With no time to recover, Aisha was dragged and thrown into a cell. Her breathing came in ragged bursts, tangled hair falling across her face. The blindfold was ripped from her eyes, and the dim light revealed her surroundings: damp stone walls, rusted bars, and in nearby cells, the battered, exhausted faces of Rasen and Steven.
Her heart raced at the sight of them, a spark of hope igniting in the darkness of her mind."Leave them alone!" she cried, her voice trembling yet sharpened with fierce resolve.
Before anyone could respond, a presence filled the chamber. It wasn't physical—rather, it was a weight in the air, a deep echo that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. A voice resonated inside her mind, low and enveloping, like a whisper drenched in power:"Ask it again."
Aisha shuddered at the recognition. Sanathiel.He was more than an echo in her thoughts—he was a force that synced her heartbeat with his. An invisible, unbreakable bond that made her feel small and mighty at the same time.
"Aisha!" Rasen's voice tore through the haze, desperate and unyielding. From his cell, his bruised face and broken body looked ready to collapse, yet his eyes burned with the determination to protect her, no matter the cost.
But the connection with Sanathiel was impossible to ignore. It wrapped around her like invisible chains, binding her between two worlds: the human one, embodied by Rasen, and the merciless darkness of Sanathiel.
When Sanathiel stepped out from the shadows, his figure dominated the room. His golden eyes locked on hers, and everything else fell silent. No words were spoken, yet none were needed—their souls seemed to share a language of their own."You are bound to me," Sanathiel murmured, though his words resounded directly in her mind. It was more than explanation; it was declaration—an undeniable truth.
"No…" she whispered weakly, though even she knew the denial lacked strength. The bond was inevitable.
Meanwhile, Rasen, frail but unbroken, clung to his vow of protection. Forcing himself upright, he drew a dagger hidden in his boot."I won't let you take her," he rasped, aiming the blade at Sanathiel.
Sanathiel didn't so much as flinch. His gaze remained fixed on Aisha, as though Rasen were beneath notice. But before he could strike, Risas lunged from behind and hurled Rasen against the wall with brutal force.
Rasen rolled to the side, evading the beast's next blow with a move drilled into him by Bjorn at the academy: "A warrior falls only to rise stronger." In one fluid motion, he sprang up and drove the dagger into Risas's thigh, drawing a howl from the creature."Your master isn't invincible, beast!" Rasen roared, pointing at the lunar medallion gleaming on Sanathiel's chest. "That talisman binds him to this plane. Destroy it, and Arceo will drag him back into the abyss!"
Aisha froze, breath caught in her throat. Rasen wasn't just fighting—he was fighting with the cunning of a hunter who had survived the circles of death.
Risas ripped the dagger from his leg with a snarl."All your training, and you barely scratch me! Pathetic!"
But Rasen was already moving. Using Adrian's hawk-spin technique, he launched himself toward Sanathiel, reaching for the medallion. A golden flash repelled him, yet for the first time, Sanathiel's brow creased.
Steven, straining against his ropes, glared at Sanathiel with bloodshot eyes. Memories surged: his sister drowning in a frozen lake during Arceo's failed ritual."You killed her!" he bellowed, snapping his bonds with a surge of rage. "You let Arceo use her as a sacrifice to possess you!"
All eyes turned to him. Sanathiel regarded him with cool detachment."Your sister chose to serve a power she never understood. Just as you did."
Steven seized a rusted chain from his cell and stepped forward, each movement weighted by years of training as Arceo's former servant."I betrayed my blood by following that demon blindly… but tonight, your head will be my redemption."
Sanathiel's voice swept through the chamber, ignoring the others."Aisha, don't fight this. It's already a part of you," he said with unsettling calm.
A shiver ran through her. She knew she stood at the edge of a precipice, and falling meant losing herself to him forever. Yet the pull toward him was overwhelming."Am I losing myself?"
Amid the chaos, Rasen staggered to his feet once more, bloodied but relentless. He pulled another dagger from his belt—the one Adrian had given him at graduation. Instead of striking for the heart, he hurled it at the lunar medallion. The blade struck true, a crack spiderwebbing across its surface.
"Bjorn was right!" Rasen coughed blood, but a defiant grin spread across his face. "You're no god—just a prisoner on a leash!"
Sanathiel glanced at the fracture. For an instant, his form flickered, revealing Arceo writhing within.
Aisha felt a force stir inside her. Sanathiel was in her mind, guiding her movements. She lunged, shoving him toward the iron tub as they crashed together. Rasen tried to aid her, but the air thickened with a paralyzing scent. He didn't collapse immediately—drawing on Bjorn's old lesson, he pressed a point on his neck, holding his breath just long enough."The medallion, Aisha!" he choked, before the venom dragged him down."Aisha… don't give in…" His voice faded as he crumpled to the cold floor.
A shadow swept through the cell. Steven surged forward like a storm, eyes blazing with guilt. In his hands, a chain etched with obsidian runes—remnants of his past as Arceo's servant—glowed faintly."You think I don't see through your lies, usurper?" he spat, cracking the chain like a whip. "Arceo promised you power, but he only used your body as a doorway… just as he used Clara's!"
His sister's name thundered through the room. Aisha gasped as a vision struck her: a girl with black hair drowning beneath ice, while Arceo laughed through Sanathiel's body.
Sanathiel dodged the lash, though the chain grazed his shoulder, leaving a smoking scar."She screamed your name before she died," he murmured, his voice laced with cruel seduction. "Steven, please… Does it comfort you to know her last thought was your betrayal?"
Steven roared—not from rage, but anguish. He wound the burning chain around Sanathiel's neck, ignoring the pain as it scorched his hands."Better I burn in hell," he snarled, dragging him toward the tub where Aisha lay, "than let you repeat what you did to her."
Aisha's inner struggle peaked. Rasen's blood, Steven's fury, Sanathiel's voice… it all whirled together. Then the image of the cracked medallion blazed in her mind."Enough!" she screamed—not with words, but with a newfound force. Rising to her feet, she made Sanathiel falter for the first time.
"If I'm bound to you…" she stepped closer, Steven's chain holding him fast, "…then tell me—am I your master, or your prison?"
Sanathiel's smile faltered, golden certainty breaking in his eyes."You are… my contradiction," he whispered.
In that moment, Aisha snatched Rasen's fallen dagger and drove it against the medallion.
The blade struck. A radiant crack split across its surface, and Sanathiel's golden eyes flickered. For the first time, the predator looked vulnerable.
The very air compressed, as though the weight of his existence were being ripped out by the roots. Sanathiel fell to his knees, breath ragged, the world trembling around him.And then—the medallion shattered.
Even broken, Sanathiel did not fall. His body convulsed, fangs lengthening, his shadow writhing against the wall as if trying to escape him."You cannot…" his voice fractured, yet still he reached for her. "You still belong to me!"
But Aisha no longer feared him. With a final, defiant glare, she drove the dagger deeper.
The words struck her like lightning. There was no turning back.Aisha looked at her hands, trembling, her heart a furious drum. She had won… yet something shifted.
The mark on her skin—the bond to Sanathiel—did not vanish.Instead, it burned hotter than ever.
Her teeth clenched as she grasped the truth: she had defeated him… but she would never be free of him.
Her destiny was entwined with Sanathiel in ways she barely began to understand.
The silence that followed was heavy as the shadows around them, and Aisha knew her life would never be the same.