Chapter 350: Blood And Snow - Usurper
Leviathan turned, and behind her, Amarena saw Halie, bruised and battered, her arms and legs replaced with shaded spaces like blankets of night around her flesh. The rest was hidden by her armor.
"Amarena... it took you long enough," Leviathan chuckled. "I had thought you were defeated by this usurper... But here you are. How?"
"What is this?" Amarena asked. "You died. I saw it!"
"I thought I’d sent you away... Ah, Maledict must have been watching." She stepped away from Halie, but kept her side to the woman. A mark of respect, coming from Leviathan. "You’ve grown... but your power is taking your life, as I feared. That is the price of controlling something you don’t understand... But how are you here?"
"This giant is my opponent," Amarena stepped between Leviathan and Halie. The latter looked up at her weakly. "We were fighting..."
"Ah, and now you are both connected to me... how strange. How unexpected. Maledict told me nothing of this possibility."
"You knew something like this could happen?"
"Speculation. In the past, Demon Lords were sometimes revived by loyal followers. By those who would sacrifice their bodies and minds. Much power was lost by this method, but it was a way of preserving knowledge and power. But time took the method from us, and the abyss knows how Maledict learned of it. Probably from that old sack, Kainur, if not in some dusty Goetic tome."
"Maledict revealed this to you?"
"He did. But I do not intend to use it the way he suggested. I have died, and it is because I am weak. The world needs the strong, Amarena." She shifted, down from her war form and to the more personable form Amarena last saw as a child. "My strength belongs to you now. Not this usurper."
"I would ask you to leave Halie alone then. Leave her body, if you can. But before that, I would speak with her," Amarena stepped closer to Halie.