Page 224 of Season Warriors & Wolves

She tried again.

And again, it was met with darkness.

Howls rang in the air and the Isjordian forces continued to launch towards us, this time they were aiming for me.

I faded away, avoiding impact, disappearing and reappearing between fighting bodies, claiming as many lives as I could while I took the blunder and force of Aurora’s attacks.

Her pale eyes landed on me and she suddenly dropped to the ground, the force causing those around her to melt and the ground to liquify into mud. She slowly stalked in my direction, tilting her head and studying my magic as it wrapped around her in a large dome to shield those around us, causing her to falter in her steps.

The air hissed the words even before she opened her mouth to speak, “What are you?”

“Night.” At my command, the skies darkened again, the sun hid and the full moon glazed the white winter earth. Aurora stood out in the dark, the pearlescent flames dripping from her skin and hair had lit her like a torch, creating a slew of extended shadows just underneath her and nowhere else.

She glanced down at her many shadows that had gone pin still and began elongating and extending far in the distance until they turned into thin strings attached to the Umbra hiding in the darkness far from here.

And while she was bound in place, I let cold death and darkness pour out of me, crawling and surrounding her until she was engulfed by them. Overwhelmed with life, death only grew larger. But so did her flames. The ground beneath began melting, the snow turning to water and the air sizzling like burnt ashes.

An echo of screams followed suit, skin and bone melting from the unbearable heat she was emitting, and soon, the shadows under her burned, too. Setting her free again.

Fuck.

Macaria’s Crafters between the lines of battle lit up in the glow of their magic, phantom red and violet chains rising from the muddy earth, shooting and wrapping towards Aurora’s limbs. Once she was trapped, her mana seeped through the leaching metal that bound her.

Fed from the harrowing death littering my surroundings, darkness crawled like a hungry beast, rising from every little drop of blood, scream, clatter of metal and caused by the purest forms of emotion—anger, greed, rage.

Those that stepped in my direction all melted into the air, turning and vanishing to dust, feeding the beast made of darkness even more till it rose tall enough and big enough to encircle the guardian. She fought against it, this time she struggled, faltered, white flames disappearing from her body, her skin greying.

She took a deep breath, her body forming a ball of fire before it blasted all over us. Hurting many below. Isjordians, too.

Then—

Skies grew blue again.

And something chilled the air. Not winter. It wasn’t something human or divine in perception at all.

Pellets of rain touched my skin as warning before a downpour blurred all field of vision, soaking all those below. A cloud of storm moved quickly above us, painting the day with grey and filling the wind with a touch of electricity.

Aurora’s white flames hissed at the touch of rain, dowsing a little and she raised her head towards the skies, searching for something.

When the heavy clouds above began gurling beyond disturbed, I knew something was wrong. Before even tasting the sweetness of her magic colouring the air.

Aurora’s attention left me to search the skies that had decided to paint a piece of unadulterated chaos.

All the hair on my body rose, a metallic taste filled my mouth when the wind vibrated and a bolt of blinding lightning striked Aurora—the impact so severe that her body flew back for miles, disappearing between the thick forest, inside a deep crater that stretched the size of a small city.

Quiet fell all around us. The sound of metal clanging faded into faint hisses until it stopped altogether. All waited to see the White Flame Guardian rise into the skies again, her mangled limbs that had contorted, broken and blistered slowly cracked back into place, her ashen skin mending together to hide all scratches and wounds.

Her face slowly broke stoic calm with rage. Her pale eyes had shot wide, searching the ground for what had struck her.

The surrounding was packed with intense and overwhelming magic when dust, smoke and steam cleared. It was like time had slowed and a sense of doom settled in.

A sense darker than death.

Something like destruction.

Heavy. The gravity had grown heavier too.

A hand thrust out from between snow, luminescent veins drawn over the skin I’d touched so many times. Slowly, Snow rose from the ground, almost reborn. Dark hair floating around from electricity, her breathing hard, golden eyes gone, hidden behind a white glow. She looked up at Aurora, her body floating in the air to stand before her.