Chapter 22: Fay's Sentence

Vlad's fist began its descent, the dark energy hissing through the air, aimed straight for Gabriel's skull.

"NO!"

The shout came from Lilith, who moved like a striking snake, no longer hesitant but with genuine alarm. Intense violet flames erupted from her hands, not as an attack on Gabriel, but forming a crackling, translucent barrier between Vlad's fist and Gabriel's head. "Have you gone mad, Vlad?! Are you trying to kill him?!"

Simultaneously, Lysandra, whose previously calculating eyes now held a rare spark of shock at Vlad's murderous intent, reacted. Her staff flared intensely with blue-green light. "Containment Shield!" A dome of solid, shimmering energy rapidly formed around Vlad's fist, colliding with Lilith's fire barrier in a shower of multicolored sparks and arcane static. The combined force of the two defensive spells halted the killing blow inches from its target.

Even Ulric took a step back, the savage gleam in his eyes diminishing, replaced by shock and sudden apprehension. "Hey, Vlad... man..." the werewolf muttered, his voice hoarse and uncertain. "We were gonna teach him a lesson, not... not kill him. I'm not a murderer, man. This... this went too far."

Vlad, his fist trapped between succubus fire and elven shield, looked from Lilith to Lysandra, then to Ulric, his expression of murderous fury twisting into disbelief and betrayal.

"You... you cowards!" he snarled, his voice trembling with contained rage. "You'd defend this... this nothing?! Against me?! An Incorpus?!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Vladvaldo," Lysandra replied, her voice cold but firm, maintaining the shield with effort. "This isn't about defending him. It's about preventing you from making an irreparable mistake that would harm us all. The Academy's laws are clear about murder. The consequences would be... severe."

"And like I said," Lilith added, the flames in her hands still crackling protectively, "he's no use to me dead. Besides, killing a helpless, already broken opponent? Where's the honor in that, noble vampire?" The sarcasm in her voice was palpable.

Vlad stood there, paralyzed by the unexpected opposition from his three accomplices, the dark energy in his fist still pulsing but now contained. Fury warred with the humiliation of being stopped, with the realization that even those who shared his contempt for Gabriel drew a line he was about to cross alone.

In this tense stalemate, in this exposed fracture between the aggressors, the Mark on Gabriel's hand, perhaps sensing the intensity of the conflicting magics around it or the precarious relief of not having died, reacted with full force.

A sudden, incandescent heat surged in his good hand. Fay's Mark exploded with blinding green light, so intense it bathed the dark corridor in a spectral emerald glow for a microsecond, forcing everyone, including Gabriel, to shut their eyes.

"QUANTUM MANA OVERLOAD DETECTED! EMERGENCY PROTOCOL INITIATED!"

The impersonal system voice echoed again, deep and resonant. A wave of pure energy, green and crackling like binary code materializing, exploded outward from Gabriel. This time, the wave felt stronger, more directed by the desperate need of Fay's fragment to protect its host now that the threat was escalating again with Vlad's frustrated fury.

Lilith's fire barrier and Lysandra's containment shield shattered instantly under the raw energy. Vlad, Ulric, Lilith, and Lysandra were thrown back even more violently than before, like rag dolls struck by an invisible force, slamming against the walls and collapsing onto the floor in a tangle of limbs and pained groans.

They scrambled up quickly, now genuinely frightened and perhaps nursing minor injuries from the energy blast. The Mark on Gabriel's hand pulsed with a residual green light, the chaotic energy slowly dissipating.

"What the hell was that?!" Ulric yelled, fear clear in his voice.

"The Anomaly..." Lysandra whispered, eyes wide, staff held firmly, but her curiosity now tinged with reluctant respect and fear. "It reacted... to the murderous intent? To external magic?"

Lilith stared at Gabriel, then at the Mark, a storm of calculations flashing through her violet eyes. Vlad, livid with rage and now also fear of this unknown power, knew the situation had spiraled completely out of control.

"Let's go! NOW!" he shouted, the order laced with poorly disguised panic.

With one last look – a mixture of hatred, fear, and confusion – the four attackers vanished back into the shadows, this time offering no further threats, only the urgency to escape that corridor and that inexplicably dangerous human.

Alone again. Broken. Bleeding. The corridor seemed to spin around Gabriel. The pain was a constant roar in his ears. Darkness beckoned more strongly than ever.

It was then that Fay's voice emerged, clear and urgent inside his head, the Mark pulsing in sync. Her small, trembling hologram materialized before his half-lidded eyes.

"—Idiot! Useless! They almost killed you! If it weren't for those two idiots with a shred of conscience... and me, of course!" Her voice lacked its usual mocking tone; it was pure urgency and perhaps the echo of the effort the fragment had exerted to release that energy. "You think this is bad? They hesitated! Next time, maybe they won't!"

The Mark flickered.

"—Listen! I have to tell you... I need to tell you, before they realize the truth about us!"

"—This Mark... it's not just a brand. When I brought you here... by accident... something went terribly wrong. I planned to fix the mistake with this mark but, a fragment... a tiny piece of my own consciousness... got stuck in you. Fused to the Mark. Part of me is... here. With you."

The shock of the revelation hit Gabriel even through the haze of pain.

"—This... this wasn't supposed to happen! If the Goddess herself, meaning me... or others... discover the extent of my mistake... what you really are..." Genuine fear colored the digital goddess's voice.

"—Because of this... this connection... I... I've kinda... gotten attached to you, you annoying and unexpectedly resilient vermin." The admission was still reluctant, but stronger this time.

"—And that's why I'm helping you... beyond my programming. This 'instance' here,"— the mark-hologram gestured to itself — "is acting on its own, and I need to ensure my self-preservation."

"—But this connection... it has a deadline! Two years! Understand? Two years until you turn 18! After that, the fragment dissipates, the protection vanishes! And you..."— her voice trembled visibly —"...you won't survive, Gabriel! You could be destroyed, killed! Faytheria is a hostile world."

"—And no, there's no going back to Earth. Never was. I lied about that too."

"—You need to get strong! You need to evolve! Now! Fight! Use the anomaly you've become! It's your only chance! I..."— the hologram nearly fizzled out —"...we... need you to survive!"

The avalanche of information was overwhelming. Two years. No return. A rebellious goddess fragment. Die or evolve. He tried to absorb it, to react, but his body and mind had reached their limit. Darkness finally won.

The last thing he registered was Fay's Mark flashing desperately before disappearing, and the final sentence echoing in his mind: Two years... or die...