Page 58 of Bright Blinding Ruin

Shit. This ain’t gonna be fun.

One of them on my left launches the sphere at me, and I throw up a shield to block it. But as I do, another behind me lets his loose. I let my fiery shield surround me completely, but when the magic hits it, I can feel the sheer power behind Invictis’s attacks. If it was a single blow, I could defend myself no problem, but one after another after another, they attack me from all angles with the same hard-hitting blow, and I can feel the shield dwindling.

I’m knocked back and forth, my heels digging into the ground. My arms are up, my hands pushing against the fiery shield, but they start to tremble. It becomes harder to keep the shield up on all sides, and then it becomes downright impossible. My shield becomes smaller and smaller until I’m on my knees behind it, under it, grimacing under the magical pressure of the continuous assault.

Invictis doesn’t slow down. He keeps it up. When one of him sends the bright sphere toward me, he creates another one, thenanother. It’s a continuous cycle, an assault that proves he is otherworldly.

Fuck this. I can’t stay on the defensive. A few more attacks and I’m toast. I need to turn this thing around, ASAP.

Though I’m damn near out of breath, I still manage to grunt and groan as I push back upon the fiery shield. I give it all I’ve got, like I’m body-slamming him, only doing it with magic. I run against my shield and the force sends it back in all directions like a shockwave. It grows and expands, an explosion of fire that swallows up any leftover attacks and disintegrates the fake Invictis lookalikes.

And the real one? The sudden surge of power knocks the real one off his feet and sends him flying back, colliding with an old, abandoned hut, which then becomes nothing but rubble.

He’s on his back, his wings splayed out around him. I can’t take advantage of his vulnerable position, however, because doing what I did drained me something mighty. I’m breathing hard, can’t quite get enough air in my lungs—but I’m still standing, and right now that’s more than I can say for him.

Not for long. Invictis lets out a growl of rage as his wings push him up, propelling him to his feet. His golden figure lands with a thud, and in the same movement, light gathers on the tips of his wings.

It happens too fast. The light on each wing shoots at me, multiple beams of straight power and light. It’s too soon. I’m too tired. I need a moment, but unfortunately for me, in the thick of battle, there are no moments, so the beams hit me simultaneously, so warm they pierce every single part of me in an effort to tear me apart.

My field of vision turns white, and I’m pretty sure I fall to my knees. My whole body is alight with pain, and I cry out as every muscle in me tenses up.

No. This will not be the end. Not for me.

I reach inside myself and find a hidden reserve of strength, and I rise to my feet as the attack ceases. Sweat lines my brow; I feel like I’m on fire.

Invictis’s hands curl into fists. “Why won’t you stay down? Why won’t you give up? You cannot win.” He throws a few half-assed attacks my way, just to prove to me how weak I am right now. They’re nothing compared to what I survived mere moments before, but it’s still enough to knock me off balance.

But I don’t let the attacks keep me down. Each time I stand, and each time I make sure to send a hard glare his way.

“I’m not letting you destroy what’s left of Laconia,” I tell him through gritted teeth after a particularly hard blast of light to the gut. “I’m gonna stop you.” It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do when I feel like laying down and taking a nap, but I start running towards him and punch the air.

A blast of fire forms, mimicking my punch, and it hits Invictis in the gut, strong enough to knock him off his feet. This time, he’s slower in getting up, even slower in righting himself and standing straight. His wings appear more droopy, too.

Unless I’m mistaken, he looks a little worn out, like he’s not used to this much resistance.

That’s what he still doesn’t understand. He’s not fighting an empress. He isn’t even fighting someone with the power of three empresses. We’re on more equal ground than any enemy he’s ever faced. I bet we could go on like this for eternity.

But that’s not going to work for me.

“You,” his voice comes out haggard, like he’s out of breath even though I’m pretty damn sure he has no organs inside that golden body, “have become the bane of my existence. I have never wanted to destroy someone as much as I desire to destroy you.”

Coming from him, I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.

He blasts me with a solid wave of light, and the force makes me fall to my knees once again. Before I can stand, something hard grabs my left wrist, then my right, and forces my arms to stretch out: two hands made of light itself to keep me on my knees. A third hand forms out of nowhere and curls around my neck as Invictis stalks toward me.

His eight-foot-tall figure appears even taller as he looms over me. The hand around my neck squeezes tightly enough that I can’t breathe, and the ones holding my arms out make it so that I can’t move. Not the best position to be in.

“There,” he whispers. “On your knees for me at last.”

I laugh. Or, I laugh as well as I can, given the fact that I can’t really breathe. The laughter causes him to grow further enraged, and the magical hands holding onto my wrists pull even harder.

“What do you find amusing about this?” Invictis growls out, stretching out his wings until he’s all I can see. “You have lost, Rey. You gaze upon your ruin.”

I think back to everything I’ve done in Laconia, everything I’ve learned. Kneeling there, in such a vulnerable position before Invictis, I should be afraid. I should be scared. But I’m not. I’m not scared because of what I’ve done and what I’ve learned.

Because of what I feel.

“You still don’t get it,” I whisper. The magical hand around my neck loosens just enough so that I can talk. “You’re not just fighting me.” I can feel the threads of his power, the magic that connects him to me through the piece of him that’s inside me, and it’s due to that knowledge that I don’t need my hands to do what I do next.

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