Free Web NovelChapter 48: Chapter 48: Princess of Ruin
Aiyolistra POV
The glittering gates of the Western kingdom’s loomed before me, but they offered no sense of warmth. Not that I cared. As I stepped onto the courtyard, a dozen royal guards immediately spotted me, they rushed forward.
I didn’t even bother to unsheathe a blade. A mocking smile touched my lips as I raised my right hand, catching the light breeze. With a soft, delicate breath, I blew a cloud of shimmering black dust straight from my palm toward the advancing line.
The moment the dark particles met the air, they expanded into a suffocating shroud. The guards gasped, the magic instantly drained the consciousness from their bodies, laying them all out flat and unconscious across the ground.
Stepping over their limp forms, I walked up the grand steps, casually raising my hand to push open the massive palace doors. But before my fingers could even graze the polished wood, the door swung open from the inside.
There stood my brother, his posture rigid and his expression carved from pure ice.
"You’re not welcome here anymore, Ali," his voice echoing coldly.
I let out a soft, melodious laugh, tilting my head as I smoothed down the front of my gown.
"A little harsh, don’t you think? After all, I am still the First Princess of this Kingdom."
"You gave up that title the moment you decided to make us your enemy and declare war," he countered.
A dangerous, bitter fire in my chest, my composure slipping for a fraction of a second I would lie if I said that his words didn’t hurt.
"And yet, you all still willingly sided with the whore who stole her own sister’s fiancé. And forged documents."
My brother stared at me, a deep, unsettling pity in his eyes that made me want to rip his throat out.
"I knew you had lost your mind, Aiyolistra, but seeing it in person is truly unsettling. Her marrying and fucking your previous fiancé is absolutely nothing compared to you declaring a blood war on your own bloodline."
"See, that’s just the problem with this pathetic family," I hissed, stepping closer.
"None of you see what Ry did wrong. You only ever focus on what I do. And let’s get this entirely clear she is the one who started this war."
My brother let out a heavy, exhausted sigh, turning his face away from me. "Leave, Ali. Just leave."
"Oh, I can’t do that just yet," a wicked, twisted grin spreading across my face. "I traveled all this way because I came bearing gifts from the East. I thought you all would want to see how our new allies express their gratitude."
I reached behind my cloak, pulling out a heavy, blood-soaked burlap sack, and carelessly threw it straight at his boots. It landed with a sickening, wet thud.
His eyes narrowed. Slowly, he bent down, unlacing the top of the bag to look inside. The color instantly drained from his face.
Resting in the mess was the disassembled body of his most trusted man-servant the very messenger he had secretly sent to the East with a peace treaty. The servant’s severed head stared back up at him, eyes wide open in a permanent state of sheer terror, with the word
*SOUTH*.
Craved across his forehead in dripping, coagulated blood. My brother closed his eyes tight, his jaw clenching so hard the bone strained. He placed a hand over the bag and whispered softly in Varack:
"Kurasi irini, veyor mico." ("Rest in peace, old friend.")
The moment the words left his mouth, his eyes snapped open, blazing with a terrifying, vengeful light. He slammed his palms flat against the marble floor.
The ground beneath us began to violently shake and fracture, a massive, fissure of energy ripping through the stone, rolling directly toward me like a tidal wave of shattered earth.
I didn’t flinch. I launched myself into the air in a flawless, airborne flip backward. The rushing destruction passed harmlessly beneath me, cracking the air where I had just been standing, as I landed lightly on my feet several yards back.
I slowly straightened my posture, a wild, smile stretching across my face as my own eyes began to glow.
The crack in the marble courtyard yawned open between us, smoking with the raw, energy of my brother’ blast. I dusted off the sleeves of my heavy traveling cloak, the wild, smile never once leaving my face as I stared across the divide at him.
"You always were the sentimental one," I mocked, my voice carrying over the ringing silence of the courtyard. My eyes blazed a deeper, suffocating shade of amethyst light, the dark dust beneath my boots beginning to swirl and rise in a slow, unnatural orbit around my legs.
"But sentimentality doesn’t win thrones, brother. It just builds prettier graveyards."
He stood his ground, his hands trembling slightly not from fear, but from the sheer, suppressed rage.
"You won’t leave this kingdom alive, Aiyolistra."
"Oh, I’m not leaving," I whispered, taking a slow, deliberate step forward, letting my boots hover right on the edge of the fractured stone.
"I’m just getting started. Tell our precious little sister that her past is finally catching up to her. And tell her the East sends its regards."
With a sharp flick of my wrist, the swirling black dust around me erupted into a massive, blinding cyclone, completely obscuring me from view.
"Let’s see who truly wins this war, shall we?"
Riegthar POV
I stood on the shattered marble steps, my chest tight, an agonizing weight pressing down on my lungs. The blood stench of the East "gift" hung thick in the wind, but it was nothing compared to the sickening, hollow ache of looking at the monster my own sister had become.
I wasn’t just angry, I was grieving. The sister I grew up with, the one I used to protect, was entirely gone. In her place stood a stranger with eyes full of venom.
The sorrow in my chest quickly mutated into a swirling bitterness and hate. I didn’t issue a warning. I couldn’t. If I spoke, my voice would break.
With speed that broke the sound barrier in a deafening,
CRACK.
I closed the distance between us. To an ordinary observer, I would have simply vanished. To her, I was a streak of heartbroken intent.
I was in her space instantly, my telekinetically reinforced fist aiming straight for her jaw. I didn’t want to hurt her, God, I didn’t but she had left me absolutely no choice.
Ali whipped her head back with grace, the wind of my punch whistling past her skin and shattering the stone pillar behind her into raw powder. Before I could pull back, she drove her palm upward, imbued with strength that rattled my teeth, aiming directly for my throat. I caught her wrist just in time. The brutal impact generated a shockwave that blew the remaining black dust off the courtyard floor and the leaves off the trees.
She smirked up at me, a unhinged glint in her eyes that made my blood run cold. My grip crushed her bones, trying desperately to pin her, to force her to stop this madness.
"Esie vlisi kcho, Ali," ("You can’t run, Ali,") I my voice deep, trembling with a mixture of rage and profound despair.
"Ota zote kcho!" ("I never run!") she snarled back.
With a sudden yank of her trapped arm, she pulled me deeper into her space and drove her knee hard into my ribs. The sound of bone echoed through the quiet courtyard. Pain exploded through my side, but with our fast healing, the internal damage mended itself in milliseconds. My eyes flaring as a massive wave of telekinetic force erupted from my chest, throwing her backward away from me.
She flipped cleanly through the air, her boots skidding across the dusted stones. Before she could even find her footing, the sheer desperation to end this fight drove me to slam both of my palms flat against the ground.
"Aiga, rehen!" ("Earth, raise!")
The courtyard violently buckled and groaned. Solid bedrock tore out of the earth like the teeth of a giant beast, racing toward her to trap her.
"Grow!" she screamed, thrusting her hands forward.
From the narrow cracks of the breaking earth, colossal, thick green vines exploded forth. They wrapped around my stone pillars with terrifying speed, the sheer, unnatural force of her nature magic snapping my bedrock teeth into splinters.
"Decay," she whispered, a wicked, sickening smile stretching across her face.
The vibrant green vines instantly withered, turning a dead, rotting black. The living fibers curdled and mutated, twisting themselves into monstrous, thorn-plants covered in pulsing, poison-tipped maws. The monster plants roared a horrific, unnatural sound and lunged toward me, their decayed tendrils snapping out to tear me apart.
A sharp pang of betrayal sliced through my heart. She really wants to kill me.
I didn’t back down. With a brutal, fluid flick of my wrists, I let my telekinesis rip dozens of massive stone tiles from the palace walls, launching them like supersonic blades through the air. They sliced cleanly through her monster plants, black fluid spraying across the ground.
In the middle of the falling debris, I appeared again, moving so fast the shattered stone seemed to freeze in mid-air around us.
I caught her with a brutal left hook to the cheek, the sheer physical power sending a splurt of blood from her lip. My heart twisted at the impact, but I couldn’t stop. She spun with the blow, using the momentum to drive her heel straight into my temple.
The sharp crack of our skulls colliding sounded like a thunderclap. We bounced off each other, our supernatural speed turning the courtyard into a blur of overlapping afterimages. Punch for punch, kick for kick, we tore through the space, leaving craters in the stone wherever our feet touched.
I managed to catch her by the throat, lifting her small frame completely off the ground as my telekinesis locked her limbs in place. I stared at her, my vision blurring with furious, unbidden tears.
"Esie rolse!" ("You are mad!") I roared into her face, my voice cracking with the agonizing weight of our broken family.
She laughed a breathless laugh, her eyes uncaring. "Ota imi la morva, Riegthar! Lasc’s aiyouio la rovon!" ("I am the villain, Riegthar! Let’s burn the throne!")
Before I could slam her down to end it. The monster vines beneath us erupted upward with a sickening crunch, piercing straight through both of my shoulders pulling me straight downward. I roared in raw agony. She dropped to her feet, then drive a palm strike directly into my chest, shattering my breastbone and throwing me yards away.
I crashed heavily into the palace doors, coughing up dark, metallic blood. But within seconds, the vines withered away from my flesh, my chest knitting back together as I forced myself right back up. I was ready to bring the entire palace down on both of us if it meant saving our kingdom from her. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
We locked eyes, both of us panting, bleeding, and radiating an immense, terrifying pressure. We raised our hands, preparing to unleash enough energy to level the entire courtyard
"MARSI!" ("STOP!")
A deafening, primal roar shook the very foundations of the kingdom, vibrating deep within my bones. The sky darkened instantly as a massive, shadow fell over the courtyard.
We both froze, our magic instantly sputtering out into nothingness.
Standing at the broken palace doors was our mother. Her eyes weren’t human anymore; they were slitted, glowing gold, and a terrifying heat radiated from her skin. The draconic scales along her jawline shivered as she glared down at her broken children.
"Marsi! Marsi, esie avo esie!" (Stop, Stop both of you!") she roared in Varack, her voice carrying the terrifying weight of a dragon’s command that forced my knees to tremble. Her gaze snapped and locked directly onto my sister, sharp and absolute.
"Aiyolistra! Kie esie icht fchi Taios Vanapio Ris Lovon Veim Va Ano, esie volema voi."
("Aiyolistra! If you do not wish to draw your last breath here by my hand, you will leave.")
The sheer pressure of her presence made it completely impossible to breathe. The fight was over, and the crushing reality of what we had just done settled heavily into my gut.
Ali wiped the blood from her chin with the back of her hand, casting one final, venomous look at me. A lingering smirk touched her lips, completely unaffected by the grief tearing me apart.
"Until next time, brother," she whispered.
With a sharp step backward, she let her body dissolve into a cloud of swirling, decaying black dust. Before my telekinesis or the earth could reach out to grab her, the wind caught the shadow, and she disappeared completely into the night.
I fell to my knees on the shattered marble, staring at the empty space where my sister used to be, my heart breaking all over again in the silence.
"Vrio, esie voi ku la North. Ry anki kove. Nser krepei hedio nser sima inisi tika. Rore volema skoto nser." ("Tomorrow, go to the North. Ry needs to know. We must plan our next move carefully. A mistake will kill us.")
Mother said walking away unbothered that her picture perfectly family is gone.
