The Play-Toy Of Three Lycan Kings-Chapter 442: Last Stand II

SAGE

The vampires were too much.

I had known we were outnumbered the moment they poured from their hiding places like a ruptured vein spilling rot into the world, but knowing and witnessing were two different torments.

They came in waves—hissing, shrieking, their pale limbs a blur against the dying light. Everywhere I looked there were fangs and red-rimmed eyes and clawed hands reaching, reaching.

The ancients were faltering.

I felt it in the rhythm of the battle. Their movements, once fluid and devastating, had grown sluggish. They had not fed in days—not on the kind of blood that strengthened their ancient cores and burned away the earth’s taint from their veins. They fought on discipline and pride alone now, and even pride had limits.

One of them staggered as three vampires leapt on him at once.

I ripped five hearts from five chests in the same breath.

Magic obeyed me like an extension of my will. My fingers flexed, and I felt the resistance of muscle and bone give way. Five wet sounds echoed across the battlefield. Five still-beating hearts hovered in the air before me, slick and blackened by corruption.

"Burn," I whispered.

Golden fire roared down from the sky at my command, consuming the hearts midair. They disintegrated into ash before they struck the ground.

But even as the flames obeyed, I felt the drain.

Power left me in steady rivulets. My limbs trembled. My lungs burned. Every spell I cast now demanded more than the last, like the abyss inside me was asking what I was willing to pay.

The vampires had stopped trying to escape.

The first few who had made a break for the borders had met Adam and his brothers’ ward. I had heard their screams—high and horrified—as their skin had smoked and peeled the instant they touched the sun-infused barrier. They had turned to ash in seconds.

After that, the rest had understood. There would be no fleeing. So they fought with desperation instead.

The witches who had come with us were barely standing. I could see the strain etched into their faces as they maintained a shimmering shield over the triplets while casting offensive spells at the same time. Sweat drenched their robes. Their magic flickered at the edges.

The beasts—my beasts—were being swarmed. Vampires clung to their massive forms, clawing at fur and hide, trying to drag them down through sheer numbers.

Everywhere. There were vampires everywhere.

I ducked under a swipe and sent a crescent of fire through a cluster of them, splitting them in two. The air reeked of charred flesh and old blood.

I knew I had to do something. Something decisive.

My gaze caught on him then. Dago. The convener of these vampires.

He stood apart from the chaos near the remains of a crumbling structure, his dark cloak unmoving despite the wind. His expression was eerily calm, eyes calculating as they swept across the battlefield.

He was waiting, I was sure. For the perfect moment to strike. Or to escape.

I felt it in my bones—whatever he planned, it would shift the tide if I allowed him the chance.

I reached inward. El.

She stirred, warm and vast beneath my skin.

Can I go into the abyss well again?

There was a pause. A hesitation.

It is dangerous, she said at last. Her voice was both thunder and whisper. To descend twice in one day, within hours of the first descent... your mortal body may not withstand it.

I dodged another lunging vampire and sent a spear of light through its skull.

You may die, she continued. You may lose your power. You may lose me.

I looked around me.

Adam stood at the border of the region, jaw clenched, sweat pouring down his face as he and his brothers sustained the blazing ward. The ancients were on their knees now in places.

One of the witches collapsed.

A beast roared in pain.

Gods, There was no time. I had no time. I couldn’t let anyone else die.

If I died, then I died.

I had unleashed this darkness myself. I would not leave it festering.

I want to do it, I told her.

Another pause. Then... Focus.

I closed my eyes for half a second in the middle of war, after creating a protective ring around me.

The sounds dulled. The world narrowed. I reached for that well inside me—the endless drop I had discovered when I had faced the queen. I let myself fall again.

Down. Down into the limitlessness.

Power met me like an ocean swallowing a stone. It surged through me, vast and golden and unbearable. My feet left the ground. My body rose without my willing it.

Light burst from my skin. And when I opened my eyes, the world had shifted. Everything was cast in gold. Every heartbeat was glowing. Every shadow trembled.

I could see the corruption threading through the earth beneath the vampires’ feet like veins of rot.

I did not waste time. This body had limits, even if the power did not. With a sharp motion of my hand, I summoned wind.

It roared outward in a spiraling vortex, sweeping through friend and foe alike—but only my will dictated its touch. In a single breath, I drafted the ancients, the beasts, the witches, and Adam and his brothers into a suspended cage of magic high above the ground.

It shimmered like spun sunlight—a dome layered in protective sigils.

They would not be harmed by what came next.

I turned to the horizon. The sun was setting. But it had not yet disappeared...

I stretched my hands toward it. The abyss inside me answered. This time, I did not call ordinary fire. I called the sun itself.

Brilliant beams lanced from the fading orb, answering my command as though I had always owned them. They formed a blazing ring around the entire region, sealing it in radiance far brighter and purer than the ward Adam and his brothers maintained.

Then I drew more. And more.

I harnessed the setting sun’s strength, threading it through my body without allowing it to burn me. I felt my skin glow hotter than any flame, yet it did not consume me. The goddess steadied the flow. I... felt her. Felt her pride. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

I unleashed it. Sunlight flooded the region in a blinding torrent. Waves of vampires disintegrated instantly.

Their shrieks pierced the air, animalistic, desperate. They tried to flee, scrambling toward creeks and crumbling houses and underground dens.

It did not matter.

With my golden sight, I saw everything.

Every crack in the earth. Every hidden tunnel. Every hollow beneath stone.

I directed beams into each one.

Sunlight speared into crevices like divine arrows. The water in the creeks boiled. Shadows vanished. Vampires erupted into ash wherever they crouched.

Their screams became a chorus. And it was terrible. And righteous. The sound was like music.

I felt the goddess smiling—not with cruelty, but with fierce satisfaction. This was cleansing. This was balance restored.

Dago finally moved.

He darted from the ruins, cloak snapping behind him as he attempted to sprint toward a deeper cavern I had not yet scorched.

Too slow.

I focused on him. A single concentrated ray struck his chest.

He froze mid-step. For a fraction of a second, our gazes met.

No words. No hate-filled speeches. I had not wanted them. Light engulfed him. He crumbled into ash before he could even scream.

Still I did not stop. Not until I felt nothing left. Not until the earth beneath us no longer pulsed with corruption.

Not until every last vampire—every whisper of their existence—was gone.

The region fell silent.

Ash drifted through the air like gray snow. The sun dipped fully below the horizon, as the power began to ebb.

Slowly, carefully, I lowered myself back to the ground. My feet touched soil that was no longer tainted.

I released the protective cage. The ancients and beasts and witches descended gently, stunned and blinking against the fading brilliance.

The triplets collapsed to their knees the instant their burden lifted, breathing hard.

I tried to take a step toward him, Adam...

The world tilted.

The gold drained from my vision, replaced by dizzy darkness at the edges.

My body remembered. It remembered exhaustion. It remembered mortality. My knees buckled.

But strong arms caught me before I hit the ground.

Adam.

He had moved faster than I thought possible in his drained state. He cradled me against his chest, his heart pounding violently beneath my ear.

"Sage," he breathed, panic lacing his voice.

I tried to smile.

"It’s over," I whispered.

My limbs felt like stone. My head lolled against him as dizziness swamped me. The abyss receded, closing like a door behind me.

El’s presence was... faint?

Before I could think further, my eyes drifted shut, my body surrendering to the exhaustion at last.

It was over.