Villain's Last Chance
Chapter 39: The Weight

Chapter 39: The Weight

The night stretched endlessly before us, the forest swallowing the narrow path we followed. The trees loomed high, their gnarled branches twisting into dark silhouettes against the deep navy sky. The air smelled of damp earth and lingering rain, and with each step forward, the weight on my shoulders grew heavier.

The council’s decree echoed in my mind like a relentless drumbeat.

Master the Codex.

Failure wasn’t an option. It never had been.

That was why Cairon and I had left the city under the cover of darkness. The Codex wasn’t just a book—it was a force, a living entity of knowledge and power that couldn’t be tamed through quiet study alone. It had to be confronted, understood, wielded. And the only place to do that was far beyond the reach of prying eyes, where no one could interfere if things went wrong.

Because they would.

I exhaled sharply and adjusted the strap of my satchel, feeling the thick leather dig into my shoulder. The Codex pulsed inside, warm and heavy, like a second heartbeat against my side.

It knows.

Cairon walked ahead of me, his movements precise, his posture unwavering. Even in the dim light, I could see the tension in the set of his shoulders, the subtle way his hand hovered near the hilt of his blade. He was on edge too.

"Stop fidgeting," he murmured without looking back.

I scowled at his back. "I’m not."

His steps slowed, just enough for me to catch up. "You haven’t stopped touching it since we left."

I hesitated.

He was right.

I ran my fingers along the strap of my bag, as if to reassure myself the Codex was still there—as if it could vanish without warning.

Finally, I sighed. "I can hear it."

That made him stop completely.

Cairon turned to face me, his silver eyes sharp. "Hear it?"

I swallowed, my fingers tightening around the strap. "It whispers. Even when I don’t open it."

His expression darkened. "That’s not supposed to happen."

"No kidding."

He studied me for a long moment, searching for something in my face. "Have you tried reading it again?"

I hesitated before answering, "No."

It was a lie.

The last time I’d dared to open it, the ink had moved beneath my fingertips, shifting into symbols I barely understood. And then the whispers had started—soft at first, like wind rustling through leaves, before morphing into something deeper, something with weight.

Cairon sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "We need to stop for the night. You’re too on edge."

"I’m fine."

"You’re not."

The irritation flared in my chest, but I didn’t argue. He wasn’t wrong. I was exhausted, my body thrumming with tension, my mind tangled in knots. The weight of the Codex, the council’s ultimatum, the unknown force inside me—it was suffocating.

We pressed forward until we found shelter.

The ruins were ancient, half-buried beneath vines and time. Crumbling stone pillars stood as silent sentinels, guarding the remnants of a place that had long since been forgotten. A fractured archway stretched overhead, its jagged edges glowing in the moonlight.

Cairon moved efficiently, gathering wood, striking flint. Within minutes, a small fire crackled between us, its warmth a fragile barrier against the encroaching cold.

I lowered myself onto the stone floor, the Codex resting in my lap.

For a long time, I simply stared at it.

It was waiting.

Cairon watched me from across the fire. "You’re going to open it, aren’t you?"

I nodded.

He didn’t argue. He only exhaled, adjusting the dagger at his hip. "Just don’t lose yourself in it."

I didn’t respond. Instead, I unfastened the straps and lifted the cover.

The whispers surged.

They weren’t words—not exactly. They were emotions, impressions, fragmented thoughts bleeding into my mind like spilled ink across parchment.

My vision blurred.

The world shifted.

I was no longer in the ruins.

I stood at the edge of a battlefield, the sky above choked with smoke. The scent of blood and fire clung to the air, thick and suffocating. The ground trembled beneath my feet as unseen forces clashed in the distance.

Ahead, a figure loomed.

Cloaked in shadow, his presence was suffocating.

Golden eyes burned in the darkness, locking onto mine.

"You seek to control what you do not understand."

The voice was deep, ancient. It rattled through my bones, vibrating in my skull like a forgotten truth.

I couldn’t move.

Couldn’t breathe.

The Codex burned in my hands.

A sharp pain lanced through my skull, and the vision shattered.

I gasped, jerking backward, my body hitting the cold stone beneath me. The ruins came back into focus—the firelight, the wind, the ground solid beneath my fingers.

"Elara."

Cairon was beside me in an instant, gripping my arms, his silver eyes scanning my face. "What the hell just happened?"

I pressed a hand to my forehead, willing my heart to slow. "I saw something."

"What?"

"A battlefield. A man—" My voice wavered. "He spoke to me."

Cairon’s grip tightened. "Who?"

I shook my head. "I don’t know. He said I was trying to control something I didn’t understand."

His jaw clenched. "Did he give a name?"

"No."

Cairon’s expression was unreadable, but the tension in his shoulders told me enough.

I forced myself to sit up fully, still clutching the Codex. My hands were shaking.

"Elara," Cairon said, his voice measured. "You need to be careful. The Codex doesn’t just show visions—it tests."

I exhaled slowly.

"I know."

But deep down, I wasn’t sure if I would pass.

I should have known that peace, even temporary, was a fragile thing.

The wind howled through the mountains, whipping my cloak around me as Cairon and I stood at the edge of the valley. The landscape stretched vast and empty before us, the darkened skies threatening rain, but the real storm churned inside me.

The Codex. The burden of it felt heavier with every passing second. The Council’s decree echoed in my mind—I had to master it, control it, or risk everything. I was already balancing on the edge of a blade, and now, they had handed me something even sharper.

Cairon watched me, his golden eyes unreadable. "You’re thinking too much again."

I let out a breath. "You say that as if I can turn my mind off."

"You can’t, but you can choose what thoughts are worth entertaining." His voice was steady, but there was an undertone of tension beneath it. I didn’t have to guess why.

We had left the city behind for this exact reason—to give me the time and space to understand the Codex without distractions. But something told me time wasn’t a luxury we had.

"We should keep moving," I said, pulling my cloak tighter. "We’re too exposed here."

Cairon nodded, and we started walking again, our boots crunching against the frost-kissed ground. The silence between us stretched, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. If anything, it was filled with unspoken things, things I didn’t know how to say yet.

I glanced at him. The weight of his presence was something I had grown used to, and yet, it never failed to make me acutely aware of him. Of the way he moved, how his body tensed at every shift in the wind, how his gaze swept the terrain, always watching, always prepared.

"Do you think they were right?" I asked finally. "The Council?"

Cairon’s jaw clenched slightly. "It doesn’t matter if they were right. What matters is what you do now."

That was a very Cairon-like answer. He didn’t deal in hypotheticals or self-doubt. He dealt in action.

I exhaled sharply. "And what if I fail?"

He stopped walking. "Then we don’t have the luxury of failure."

I met his gaze, the golden glow of his eyes flickering in the dim light. His meaning was clear. The Codex wasn’t just something I had to master—it was something I had to survive.

And I wasn’t sure I was ready for either.

But ready or not, fate didn’t wait.

Because at that moment, the ground beneath us trembled. It was faint, almost imperceptible, but enough to set my nerves on edge. Cairon’s stance shifted instantly, his hand going to his blade.

I felt it before I saw it.

A ripple in the air, like the world itself was inhaling sharply.

Then the shadows moved.

Something surged from the treeline, dark and fast, too fast. My body reacted on instinct, magic crackling at my fingertips as I raised a shield just in time. A blast of force slammed into it, sending me skidding back.

Cairon was already moving, his blade slicing through the air with lethal precision. But the creature—if it could even be called that—was unlike anything I’d seen before. It moved like liquid shadow, shifting and reforming as if the very concept of a body was irrelevant.

The Codex pulsed against my chest.

And then I knew.

This wasn’t just an attack. It was a test.

And I was failing.

Cairon slashed through it again, but the thing barely recoiled before reforming. His frustration was evident in the sharp set of his jaw. "Elara—"

"I know," I gasped, feeling the Codex stir, the ancient power inside it whispering.

Use me.

I didn’t know how.

The creature lunged again, and I barely dodged in time. My mind raced—magic wasn’t working the way I expected. My shield had barely held, and offensive spells seemed useless.

But what if I wasn’t supposed to use magic like that?

I gritted my teeth. The Codex was knowledge, not just power. If I could understand this thing, I could stop it.

I closed my eyes for a split second, reaching for the energy thrumming beneath my skin. The Codex reacted instantly, flooding me with sensation.

And suddenly, I saw it.

Not just the creature, but the way it existed. The way its essence pulsed like an unfinished thought, something incomplete.

A realization hit me like a lightning strike.

It wasn’t alive.

It was a construct—born from ancient magic, designed to test the bearer of the Codex.

Me.

My heart pounded as I understood. This thing wasn’t trying to kill me. It was waiting.

For a command.

I lifted my hand, raw energy sparking at my fingertips. "Stop."

The creature froze mid-lunge.

Cairon stilled beside me, his blade still raised, but his gaze locked onto mine.

I took a shaky breath. "You’re not here to fight."

The thing twitched, its form flickering like smoke.

"I command you to return," I said, forcing more certainty into my voice.

For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, like a ripple through still water, the creature began to dissolve, its body unraveling until nothing remained but silence.

My knees nearly buckled.

Cairon was beside me in an instant, his grip firm on my arm. "What the hell was that?"

I swallowed hard. "A test."

He frowned. "And?"

I met his eyes, my chest rising and falling with unsteady breaths. "And I think I passed."

But deep inside, I knew this was only the beginning.

The Codex had just revealed a fraction of what it could do.

And that terrified me more than anything.

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