"What took you so long to get here?" Victoria asks Helen.
"I was looking for this one." Her doubles nod to Brianna. "The real us will be here shortly."
The explosion going off in the mansion—she must be there. I look to Brianna, asking with my eyes if everyone should be safe. She understands what I'm trying to say and nods her head. She must've put everyone in the basement. It's the safest part of the mansion and is designed to withstand any attacks from the elements.
"We'll give you this moment to join us, darling," The light double says to me. The double's eyes squint as if to survey me. "There's something different about you as well."
Before I answer, Brianna coats herself in aura and rushes in. Both doubles manifest swords of their own and go on the offensive while Victoria takes a few steps back looking to just observe the fight. I go in to assist Brianna. The shadow double duplicates itself, creating five other shadows to surround us in a circle. I use my ability to set fire to them, they seem to disintegrate but ultimately form back together after a few moments. Brianna continues dashing around, slicing each shadow only for them to reform seconds later. The light double comes in from the corner of my eye and swings at me.
"I'm not trying to hurt you," the double says. "None of us are. But if you-"
I place my hand over its mouth and run fire through my palm. The light double bursts into millions of smaller light particles before forming back together. What the hell are they made out of?! The only thing that comes to mind is that they must be aura-infused. Suddenly the sound of screeching fireworks streak across the sky. I look up and see Amiyah riding on the back of her big eagle. She swoops down with a blade in her hand and plunges it into the head of the light double forming in front of me. Elijah comes running over shortly after.
"You're okay?!" I ask.
She nods her head. "A little healing treatment, still in pain, but I'll be fine."
The double grabs the blade that's been plunged into its head and removes it. I use my fire once more, this time infusing my yellow aura into it. The golden embers of the flames intensify as I send it at both the light and shadow doubles. Afterward, I fall to the ground struggling to breathe. My aura control is better, but I'm beginning to push myself too much. Amiyah whistles for her eagle to knock Brianna out of the way of the flames as she's still fighting the shadow double. My flames seem to be working, neither double is regenerating this time.
Our entire group sets eyes on Victoria now. She nervously laughs, yelling for Helen to finally show herself—and she does. Gliding in on what looks to be a gigantic falcon, she swoops down and lands on both feet right in front of us. Now I get to see it for myself. I tear up—finally setting eyes on the woman who gave birth to me. And everyone wasn't exaggerating about the resemblance. It was clear in the doubles, but now it's like staring at a mirror. My tears begin to fall—then I come to my senses, looking at all the destruction around us that she's both directly, and indirectly caused. I pick myself up from the ground and wipe my tears.
I tell Amiyah of Victoria's ability to neglect our elements and suggest she be the one to take her on while the rest of us handle Helen. My only option here is to try and use the reverse possession anyway, maybe the pact actually did work? Besides, I have no other option. I don't remember a thing from the sealing spell Benjamin was teaching me. I whisper this to Brianna as she walks over to the group. She ignores me—scoffs, and dashes at Helen. Seeing this, Amiyah goes after Victoria.
Helen uses a gravity spell to repel Brianna's advances. Then she manifests a shadow blade in one hand, and a light in the other. Elijah begins sending shots in her direction. She blocks each one by increasing the size of her blades. Brianna once again dashes in, Helen blocks it and the clash of their two blades sends a shockwave through the area so strong it pushes Elijah and me back a couple of inches. I look up to see Helen flinging Brianna into a nearby building. She faces that way as if she's going to finish her off. I charge in from behind, but before reaching her, she turns around and points her sword at me. My body tenses up and floats off the ground. I overcome it by using my natural aura energy—for the first time, coating myself in yellow aura. She looks surprised at this—so surprised that she doesn't see Brianna come in from behind and plunge her sword into her back.
Her mouth fills with blood but she otherwise doesn't seem to care, her eyes are still set on me—and then Amiyah as she walks over after incapacitating Victoria, who's tied up to a light pole. Helen smiles, removing the blade from her back and turning around to face Brianna. She swings but Brianna dashes away before getting hit. Elijah runs in next, Helen points to him and suddenly he's turned into a….child?! He pats himself down, utterly confused before running away to cover.
Seeing this, Amiyah, Brianna and I caution ourselves. The shadow and light blades Helen wield suddenly turn into complete doubles. The shadow goes after Amiyah, and the light goes after me. I instantly recognize what she's trying to do—create one on one fights so she can kill Brianna herself. I won't let her! I use my aura-infused fire again, knowing I can pass out at any moment. The light double runs at me, dodges the fire, and a blade forms in its hand. I pick up mine and swing for its head before it reaches me. My sword goes right through its neck as it kicks me to the ground. The double holds its sword in my face, telling me to stay put before turning around and running over to Amiyah.
I try to stand but my vision blurs and my hearing becomes clouded. I struggle to breathe as I fight through it. I have to try the spell—now. While Helen fights Brianna—with my last bit of aura left, I surround her in white flames. She looks over at me and smiles. Brianna seeing an opportunity, coats her self in a denser blue aura and readies herself for what looks to be another dash. I scream for her to stop, to wait, but she doesn't listen. At that moment, everything slows down and moves in slow motion. I proceed to perform the spell, with no idea if it'll work or not. I channel the aura belonging to her within in and Helen locks eyes with me as if she's sensing something. After a moment, purple aura surrounds my body and I can feel something similar to a rope connected between us. Although it's not visible, I can feel it, I can touch it, and I can pull it.
While I'm pulling, Brianna dashes. I scream for her to stop, to wait just one second. She continues her attack, taking the blade from her back and gripping it tightly. It's now, finally that I see what it is clearly—The Blade of Ares. Helen raises her palm at me and suddenly, I see purple aura escaping from her body and leading itself my way, riding the invisible rope that connects us until it reaches my body. A rush comes on, my energy levels heighten and Helen's body falls to its knees. Brianna reaches her and with one clean swing—she takes her head off. The body falls back into the flames that I've erupted.
Everything goes black for me after that as I fall to the ground. After a few moments, I open my eyes to see Elijah and Brianna standing over me. I feel strange until I take a look at my hands—and in the distance, the body and severed head, wondering if it actually worked. I stand and go assess the body—it seems lifeless. This isn't what I had wished but I can still make this work. I can't hear her in my head if she's there. Amiyah runs over after the shadow double disappears.
"Let's end this war," she says.
"You're not ending anything." Brianna walks over. "You'll die right here alongside her."
Elijah runs back over—still a child. Even his voice has de-aged. "This is not the time," he says.
Brianna pushes him aside and comes face to face with Amiyah. It isn't until Elijah shoots a beam of light between them that things calm down. He repeats him: "this is not the time."
I look around—the castle, the city. A lot of it has been destroyed. I join in with Elijah and after Amiyah and Brianna settle their differences, we go to help where we can. Most of the Valentine soldiers are still struggling to fight the army of multi-seals. There are so many dead bodies throughout the city streets. To our surprise, we come across the mangle bodied of Florence. She's missing a right arm and has deep scratches all over her face and body.
She laughs when she sees us. "You're not going to win, you can't stop any of them."
"Call them off," I say. "If you want to keep your life."
Brianna looks at me, confused at what I mean probably. I explain that Florence is right. No one will survive this and the Valentine army's dwindling numbers will continue to drop. Elijah brings Florence's brother up, he's still unconscious and will be taken into Valentine custody if she doesn't comply. Florence simply laughs at the sight of Elijah causing Brianna, once again going with her own course of action to raise her blade until I lower her arm.
"Do you hear yourselves?" She snatches it away from me. "Look around you, look at what they've done. She deserves to die."
"Do you want more destruction done to Athys? It's the only way. We'll take her into custody," says Elijah.
Finally understanding the situation, she walks off in the other direction. Elijah and Amiyah help Florence stand. And after a bit more convincing she shoots an arrow into the air that expands into an exploding cluster. All at once the Hazel soldiers stop and order the multi-seals to do the same. Her General shows up at our location from which the arrow came. Florence tells him to fall back, and return to Espin while she's taken into our custody. Assessing her injuries, and the situation, he agrees. The Hazel soldiers and multi-seals begin leaving and by morning, they're all gone.
The sun brings illumination to all the destruction caused by the battle. The city is nothing but rubble and dust, and remnants of all the elements. Potholes of water. Buildings, and cars on fire. Mud, sand, electricity buzzing, lava in some places, etc. The spies evacuated most of the citizens to the train station. It's where David….and Benjamin, were this entire time. The citizens are unable to return home so Brianna sends them to other districts for accommodation.
Afterward, she orders repairs for the city which the spies help with. For their help, Brianna vows not to go after them. As long as they keep their people in order. Later in the day, Elijah notifies me of a meeting with the Council. A separate meeting to the one we'll have about the fate of Florence and the remaining Hazel family. I walk to the council room where the Knight Squad—including David, and the remaining members of the council are seated. Elijah stands at the podium, back to his normal self, with Brianna by his side. After taking my seat, Brianna asks what's the meaning of this meeting.
Elijah begins: "this will be no easy discussion, But we can't ignore what transpired before the war."
Brianna, realizing what he means scoffs and laughs to herself. "This again, Elijah? So, what is this? A meeting to discuss what I did?" She turns to face everyone seated, and we all remain silent. "I did us a favor! And I won't sit here and explain myself any further, I am your queen!"
Thomas stands from his seat and walks over to her, he holds out his hand, waiting to take hers.
"Everyone already knows, Brianna," he says.
The rest of the Knight Squad stand and list off certain members of the Council who were also responsible. They're all escorted out of the room by Lauriel.
"Are you all out of your mind?!" Brianna shouts. "Listen to your queen!"
She visibly tries to activate her seal but looks down at her palm when nothing happens.
"We've placed dampeners all around, it's no use," says Elijah.
Thomas grabs her arm and she snatches away. They proceed to have a small fight with their fists. It's not until David comes over to help that they finally get a hold of her. As they hold her by her two arms, she kicks and flails all over, demanding to be let go. They eventually place cuffs on her and escort her out of the room.
"I apologize on behalf of The Council," one of the members stand to speak. "We knew of the situation but had no power to do anything about it, we were afraid we'd be killed."
Elijah assures them that they're okay and safe now. They then ask if he's taking the crown.
"Definitely not." He shakes his head. "But, she is." He nods to me. "The crown falls to Alyssa, and I'll be by her side throughout her tenure."
"To me?! I-I'm-"
"Alyssa Valentine, Queen of Athys." He smiles. "You'll do just fine. You'll be crowned tomorrow morning—and with that, this council meeting is over! This was pretty fun, right?!"
Everyone leaves the room, congratulating me with bows as they exit, even Rose—whom I still sense anger from. I walk up to one of the windows in the back room as the room is now empty. I slow down my breathing—truly taking in this moment. The warmth from the sun as it shines on my face, the butterflies in my stomach. I can't help but to—once again, bask in front of the bright yellow light the sun provides. I didn't expect it to turn out this way, but you surprised me. So much that I no longer wanted to go all out. I never expected you to corner me like that, nor learn any spells. Was it Benjamin who taught you?
Benjamin was my favorite. The only person I taught the full scale of my magic. Who'd you make a pact with, I wonder? Was it Lilith? It doesn't matter now. 'The Vessel' is now destroyed and you've helped me to kill two birds with one stone. You almost had me too, but I recognized what you were doing almost instantly. With Brianna closing in with that blade, I knew I had to act fast.
"Are you in there, Alyssa?" I knock on my head. "Look at you, you've done it—we've done it. This still counts as rebuilding, right? Now I can change things from the inside."
"Excuse me, Queen Alyssa….?" A voice comes from behind me, surprising me in the process. I turn around to see a member of the council. She asks me about Councilwoman Hughes. Who is that again? Oh, yes—I remember. She helped us escape, I'm forever grateful to her. The councilwoman asks where she is and if she'll be returning. She must be at The Coven, right, Alyssa? I can't tell this woman that though. Instead, I tell her she's somewhere safe and sound and I'm not sure if she'll return. The woman seems relieved, and a smile comes across her face.
"Would you like to take a look at the crown?"
"Of course, darling." I return a smile.