Chapter 19: Sister Blades, Shattered Bonds
Steel met silence.
The Hall of Blades—once a sacred training ground for the greatest warriors of the Luther Clan—now held only two.
Jean stood bathed in golden aura, her silver-white hair trailing in the light, eyes calm but cold. Across from her, Raven's obsidian armor bled dark smoke. The Black Fang Blade in her hand pulsed with malevolent heat.
They had once trained together here.
Now they would cross swords.
"Surrender," Jean said, voice soft. "This path ends only in ruin."
Raven laughed. "I didn't crawl out of the Vault to beg. I came to carve my name into the throne."
Whitney's growl deepened.
Velin screamed above, circling like a vulture awaiting death.
Raven moved first.
She vanished—no flash, no wind, just absence—and reappeared behind Jean with a slash. Jean ducked, turned, and their blades collided in a shockwave of light and shadow that cracked the marble floor beneath them.
Jean struck in arcs of divine precision—each movement honed from years of training and combat in the outer world. Raven countered with jagged fury, her technique unpredictable, distorted by the Black Fang Doctrine.
It was aura against corruption. Order against rebellion.
---
Outside, Freya and Ryan watched from the corridor, barred from entering by the raw aura flooding the hall.
"She's really using it," Ryan muttered. "The Forbidden Sword Art—it's eating her."
Freya nodded. "If this keeps going, Raven's soul won't survive. That blade—it doesn't serve its wielder. It consumes them."
Ryan looked grim. "And Jean… might have to kill her."
---
Inside, Jean pressed forward, blade glowing as it clashed against Raven's again and again. "You're losing control, Raven!"
"I am control!" Raven shouted, swinging with such force it cracked the ceiling above.
Jean spun, flipping backward. Blood trailed from a cut on her shoulder.
"You never wanted the throne," Jean said. "You just wanted to be seen."
"I wanted to be acknowledged!" Raven roared. "We all had the same blood—but only you and Adam mattered! I was the shadow behind the legacy!"
Jean steadied her breathing.
"I saw you, Raven. I always did. But this—this thing you've become—isn't you."
Raven froze for a heartbeat.
It was all Jean needed.
She surged forward in a flash of light.
Her blade, Solstice, roared as it met the corrupted edge of the Black Fang Blade.
One clean strike.
Boom.
Both swords shattered.
A final blast of aura hurled them apart.
Jean hit the wall and collapsed. Raven slid across the ground, coughing blood, her armor in ruins.
The Black Fang Blade's fragments flickered… then faded into dust.
---
Silence returned.
Whitney limped to Jean's side, licking the blood from her cheek.
Velin perched beside Raven, quiet and watchful.
Jean stood slowly, bruised and panting.
She looked at Raven—broken, but alive.
And whispered, "This war isn't over."
Raven, eyes full of fury and grief, smiled through bloodied lips.
"No. It's just begun."
---