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The fog cleared from my eyes and I was suddenly present in the assembly hall again. But the moment I came to. . ..
"No,"I murmured."No, no."
The well-kept floor was now a crater as big as a tennis court— littered with warped metal braziers and chunks of destroyed furniture.
The very ceiling of the hall had collapsed entirely like brittle stone.
And around the rim of the crater were bits of smoking gowns, smashed drinking goblets, and a pile of broken Dhampir bodies large enough to fill a river. Among them were the supposedly mighty house lords— their corpses barely recognizable.
"My very own daughter" my mother had sighed. "Cruel, possessive, worse than even her father"–
'Don't blameyourself for their deaths'. A warm voice said as I felt a hand clasp my shoulder.
Hera was by my side.
I couldn't respond. As if led by some invisible force my gaze traveled to where a battle still raged.
I looked at my hands to find that they were trembling.
Dhampir men, women, snd even a few children were herded themselves together at the edge of the grand hall.
Despair filled their faces as they faced the monster closing in on them. The braver Dhampir drew their swords even while knowing they stood no chance.
"After the vision played, Rea entered a state of immense rage—" Hera sighed before admitting. "She sentenced the house lords to familial extermination." Hera recounted. "Now every man, woman, child and beast with any relation to them is to be devoted to destruction!"
Rea chuckled coldly as she appraised the frightened masses with disdain. In her eyes; there was no mercy or hesitation.
The Dhampir screamed right as she descended onto them. The scene immediately turned crimson.
Later, I wouldnt be able to remember the details clearly.
Rea sliced through bodies until she was ankle-deep in dark red blood. Whenever she was faced with an attack, she moved with superhuman speed— shattered a boy's skull, tore a man's limbs form their sockets, ripped out a womans spine—and each death seemed to bring her great pleasure, painting her form red with blood.
The killings became so fluid too —she could rend a victims arm from it's socket and stab through another's heart with the detached bone, all while kicking anothers head clean of his shoulders.
The frightened vampires screamed and fled frantically. Under the threat of death their speeds reached ghastly levels.
The should have escaped. At least some of them should have made it out. But somehow, Rea kept destroying, undeterred, continually releasing a storm of violence.
There was a smile of euphoria plastered on her face, revealing just how much pleasure she took in this. Despite my desperate prayers she wasnt going to stop.
And she didn't hesitate either. She tore a young Vampire's body and half while his mate watched in horror, then she ripped out her heart as she screamed.
She clenched her fist, willing the bodies of three Dhampir to explode at once into a bloddy mist.
She was bathed completely in blood at this point —surrounded by a ring of decimated corpses. I didn't understand why, but she had left one Dhampir from amongst the crowd alive —a young vampire girl who couldn't have been any older than eight.
Rea faced the child with a cruel smile. The child was frightened, shivering, and covered in the blood of her brethren, but at the very least she was unharmed.
Rea advanced slowly. In spite of her fear, the girl was a brave one. Despite the fact that several hundred of her brethren had just died, she did not back down. She raised her palm defiantly and it was immediately covered with an aura of frost.
A crystal of ice formed slowly above it.
Rea watched the girl with dark amusement. Her body was poised for attack, muscles tensing, pressure building beneath the soles of her feet lik a spring, and Venom coating the enamel of her teeth.
I had no power of foresight, but the vision came just a split second before the reality. it was a simple matter to read the trajectory of the scene as Rea sauntered slowly towards the girl with an air of seductive malice.
The girl, facing a gruesome death, actually turned her gaze from her assailant.
Cowed by Rea's bloodlust, she locked eyes with me and peered straight into my horror-filled pupils, and then turned back towards Rea and her approaching death.
I had no time to think. Before Hera could stop me, I launched myself across the hall, throwing myself between the Vampirirc predator and the terrified girl. I moved so fast that everything became a blur except for the young frightened girl within my line of sight.
She didnt seem to notice my flight as I approached —still staring at the blood tainted demoness about to grind her body into meaty paste.
I caught her around the waist, moving with too much concern to be gentle.
In the mere hundredth of a second between my arrival and embrace of the young girl, Rea's power touched us.
I would awlays remember the feeling;
My skin felt as if it were crumbling like brittle clay. I would remembered how it felt being so close to annihilation, as if my blood were turning to fire and sulphur, and the strands of my DNA were unraveling within my collapsing cells.
I had witnessed the extent of Rea's power, and I knew in my heart that there was nothing i could do to stop her, but there was no way I was going to allow such an atrocity to occur before my eyes without intervening.
I threw out my hands out to confront the wave of force. It curled and wound around the obstacle of my arms. I could feel the strain if the clash in every atom of my being — it would have taken very little for the wave of power to advance and destroy us both.
But.... for some reason, as quickly as it had arrived, the wave of force quickly receded. Though in its wake it had left shockwaves so voilent that I was hurled back into the ruins of hall.
As I flew into a wall with the child nestled in my chest, I arced my body at just the right angle that my back bore the brunt of the clash.
The resultant force tore through my body and I yelled in pain, feeling even the hardened flesh of my back being ruined by the collision.
But I did not loosen my grip.
The child remained safe within my arms.
The hall was abruptly quiet again.
Everything was still and even the air seemed to freeze .
The debree and dust of our clash settled very slowly, and a broken slab of stone slid of the wall onto the ground. Ahead I could sense Rea's furious gaze, her body still dripping with fresh blood.
I tried to say something, when pain shot through my entire body— I felt every nerve within my body burn like they had been thrust into flame.
It took all my willpower to thrust the girl behind me before the pain became overwhelming.
Then—
The winds stilled.
I felt an invisible weight crash down on my arms and feet— immobilising me in space. I struggled defiantly— bands of muscle straining beneath my skin– but there was nothing I could do.
My bones creaked as they were slowly forced to bend at unnatural angles, and every breath I took was laboured— wracked with pain.
Rea was silent as she approached, her expression unreadable while she levitated towards me.
"You dare defy me?," she asked very softly.
Yet somehow a shudder reverberated through my body when i heard her.
Her nearing presence sent flares of terror arcing through my nerves. She was close enough for me to feel her towering rage now — it was unlike the fury with which she had slaughtered the Dhampir; It run even deeper.
She was well and truly incensed.
"You . . .," she continued— shaking in rage. "Actually dare!!??"
I tried to move my lips, but sound came out. Her presence was far too overpowering.
She stopped directly in front of me and peered into my face.
Her snow white fingers clapsed my chin and forced me to meet her gaze.
There was a mad fire burning in her eyes.
"Did you forget. . . that you belong to me in body and soul?," Rea asked. "That you, my little brother, were the very first thing I owned since coming into this world?"
The force her power exerted on my body intensified. Dark blurry spots begin to appear in my vision.
"I am willing to tolerate many things from you, because you are mine," she continued. "I am willing to protect you for an eternity." Her palm soflty caressed my jaw— the motion was almost tender— but the force on my body continued to contort my bones. "But how dare you disobey me?"
"And even worse, how dare you care for any other besides me."
The words were filled with even more anger now.
"You are mine."
Then she leaned in close.
"This is not over yet," she whispered. "I will properly punish you when you wake."
Her thumb pressed against my solar plexus, and I felt a worse pain surge throughout my body.
The impact felt like a sledgehammer against my skull— I began to lose consciousness — my eyes closing as my world descended into darkness.