Chapter 87: The Original's Last Gambit

The blinding light from Aurelia's palm washed over the battlefield, bleaching the ruins into stark monochrome. The Original's scream tore through the air, a sound of pure fury rather than pain, as ribbons of gold and shadow peeled away from her stolen form. Kael sagged against Lucian, his breathing shallow and uneven. Though the shard's corruption had been burned away, its damage remained etched into his body. Blood trickled from the corner of his slack mouth as he watched Aurelia step forward, each footfall leaving glowing imprints in the scorched earth.

"You were right," Aurelia said, her voice resonating with something ancient and powerful. "I was a mistake." The words carried weight beyond their simple meaning, vibrating through the air like a struck bell.

The Original staggered backward, her form flickering between monstrous shadow and the stolen likeness of Aurelia's face. "Then you know what comes next," she spat, her voice cracking with barely contained rage. "If I die, you die. We are bound."

Aurelia didn't pause. The light surrounding her intensified, forming a radiant corona that made Lucian shield his eyes. "No," she corrected softly. "We were bound. But Kael changed that." The certainty in her voice sent a chill down Lucian's spine.

Lucian's grip tightened around Kael's limp form. "What the hell did you do?" he demanded, scanning the younger man's ashen face for answers. Kael's eyelids fluttered weakly, his breath coming in wet, ragged gasps.

"Gave her... a choice," Kael managed before his body convulsed slightly in Lucian's arms. The words triggered a flood of understanding - in the void, the Crown had shown Kael the truth. The shard wasn't merely a weapon, but a seed of the Original's essence, meant to tether her to this world. When Lucian had driven it into Aurelia during the First War, it had performed an unexpected alchemy - it hadn't just split her from the Original, it had transformed her into something new. Something the Original could never reclaim.

The Original's form convulsed violently, her edges dissolving into swirling smoke. "You think this is victory?" she snarled, her voice breaking apart like rotten wood. "I am eternal!" With a sudden lunge, she moved not toward Aurelia or Lucian, but toward the vulnerable Kael.

Aurelia intercepted her in a flash of light, catching the Original's wrist mere inches from Kael's chest. The contact sent arcs of energy crackling between them. "You don't get to take him," Aurelia hissed through clenched teeth.

The Original's grin turned feral, her remaining features distorting grotesquely. "Then take it back," she whispered. And with those words, she released everything - every stolen fragment of power, every drop of Aurelia's essence she'd consumed - in a devastating flood directly into Aurelia.

The impact sent Aurelia's body arching backward, a scream tearing from her throat as the sheer volume of power threatened to unravel her very being. The ground beneath them shattered, fissures radiating outward like a spider's web. Lucian threw himself over Kael as debris rained down around them, shouting Aurelia's name into the maelstrom.

The Original's laughter echoed even as her body dissolved into nothingness. "Let's see you survive that, little fragment," her voice taunted from the dissipating shadows. Then she was gone, leaving only the blinding light of Aurelia's overloaded form.

When the light finally faded, the battlefield lay in eerie silence. Lucian coughed, pushing himself up from where he'd shielded Kael. The younger man lay unconscious but breathing, his chest rising and falling in shallow rhythm. Where Aurelia had stood, only a single, pulsing seed remained, glowing with golden light against the scorched earth.

As Lucian reached for it, the ground trembled beneath his fingers. A whisper, soft but undeniable, curled through the air like smoke: "I'm not done yet." The words carried a promise - and a warning - as the seed pulsed once, twice, then fell still in the devastated silence.