The Blood of Darkness

Chapter 71

This book is finally almost done! Next week's update will be the epilogue, which will be, in my opinion, a very exciting end. There will also be an update with information about where I'll go with publishing & book two. Thank you for reading <3

Val

Monsters.

Like the Occisor and the Latora but different, less human-like and more feral. Absent of something essential, something necessary, something to differentiate between person and animal, despite the vicious progression of each.

They are creatures with gaping mouths, silver or black claws, and thousands of sharp teeth. And they, these monsters, they know me.

They reach for me, hissing my name, and even as I run I can feel their deadly claws catching on my clothes. Their eyes are on me, their gazes so intent that it is as if they are peeling away the flesh on my back.

"Come home. Come home. Come home."

I run through fields of blood, crimson and alabaster and ebony. It rains from the sky, a distortion of colors. This world is a world ravaged by war.

"You have the power," the voices tell me, closing in. "You can destroy your world or remake it."

I slip in the blood and slam into the ground, except that it is no longer the ground but an ocean. It's an ocean of blood and I am swimming in it, trying to stay above the waves, and then suddenly it is no longer blood but water—salty, dark water, and I cannot stay afloat.

Above me is the sky, a stormy sky pale with dawn—of course it's dawn—and then there are the cliffs, too close, rising above the tumultuous waters that threaten to pull me down. At the top of the highest peak, there is a person. The figure is at the edge and they stare down at me, as if waiting.

And then there is a shadow. It is behind the figure and it is silver and familiar. But then that shadow turns into a person, a girl, and she is suddenly screaming and falling, down down down, towards me. The figure at the top of the cliff stays steady, watching.

Before I can see the girl hit the water, a wave seizes me, and I am flying towards the base of the bluffs, powerless to save myself. The jagged rocks loom closer and closer, destruction inevitable, ruination imminent—

And then my vision shifts. My vision shifts and I see snow and I see light and I see fire and I see Kye.

I see Kye but he looks different somehow. Changed. He holds a sword charged with flames and he is screaming. His face is wet and he fights ferally with his opponent, his opponent who is Manar.

Yes. I see Kye and Manar and they are fighting.

They are fighting and it is the kind of fight that the heavens watch because it has that air of magnitude, that air of finality and that feeling of finally.

I find myself aching for that same feeling. Aching for I missed you I missed you I missed you and I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry and I love you I love you I love you.

Another shift, but the same kingdom. Dawn, smoke in the air, shouts and cries all around, a castle, wet grass. Light and searing pain and more finality, more inevitability. Then nothingness, nothingness, falling into an abyss, not understanding, not feeling, then becoming—

The world warps once again and this time the sky is falling and it is raining blood and people are screaming. The monsters are back. They are back and they are victorious and they are ready to take and take and take, take everything until there is nothing left, nothing at all.