Bloodline: Sovereign's Awakening - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: When Radiance Breeds Ruin IX
Iskayna could do nothing but watch in horror as Prina and Yvandro drifted toward the collapsing Abyssal Titan. Their movements were slow and reverent, their forms gliding through the thickened miasma like specters returning to their master.

The Titan’s massive, deformed body twitched. A guttural, voiceless plea for salvation echoed across the battlefield, not in words but in a silent, primal resonance that rippled through the air.

It begged. Prina and Yvandro smiled. A tremor ran through their monstrous forms, not of pain but of exultation. As if, at this moment, they had found what they had unknowingly sought all along.

“To transcend…”

Yvandro’s body twisted violently, the mist that composed his limbs deforming into a mass of writhing serpentine tendrils, each pulsating with malevolent hunger. His very form unraveled, his existence dissolving willingly.

Prina, in contrast, simply dissipated.

Her form shed away into delicate, shimmering particles like ashes caught in the wind, like a soul dissolving into oblivion.

And then—

They merged.

Monster and man. Abyss and the fallen stars of Tala Nobility.

Their fragmented essence spiraled around the dying Abyssal Titan, converging into its gaping wounds, sinking into its collapsing frame like ink bleeding into flesh.

A storm of blackened light erupted as their corruption fused into one, twisting, reshaping, and coalescing into something new. Something far worse.

The air cracked. The fabric of the world trembled.

Gone was the mindless, savage Titan.

Gone were the fragmented, corrupted Prina and Yvandro.

What stood in their place was no longer a beast.

It was a being.

A fusion of intelligence, power, and abyssal hunger. A convergence of three forsaken souls into one singular atrocity.

Its form had compressed into a horrifically human shape, yet still, something utterly inhuman. Its face…

A twisted amalgamation.

The overlapping features of Prina and Yvandro, their expressions locked in an eternal grimace, twisted, incomplete, and their forms barely holding together. The Abyssal Titan’s monstrous flesh still clung to their newly shaped body, reshaped and condensed into a mockery of mortal existence.

Its arms—elongated, clawed—held massive, gaping holes lined with glowing, staring eyes, unblinking and filled with endless malice.

Its lower half defied understanding.

A grotesque convergence of flesh and shadow, shifting between solid and ephemeral, writhing as if reality itself rejected its existence. Countless disembodied eyes orbited its form, floating like celestial sentinels of madness.

It had become something more.

Something beyond simple corruption.

Something far greater, far deadlier.

A being that did not just consume—but devoured.

An Eclipse Devourer.

Iskayna’s breath hitched.

Her knees buckled, her body screaming at the sheer weight of the monstrosity before her.

This… this was beyond her.

Even in her peak state, she would have never stood a chance.

The mere existence of the Eclipse Devourer sent waves of corruption spiraling outward.

The Celestial Seal Castle reacted violently to the impurity, its ancient barriers flaring to life in desperate resistance. Sacred glyphs along its walls pulsed erratically, their inscriptions attempting to purge the invading darkness.

But the Eclipse Devourer did not falter.

Its presence alone was enough to unravel the celestial defenses.

Outside, Saphira and Marcon—tasked with maintaining the barrier—gasped in agony.

Without warning, blood erupted from their lips.

As if struck by an unseen force.

The two exorcists staggered, clutching their chests as invisible hands seemed to crush their very souls. The sheer force of the darkness pressing upon the domain was suffocating.

And then—

Iskayna coughed.

Her lungs burned. Her vision blurred.

Even with her enhanced immunity, even with the power she had cultivated for years—

She could feel it failing.

The miasma had become too pure.

Not just corruption.

Not just malice.

This was something else.

Something that should not exist.

As her hands trembled and her spear wavered, Iskayna did not just feel powerlessness.

She felt fear.

The Eclipse Devourer suddently twitched even before it could wreck havoc.

Its grotesque form, once thrumming with abyssal hunger, seemed to halt unnaturally, as though chained by an unseen force.

The suffocating corruption of the endless tide of malice and despair just suddenly dissipated.

It was as if the very air had shifted.

The darkness that had clung to the land like a disease was swept away in a single breath. The soil, once rotting, began to heal. Blackened plants turned green once more. The cursed sky, heavy with the abyssal weight of the Devourer, shattered open.

A single, blinding piece of light carved through the darkness like a divine spear.

Then daylight returned.

The bleak, ashen clouds above Pagadianara ignited with golden radiance, bathing the ruined land in the brilliance of the noonday summer.

The Empyrean Shield was re-stabilized.

The Negation Obelisks hummed, reigniting with their warding power.

The sacred threads that wove through the Tala Domain, once frayed and broken, seamlessly reconnected—as though they had never been severed at all.

Something—someone—had arrived.

A figure descended.

Clad in a veil of luminescent silk and adorned in flowing robes that shimmered like woven starlight, a being of profound presence stepped onto the desecrated ground.

Even before her feet touched the soil, the earth trembled in reverence.

Aurela.

The Radiant Oracle of the Order of Liwanag.

A hero of prophetic destiny. A Weaver whose mere presence could unmake corruption.

The Eclipse Devourer, a fusion of three unholy entities, shivered. A creature that had mocked divinity. That had defiled nature. That had consumed the purity of souls.

Now it cowered.

Aurela’s veiled gaze rested upon the monstrosity, and she raised her right hand.

And the world sang.

A sound that none could hear but the Eclipse Devourer itself.

A resonance that spoke to the very fabric of existence.

And then—

The Devourer fractured.

Its monstrous body disassembled—not violently, not in agony, but in an impossible, geometric unraveling.

Like a puzzle coming undone.

Like it had never belonged to this world.

Aurela lowered her hand.

A golden light erupted.

From the heavens above, a celestial dragon woven from golden ether and divine radiance then descended.

It coiled through the sky, its form endless and radiant.

It let out a silent roar.

And then it devoured the Eclipse Devourer in its entirety.

Not a single trace of its existence remained.

Not its abyssal eyes.

Not its corrupted flesh.

Not its twisted hunger.

Only a single, pulsating mass of purified loom threads remained where the monstrosity had stood.

The purified threads of the loom pulsed, folding into themselves, dividing.

Those who had fought against the Eclipse Devourer and those who had resisted its corruption felt the power resonate within them. The threads wove into their bodies, strengthening their essence. Yet, a third of the purified power flowed back to Aurela herself.

The oracle surveyed the ruins.

She turned to the exorcists who had desperately held the containment barriers. With a simple humming gesture, she signaled them to return to their churches, their task complete.

As they hurried away, bowing in respect, Aurela herself began to fade.

Golden threads spiraled around her, pulling her essence beyond the sight of mortal eyes.

And in a single breath—

She was gone.

The Tala Domain, once engulfed in abyssal terror, now lay under the warm embrace of daylight.

A calm breeze swept through the land, carrying with it the remnants of holy radiance left by Aurela’s descent.

The battle had ended.

But the weight of its aftermath lingered.

Elder Iskayna collapsed to the ground, her body trembling as the tension drained from her weary form. She let out a heavy sigh, her breaths ragged. Even her reinforced immunity had failed against the sheer toxicity of the miasma. Yet, for all the exhaustion and pain ravaging her body, a greater ache filled her heart.

The faces of Prina and Yvandro, or what was left of them, haunted her mind. They had once been her people. Now, they were nothing more than echoes of what had been lost.

Before her thoughts could spiral further, urgent footsteps rushed toward her.

“Matriarch!”

Marcon and Saphira appeared at her side, their expressions stricken with concern.

The other elders immediately knelt beside her, each taking one of her arms to support her.

“We need to get her inside—her threads are still unraveling from the exposure,” Saphira said, already weaving a stabilizing thread around Iskayna’s form.

Marcon, though visibly drained, nodded. “Lean on us, Matriarch. You’ve done more than enough.”

With gentle care, they lifted Iskayna and guided her toward the castle’s inner sanctum, where she could properly recuperate.

The battle had ended, but the burden of what had transpired would weigh on her shoulders for a long time.

Outside the domain, Elite Weaver Guards moved swiftly and efficiently.

Though the Eclipse Devourer had been vanquished, remnants of its corruption had scattered beyond the Celestial Seal Castle’s confines. Weakened aberrations and stray corrupted creatures still lingered in the shadows.

But there was no escape.

The Elite Weavers, armed with purification sigils and radiant threads, swept through the streets, methodically purging what remained of the corruption.

The exorcists, though exhausted, reinforced the city’s barriers, ensuring no lingering darkness would taint Pagadianara any further.

By the time the moon had begun its ascent, the city had been fully cleansed.

The weight of battle lifted. The skies remained clear. And with it, relief spread across the land.

Within the evacuation shelters, the people of Pagadianara wept with relief.

Mothers clasped their children, warriors clasped each other’s shoulders, and merchants, who had once feared for their livelihoods, now thanked the heavens for sparing their city.

The name of the Radiant Oracle Aurela spread like wildfire among the survivors.

A living legend had walked among them.

A divine Weaver had acted.

And in mere moments, she had single-handedly undone what seemed to be an inevitable catastrophe.

“I never thought I’d live to see the Radiant Oracle in action,” an elder whispered in reverence.

“She was beyond human,” a young girl murmured, still in awe.

Many knelt in silent prayer, offering gratitude to the Order of Liwanag for their intervention.

Some called it a miracle.

Others called it divine justice.

But all agreed on one thing—

Pagadianara had been saved.

By nightfall, news of the Eclipse Devourer’s fall had spread beyond the city’s walls.

Messengers, magical transmissions, and word of mouth carried the tale across Bathalumea’s Three Great Kingdoms.

From the Ivory Dominion of Canlaon to the Seafaring Courts of Laksina, whispers of the Weaver Priestess’s intervention ignited discussions among nobles, scholars, and rulers alike.

Beyond Bathalumea, other nations took notice.

If such a monstrosity had manifested… what else lurked in the unseen corners of the world?

What new horrors would rise next?

For now, Pagadianara had survived.

But peace was always temporary in a world where hidden powers weaves destiny and ancient forces clashed. And the world had just witnessed the first sparks of a greater storm to come.