388: TARTARUS

TARTARUS

Apparently there were witches among them as they cast their curses, and vampires that were very eager to reach Raine, invited by the scent of her blood.1

It was hard for Raine to keep her focus because their enemies were everywhere and she was in the middle of it.

Raine watched as Serefina tried to repel every one of the spells and curses from the dark witches.

Among the snarls, ears- piercing sounds of bones being broken and explosion of balls of fire, Aeon approached Raine.

He extended his arm again hastily. "Give me the bird now if you want Torak to be saved, any later than this I don't even know if we could survive this attack."

Raine looked at the worst nightmare she had ever had around her and the blood.

Blood.

It was everywhere.

The Lycanthropes were outnumbered by the Devil's legion, witches and the vampires.

Raine's heart was breaking upon seeing their desperate situation, Raphael and Calleb's beasts were fighting not too far from her, trying to fend off the other party from getting closer to Raine.

There was no one to be asked for an opinion, whether Raine should trust Aeon or not. After all, Aeon and Torak wasn't on good terms to begin with.

The retaliation that those beasts posed to the devils wasn't as effective as they thought.

Their enemies had become so strong.

Fear and confusion clearly reflected in Raine's eyes when she looked back at Aeon's outstretched hand.

This decision should be made by her, right now.

With her shaking hand, Raine pulled out the weak bird from her pocket jacket and placed it on Aeon's opened palm.

"I hope you will not betray me with this." Raine asked earnestly.

"What a beautiful thing that you have in your arms… I would never have thought that he would leave his soul behind like this." Lucifer suddenly appeared only three meters away from Raine and Aeon.

Out of instinct, Aeon pushed Raine behind his back and glared at the devil, whose lips formed into a sickening grin.

A few beasts who noticed that the devil had managed to get closer to Raine, tried their harder to attack Lucifer, yet somehow they couldn't enter the magic protection that Lucifer had casted around the three of them.

Not even Serefina's magic could penetrate it.

Around them, the bloody battle continued to rage. It was a living hell. But, Raine had not seen the hell yet. 

"Knowing the consequences, why do you still choose to side with them?" Lucifer asked Aeon, but didn't really seem to be eager to know the answer for that.

"You know my priority since the very beginning." Aeon glowered at Lucifer as he held the bird in his right hand and Raine in his left hand, keeping them both safe from the predator before their eyes.

Or, he hoped he could protect them.

"Very touching." Lucifer nodded and crossed his arms in front of his chest as he stared sharply at the bird. "But, you know…"

This time, Aeon didn't let Lucifer finish his words before he did something upon their worsening situation.

He extended his hands toward the sky and in an instant the sky turned even gloomier than before. The stars and the moon were covered by something darker… a shadow?

Not only that, even the lights around them were consumed into the darkness of the shadow that Aeon created.

Nobody knew until where the extent of Aeon's shadow reached, but from this point of view, it was safe to say that the whole fulbright city was covered by his shadow, even the light from the lamps couldn't manage to penetrate it.

Raine clutched onto Aeon's clothes very tightly as she felt coldness and darkness engulf her body, the last thing that she could see was the expression on Lucifer's gloomy face, he was looking at Aeon in anger.

When her vision failed her, Raine's instincts sharpened as the smell of rotten flesh filled the air around her and assaulted her nostrils.

Shrilled screams could be heard from afar when the thick shadow that covered them finally evaporated.

Raine was shocked as her knees turned very weak before she dropped to the ground. The only thing that existed in her world was the sight of Torak's head being put on top of a small table right before her eyes.

His eyes closed, but there wasn't a single drop of blood around his head.

"NOOOO!" Tears were pouring from Raine's eyes. She was lost in despair. She had lost all the senses around her, as all she could feel right now was only a big hollow in her heart.

So big that it consumed her agony.

Raine felt the urge to release the heavy burden in her heart, and the fire that was burning her entire body.

When she lowered her head to avoid the gruesome scene that was displayed before her eyes, she felt the firebird reappear on her palms with its majestic plumage, which was akin to bonfire, grew brightly upon her touch.

Now the fire of the bird also spread to her, burning Raine really. The fire was so bright it could illuminate the underworld for centuries, brightening even the darkest parts of the hell.

Weird enough the fire didn't hurt her, but it didn't mean it could save Raine from the sorrow that she felt either.

Raine had lost herself in that process and everything would burn, not even the devil's could escape.

Raine's body was starting to morph into a molten ball of fire as she rose into the air.

Even Aeon's pleas couldn't be heard, his words were only a silent scream that couldn't reach Raine.

The guardian angel roared angrily as a huge blaze destroyed everything around her. The wrath exuding from Raine's being could fill the abyss of the Tartarus.

Even Lucifer felt his confident smile finally falter. The devil felt the extreme heat that radiated from the guardian angel's body and the firebird.

The fire around Raine expanded and she didn't even care when she had hurt Aeon as well in the process.

The only thing that Raine cared was the fact that Torak was dead.

Someone had beheaded him!

pqdm.com