Chapter 549: Shackled in Light
The chains snapped taut, dragging Eli’Erel across the broken earth with a shriek of tearing stone.
She twisted, wings flaring wide as shadows poured from her feathers like liquid ink, slicing against the bindings. Each lash of darkness frayed the golden links, but every time one gave way, two more manifested from the molten ground below, reforging themselves in endless succession.
Her scythe slashed down in a vicious arc, cleaving through half a dozen chains in a single sweep. She spun with the momentum, hurling a crescent of abyssal force that ripped the remaining chains apart and carved a trench straight toward him.
Alister didn’t move. A wall of radiant shields erupted before him, layering and folding into one another like golden petals. The abyssal crescent struck, shattered, and dispersed in a bloom of black sparks, the shields holding without so much as a tremor.
With a flick of his claw, the shields collapsed into spears and hurtled forward. Eli’Erel darted upward, vanishing into the storm clouds, her laughter echoing above.
The heavens themselves split open. Darkness gathered in her wake, swelling into a colossal vortex. Tendrils of shadow lashed down from it like serpents, each one aimed to pierce through Alister’s chest.
His wings beat once, surging into the air. Lightning rippled across his body, condensing into jagged bolts that shot upward to meet the tendrils. Each clash thundered like a sky tearing apart, the air itself convulsing beneath the strain.
Then Alister surged higher, his body a streak of gold carving through the night. Light constructs spiraled around him in formation—swords, halberds, and shields, orbiting his frame like a celestial phalanx. When Eli’Erel dove to meet him, her scythe reared back in a two-handed grip, the constructs struck first, each one hammering into her.
One after another they shattered against her weapon, but each impact slowed her momentum until Alister’s own strike came. From his maw, fire burst forth—not flame as mortals knew it, but golden conflagration, molten brilliance that seared through the shadows clinging to her body.
Eli’Erel screamed, her wings folding inward as she spiraled back, crashing through the top of a tower that collapsed under the impact. Debris rained down, glowing faintly where embers clung.
Suddenly, golden chains erupted all around her again, binding her tighter this time.
Alister descended after her, his claws trailing arcs of light that carved through the storm.
Molten craters surrounded them. In the rubble, Eli’Erel tried to rise again.
But every time she thrashed, the chains grew tighter and began to burn with golden flames.
Eli’Erel staggered from the increasing pain, her chest heaving, obsidian feathers dripping with molten rain. Black ichor spilled from her lips in a slow rivulet, steaming as it touched the fractured stones beneath her feet.
She drew in a ragged breath, her voice low but carrying, each word sharpened with venomous grace.
"Overlord... tell me... what trick is this?" she hissed, coughing again, smearing the blood from her chin with the back of her hand. "Why do my shadows fail to unmake your light? Why does my Authority recoil... as if... shackled?"
Her eyes, dark pools swirling with abyss, narrowed with disbelief.
"You stand in defiance of the Abyss itself. My scythe should sever your constructs, yet they multiply. My Authority should reduce your shields to nothing, yet they shine... untarnished. What have you done, Dragon Lord? What have you wrought upon me?"
Alister’s voice rolled out, low and resonant, carrying through the storm.
"What have I wrought upon you?"
He repeated her words back to her, as though tasting them.
"Do you truly think you deserve an explanation?"
Eli’Erel gritted her teeth, blood mixing with rain.
"Dragon scum—"
The ground beneath her ruptured. A radiant blade, blazing with molten gold, erupted upward and drove clean through her chest. Her scream tore from her throat. Shadows bled from her body, writhing in anguish as the blade seared through her essence.
Alister’s form began to shift, his massive frame collapsing inward slowly, transforming into his humanoid combat form, but this time he was a bit different.
Covering his body in radiant constructs of golden armor, he approached her. Long silver hair spilled free, billowing in the storm winds, each strand catching the golden light that clung to him. It drifted around him as though gravity itself feared to touch him.
He walked forward. Each step cracked the stone beneath, yet he moved as if gliding—regal, untouchable. His gaze locked on her trembling form, pinned by his chains, pierced by his blade of light.
"What sort of general would reveal their tactics to the enemy?"
He circled her, his disgust plain, his voice a verdict.
"What sort of king would place his life in the hands of a bandit?"
"What sort of judge would entrust his fate to a warmonger?"
His hand brushed the air, and the blade of light pulsed within her chest, drawing another scream from her lips.
He leaned in, his voice dropping, quiet but sharp enough to carve into her very being.
"What sort of Dragon Lord... would waste words on a creature who serves the Abyss?"
With that, the golden blade ripped free, tearing itself out in a fountain of burning ichor. Eli’Erel collapsed to her knees, trying to clutch at the wound, but the chains kept tightening—yet already, her flesh began to knit, shadows writhing frantically to seal the gash. Steam hissed from the closing injury as though her very body rejected the healing, each breath she drew ragged, poisoned by pain.
And still, Alister stood before her, untouched, haloed in light.
Eli’Erel’s head hung low, shadows dripping from her, until her lips curved into a smile. A dark, broken laugh bubbled from her throat, growing louder despite the blood still spilling from her mouth.
"Hah... hahahah... For a millennium, your kind has perished at the hands of my Lord. Entire families snuffed out, your people torn apart like cattle. And now, because of a single scrambled victory... you posture as though you were some divine arbiter. You act all high and—"
VOOSH!
Her words choked into a scream.
Without gesture, without warning, the earth around her flared. Dozens of burning spears of gold erupted in a circle, each one angled inward, each one piercing her flesh.