---- 270.


    ONLY ONE ELEMENTAL NARRATOR She pulled her trembling hand away from her lips, staring at it in front of her face with disbelief.


    The vital crimson liquid dripped onto the floor.


    A bloodcurdling shriek of a dying serpent echoed through the darkness.


    Lucrecias eyes darted in that direction, incredulous.


    No...


    Damn it, no...


    He couldnt have destroyed one of her greatest spells! "KILL THAT BASTARD! NOW! NOW, OR I WONT GIVE YOU ANOTHER DAMNED SOUL TO DEVOUR!" she shrieked, more hysterical than the very nightmares shemanded.


    She could feel itsomething was happening, something slipping out of her control.


    She released all the mirrors, throwing the portals wide open.


    All at once, surges of magical power rippled through the air.


    She dug her boots firmly into the ground, her hair whipping around her face as the violent winds howled.


    Raising her hands to shield herself, she squinted against the onught.


    The dark power she had gathered with so much sacrifice was...


    ---- being consumed? Lucrecia took a step backthis time, with real fear.


    Dark hands, w-like fingers, moved through the air, snatching up shadows.


    Mouths with no end devoured the ck magic she had spent so long umting.


    What she had believed to be absolute power, the pinnacle of her evolution, was being swallowed whole by monstrous entities wing their way out of pure nightmarespure hatred made flesh.


    Featureless faces turned toward hergiants, towering, their grotesque forms reflecting in the shattered mirrors.


    Disheveled ck hair, hollow sockets glowing red.


    They grinned at her, chilling her blood to ice She had never felt like this beforenot even when she first ventured into the forbidden zone to capture a fragment of that macabre power.


    A violent shudder wracked her entire body, her frantic mind racing for a way to escape.


    What...


    what the hell were these things? Lucrecia had no intention of staying to find out This chamber was small, and with more of these creatures emerging, her space was shrinking.


    Soon, she would be surrounded.


    smearing her blood across her hands, she traced runes in the air, her guttural voice rising as she chanted feverish incantations, sending tremors through the space and creating a breach.


    ---- She raised a shield of energy before herjust a second, She just needed one second...


    "AAAAHHHHHH!" She screamed as a skeletal hand shot out from the shadows, seizing her by the throat.


    Her defensive shield shattered into the air, magical sparks flickering out before vanishingpletely.


    Lucrecia barely managed to breathe.


    Her bulging eyes stared at the man approaching, the mist parting to reveal him a harbinger of death.


    ck magical armor, shining like obsidian, encased his entire body, Half of his striking yet terrifying face was concealed by an intricate, monstrous mask a cadaverous, grotesque design.


    His eyes...


    Lucrecia could hardly bear to look at them.


    Through the masks hollow opening, there was nothing but a void ack abyss, endless and consuming.


    And in the other, a gleaming pupil floated in the depths of pure darkness.


    "Gray, no...


    no...


    Im the one who gave you that power...


    You owe me!" Lucrecia stammered, her words barely coherent as he advanced, step by step.