Roxanne swung the dagger. Valeria switched places instantly, appearing elsewhere in the room as though she had never stood where the blade passed.
"I knew you would not be easy to kill," Roxanne said.
"Then let me tell you something," Valeria replied. "If you want to kill me you will have to do it before I kill you."
"Let us see," Roxanne said.
Valeria pulled her sword free in one swift motion and drove it forward immediately. Roxanne dodged and the blade cut only air.
Then Valeria vanished.
Completely. As though the room had simply absorbed her.
Her voice came from everywhere at once, bouncing off every surface without a single point of origin.
"You are new here. You do not know what I am." Her tone was unhurried. Almost entertained. "I am the overall commander of the Bloodmoon Army. Every soldier, every order, every campaign runs through me. I have eliminated over three million enemies and not one of them lived to speak of it. I am the only undercover army commander this kingdom has ever had." A pause. "Did you truly believe that a title called Matriarch would make me fall for your kindness? I saw through you the moment you returned. Every smile. Every bowl of porridge. Every visit." The voice moved without warning. "I was playing inside your trap deliberately. Keeping you comfortable and close until Fiona delivered the heir. Then I would have removed you quietly and permanently." The temperature in the room dropped. "How dare you move against the Royal Family of Bloodmoon. Do you have any idea what it cost to carve that key into my own heart?"
Roxanne stood in the centre of the room and closed her eyes.
She did not search for the voice. She did not track the movement.
She went inward.
Every thread of power she had built across weeks of cultivation she pulled toward a single point, feeding it into the dagger until the blade began to shift. The metal stretched and brightened, glowing from within, deep silver light pulsing outward in waves until the dagger had become a sword entirely, humming with everything she had poured into it.
She opened her eyes.
Valeria struck from the side. Hard and fast.
Roxanne raised the glowing sword and caught the blow. The impact shuddered through both of them.
Then Valeria's boot drove into her stomach.
Roxanne rolled. Once. Twice. Countless times across the stone floor until her body hit the window frame and stopped. Blood gathered at the corner of her mouth.
Valeria appeared in front of her instantly, sword raised.
Roxanne looked up at her.
"Anima Impero."
Valeria locked. Every muscle seized, her body frozen mid strike, her eyes wide and fighting it.
It bought seconds. Only seconds. But seconds were enough.
Roxanne moved behind her in one motion and drew the glowing sword across her back in a clean slash.
Valeria dropped to the ground. Her hand went to the wound immediately and she pushed her power into it, willing it closed.
It refused.
The wound stayed open. Bleeding steadily. Unchanged.
Valeria stared at it.
"A wound from this sword cannot be healed," Roxanne said, standing over her. "Not by you. Not by anyone."
Valeria rose slowly, one hand gripping her sword and the other braced against her knee, her breathing controlled despite the wound that would not close.
Then the mist came.
It crept in from every corner of the room simultaneously, thick and fast, swallowing the furniture, the walls, the floor, until the entire space was nothing but white fog and the sound of breathing.
Then the slashes began.
Fast. Invisible. Coming from directions that did not exist.
Every time Roxanne opened her mouth to speak the activation Valeria was already there. A cut opened across her shoulder before the first syllable. Another across her back before the second. Her knee buckled from a slash she never saw coming and a final blow caught her foot and sent her down hard onto the stone floor.
She lay there looking up.
Valeria materialised above her, sword pointed directly at her chest, the mist curling around her like it belonged to her.
Roxanne looked straight into her eyes.
"Anima Impero."
Valeria locked.
Roxanne drove the glowing sword upward into her chest.
The Soul Command shattered the moment the blade landed. Valeria's weight came down on top of her, both of them hitting the floor together. Then Valeria's hands found her throat and closed.
"If I die," Valeria said, her voice barely above a whisper, blood at her lips, eyes burning. "Then we die together."
The grip on her throat released. Valeria dropped sideways onto the floor, blood spreading beneath her, her body still.
Roxanne dragged herself upright. She looked down at the dagger and watched it transform back into its smaller form as the power receded. She crouched over Valeria and pressed the blade against her chest, directly above her heart.
It pushed back.
Like opposing magnets the dagger refused to sink, repelled by whatever ancient power had sealed the key inside her. Roxanne pressed harder. The resistance grew. She gathered everything she had left, every thread of cultivation, every ounce of will, and drove the blade forward with a single scream that tore through the storm.
Valeria's chest cracked open.
The key sat inside, exactly as Corrine had described. Roxanne reached in and took it.
Valeria's hand closed around her wrist.
Her voice came out broken but certain.
"I curse you," she said. "Everything you build from this night forward you will lose. Your death will be miserable and embarrassing. I promise you that."
Roxanne looked down at her.
"I refuse to die," she said simply.
Lightning struck and the room blazed white for a single moment, long enough to see Roxanne's eyes clearly.
Bloodshot. Unbroken. Completely certain.
The moment the key left her chest Valeria's blood turned black, spreading through her veins visibly beneath her pale skin until every trace of colour had drained from her completely. Her body stilled.
Roxanne collapsed beside her.
Her white gown was soaked through entirely, her own blood indistinguishable now from everything the room had witnessed tonight. The glowing sword was gone. The key was in her hand.
Her eyes closed slowly.
The storm continued outside, indifferent and relentless, rain pouring through the shattered window across two women lying side by side on the floor of a palace that did not yet know what it had lost.