Chapter 170: The Unfolding Truth L

Third Person POV

The iron chain became an absolute blur of motion through the air, and the blazing blue fire formed a perfect, blinding circle of light around her body.

She threw the weapon forward with all her might.

But Lysander ducked out of the way just in time. The sharp blade missed his temple by a hair’s breadth, embedding itself deeply into the wall behind him.

He quickly turned his head to look at where it landed...

Helen violently yanked the chain back.

The metal blade came flying out of the stone. But then the heavy iron chain wrapped itself tightly around Lysander’s left arm.

He let out a loud snarl of anger, using his immense strength to tear the metal links off his skin, but the blade was already flying right back into Helen’s waiting palm.

They clashed furiously in the center of the ruined hall. It was pure magic against magic, steel blades against sharp claws.

He threw massive blasts of dark energy straight at her face; she effortlessly deflected each wave using ancient words he couldn’t even begin to understand.

She struck out at his chest with her blades; he dodged the attacks and countered with his fists.

The entire grand hall shook violently from the impact of their fighting. Heavy stones tumbled down from the high ceiling, and the remaining torches flickered out, plunging the room into darkness.

Lysander quickly realized that he could not win this fight in his human form.

He began to shift. His entire physical body swelled up to twice its normal size.

Thick, pitch-black fur erupted wildly from his skin, tearing through his clothes.

His bones cracked and reformed at a terrifying speed, his face elongating into a massive, snarling wolf snout.

And right in the center of his forehead, embedded deeply into his black fur, was an object that looked exactly like a crown, crafted from dark iron, fused permanently to his skull.

He was absolutely enormous. He was vastly larger than any wolf Helen had ever seen in her entire life.

His eyes glowed a fierce, blood-red color, and his fangs were as long as daggers.

He was a pure monster. Just then he charged straight at her.

But Helen didn’t have enough time to dodge the massive weight.

His heavy shoulder slammed hard into her chest.

The impact sent her flying backward through the air, crashing clean through the stone pack house wall, through mortar and rock, and out into the open courtyard.

Her back hit the hard dirt outside.

The massive black wolf landed right on top of her body.

He raised a massive paw into the air, his long claws ready to tear her face off.

She rolled desperately to the side.

The heavy claws dug deep into the earth, right where her head had been a second before.

She scrambled quickly back up onto her feet, breathing heavily.

Then the massive black wolf turned his bulk around to face her.

They stood staring at each other in the ruins of the shattered wall, the night sky open above their heads, while the sounds of people screaming and dying echoed all around the pack grounds.

They fought out in the dirt.

Wolf against fox.

Ancient power against ancient power. She struck out with her chain; he ducked beneath the swing.

He lunged forward to bite her throat; she rolled underneath his belly. He clawed at her shoulders; she spun away just in time.

But the king was far too fast. His massive black paw caught her squarely in the center of her chest.

The heavy blow sent her flying backward through the dirt.

She hit the ground hard, her weapon slipping from her fingers, and she could not get back up.

Her body completely refused to obey her commands. Her arms wouldn’t lift, and her legs felt entirely paralyzed.

Lysander shifted back into his human form, his clothes torn as he stood over her body.

He was breathing heavily, his grey eyes looking down at her with a cold, triumphant expression.

"Go ahead and look around you, Luna," Lysander said, gesturing broadly toward the burning courtyard.

"Take a good look at your precious pack."

Helen painfully turned her head to the side, looking through the smoke.

They were dying. Every single one of them was being slaughtered.

The soldiers of the Alpha King were moving through the pack grounds like a deadly plague, cutting down anyone who crossed their path without a hint of mercy.

Women were falling in the dirt. Children were running in terror. The old and the weak were being struck down.

She saw mothers desperately trying to shield their babies with their bodies, and fathers fighting to the death to protect their families.

Absolutely everyone was dying tonight.

"Do you honestly think you are going to survive this night?" Lysander asked, his voice cold as ice.

"I know your kind is incredibly powerful, Helen. But you are definitely not the most powerful creatures in existence."

He crouched down slowly in the dirt right beside her ear.

"I am the Alpha King," Lysander whispered, his breath hot against her skin.

"The very first Alpha to ever live this long. Do you want to know the real reason why? Because I am the one who personally created black magic."

"I am the very first to master it, and I will be the absolute last. And I am going to get every single thing I need to achieve true immortality tonight. Starting with your power. Then, I will find your daughter."

Helen looked straight up at his face. Her physical body was completely broken. Her beloved husband was lying dead inside the hall. Her entire pack was burning to ash around her. And her daughter was somewhere out there in the dark, floating down a wild river inside a small basket.

But her eyes did not look defeated at all.

"I told you before," Helen said, her voice quiet but steady.

"Never overstep the patience of a nine-tailed fox."

She placed her open palm flat against the dirt.

The entire earth began to shake violently. The ground trembled beneath their feet. Heavy stones rattled against each other, and the remaining walls of the grand pack house let out a deep, groaning sound as they fractured.

The fighting soldiers stumbled about in the mud, losing their footing, and massive wolves fell over onto their sides.

The Alpha King’s men stopped their attacks, looking around themselves in pure confusion and sudden fear, realizing for the first time that something was horribly wrong.

Helen’s eyes began to glow with a brilliant, blinding ocean-blue light. It was as deep as the sea.

She whispered a single word into the wind.

Instantly, the invading soldiers stopped fighting entirely.

Their bodies turned around in a rigid, still motion. Their arms rose through the air against their will, their hands tightly gripping their swords.

And then, they began to viciously kill each other. They weren’t doing it because they wanted to. They had absolutely no choice.

Their limbs were moving entirely under her control. Their sharp blades found the throats of their own brothers-in-arms, driving the metal deep.

Their eyes were wide open with absolute horror as they watched their own hands commit the slaughter, but they couldn’t stop the movements.

Lysander watched in absolute shock as his own grand army began to destroy itself in the mud.

His flat grey eyes darted rapidly from soldier to soldier, watching man after man fall dead.

He slowly turned his head back to look at Helen. For the very first time since he had arrived at the castle, there was an expression on his wrinkled face that wasn’t confidence.

It was pure confusion, uncertainty. It was the very first seed of genuine fear taking root in his mind.

"What... what exact kind of creature are you?" Lysander muttered, his voice dropping low.

Helen slowly rose to her feet, standing tall in the ruins. Her physical body was still broken and bleeding, but she stood anyway, ignoring the immense pain racking her frame.

"Enough talking," Helen said, her voice ice-cold.

She raised both of her arms high into the night sky.

"It is finally time to end you," Helen shouted, her voice echoing across the courtyard.

She let out a piercing scream. The sound wasn’t human at all.

It was the devastating scream of something ancient, something that had been buried deep beneath the earth for centuries, something that had finally been awakened by pure grief.

The dark sky above immediately answered her call.

Heavy thunder rolled loudly across the black clouds, and a massive bolt of bright lightning split the darkness in two.

The lightning bolt struck Lysander directly in the chest.

He fell heavily to the ground, his body crashing into the mud.

Thick black smoke rose from the burn marks on his torso.

He desperately tried to stand back up on his feet, but his legs completely refused to hold his weight.

"Do you honestly think I am going to let you leave this place alive?" Helen asked, walking slowly toward his fallen form as the wind whipped her white hair around her face.

"You killed everyone I ever loved in this world."

She stopped her boots directly in front of his face, looking down at him.

"And if I am not meant to survive tonight..." Helen said quietly, "I am so taking you straight to hell with me."

She raised her right hand into the air and the kusarigama flew straight out of the dirt, landing perfectly in her palm.

With a flick of her wrist, the heavy iron chain wrapped itself tightly around Lysander’s torso, binding his arms to his sides.

The king let out an agonizing scream as the brilliant blue fire instantly began to burn through his skin, cooking his flesh.

He thrashed his body wildly in the mud, but he could not break free from the hold.

Helen lifted her face to look up at the dark sky. Her eyes were a solid, burning blue color.

Her hair was stark white, and her dark dress was entirely soaked through with her husband’s blood.

She began to speak.

They were words that had absolutely no translation in the modern tongue. They were words that hadn’t been spoken since her earliest ancestors walked the earth.

It was the true language of the nine-tailed fox. The language of the extinct.

A sudden, roaring sound echoed from the far distance.

It was low at first, but it grew rapidly louder by the second. It was a massive roar, a violent rush of moving water.

A flood. Pure destruction and death.

Lysander painfully turned his head to the side, looking toward the tree line.

A massive wall of dark water was rushing straight toward the pack grounds, tearing down trees and consuming everything in its path.

It was a catastrophic flood meant to wash the entire land clean.

Helen reached down, grabbed a handful of Lysander’s gray hair, and violently forced his head up so he had to look at the approaching wave.

"Do you see that?" Helen asked, bending her body down until her lips were right beside his ear, her voice remarkably soft.

The wall of water was incredibly close now, the cold spray hitting her pale face.

"That is exactly where you and I are parting ways," Helen whispered.

She violently twisted his head with all her might.

His neck broke with a loud, sickening snap.

She didn’t do it slowly, and she didn’t do it gently. It was one single, powerful motion.

His head was now facing completely backward, while his body remained facing forward in the mud.

His flat grey eyes were still wide open, still staring blankly at her face.

He was still technically alive, just barely.

He was entirely trapped inside his own broken frame, paralyzed, unable to move a single muscle.

The iron chain held him tight against the ground. It was a chain that his dark magic simply couldn’t break.

It was a weapon forged from the very blood of her ancestors. The ultimate weapon of a nine-tailed fox.

It was the only thing in existence capable of holding an Alpha King down.

Helen looked down at his face one last time.

"I am going to personally make sure there are absolutely no remains left of you," Helen said quietly.

The massive wall of water hit them. The torrent swept violently through the ruins of the shattered pack house, washing away the bodies of the dead.

It tore through the surviving soldiers who were still locked in their forced slaughter.

It completely extinguished the bright orange flames that had been consuming absolutely everything Helen had ever loved in her life.

The dark water swept clean over her head.

And as the freezing water completely covered her face, as the absolute darkness closed in around her vision, as her lungs filled with water and her consciousness began to fade away into nothingness, she whispered one final thing into the deep.

"Goodbye, Azura."

The endless water covered absolutely everything. And then, there was nothing left but silence.