Page 102 of Malcolm

“Purpose.” She felt her temper growing. “Is that what you think you gave us?”

Lanias felt herself losing sight of her original goal, as her anger slowly took over her common sense.

Everything she’d endured over the many years felt like nothing now. The times she’d hidden away and the horrible things she’d done to survive were pissed on by this monster. She couldn’t believe that she’d been forced to watch her friends die because some immortals had been bored. And the ones who survived? They’d been forced to endure the hatred of other Beings as if their lore wasn’t one of the oldest. She had to end this here, and now.

Eliza forced herself to stand despite her body feeling heavy. Breathing hard, she pressed her hand to her stomach. The goddess within her was struggling; she could barely feel her energy. “L-Lanias?”

“Give me your hand,” Lanias ordered, holding her hand out. “I don’t have time to explain, you’ll just have to trust me.”

Eliza took it without hesitation, “I trust you.”

“Good,” Lanias smirked, turning her attention back to his Lordship. “I am going to destroy him once and for all.”

“How?” Eliza asked. The black wisp of smoke that curled from Lanias slowly turned lighter and lighter until it was a bright white, as her eyes became darker.

“What is this?”

“Sorry,” Lanias, with a soft smile. “It’s a secret.”

Ruthlessly, she sharply raised her hand, and a large flash of light slammed into Legolas, lifting him up till he shot through the wall behind him. Right after, she released Eliza’s hand.

Elizabeth sucked in a quick breath as memories rushed up, her head felt like it was falling to pieces.

A brown hand pressed against a murky-looking glass. She struggled to open her eyes, only to see the outline of a young woman staring at her. Oddly enough, she was able to make out her sad eyes. “So, you’re me.”

The young woman’s face was blurred, but her voice was clear as day.

“They want to make you like me.” She clearly sounded resistant to this. “I don’t want you to be like me, or any of us. I want you to be free.”

Another memory came, of a young woman staring down at her as rain poured down all around. “Giving you up feels weirder than I expected. Why do I feel like I’m giving up my child? You’re not my kid, you’re nothing more than a left-over experiment that should be gotten rid of, but I can’t bring myself to kill you. So, my clone, I pray you live a happy life with your new family and never, ever remember me. So long, my little copy.”

“You—” The loud exclamation of Legolas pulled Eliza back to the present. She stared at Lanias in both shock and wonder, hardly noticing the fact Lanias's clothes were burning from her skin.

“Yes, me,” Lanias teased, her hair floating all around her as the power that pulsed through her body fully revealed itself. Raising a hand, the shadows erupted once more from the ground this time turning into large hounds. “Now, you.”

The beast lunged forward racing towards the enemy of their master.

“Don’t get so full of yourself,” Legolas screamed, waving a hand violently. A powerful circle of power blasted out. Cutting through the shadow dogs, before being stopped by a pure white shield.

“I am not some lowly being, with barely a puff on the existence scale,” he screamed as he staggered to his feet. Grunting in pain, he let out an animalistic roar. His body was consumed by black light. As his shape grew, so did the black light surrounding him until he stood before them in full demonic form. Large, leathery wings flapped as his soulless eyes honed in on them.

Eliza cringed inside.

He dug his long needle-like fingers into his chest, pulling and tugging on something until, with a crack, a long sword came out. Holding it high, he exclaimed with zealot-like intensity. “You will serve your purpose, numb witch. You will be my sacrifice.”

Feeling the growing surge of power, Lanias’ eyes flickered with weariness and spun around and shouted, “Watch out!”

Just as he made his move, she blocked Eliza's body and wrapped her in a bubble of intersecting white and black ribbons until her magic completely surrounded them.

Eliza shuddered as ribbons slowly started to fall away. Seeing the wounds decorating Lanias's arms and back, her pupils trembled as her eyes turned red. “Lanias.”

Lanias fell back to her bottom; pressing her hand to her side, she coughed up blood. “I’m fine,” she looked around them, “Didn’t think it would come to this.”

Elizabeth frowned, finally taking in where they were. “Where are we?”

Lanias groaned as she forced herself to her feet. “I’ve been trying to prevent this from happening, not that I knew what theywere looking for us for. Only that someone had never stopped,” she staggered, and Eliza, who’d also come to her feet, caught her. “Careful.”

“I was trying to protect everyone from the demons in the dark.” Lanias whispered, “Guess I failed.”

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