Book 3. Chapter 29.

“Touching the bottom of the abyss.” Part 3

Note 1: Kalysto's dislike of blond men does not reflect the author's preferences.

Note 2: Sensitive content warning at the beginning of the chapter. You may skip to the bolded dialogue if you wish to avoid it.

A violent surge of darkness erupted from Kalysto's body attacking the seal, seeping her own darkness between the slots and gaps Persephone had initially made to escape.

Despite the emotional images she had just observed in that memory, she could not feel emotionally connected to it. Except for the part where her father was trying to wake her up amidst a sea of tears.

The rest, although it clarified many things like that she was the true owner of the body she was in and that apparently she was born with mana but lost it when she inadvertently absorbed who for years she thought was just another personality, meant nothing to her right now.

She just wanted to get out of there, throw herself on her warm comfortable bed, rest from so much trouble, so much shit, and just relax and sleep for a good couple of hours.

“I want my body back!” Kalysto growled as she watched the cracks in the seal crack even more, but just as she stopped her attack, between being tempted to destroy the seal once and for all or risk going back to repair it, Persephone's darkness attacked her back.

Tentacles of darkness became spikes of black crystals that tried to tear apart her mental body.

“Dark mana creation! Dark mana manipulation!” She conjured, and just as she did before with the ice, she created two elongated black crystal daggers, and with them she countered Persephone's attacks with great agility.

At the same time, as stealthy as a snake in the middle of a thicket, another tentacle of darkness seeped through the fairy champion's defenses and wrapped around her neck from behind, trying to choke her, while Kalysto was too focused avoiding the continuous frontal attacks.

Absorb! Immediately thought the former saintess, being trapped for less than three seconds in a memory that froze her blood.

But this time the memory was not in third person.

A thin sheet covered her naked body, next to her was Gabriel sitting, under the same sheet reading a book. As naked as she was.

And with a hickey mark on his neck.

The fairy champion's body went completely cold as she re-lived an event she had no memory of, bile rose in her throat as her insides churned in utter disgust, but just as she conjured a dagger to attack him, Gideon entered, wearing only a pair of black boxers and holding an open book he had been reading as he pulled a few strands of his hair as blond as his brother's, back.

A couple of hickeys on his neck showed that he had also participated in the encounter.

“Pers, I think I found it!” He announced excitedly as he entered the room. “We just have to find a compatible body, and if we use your sister's remains, we can bring her back!” his smile was erased the instant he noticed the dagger in Kalysto's hand and the pure hatred in her gaze, at the same time Gabriel rushed to pick up a black crystal that had been on the dresser, next to the bed and without wasting any time, while she was focused looking at her twin brother, Gabriel threw with black crystal at Kalysto's face. Making the entire vision of the former saintess go dark just as she was about to slit Gideon's throat.

At that very instant the memory ended.

“You fucking traitor, I'll never forgive you for this!” She screamed in disgust, rage clouding every other emotion. And without thinking of the consequences, she viciously attacked the seal, destroying it completely. “How dare you let them touch me?”

When the hell did that happen? Why the hell didn't I remember? What else happened that I can't remember? A shiver ran down her spine at the endless possibilities of everything that could have happened the number of times she lost control of her body. As she caught her breath and enjoyed the destruction she had caused for less than a second, hundreds of pieces of the seal fell to the white ground and Persephone's dark energy escaped her prison, obstructing her vision.

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Shadows swirled around the remains of the broken seal, forming a faceless female silhouette. Only the subtle shapes of what could be a copy of a Kalysto-like figure, but completely bathed in black paint and with longer hair, were visible.

<> Persephone mocked as she escaped her prison, dyeing black a small part of the giant blank space of the mental world Kalysto had already finished absorbing.

Without giving her time to continue, Kalysto lashed out at her, transforming the dagger in her right hand into mere shadows and smashing her fist into the unguarded face of Persephone, who fell to the ground, shattering it with the force of the fall.

<> Persephone complained, just before receiving another punch to the face, followed by another, and another, and another, and one more.

“Good, because I never thought of you as my fucking sister!” she replied spitefully, just before she tried to throw another punch and Persephone stopped her before it touched her sore face again.

Then Kalysto opened her fist and viciously whispered:

“Dispel Ezhil! Purification Ezhil!” enjoying to see how half of the female silhouette's head, disappeared.

The golden light spread through every pore of her body and Persephone had to flee, transforming into a whirlpool of shadows, of which only a part could survive the attack. To then regroup again and form again a female figure made of shadows, away from the golden light.

Yes, that definitely feels much better. She thought sadistically.

<> She answered cynically.

<> She growled angrily.

<> She added with a cruel smile.

This time it was her turn to attack, taking advantage of the fact that Kalysto herself moved away from the protection of the golden light after her verbal provocation.

Just as she had expected.

And as Kalysto conjured her daggers again, Persephone created a spear. The two collided, their weapons meeting in the middle and though Persephone seemed quite skilled wielding a spear, Kalysto wasn't far behind.

<> She murmured, somewhere between surprised and excited by the discovery.

“And I think you're fucking crazy!” she shouted.

<> She growled, angrily.

Kalysto didn't even bother to clarify what it was obvious Persephone didn't know.

However, as soon as ten tentacles of dark mana sprouted from Persephone's back and joined the battle, she changed her mind.

“At least when I'm inside someone's mind I can keep my form, instead you're nothing more than the echo of someone's soul who isn't even alive,” she rallied, trying to distract her as she approached her again.

<> She argued, with a manic smile.

One that Kalysto had seen her do in one of the memories.

Her stomach churned.

And immediately transformed into shadows. Surrounding her opponent to then materialize right behind her and whisper in her ear.

“Do you really think I'm going to stand still while you find a way to kill me?” From all over the front of Kalysto's body, dozens of tentacles of darkness sprouted transforming into black crystal stakes that mercilessly pierced Persephone's body. “Two can play this game.”

In that instant, Kalysto regained control of her body and was finally able to escape from her own mental world.

But when she opened her eyes, what she found was a wide room, the smell of blood and death greeted her. And to her complete horror, right in front of her was an altar and on it lay the corpse of Alice.

Worse, in her blood-stained hands, was the book of shadows that belonged to her blonde friend, and from her own lips, came a phrase.

“At last it's mine!” The blood in her veins turned to ice as she realized what Persephone had done.

Still, from the small cut on her right hand, blood gushed out, staining a blank page in the book.

And causing a few lines of text to suddenly appear on it.

'This book belongs to Perseph...'

But before that other name was finished being written, it began to fade away.

And instead, it was replaced by 'Kalisto Luna.'

Indicating the death of its previous owner, Alice Sanders.

“No...no…” she murmured, her eyes filling with warm tears that began to fall freely down her cheeks at the unexpected loss.

But then, the owner's name began to change again, at the same time Kalysto's vision darkened.

<>