CHAPTER 337: WHEN BLOOD TURNS AGAINST BLOOD [8]

Kiera scrambled to her feet, her rage boiling over "All... these years, I kept my mouth shut and obeyed you... THEN WHYYYY!" she screamed, slamming her palms into the ground.

THRRUMMM! Massive crystalline spires erupted in a ring around Henriette, their tips glowing with prismatic light.

With a gesture, Kiera sent them converging inward but Henriette’s runes flared brighter, forming a spherical barrier that cracked under the pressure -KRRAAACK!- but held just long enough for her to leap upward as the runes beneath her feet propelled her into the air.

Brandon burst from the rubble, his body wreathed in silver flames and chains spiraling around him like a storm.

"I will kill you..." He launched himself skyward on ether discs, meeting Henriette midair.

She extended her palm and his chain-wrapped knuckles crashed against her rune-reinforced palm.

THOOM!

She twisted midair, and her rune-enhanced elbow caught Brandon’s ribs *CRUNCH!* cracking his bone, but he grabbed her arm, twisted it, and drove his knee into her side *THUD!* forcing a grunt from her lips.

"Urgh-"

Kiera joined the assault, leaping onto a crystal spire and using it as a springboard to vault upward.

She tackled Henriette from behind, wrapping her legs around the matriarch’s waist and driving her crystal claws toward Henriette’s back.

SLEESH! The claws pierced through a hastily summoned rune shield and sleeched her back, but Henriette twisted free.

She swung her hand, unleashing a crescent of ether that sliced towards Kiera and sent her crashing to the ground below.

BOOM! Kiera’s impact cratered the earth and blood gushed out from a gash across her chest.

Brandon landed heavily and his chains whipped out to ensnare Henriette’s legs.

He yanked, pulling her down toward him, and met her fall with a brutal uppercut *THOOOMMM!* as his fist connected with her sternum.

The blow cracked her rune armor, and she gasped, blood spraying from her mouth as she staggered back.

But Henriette’s eyes burned with defiance.

A deep blue glint passed through her eyes and the thousands of runes materialized in the sky, forming a colossal array that pulsed with blue and violet light.

"You’ll both die for her weakness!" she yelled, and the runes unleashed a barrage of ether bolts *THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!* as each one struck the ground like a meteor, vaporizing stone and sending shockwaves through the courtyard.

Kiera rolled to her feet, summoning a crystalline barrier to deflect the bolts, but the sheer force made her stagger and she fell to her knees.

Brandon shielded himself with a dome of chains with silver flames to absorb the impacts, but the barrage was relentless, cracking his defenses.

"No..." He broke through the dome and charged straight at Henriette, ignoring the bolts that grazed his arms and legs, blood streaming from fresh wounds.

"I said... I will FUCKING KILL YOU!!" He tackled her to the ground *thud* and unleashed a flurry of punches while his knuckles were wrapped in flaming chains.

CRACK! THUD! CRUNCH! Her rune shields shattered under the onslaught and her face was bruised with blood streaming from her split nose and cracked mouth.

Her silver hair, matted with ash and crimson, clung to her bloodied cheeks as she gasped, struggling to summon her dwindling ether.

She thrust her hand upward and a desperate pulse of violet runes flared to blast Brandon off *FWOOM!* but he braced against it as his chains coiled around his body like armor to absorb the shock.

The force scorched his skin, leaving blackened welts across his arms and his inner muscles popped out, with blood flowing down... but he didn’t falter.

His eyes burned with a red glint as the grief for Florence fueled his every move and numbed the pain his body was feeling.

"No... I will tear you... to fucking shreds."

He grabbed Henriette’s wrist, twisting it with a sickening CRACK! that snapped her bone.

"ARGHHH!!" She screamed in pain, feeling her bones snap.

"You took her from me!" Brandon slammed his boot down on Henriette’s right leg, pinning it to the ground.

With a surge of ether, his chains wrapped around her thigh and it blazed in silver flames.

He pulled the chains with brutal force -RRRIP!- and the leg tore free in a spray of blood and sinew, the bone snapping audibly as Henriette’s scream tore through the air.

"ARRRRGGHHHGRAARGH.. HAARGHHH...."

The severed leg dangled in the chains, dripping blood onto the cracked flagstones.

Her body convulsed in extreme pain, violet ether sparking erratically as she tried to summon a counterattack, but pain overwhelmed her focus.

Kiera, still on her knees, watched in stunned horror as Brandon ripped Henriette leg like a madman.

Blood trickled from her mouth, her ribs aching from Henriette’s earlier assault, "Brandon..." she whispered.

Brandon’s body is already half burned from Henriette’s last attack and blood is dripping down his body but he is still punching and ripping Henriette like a psycho.

Henriette’s remaining hand clawed at the ground, summoning a weak array of runes "You... insolent-" she gasped, blood bubbling from her lips.

She tried to raise a shield, but Brandon was faster.

He grabbed her wrist and his fingers crushed her bone as he twisted it backward *CRUNCH!* until it tore free in a grotesque wrench of flesh and tendon.

SPLURCH! Blood sprayed across his chest, mixing with his own wounds, as he tossed the severed hand aside like refuse.

"GRRRAARGHHHH!" Henriette’s body was writhing in agony, but her eyes still burned with anger, violet ether pulsing faintly around her.

"You don’t get to talk..." Brandon growled and he straddled her, pinning her shoulders with his knees, and leaned in close.

Her cold eyes, despite her mangled state, glared up at him.

"You don’t get to look at me."

He raised his hands and pressed his thumbs into her eye sockets with deliberate, savage force.

SQUELCH!

Kiera felt a chill run down her spine looking at the terror as Brandon’s thumb gouged into Henriette eye sockets, ripping her eyes.

"ARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Henriette’s scream reached a new pitch as he gouged, blood and fluid oozing down her cheeks as her eyes were reduced to ruined cavities.

Her body thrashed beneath him, violet runes flaring wildly in a final, desperate attempt to push him off, but his silver fire burned through them, reducing her defenses to ash.

"Not yet..." he glanced around as if searching for something.

He bent down and his chain-wrapped hand sifted through the debris until his fingers found a sharp crystalline shard from Kiera’s destroyed crystals.

"You’ll feel every second of this."

Henriette’s mangled body twitched, her remaining hand clawing at the ground, summoning a faint rune that sparked and died.

Her ether core, which was already damaged... is on the brink of collapse.

"Arghhhh..." she gasped with more blood bubbling from her lips.

But Brandon ignored her, straddling her chest again, pinning her down with his weight.

He raised the crystalline shard, its tip hovering over her abdomen, and drove it downward piercing through flesh and muscle.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Henriette’s scream tore through the air and her body arched in agony as the shard sank deep.

Brandon twisted it slowly, grinding it against her bone, relishing her tortured yells as blood spurted around the crystal, staining his hand.

"You took her!" he muttered, pulling the shard back in a spray of crimson *SPLURCH!* and plunging it into her shoulder.

"GRAARGHHHHH!" Henriette thrashed beneath him in horrific pain as her violet ether flared in futile bursts that fizzled against his silver fire.

Kiera stood frozen a few paces away, looking at the man venting all of his anger on Henriette, torturing her.

Brandon tossed the blood-soaked shard aside and stood up.

Henriette’s body convulsed, but she was still alive with her ether clinging to her broken body with unnatural tenacity.

He stomped down on her chest *CRUNCH!* the impact shattering her ribs and forcing a wet gasp from her ruined throat.

"You don’t get to live!" he screamed, stomping again THUD! and again CRUNCH! and again.

His crimson chains erupted from the ground and they wrapped around Henriette’s neck, tightening like a noose.

He pulled her upward with the chain and her body dangled, limp and bloodied.

Her remaining limbs were twitching as the chains burned into her flesh, sizzling with ether.

He whipped the chains, swinging her body like a ragdoll, before slamming her into a crumbling pillar.

BOOOOM! The stone exploded into fragments, billowing dust as Henriette’s body crumpled in the wreckage.

He wasn’t done. He pulled the chains again, dragging her across the courtyard as her body carved a bloody trail through the debris.

THOOM! He swung her into another wall, the impact sending shockwaves through the ground.

Silver fire flickered from his chains, igniting the air around them, and he whipped her upward, then slammed her down into the earth BOOOOM.

"DIE!" he screamed, as tears mixed with the blood on his face. "DIE FOR WHAT YOU DID TO HER!"

Henriette’s last breath escaped in a faint, gurgling rasp and her bloodied, eyeless face stared at the skies.

The Grand Matriarch of the Bleaufort family was dead, her broken body sprawled across the hubris.

Brandon’s chest heaved up and down as he stared down at the limp corpse.

"Ha... Haa..."

His chains dangled loosely from his arms and blood dripped from his knuckles.

Florence’s lifeless body was lying nearby and looked at her, his heart clenched in grief.

He turned his bloodshot eyes toward Kiera, who stood a few paces away.

Feeling his stare, Kiera’s gaze trembled in panic as she slowly took a step back in fear.

But her foot caught on a jagged piece of debris and she stumbled, falling backward onto the rubble with a pained gasp.

FEENNNNNNNN!

However, suddenly a blinding glow erupted from Henriette’s corpse, cutting through the smoky haze.

Violet runes sparked across her broken body and in the next instant, a massive explosion detonated.

BOOOOOOOMMMM!

A shockwave of violet ether roared outward, vaporizing debris and sending shards of stone and crystal flying around.

The ground shuddered, cracks webbing across the already-devastated courtyard as flames were sucked into the blast, creating a swirling inferno that threatened to consume everything.

SWOOOOOSHHH

’This fucking... thot!’ Brandon’s gaze condensed as the explosion surged toward him and Kiera.

He lunged forward and reached Kiera in a blur, pulling her toward him with one hand while summoning his crimson chains with the other.

SHING! The chains coiled upward, forming a dome to shield them from the blast.

He braced himself, pulling Kiera close and her trembling body was pressed against his blood-soaked chest as he prepared to weather the storm.

But then the explosion suddenly stopped... No, not just the explosion, the time itself around the explosion is stopped.

Shards of debris hovered in the air, caught in an eerie stillness, and the roar of the blast was replaced by an oppressive silence.

"What... is happening."

Hearing a familiar voice, Brandon lowered the dome and glanced at the woman floating in the sky.

"...Charlotte?"