The grass withered and the earth turned pulverulent, as if poisoned from the roots upward.
Soon the entire horizon was a desolation of ash; such was the effect of Nyxelene's single step.
Unlike the other two, Draven looked unbothered, his hands were clasped behind his back, and he had a calm expression.
"Lisa," he said, walking to her and resting one arm on her shoulder with casual familiarity, "there's no need for you to trouble yourself with her, I am the one she seeks after all."
"Is it because you think I wouldn't be able to hold my own against her?" Lisa turned to look at Draven whose gaze remained fixed on Nyxelene.
"Not what I was implying. I just don't want you fighting a battle that isn't yours," he replied evenly.
He took two steps forward on the now dry land, his boots crunching softly on the brittle earth.
"Nyxelene. You're just as breathtaking as you were the last time I saw you." He spoke in a voice devoid of any warmth
"And you, still refuse to take me seriously," Nyxelene replied as she closed the distance by three paces.
"Of course I do," Draven said with a sarcastic grin that didn't reach his eyes.
"You said you came to see me. Is it because you finally agreed to be my betrothed?"
Nyxelene ignored his question and went straight to the point, her voice so dangerous it felt like Draven's next words would decide whether the night ended in conversation or annihilation.
"Two of my most valuable soldiers were left in a near death state after they crossed paths with you. I think you owe me an explanation?"
"Soldiers of Runevale?" Draven played ignorant, tilting his head as if trying to recall.
"Doesn't ring a bell." He paused, then added with deliberate provocation, "Oh, you mean the cannibal and the Tyrant? Those two were fun to play with."
"What does it matter if some filthy humans die?" Lisa joined the conversation, helping Blank—who was still terrified—to his feet. "Did you come all this way just to avenge two worthless humans?"
"I see," Nyxelene said, closing her eyes for a moment. Her expression remained the same—no feeling, no warmth, just the face of someone stating facts.
"As a Queen, I can not let this slide. You assaulted my soldiers without any reason. Someone has to pay the price. Also, there's a very disturbing problem."
"Nyxelene," Draven interrupted, voice mocking the entire time, "I need to remind you of something before you do anything reckless. He's not here. No one has seen him for a long time. So how do you plan on making me take responsibility without your guardian lover?"
"I don't need anyone's protection," Nyxelene replied, looking particularly at Draven. Her crimson eyes were filled with emptiness. "Not anymore."
"The problem I spoke of," she continued, "is that, Draven, you highly overestimate yourself while looking down on everyone. I'm not the helpless maiden I once was. And if I wished it, I could make your heart stop in three words."
Lisa only smiled, sharp and confident. Blank remained terrified, his knees weak. And Draven… was nowhere to be seen, as if he had simply disappeared.
"Oh," the voice came behind Nyxelene's ear, warm breath brushing her skin.
One moment he had been in front of her, the next—before she could even blink—he was behind her.
"You can make my heart stop, you say?" he murmured, placing his thumb on her cheek and wiping away a particle of dust the wind had blown onto her face.
"That's the second funniest thing I've heard today," Draven said, his voice low and amused. "Even if that were true…"
He slowly walked around her left shoulder to her front, lifted her chin slightly with two fingers.
A pair of scarlet eyes met crimson eyes, the contact sending a chill through the air that had nothing to do with the night wind.
"I could make yours stop before you speak those words."
"Nyxelene," he murmured, his face closer now, his breath brushing her skin, "you're just as beautiful as I recall. Why did you have to choose him instead of me?"
Draven pulled closer, in an attempt for his lips to touch hers—but his lips touched mist.
Nyxelene now stood three paces away from Draven.
Draven laughed hard, for several heartbeat, he laughed.
'Why is he laughing so loudly?' Lisa looked around, trying to figure out what he was laughing at.
"Whose is it?" Draven stopped laughing and asked.
"Whatever do you mean? Why are you trying to change the subject?" Nyxelene asked, maintaining her stance.
"It was brief, but when I touch you, I felt two heartbeats. Nyxelene, you're pregnant, aren't you?" Draven spoke, his tone serious this time.
'What? Pregnant? That can't be true. There's no way she would make such an obvious mistake.
"And so what if I am? You still have to take responsibility for harming my soldiers."
"I ask again, whose is it? Surely you did not turn me down to fool around with someone else, did you?" Draven could not hide the disappointment and jealousy in his voice.
"If it bothers you that much, I'll tell you. It's his." Nyxelene spoke and Blank nearly stumbled.
'No, this can not be allowed. A child of that abomination can not be allowed to live. Is she not afraid of what will happen if word got out?' Lisa thought.
"His child you say, that can not be possible. He disappeared a long time ago, don't tell me you've kept that child in there all this while," Draven spoke, refusing to believe the absurdity of Nyxelene's actions.
Just as Draven had appeared behind her, she appeared behind Lisa and Blank as she spoke.
"That is no concern of yours."
She placed one hand on Blank's shoulder and the other held his arm. With a lazy pull, she didn't just tug; she unmade the connection.
The sound was sickeningly distinct: the wet, heavy pop of a shoulder socket being forced from its housing, followed by the staccato snapping of tendons that sounded like violent violin strings breaking under too much tension. There was no spray of blood at first—only a momentary silence before the vessels realized they were severed and began to fountain.
Blank yelled in agony. It wasn't the scream of a warrior, but the raw, breathless sound of a man whose body had been betrayed by his own terror.
It wasn't that he couldn't do anything as his arm was being torn—he could have fought, could have moved—but because he was terrified. Terrified of the one who backed Nyxelene, not to mention she was carrying his child. They could have the support of all the Void dwellers, but that one person behind her did more than even the odds; he shifted it completely in her favor. So even if he could do something, it would be meaningless.
"Just who in the seven hells do you think you are?" Lisa screamed as her hand dripped with green liquid, already in motion toward her.
"Heed my call Ziorm ish'la," Lisa lept back on instincts after she heard Nyxelene call forth an anomaly. A hand of bones struck the ground where she had just stood a moment ago.
She watched as the rest of the bones materialized in a white and grey mist.
Ribcage formed, spine clicked together.
After a heartbeat, a nightmare of bones stood by Nyxelene. A monstrosity towering almost five meters, dwarfing everyone on the dead field.
It then knelt on one knee.
Its jaw opened. No tongue or throat. Just a dark space where sound should not come from.
The sound came anyway.
"Kr'uzlon m'arné J'orm yo'han."
(Meaning: I am yours to command.) It said to Nyxelene in the same terrifying voice. This time, no ear bled.
"Step forward Delmon." The air responded immediately.
A patch of sky above the boneman's shoulder turns yellow, then green, then black. The edges festered like a wound left too long. And then something pushed through.
A sound like a person who had been allowed to breathe after nearly drowning. Each exhale a defending sound of wind against wind.
Then the head followed. A face of a demon horse the size of five heads of grown men. Seven eyes, none of them the same color, none of them looking in the same direction. A horn curled so tight it pierced its own skull. Black liquid dripped down its skull and sizzled where it landed.
It let out a roar. A terrifying sound resembling no beast of the wild, but of several tortured children screaming in agony.
Draven watched with the same detached expression.
Blank stared at the monstrosities, terror replacing pain.
'To call forth so many corrupted entities, this is not the ability of a human.' Lisa took an unconcious step back.
"Come to me, Vè-thra," Nyxelene called the third entity.
The anomaly did not come from ground or sky.
It came from the shadow.
Not Draven's shadow, not Lisa's, and definitely not Blank's. It crawled out of Nyxelene's shadow.
It had the shape of a woman, a head taller than Nyxelene. It was a silhouette of shadowy mist.
The moment it appeared, darkness swallowed the entire space. The sun shone, but the rays never reached the field they stood on.
Where its gaze fell, the ground darkened even further.
"Answer to your name, Mi'lor." Nyxelene called again.
'What? Just how many does she possess. It's near impossible to tame even one of them, yet they respond so eagerly to her call.' Lisa glanced at Draven, expecting a look of surprise. However, the man watched with blank curiosity as if guessing what might appear next.
The fourth one was the quietest.
It appeared in the form of a man.
It steped out from behind Nyxelene as if it had been there the whole time. Same height as her but he had no face or features. Just a smooth surface where a face should be, like clay waiting to be molded.
It turned its head toward Draven.
And then it wore him.
The shape of his shoulders. The tilt of his head. The way his hands hanged at his sides as he stared at Nyxelene, it mimicked everything.
It just became Draven.
The real Draven watched his own face on a thing that had no soul. And for the first time, he did not smile.
Four terrifying beings stood by Nyxelene while she still held onto Blank.
Draven's gaze swept over the abominations and smiled.
"It's impossible for anyone to own so many corrupted beings. Tell me, did he lend them to you? Was it so that you could protect his child against us? Against the void?"