Page 121 of Demon Monster's Little Human

The ground cracks. The sky ripples. The creature lunges.

Dain rips me away just as a tendril of darkness slashes between us, barely missing my chest. He moves fast, wings flaring wide as he shields me, snarling like a beast, his hands glowing with raw power.

"We end this," he says, his voice thick with a promise.

The artifact screeches.

The presence unleashes itself in a tidal wave of shadows, reaching for me, for Dain, for everything.

Dain lunges, not away from it. But toward it.

His power collides with the darkness, a violent clash that shakes the ruins, sends fissures tearing through the earth.

I stumble back, heart hammering, watching him fight, watching him throw himself into battle without hesitation.

Something in me snaps.

I won’t let him do this alone. I won’t be a curse anymore.

I plant my feet, summoning everything—every past life, every pain, every power I never wanted. The magic answers.

It rises from within me, raw and untamed, and this time—this time, I don’t run from it.

I embrace it.

A surge of golden light ignites around me, burning through the shadows, forcing them back. The creature recoils, screeching as I step forward, power crackling through my veins.

Dain turns, and his eyes widen at the sight of me.

I lift my hands, feeling the magic course through me, and for what feels like centuries, I speak the words Amara once spoke to protect him.

"I seal thee."

Light erupts.

The entity shrieks, convulsing as my magic, our magic lashes around it, binding it. Chaining it. Dragging it back to the void where it belongs.

The artifact fractures, cracks racing along its surface.

I see it then, the moment Dain understands.

The only way to end this.

His gaze locks onto mine, fierce and terrifyingly gentle.

"Liora—"

I don’t let him finish.

I pour everything into the final spell, into the seal, into the only thing that will keep the darkness from ever coming back.

The artifact shatters.

The presence lets out one last, agonized wail and then it is gone.

Silence crashes over the ruins.

Dain is on his knees, panting, his body covered in bruises and claw marks. The magic still hums between us, alive, whole, but different now. No longer a curse.

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