With great reluctance, Flare let go of Lita's arm.
"Okay. But make sure you don't go far. We will be leaving at once if something happens."
They rushed together through the mansion and across the hall where the magical fight took place. The closer they got, the more the air around them became icy, the sound of magic clashing being louder and louder with every step.
Upon their arrival, Lita let out a gasp. The hall was an ice, shadow, and energy war zone. Sylana and Madam Valliere were deep in the fight; they were both worn out but still unwilling to surrender. The walls were frosty, and the marble floor had large cracks radiating from one point.
Sylana's glance flickered to Lita, and a grotesque grin spread on her lips.
"At last, I see you, my lovely niece,"
she shouted, her voice rich with dark pleasure.
"You have come just in time."
Madam Valliere's look became horror-struck.
"Lita, no! Don't come any closer!"
However, the moment was already gone. Sylana's spell acted up, the barriers that she had previously deployed disappearing one by one.
The old inscriptions that had kept Lita's potency dormant were torn apart, and Lita got a sudden rush of power in her body. It was too much to bear, a stream of magic that she simply couldn't master.
Lita inhaled sharply, and her body was enveloped by a weird, continuously glowing light as the power came alive in her. Her sight became muffled, and the people around her seemed to be distorted as the full range of her powers started to show.
Sylana's joy was no longer hidden.
"Finally! That's the power that I've been after."
Madam Valliere, who was aghast at the sudden turn of events, was struggling to get up, and her tone was one of despair.
"Lita, resist! Don't let her be your master!"
However, Lita was not able to answer. She found herself trapped in the magical storm that was inside her, not knowing how to stop it.
Sylana moved in, her voice soothing yet with an underlying tone of evil.
"Don't worry, Lita. Let it come out. Let me teach you how to manage it—together, we shall reveal your real power."
Madam Valliere, who was drenched in blood but still alive, was fuming and voiced her anger.
"Stay away from her, Sylana!"
Sylana, pretending to be deaf, was all the more imperturbable for Lita.
"Don't pay any heed to her, my dear. She has kept you weak, so that you cannot be seen. But with me, you will be invincible."
At that moment, Lita was at the crossroads of her destiny, torn between her mother's agonizing appeal and Sylana's bewitching promise of power.
The choice she made now would have far-reaching consequences.
The moment of power that had Lita in its grasp was so mighty that her body moved in ways that were beyond her understanding, like a marionette being operated by unseeable strings. Sylana's smile grew bigger and bigger, and her eyes shone with triumph as Lita's magic was so to speak being unfolded, revealing the true nature.
The aura surrounding Lita was so powerful and raw it was almost impossible to control but the unseen force that Sylana had been coming to power with since the very beginning had tamed it just right.
"Lita,"
Sylana murmured in a silky voice,
"You're doing fabulously. Just let the strength flow through you. You will know... this is your place."
Madam Valliere was making a desperate effort to get up, and her expression was one of terror when she realized that her daughter had a blank look in her eyes.
"No! Lita! Don't pay attention to her!"
But Lita was in a world of her own, disconnected from her mother's cry. The magic storm conjured by Sylana had obscured her mind. Her hands were in the dark, crackling energy, but it was not Lita's will that prevailed—it was Sylana's.