Page 141 of Ecliptic

“I grow tired of this,” Erovos said, billowing in shrouds of darkness. His chalky-white hands pulled back his hood, revealing his bony head. Then, his palms shot forward as he blasted me with harvested power, knocking Mithrion out of my grasp.

Rowen shouted my name across the battlefield, rushing toward me alongside a fleet of warriors. Erovos raised his arms and unleashed a sonic wave, halting everyone mid-run. They looked paused in place, but as I peered closer, I realized they were moving imperceptibly slow. It was as if the black hole before me had curved the fabric of time, causing them to exist on a different frequency.

The war cry etched on Rowen’s face twisted my gut. He was frozen mid-lunge, looking like a charging statue. His broad shoulders and thighs rippled with raw power as the veins in his neck bulged. His sweat-plastered hair and short beard framed his ferocious eyes that were locked on me. His sword was raised in the air, ready to murder.

Takoda, Alvar, Dyani, everyone, was caught in Erovos’ grip of time. They would never get to me. I was truly alone.

My gaze darted back to Erovos. “Retreat, or I will drain every last one of them dry,” he said matter-of-factly, gesturing to my soul flame and the field of warriors. “Even if it takes all night.”

“I will never surrender to you,” I seethed as my fingertips pulsated with energy.

He hurled another blast of dark energy, but I pulled up a shield of Light at the last second. My arm juddered from the hit, but my defense held firm.

Erovos slammed into my shield again. This time, the impactwas so vicious that I bit down on my tongue, and blood welled in my mouth.

My heels dug into the earth as he hit me with a barrage of blows.

I gritted my teeth. Every muscle in my body burned and trembled as I held up my shield. The hits came faster and more frequently until it was a straight torrent of power. I cried out in exhaustion, begging for relief. Strength of will was the only thing keeping me going, but my energy was draining by the second.

Erovos was purposely wearing me down, waiting until I was too tired to lift even the smallest tendrils of myself against him. And despite my best efforts, my shield began to lower.

He finally stopped, offering me a brief reprieve, and we made eye contact through my silvery shield. “Let me have you, little light. Surrender, and I will spare your friends.”

I was repulsed and sickened, but he was impossible to overcome. And I had tried everything else. I would have to let him in.

“Fine,” I said with a deep breath of acceptance, and I dropped my shield.

I braced myself, but nothing could have prepared me for his obliterating slam. It was too fast and painful, and I lost sense of who I was.

Erovos grabbed me by the neck and lifted me into the air. I scratched at his hands as my legs jerked beneath me. Tendrils of darkness erupted from Erovos’ back and raised around him like spider legs. The black threads curved over his shoulders, towards me, and I watched in horror as they pierced through my body.

I screamed in agony; the blinding pain nearly making me black out.

Was he suffocating or draining me? I couldn’t tell, but I knew my time was well and truly up.

His hand lowered from my neck, but I remained suspended, held up in the air by his tenebrous arms. Erovos’ power flowed into me like a poisonous IV, and I realized he wasn’t killing me. He was turning me.

“Once my power has filled you, we will make them suffer together,” a dissonant voice echoed in my ear. “As you can see, I’ve decided to spare you. Your new elven form is strong and impressive. Your pathetic human body would have been driven to madness, but now, I believe you will take my darkness well. Think of what I could accomplish with you by my side, the worlds we could consume together.”

A tear slid down my cheek. Erovos was a celestial being, a miasmic shadow whose power eclipsed mine. I thought I could defeat him, but I was wrong. So very wrong.

How do you defeat someone with no weaknesses?

The realization hit me like a meteor shower—you don’t. You join them.

I focused inward and latched onto Erovos’ coils inside me. Instead of letting him feed me with his darkness, I would take it for myself.

“What are you doing?” he demanded as I glutinously stole from him. He tried ripping away from me, but I didn’t let him budge. We were connected now.

His power couldn’t be destroyed, but it could be contained. Within me.

His darkness bled through me, into my eyes, and the sky blinked out.

I choked on dread as horrifying images flashed in my mind: writhing bodies, melting faces, and vicious beasts played on a constant loop. Decaying flowers and bodies surrounded me; their shriveled vines and hands wrapped around me and dragged me down.

A burning clawed at my stomach and throat. I felt Erovos’gravitational hunger, desire, and satiation after feeding. It made my mouth water. I turned my starving stare to the people around me, ready to feast.

Suddenly, something stronger than the hunger burned in my chest. My soul flame bond! It was whole, pure, and the most powerful thing in the universe.

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