Chapter 333: Return for Blood

The vampire huntress crossed the realm’s outskirts, cloaked in the illusion of the eclipse she created herself. White fire curled around the fused edges of her own starlight, the remnants of Korrath’s core still burning bright in her chest. Two red moons loomed over the blackened city.

Selene did not come to ask questions this time.

She came to collect.

The capital bore the scars of the last siege, the reconstructed parts of the city juxtaposed with the ruined ones. The Origin Clan’s patrols kept watch at the higher levels while shadow guards took care of the streets, their presence more prominent than before. Though the city was on edge, it was unprepared for what followed right after the vampire huntress dropped the illusion in the center of the capital square.

Alarms blared as the huntress landed in the middle of the square, her arrival announced by the chaos that unfolded around her. Selene caught the familiar scent of blood and sweat as Lucian emerged from the shadows first, his dark hair flying with the force of his arrival. His crimson eyes locked onto the white fire licking at her veins, the shadowy domain already stretching around the hunter when Zane appeared at her side a heartbeat later.

The origin vampire’s smirk was as infuriating as ever, his hands gloved in shadows as he emerged from the dark folds of his coat. Anita’s ribbons of blood had risen to meet Selene’s arrival, intertwining in the air like writhing serpents. More of the Origin Clan appeared alongside their leader, forming a semi-circle in the square’s center. Heron stood at Lucian’s side, his face ashen as he advanced a few steps forward, bringing his spear to bear against the huntress.

Selene’s blackened eyes swept the gathered vampires, the white embers burning within them vanishing almost simultaneously with the words that left her mouth. "You killed him," she said, her voice carrying the weight of something colder than mere ice as she met her opponent’s gaze. "You made him gut himself so that he would live another day. I have returned to repay your kindness in full."

Zane chuckled as he shook his head, pushing himself off the ground. His red eyes narrowed at the words, the smirk still playing on his lips as he tossed the shadows from his coat to the wind. "You ran, Selene. He ran, but you ran. Just don’t rewrite history, alright?"

Selene’s next words were not meant to be heard, as her blade of erased matter and termination runes carved a deep furrow in the stone at her feet. The Origin Clan attacked with renewed fervor, the second siege of the capital beginning with little fanfare or wasted words. Lucian’s domain consumed the space around him, his effort to swallow the huntress in the endless night that stretched from his will. White fire carved bright tunnels through the darkness, allowing her to evade Anita’s blood constructs as they came at her from three sides. Selene annihilated two with a flick of her wrist before erasing the third, removing the very air that had been displaced by its presence.

Zane was quick to close the distance, as always, his false confidence bolstered by the ease of their past encounters. He nearly managed to land a hit this time, but Selene’s own strength pushed him back by three paces, a shallow cut bleeding from his cheek. It was Heron who charged at her next, the weight of his spear meeting the reinforced starlight in her hands. A pause marked the point of impact as the two warriors measured each other, their strength pressing against one another. Heron’s adaptability screamed at him to adjust, to change, as the power pressing against his spear grew heavier than it had been the last time they fought. Selene’s fingers flexed around the hilt of her blade, her enhanced might pressing down on the draugr.

She was stronger. Her power burned noticeably denser than before, the fusion of her own might and Korrath’s core evident to all who saw it.

Selene moved, her reinforced starlight carving through the vampires who flanked her. Vel’s lightning danced across her skin, but she caught the sparks in her palm and extinguished them with a blink of her eyes. Mikael’s heavy blade came down in wide sweeping arcs, but she twisted her body away from their reach, white fire trailing her movements. Alessia’s shadows snaked at her limbs from within Lucian’s domain, seeking to bind her, but the huntress wove between them, her body dissolving some of the darkness while severing others with a touch of her fingers. Wherever she was not occupied evading the vampires, her blade of termination runes carved long gashes in the stone.

She did not seek to finish them, merely to hurt. To punish.

The combined effort of the Origin Clan’s warriors landed a heavy blow against her, pushing her back. A blast of her own power, the fusion of erasure and termination, sent two lesser vampires tumbling through the air, their bodies following the trajectory of the blast before crashing through an intact building. Another blast forced Anita to spend a large portion of her energy reinforcing her blood wall, the effort leaving the vampire visibly paling as her constructs vaporized on contact. When Zane and Lucian finally joined forces, it was Selene who met them head-on, her palm driving into Zane’s ribs with enough force to send the vampire sliding across the broken stone.

Heron’s spear drove into her shoulder, tearing through her armor and sending a spray of grey-black liquid to the ground. The wound bled freely as she caught the weapon by the shaft, erasure magic flowing from her fingers to meet the haft. Selene twisted her body sideways, her momentum carrying the weapon away from her as she forced Heron to step back.

The battle raged on, the capital trembling under the strain of the combatants’ power.

Ella, Luna, Vina, and Rey held the line at the edges of the square, ensuring that the civilians did not witness the horror unfolding in the capital square. The four vampires could feel the shift in power, the change in the air. The Selene who had fled with a bleeding core was not the same woman who stood in the square, cutting a path of destruction through the city.

She was done running.

Selene carved her way to the palace, white fire and shadows consuming all in her path. The capital reeled from the assault as Lucian’s domain failed to contain her, but his people held firm, their formation not breaking despite the power the huntress wielded. They fought because they had to, for if they did not, the siege would continue, and the city would burn.

Selene halted in the center of the ruined square, her breathing shallow as the wound in her side bled freely. She pressed a hand to the festering hole, white fire sealing the damage as she stood, her body trembling with exhaustion. "I will return," she rasped, her voice thick with grief and fury as she stared at the gathered Origin Clan. "Again and again, until the debt is fully paid."

With a flick of her wrist, Selene tore a portal to the palace grounds and stepped through, vanishing into the shadows before the vampires could reach her. The silence that followed was palpable, stretching across the capital as the huntress disappeared from view.