The Vault boomed with the clang of steel on steel, explosions could be heard from each direction slamming against timeless walls.
Over fifty hooded figures appeared from all directions but armed killers, dark knights, and corrupted mages, each carrying a huge bloodlust for the people in the Vault. More and more entered as that huge bloodlust could be felt by the three people inside
Veyr on the other side of the Vault running to Kaela and Lucien to just at least save them burst the ground apart with a raised hand, spikes of earth piercing enemies left and right. Then he finally arrived to the master and student but
Lucien, fresh to the fight, battled in fits and starts frame unaccustomed to the burden of power he could not contain. Yet with Kaela at his side, directing him, he clung.
"Why are these people here?," Veyr snarled, wiping blood from his lip. "
Scores had died.
But more kept coming. There was no way off defeating them they all questioned themselves what should they do.
The Vault's protective runes began to shatter, one after another, as the enemies pressed forward like a tidal wave of death.
Kaela and Veyr were growing tired. Wounded.
Lucien turned to Kaela, panting. "Why won't they stop?!"
Kaela grit her teeth. "You think i know you stupid idiot just fight.
Suddenly
A cloaked elite fighter appeared behind Kaela. She didnt feel someones presences but with one glance she saw the assassin but she was too late.
Too fast. Too silent.
His blade sank deep into her side.
Lucien screamed. "KAELA!"
She stumbled, bleeding, but still launched herself back across onto her sword killing him on instinct. But she had no more energy she just felt weak as the wound hit her critical spot combining with the other wounds from the battle all she wanted to know if Lucien was still okay but as she went to him.
She sank to her knees.
"God Damnit… Lucien are you okay. Now listen to me you have to leave right now."as she spits out blood because of the multiple wounds she has no control now she is meeting the door of death soon.
"No do you think im that stupid I won't leave without you!"with eyes filling with tears after seeing his master meeting her end after three whole months of brutal but loving training.Veyr released one final burst of power, bringing down part of the room and killing six men. But one remained behind.
A black spear struck his shoulder. He bellowed, spun and killed the attacker with a fire dance strike but he was done. Bleeding, on the precipice of passing out.
"Damn it…" he growled, falling onto one knee. "They were waiting for us to burn out."
Lucien tried to help him but Kaela grabbed his wrist, blood flowing from her lips.
"Lucien. Listen."
"Kaela, for the love of—stop talking—don't say it—don't—"
"There's no time. They'll bury you if you try to carry us."
"I don't care—"
"LUCIEN JUST LISTEN TO ME !!!."
She held his hand by the back.
"*Devour me.*"
Silence fell upon them. Even the war in the distance seemed muted.
Lucien stared at her, appalled. "What?"
"You heard me im not going to repeat myself not. If you continue fighting at this state you will be nothing but a piece of shit your not powerful your still pathetically weak. You going to need more power if you want to survive and I'm offering it. All of it."
"That's no.How stupid can you be you suicidal master think about it you saved me when that fucking kingdom saw me like trash you're the one who kept me alive I'm not going to!"
"You'll die if you don't."
Kaela pushed her forehead into his.
"You weren't supposed to be just another pawn. You were supposed to break the board.
"Please"
"Lucien. You're not just my student."
Tears filled her eyes.
"You're the closest thing I ever had to a son."She breathed slower. Lucien eyes burst with the new information that have been delivered then memories of the past from everyday he was just a punching bag for her actually was motherly love something he never felt only by Mary the orphanage nurse.
"You saw me as a what?" still trying to understand what he just heard asking again
"Yes you heard me you stupid idiot i saw you as my son ever since we met i was interested in you and even though i was cruel it was my first time being a mother those three months seeing you grow put a smile on my face and made me love you even more".as she coughed up more blood then she reached out one of her bloody hands and put it on Lucien's face making him crying even more.
"Dont cry my little boy its fine I will be always with you I truly love you Lucien"
The Vault shook as Lucien howled not with rage, but anguish.
"VELTHURON."
With trembling hands he finally saw Kaela take her last breath he cried more and more but there was nothing he can do but follow her masters or her mothers orders taking the anger away he took one of her blades and started carving out Kaela's heart. He finally took out her heart it was still beating but she was actually dead Lucien waited for the heart to fully stop beating.
He laid them on Kaela's heart. Then the heart stopped beating making him shed more tears but he had to do as he was told so without thinking he started eating her heart.
"Forgive me…"
A vortex of darkness yawned beneath her, strands of her soul drawing into Lucien's chest.
Her body glowed light and darkness tearing asunder as her essence merged with his.
Her last smile hung there for an instant, then dissolved on the wind.
Lucien crouched alone, trembling, retching, sobbing.
And when he stood up.
Something else occupied his space.
A fusion of Kaela's serenity, Veyr's rage, and the primeval hunger within Lucien himself.
The remaining foes froze. gawking.
He faced them with empty violet eyes, the Mark upon his breast burning with newfound intensity.
"I warned you…"
And then he struck.
Lucien stayed where he was in the crater where Kaela had tumbled.
The Mark on his chest flared with light, pulsating each contraction a memory of what he'd done.
The air warped around him.
The Vault's walls vibrated under tension as if the whole room were contracting with anger and grief.
The other invaders moved cautiously now. No longer slaughtering — just surviving.
"He devoured her," one breathed.
"Impossible," said another growling. "He's just a"
Lucien did not wait for him.
With a bestial howl, he charged.
He moved with greater speed than ever before the power of Kaela raging within him, uncontrolled and mad.
One attacker went for a weapon
Lucien withered his arm with a bolt of violet fire.
Another tried to parry with a shield
Lucien's shout ripped apart the metal, flying shrapnel off in all directions.
Three surrounded him
He winked behind one, with Kaela's blade ripping through all three at once.
But with every murder, his vision misted. His body trembled. The magic wasn't his it was stolen, combined, borrowed in grief.
And incinerated him alive.
Through the carnage at smoke-choked, Veyr crawled beside Lucien bleeding out, teeth stained red with blood.
Run, he growled. Don't let it kill you.
Lucien crouched beside him, trembling.
"Veyr please "
You survived. That proves she was right."
"I—"
"GO!"
With the last of his strength, Veyr slammed his palm onto the ground, unleashing a collapse of the Vault entrance. A gigantic quake shook the earth, fire and dust churning as the structure began to collapse.
Lucien ran.
The sky outside was bruised, sun behind the smoke. The world felt different now. As if he was seeing it through Kaela's eyes.
Through power.
Through pain.
He walked through broken forests. Through mountain roads and burnt ruins.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
Each night haunted by Kaela's voice.
Each morning lonelier than yesterday.
Lucien sat beside a frozen fire.
His hands raw. His eyes empty.
He no longer wept.
The Mark on his chest would at times throb — softer now, far away.
The last words Kaela had ever said rang in his head:
"You're not just my student… You're the closest thing I ever had to a son."
He grumbled to the wind:
"Then I'll make it matter…"
He pulled out her dagger from his waist. Still stained with dried blood. And held it tight.
Lucien, outlined by the dawn sun.
Alone.
But not broken.
Not yet.
The world thinks he died with the Vault.
But the truth is far worse.
Lucien remains alive.
And something very ancient now possesses him.