The Reaper's Wicked Obsession

Isadora saw this coming, and by instinct, she ducked. It breezed past her with a force that sliced through the space, speeding and cutting through the Serpents like they were meat, blood spraying and bodies dropping like a scourge.

Logi roared as he raised his hand above his head, his green eyes beamed and burned brighter, taking over his entire eye socket, torching up like light.

And when he channeled just enough, he dropped his hands and everything came apart.

The platform holding the Serpents collapsed. The entire tower went down.

Isadora’s body was thrown to the side and slammed into a boulder. She swallowed a thick breath, for a minute, her ears lost sound, and her eyes lost vision.

A massive dust cloud shrouded the entire place in a thick gray. But it was harshly blown away by an unseen force.

Isadora pushed her body to sit, holding her bloodied arm.

The tremors had stopped, and the entire tower was now reduced to rubbles. Yet, Aric’s Serpents—though torn and bleeding—rose with milky eyes and twisted limbs, moving like death itself refused to claim them.

Isadora turned her gaze to Aric, a smirk on his lips. There was nothing else sane in his eyes, he was determined to take them down. He won’t stop.

"Logi, wake up!"

She turned to the voice, it was Marek’s, and he tapped the cheeks of an unconscious Logi.

Her eyes scanned the ruin, but Kraven was nowhere in sight. She sniffled, overcome by grief, a constriction in her chest that made it harder to breathe.

But then her nails scraped against the ground, her sorrowful expression morphing into rage.

Isadora forced her body to stand, unsheathing her daggers. "Aric!"

Aric snapped his attention to her.

"You may have taken my aura." She raised her blade, and even as her hands shook, she gripped harder and didn’t falter. "But I haven’t yielded yet."

"I wanted to spare your life, Isadora," he said. "You would have strived by my side, but you still chose him. Your doom."

"I’d rather be doomed than stand by your side!"

"Then come and greet Daudi, Isadora!" He channelled his Serpents, and they came toward her.

But they didn’t come closer, because a force blasted through them.

Isadora used her elbows to block the swirl of dark weaves. The trails of them cut through her skin, but she remained on her feet.

When the blast was over, Isadora parted her elbows, and what she saw next, struck terror into her.

Something emerged from the ruins, taking the debris apart. It was Kraven.

Isadora smiled and took a step, but halted as her stretched lips flattened to a thin line.

It felt like him, yet it seemed like it wasn’t. Whatever stood there wasn’t the Kraven she knew. It was something else.

This something caused a heavy chill to the air that rooted deep in their spines.

When he stood fully, he had no eyes—only round, hollow sockets with dark liquid streaming down his cheeks like tears.

The rune letter that once covered his chest was gone, and endless shadows leaked off him, whirlpooling around him like a tornado.

A grin spread on his lips as he breathed the air like the first time.

His mouth came apart as dozens of ravens forced their way out and shrouded the skies from any potential sunlight.

"You see that, Isadora? We’re now doomed," Aric said. "That is not the Kraven you know; he’s the end."

"No," she whispered, shaking her head slowly.

"I’ll do the world a favor!" He channeled his Serpents to him.

They leap toward him and descend like a plague, but Kraven’s dark weaves tore them to bits until what was left was blood remains.

Even walls and earth around him were reduced to dust, it spiraled and blended with his darkness in the shape of a vortex and the more he consumed the more it got bigger.

Aric stumbled backward, panic filling his bones. "He will kill us all," he mumbled. "Fuck this!" He hurried to run away, but Marek blocked him.

"I won’t let you escape your fate," he declared.

"My fate? How dare you say that to your master?"

"You lost the chance to be my master when you manipulated me!" Marek yelled back.

"I never should have taken you in. You’re a disgrace!" He unveiled a hidden dagger and stabbed Marek right in the chest.

"Marek!" Isadora screamed.

Logi forced his body to its knees, eyes scanning the area until they settled on the scene. "Marek?" He tried to stand but his body collapsed to the ground.

Marek coughed a mouthful of blood, and he slowly lifted his gaze to Logi, giving him a knowing smirk.

"Marek!"

Marek grabbed Aric closer. "Yes, you never should have taken me in, because now the disciple will kill his master."

Aric’s eyes widened in realization, but it was too late. Marek kicked him in the direction of the vortex.

Aric held on to a boulder, his nails digging into it. There was no way death would claim him, not yet! He hadn’t gotten what he wanted!

"Marek!" he called for his disciple.

He stretched his hand desperately, but the force of the vortex was too strong; it pulled him in, and a flock of ravens assembled around him.

His screams were muffled, it was long, excruciating seconds until he was reduced to nothing but blood.

It felt like a weight was lifted off Marek’s shoulder, even as his chest tightened from a foreign pain, he knew he had done the right thing.

Marek’s knees buckled, dropping to the ground.

"Marek!" Logi was already running toward him but his legs gave out, yet that didn’t stop him because he crawled the rest of his way.

Logi held him in his arms. "Gods no! Don’t you dare greet Daudi, do you hear me?" He applied pressure to his wound.

"Heal him!" he barked at Isadora.

"I can’t," she confessed, falling to her knees. Tears slid down her cheek and sobs wreck through. "Aric did something to me, I can’t weave."

Logi’s eyes widened in horror.