Curse Of The Vengeful Spirit

Chapter 23: Closing Doors

"Get moving." Carvalierchus ushered as she pushed me to the halls.

I knitted my hands. "You... you--"

As I was going to speak, she whipped the chains against me, rendering me to silence.

"Why would you pour every hatred on me now? If you just given up yourself for a while, you didn't have to suffer like this."

"At least I didn't." I sputtered. "Now what could you call yourself now?"

"I think that's enough." Carvalierchus opened the door to the burning furnace.

The chamber of the Hellfire.

Taking a glance, I saw the bright flames singing in harmony as it ate the other dead Skywraths beneath. Most of their ashes were returned to the Wastelands, their proud energies seeping into small fragments to wander upon, restoring the vitality of the dead lands and enough to use for Scree'auk's minions and servants alike.

Carvalierchus halted. "Now, would you rather face our fallen brethren under the solace of defeat? Just what didn't they deserved?"

I was contorted in fear. Carvalierchus switched my gaze to hers.

"... if I would be a traitor as you wanted me to be, I could've faced that. Listen to me, Shendelzare, we could still avenge their deaths. I know we're from different timeline, but if somebody look in our heritage, we had the same foundation here."

She took off her helmet as she pressed her finger at my crown.

And a bright light enveloped my sights.

---

"Where are we? Is this some illusion again?"

"I'm not an illusion, or alone wandering. I am the embodiment of every Vengeful Spirits in this realm. And they wanted to hear this day to come..."

Carvalierchus' withered wings illuminated as the other thousand Vengeful Spirits came out as dark fragments, facing me. They were mostly all Aerial Knights and Mages who were dead many centuries ago.

And hardly enough to believe, I was the only one who came from the royal bloodline.

"... and so we do. We are enough spending countless days under her reign."

Carvalierchus returned her gaze. "Are we right to be called as traitors?"

I was wrong about her. Every Vengeful Spirit may be different in forms, but all had the same purpose at once. The same voice linked as one, that we were not alone when facing peril... they are not illusions either.

As I stare into confusion, the others pushed away as Carvalierchus turned behind her. I saw my other allies being with their own spirit and their color.

The Phoenix, Davion, and Purist were in here.

"Are we... dead?" Davion asked quite confused.

"Either way." Carvalierchus answered. "... unless if we can't retrieve your bodies down the Hellfires."

"Back to our agreement... should I redeem your sanity now?"

I went to answer her, but I stopped for a while.

"Carvalierchus?"

"What is it?"

I kneeled down in front of the fallen Aerial Knight.

"You can have it."

Carvalierchus shook her head as she helped me up to stand up.

"No need for the formalities, your highness."

Carvalierchus' hand glowed as she opened up my mind using my crown, eventually finding my sanity. The bright light it emitted caught the attention of the other Vengeful Spirits around us, and once it disappeared as Carvalierchus ate it, I felt weak all at once, her inky body eating away my last conscious.

The lights went off.

"You won't regret your choice, Shendelzare." She spoke inside my head.

---

As Shendelzare rose up from the cold floor, some of her textures changed; her eyes that are empty with nothing but black, her hair slightly messed up in different streaks, and her body glowing with faint pulses of violet.

Some mindless minions saw her awakening, they charged at her but the bright flash of her red Talon sent them reeling down to the Hellfire instead.

As the Talon dripped the foul blood slowly, Shendelzare lowly laughed with a dark tone.

But it was not her anymore inside.

It was Carvalierchus' spirit now, heading towards Scree'auk.