Chapter 178: A nightmare

Seraphel

I ran as fast as my trembling legs could carry me, my bare feet slamming onto the jagged stones of the wasteland, cutting into my skin.

But no matter how fast I run, the landscape never changes. The obsidian spires stretched endlessly, and the freezing wind dragged at my limbs like iron chains.

"You cannot run from what was written before your birth!"

Suddenly the single pair of giant red eyes multiplied.

Two became four. Four became hundreds. Tens of thousands of glowing, blood-red eyes opened one by one across the dark horizon — in the sky, in the rocks, in the fog surrounding me. They surrounded me in a suffocating circle of crimson light, locking me in their glare.

"Leave us alone!" I screamed, my voice cracking with desperation. "Stay away from my child!"

A terrible, earth-shattering laugh erupted from the sky.

The earth beneath my feet split open.

Gaping chasms tore through the stone, swallowed by cascading rivers of liquid fire and black blood.

I lost my footing, slipping on the crumbling edge of a cliff, and tumbled backward into the void.

I screamed as I fell through the dark abyss, the wind roaring in my ears.

Then, the darkness cleared for a brief, horrific second, revealing a sight that made my soul freeze.

Down below in the burning crater of the world, a familiar figure lay motionless atop a mountain of shattered stone.

His Silver hair was matted with blood, his silver robes torn to shreds, and his majestic aura completely extinguished. His limbs were pinned down by giant black-iron stakes driven through his chest and shoulders.

"Azriel!" I shrieked, tears blinding my eyes as I fell toward him. "Azriel, no! Wake up! Please, wake up!"

His crimson eyes were open, but they were dull, glassy, and lifeless, staring blankly up at the bleeding sky.

The fiercely protective man who had just held me in his arms, who had promised to protect our family with his life, lay cold and broken beneath the ruins of the realm.

Above his fallen body stood a towering silhouette, a shadow so vast and dense it seemed to swallow the light around it.

The silhouette raised a colossal, jagged blade dripping dark crimson, positioning the tip over Azriel’s heart.

"No! Stop!" I pleaded, stretching my arm out as I run toward them, desperate to reach him, desperate to place myself between the blade and his chest. "Take me instead! Don’t touch him!"

The towering shadow turned its head toward me, its face featureless except for two blinding, red eyes that burned with godlike arrogance.

"Your love cannot save him, little human," the creature said, its voice crushing the air from my lungs. "Your child’s power belongs to the void. I will tear this world apart to take what is mine, and I will leave your Sin drowning in his own blood."

"Who are you?!" I sobbed, the sheer pressure of its presence threatening to crush my mind. "Tell me who you are!"

The shadow smiled — a wide, tearing slit of white-hot light that split its face in two.

"I am the end of all things," the voice thundered, vibrating through every bone in my body until I thought I would shatter. "I am Draca."

Then he lowered the blade and plunged it into Azriel’s chest.

A blinding flash of crimson and black light erupted from the strike, exploding outward in a wave of destruction that wiped away the mountains, the sky, and the wasteland in a single blast.

The fiery shockwave rushed toward me, swallowing my falling body whole —

"NO!"

I jerked upright in bed, a ragged scream tearing from my throat as my eyes flew open.

My heart hammered against my ribs beating so hard and fast I could hear it in my ears.

Sweat drenched my skin, sticking my hair to my forehead and neck as I gasped for air, my lungs heaving in frantic gulps.

"Seraphel!"

Before I could process where I was, two strong arms wrapped around my torso, pulling me back against a broad chest.

The scent of warm sandalwood and red lilies filled my senses, cutting through the lingering stench of rot and blood from my nightmare.

"Hey, hey... look at me. You’re safe. I’m right here," Azriel’s voice sounded beside my ear, rich, deep, and vividly alive.

I spun around in his arms, my hands flying up to grip his face, my fingers digging into his jaw and hair as if checking to make sure he was real, solid, and whole.

I searched his face in the dim light of the cavern, my eyes sweeping over his sharp features, his silver hair, and finally resting on his eyes.

They were bright, glowing crimson, filled with worry and affection .

They were alive.

"Azriel..." I sobbed, tremors running through my body as the tears I hadn’t realized I was holding spilled over my lashes, tracking hot lines down my flushed cheeks. "Azriel, you’re alive... you’re here..."

"Of course I am alive, my love," Azriel murmured, pulling my head down against the crook of his neck and wrapping his arms around me tightly, burying me in his warmth.

He rocked me slowly back and forth, his fingers trailing through my hair. "It was just a dream. Only a nightmare. I am right here. ’’

I buried my face into his neck, breathing in his scent deeply, trying to erase the image of his glassy, lifeless eyes buried under the rubble of a broken world.

The horror of the dream still clung to my skin like cold grease, refusing to let go.

"It felt so real, Azriel," I choked out between shuddering breaths, my hands twisting the fabric of his robes at his back, terrified that if I let go, he would vanish back into that dark abyss. "There was so much blood... the whole world was burning, and you were... you were gone. And those red eyes... they were everywhere..."

Azriel slowed his rocking, his grip on me tightening slightly as he listened to my words.

"I saw him, Azriel," I whispered, pulling back just enough to look into his eyes, my voice trembling with an ancient terror. "He spoke to me. He said he was coming for our child... he said he was going to wreck everything..."

"Who spoke to you, Seraphel?" Azriel asked quietly, his red eyes narrowing with dark focus.

I swallowed hard before whispering out the name.

"Draca."