Chapter 25 – Seal . Of . The . Void .

"I'll end you right here."

Velhara's voice was ice.

Her black eyes inches from Mortivar's.

Her breath did not fog.

It did not move.

Mortivar ripped his broken arm back.

Bone ground against bone.

He spat black blood in her face.

"Try it . Emptiness."

Velhara licked the blood off her cheek.

Slow.

"Disgusting."

She punched.

CRACK.

His jaw shattered.

Teeth flew across the dead ground.

He staggered.

"You killed my vessel."

Velhara grabbed his throat.

Lifted him off the ground with one hand.

"How rude . God of Death."

Mortivar clawed at her fingers.

His legs kicked.

Black aura poured from his wounds.

"You are in a child's body."

"You should be rotting in that seal."

Velhara smiled.

"And you should be rotting in your grave."

She slammed him down.

BOOM.

The earth shattered.

A crater formed beneath him.

Velhara mounted him.

Fist after fist.

CRACK.

CRUNCH.

CRACK.

His ribs caved in.

His nose flattened.

Black blood painted her arms to the elbows.

The souls watched.

Silent.

Mortivar bucked.

He threw her off with a burst of death aura.

Rolled.

Stood.

Swaying.

Blood poured from his mouth.

"Is that all?"

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

Grinned with broken teeth.

"I've killed Gods stronger than you."

Velhara stood.

She tilted her head.

"Then why are you shaking."

She pointed at his hands.

They were trembling.

Small tremors.

Uncontrollable.

"Gods don't shake. Mortivar."

"Weak."

Mortivar roared.

The sound tore across the Eternal Grave.

Death aura erupted from him in waves.

The black sky darkened further.

"Army of the Grave!"

The ground split open.

Graves erupted.

Thousands of dead crawled out.

Bones.

Rusted armor.

Empty sockets.

Weapons in hand.

They charged.

A tide of corpses.

Velhara didn't move.

She raised one finger.

Black blood rose from every corpse on the field.

It condensed in the air above her.

Formed into spears.

Ten thousand of them.

"Begone."

She dropped her hand.

SNIK.

SNIK.

SNIK.

The spears fell like rain.

The army was erased in ten seconds.

Nothing left but dust and bone shards.

Mortivar was panting.

His chest heaved.

"Monster."

Velhara laughed.

"Coming from you."

She walked toward him.

Each step cracked the ground.

"Let's see your True Form."

"Or are you too scared to show it."

Mortivar screamed.

His skin peeled off in strips.

Underneath was void.

Black.

Starless.

Empty.

His body grew.

Twice as tall.

Three times as wide.

His weapon shifted.

Became a scythe made of bones and screaming souls.

"This is death itself."

His voice echoed from everywhere.

He swung.

The world split.

Velhara met it with a blade of her own blood.

BOOM.

The shockwave cracked the domain for miles.

Mountains of skulls collapsed.

Rivers of blood evaporated.

They clashed.

Again.

And again.

Blade to blade.

Fist to fist.

Bone to bone.

Mortivar cut her across the chest.

Deep.

To the bone.

She didn't flinch.

The wound sealed with black mist instantly.

She answered by driving both fists into his ribs.

Bones cracked.

He staggered.

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He slashed her leg.

She laughed and caught the blood mid-air.

Made three more weapons.

Threw them.

One pierced his shoulder.

Another his thigh.

The third he cut down.

"Too slow."

Velhara said.

"Too weak."

Velhara snapped her fingers.

Her shadow split.

Then split again.

Five clones stepped out.

Then ten.

Then twenty.

All with black eyes.

All smiling.

All dripping with void.

They attacked from every direction.

Spheres.

Spears.

Whips of solidified blood.

Mortivar spun.

Cutting them down.

But for every one he killed two more formed.

One clone slashed his arm to the bone.

Another drove a spear through his thigh.

He roared and released a wave of death aura.

The clones exploded into mist.

Velhara stood in the center.

Watching.

Clapping slowly.

One.

Two.

Three.

"Good effort."

"For a corpse."

Mortivar charged her.

Desperate now.

He grabbed her by the shoulders.

Slammed her into the ground.

Again.

And again.

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

Crater after crater.

Velhara coughed blood.

Then she smiled.

Blood on her teeth.

"There it is."

She headbutted him.

Bone to bone.

BOOM.

Mortivar staggered back.

Dazed.

Blood running down his face.

Velhara stood.

She was bleeding from a dozen places.

They closed instantly.

Black mist stitching her together.

She raised both hands.

All the blood in the air stopped.

Every drop.

Every mist.

Every wound.

Then it moved.

Toward her.

Orbs formed.

One.

Ten.

A hundred.

A thousand.

Black iron spheres.

Spinning.

Humming.

Each one filled with compressed void.

Mortivar took a step back.

His one eye widened.

"Fear you?"

Velhara shook her head.

She looked almost sad.

"Pity you."

"Void Arsenal."

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

The orbs fired.

They did not fly in lines.

They swarmed.

The first wave hit his chest.

Ribs shattered.

The second wave hit his legs.

Bones turned to dust.

The third wave hit his arms.

They exploded.

The fourth wave hit his head.

His skull cracked open.

Mortivar was launched into the air.

Spinning.

Torn apart by the next wave.

Stitched together by the one after.

Torn apart again.

He crashed into the center of a new crater.

A mile wide.

Deep.

Smoke rising.

He was in pieces.

Limbs missing.

Torso broken.

One eye gone.

Still breathing.

Velhara walked to the edge.

She looked down at him.

Her hands in her pockets.

Like she was bored.

"Look at you."

"God of Death."

"Crawling like an insect."

Mortivar laughed.

Wet.

Broken.

Blood bubbling in his throat.

"I am a God."

"Gods like me are immortal."

"You cannot kill what the world made."

Velhara crouched at the edge.

She grinned.

"That would be nice."

She raised her hand.

Black blood gathered above her palm.

It compressed.

It hardened.

It became a sphere.

Bigger than a house.

Darker than the void between stars.

Runes carved themselves across its surface.

Chains wrapped around it.

It pulsed like a heart.

"Blackblood Seal . Gravebreaker."

She threw it.

It fell.

It hit Mortivar.

Light consumed everything.

White.

Then black.

Then nothing.

Sound died.

The Eternal Grave held its breath.

When the light faded the sphere remained.

Floating above the crater.

Pulsing.

Chains binding it.

Mortivar's screams echoed from inside.

Muffled.

Distant.

Velhara walked to it.

She reached out.

Touched it with two fingers.

The sphere shrank.

Down.

Down.

To the size of a marble.

Black.

Heavy.

Cold.

She held it up to her eye.

She could see him inside.

Raging.

Beating against the walls.

Powerless.

"Sleep now . God of Death."

She opened her mouth.

And swallowed it.

Power flooded her.

A tidal wave.

Her aura exploded outward.

The ground cracked for miles in every direction.

The sky tore open.

Her hair lifted.

Pure black.

Shining like oil.

Then one strand at the very tip turned red.

Crimson.

Like blood.

Then another.

Then ten.

Then a hundred.

Piece by piece the black bled away.

From the ends up.

Down her back.

Down her shoulders.

Until half her hair was red.

Mina's color.

Her body shook.

Violently.

The vessel was rejecting her.

She had borrowed it too long.

Velhara looked at her hands.

They were trembling.

"Time's up."

She said it with annoyance.

Like someone had interrupted her.

She walked to the dirt.

To where Mina's things had fallen.

There was a small red witch hat.

Torn.

Stained.

Bloody.

Velhara picked it up.

She brushed the dirt off it.

Carefully.

Then she placed it on her head.

It was too big.

It slid down over her eyes.

She pushed it up with one finger.

"Thank you . Mina."

Her voice was softer now.

"For letting me feel alive again."

The last of the black left her eyes.

Red filled them.

Human red.

Tired red.

Mina's red.

Her knees buckled.

She fell to her side.

Mina lay there.

Unconscious.

Breathing.

Chest rising and falling.

Hair fully crimson now.

Wearing the red hat.

Above her the Eternal Grave collapsed.

The black sky shattered like glass.

White light poured through the cracks.

The ground turned to dust and blew away.

The mountains of bone crumbled.

The rivers of blood dried up.

Outside .

In Eryndor .

The massive black sphere in the sky cracked.

A line of white ran down its surface.

Then another.

Then a hundred.

Nyxhen stepped forward.

Noctesgrave in his hand.

His knuckles white.

The sphere burst.

Silently.

Light flooded the city.

Clean light.

Warm light.

When it faded the sphere was gone.

The sky was clear.

Blue.

For the first time in days.

Iris fell to her knees.

Hands over her mouth.

Yuuiki exhaled.

Yumiko looked up.

Her wings trembled.

Nemi's threads snapped taut.

Then went still.

Her eyes widened.

"...She's alive."

In the ruins .

Mina's fingers twitched.

The red hat slipped down over her face.

She made a small sound.

A breath.

Far below .

Inside the marble inside her .

Mortivar opened his one remaining eye.

In the darkness of the seal.

And he smiled.