The air cracked with tension as I stepped forward, my eyes burning with wrath—no, something deeper. Something primal. Energy surged around me in waves, distorting the space itself. The earth trembled beneath my feet as if it, too, feared what was about to come.
I wasn't just angry. I was a storm incarnate.
Wind whipped around her, lifting her hair and cloak in a furious dance. Lightning sparked at my fingertips, arcing up my arms as my aura expanded with devastating force. The very atmosphere warped—charged and unstable—like the moment before a thunderclap splits the sky. My emotions were no longer contained. I was the storm, and the stranger was standing at the heart of it.
"You took everything from me," Anna said, voice low but trembling with power. "And now… I'll take everything from you."
The stranger raised his blade, his expression unreadable—cautious, calculating. But even he took an unconscious step back. For a moment, he could feel it too: this was no ordinary rage. This was divine fury. The birth of a tempest.
Kai, behind the barrier, slammed his fists against it. "Anna—stop! You're losing yourself!"
But I didn't answer. I turned my head just enough to glance at him, eyes glowing like storm clouds lit from within. Her voice echoed with sorrow and distance:"You don't need to worry about me anymore."
With a defiant roar, I launched myself at the stranger.
Their blades clashed with a deafening crack, metal grinding and sparking. But I wasn't using just strength—I was wielding the storm itself. Thunder boomed with each strike. Lightning followed me swings, searing the ground and air alike. My movements were a blur, unpredictable and wild, like gale winds tearing through a battlefield.
The stranger struggled to match me newfound ferocity. He parried, dodged, retaliated—but I was relentless, fluid and forceful, shifting like wind then striking like lightning. Every time he thought he had her rhythm, it changed again.
Then—I unleashed a new power.
I slammed my palms into the earth, and a spiraling cyclone of energy erupted from me, tossing the stranger back like a ragdoll. The ground split beneath my feet as if the storm inside me had finally broken free of its mortal shell.
I rose into the air, suspended by the crackling winds, my voice thundering with fury:
"I am done being broken. I am not just Anaria's descendant. I am the storm she never dared to be."
Our blades collided again, the force cracking the ground beneath them. I fought like a whirlwind unleashed—every slash, every strike, echoed with thunder and roared with fury. The storm within her had no master now, only a purpose: destruction.
The stranger skidded back, breathing hard, armor scorched and torn. Blood trickled down the side of his face. But instead of fear, he began to smile.
"You still don't know, do you?" he said through heavy breaths, raising his sword. "Why you feel this way. Why your power is so wild. So personal."
My eyes narrowed, lightning crackling up my arm. "I don't care what you think you know."
"No—you should. Because I was there the day your mother made the pact."He spat blood, then added coldly,"I was the one who sealed it."
Everything stopped for a moment. The wind around Me halted, swirling as if caught in its own disbelief. My heartbeat thundered in mine ears, louder than any storm.
"You're lying…"
The stranger's eyes burned with cruel clarity. "She gave up more than just her soul. She gave you. You were meant to be mine, Anna. The vessel for something far greater than you ever understood."
I screamed—rage and pain and betrayal exploding from her body in a burst of white-hot power that blasted the stranger backward and cracked the barrier holding Kai at bay.
Kai felt the ripple—a break.
Without hesitation, he surged forward, breaking through the weakened field, fire igniting in his own eyes. He reached her just as she prepared a final, devastating blow to the stunned stranger.
"Anna—stop! This isn't you!" he shouted, grabbing my wrist. His hand burned from the raw energy coursing through me, but he held on.
"Let go!" I cried. "He used my mother—he tried to use me! I won't be that vessel!"
Kai pulled her close, even as the storm tried to push him back. "You're not a vessel. You're not a weapon. You're Anna. And I'm not letting you fall apart because of him."
Her breath hitched, power trembling around her like a dying quake.
The stranger coughed from the ground, smirking even as he bled. "It's too late… The pact already lives inside you."
The stranger coughed from the ground, smirking even as he bled. "It's too late… The pact already lives inside you."
I froze, heart pounding like war drums in my chest. But within the chaos, a voice rose—not his, not my mother's. My own.
I will never be your puppet. Never your vessel. I was born of blood and sacrifice, but my soul is mine.You think a pact defines me? Then you've never felt the storm you tried to chain.Even if I have to burn this power out of my own veins, I will never become what you made me for. I will fight it to my last breath. I will die before I ever become yours.
My grip on my blade tightened. My body trembled, not from fear, but from the violent force I was trying to contain. The storm inside me no longer howled in confusion—it listened, it focused. I was no longer just its host.
I stepped forward, slowly, power swirling again—controlled now, no longer wild. My storm had found its purpose.
"I'm not your pact," I said coldly, lifting my blade. "I'm your reckoning."
Before I could strike, Kai caught me again, holding me—not to stop me, but to anchor me.
Lightning curled around my fingers as I stared down at the stranger—the one who tried to claim my soul before I was even born. The pact inside me stirred, sensing my defiance, trying to dig in deeper like roots in cracked stone.
But I burned it back with sheer will.You don't own me.Not now. Not ever.
Kai stood beside me, his presence grounding me, his flames burning hot at his fingertips. Our powers pulsed in sync—storm and fire—chaotic elements now unified with purpose.
The stranger rose slowly, his cloak tattered, eyes still glowing with that dark, ancient power. "You think this ends with me? You think the world will let you defy fate?"
I raised my blade and pointed it at him, lightning rippling up my arm. "I don't care about fate. I make my own end."
He lunged at us with unnatural speed, darkness trailing behind him like smoke.
Kai moved first—his fist igniting with flame as he struck the ground, sending a shockwave of fire barreling forward. I leapt high above it, lightning dancing across my blade, and came down with the force of a storm.
The stranger dodged, barely, but Kai was already there—blades clashing in a shower of sparks. I landed and drove my blade forward, lightning striking with pinpoint precision. He blocked, snarling, trying to push me back, but I didn't give him the chance.
We fought as one. Kai's flames forced him left; I struck from the right. When he tried to summon dark magic to tear the ground open beneath us, I spread my arms and released a violent burst of wind, scattering the spell and sending his focus reeling.
He growled, voice warping with ancient power. "You are both nothing but children playing with borrowed strength!"
I surged forward, eyes glowing with stormlight. "Then it's time you were taught what real power feels like."
Kai and I moved in perfect sync—his fire twining with my lightning, our blades meeting the stranger's again and again. Every strike pushed him back. Every blow shattered more of his defenses.
And then—I saw the opening.
"Kai—now!"
He nodded, leapt high, and released a blazing wave of fire from above.
I drew in everything—the wind, the thunder, the crackling fury inside me—and thrust my blade forward with a scream.
Lightning and flame crashed together, a blinding explosion that tore through the battlefield.
The stranger let out a final roar—angry, desperate, defeated—as the blast engulfed him.
Silence followed. Smoke drifted around us. The earth was scorched and cracked beneath our feet.
I stood there, breathing hard, my hand still trembling from the force I'd just released. Kai moved to my side, equally exhausted, eyes still glowing faintly.
"He's… gone," I said softly, more to the storm than to him.
Kai reached out, brushing my shoulder. "And you're still here. You won."
I closed my eyes, and for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, the storm inside me was calm.
The smoke still lingered in the air, curling lazily around the battlefield as the storm within me finally settled. My blade hung at my side, the lightning gone, leaving only a quiet hum in the air—like the echo of something ancient fading.
Kai stood beside me, his breathing slow, shoulders tense. But it wasn't just the battle weight on him. Something else lingered.
I turned toward him, ready to speak—thank him, maybe. But he beat me to it.
"Can I ask you something?" he said quietly, eyes not quite meeting mine.
I nodded. "Of course."
He looked down for a moment, jaw clenched. Then, with something sharp and pained in his voice, he asked,"Why did you blow up over your cousin Mary… but when we separated—when you walked away from me—it was like you didn't feel anything at all?"
The words struck deep, colder than any blade.
"Kai…" I started, but he shook his head.
"No. I don't get it." He looked at me then, eyes fierce and wounded. "You burned the world for Mary. You nearly lost yourself in grief. But when it came to me, when you said goodbye—there was nothing. No tears. No fight. Just distance."
I swallowed hard, the guilt rising in my throat.
He doesn't understand... he wasn't supposed to.I couldn't let him.
I looked away. "It wasn't because I didn't care, Kai. It was because I did."
He scoffed under his breath, bitterness leaking out. "Then why did it feel like I meant nothing?"
I closed my eyes. "Because if I let myself feel everything I felt for you in that moment… I would've fallen apart. I would've begged you to stay. And I couldn't—because I didn't want you tied to me just because I was breaking."
Kai took a slow breath, but his voice didn't soften. "So you buried it. You buried me."
I looked at him then, pain flooding my chest. "You were the only thing I wanted to protect. Even from myself."
He stood silent for a long moment, the storm between us now no longer lightning, but words we hadn't said—emotions we hadn't dared show.
"I don't know if I can understand that," he finally said, voice low. "It just feels like I was the only one who didn't matter enough to fight for."
That shattered something in me.
"I did fight for you, Kai. I still am," I said, stepping closer. "But you want truth? Then here it is: I was afraid. Not of you. Of what I'd become if I lost you, too."
Kai stared at me, torn between anger and something deeper. Hurt. Doubt.
I took a breath, meeting his eyes—not with lightning, not with armor, but with the truth I'd buried too long.
"I don't know how to stay," I said softly. "But if you want me to try… I will."
The silence between us stretched like a thread pulled tight. For a second, I thought he might turn away—say nothing. Let the storm pass without an answer.
But then he stepped closer.
"You think I haven't wanted to run?" he said, voice low, steady. "There were days I thought walking away from you would be easier than waiting for you to look back. But I didn't."
His eyes searched mine, not with accusation now—but with something quieter. Something real.
"You don't have to know how to stay," he said. "You just have to want to."
I let out a shaky breath. "I do."
He raised a hand, brushing a loose strand of hair from my face, fingers lingering against my cheek like he wasn't sure if I'd pull away.
"I'm still here," he whispered. "Even after everything. So stay, Anna. Not for the fight. Not for the past. Just… stay."
My throat tightened, but this time, I didn't hide it. I didn't armor up. I nodded.
"I'm tired of running," I whispered back.
Kai smiled faintly—tired, but genuine—and for the first time in a long time, the space between us felt quiet. Not from distance. But from peace.