118ｔｈ ｄａｙ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｙｅａｒ
Nighttime, near morning
~~~
“We have literally been walking for hours! It's almost sunrise!”
“Just continue walking.”
“I am! Sometimes I wonder why can't I fly.” Valiana rested her hand on the tree next to her to massage her foot.
Iron flew around her then stopped in front of her. “The flower could help you with that if you hurry! We don't have much time, Valiana.”
“Why? What's so important you don't have time?” The violet-haired young woman frowned in concern.
“Forget it-- look! The cave's there!” The demon pointed at a point outside the forest.
“You're right, I think I can see it. C'mon, let's go.”
“I'll wait here... You can go while I stay to guard the territory. There are a few friends with us out here...” Iron's whip was now in her hand. She whisked at something in between the trees, where she pulled a huge werewolf twice her size. “Ahh, it's you.”
The werewolf's loudly growled at Iron. She laughed.
“Don't tell me you're still mad my people eliminated half of your pack?”
Valiana was shivering at the size of the creature standing above her. “Iron, who's that?!”
“Oh, just an old friend. Meet the Alpha and her minions,” Iron waved her hand and the supernatural werewolf almost bit her arm off. “Oop, we have a bit of an attitude today. Woke up from the wrong side of the bed?”
Yet, another growl. A few other smaller werewolves surrounded the two.
“What's he so mad for?!”
“He is actually a she--”
“Watch out!” Valiana pointed at a werewolf jumping towards the Demon Queen.
“Pfft, I got the hang of this, I like catching up with old friends. You go!” Iron's whip shone bright red and slapped the werewolf away. She looked at the next few werewolves. “Who's next, uh?”
Valiana runs into the cave, but it was too dark for her to see so she enchanted a few words and stole a small proportion of the Moon's light. She kept walking but the cave seemed to get longer and longer and the violet-haired woman couldn't see the end of it.
“This is getting tiring-- I... see something..” Valiana fastened her pace towards a ball of light.
There lied the mystical plant. The moment she stepped closer, what was only green a moment before has become one of the most vibrant blooms. As she kneeled, obstructed by the voluminous light and power, Valiana held the flower in her fingertips so that it did not touch her scuffed palms.
How was it that in all this chaos, this delicate bloom survived?
Valiana's eyes widened in happiness. “So... much energy. And... it's all mine.”
As she muttered these words, her bright violet hair darkened to a very darkish purple, her eyes became even brighter and evil. Her soul also darkened. This was the power of the flower was doing to her; it was corrupting her mind because of its power.
“A... petal is missing?” Valiana carefully caressed the missing spot. “Don't worry, my sweet flower, you will soon shine with all of your petals.”
...
“You found it?” Iron questioned, still in a battle with the werewolf alpha. - “Hello, I'm talking to you.” - She sarcastically reminded, waving her hands.
“It's here.” Valiana showed her palm with the magical plant.
The Demon Queen sensed vibrations that were satisfying for her. “So much vitality and energy... I want it, give it to me.”
“No.” The purple-haired said flatly in one breath.
“Yes, this now belongs to me!” Iron directed her whip towards Valiana, who hadn't the intention to dodge the hit but catch it with her hand.
Valiana looked directly to Iron, tightening her grip on the spikey whip as blood dripped down her hand. “Watch your mouth and bow to me. From now on, I am the Empress of you all; The Empress of the Underworld.”
The werewolf Alpha and her followers bowed as Valiana requested and Iron stepped back, trying to get her whip back to her but Valiana was so much stronger at the moment. “What-- no way! She's a divinity! You can't be her--”
“No, I am Her Excellence. I know where I belong to now and soon I'll show them to the Gods what I'm made of. They shall fear me for disrespecting my prayers!” Valiana noticed a few rays of the sunrise and groaned. She raised the flower in the air: the yellow petal shone and so did the Moon, dragging the Sun back down, lengthening the night even longer. “S-Spectacular!”
“How were you able to accomplish that?!” Iron struggled to talk.
“Iron I thought you knew about this legendary piece. Did you know, this flower is based on different powers on different petals? There's the power of intelligence,”
The magenta petal glowed.
“The power of magical symphony,”
The pink petal glowed.
“The power of water oceans,”
The blue petal glowed.
“The power of light, which is the one I used,”
The yellow petal glowed.
“The power of the essence of creation,”
The green petal glowed.
“And the power of burning flames.”
The red petal glowed.
“Please, Valiana I will be in your presence if you free me with the help of the moon because that's how the Gods imprisoned me. I only appear at night alongside the moon!” Iron pleaded, kneeling at the new empress and continued begging. “I want to be free! I promise, my demons will work for you.”
Valiana smirked. “Your inner demon has been asleep for a long time. It's time to rise, sister.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“And let's make sure humans also know what's about to come for them.”
~~~
“Valiana-- oh dear heavens, where the heck is she?!” Marcellus screamed to the workers, who were fearing for their lives. “I want to know what happened to the Sun, and I want to know right this moment!”
“S-Sir, Lady Valiana hasn't r-returned to her chambers. We don't where she is--”
“What do you mean, uh?! You had one job. One. Job. To control any suspicious movements made by her outside the castle! And you couldn't even do that!”
A worker gets on her knees. “We're s-sorry! It's just we never noticed anything wrong with her-- well except she talks in her sleep..”
“She talks in her sleep? How is that supposed to be helpful right now?!”
“I'm sorry! It's just that--”
He ignored the worker. “Get out of my face.”
“Sir, Sir! There's a huge problem!” Another lady worker approached Marcellus as she was out of breath. “Sir, someone freed the Shady Mortem from the Death Forest and--”
Marcellus punched the wall next to him, causing it to tremble a bit. “Excuse me, you said what now?!”
“Um, i-it's not all. The Shady Mortem is going towards the village alongside the legendary Alpha and its pack. If the Sun won't rise anytime soon, they will reach the village in no time and there will be chaos...”
Marcellus frustratedly walked past them, groaning in a continuous disturbance. He felt pressured because that day his Sun hadn't risen like it always did for more than a million years. He felt a strange force, that made it impossible to get the Sun to begin the day and warm the humans. Something was off, then he saw her entering the palace.
“Valiana-- is that you?!” He couldn't recognize the woman for a moment as he noticed not only her hair color changed, but something in her eyes seemed off.
“Marcellus, I... don't know what's going on,” Valiana mumbled, holding her head but he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her somewhere else. “Hey! Chill out!”
“Don't tell me to chill out. Not today, Valiana.” He kept dragging her far away from everyone so they could be just the two of them. She rolled her eyes when he finally stopped and turned around to her. “What's going on?”
“What?”
“I said, what is going on, uh!”
“Well, what do you mean?”
“Valiana, please don't get on my nerves. Why is the divine Moon still up in the sky and has turned red?!”
“R-Red?!” Valiana run to the window and looked up at the sky. She smirked. “What does that have to do with me?”
“Sanania has informed me that you trespassed the outer line to infiltrate in the forest and that your little sister was further there with you.”
“She's always sticking her nose in other people's business because her life must be so boring and Alena doesn't have anything to do with this. She only followed me outside.” Valiana stared at him in sternness then back out the window again. “And for your information, I think the Moon looks beautiful.”
Marcellus cringed. “So it was indeed you! What have you done?”
Valiana slowly stepped closer to him. “Me? I didn't do anything. Just picked something up from the forest. A piece of lost jewellery, hidden by the Gods.”
“What happened to your eyes?” Marcellus, with a single touch on her cheek, Valiana closed her eyes and opened them again, feeling herself again. They became brighter like they always were.
She looked around her surroundings, calculating her location at the moment. Valiana doesn't remember much of what went down in the forest until she looked at the Moon.
“What happened to the Moon?”
Marcellus frowned. “You are unbelievable.”
Valiana stepped back as she closed her eyes and swung her hands in a circle. Marcellus wanted to stop her but he also wanted to see what she was about to do. After a few seconds, her hands were holding the flower again.
The Knight stared deeply at the plant, shook.
“I remember holding this... I don't remember what happened after, it's like someone took control of me..”
“..Where did you get that?”
“...”
“If you tell me, your punishment won't be so bad.”
“Punishment for what?”
“Just tell me where did you collect that?”
“Uhm, don't get mad. I did go into the Death Forest--”
“I want you to know if you're involved with the Shady Mortem's escape and the Alpha. They're about to hit the human village!” Marcellus waited and Valiana was about to protest as she raised her finger but no words fell out of her tongue. “How- How could you?!” The Knight man screamed, in disbelief and the hall reverberated his voice.
“What do you mean-- You know I did what I had to do!” Valiana cried out, responding back to the man standing in front of her, who had a mix of disgust and anger towards her. In the meanwhile, behind the huge curtains, a girl, with her platinum hair wrapped in a braid, witnessed the whole scene.
“No, you're totally being selfish right now! Don't you see all the people around you are suffering because of you!”
The reality hit her. “I... I did not want it to end this way. I swear...”
“Oh, give me a break Valiana! This is what you always planned and wanted to do. You know what, get away from me and my world. You are banned to ever enter foot again. For life!” He declared, shocking the woman.
Valiana put both her hands in a fist, trying to contain herself. “What!? You can't do that! The Gods--”
“After all the trouble and let's not forget all the pain you gave, I think it would sound reasonable to them. Now, leave and never come back, abomination! I never, and I mean ever, want to see you again. Go, you are dismissed.” Valiana couldn't talk instantly, she felt betrayed by her own lover.
“As you wish.” Valiana turned on her heels, commencing walking out with her dress swinging along her hips.
He frowned and immediately stopped in her tracks. “Where do you think you're going? If you think Alena will come with you, drop that idea out of your head.”
“Wait what?! Who do you think you are? No, I won't agree with you on this!” Valiana turned back around, to the man and looked straight into his orange eyes that now looked evil to her, not full of the usual love and lust she always saw.
“Oh, last time I checked I think I can do that.” He told confidently.
The purple-haired woman wanted to take her jewel out and challenge him to a battle so she could finally finish him once for all but unfortunately, she couldn't just kill the love of her life so she just used her own words to stand up for herself.
“You might be better than me, having better self-control than me or be more powerful than me, but you won't take Alena away from me.” Valiana broke down and could not hold back tears from her cherry eyes, that unsurprisingly darkened because of her emotions.
All this chaos made from them, a tear escaped from the girl's ruby eyes as they didn't know she was listening all along.
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“Valiana, I'm talking to you!”
“Uh?!”
“Before you take your leave, I have the right to collect that flower from you.”
Valiana clenched her teeth, tightening the grip on the plant and secretly activating her powers without him noticing. “No, you don't!”
“Yes, I do. Whatever this thing is, it might push those creatures back and let the Sun rise again because if it doesn't I'll be the one getting punished by the Gods.”
Valiana mocked him. “And what are you going to do if I refuse? Last time I checked, the Sun isn't up so your powers against me won't be so powerful--”
“Oh really?”
In just a split second he was behind her back and he didn't even have to activate his powers. Valiana gulped, not moving to show she's not intimated and swallowed her pride.
He leaned in her ear. “Liked my new trick?”
Valiana scoffed. “Always been a showoff.”
“They don't call me Marcellus the Young Warrior for no reason.”
“Don't be so cocky.” Valiana threw the flower in the air and quickly did two roundhouse kicks with her legs, first time he hit him but on the second try he got her leg and threw her away. “Ugh!”
“Don't attack me, love. You shouldn't have thrown that precious thing--” Marcellus opened his hand, right when the flower landed on another person's hand.
“You two better stop fighting!” Alena cried, especially to Marcellus.
“A-Alena? What are you doing here?”
“Alena don't. Get away from here, this doesn't involve you.” Valiana pleaded as she muttered the words.
Marcellus instead blocked the view of the woman as he kneeled to talk to Alena. “Be a good girl and give that to me.”
“No! My sister had it first.” The little girl approached her older sibling, checking if she was okay and her condition. “Sister?”
“I'm alright.”
“M-Marcellus attacked you?”
Valiana stood up, as Alena returned what was now hers. “But, I'm alright, it's just a small argument. I was about to leave anyway--”
“You're no good for her! Did anyone ever told you never to hit women!?” Alena screamed at Marcellus. She has actually been able to upset him because to him, Alena felt like she also was his little sister and he certainly didn't like her raise of voice.
“Watch who you're talking to!” He aggressively grabbed her arm and that's when he pushed Valiana's buttons.
“Don't touch her!” Valiana shooter a few moonlight lasers at him but he ducked and got hit on his cheek.
“Oh-oh, I'll show you today. You know, I wanted to deal with you then use this spell to contrast the enemies but let's see the preview on you,” Marcellus let go of the little girl's hand as he enchanted the following words. “In the name of the Gods, I command; Sun power come to me and destroy my adversaries!”
Valiana pulled her arm over her forehead, the light blinding her eyes as she forwarded the flower and was about to shove the upcoming spell that has a high chance of killing her.
But Alena jumped in.
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ℐ𝓃𝒸𝒶𝓅𝒶𝒷𝓁ℯ ℴ𝒻 𝓁ℴ𝓋𝒾𝓃ℊ
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°°°°°°°°°
END OF CHAPTER 24! (PART 3/3)
Y'all, I really thought I posted this chapter this morning and I was waiting for your votes and comments, unaware this whole time it was in my drafts! But now it is published :)
Valiana's three-part story has ended (for now). There are still things you all going to find out in later chapters.
Although, since I know how this book is going to end (sadly, but not anytime soon), I am going to write a second book, because why not.
Literally been thinking the plot of this book is downgrading, but we move.
If you want more, make sure to VOTE and leave a COMMENT for upcoming chapters. (I make this sound like the end of a YouTube video lmao)
Until then, see you next time fairies.