“You seemed to have forgotten my warning when I first entered your home.You were so focused on destroying the Black Wraith that you failed to fear the one true force that could undo you.The powerful alchemist in France.Perhaps you should have spent less time hunting me—And more time fearing them.”
Alexander’s eyes, wide with horror, darted helplessly, his mind frantically clawing for an escape that did not exist.His lips parted in a silent scream, but no words came.There was nothing left to say.
They had played their game.
And they had lost.
I leaned close to Mathias, my breath warm against his paling skin, my voice a low growl laced with triumph and warning.
“You are nothing but a pitiful fool,” I whispered, each syllable a dagger sliding between his ribs.“Barely worth a second glance.”
Mathias shuddered, his body betraying the terror he refused to voice.
I let the moment hang, savoring the weight of his helplessness.
Then, I smirked.
“If only Balthazar could see you now.The sheer delight it would bring him to witness your downfall would be… immeasurable.”
A choked gasp rattled from his throat, but he had no strength left to fight.
“Another of your so-called societies lies in ruins,” I continued, my tone almost mocking, a slow dismantling of everything he once stood for.“And no one is coming to save you.”
I let the silence stretch, watching his composure crack.
“No one.”
His breath hitched.
The fear in his eyes deepened, widening into something close to understanding.
Too late.
“This is how you meet your end,” I said, my words dropping like a stone into the abyss of his fading consciousness.“Crumbling.Defeated.Forgotten by all.”
I straightened, letting my gaze drift over the wreckage of the men who had once ruled with impunity.
“In the end, Lazarus and I will reclaim Solaris as our own.”
I watched as the last flickers of resistance faded from his trembling form.
“And you—you and Salvatore will fade into eternal oblivion.”
I took a step back, my eyes cold, unforgiving.
“Erased from existence.”
Mathias’ eyes flickered with the last, dimming light of comprehension as the poison turned his veins into rivers of fire.
His lips parted, a final, strangled breath escaping—a useless plea to a world already leaving him behind.
And then, something darker than the room emerged from the shadows.
Salvatore.
He did not step into the light.He annihilated it.
The flickering glow of dying candles seemed to recoil from him, shrinking away as if his being devoured illumination.
