. The next moment when he opened his eyes, all the emotions in the pair of blue eyes were replaced by his usual aloofness.

’’More so ironically, I was the first person who discovered your existence, even before your mother. She came to have tea with me, talking about how much she wished to go back to the mortal world to see if her brothers are doing good. While she was talking with me, I was casting a spell on you. You were in her womb. Then, I created misunderstandings between them and she left the Castle. Months later, I came to the mortal world to kill you but the wrong people died in my hands....’’

Marilyn let out a soft sigh, ’’...I have never been sick. Not during childbirth, not before or after that. Not when your father threw me inside the prison. Never. But that night, I vomited blood. I was weak and every time I closed my eyes, I saw a golden flame, eating me up from inside. I performed black magic to look into the cause only to discover that it was the impact of an old spell. The spell that I cast on you when you were in your mother’s womb. I discovered that you were alive. And what else? You had divine powers. Pure divine powers that should have belonged to my son. That was the first time you used your powers and it triggered my spell, making me aware of your existence.’’

Despite the intensifying pain, Aleister could make sense of her words. The first time he used his powers. Wasn’t it when he was thrown into the Heart of Enchantment Forest? The vision that he showed to Esme. It was then. When he had to fight a pack of wolves but in his desperation, he unleashed powers that he did not know existed within him.

’’But then, your powers were weak. Very fragile,’’ Marilyn said, darkness lingering in her eyes, ’’You know what I did? I made my spell stronger. The butterfly strokes carved on your back belong to me. I carved it with my own blood, with my pain and tears. It restrains your power and every time I appear in front of you, you will be like this, weak and helpless,’’ If the Aleister back then was not young or if he was as powerful as he is now, then she would not have been able to perform her black magic on him.

The divine powers were not vulnerable. Never. Why Atlas was the most feared and revered God was partly because of the divine powers that he possessed. No black magic, no other powers were comparable to it.

But Aleister was a human. A child who just awakened his powers.

A newborn dragon... no matter how strong he might become in the future, his wings are still weak when he is born.

And she used it to her benefit.

She tied him in a trail of spells.

Marilyn approached him, ’’You know how my spell worked? The stronger you go, the more control I got over you. It has been ready to consume you, waiting for the moment I appear so that it can fulfill its purpose. Now, the time has come. The time to send you to your mother,’’ she closed her eyes and her lips started chanting some verses.

’’Mother!’’

Marilyn’s eyes snapped open, and displeasure marred her face as she looked at Cardan from above her shoulder, ’’You know that you can’t interrupt me at such times, don’t you?"

’’I do,’’ Cardan approached her with a nonchalant look on his face, ’’Mother, let’s not go easy on him. I want him to be tortured for every pain his mother caused you. Hand him over to me. He will be useful,’’ He eyed Aleister disdainfully.

A smile made its way to Marilyn’s face. She was proud of her son. This is the man she raised. The man who only cared about her, ’’Useful? How?"

’’I found that woman who can purify my powers. She is living with him. It will be easy to get her if we keep him alive,’’ Cardan said.

Marilyn sighed, ’’My silly boy, is it hard to get a woman? Just say the word and your mother will get you any woman you want. No matter what powers she possesses, she can’t be stronger than your mother,’’ she was inwardly glad that her son found that mermaid. Now every piece was beginning to fall in its place.

Marilyn turned to look at Aleister, ’’Demons like this can’t be left alive. He will make our lives miserable in one way or another and this time, I want no flaws in my whole plan. Before your father finds out about his existence, I will finish him.’’

’’But...’’ Cardan glanced at the man. The man.. the elder brother who told him that he would let him go if he released his Uncle. The ruthless man who should have thought of ways to torture him but he talked about letting him go.

’’Shhh...’’ Marilyn raised her hand and motioned him to stop speaking. She closed her eyes and started chanting.