The chains holding Ehogsa clanked softly as she tugged at them, defeated. Her breath came in shallow sobs. She had given up. All she could do now was pray for Christopher's survival—if he was even still alive.
Then, suddenly—
A warm pulse of magic coursed through the chains.
Clink.
They fell apart like dust.
Ehogsa gasped, stumbling forward. "How—how is that possible?"
Onome stood in front of her, hand outstretched, her eyes glowing faintly with violet light.
"Before I told Esse about the book," Onome said quietly, "I cast a protection spell on both of us."
Ehogsa blinked in disbelief.
"You what?"
"Even if I hadn't said it," Onome continued, her voice tight with guilt, "it would've happened anyway. You know how she is. But now… you have a chance. You need to go."
Ehogsa's lips trembled. "He's alone with her."
"Not anymore," Onome said, stepping aside. "Go save our step brother before it's too late."
---
Christopher writhed on the floor, groaning in pain. Esse loomed over him, her hand crackling with cruel, shimmering energy. The Obsidian Codex pulsed faintly beside her, feeding her power.
"I will make you pay, Eseosa," she snarled. "For everything."
Just as she raised her hand—
A searing pink blast shot from the doorway.
It slammed into Esse's back, throwing her forward. Her spell shattered, and Christopher gasped as his bindings collapsed.
The codex skittered across the floor.
"How?!" Esse screamed, whirling around.
Ehogsa stood tall, her hand still outstretched. Her eyes glowed pink.
"Turns out you're not the only one who can wield dark magic."
With her other hand, Ehogsa raised her fingers and said, firmly:
"Tòkhian!" ("Release!")
The magical restrains unraveled around Christopher's limbs. He looked up in stunned relief.
"Ehogsa—"
"No time!" she shouted. "Eseosa, take the book and run!"
"I can't leave you—"
"If you really want to help me—if you want us both to survive—then GO!"
Christopher's hesitation melted under her gaze. He grabbed the Obsidian Codex and bolted for the exit.
Ehogsa turned back toward Esse, her pink eyes burning like fire.
"Ikhian!" ("Fire!" )
Flames erupted from her palms, roaring straight at Esse.
Esse raised her own hand with a snarl.
"Amé" ("Water!" )
A crashing stream of water surged forward, meeting the fire mid-air with a deafening hiss.
Fire clashed with water, vapor rising like a curtain around the ruined compound. The air sizzled with power.
Suddenly, Esse raised her free hand. A sharp wave of force surged from her fingers—a telekinetic blast—slamming Ehogsa backwards like a ragdoll.
Ehogsa hit the ground hard, gasping.
Before she could rise, Esse was already above her, eyes glowing a vicious green. With one cruel motion, she grabbed Ehogsa's hand mid-spell and launched a focused blast of magic straight into her chest.
"Argh!" Ehogsa screamed, flying back, crashing into a stone pillar with a sickening crack.
Breathing heavily, Esse raised both arms high, her eyes rolling white as she let loose a shockwave of green magic, spiraling outwards—pushing through the compound and into the forest like a rippling scream.
---
Christopher was running, fast—dodging broken trees, leaping roots—clutching the Obsidian Codex to his chest like it was life itself.
Then—WHUMPH—the magical wave hit him like a hammer to the chest.
He stumbled backward.
In front of him, the very air solidified into a glowing green wall. It shimmered like glass and pulsed like a heartbeat.
"Fuck!" he cursed, chest heaving.
Then the clouds above him split like a wound.
Esse's voice boomed from the sky, ancient and full of wrath.
"Eseosa!" she thundered.
"You think you can run?
Ó gho mwẹ́dẹ!" (You must be stupid!)
From the air—she was floating now, robes billowing in the storm—Esse hurled a massive blast of green fire toward him.
Christopher dove aside, barely escaping the deadly strike as it scorched the earth beside him.
---
A new voice rang out, clear and full of defiance.
"Leave my brother alone!"
Esse's head snapped to the side.
Ehogsa stood below, bloodied but burning with fury.
Her hand lit up with pink flame, and she fired a bolt straight into the sky.
Esse raised her own hand, answering with her signature green magic, the beam spiraling down like lightning.
The two blasts met in the air with a crackling explosion, pink against green, the force of their clash lighting up the battlefield like a second sun.
The sky glowed where green met pink—an explosion of light that bathed the forest in otherworldly color. But slowly… the green overtook the pink.
Esse laughed coldly, floating higher above the ground.
"You've always been weak, Ehogsa."
Her voice echoed with venom.
Ehogsa gritted her teeth, struggling to hold her blast—her arms trembling, sweat running down her temples. Her barrier flickered, her magic faltering.
Esse saw it.
She hurled three bolts in rapid succession, each like a spear of glowing energy.
Boom. Boom. BOOM.
The final blast hit like thunder.
Smoke and dust exploded outward. The ground cracked. Trees splintered.
"NO!" Christopher screamed, horror slicing through his chest.
He stared at the smoke, heart frozen.
But before he could run, Esse's eyes locked onto him. With a flick of her hand, he rose into the air, body stiff and floating, as though on invisible strings.
"Let's see how much a bastard like you can bleed," she hissed.
The Obsidian Codex floated open, hovering in front of her as her fingers glowed darkly.
Lines of black energy stretched from the book to Christopher's chest—draining the life from him slowly, painfully.
His skin paled. His eyes glazed.
Below them, Ehogsa stirred among the rubble, her hand twitching.
Blood trickled down her forehead as she forced her head up.
Her lips trembled as she whispered—weak, but powerful.
"Rhiànrhàn." ("Remember.")
A flicker.
In that moment, Christopher's eyes glowed faintly—his memories snapping back like whiplash.
His mother's voice, saying: "Your power will bring ruin… I must seal it, to protect you."
A strange ritual, white fire surrounding him.
His mother whispering, "One day, you will need to be more than mortal."
A silver thread, tied to his soul, buried deep… now glowing.
Back in the present—
"AAAAH!" Christopher cried out, but not in pain—in power.
Magic surged inside him. Ancient. Raw. His veins glowed red, sparks crackling around his skin.
Esse flinched.
But before he could react—she threw him to the ground, furious and afraid.
"Die already!" she screamed.
And then she unleashed a barrage of green fire, each one a flaming missile of destruction.
Ehogsa's eyes widened from where she lay on the ground.
"NO—!"
But it was too late.
The flames screamed through the sky, heading straight for Christopher as he lay on the forest floor, still twitching with awakening power.
Ehogsa struggled weakly, forcing herself upright as Esse slowly descended to the ground. Her green eyes pulsed with power, a sinister glow lighting up her face as she stalked forward.
"This would have been a lot easier if you had just sided with me, like a true sister would," Esse hissed. Her hand crackled with green energy, a blast forming at her fingertips, ready to strike.
Suddenly, a rope—red and blazing with raw magical power—snaked out of the settling dust and coiled around Esse's wrist, stopping her mid-blast.
A familiar voice rang through the air, cool and mocking: "Sorry, love. No way I'm letting you kill my favorite sister."
Esse turned, her face contorted in disbelief. "How?!"
From the dust stepped Christopher, his eyes now glowing a deep, fiery red. Magic shimmered around him like a storm barely contained. Ehogsa, lying weakly on the ground, managed a proud smile.
Esse stumbled back, the obsidian codex falling from her grip. Christopher reached out and dragged it away from her with a flick of his magic.
"If you weren't so egotistical," he said, voice calm but powerful, "you'd have noticed. I've always had magic. But Mum sealed it the moment I was born. Because I'm a Syphon—one of the forbidden. She didn't want that life for me. But now\... now I remember everything."
Esse screamed in fury and launched a green blast.
Christopher's red magic surged forward, meeting it in the air. Red and green clashed, lighting up the sky in a violent explosion. The two rose into the air, exchanging magical strikes, each one shaking the earth below.
Ehogsa's eyes glowed faint pink as she summoned a whirlwind, kicking up dust and debris to obscure Christopher from view.
Esse roared, slashing through the storm with a powerful wave of magic, clearing the air.
But Christopher was gone.
She spun around, searching, when suddenly—
Hands gripped her head from behind. She froze.
Then she felt it—her magic draining. Slowly, the green energy that defined her bled out, shifting to red as it was absorbed into Christopher.
"Your magic has corrupted you," he whispered. "You've based your entire existence on power. So now, I'm taking that from you. Let's see how you live as a human."
He gently released her, letting her slump to the ground. Esse screamed in fury, hurling insults, her voice ragged and powerless.
Christopher turned and walked to Ehogsa, kneeling beside her. He pulled her into a tight embrace.
"We won," he whispered.
Their victory was short-lived.
The sky darkened, shifting into a deep, eerie violet. A strange energy pulsed in the air, thick and electric. Then came a sound—low at first, then rising—a mocking cackle that didn't belong to any voice they knew... or so they thought.
Descending slowly from the clouds came Onome.
Her presence alone was unsettling. Always the quiet one, the silent sibling in the shadows, Onome had never laughed, let alone mocked. But here she was, grinning like a predator, her laughter echoing like broken glass.
She landed softly, her feet touching the ground with unnatural grace. Her gaze swept over the battlefield, stopping on Esse, now weakened, her magic gone.
"Esse," Onome said, her voice calm but cutting. "You thought you were the one pulling the strings. That you had all the power." She chuckled again, a dark gleam in her eyes. "But you were just another pawn. You were so busy chasing Christopher, so consumed by your hate, that you didn't see it was always me."
She raised her hand, and the Obsidian Codex flew through the air into her grasp, snapping into her palm like it belonged there all along. As her fingers curled around it, veins of black magic surged through her skin, crawling up her arms, turning her eyes midnight-black.
"The Codex never truly chose you," she whispered to Esse. "It was always meant for me."
A shriek split the air – Raptor's, amplified to a deafening crescendo that promised agony.Raptor plummeted, a winged avalanche of muscle, beak, and claw. He struck Esse with the force of a runaway train, the impact pulverizing bone and tearing through flesh. Blood erupted, a crimson geyser.
Raptor's talons ripped into Esse's ribcage, tearing through muscle and sinew as if they were mere cobwebs. With a sickening crunch, he clamped his beak teeth on her sternum, the sound of bone splintering echoing through the stunned silence. Blood gurgled in Esse's throat, a choked scream silenced by the crushing pressure. Her eyes bulged, registering a final, agonizing moment of betrayal before the light extinguished.
Then, the snap.
Raptor's jaws, designed for rending and tearing, severed Esse in two with a horrifying, wet tear. A fountain of blood sprayed outwards, coating Onome in a macabre baptism. Esse's upper torso, still twitching, landed with a sickening thud at Christopher's feet, her vacant eyes staring into his soul.
Onome smiled , not of joy but of pure darkness." The darkness is here."