Page 56 of Court of Aether and Shadows

There was my target, screaming in agony as tendrils of shadows scurried to wrap around the endless flow of red that seeped intricately out of the single wound.

As if sensing my return, more than one entity looked my way, but my focus was on the creature of protection that had wrapped around my neck. The slithering beast further extended forward, just as the entities far in the distance shot outward — heading straight for us.

A barrier of red followed by glass tiles of shadows emerged before us, creating a barrier before the roof I was perched upon. The shadowed creatures crashed into the surface, screeching inhuman sounds that could surely pierce one’s eardrums with the heightened pitch of their outcries.

The snake’s body twisted until those eyes of precision landed on me.

At first, they were as black as the night, small and curious like any harmless creature. Then, they began to shift, a mix of hibiscus red and cyan turquoise.

Mismatched and yet the same, a balance of innocence and merciless agony. When our eyes locked, for a few seconds, everything made sense.

Its presence, its protection, its urgency to steal the sacred breath I needed to breathe.

It wanted me here.

Needed me to kill the beast in the realm it bloomed from.

Suddenly, it made so much sense, despite it not making sense at all.

Like riddles, desperate to be solved, but missing all the pieces needed for its completion.

But I’d cracked the code.

That’s why I’m back.

I don’t need to move because I’m already in position. All I need is to pull the trigger that will hit the very man who dared wish for my end.

The beginning and the end?

Suddenly his words were but mockery in this realm.

You should take your own advice, oh wise one.

If I had the ability to smile, I’d be grinning and showing my white set of teeth.

The snake hissed, a warning of what was to come — the sound triggering a reaction that shattered the glass in one go. The creatures of darkness were forced back, and there was my vision, forcing me to take sight of the man as he struggled to rise on his knees.

He peered at the triumphant sound — hands rising, like a man desperate to pray for one last drop of salvation. It was a pleasant sight that ignited a sense of Deja vu.

This has happened before. We have met…in another life.

A shame.

I end up thinking to myself because it is.

You let the past repeat itself a second time…wise one.

One of them.

There are more.

Which is why I need to slay them all.

Before they dare ruin what was destined to be mine.

A second time.

The sound of the trigger follows with the cloaked man falling backward. The screeches of dismay went up an octave, as if to mourn what was now destroyed and would soon be forgotten.

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