The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 507: A war of gods

The Eldest Syvrak, sensing the tide turning, let out a booming command in a tongue that predated human speech. The coordination of the horde shifted instantly. They weren’t just attacking anymore; they were dividing.

Three massive creatures drove a wedge between Eris and Soren, their bodies creating a barrier of scale and claw that forced the two apart.

Soren fought to reach her, his glacier-spears shattering against the reinforcements Vetra brought to bear, but he was blocked. He was being pushed toward the western battlements, while Eris was being isolated in the eastern courtyard.

The distance grew, fifty feet, then a hundred. They were cut off.

Eris found herself surrounded by six Syvrak, their circling movement predatory and patient. They weren’t trying to kill her quickly.

Their strikes were measured, testing her fire-walls, probing for the moment her concentration would break. They wanted the dragon. They were trying to exhaust the vessel until the seal failed.

"You can’t keep this up," the Eldest rumbled, his voice echoing in the courtyard.

Eris’s breathing was a series of ragged gasps. The pain in her chest was no longer a warning; it was a constant, searing agony.

The seal was glowing so brightly now it was visible through the scorched silk of her dress, pulsing with a rhythmic, golden light that matched the frantic beating of her heart.

Why are there so many? she wondered, parrying a claw with a desperate flare of heat.

Then, it clicked. The rhythmic humming of the air, the way they moved in perfect sync with Vetra’s commands, it wasn’t a natural alliance. This was a Contract. Vetra had used her own twisted blood magic to borrow these creature’s powers, tethering them to her vendetta.

If I kill Vetra, the contract breaks. The horde vanished leaving the elders who had a will of their own.

But to kill a seventy-foot hybrid, she needed the kind of power that would shatter her seal and likely level half the city.

She needed Pyronox, but she couldn’t unleash him here. Not while the palace was still full of staff, guards, and wounded nobles.

She needed to evacuate. And she needed a messenger.

Eris fought her way toward the rubble where Caelen was still holding off a pair of scavengers. She threw up a massive fire-wall to buy them a five-second window.

"Caelen!" she screamed, grabbing his uninjured shoulder. "I need you to listen!"

"I’m a bit busy, Eris!" he replied, parrying a snap of jaws.

"Evacuate everyone! Now! Clear the entire eastern wing and the courtyards! Get them as far from the palace as possible!"

Caelen looked at her, his eyes widening as he saw the state of her seal. "What are you..."

"Just do it! There’s no time!"

"I can help you fight!" Caelen argued, his stubbornness flaring even in his weakened state. "I’m not leaving you here alone with these things!"

Eris looked at him, her gaze softening for a heartbeat. "I know you can. But you need to leave and also find your pregnant wife. Please. Trust me. Clear the area."

The words stung. Caelen’s jaw clenched, guilt hitting him instantaneously because since the battle began, he hadn’t thought of Ophelia.

He looked at the seventy-foot monstrosity that was Vetra and then back at the pulsing light on Eris’s chest. He knew she was right. He was a great soldier, but this was a war of gods.

"Fine," he spat, his voice thick with reluctance. "But you better survive this, Eris."

"I’ll try," she promised.

Caelen turned and ran toward the interior of the palace, his voice booming as he began to coordinate the guards. "Evacuate! Everyone out! Move!"

The minutes that followed were a blur of isolation. The courtyard emptied as people fled into the night, leaving only the sound of clashing elements. Soren and Eris were the last lines of defense, separated by a sea of scales.

Soren was desperate. He saw the evacuation and knew exactly what Eris was planning. He saw the way she was positioning herself, and a cold horror filled his veins. She’s going to break the seal. She’s going to sacrifice herself to end this.

"VETRA!" Soren roared, summoning thirty-foot Glacier Spears and launching them in a continuous barrage.

Vetra simply exhaled a stream of corrosive, purple fire, melting the ice mid-flight. She moved with a deceptive grace, luring Soren into a false sense of rhythm. He formed a blade of ice and lunged for her throat, his entire focus on the killing blow.

It was a trap.

Vetra’s massive tail, tipped with a poison-coated ice spike she had conjured moments before, whipped around from his blind spot. It didn’t just hit; it pierced. The three-foot spike drove through Soren’s side, just below his ribs, the force of the strike lifting him off his feet.

Soren let out a sound that wasn’t a cry, it was a choked, wet gasp. He vomited blood, the crimson staining the ice-blue tattoos on his chest. He hung there, impaled on the end of the monster’s tail, his legs dangling uselessly.

"SOREN!" Eris’s scream tore through the night.

She didn’t think about the Syvrak circling her. She didn’t think about the seal or the dragon or the city. Fire exploded from her body in a thirty-foot radius, a shockwave of rage that forced the surrounding creatures back. She began to run toward him, her vision tunneled on the sight of her husband’s blood.

The seal on her chest didn’t just hum; it began to crack audibly, the sound of breaking glass echoing over the roar of the fire. Pyronox was thrashing, sensing the weakness, sensing the opening. Eris didn’t care. She burned through the Syvrak in her path, her heat so intense that their scales began to melt before she even touched them.

She reached Vetra just as the creature began to shake Soren’s limp body like a trophy.

"Put him down!" Eris shrieked, her hands reaching for the tail.

But Vetra was faster. While Eris was focused on Soren, the creature used its magic to conjure a second spear, not from its tail, but from the moisture in the air. An ice spear, thick as a tree trunk and jagged with frozen malice.

Vetra launched it with the precision of a master archer.

Eris was already holding Soren, trying to pull him free. She couldn’t dodge. She couldn’t move. The spear pierced through Eris from behind, driving through her shoulder and pinning her directly to the creature’s tail alongside Soren.

The world went silent. Two rulers, two lovers, impaled together on the end of a monster’s whim. Blood dripped onto the scorched grass, mingling as the fire and the frost began to fade.

Vetra leaned down, her massive snout inches from their faces, her breath smelling of rot and victory. "And now," she whispered, "the dragon and the boy can die together."