The first chain snapped with a crack that seed to ripple through the entire Arven Manor.
It wasn't just tal breaking.
It was sothing deeper.
Sothing structural.
Sothing alive.
The scream that echoed through the property reverberated off the walls, down the corridors, and onto the very floor beneath their feet. The dark structures hidden beneath the marble began to writhe violently, like exposed muscles reacting to extre pain. The columns pulsed. The burning tapestries on the walls twisted under bursts of unstable arcane energy. The fire spread even faster.
And the Duchess—
Or what remained of her—
Staggered backward, letting out a grotesque sound, an impossible mixture of human voices, animalistic roars, and sothing far deeper, older, and utterly wrong.
Parts of her body literally disintegrated.
Liquid shadows oozed from her arms as fragnts of bone erged beneath the torn skin. The runes etched into her flesh flickered violently, failing in erratic patterns. Her face could no longer hold a stable form. Her jaw constantly distorted. One of her eyes partially lted into black smoke before grotesquely reconstructing itself seconds later.
But the worst part was the despair.
She was terrified.
"NO!" the creature scread, staggering toward the Duke. "NO! YOU CAN'T—"
Morgana pulled another chain.
The black tal snapped.
And the entire mansion trembled violently.
Part of the ceiling collapsed onto the main hall. Marble, burning beams, and glass tumbled down the corridors below as the surviving veterans tried to retreat amidst the utter chaos. The deford creatures imdiately went mad. So began to collapse to the floor, trembling violently as the runes on their bodies burned like slowly dying embers.
Others simply exploded. Black flesh and arcane smoke billowed from the walls.
Cherry narrowly dodged a creature that literally disintegrated mid-leap.
"I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS HOUSE!"
Elizabeth clung partially to a cracked column as she watched the structure's runes flicker wildly.
"The ritual is collapsing!" she scread. "The entire arcane connection is breaking down!"
"What exactly does that an?!" Cherry retorted, firing another bolt at a crawling creature.
"It ans if we don't get out now, we'll die buried alive!"
It finally hit everyone at once.
The mansion was dying.
And it was taking everything with it.
Another explosion echoed from the west wing. The fire now consud the aristocratic corridors rapidly, spreading through the ancient structures soaked in decades of oil, wood, and fine tapestries. Smoke thickened on the upper floor.
Cedric tried to stand.
The monstrous arm that had pierced his chest had left a terrible wound. Blood trickled continuously down his armor as he breathed with extre difficulty.
Damon finally managed to stand again in the lower hall. His whole body ached. Broken ribs. Blood trickled down the side of his head. His left arm was partially numb.
But his eyes remained fixed on the upper balcony.
On the creature.
On that thing that still wore fragnts of Duchess Arven.
And then he felt it.
The cold.
First it ca as just a slight sensation piercing his skin.
Then ca the pain.
A growing pressure inside his chest.
Deep.
Violent.
As if sothing buried inside him was finally trying to erge.
The marks under his skin began to burn.
Not like fire.
Like ice.
Damon stopped abruptly.
The air around him changed instantly.
The temperature dropped so quickly that even the rain filtering through the broken windows began to partially crystallize in the air.
Cherry looked at him imdiately.
"...Ah."
Elizabeth turned as well.
And for the first ti that night—
She seed genuinely alard.
"Damon..."
He barely heard.
Because at that mont the creature attacked Morgana again.
The deford shadows surged violently across the upper balcony, attempting to seize the Arven heiress as she destroyed another chain attached to the Duke's body.
Morgana cut one of the black masses.
Another grabbed her arm.
A third partially enveloped her throat.
The creature scread as it disintegrated.
"YOU ARE MINE!"
Damon began to climb the stairs.
Slowly.
Each step made the marble freeze beneath his feet.
The nearby fire diminished. The flas literally died down as he passed.
The air turned white.
Ice crystals scattered across the cracked walls of the mansion.
Cedric stared in horror.
"...What the hell is that?"
Elizabeth didn't answer imdiately.
Because she didn't know either.
Or perhaps she knew partially.
And that was worse.
The creature sensed Damon approaching.
The Duchess's warped eyes slowly moved toward him.
And then she hesitated.
For the first ti since the start of the battle—
True fear.
The shadows around her stirred violently.
"No..." the monstrous voice hissed. "No... you..."
Damon continued climbing.
Ice spread across the entire staircase now. The handrails froze. Raindrops turned to crystals before touching the ground. The warped creatures themselves began to slow down as they approached him.
The runes burned.
Freezing.
Silenced.
Elizabeth finally understood.
And paled completely.
"He's nullifying mana."
Cherry blinked rapidly.
"...HE'S WHAT?"
Damon reached the upper balcony. The creature recoiled imdiately.
Instinctively.
The shadows that ford its body began to fail near him. Black fragnts froze and shattered before touching the ground.
The temperature plumted even further.
The very air in the corridor seed dead now.
No heat.
No sound.
No life.
Morgana watched Damon approach slowly while still partially holding one of her father's broken chains. Even she seed montarily shaken.
Because it no longer seed human.
Ice began to slowly rise up Damon's arms, forming crystalline patterns on his skin and armor.
The creature trembled violently now.
"NO..." she repeated. "NO... NO..."
Damon slowly raised his sword.
And the entire balcony froze.
Instantly.
The cracked marble turned white. The creature's liquid shadows partially hardened into black glass. The organic walls pulsating beneath the mansion began to emit horrific sounds as they froze alive.
The thing finally scread.
Not like a human being.
Like sothing being ripped from existence.
And it attacked.
The entire mass of shadows exploded against Damon in a grotesque avalanche of teeth, deford limbs, and corrupted magic.
He went right through it.
Literally.
The sword cut through the frozen darkness as the cold destroyed everything it touched. Black fragnts shattered in the air like breaking glass.
The creature struck his shoulder with a deford arm.
The contact instantly froze the entire limb.
Then it broke.
The Duchess scread.
Morgana pulled another chain from the Duke at the sa ti.
CRACK.
Another link snapped.
The entire mansion tilted violently.
Part of the ceiling collapsed behind them.
Elizabeth imdiately scread:
"EVERYONE OUT! NOW!"
Cedric began dragging the surviving veterans down the stairs while Ingrivid helped Cherry through the rubble of the main hall.
But Morgana didn't move.
She remained by her father's side.
Damon advanced again.
The creature could no longer maintain a stable form. Half of its body constantly dissolved into black smoke while the other half froze under the increasing cold.
Even so, it continued to fight.
It continued trying to reach the Duke.
"YOU WON'T TAKE HIM FROM !"
The shadows exploded again.
Damon raised his free hand.
And everything froze.
Not just the creature.
The arcane explosion itself froze in mid-air for a single impossible second.
Black crystals suspended like dead stars.
Then everything shattered.
The shockwave swept across the balcony.
The Duchess was hurled against the shattered columns.
Parts of her body broke on impact like frozen porcelain.
But she still moved.
She still crawled.
She still tried to reach her husband.
The Duke slowly raised his head once more.
The dark veins were rapidly disappearing now.
His breath seed clearer.
More human.
And his eyes t Morgana's.
Finally.
Lucid.
"...daughter..."
She almost lost her strength in that instant.
But then the creature began to rise again.
More deford.
Less human.
The Duchess's face had practically disappeared beneath the mass of shadows and exposed bone. Her arms stretched grotesquely. Her jaw opened to her chest as distorted voices escaped from within her.
The mansion scread along.
The organic walls contorted violently beneath the broken marble.
The floor was giving way.
The fire rapidly approached the upper balcony.
Elizabeth reappeared at the top of the smoke-covered staircase.
"DAMON!" she scread. "THE STRUCTURE WON'T HOLD!"
He didn't answer.
Because at that mont sothing inside him finally broke completely.
The cold exploded.
An absurd wave of energy coursed across the entire upper balcony instantly. The fire went out within a radius of tens of ters. The rain froze in the air. Entire columns transford into crystalline ice.
Even the creature's shadows froze.
The Duchess tried to scream.
But her voice was no longer coming out properly.
The ice was rapidly advancing through her body now, destroying runes, silencing magic, breaking the connection to the mansion.
She looked at Morgana one last ti.
And for a brief second—
Very brief—
Part of her human face reappeared.
Small.
Fragnted.
Lost within the horror.
"...I..." the voice faltered grotesquely. "...only..."
Morgana watched in silence.
Without tears.
Without forgiveness.
Her father's sword remained steady in her hand.
The creature began to crumble.
Slowly.
Freezing and breaking at the sa ti.
Black fragnts scattered across the balcony like crystallized ashes.
Then Damon finally spoke.
His voice ca out low.
Cold.
"It's over." He pierced the creature with his sword.
The impact froze everything.
The entire balcony exploded into ice.
The Duchess's monstrous figure froze completely for a single perfect instant—
And then shattered into thousands of gleaming black fragnts.
Silence.
The entire mansion seed to stop.
The remaining creatures below simply collapsed.
Dead.
Definitely dead.
The runes faded.
The grotesque heart hidden within the walls ceased.
And then the entire structure began to crumble.
Violently.
"DAMON!" Elizabeth scread again.
Morgana imdiately rushed to her father as the last chains began to break on their own.
The Duke fell forward.
She caught him before he hit the ground.
The tears finally ca.
Small.
Silent.
Human. Damon felt his legs give way.
The cold still raged wildly around him. Entire sections of the balcony continued to freeze as the ceiling collapsed above.
Cedric erged again despite his injury.
"WE NEED TO GET OUT NOW!"
The entire hallway began to give way.
Marble crumbled.
Fire surged forward.
The storm raged through the shattered windows.
And for the first ti that night—
Arven Manor truly seed dead.
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