Chapter 227: The Truth At Last

(Meanwhile, Mary’s POV)

Mary watched everything unfold with a growing sense of horror, as each death made her gut wrench harder than the last.

She watched Riven slaughter the Aureate students who had pleaded for their lives before turning upon his own followers and mercilessly murdering them as well, until those glowing eyes finally shifted towards the boulder where she was hiding.

Mary felt the blood inside her body freeze.

He had seen her.

For several seconds, Mary remained completely motionless as Riven stared directly towards her from across the blood-soaked grounds, that wretched smile slowly spreading across his face while Sky-Cleaver remained dripping with the blood of his own companions.

’Run.’

Mary thought, as every instinct inside her screamed the same command.

"Huff....."

She exhaled one deep breath before redirecting the Aether flowing towards her mind, immediately deactivating [Aether Pulse] and forcing everything she could spare towards her legs.

Then she ran.

WHOOSH!

Mary exploded from behind the boulder and broke into a desperate sprint towards House Argent, pushing her body as hard as she possibly could while the Northwatch Grounds disappeared rapidly beneath her feet.

’I just hope he lets me go.’

Mary prayed, as rain struck painfully against her face while she sprinted through the storm without daring to glance behind her.

KABOOOM!

Thunder shook the sky.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three.

Mary continued running at her absolute limit, her boots repeatedly striking the waterlogged earth as she desperately tried to place as much distance between herself and Riven as possible.

And for a while, it seemed like it worked, as nothing seemed to be chasing her.

’Did he.... Did he let me go?’

Mary wondered, as she heard nothing behind her besides the sound of her own footsteps pounding against the rain-soaked ground.

However, although a faint hope flickered within her heart, she did not dare slow down or look behind her, just in case the monster was indeed chasing her.

’Just keep running.’

Mary thought, as her lungs began burning from the strain.

KABOOOOOM!

Lightning flashed across the heavens once again.

For a fraction of a second, the entire Northwatch Grounds turned white beneath its brilliance, illuminating the rain-soaked path ahead and revealing, much to Mary’s horror, the monster already standing there.

SKID! THUD!

Mary stopped so abruptly that her boots slid through the mud, her eyes widening as she recognized Riven standing directly ahead of her.

Or rather, whatever was currently wearing Riven’s body.

His soaked clothes clung against him as Sky-Cleaver rested casually within one hand, while those unnatural bluish-purple eyes stared towards Mary with the same crazed glow she had seen from behind the boulder.

Mary’s mouth slowly fell open.

She had never seen him approach.

Moments earlier, Riven had been far behind her among the corpses near the Northern Forest, while Mary had been sprinting in the opposite direction with every ounce of speed her body possessed.

Yet somehow, he had passed her without making a single sound, and now stood ahead as calmly as though he had been waiting there the entire time.

’How...?’

Mary wondered, as terror crawled through her stomach.

She knew Riven was fast when he used [Lightning Step].

She understood that Storm Aether could enhance movement tremendously when used by someone skilled enough to control it.

And still, this was something she couldn’t comprehend.

’I don’t like the way he’s looking at me....’

She thought, as she took a cautious step backwards..... then another, while Riven remained completely still.

’Please don’t follow me this time....’

She prayed, before turning again and sprinting in the opposite direction, as she abandoned every thought of reaching Argent and instead just tried to put as much distance as she could between herself and whatever thing was occupying Riven’s body.

SPLASH! SPLASH! SWOOSH!

Her foot struck the wet ground once.

Then again.

On the third step, the earth disappeared beneath her.

"Wha...."

Mary struggled to force the sound through her mouth as her body suddenly rose into the air.

Her feet kicked helplessly beneath her.

Riven had appeared beside her now, his hand wrapped around her jaw, while he lifted her effortlessly from the ground.

Mary immediately grabbed his wrist with both hands, although whatever strength remained inside her seemed almost worthless against him.

KABOOOOOM!

Lightning tore across the heavens.

For an instant, the brilliant flash illuminated Riven’s face beneath her while Mary hung helplessly within his grasp.

Those bluish-purple eyes looked directly into hers.

Mary tried desperately to gather Aether into her arms, yet something about being physically held by him made her strength disappear faster than she could summon it.

"You...."

Riven muttered, as his head tilted slightly.

Mary’s heart hammered against her chest.

"You love this boy."

Her struggling stopped.

Riven studied her expression with visible fascination.

"How interesting."

Mary tried to speak, although his grip around her jaw prevented anything meaningful from escaping.

"Even if I let you go now, you’re not going to report this boy, are you?" Riven asked, his voice carrying that same distant thunderous depth. "You’re not going to tell anyone what you saw here."

Tears gathered within Mary’s eyes.

She shook her head weakly.

She wouldn’t.

Whether it was fear or the part of her that still desperately wanted to protect Riven, Mary couldn’t even tell anymore.

Riven chuckled.

"Ha."

His fingers loosened slightly around her jaw.

"I suppose it would be a shame to kill you, then."

Mary’s eyes widened with desperate hope.

For the briefest moment, she believed she might actually survive.

"But love is an emotion bound to create weakness," Riven continued, as his expression became strangely contemplative. "If the boy truly wants to grow strong, he should build himself upon something more concrete."

Mary’s hope disappeared.

Riven looked at her as though an amusing thought had suddenly occurred to him.

"I wonder how he would react when he realizes that he killed the one he loves with his own blade.... Perhaps that will help the boy mature."

Mary stopped breathing.

’He loves me?’

Mary wondered, as her eyes widened despite the tears gathered within them.

Those words struck somewhere deeper than the fear consuming her, as for a moment she felt.... Strangely relieved.

"Oh? You had no idea the boy loves you? Well, that makes this all the more amusing...."

Riven muttered, as Mary finally realized that Riven Dawnriver and the Riven she remembered were for sure one and the same.

’So my instincts weren’t wrong.... You are my Riven.’

Mary thought, as tears finally escaped her eyes.

After all the doubt that had tormented her since entering the Academy, she finally had the answer she had wanted.

And despite everything surrounding her, despite the bodies scattered across the Northwatch Grounds and the creature currently holding her above the earth, something painfully close to happiness briefly pierced through her terror.

Riven remembered her somewhere inside himself.

Riven loved her.

Mary’s lips trembled as she tried to say his name.

Then the creature threw her towards the sky.

SWOOSH!

Mary shot upwards into the rain.

Her stomach lurched as the ground suddenly dropped away beneath her, while the stormy heavens rushed closer and her body twisted helplessly through the air.

For one suspended instant, Mary saw the blood-soaked Northwatch Grounds beneath her, with bodies scattered near the Northern Forest and Riven standing among them with Sky-Cleaver raised.

’Will he try to kill me?’

She wondered, as she instinctively pulled both arms across herself as Sky-Cleaver swept upwards towards her falling body.

’Riven please snap out of it....’

Mary prayed, as the ancient blade reached her.

SLASH!

Sky-Cleaver tore through her crossed arms before continuing through her throat.

Blood scattered into the falling rain.

Mary’s severed hands spun away through the darkness as the blade opened her neck, and whatever final words she might have spoken disappeared beneath the wet choking sound escaping her ruined throat.

Her body fell, and the last thing she saw before darkness swallowed her was Riven standing beneath the storm with Sky-Cleaver in his hand.

And after spending so long wondering whether Riven Dawnriver had ever truly been the boy she remembered, she died knowing that somewhere inside the monster who had killed her, her Riven had been there all along.