Hey guys, I just published my new romance book called "Cheating is Not That Bad", if you like the story please support it as much as you can. It would mean a lot to me. Also, I will be posting my new fantasy story the day I finish Fortunate Queen. I hope you like my other books as much as this one.
Thank you.
*****
Maligno was preparing to attack again but Chris's past self just shrugged off the pain and slashed her arms in an upward motion creating a shield. Maligno's spell bounced off the shield and he looked surprised.
"You really thought it would be an easy fight, didn't you?" Past Chris let a maniac laugh and launched her attacks more aggressively at Maligno.
Maligno barely managed to deflect all the attacks and a small cut appeared on his face. He glared at Chris and counter-attacked.
"Let me give you some advice, little girl," Maligno shot spells left and right of Chris, trying to get an opening but past Chris despite her injured arm, blocked all of them. "The harder the fight the more interesting and satisfying the win."
"Oh, I already know that. I know I would be pretty satisfied after I win," past Chris chuckled and ran around Maligno in a circle with continuous onslaught. She didn't even stop for a split second, she kept shooting curses. There was nothing but bloodlust in her eyes.
Maligno didn't want to show, but he was surprised and a bit scared by Chris's attack. He could only defend himself against the attacks; he couldn't counter-attack.
Chris took advantage of Maligno's fear and tried to deliver the final blow but Maligno recovered and blasted Chris off pretty far.
"That is your delusion talking. Looks like, finally you have completely lost your sanity," Maligno chuckled but there was an edge to his laugh. He didn't let his guard down. "It was bound to happen, sooner or later with how much power you were given. You were never capable or worthy of those powers anyway."
Maligno was slowly walking toward where Chris had fallen, but he stopped when he noticed her already standing up and preparing to attack. Chris's head was bleeding, her clothes were soaked in her blood but she barely paid any attention to it.
Maligno didn't wait, he attacked her again but Chris blocked it and pulled her hands back and then pushed them forward in the air with all her force.
A Dragon made out of pure purple flames burst out of the air and rushed at Maligno. Chris had created a massive Fiendfyre. A fire that could obliterate anything its way.
Maligno was shocked but even if he wasn't it couldn't have made much difference as there was no shield or spell to black or deflect a curse like Fiendfyre. So, he tried jumping out of the way but the dragon was massive. Thus, despite his best try, Maligno got caught in the fire. His arms and face along with his half torso got covered in blisters and third-degree burns. He would have burned to a crisp if he hadn't jumped out of the way. Yet, his burns mixed with the gaping hole on his chest which wasn't fully healed and was still bleeding, Maligno couldn't get up immediately.
"I was always insane, Maligno," Chris walked over to Maligno and towered over his weak lying body. "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here. I would never have agreed to do this."
"You stupid ignorant brat!" Maligno yelled trying to sit up but stopped short when he fully saw Chris.
Chris's past self was standing over Maligno with a crazy murderous look in her eyes while her Fiendfyre Dragon floated behind her, making it look like the purple wings of the dragon were her wings.
Even present Chris knew her past self looked formidable. And so did Maligno.
But he tried to look as if he wasn't scared.
"You are not going live either, do you know that? The people you are doing all this for knew your little fragile body could never take so much power. Yet, they gave it to you, just to make you stronger," Maligno coughed up more blood and spat it out. "They are just as selfish as I am. Just like I used my followers for my life force, they used you to complete their incomplete tasks. Doesn't matter the cost."
Chris leaned forward at Maligno to look at his face through her bloodied eye. Her head was still bleeding covering almost her entire face in blood.
"Do you know why you are going to lose today, Maligno?" Chris looked at him dead in the eye. Blue to yellow animal-like eyes. "Because you wanted to win no matter the cost but I only wanted to kill you, no matter the cost."
Past Chris plunged her hand into Malgino's chest with a wicked smile and Maligno screamed. He tried to back away, fight back. But nothing worked. He screamed and withered until Chris completely pulled out the red crystal from his body and the light finally left Maligno's eyes.
Past Chris stood there for a few more seconds, holding the crimson crystal, staring at Maligno's soul slowly falling on the ground, while the crystal dripped blood on her clothes. It was so surreal that even she couldn't believe it. It was done. It was the end. She had done it.
And then past Chris fell on her knees and lost consciousness.
"A few moments after that, you woke up in that dark room of yours," Salazar Slytherin said getting present Chris back to reality.
Chris was panting heavily and had to shield her eyes after coming from almost complete darkness to the brightness of that valley they were in.
"Chris, are you ok?" Fergus was instantly on her side and bending over to see if she was ok.
"I . . . I will be," Chris breathed out with difficulty. Even though Chris exactly didn't remember doing all of that, the experience felt like she was living through it. It was as if she went into that memory, fought Maligno, defeated him and came back.
"I told you, Salazar, it could be too much for her," Rowena Ravenclaw said with concern.
"No, no," Chris straightened up. "I'm ok . . . it's ok. What happened . . . to Maligno's soul? It looked like . . . a dead body. Do souls . . . die like that?"
"Souls never die, Christina," Salazar Slytherin said gesturing at himself and the the other founders. "We are the living proof of that."
Salazar Slytherin chuckled at his own joke and so did Godric Gryffindor. Rowena Ravenclaw rolled her eyes and Helga Hufflepuff shook her head.
"To answer your question, Christina," Godric Gryffindor turned to Chris. "Yes, Salazar is right about the fact that souls don't die, if it's your body that had died. But when you fought Maligno, specifically your soul fought Maligno's soul. You defeated his soul. You killed his soul and since for hundreds of years, he had altered his soul with the Crystal and other people's life energy through murder, his soul is lost and could never move on. It will forever broken and battered lost in between the living world and the afterlife. . . That was why Fergus took the risk of taking your souls into the spirit world if I am not wrong."
Godric Gryffindor added the last part looking at Fergus as if he didn't want to overstep or presume anything but Fergus slightly smiled and nodded.
"That's what I hoped would happen. When my powers were lurking around to find a vessel, I realized it wasn't just the body but the soul itself that needed to be prepared to carry the power."
"So you realized you needed to destroy Maligno's soul for him to be truly dead, or else the crystal embedded in his soul would help him, or he would find a way to escape," Madam Rowena said looking impressed. "Well done, Fergus. Very clever."
"Yes, truly," Madam Helga smiled. "But I am not surprised. He was always an extraordinary kid."
But the praise didn't make Fergus feel better. He hung his head down.
"This was the least I could do after the problems I had caused," Fergus whispered.
"Even if you think you are responsible for this, I would say you have done more than enough to fix your mistakes," Rowena Ravenclaw said glancing at Chris.
"Yes, I agree," Salazar Slytherin also looked rather impressed. "Your powers were an enigma to us, no matter how hard we tried to research, there were no children like you, and thus, we never completely knew what you were capable of. It was a surprise and monumental feat what you did dividing your powers and looking for a vessel to store and use that power. Truly incredible plan."
Getting praised by Salazar Slytherin was no small thing, even Chris knew that but when she looked over at Fergus, she saw him looking down with guilt in his eyes.
"It was a half-baked plan, Sir," There was a crack in Fergus's voice. "My powers . . . killed so many children while it was trying to look for a vessel and . . . I was so desperate when I released that part of my powers that I completely lost control over it, so even after killing so many people, I just kept looking for vessels, new children, new victims. . . it just kept going and I couldn't stop it."
Ferus's confession was followed by silence, even though Chris already knew about this since Fergus told her and she also guessed that even the founders already knew all of it, yet none of them looked uncomfortable by it until now.
The first time, Fergus told Chris this, he was very indifferent about it but now Chris could see the true weight of his actions on him. The way it was suffocating him, breaking him, and making him hate himself some more. And Chris realized why, Fergus didn't really care what Chris thought of him at that moment but he cared what the founders thought of him. He always cared about his father and the other founders perceived him as.
"But that was the only way, Fergus," Salazar Slytherin said with a small sigh. "If your powers hadn't kept looking at vessels. We never would have found Christina Norton. And Maligno couldn't have been defeated."
How Salazar Slytherin said those words like the sacrifices were sad but necessary, reminded Chris of Dumbledore's words. As if no matter how many innocent lives were lost if it gave them a solution like Harry or her, to defeat the greater evil, it was all worth it. And she realized not a few moments ago she had said those same words. The realization struck at that second how it was never a fight between good and evil but it was always a fight between evil and greater evil.
[To be continued]