Page 108 of Lord of the Lone Wolf
The necromantic anchors pulsed in unison, gorging themselves on Maseo’s life force at their master’s command. Each heartbeat created new pathways for the death magic to explore. Maseo could feel his father’s invasive consciousness that delighted in his suffering.
“You see?” Nasume taunted, pressing his advantage. “This is what happens when weakness faces strength. I have transcended the limitations of mere shifters. Not only have I touched the Beyond Realm, but I have returned with power you cannot comprehend.”
“You’ve touched lunacy,” Maseo replied through gritted teeth, struggling to stay upright as his father’s magic carved newchannels of torment through his flesh. “And it has consumed you.”
Nasume’s face darkened. “You know nothing of power. Of sacrifice. Of what it takes to achieve greatness.”
“I know enough to recognize when someone has lost themselves,” Maseo said, straightening despite his injuries. “Look at what you’ve become. You’re not even a shifter anymore. You’re a puppet of necromancy, a hollow shell of the king you once were.”
Nasume’s next attack came with blind fury, his technique sacrificed for the power of corrupted wrath.
Maseo countered, his sword slipping past Nasume’s guard to open a gash on the wolf king’s chest. Black blood gushed out, carrying the stench of decay, but the wound closed almost immediately, thanks to the rapid healing granted to him as a full shifter.
“Do you think you can defeat me?” Nasume demanded. “You, who cannot even shift or use magic? I could kill you with a single thought, using the necromancy already inside your body.”
“I don’t need magic to defeat you,” Maseo replied, though he knew it was bravado. The necromantic anchors throbbed with increasing intensity, each pulse stealing more of his life as the death magic harvested his wounds. “All I need is the determination and the knowledge that I’m fighting a battle worth winning.”
“And what is that?” Nasume sneered. “Fighting for love? Freedom? Peace? Childish fantasies, all of them.”
“Justice for all the lives you’ve destroyed in your selfish pursuit of what was never yours to claim.”
Nasume barked out a bitter laugh. “There is no justice in this world, boy. Only power and those too weak to seize it.”
He attacked again, his corrupted sword moving in patterns designed to overwhelm and force mistakes. Maseo defended as best he could, but his injuries slowed him. He could feel himself being hollowed out as his life drained to feed his father’s power, dying from the inside out. It turned every movement into an act of defiance.
Maseo stumbled, almost falling as fresh agony shot through his wounded back. The necromantic damage had spread throughout his torso, creating a web of corruption that pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
Nasume pressed his advantage, his corrupted sword sweeping in for what could be a killing blow.
Maseo parried, the impact jarring his arm and making him cry out as the necromancy inside him responded to his distress with ravenous hunger. It was clear he would lose to his father in an unfair fight. But perhaps there was another way to defeat his father by exploiting his father’s greatest weakness.
“You know,” Maseo said, his tone casual despite the condemnation coursing through him, “Kitsuki and I have discussed what will happen after this war is over and you’re dead and buried.”
Nasume’s suspicion warred with his curiosity. “What nonsense are you spouting?”
“He and Auslin have offered me a trinity bond.” It was wishful thinking at best, but the effect was immediate and violent.
Nasume’s eyes blazed with such intense hatred that it seemed to radiate from him. The corrupted blade in his hands flared with vindictive light, Divine authority twisted by personal fury. “Liar! He would never lower himself to mate with filth like you.”
“And yet he gave me his ring,” Maseo countered, holding up his hand to show the diamond encased by a protective silver dragon that flickered with Kitsuki’s dragon fire. “It’s the first step in a trinity bond.”
It was a complete fabrication, but the wolf king’s entire body trembled with rage, his control slipping with every word Maseo spoke.
Maseo continued pressing his advantage. “When this is over, I’ll have everything you wanted but could never have. Because Kitsuki wantsme, not you.”
“Enough!” Nasume roared, launching himself forward in blind fury.
His powerful attack was driven more by emotion than strategy. Maseo dodged, prepared to use his father’s momentum against him. But at the last moment, Nasume changed tactics. Instead of striking directly, he feinted and swept his corrupted blade upward in an arc. The sword sliced across Maseo’s face, cutting deep from his left cheek through his eye. Divine judgment flayed him open, allowing death magic to establish its most vicious foothold yet.
A flood of shadows invaded the breach, seeking dominion over their new conquest. Necromancy claimed his ruined socket as its throne, establishing it as the capital of an empire of pain.
Nasume cackled, the sound distant through the roaring in Maseo’s ears. “Not so confident now, are you? Let us see if Kitsuki still wants you when you are blind and scarred beyond anything an auramancer can heal.”
Through the haze of pain and blood streaming down his face, Maseo saw his opportunity. Nasume had stepped closer, his guard lowered, confident in his victory. The sword hung at his side, shadows still writhing around its length.
Maseo lunged forward with the last of his strength. His sword, guided more by instinct than sight, found its mark, sinking deep into Nasume’s stomach with a sickening wet sound that echoed through the chamber.
The wolf king’s laughter cut off with a choked gasp. His yellow-green eyes widened as black blood bubbled from his lips. The sword slipped from his fingers, clattering to the floor where the necromancy dissipated without its wielder’s life force to sustain it.
