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The final step of the unbinding ritual we planned: unleashing her Abyssborn heritage fully to devour the vow’s last threads.

My heart clenches. We have no guarantee it won’t kill her.

She stands strong, though tension carves lines across her brow.

“Malphas,” she whispers, voice trembling.

“Guard me while I do this. I have to direct the power at the vow. If it tries to feed on me, I—” She falters, then steels herself. “I won’t let it take my life.”

I exhale, illusions sparking around my horns. “I won’t let it either.”

She steps onto the center of the dais where runes converge, placing one hand over a glyph, her sword in the other.

Her eyes flutter shut, and a deep thrumming resonates underfoot, shaking the entire courtyard.

The robed elves cry out in alarm, but they can’t muster a coordinated assault.

Soldiers either lie dead or flee the site, morale shattered.

The ground cracks, arcs of chaotic energy weaving from the dais into the swirling sky.

Valentina calls upon the Abyss. The black runes on her body blaze, forming shifting sigils that crawl across her skin.

The air crackles with a horrifying, glorious power.

I feel the vow inside me surge, desperate to reassert control, but the dais resonates with Valentina’s might, forcing the vow’s energy outward.

My illusions glitch, color fracturing. A rumble builds beneath the earth, as if something stirs in the deep.

The monarchy’s wards flicker on the dais, grappling with her unstoppable flow.

My chest clenches, the vow’s last chains thrashing at my heart.

I stagger forward, illusions swirling around my horns, prepared to shield her from any stray attacks.

The robed elves shriek, flinging bolts of purple flame.

I intercept them with illusions, blasts scalding my battered wings.

Pain roars through me, but I hold firm. “Stay back!” I bellow at them, voice echoing across shattered pillars.

They see the futility now, but fear or pride compels them to keep fighting.

Valentina trembles, face contorted in concentration. “Almost… got it…” Her voice vibrates with an otherworldly echo. The black runes glow like hot coals. The dais cracks further, fractal lines radiating. My vow tears at me, trying to embed fresh talons, but her power denies it.

A swirl of wind explodes outward, ripping broken banners from the walls, sending shards of obsidian skittering.

The robed elves are hurled back, magic disrupted.

Soldiers wail in terror, dropping their weapons.

The entire courtyard shudders. At the dais’s center, Valentina arches her back, black runes searing across her arms and chest. A vortex of inky energy surges from the ground, binding her to me in an invisible current.

I feel the vow coil, moments from snapping or devouring.

“Valentina!” I choke out, stepping closer, illusions flickering.

My horns ache. The vow’s presence rises up in one last savage attempt to enslave me.

But she’s pulling it away, siphoning it through that swirling Abyss.

I sense her life force flickering like a candle, threatened by the vow’s hungry jaws.

Fear stabs my gut—the prophecy said this final step demands her life.

But she roars, voice half-human, half-demonic. “No!” She defies the vow’s lethal cost, channeling arcane energy into the swirling black runes. Her entire body glows with a churning interplay of darkness, an unstoppable current. The vow screams in my mind, fracturing under her assault.

A deafening crack reverberates across the temple.

I stagger, illusions fraying around me. The vow’s chains in my heart snap—a surge of agonizing relief floods me, so powerful I collapse to one knee.

The vow is gone, wrenched from my essence.

A whirlwind of obsidian shards flares around Valentina as the vow’s magic coils around her, trying to devour her.

My breath catches. Is this where she dies?

She cries out, eyes turning pure black. The runes swirl faster, forging a cocoon of inky light around her form.

Then, with a final blaze of energy, the vow’s malignant power evaporates in a shriek, casting arcane shards high into the stormy sky.

The entire courtyard glows with the aftermath.

Soldiers cower behind broken pillars, dark elf lords moan, battered and powerless.

My illusions vanish, no longer needed to protect me from the vow. It’s truly gone.

A hush descends, disturbed only by the rumble of the distant storm. I force myself to my feet, chest heaving. My soul feels raw, unshackled after centuries of subjugation. Euphoria mingles with dread. “Valentina?” I rasp, scanning the dais.

At first, all I see is a swirl of black mist. Then it dissipates, revealing her figure crouched on the cracked stone.

My heart leaps into my throat. She’s alive, pressed to one hand, sword dropped.

But something about her silhouette is… different.

The black runes remain etched into her skin, but less chaotic, more integrated.

Horn-like ridges have sprouted at her temples, small but unmistakable.

Her eyes flick open, revealing pupils slit like a demon’s, glowing faint silver at the edges.

She staggers upright, panting, confusion etched across her face.

She doesn’t die. She transforms—part demon, part mortal.

My mind reels at the sight: she’s still Valentina, but the lines of her limbs are more powerful, her canines slightly elongated.

The aura around her is charged with demonic resonance.

My chest constricts in wild relief. I race to her side, illusions forgotten in my shock.

“Valentina?” I whisper, daring not to breathe. My throat feels tight. She meets my eyes, tears brimming. The vow is shattered. She’s alive. Something darker stirs behind her gaze, but it’s still her.

“I… I’m here,” she rasps, voice trembling. She lifts a hand, noticing faint horns near her temples, brushing them with a dazed fascination. “What happened to me?”

Emotion roars through me like a tempest. “You survived,” I choke out, placing a clawed hand gently on her cheek. “You found a path that changed you. But you’re alive, the vow is destroyed.”

She exhales a shaky laugh, tears mixing with sweat. “I didn’t want to die. I guess the Abyss heard my refusal.”

We share a moment of stunned awe. The monarchy’s vow has shattered, and she stands renewed, half-demon in a swirl of black runes. My illusions flutter around us, freed from centuries of forced suppression. We truly won.

Victory .

The battered dark elves watch from a distance, morale shattered.

The robed sorcerers cower. A few scramble out of the courtyard, dragging their wounded.

The monarchy’s grand designs lie in ruin.

The demon thrall we freed earlier stands atop a broken pillar, glaring at them with newfound autonomy.

This entire domain has collapsed, the monarchy routed.

Still panting, Valentina glances around, eyes flickering with inhuman brightness. “We… we did it.” Then her eyes narrow, as if sensing something deeper under the rubble. She half-turns, frowning at the quaking earth. “Do you feel that?”

I freeze, illusions swirling warily. A deep rumble vibrates beneath the courtyard, reminiscent of a sleeping beast stirred by all this arcane chaos. “Yes,” I mutter, scanning the cracks that laced the dais. “Something moves below. Possibly an older threat.”

Her new horn ridges glint in the torchlight. Fear churns in her expression, but she schools it quickly. “We can’t fight more tonight. We’re spent.”

I nod gravely. “Then we leave this place for now. The monarchy’s hold is shattered, the vow undone. Let them face whatever stirs beneath their temple. We have fought enough.”

She sags in relief, though tears still cling to her lashes. “Thank the stars. Let’s get out before that thing surfaces.”

With an unspoken accord, we stride from the dais, illusions coiling around me, her new demonic aura crackling.

Soldiers shrink away, too demoralized to attempt pursuit.

The robed elves huddle, some babbling prayers.

The demon thrall leaps off its pillar, bounding into the darkness, presumably free to chart its own path.

None stand to block us. A hush, broken only by the rumble from the depths, suffuses the courtyard.

We exit the temple’s shattered gates, stepping into the swirling storm outside.

Rain begins to fall in cold sheets, plastering my hair to my scalp.

Valentina stands under the open sky, shoulders trembling, black runes still swirling across her arms. She turns to me, eyes full of questions and raw emotion. “Malphas… it’s really gone?”

I place a hand against my chest, closing my eyes to sense the vow’s old presence.

Where once it strangled every breath, now there is only a ghostly ache—no forced compulsion.

My illusions respond with newfound ease, swirling gently at my horns.

“It’s gone,” I murmur, voice unsteady. “I’m free. Thanks to you.”

Her lips part, relief and lingering fear tangling in her gaze. “And I’m… changed.” She raises a hand, studying the faint claws tipping her fingers. “I can feel it, an undercurrent of demonic power. Part of me is terrified.”

I step closer, carefully wrapping a wing around her as the rain intensifies. “You saved us both. We’ll figure out the rest together.”

She leans into my side, the new horns on her head brushing my collarbone. “I won’t lose myself, right?” Her voice wavers. “I won’t become some mindless beast?”

My heart pangs. “No. You’re still Valentina. You harnessed the Abyss without letting it kill you. That alone proves your will is strong enough to remain who you are.”