The Villains Must Win-Chapter 285: Vampire Hunt 85

Selis’s eyes darted to the pendant hanging against her chest—the one Salister had given her.

A last resort, a token of another bargain she’d made in secret.

She had promised herself she’d never use it. That she’d never betray Lucian like this. But now . . .

Another strike came, aimed for Emerald. Selis blocked it, barely. Her arms screamed in pain. I can’t hold him back much longer.

Her trembling hand reached for the pendant. Forgive me, Lucian . . . but the villains must win!

With a shattering crack, Selis tore the pendant from her neck and smashed it against the floor.

The world convulsed.

The chamber blurred as thick, suffocating smoke poured out in waves, swallowing the torchlight until only shadows remained. The air grew heavy, acrid, choking.

Emerald gasped softly, her chains rattling as the darkness pressed in.

Lucian froze, his blade still raised. His eyes widened—not in fear, but in recognition.

"Selis . . . what have you done?" His voice was low, dangerous.

Selis staggered back, the pendant’s shards glittering at her feet. Her chest heaved, her throat burned, and her heart felt like it was ripping in half.

"I called him . . . ," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I called Salister."

The smoke thickened, swirling like a storm, until a laugh echoed within it—low, rich, and cold enough to pierce the soul. The kind of laugh that promised ruin.

From the darkness, a figure began to take shape.

Lucian’s grip tightened on his sword, his crimson eyes blazing with fury and betrayal as he turned back to Selis. "You . . . you traitor."

His voice cracked like a whip, sharp enough to cut her deeper than any blade ever could.

Selis’s hands shook, her tears falling freely now. "I had no choice, Lucian! I couldn’t let you kill her—I couldn’t let you throw everything away!"

"You chose the vampires," Lucian spat, his blade trembling at his side. "You chose a demon’s word over mine. Over us."

Selis opened her mouth, but no words came. Her chest ached, her breath hitching as the shadows swallowed the space between them.

The truth was brutal. She had betrayed him. She had made her choice.

Even if she loved him . . . she loved winning more.

And Lucian, staring at her now as though she were a stranger, was realizing it too.

The darkness deepened, and Salister’s form began to emerge fully from the smoke.

The real war, Selis realized, was only beginning.

The moment Selis’s pendant shattered, the world convulsed in a thick, suffocating shroud of black smoke.

It curled along the stone walls of the sanctum like living shadows, drowning the holy torches in suffocating darkness.

Lucian coughed as the air grew heavier, his blade raised instinctively, eyes scanning the blur that consumed everything.

Then, through the haze, a figure materialized—tall, regal, and suffused with a presence that bent the very room around him.

Salister.

The ancient vampire lord’s crimson eyes burned like coals in the dark, and his lips curved in an expression both cruel and tender as they fixed on the chained figure at the center of the hall. Emerald Blood.

Lucian’s heart dropped into his stomach.

"No—!" he launched forward, blade gleaming as he cut through the smoke, determined to sever this reunion before it began.

But he was too late.

Salister didn’t so much touch the chains as he tore through them like paper. The reinforced shackles that had bound Emerald—the church’s most prized prisoner—were meant to suppress, not kill.

They glowed faintly with runic energy, ancient seals that robbed her of her strength. Yet in Salister’s hands, they crumbled like dust. The iron snapped with a deafening crack, the runes sputtering out as though the smoke itself devoured them.

Lucian’s blade clashed against Salister’s arm, sparks flying. But the vampire lord barely flinched, as though swatting away a mosquito.

Emerald collapsed forward, pale as fresh snow, her golden curls cascading in disarray, her blood-red eyes hazy yet burning with longing. She looked up at him, and when Salister gathered her into his arms, the chains scattered to the ground like forgotten relics.

The sanctum trembled as though mourning the mistake that had just been made.

Lucian’s chest tightened. He had seen wars, massacres, and betrayals—but never had he felt the kind of despair that gripped him now.

"Emerald," Salister whispered, his voice filled with an affection Lucian had only ever heard in Selis’s lies. "My love. My eternity."

The two shared a kiss, tender yet ravenous, blood tears shimmering at the edges of Emerald’s eyes as she clung to him.

In that moment, the sanctum wasn’t a battlefield. It was a tombstone—marking the death of humanity’s last chance.

"No . . . What have you done?!" Lucian’s roar tore through the hall, raw and furious. His blade trembled in his grip, not from fear, but from rage so consuming it burned away his thoughts.

He spun, desperate, searching for Selis. And there she was—leaning heavily against the wall, her face pale, her breath ragged. Her hand still clutched the remnants of the shattered pendant.

She met his gaze.

And smiled.

Not with joy. Not with malice. But with a kind of bittersweet triumph, the expression of someone who knew she had lost everything yet still clung to the shards of victory.

"I won, Lucian," she whispered, barely audible through the chaos that erupted. "I won . . ."

His eyes widened, realization crashing down like thunder.

She had betrayed him. Not because she hated him. Not because she had to. But because her goal—whatever that was—outweighed everything else. Even him.

The vampires moved as one. Salister pressed a tender kiss to Emerald’s forehead, and then they turned outward, crimson eyes blazing in unison.

The weight of their combined power filled the room, pressing against Lucian like a mountain. Emerald inhaled sharply, her first breath of true freedom in years, and with it came a surge of power so violent the torches shattered against the walls.

Chains rattled on the ground like bones in a grave.

The sanctum groaned as though the holy stone itself was cracking under their wrath.