Chapter 21- She’s the Protector

The book slipped from Damien's hands all of a sudden, hitting the floor with a heavy thud that echoed like a funeral drum. Elora's hissing words taunt his memory: "You're too late. The Betrayer has already played its role.". But the book didn't mean Diana was the betrayer anymore, which means someone is the betrayer, Damien kept on pondering, then all of a sudden he could feel a dark presence in the room, as if someone just arrived unexpectedly, "what do you want this time around?", Damien asked like he knew the person behind him, the shadow walked closer to him standing behind him, it said into his ears, "Damien Oscar you don't know what you are dealing with anymore, the betrayer is someone you won't expect and trust me it will forever haunt you", Elora's voice were cold like ice in his ears, even though Elora is no more the betrayer in this story, then his mind flashed back to when Brian said something to him, 'what if I'm the betrayer', but his instincts still trusted Brian so much.

A knock shattered the silence. The door creaked open, and as he turned around, Elora was not in the room. The door opened slowly, not to reveal the lost Brian, but Elizabeth. Her ocean-blue eyes were hollow, her smile was like a razor's edge. In her palm, the rusted pendant she'd given him, the Key of Witches, dripped with fresh blood. He wondered how she got the pendant back.

Behind her, the hallway lights flickered. Shadows pooled at her feet, twisting into shapes too sharp to be human. They looked tall and huge like soldiers ready for battle, and Damien finally understood: Elizabeth wasn't the vessel for Principal K's evil deeds. She was the key to everything,

He stared at her walking towards him, like she wanted to kill him instantly, but she came to give him her final warning, she was indeed the protector, she was possessed by her ancestor, the guardian of the demon prison, he looked into her eyes and noticed the fire blazing in her eyes while moving back slowly, "the betrayer will surely bleed at the red moonlight", Elizabeth said with a smile, "and what about that", Damien said staring at her, "the book warned you all this while, a lot of the visions and dream you had warned you, but you didn't see the true betrayer all this while", she furiously said, "and who is that?", Damien asked, suddenly the pendant in Elizabeth's hand pulsed with an eerie glow, casting weird shadows across the room. Damien's breath caught in his throat as the blood dripped onto the floor, sizzling like acid.

"You," he whispered. Elizabeth's smile widened, but it wasn't her usual warmth; it was something ancient, something different and scary. He hadn't seen anything like this before. "Did you think Principal K groomed me to be a vessel for her evil work?" Her voice echoed, layered with whispers that weren't hers. "I was never the host. I am the lock." Brian's disappearance, the vanishing Sagittarius girls, and Diana's taunts in your visions it all snapped into place. The book's rules weren't just warnings; they were a countdown.

Rule 1: The heir must hold the book, or die with it.

Rule 2: The betrayer must bleed.

And now, Elizabeth stood before him, her blood staining the Key of Witches. "Why?" Damien demanded, stepping back.

"Because the demon needs a body," she said, advancing. "But not just any body, it is grooming in yours and the last day will be hell", she added, walking slowly towards Damien. The prophecy was never about stopping the chaos. It was about choosing the true heir or manipulating your mind, the book has a mind of its own that you are not aware of. And you, Damien Oscar, were born to be the door.", she said. The walls trembled. The book at Damien's feet burst open, pages fanning wildly until they settled on a new passage:

Rule 3: The heir must surrender, or the world burns.

A roar split the air, not from the hallway, but inside Damien's mind, he could hear the loud voice of the demon trying to set free. The demon, stirring at last. Elizabeth lunged and aimed the pendant at his chest. Damien dodged, but the pendant grazed his arm. Fire seared through his veins; different flashbacks ran into his head all of a sudden.

The coffin was cracking open beneath Eri-doria's foundation.

Cassandra screaming as some shadows strangled her on that chaos day

His father, Ethan, whispered to the shadows, the day he released the demon "Take her instead."

He opened his eyes sharply as he laid flat on the floor, it became real in his head that all this visons and dreams where not his powers, they were all the demon's manipulations and past life', while Elizabeth was pinning him down, he tried to free himself, but she was surprisingly too strong. "You see it now, don't you?", she hissed. "Your father didn't just release that demon, he also bargained with it your life for the demon power., and gave his wife away", Elizabeth added, "and for the record I'm not the betrayer, the betrayer still waits for you at the battle ground", she added with a smirk, "then what are you?", Damien said still laying on the floor, "well, to burst the bubble, I was the protector all along", she added.

With a fast move, Damien twisted free. The book flew into his hands, its pages glowing crimson. Meanwhile, the sky began to darken and the sun lowered slowly as the big moon started rising the sky darkened, the clouds began to gather and cluster, all the students of Eri-doria began to run Helter skelter, the moon rose gradually, pure white like other days, then suddenly a faint hint of reddish orange began to appear on the moon then the turned and looked at Elizabeth. "it's a red moon, are you prepared?", she asked.