Chapter 70: Chapter Seventy: Damien’s Story X: Real + Fake= Mirage.
"Mira?" Alexandria whispered, too astonished to utter any other word. How was this possible?
"Yes darling?" Mira replied in the same soft, gentle voice he was well familiar with. Her hands wrapped around the blade that was inside her stomach and pulled it, gasping softly. Alexandria looked down at her hands: there was no blood there, not even a scratch. What the...
She moved closer to him timidly, wrapping her hands around his waist. Mira looked deep into his eyes with longing far beyond anything else.
Her pupils dilated slowly, going to the edges of her pink colored cornea. Alexandria remained still, mesmerized by her gaze and touch. Soon, his own cornea slowly gathered a pink hue like hers and it spread throughout his eyes like creepers. It had almost overshadowed his own when suddenly, he snapped.
Bewitchment. She was bewitching him.
"Nice try, witch." he said fiercely, pulling out his sword and slashing it through the fake Mira’s head. The head fell off and rolled down the two steps he had climbed before settling by the foot of a wooden chair. In that moment, the headless body dissolved into ash and the head jumped up and landed on the table. The eyes were devoid of any eyeball but had only the pink colored cornea.
Alexandria descended the stairs carefully with his sword gripped firmly in his palm. Whoever or whatever this was, it had obviously tried to bewitch him and would have succeeded if he hadn’t snapped out of it.
The head on the table fell from its standing position and rolled from left to right continuously on the surface. Alexandria squinted his eyes. This was some kind of uncanny voodoo.
"Impressive work." A voice echoed from above him. A figure soon emerged from the shadows clapping his hands slowly with an awfully unsettling grin on his face.
Alex looked up and pointed his sword at him. He ensured that his back wasn’t turned against the head that was still rolling tirelessly on the table. You just can never be too safe huh...
"Show your face you vampire bastard." Alexandria replied firmly, bracing himself.
A dark, eerie chuckle echoed throughout the lifeless living room. "Bastard? How cruel to call your own kind such vile name."
Alexandria paused in his thoughts. This air around him surely was that of a lower being but it wasn’t a vampire. Although there were very similar hints that could mistake "it" for one, Alex’s mind only resonated with mixed.
Mixed?
Was it a mixed breed? But weren’t mixed breeds an abomination and impossible to find?
The figure finally descended the stairs and was just a step away. Alexandria tightened his grip, ready to slay whatever vile beast laid in the shadows.
But it was far from what he had expected.
Right in front of him stood the last son of Xeranthis.
Xavriel.
What? How...
"You’re right." Xavriel said smirking devilishly as if reading his mind. "I am a mixed breed."
Alexandria looked astonished. How was a mixed breed possible in a family of vampires? His power radiated strongly off his skin and Alex felt the strong pull from him. He was powerful alright. In all his years as king, he had never witnessed such contradicting power in any being.
It was like darkness and light got married and birthed a baby who was a mixture of both. But weren’t the king and queen who were his parents, vampires? Something wasn’t adding up here.
Xavriel looked at him amusedly. That was the face every single person had when they found out who he truly was. Unfortunately, none had ever lived to show it again...
"Don’t try to reason me out Alex. You’ll only hurt your head." Xavriel said, not minding that he was much more older than him.
"Stop that rubbish and tell me where those devils are being made." Alex fired back. "I couldn’t care less about your pathetic background."
Xavriel paused in his tracks. Well he wasn’t expecting that.
In a flash, the head on the table shot out of the table directly towards him. Alex quickly detected the incoming missile and severed it off again bringing the head to two clean halves. With Alex busy with the head, Xavriel drew out his sword and hurled it at Alex who instantly caught it with his free hand without even looking.
"Wow. You’re a king for a reason I see." Xavriel said smirking as he came down the stairs completely.
"Whatever it is you’re planning to do, it sure as hell wouldn’t happen as long as I’m here."
Xavriel smirked, took his hand out and his sword returned back to his palm in a flash. The sword flew out of Alex’s hand and straight into Xavriel’s.
"Too bad. We can’t have that can we now?"
"We’ll see about that," he said steadily
Xavriel’s eyes flashed with excitement. "With pleasure," he growled, charging at Alex with a fierce cry.
The two men clashed, their swords meeting with a metallic clang. The sound of clashing steel echoed through the vast room, causing the air to thicken with tension.
"I don’t know what sort of abomination you are but you’re not getting past me," Alex said, his voice steady as his sword formed an X with Xavriel’s.
Xavriel’s face twisted into a snarl, his eyes blazing with fury. "We’ll see about that," he growled, releasing his sword from the hold and unleashing a flurry of wild attacks. His sword sliced through the air, the blade whistling as it cut through the space between them.
Alex met each blow with precision dancing his sword through the air with deadly accuracy. The two men exchanged blows, their movements lightning-fast, their eyes locked in a fierce stare.
As they fought, the hall erupted into chaos. Dark magic swirled between the two men, now joining the fight of superiority. It didn’t take long before furniture and other household materials shattered from the pressure of their powers.
The chandeliers above shook with the force of their blows and the light fixtures rattled and swung wildly even though they were barely lit.
Suddenly, Xavriel unleashed a powerful strike, his sword aimed at Alex’s heart. Alex met the blow instantly, swerving Xavriel’s sword away in a fit of rage. How dare this nymph try to kill him?
The force of the impact sent shockwaves through the room and the walls trembled with the power of their blows.
"You’re a worthy opponent, Alex," Xavriel growled, his voice barely audible over the sound of his power rushing around him.
Alex smirked, his eyes glinting with amusement. "I could say the same about you abominable creature," he spat out. Xavriel looked unnervingly mad with rage and saw the best way to show it was through a diabolical, tight grin.
With a sudden burst of strength, Alex pushed Xavriel back, creating distance between them. The two men circled each other, their eyes locked in a fierce stare with their swords ready to slash.
"You know, Xavriel," Alex said, his voice low and menacing, "I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. I always wondered who the bastard was that created such mutated rubbish."
Xavriel’s face darkened, his eyes flashing with anger. "You’ll never leave this hall alive, Alex," he snarled, charging at him with a fierce cry.
As they fought, the fragments from the pyramid descended faintly on them but they didn’t care. Each one summoned their powers against the other, firing balls after balls of dark miasma.
The battle raged on, the two men fighting with every ounce of strength they possessed. The outcome was far from certain as both fought fiercely but only one man would emerge victorious.
Alex dodged at the last second, a ginormous ball that came whizzing past his ear. He counterattacked immediately after, slashing his sword over Xavriel’s heart.
Sweat streaked down Alex’s temple. This bastard was stronger than he thought. They had been fighting for a while and he didn’t even look a bit tired. Every swing Xavriel took was fueled by unrestrained fury, each strike heavier, faster and wickeder than the last. But Alex wasn’t giving up either. He countered with precision and the same energy even if he was starting to feel its toll on his body.
"You think you can still take me on old man?" he taunted, hurling a wave of miasma at him that sent Alexandria crashing into the table where the head had been.
Alex hissed, twisting his blade and forcing himself out of the rubble. "Shutup and fight me little bitch." he breathed out heavily, lunging at him again.
The blade took Xavriel by surprise, cutting through his cloth and flesh and drawing a hiss of pain. Black smoke, thick and writhing like serpents, seeped from the wound instead of blood. Xavriel staggered back, his grin widening and his eyes glowing with an eerie violet light.
Alex stared at the impact his strike had maid in confused awe. Just what exactly was this man?
The air suddenly shifted into a cold, sharp and suffocating degree. Darkness crawled from Xavriel’s feet, spreading across the floor like spilled ink, devouring light and sound.
"Xavriel—!" Alex’s voice was swallowed whole. He raised his sword defensively, but the darkness hit him like a storm. A deafening pulse erupted from Xavriel’s body sending a wave of black energy that tore through the hall and bent the very air around them.
Alex was thrown backward, crashing into the side of the pyramid. His sword clattered across the floor. For a moment, his vision was blurred except for shadows and a ringing in his ears. Dust and smoke filled his nostrils and around him in massive amounts before finally dissipating. When he finally pushed himself up, gasping, the air was still and stale.
The hall was empty. The place was silent...and that maniac was gone.
In fact, the great pyramid behind him was missing.
In its place yawned a hollow stretch of desert space of absolute nothingness. It was as if everything that had happened... had been nothing more than a mere illusion...