The Cathedral of Bone was no longer a place for people to worship. It was a hole in the ground filled with ash and broken white stone. The air was thick with the smell of electricity and blood.
Elara stood in the middle of the mess her arm shining with a scary see-through gold light. Next to her Mina held a spear made of moonlight her silver hair blowing in the wind like a flag. They were not just sisters anymore. They were the Twin Monarchs, two parts of a god.
The air was filled with system messages.
System Synchronization was complete.
Their Combined Power Level was 15,000 and rising.
There was a warning that the Host of the Abyss was 500 meters away.
Mina whispered, her silver eyes looking up at the sky. "The raven " she said. "Elara, the bird... It had the Kings voice.. It said Lucian was wearing us."
Elara looked at Lucian. He was standing ten paces away carefully brushing ash from his sleeves. He did not look like a man who had just lost a fight. He looked like a director watching his favorite actors finish a scene.
"Lucian " Elara said, her voice. Rumbling. "The raven. Talk. Now."
Lucian stopped brushing ash. He looked up his eyes flashing a hellish red that made the shadows around him move towards him like dogs.
"The King was a puppet, Elara " Lucian said, his voice smooth and slippery. ". A puppet needs strings.. Strings need a master. You think I found you in that trench by accident? You think I gave you the 'seed' because I liked your spirit?"
He took a step forward his silver-headed cane clicking on a marble piece.
"The First Alpha is not a wolf " Lucian said. "He is the space that existed before the Moon was born.. The only way to bring him into this world was to find a person that could survive the transition. One that could heal while it was being destroyed."
There was an alert that the 'Seed' in Elaras Chest was growing.
There was a detection of a takeover in progress.
Elara gasped, holding her chest. The gold light in her arm flickered, replaced by a sickly green light. She felt the fire in her soul being pushed aside by something cold and hungry.
"You... You used me as a cocoon " Elara choked out her knees buckling.
"I used both of you " Lucian corrected, looking at Mina. "The. The Dark. The. The Sinner. Alone you were tools. Together you are the bridge."
Suddenly a huge winged shadow appeared on the horizon. It did not land; it just existed above the crater blocking out the stars. It was a creature of shifting darkness with a thousand eyes that blinked at the same time.
The First Alpha.
"Now " Lucian said, raising his cane like a conductors stick. "The game is over. Give him back his heart."
There was a quest message. The Devils Masquerade.
The objective was to sever the contract or be consumed.
There was a constraint. If Lucian died the 'Seed' would explode.
Mina did not hesitate. She lunged at Lucian her moonlight spear aimed directly at his throat. "Let her go, you bastard!"
Lucian did not even move. He just tapped his cane. A wave of silence hit Mina throwing her back into the rubble.
"Wait, wolf " Lucian purred. "Your turn is next."
Elara felt the "seed" tear through her ribs. It was not just power anymore; it was a hand reaching out from her chest trying to grab the shadow in the sky. She looked at Mina. The sister she had died for the sister she had just saved.
He wants the heart Elara thought, her vision blurring.. He forgot one thing. I am still a Healer.
"Mina!" Elara screamed, her gold arm shining with a desperate light. "The Link! Reverse it! Do not push the light. Pull the dark!"
Mina understood instantly. She did not attack Lucian again. Instead she drove her spear into the ground between herself and Elara.
The sisters opened their souls. They did not try to hold the power; they let it flow through them like a river. The "seed" in Elaras chest found no resistance. It surged out. Instead of going to the shadow in the sky it was caught in the resonance loop between the twins.
The First Alphas shadow screamed. A sound that broke every window for ten miles. It began to shrink, pulled into the vacuum created by the sisters synchronized souls.
"What are you doing?!" Lucian roared, his composure finally breaking. "You will burn yourselves out! You will turn into nothing but ash!"
"Better to be ash than your puppet!" Elara shouted.
The gold and violet light merged into a colorless beam that shot upward impaling the First Alphas shadow. The creature did not explode; it was folded. It was being compressed into the seed" Lucian had planted but the sisters were crushing the seed with their combined will.
There was a warning of a soul-collapse.
The probability of survival was 0.01%.
"Lucian!" Elara cried, her eyes turning a blinding white. "You wanted a debt? Here is the interest!"
She reached out with her hand and grabbed Lucians silver cane. The "seed". A dense ball of absolute destruction. Flowed down the cane and into Lucians arm.
Lucians eyes went wide. For the time he felt fear. The power he had spent centuries cultivating was being forced back into his body and he was not strong enough to hold it.
"No! This is not the deal!" Lucian shrieked as his black suit began to tear revealing a body of oily smoke.
There was an explosion. The explosion was silent. A sphere of white-violet energy expanded from the crater erasing everything it touched. The Cathedral, the ruins, the Devil. All of it vanished in a flash of purity.
The sun rose over the Borderlands. For the time in a year the sky was clear. No violet clouds. No golden false-sun.
In the center of a field, where the Cathedral used to stand two women lay in the dew.
Mina sat up first. Her hair was brown again short and messy. She felt weak, human and wonderfully alive. She looked over at Elara.
Elara was breathing. Her skin was warm the black and gold gone. She looked like the girl who had once stitched up soldiers in the mud.. When she opened her eyes they were not brown. They were a glowing violet.
There was a system notification that the contract was terminated.
Elaras class was Human and her job was Healer.
She had a talent called The Ghost-Wolfs Mercy.
"Is it over?" Mina whispered.
Elara sat up looking at her hands. They were scarred, rough and human. But as she touched a wilted flower in the grass it did not just stand up. It bloomed.
"The Devil is gone " Elara said, looking at the horizon where the Capital stood. ". The Alpha is dead."
"So what do we do now?" Mina asked.
Elara stood up offering her hand to her sister. She looked at the road the road that led back to the people who had betrayed her back to the world that had thrown her away.
"Now " Elara said, a small knowing smile, on her lips. "We go back. I hear the new King needs a healer.. This time I am going to make sure he pays his debts upfront."
As they walked away a single silver-headed cane lay forgotten in the grass. A small black raven landed on it pecked at the silver bird and looked toward the sisters with a glowing red eye.