CHAPTER 276: IT WAS YOU?!

[ Raven’s Coven - inside the Circle ]

" Meet again??? Who... Who are you? Come out... I... I can’t see you..."

Selene was clearly scared.

" I swear I didn’t trespass... I was Summoned here... " Selene was nervous. "By the most high..."

No acknowledgment came... Her nervousness was only met with silence. Amplifying it many fold. She rubbed her palms together.

Her breath quivered in the silence.

Her eyes darted left, right, searching the black abyss that surrounded her.

The harsh white light above pinned her in place...still merciless...forcing her to continuously squint as her vision strained against the glare.

She couldn’t see beyond the brightness...only shadows writhing at the edges.

Then... the voice came again.

Low enough to crawl beneath her skin.

"...the day has finally arrived, hasn’t it? It’s time you repaid your debt."

Her heart lurched.

She knew instantly. Her body knew before her mind caught up... the gravity of that being...

The air thickened...dense, pressing on her chest until her ribs ached. The aura coiled heavily.

Was this the Most High?!

Selene staggered a step, her knees threatening to buckle under the weight. Her lips parted, a rasp barely escaping.

"...Most High..."

The words felt a little unsure on her tongue.

Her gaze flicked towards the dark, pupils narrowing against the light. She strained harder to see...desperate to catch even a glimpse beyond the cage of brightness.

Finally she could see it...

A shadow. A figure shifting closer.

Her throat tightened, breath rasping shallow.

The shape sharpened as it moved. Slender. Tall. A woman’s form. Long hair poured down like a river of night, flowing, alive, spilling across her shoulders and down her back as though woven from the darkness itself.

Selene’s chest stuttered in gasps. She squinted harder, eyes burning against the white glare. The light cut her sight, refusing to let her see clearly...offering her only the silhouette that glided towards her.

The figure stopped.

Just out of reach.

Selene’s lungs locked, her breath snagging as she found it more and more difficult to breathe.

The silence that followed pressed tighter than chains.

Then the woman raised her hand. Fingers graceful, deliberate.

She flicked her wrist.

Air cracked, hissing. The chamber walls trembled.

Selene flinched violently as the blackness tore itself open, spilling a rush of energy that stung her skin. The light shifted, shivered, and then...

The wall before her lit up.

The vision see was staring at a few moments ago in the crystal ball...surged alive across its surface, burning in raw detail.

The shoreline.

The waves churned, sand shredded under feet as bodies lay here and there. Flames bled across the night. Screams and tiny sobs laced the wind.

Selene’s breath shattered into fragments. Her nails dug into her palms until her skin broke.

The scene widened...pulling her focus to the center, where the blue fire burst like a storm untamed.

Autumn’s power was completely unleashed at the moment. Selene could feel the power... goosebumps rose all over her body... The similarity and superiority... so uncanny...

Autumn’s body frozen in the midst of chaos.

Selene’s lips trembled, parting soundlessly. Her knees bent under the weight of it, her body swaying, her eyes wide as the vision scorched itself into her bones.

"...no... no, this can’t...how can she have my powers..."

The vision only burned brighter.

And the figure in the dark... watched. Without any word.

Selene’s eyes refused to close, though every nerve in her body begged her to look away.

There was no way she could defeat Autumn with this amount of power flowing through her... like she had tapped into the power house of the universe...

The sheer force of it made Selene’s lungs collapse inside her chest, her heart thrashing wildly as if it too might burst.

Her nails carved crescents into her palms. Sweat rolled cold down her temples. Her chest rose and fell in sharp, panicked jerks.

And still the figure in the shadow said nothing.

Nothing but a low hum...velvet, languid, curling with satisfaction.

Selene felt it. The amusement. The way the silence mocked her, fed on her trembling, drank in her dread like a vintage wine.

Her lips cracked, whispering:

"Stop... please...I don’t understand...what is this...how is this even possible..."

The hum deepened, a chuckle without form.

Then, with the barest sweep of the woman’s hand, the vision began to twist.

Selene’s stomach turned as the shoreline darkened, the blue glow suffocated by shadow. Waves shrank into themselves, retreating like the sea had died. Autumn’s blazing figure flickered, fractured, dissolved into nothingness.

Then it was gone.

Only the dark remained.

Until...A new image bled forward, slowly.

The woods. Dense, endless. Branches clawed at the sky.

Selene’s breath froze in her throat.

Because she knew this place.

Her knees weakened, trembling again.

And then she saw herself.

A girl. Small. Frail. Feet bare, shredded, trailing blood across roots and stone. Her hair matted, her face streaked with tears and dirt.

A younger Selene.

Running.

Running until her body looked ready to shatter.

From behind came the thunder of pursuit.

Shouts.

War cries.

The hiss of arrows splitting air. Spears whistled past, one missing her shoulder by an inch. Another tore into the bark beside her, spraying splinters across her face.

The child stumbled, sobbing so hard her body shook, but still she ran, clawing through brambles, dragging herself forward through the agony.

Selene outside the vision clutched her chest, her knees buckling. "No... stop this... please stop...why are you bringing back this memory? It hurts...."

The small Selene screamed.

A scream of terror, of helplessness, of despair so raw it split the air.

And Selene screamed with her.

Her own throat tore open, her own cry of agony echoing through the chamber, weaving with the younger version’s until the two became one.

She collapsed to her knees inside the Circle, hands clawing at the stone, tears streaming down her face, body convulsing as if pierced by the same arrows.

The Most High’s presence lingered above...as if patient...savoring.

The vision raged on...unrelenting.

The vision shuddered, as though the memory itself bled.

The little Selene stumbled. Her bare foot caught a root, and she crashed to the forest floor, dirt grinding into her palms, twigs slicing her skin. Her breath ripped ragged from her throat, sobs shaking her small frame.

She lifted her head just enough...just in time to see them.

The army.

Dozens. Maybe close to a hundred. Faces shadowed beneath helmets, eyes burning red, spears and blades flashing as they surged through the trees. Their boots thundered like a storm, their voices a rising roar.

And she knew.

It was over.

Her young face crumpled, streaked with tears. Her body trembled as her arms gave out, palms sliding uselessly against the mud.

Her whisper was cracked, broken...

"...please... no more..."

Then came a sound.

Not from ahead. From behind.

Soft. Deliberate.

Footsteps.

The small Selene’s head snapped around, eyes wide, wet lashes sticking to her cheeks.

Her vision caught it... the gown. Black. Flowing, endless, the fabric whispering across the forest floor like liquid night.

Long hair trailing, swaying, darker than the shadows themselves.

Outside, Selene’s lips parted, confusion trembling out... "...is that...?"

Before she could breathe again...

Bam.

Something crimson slammed into little Selene’s chest...hot, searing, burning straight into her tiny heart.

Her small body arched, a strangled scream ripping from her lungs as the force lifted her off the ground. She rose midair, dangling, limbs thrashing in terror.

Her scream tore through the woods.

But then... all of a sudden...her eyes...they snapped open.

Fierce. Cold. A spark born in the abyss.

Her head tilted slightly, unnaturally calm in the midst of agony.

And her lips...trembling no longer...curved into a smirk.

The army faltered. Their charge slowed.

And with a flick of her tiny hand...

Blue crimson fire exploded from her fingertips.

One. Two. Three.

Blast after blast ripped through the soldiers, bodies flung, armor shattered, weapons turned to ash before they struck. Screams filled the forest, then were swallowed by fire.

She didn’t stop. Her small frame shook violently, power surging wild, until nothing remained but silence and smoldering ruin.

The girl’s chest heaved, her hair falling into her face.

Then...suddenly...her body slackened.

Her smirk faded.

Her eyes rolled back.

She fell.

Dropped like a doll, limp...weightless, into the folds of the black gown.

Unconscious.

The vision lingered. The girl’s small body at the feet of her savior.

And then, slowly...deliberately...the image rolled upward.

Revealing her.

The tall woman. Elegant. Slender. Black hair spilling like rivers of ink. Face pale, perfect, carved in sharp lines that were both beautiful and merciless.

Her eyes...two voids..one golden...one silver...that gleamed faintly.

The Most High.

The image flickered once. Twice.

Then it vanished.

Selene gasped, body jerking as if the air had been knocked out of her. Her eyes shot forward.

And there she was.

The same face. Not in memory. Not in vision.

But there. At the moment...

The slender woman. The Most High.

Her lips curled slowly...into a dark smirk.

Selene’s breath shattered. Her knees threatened to collapse.

Her whisper barely formed, trembling as it fell...

"...it had been...you...all along???"

The Most High said nothing.

She only smirked deeper. " So, now you know... We meet again, Selene... "