Villain's Last Chance
Chapter 46: The Throne’s Claim

Chapter 46: The Throne’s Claim

The moment my fingers brushed the throne, the air thickened, charged with something ancient. A low hum vibrated through my bones, spreading from my fingertips, seeping into my skin like ink in water.

Then—

Everything shattered.

Not physically. The chamber was still there, the throne beneath my hand, the torches lining the stone walls. But my perception of the world fractured. The weight of reality twisted, and suddenly—

I was elsewhere.

The air was black, void-like, stretching infinitely in all directions. It wasn’t emptiness, not truly. It watched. It listened. A presence lingered, unseen but undeniable.

Then, from the depths of the darkness, a figure stepped forward.

I froze.

It was me.

Or rather, the person I used to be.

The same cold eyes. The same slow, calculating smirk. They wore the crimson robes I had once draped over my shoulders like a king’s mantle. Power radiated from them, rolling in thick waves, pressing against my skin.

For a long moment, we simply stared at each other.

"You always knew this moment would come," my past self finally said, voice smooth, almost amused. "That sooner or later, you’d have to face the truth."

My hands clenched. "This isn’t real."

"Isn’t it?" They stepped closer, and the void rippled beneath their feet. "Tell me, do you still pretend you’re different from me?"

"I am different," I snapped.

They arched a brow, as if considering. "Are you?"

Something pressed against my mind—a weight, heavy and suffocating. A pull.

And then I felt it.

The throne.

Even from this strange, fractured plane, I could still feel its power winding through me, trying to sink deeper. It wasn’t just showing me a vision.

It was trying to merge me with my past self.

I pushed back against it, but my other self only smiled, tilting their head like a predator studying prey.

"You think you’ve changed?" they murmured. "You think wearing a new face, speaking softer words, hesitating before you strike makes you better than me?"

I refused to answer.

Because deep down, I didn’t have an answer.

They circled me slowly, hands clasped behind their back. "Let’s test that, shall we?"

Without warning, the void around us shifted.

Suddenly, I wasn’t standing in the emptiness anymore.

I was on a battlefield.

Blood soaked the ground beneath my boots, the air thick with the scent of iron and burnt flesh. Bodies littered the dirt—soldiers, mages, enemies, allies. All fallen by my hand.

And at my feet—

Cairon.

My breath caught.

His body was still, his face pale, his sword lying useless beside him. Blood trickled from his lips, from the deep gash across his chest.

I stumbled back, heart hammering. "No," I whispered. "This isn’t real."

A chuckle.

My past self stood beside me again, watching the scene with mild interest. "Not yet."

The battlefield warped.

Cairon was alive again, standing before me, sword raised, eyes blazing with fury.

And I—

I was attacking him.

My own blade cut through the air, aimed for his heart.

I tried to stop. Tried to pull back. But my body—

It wasn’t mine anymore.

I watched, helpless, as my past self moved for me, controlling my limbs like a puppet master pulling strings.

Cairon blocked the strike, but just barely. The force sent him staggering.

A sneer curled on my past self’s lips. "Do you feel it?" they whispered, their voice coiling through my mind. "The power? The control?"

I fought against it, pushing with everything I had. "This isn’t real," I growled.

They laughed softly. "Then why are you afraid?"

The scene shifted again.

This time, I stood over Cairon’s fallen body, my blade buried in his chest.

Blood coated my hands.

I screamed.

The void collapsed.

The battlefield vanished. The presence in my mind snapped apart like a broken chain. I stumbled backward, gasping, my vision swimming.

And then—

I was back.

The chamber came rushing into focus—the throne, the stone walls, the torches flickering in the distance. My knees nearly buckled.

But I wasn’t alone.

Cairon stood just a few feet away, his sword half-drawn. His eyes burned into mine, sharp, assessing.

I knew what he saw.

The faint traces of shadow still curling around my fingers. The way my body trembled, as if something had been inside me just moments ago.

His grip on his sword tightened.

"What the hell just happened?"

---

The silence between us was suffocating. A battle of unspoken words, of truths neither of us wanted to face. The weight of the vision still clung to me, its echoes whispering in the back of my mind like a phantom refusing to fade.

Cairon had seen it. Felt it. And now, even as he stood there with his sword sheathed, he was looking at me as if he wasn’t sure what I had become.

But I wasn’t sure either.

I took a breath, steadying myself. "We need to keep moving."

Cairon didn’t move. "Not until I know what happened."

"I already told you." I forced my voice to stay even, but I could hear the edge in it. "The throne tested me."

He took a slow step forward, his gaze locked onto mine. "And you passed?"

I didn’t know how to answer that.

Because had I?

I had felt something in that vision, something more than just fear or horror. The way the power had flooded through me, raw and absolute, had felt... intoxicating.

It should have repulsed me.

But it hadn’t.

Not entirely.

Cairon must have seen something in my face because his expression darkened. "What exactly did you see?"

I hesitated. But lying wouldn’t work. Not with him.

So I said it.

"The future."

His jaw tensed. "A real one, or just a test?"

I swallowed. "I don’t know."

His hand twitched at his side, as if resisting the urge to reach for his sword again. "Tell me."

I held his gaze. "I killed you."

The words sat heavy between us, thick as storm clouds.

Cairon didn’t flinch. Didn’t move. He just... absorbed it.

I expected him to demand details, to question me further, to ask why the throne had chosen to show me that of all things. But instead, he exhaled, long and slow.

"Of course," he muttered, almost to himself.

That reaction rattled me more than anything.

Of course?

He wasn’t surprised.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I snapped, frustration bleeding into my voice.

Cairon glanced at me, his expression unreadable. "It means I’m not blind."

I bristled. "To what?"

"To you." His voice was calm, but there was something sharp beneath it. "To the way your power is growing. The way it’s changing you."

My breath hitched. "I—"

He took another step closer, cutting me off. "You felt it, didn’t you? The way it coursed through you. How easy it was."

I clenched my fists. "That doesn’t mean—"

"Did you enjoy it?"

The question sent a shudder through me.

Because the truth was, I didn’t know how to answer.

I should have said no.

I should have been horrified.

But instead, I thought of the power—the sheer, undeniable strength of it. The way it had obeyed me without hesitation, how it had bent to my will like I was meant to wield it.

I forced my lips to move. "It was just a vision."

Cairon studied me for a long moment, and for the first time, I saw something in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

Doubt.

Not in himself.

In me.

It sent a sickening weight into my gut.

I tore my gaze away, turning sharply toward the doors at the other end of the chamber. "We’re wasting time."

"Time isn’t what I’m worried about."

I ignored that. I had to. Because if I let this conversation continue, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to lie to myself anymore.

I reached for the doors, pushing against the cold stone. They groaned in protest before slowly swinging open, revealing the darkness beyond. The air changed immediately—thicker, heavier. Something ancient lurked in the depths of the passage ahead, its presence pressing against my skin like unseen fingers.

Cairon stepped beside me. He was still watching me. I could feel it. But he didn’t say anything else.

Not yet.

We stepped forward together, the doors closing behind us with a final, echoing boom.

The corridor stretched ahead, its walls carved with symbols that seemed to pulse in the dim torchlight. The deeper we walked, the more the air changed, taking on a weight that wasn’t just physical.

I felt it settle inside me, a pull deep in my bones.

The Codex at my side pulsed.

Cairon tensed. "Something’s ahead."

I felt it too.

A presence.

Waiting.

Watching.

And as we rounded the next corner, stepping into the open chamber beyond, I realized something with chilling certainty.

We weren’t alone.

The presence watching us wasn’t just some lingering force—it was alive. A dark mass hovered at the center of the chamber, shifting and twisting as though it were made of living shadows. It had no face, no form, but I could feel it staring, peeling back my very essence with an invisible gaze.

Cairon was already moving, stepping in front of me, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. But I barely noticed. My heart pounded, my skin prickling as something in my chest tightened, reacting to the entity before us.

It knows me.

The thought came unbidden, cold and certain.

A voice, more sensation than sound, whispered through the air. You are late.

My breath hitched.

Cairon’s grip on his sword tightened. "Who are you?"

The shadows pulsed, shifting again. Names are fleeting. The voice curled into my mind, slipping beneath my defenses with ease. But you... You are not who you were meant to be.

Ice slithered through my veins. The entity knew. Not just what I had done. Not just that I wasn’t Elara. It knew everything.

I forced my voice to remain steady. "What do you want?"

A deep, unsettling chuckle rippled through the chamber. The darkness pulsed again, stretching, unraveling, until the shadows formed something almost human in shape. Not solid, not real—but enough to make my pulse quicken.

What I want... is what was promised.

A gust of unseen force hit me, sending me stumbling back. Cairon caught my arm, steadying me, but his entire body was coiled like a spring ready to snap.

I barely heard him over the pounding in my skull. The pressure—the pull—was growing stronger, as if something deep inside me was answering the call of this... thing.

Then, the shadows lurched.

Cairon moved before I could react, unsheathing his blade in a single motion and slashing through the air between us. The strike should have done nothing against something incorporeal—but it did.

The entity reeled back, a sound like a thousand whispering voices rising in a screech.

For the first time, I felt something other than overwhelming power from it.

Pain.

Cairon took another step forward, blade gleaming with an unnatural sheen. "You don’t belong here."

A low, rumbling growl filled the chamber.

Neither do you.

The darkness rushed toward him.

I didn’t think.

I moved.

Power exploded from my chest, raw and unrestrained. Shadows lashed out from my fingertips, colliding with the entity mid-strike.

The entire room shook.

The force of the impact sent me staggering, but I held on. The power coursing through me was stronger than before, wild and unrelenting, but this time... I commanded it.

The entity writhed, its form distorting as my magic clashed against its own. And for the first time since stepping into this world, I felt it—true control.

It was intoxicating.

The shadows coiled around my wrists like serpents, feeding off the surge of my will, shaping into something more lethal.

The entity hesitated.

A mistake.

I lunged, slamming my magic forward, driving it into the shifting mass. The impact tore through the entity’s form, its scream splintering the very air.

And then—

It shattered.

The darkness collapsed, fragments of shadow dissipating into nothingness, leaving behind only silence.

A heavy weight settled in my chest as the last remnants of the entity’s presence faded. The power still hummed in my veins, unwilling to let go.

I exhaled sharply, forcing my hands to unclench.

Then I turned—

And met Cairon’s gaze.

He was watching me, his expression unreadable.

Not wary.

Not afraid.

But something close to resignation.

As if this moment had confirmed something he had been dreading all along.

My throat went dry.

"We should keep moving," I said quietly.

He didn’t answer at first. But then—

He nodded.

We stepped out of the chamber, leaving the shattered remains of the darkness behind.

But I knew—deep in my bones—that it wasn’t truly gone.

And neither was the part of me that had enjoyed destroying it.

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