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We see you, Dark King.
We bow in the shadow of your darkness.
We are your disciples, Dark King.
It is our mission to free you from your cage.
We will unite the realms in your honor.
And you will finally take the one true throne.
“Please, don’t do this,” I begged, my voice breaking as Mais dragged me to the center of the room. “This isn’t what Hades wants. He doesn’t want this power.”
Mais ignored my pleas, her expression set in stone as she forced me to my knees in front of the altar. With swift, practiced movements, she tied my hands to the altar, the rough rope biting into my skin as I struggled against it.
“This is your fate, Aria,” Mais said, her voice cold and final. “You are the final sacrifice, and tonight, the prophecy will be fulfilled.”
The hooded figures closed in around me, their chanting reaching a fever pitch as they prepared for the ceremony. I looked up at Mais in fear and desperation, but there was no mercy in her eyes, only the fanatical belief that she was doing what was necessary.
There would be no escape. The prophecy had been set in motion, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
The chanting echoed off the cold stone walls and filled the cavernous chamber with an ominous, pulsing energy. My heartpounded in my chest, the sound of it drowning out almost everything else.
“This is your destiny, Aria,” she hissed, her voice barely audible over the chanting.
Before I could say anything at all, she grabbed my wrist with a viselike grip. I struggled, panic surging through me, but I was bound too tightly to break free. Her cold, cruel smile was the last thing I saw before she pressed the dagger against my palm.
I gasped as the blade bit into my skin, the sharp pain shooting up my arm like fire. I clenched my teeth, trying not to cry out, but the pain was unbearable.
Blood welled up from the wound almost instantly. The warmth of it ran down my wrist, soaking into the rope that bound me, dripping onto the cold stone floor with a sickening patter. I could feel the energy in the room shift, the hooded figures chanting louder, their voices taking on a frenzied tone as they sensed the blood in the air.
Mais held out a goblet, its surface studded with shimmering purple stones that caught the flickering torchlight. Without a word, she positioned it beneath my hand, catching the steady stream of blood as it flowed from the wound. My vision blurred with pain and fear as I watched the goblet slowly fill, the dark liquid staining the stones like a twisted, macabre crown.
The pain in my palm throbbed in time with the chanting, the pulse of dark magic swirling around us, growing stronger with every drop of blood that spilled into the goblet.
Mais’ eyes gleamed with triumph as she pulled the dagger away, releasing my wrist and stepping back, the goblet cradled carefully in her hands. She took three vials from around her neckand uncapped them, pouring what looked like blood into the mix with my own.
Then she held it up in the air and a clap of thunder boomed and lightning crackled violently across the ceiling, centering in the middle of the room until it all cascaded down into the goblet.
The lightning’s fierce energy illuminated the chamber in bursts of blinding white. Each flash cast Mais’ face in sharp, jagged relief—her eyes wide with maniacal glee, lips curled into a twisted smile that bordered on madness. The goblet in her hands seemed to pulse with the energy, the mixture inside swirling with an unnatural light, as if it held the very essence of a terrible storm within it.
The lightning storm faded, leaving behind the flickering light of the torches and silence in its wake.
“It is done,” she whispered reverently, almost in awe as she gazed down at the blood-filled goblet. “The final sacrifice has begun.”
The air in the chamber grew thick, charged with an energy that felt like the calm before a storm. The chanting grew louder, more frenzied, as Mais held the goblet aloft, her eyes gleaming with triumph. My vision swam, the pain from my wound making it hard to focus, but I could still see her cruel smile as she prepared to complete the ritual.
Then suddenly, the chamber doors burst open with a deafening crash.
Hades swept into the room like a force of nature. His eyes blazed with an unholy light, violet and fierce, as he took in the scene before him. The hooded figures scattered to the edges of the room, their chants faltering in the face of his wrath. Lioraprowled at his side in her hellhound form, her eyes blazing with the same fury.
“Mais!” Hades’ voice boomed, echoing off the stone walls, filled with a rage so intense it seemed to shake the very foundations of the castle. He advanced on her, his gaze locked on the goblet she held aloft. “What have you done?”
“I’ve done what you were too weak to do, my king,” she sneered with disdain. “I’ve ensured that the prophecy will be fulfilled, that you will gain the power you were always meant to wield.”
Hades’ eyes narrowed, his fury reaching a boiling point. “You’ve betrayed me,” he growled, his voice low and dangerous, every word laced with deadly intent. The air around him crackled with dark energy, the room itself seeming to tremble in response to his anger.
“You betrayed yourself,” Mais retorted defiantly even as the tension in the room thickened. “You let this girl cloud your judgment, made you forget who you are, what you’re meant to be. But it doesn’t matter anymore. With this final sacrifice, you will ascend to the throne of all five realms. Whether you want it or not.”
